Digital Commons Network^™

Cultivating Employee Relationships, Kimberly Lynn England

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The study was a qualitative flexible study on the actions and behaviors of employees and their leaders in cultivating internal relationships that have an impact on the business results of an organization. Using various triangulation methods, interviews, observations, and archived data, the study is constructive in design. I interpreted the experiences of the 20 participants (6 leaders and 14 employees). The flexible design allowed for follow-up questions that required changing the scope of the data collection as more data occurred. Validity and reliability are important factors in the qualitative research as these factors add to the credibility of the findings. …

Short-Term Responses Of Soil Carbon, Nitrogen, And Microbial Biomass To Cover Crop Mixtures And Monocultures, Igor Alexandre De Souza, Amanda B. Daly, Jorg Schnecker, Nicholas D. Warren, Adalfredo Rocha Lobo Jr., Richard G. Smith, Andre Fonseca Brito, A. Stuart Grandy

Faculty Publications

Increasingly, cover crops are being adopted for the purpose of improving soil health, yet the timescale and magnitude by which living annual cover crops might modify soil chemical and biological aspects of soil health is not well understood. At the same time, there is growing interest among farmers in cover crop mixtures due to perceptions that species-rich cover crop communities will enhance soil health relative to monocultures. In a field experiment in southeast New Hampshire, we investigated how groups of cover crops grown as monocultures and mixtures for specific seasonal niches (winter/spring, summer, and fall) influenced levels of soil nitrogen …

Interdisciplinary Studies In General Music Education: Enhancing Learning Across Content Areas, Tara Kathleen Roof Stradley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Some perspectives of educators and community members in small rural school districts fail to see the academic benefits of music education and the importance of integrated forms of study, despite the many clear connections that can be seen between the general music curriculum and other content areas such as math and language arts. Interdisciplinary studies in general music education are essential for student growth across content areas. This study reveals the importance of music integration and interdisciplinary music studies in small rural elementary schools. It gives example lessons of mathematics and language arts in the elementary music curricula. Guided by …

The Lived Experiences Of Student-Parents In Higher Education Who Utilize The Childcare Program At Eastern Community College: A Phenomenological Study, Kindra Lawanda Moore-Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of student-parents who use the Parents for Higher Education program at Eastern Community College. The theory that guided this study was McClusky’s theory of margin, which addresses the support and services adults need to accomplish their goals in life. This framework provided a connection that explained the importance of childcare subsidies and the needs met while attending classes for community college students—the transcendental phenomenology approach used. The setting for this study was the virtual platform Zoom. The study was conducted using 10 participants, all student-parents who participated in the …

A Multiple Case Study: Male Correctional Officers’ Experiences And Attitudes Regarding “Gender Quota” Human Resource Management Strategies In Corrections, Rebecca Jo Patterson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The stigma of corrections being labeled as a “male” workplace is a factor in the male/female ratio gap; thus, the new question is how to bridge the gender gap. In response to this human resource managers have implemented affirmative action strategies to ensure more females were being hired and promoted in corrections. Though unofficial in most areas, some state correctional agencies incorporated “quotas” in their affirmative action HRMS. Even though ‘quota-based’ or ‘gender based’ HRMS intended to reduce or eliminate discrimination, they have linked backlash effects and stigmatization toward females and minorities when the dominant group felt it was used. …

Global Assessment Of Marine Plastic Exposure Risk For Oceanic Birds, Bethany L. Clark, Ana P.B. Carneiro, Elizabeth J. Pearmain, Marie Morgane Rouyer, Thomas A. Clay, Win Cowger, Richard A. Phillips, Andrea Manica, Carolina Hazin, Marcus Eriksen, Jacob González-Solís, Josh Adams, Yuri V. Albores-Barajas, Joanna Alfaro-Shigueto, Maria Saldanha Alho, Deusa Teixeira Araujo, José Manuel Arcos, Fiona Mcduie, For Full Author List, See Comments Below

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world's oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds, particularly petrels, frequently ingest plastic, are highly threatened, and cover vast distances during foraging and migration. However, the spatial overlap between petrels and plastics is poorly understood. Here we combine marine plastic density estimates with individual movement data for 7137 birds of 77 petrel species to estimate relative exposure risk. We identify high exposure risk areas in the Mediterranean and Black seas, and …

Some New Techniques And Their Applications In The Theory Of Distributions, Kevin Kellinsky-Gonzalez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of three articles in the theory of distributions. Each essay focuses on a different technique or concept related to distributions.

