Digital Commons Network^™

Security Posture: A Systematic Review Of Cyber Threats And Proactive Security, Amanda Jones

Senior Honors Theses

In the last decade, several high-profile cyber threats have occurred with global impact and devastating consequences. The tools, techniques, and procedures used to prevent cyber threats from occurring fall under the category of proactive security. Proactive security methodologies, however, vary among professionals where differing tactics have proved situationally effective. To determine the most effective tactics for preventing exploitation of vulnerabilities, the author examines the attack vector of three incidents from the last five years in a systematic review format: the WannaCry incident, the 2020 SolarWinds SUNBURST exploit, and the recently discovered Log4j vulnerability. From the three cases and existing literature, …

Epigenetic Pathogenesis Of Neurological Disorders In Utero And Considerations For Genetic Counseling, Lauren Juga

Senior Honors Theses

Epigenetic modifications are a major focus of study in the pathogenesis of many disorders regarding metabolism, aging, neurodevelopment, and neurodegeneration. Epigenetic mechanisms are present throughout life but are especially vital to guiding fetal development. The precise timing of gene activation and deactivation guides stem cell differentiation through each embryonic stage. After exposure to environmental stimuli, gene expression can be altered by transcription factors, resulting in observable phenotypes and even pathology. Here, the epigenetic mechanisms responsible for the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders are explored in response to environmental perturbations in utero. The present goal is to identify correlations between …

Economic Impact Of Covid-19 On The Christian Camp Industry In 2020, Tori Beckwith

Senior Honors Theses

This study seeks to develop a greater understanding of the economic impact of Covid-19 on the Christian camp industry in 2020. The sample used to conduct this study was 778 camps in the United States. These were subdivided into four population groups (list the four groups here in the parenthesis) for optimal comparison analysis. The 2020 camp’s operational status was assessed through a four-question quantitative survey on the Covid-19 impact. The survey was emailed to various camp organizations and uploaded to google forms for greater population exposure. A comparison was made between the 2020 camping year and the non-Covid-19 camping …

Prevalence Of Bacillus Licheniformis On Northern Saw-Whet Owls (Aegolius Acadicus), Lauren Benedict

Senior Honors Theses

Birds are hosts to a variety of bacteria and fungi including some that are keratinolytic. These feather degrading bacteria, including Bacillus licheniformis, are capable of degrading β-keratin which is a major component of feathers. While there is little evidence to indicate that feather degrading bacteria are capable of degrading feathers on live birds, there is ample evidence to indicate that many bird species experience altered feather coloration. There is significant variation in the reported prevalence of B. licheniformis on birds with percentages ranging from 6.7% to 99%. This study sought to provide further support for an overall prevalence of …

Prenatal Drug Exposure And Its Effects On Fetal Development: Clinical And Health Education Implications, Johanna Marie Olo Tapangan

Senior Honors Theses

Prenatal drug exposure is a common clinical phenomenon in pregnancy cases. Pregnancy is a fragile period of time for both the mother and the fetus. Therefore, strict drug regulation is important to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the developing fetus. Certain drugs, once thought to be safe, have been found to have detrimental effects on the normal development of functioning organ systems in the fetus. Current research has identified drugs that when taken during pregnancy can result in the onset of fetal physical abnormalities, impaired brain development, and disrupted organogenesis and organ function. Thalidomide, losartan, opioids, alcohol, and caffeine …

Gifted Student Burnout, Lillian Clevenger

Senior Honors Theses

Gifted Student Burnout may be part of the occurrence of fatigue that can affect students of all ages. This can range from elementary to high school. Burnout in gifted education is a relatively new area of research, as burnout research in students and the gifted programs themselves are also new. The potential causes and potential solutions will be used to differentiate classroom instruction for gifted students. As gifted students grow and begin to want more control over their learning, instruction will need to be adjusted to help students stay invested in their academics. There are possible outlying effects that the …

The Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine And Parental Hesitancy: The World’S Unspoken Pandemic, Kayla James

Senior Honors Theses

The Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine (MMR) is a proven necessity for the prevention of measles, mumps, and rubella, which possess severe and possibly life-threatening complications. However, the means in which these vaccines are produced, mandated, or scheduled raise certain concerns within the medical and pharmaceutical consumer community. In fact, there are various communities around the globe that willfully choose to refuse the MMR vaccine, along with many other pediatric vaccinations, resulting in diminished vaccination rates and risk of possible outbreak of any of these three diseases. With this impending threat on the rise, it is necessary to engage in research to best …

The Anxiolytic Effects Of Aromatherapy On Preprocedural Anxiety: An Integrated Review, Rebekah Smith

Senior Honors Theses

Anxiety before procedures can negatively impact patients by increasing cortisol levels which delays wound healing and increases infection risk, increasing pain and sedation medication needs, and increasing hospitalization time. This review was conducted to find how inhaled essential oils affect pre-procedural anxiety of adults in acute care settings. Nine databases and some gray literature were searched within the past ten years, and documented using the PRISMA flow chart. Ten articles fitting the inclusion criteria were retrieved. Nine of the articles found a significant difference between the aromatherapy group and control group and pre- and post- intervention anxiety scores, and none …

2022-April-01-Etsu Expanding Opportunities In Health Sciences For Southwest Virginia Students, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – East Tennessee State University signed two articulation agreements aimed at expanding opportunities for students who want to pursue careers in the health sciences.

One agreement provides students who achieve an Associate of Arts and Science degree at Virginia Highlands Community College (VHCC), located in Abingdon, Virginia, with the opportunity to transfer those credits to ETSU to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology (Exercise Science), Public Health (Community Health concentration), or Rehabilitative Health Sciences.

“VHCC students choose ETSU to continue their educational journey, so VHCC faculty, staff, and administration were pleased to partner with ETSU …

Caregiver Mental Health Screening In A Pediatric Feeding Clinic, Dana Bakula, Laura Slosky, Kelsey Dean, Ann M. Davis, Sarah T. Edwards

Posters

Introduction: One in four adults have mental health (MH) problems. Caregivers of children with feeding problems are at even higher risk for mental health (MH) problems, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. Caregiver MH concerns have a negative impact on caregiver and child quality of life and are specifically linked to suboptimal child feeding practices. Thus, it is critical to identify caregiver MH problems in pediatric feeding settings. However, it can be challenging to comprehensively screen for caregiver MH in a busy pediatric feeding clinic. This emphasizes the importance of a feasible and brief method for screening caregiver MH. Methods: …

17-Year-Old Ballet Dancer With 4 Years Of Right Upper Extremity Pain, Mariah Sisson, Brian S. Harvey

Posters

History:No known injury. Intermittent, dull, radiating. Starting at the shoulder and moving to the medial elbow, but sometimes only at the medial elbow with numbness of the 4th/5th digits. No limitations in ballet. Extended course to see Sports Medicine. PCP - failed treatment for herpetic whitlow, referred to dermatology. Dermatology - bilateral Raynaud's syndrome & Pernio, referred to rheumatology. Rheumatology - having RUE numbness, referred to neurology & PT. Neurology - tenderness to palpation at the anterior shoulder, referred to Sports Medicine. PT - getting stronger, but symptomatically making minimal improvement. PE:Cardiac: capillary refill normal. MSK: RUE: Inspection: No erythema, …

Three Approaches, Two Go-Arounds, One Diversion…And All On The Internet, Eric Carter, James Norman

Aviation Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Student Movement Volume 106 Issue 17: Just Your Normal Weekly Student Movement Issue: No Clickbait, Scott Moncrieff, Qualyn Robinson, Alyssa Henriquez, Solana Campbell, Megan Napod, Chris Ngugi, Abigail Lee, Nathan Mathieu, Alexander Navarro, Wambui Karanja, Alannah Tjhatra, Lily Burke

The Student Movement v. 106 (2021-2022)

HUMANS

Department of Biology Hires Renowned Woodchuck Specialist Charles Lignum, Interviewed by: Scott Moncrieff

Silly Little Hats Mandate, Qualyn Robinson, Alyssa Henriquez

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Kim Kardashian's History at AU, Solana Campbell with Megan Napod and Alyssa Henriquez

Love is Blind Beta Tests a Season in Berrien Springs, Alyssa Henriquez

NEWS

"I'm So Sorry:" A Heartfelt Goodbye, Chris Ngugi

Introducing... Cardfield!, Abigail Lee

The Cardinalito: The New Student Craze Over the Saucy Dish, Nathan Mathieu

IDEAS

A Student Movement Towards a Southern Location, Nathan Mathieu

Why Meier Must be Renovated Immediately

PULSE

Andrews University Dating App: AUlovelink, Wambui Karanja

Sabbath …

Associations Between Toxoplasma Gondii Infection And Steroid Hormone Levels In Spotted Hyenas, Zachary M. Laubach, Eben Gering, Erik Yang, Tracy M. Montgomery, Thomas Getty, Kay E. Holekamp

Biology Faculty Articles

Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite that infects warm-blooded animals and influences host physiology. T. gondii is known to target the host's central nervous system, affecting circulating levels of steroid hormones, fear-related behaviors, and health, although these effects appear to vary among host taxa. Here, we investigated the relationship between T. gondii infection and levels of plasma testosterone and cortisol within a wild population of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta, n = 109). In our analyses, we accounted for age and sex via stratified regression analyses. We detected a negative association between circulating plasma testosterone and T. gondii …

2022 Research Day Program, Lincoln Memorial University

Research Day

This program contains abstracts and presentation summaries from LMU's 2022 Annual Research Day conference.