The focus of the first essay is the concept of distributional point values. Distribu- tions are sometimes called generalized functions, as they share many similarities with ordi- nary functions, with some key differences. Distributional point values, among other things, demonstrate that distributions are even more akin to ordinary functions than one might think.

The second essay concentrates on two major topics in analysis, namely asymptotic expansions and the concept of moments. There are many variations …

Aerobic Exercise Reverses Aging-Induced Depth-Dependent Decline In Cerebral Microcirculation, Paul Shin, Ikbal Şencan-Eğilmez, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Aging is a major risk factor for cognitive impairment. Aerobic exercise benefits brain function and may promote cognitive health in older adults. However, underlying biological mechanisms across cerebral gray and white matter are poorly understood. Selective vulnerability of the white matter to small vessel disease and a link between white matter health and cognitive function suggests a potential role for responses in deep cerebral microcirculation. Here, we tested whether aerobic exercise modulates cerebral microcirculatory changes induced by aging. To this end, we carried out a comprehensive quantitative examination of changes in cerebral microvascular physiology in cortical gray and subcortical white …

Temporal And Bidirectional Association Between Blood Pressure Variability And Arterial Stiffness: Cross-Lagged Cohort Study, Zhiyuan Wu, Haiping Zhang, Yutao Wang, Zhiwei Li, Xia Li, Lixin Tao, Xiuhua Guo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

BACKGROUND: The causal relationship between blood pressure variability (BPV) and arterial stiffness remains debated. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the temporal and bidirectional associations between long-term BPV and arterial stiffness using a cohort design with multiple surveys. METHODS: Participants from the Beijing Health Management Cohort who underwent health examinations from visit 1 (2010-2011) to visit 5 (2018-2019) were enrolled in this study. Long-term BPV was defined as intraindividual variation using the coefficient of variation (CV) and SD. Arterial stiffness was measured by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). The bidirectional relationship between BPV and arterial stiffness was explored using cross-lagged …

The Existence Of Solutions To A System Of Nonhomogeneous Difference Equations, Stephanie Walker

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

This article will demonstrate a process using Fixed Point Theory to determine the existence of multiple positive solutions for a type of system of nonhomogeneous even ordered boundary value problems on a discrete domain. We first reconstruct the problem by transforming the system so that it satisfies homogeneous boundary conditions. We then create a cone and an operator sufficient to apply the Guo-KrasnoselâA˘Zskii Fixed Point Theorem. The majority of the work involves developing the constraints ´ needed to utilized this fixed point theorem. The theorem is then applied three times, guaranteeing the existence of at least three distinct solutions. Thus, …

A Virtual World For Troubleshooting Distributed Systems, Sundarrajan Raman

Defensive Publications Series

An observerse is proposed, to provide users of cloud-based distributed systems with tools for streamlined debugging and root cause analysis. The observerse serves as an observability platform, incorporating aspects of virtual reality technology to help users efficiently navigate the system to resolve operational issues.

The Contribution Of Intellectual Property Awarensss And The Motivation Of Comic Creators To Product Innovation, Ngurah Rangga Wiwesa, Rahmi Setiawati, Dani Bintang Apriliyanto, Wan Hartini Wan Zainodin Dr, Putri Anindya Ravinta

Jurnal Sosial Humaniora Terapan

Comics are not only in the artistic sector but also in the industrial sector, which has economic value in society and is included in the creative industry. As works of creativity, the comic industry needs to be recognized as intellectual works that have economic value and receive legal protection. Therefore, it is necessary to know the role of awareness of intellectual property rights and the motivation of comic creators in innovating in developing their products and measuring understanding of comics as a part of the creative industry. The population of this research is high school/vocational school and university students in …

How Effective Is The Efficiency Gap?, Thomas Q. Sibley

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Gerrymandering has affected U. S. politics since at least 1812. A political cartoon that year decried this tactic by then Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry. (Gerrymandering is manipulating the boundaries of districts to benefit a group unfairly.)