"In My End Is My Beginning": Families, Factions, Faith And Femininity As The Fatal Inheritance Of Mary Queen Of Scots, Mary Archbold

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland’s long imprisonment and tragic execution has long overshadowed the brilliance of her early political strategy. Crowned and anointed Queen as an infant, raised in France, Mary had the disadvantage of returning to Scotland into a complex and contentious court at the height of the Scottish Reformation and noble power. As a woman, she faced the misogyny and discrimination of her nobles and the prominent preacher, John Knox. Her devotion to her Catholic faith only gave her enemies further ammunition against her. Despite these daunting factors, she managed to maintain a political strategy of factionalism, with …

The Importance Of Timing In Repeated Traumatic Brain Injury, Willie L. Hardeman Iii

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Repeated closed-head traumatic brain injury (rTBI) can result in serious consequences, such as the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and many others. This study characterizes the consequences of injury timing in a Drosophila melanogaster model of rTBI. Specifically, each fly was subjected to 4 strikes with a modified “high impact trauma” (HIT) device. The strikes were separated by either 5 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 36 hours. These inter-strike intervals theoretically provided an opportunity to study outcomes of repeated brain injury during times of unresolved rTBI mechanisms. Half of the flies were …

Agentic And Receptive Hope: Understanding Hope In The Context Of Religiousness And Spirituality Through The Narratives Of Salvadoran Youth, Jennifer Medina Vaughn, Pamela Ebstyne King, Susan Mangan, Sean Noe, Samuel Hay, Bridget O’Neil, Jonathan M. Tirrell, Elizabeth M. Dowling, Guillermo Alfredo Iraheta Majano, Alistair Thomas Rigg Sim

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Hope contributes to positive development in adolescents, and religious and spiritual contexts may be particularly important for developing and supporting hope. However, extant literature on hope, religion, and spirituality neglects their synergistic relation, leaving questions about how they work together to support development. In this study, we explore how religiousness and spirituality (R/S) inform hope by identifying unique synergies that might be particularly useful in difficult contexts. Multilevel qualitative content analyses of interviews conducted with 18 thriving Salvadoran adolescents (50% female, Mage = 16.39 years, SD = 1.83) involved in a faith-based program provided evidence that the ideological and relational …

A Natural Experiment Identifies An Impending Ecological Trap For A Neotropical Amphibian In Response To Extreme Weather Events, Morgan A. Clark, William M. Ota, Sierra J. Smith, Brett K. Muramoto, Summer Ngo, Gabriella E. Chan, Maxwell A. Kenyon, Matthew C. Sturtevant, Max G. Diamond, Gary M. Bucciarelli, Lee B. Kats

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Extreme weather events are predicted to increase as a result of climate change, yet amphibian responses to extreme disturbance events remain understudied, especially in the Neotropics. Recently, an unprecedented windstorm within a protected Costa Rican rainforest opened large light gaps in sites where we have studied behavioral responses of diurnal strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) to ultraviolet radiation for nearly two decades. Previous studies demonstrate that O. pumilio selects and defends perches where ultraviolet radiation (UV-B) is relatively low, likely because of the lethal and sublethal effects of UV-B. In this natural experiment, we quantified disturbance to O. pumilio habitat, …

A Rebuttal To The Word Of Faith Movement, Brant Wenger

Senior Honors Theses

The Word of Faith movement teaches that all believers will experience good health and wealth. Issues arise, however, when not all believers enjoy health and wealth like they were promised. The intent of this study is to examine the history of the Word of Faith movement and expose the falsehoods that are propagated by them. It is the position of this writer that the Word of Faith movement is grounded in the manipulation of Scripture and perverts the gospel preached by Jesus and His disciples. As a result, these teachings do not present a message of salvation but one that …

An Evaluation Of The Marxist Paradigm In Comparison To A Biblical Worldview: The Case Of Venezuela, Jonathan Riddick

Senior Honors Theses

This research was conducted to address the pressing paradigmatic split in modern American society between Marxism and Christian governing principles. The prevailing concept that governed this research is that Marxism degrades governments and societies and is inherently destructive. The exposition of Marxism’s deconstructive character transpires in this research by comparing the implementation of Marxist principles in Venezuela to the application of biblical principles in the United States. A brief historical context of Marxism and Christianity is considered alongside each worldview’s values and implementation of such values. Each worldview’s foundation is then evaluated by an investigation into Venezuela’s utilization of Marxist …

T Cell Therapy: Underlying Mechanisms And Current Advancements, Griffin Mccloy

Senior Honors Theses

As the second leading cause of death in 2016, cancer is one of the most serious diseases facing the world today. T cell therapy is a current area of research attempting to address the disease with two primary division: CAR-T and TCR-T cell therapy. The immune system naturally produces T lymphocytes to aid in the recognition and removal of cells infected with viruses or transformed into cancer. Under normal circumstances, T lymphocytes identify and destroy cancerous cells; however, some cancerous cell types can evade this system. With the use of genetic editing technology, T lymphocytes can gain the ability to …

Health Care In South Africa: An Overview Of Past And Current Challenges, Silas Westers

Senior Honors Theses

The health care system in South Africa is a living remnant of apartheid. Divided and disjointed, the system is unable to cope with the significant challenges that exist in the public health of South Africa. Social issues such as poverty, inequality, and xenophobia influence how the health system operates. Health care workers face challenges such as communicable diseases, particularly HIV. Moving forward, the government plans to transition to a single payer nationalized health insurance (NHI) system. NHI will not solve all the problems the system faces, and the government must be diligent in rooting out corruption, incentivizing quality care, and …

Music Is The Intervention: The Intersections Of Music As A Therapeutic Activity In At-Risk Youth, Gladys H. Gonzalez Landaverde

Senior Honors Theses

Across the United States, public schools face many discrepancies in the quality and caliber of education that a student can expect to receive. While schools try to address the vast needs of students, many children and adolescents are unfortunately faced with choosing between prioritizing their education and the circumstances faced outside of the school day. The discrepancies in schooling range from the quality in the commonly accepted core curriculum like English and mathematics to the opportunities offered outside of traditional academia like music. Unfortunately, at-risk students are unlikely to have access to music education in the same ease as their …

Defining The Role Of A Putative Srebp Cleavage Activating Protein In Ph Response Regulation In Cryptococcus Neoformans, Hannah G. Finson

Senior Honors Theses

Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that infects the lungs and travels to the central nervous system where it causes meningoencephalitis. Without rapid medical intervention, this is fatal for individuals with compromised immune systems. During infection, the pathogen moves from an acidic exterior environment to a slightly alkaline environment in the host. This induces alkaline-specific gene induction to maintain cellular processes for cell survival. Investigators at Duke University identified several genes that play a role in this process, including CNAG_01580, or SCP1, which codes for a putative SREBP cleavage activating protein. This gene was deleted in wild-type C. neoformans …

Another Katz Moment?: Privacy, Property, And A Dna Database, Claire Mena

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” The understanding of these words seems to shift as new technologies emerge. As law enforcement’s arsenal of surveillance techniques has grown to include GPS tracking, cell phones, and cell site location information (CSLI), the Supreme Court has applied Fourth Amendment protections to these modern tools. Law enforcement continues to use one pervasive surveillance technique without limitations: the routine collection of DNA. In 2013, the Supreme Court in Maryland v. King held that law enforcement may routinely …

The Manufacturing And Engineering Partnership Program: An Examination Of A Partnership Between Manufacturing And Cte, Laura Schoenborn-Preuss

Dissertations

Manufacturing is struggling to find people to fill open positions in the various career opportunities they represent. The skills gap or skills needed by manufacturers has caused challenges in filling those open positions. Adding to this dilemma is that student interest in these careers has reduced, with the focus being on obtaining college degrees right out of high school. Due to these changes, manufacturing and education are partnering in ways to increase student interest and fill open positions.

This study is looking to better understand one such partnership and how the activities students’ experience influence their career decision making. The …

Feasibility Of Introduced Species Into The Westhampton Lake For Pollution Control, Kathryn Grage

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Westhampton Lake, located at the University of Richmond in Virginia is a man made lake that feeds into the James river. The lake itself suffers from pollution and above average nutrient loads from external sources. There have been efforts to try to reduce some pollution from the lake but this research proposes and explores the viability of introducing species into the lake for the same purpose. Two types of animals proposed for introduction into the lake are common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae). Sterilized common carp are proposed as a short term solution to removal of invasive …

Quality Of Life For Pediatric Prosthetic Users, Courtney Wild, Karen Park, Susan Macdermott

Spring 2022 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

The population of children with limb loss fall into a category of children with chronic physical disability and are vulnerable to functional challenges resulting in adverse impacts on their participation and performance of life activities, known as occupational participation. A mixed method research study was aimed at answering the following research questions: (a) is there an impact on the engagement in meaningful everyday activities for children with prosthetic limbs, considering the functional, emotional, and social challenges they might encounter? (b) does their level of engagement in meaningful everyday activities have an impact on their quality of life (QoL) and (c) …

Entrepreneurship And Ot, Alex Heumann, Susan Macdermott

Spring 2022 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

The purpose of this project was to discover the perceived and actual barriers to business ownership through research with current OT businesses and create a deliverable supporting OTs entering business ownership.