While we may feel we know a gerrymander when we see one, finding a meaningful metric has proven challenging. This article uses elementary mathematics to investigate the efficiency gap, a recent model proposed to measure gerrymandering.

Budding Uninhibited By Benzimidazoles-1 (Bub1) Regulates Egfr Signaling By Reducing Egfr Internalization, Shyam Nyati, Grant Young, Corey Speers, Mukesh K. Nyati, Alnawaz Rehemtulla

Radiation Oncology Articles

EGFR signaling initiates upon ligand binding which leads to activation and internalization of the receptor-ligand complex. Here, we evaluated if BUB1 impacted EGFR signaling by regulating EGFR receptor internalization and activation. BUB1 was ablated genomically (siRNA) or biochemically (2OH-BNPP1) in cells. EGF ligand was used to initiate EGFR signaling while disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS) was used for cross linking cellular proteins. EGFR signaling was measured by western immunoblotting and receptor internalization was evaluated by fluorescent microscopy (pEGFR (pY1068) colocalization with early endosome marker EEA1). siRNA mediated BUB1 depletion led to an overall increase in total EGFR levels and more phospho-EGFR (Y845, …

Does Narrative Quality Matter During Implementation Of A School-Based Prevention Intervention? A Test Of Narrative Engagement Theory, Youngju Shin, Michelle Miller-Day, Jonathan Pettigrew, Michael L. Hecht

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Narratives play a powerful role in sharing meaning and making sense of experiences. Specifically, health narratives convey storylines, characters, and messages about health-related behaviors and provide audiences with models for healthy behaviors, prompting audiences’ health-related reflections and decision-making. Narrative engagement theory (NET) explains how personal narratives can be integrated into interventions to promote health. This study utilizes NET to test direct and indirect effects of teachers’ narrative quality on adolescent outcomes during a school-based substance use prevention intervention that includes narrative pedagogy and an implementation strategy. Observational coding of teacher narratives in video-recorded lessons along with self-report student surveys (N …

Sociocultural Barriers For Female Participation In Stem: A Case Of Saudi Women In Cybersecurity, Alanoud Aljuaid, Xiang Michelle Liu

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforces is overwhelmingly low as compared to their male counterparts. The low uptake of cybersecurity careers has been documented in the previous studies conducted in the contexts of the West and Eastern worlds. However, most of the past studies mainly covered the Western world leaving more knowledge gaps in the context of Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia. Thus, to fill the existing knowledge gaps, the current study focused on women in Saudi Arabia. The aim of the study was to investigate the factors behind the underrepresentation of …

Face Readers: The Frontier Of Computer Vision And Math Learning, Beverly Woolf, Margrit Betke, Hao Yu, Sarah Adel Bargal, Ivan Arroyo, John J. Magee Iv, Danielle Allessio, William Rebelsky

Computer Science

The future of AI-assisted individualized learning includes computer vision to inform intelligent tutors and teachers about student affect, motivation and performance. Facial expression recognition is essential in recognizing subtle differences when students ask for hints or fail to solve problems. Facial features and classification labels enable intelligent tutors to predict students’ performance and recommend activities. Videos can capture students’ faces and model their effort and progress; machine learning classifiers can support intelligent tutors to provide interventions. One goal of this research is to support deep dives by teachers to identify students’ individual needs through facial expression and to provide immediate …

How Effective Are Seta Programs Anyway: Learning And Forgetting In Security Awareness Training, David Sikolia, David Biros, Tianjian Zhang

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Prevalent security threats caused by human errors necessitate security education, training, and awareness (SETA) programs in organizations. Despite strong theoretical foundations in behavioral cybersecurity, field evidence on the effectiveness of SETA programs in mitigating actual threats is scarce. Specifically, with a broad range of cybersecurity knowledge crammed into in a single SETA session, it is unclear how effective different types of knowledge are in mitigating human errors in a longitudinal setting. his study investigates how knowledge gained through SETA programs affects human errors in cybersecurity to fill the longitudinal void. In a baseline experiment, we establish that SETA programs reduce …

Anonymity And Gender Effects On Online Trolling And Cybervictimization, Gang Lee, Annalyssia Soonah

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the anonymity of the internet and gender differences in online trolling and cybervictimization. A sample of 151 college students attending a southeastern university completed a survey to assess their internet activities and online trolling and cybervictimization. Multivariate analyses of logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression were used to analyze online trolling and cybervictimization. The results indicated that the anonymity measure was not a significant predictor of online trolling and cybervictimization. Female students were less likely than male students to engage in online trolling, but there was no gender …

Experimental Study: The Effect Of Pore Shape, Geometrical Heterogeneity, And Flow Rate On The Repetitive Two-Phase Fluid Transport In Microfluidic Porous Media, Seunghee Kim, Jingtao Zhang, Sangjin Ryu

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Geologic subsurface energy storage, such as porous-media compressed-air energy storage (PM-CAES) and underground hydrogen storage (UHS), involves the multi-phase fluid transport in structurally disordered or heterogeneous porous media (e.g., soils and rocks). Furthermore, such multi-phase fluid transport is likely to repeatedly occur due to successive fluid injections and extractions, thus, resulting in cyclic drainage–imbibition processes. To complement our preceding study, we conducted a follow-up study with microfluidic pore-network devices with a square solid shape (Type II) to further advance our understanding on the effect of the pore shape (aspect ratio, Type I: 5–6 > Type II: ~1), pore-space heterogeneity (coefficient of …

Case Study: The Impact Of Emerging Technologies On Cybersecurity Education And Workforces, Austin Cusak

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

A qualitative case study focused on understanding what steps are needed to prepare the cybersecurity workforces of 2026-2028 to work with and against emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Conducted through a workshop held in two parts at a cybersecurity education conference, findings came both from a semi-structured interview with a panel of experts as well as small workgroups of professionals answering seven scenario-based questions. Data was thematically analyzed, with major findings emerging about the need to refocus cybersecurity STEM at the middle school level with problem-based learning, the disconnects between workforce operations and cybersecurity operators, the …

Privacy Preserving Signals, Philipp Strack, Kai Hao Yang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A signal is privacy-preserving with respect to a collection of privacy sets, if the posterior probability assigned to every privacy set remains unchanged conditional on any signal realization. We characterize the privacy-preserving signals for arbitrary state space and arbitrary privacy sets. A signal is privacy-preserving if and only if it is a garbling of a reordered quantile signal. These signals are equivalent to couplings, which in turn lead to a characterization of optimal privacy-preserving signals for a decisionmaker. We demonstrate the applications of this characterization in the contexts of algorithmic fairness, price discrimination, and information design.

Editorial - 2023 - 1, Hossain Shahriar, Herbert J. Mattord, Michael E. Whitman

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

No abstract provided.

Compete To Learn: Toward Cybersecurity As A Sport, Tj Oconnor, Dane Brown, Jasmine Jackson, Bryson Payne, Suzanna Schmeelk

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

To support the workforce gap of skilled cybersecurity professionals, gamified pedagogical approaches for teaching cybersecurity have exponentially grown over the last two decades. During this same period, e-sports developed into a multi-billion dollar industry and became a staple on college campuses. In this work, we explore the opportunity to integrate e-sports and gamified cybersecurity approaches into the inaugural US Cyber Games Team. During this tenure, we learned many lessons about recruiting, assessing, and training cybersecurity teams. We share our approach, materials, and lessons learned to serve as a model for fielding amateur cybersecurity teams for future competition.

A Systematic Mapping Study On Gamification Applications For Undergraduate Cybersecurity Education, Sherri Weitl-Harms, Adam Spanier, John Hastings, Matthew Rokusek

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Gamification in education presents a number of benefits that can theoretically facilitate higher engagement and motivation among students when learning complex, technical concepts. As an innovative, high-potential educational tool, many educators and researchers are attempting to implement more effective gamification into undergraduate coursework. Cyber Security Operations (CSO) education is no exception. CSO education traditionally requires comprehension of complex concepts requiring a high level of technical and abstract thinking. By properly applying gamification to complex CSO concepts, engagement in students should see an increase. While an increase is expected, no comprehensive study of CSO gamification applications (GA) has yet been undertaken …

Cyberbullying: Senior Prospective Teachers’ Coping Knowledge And Strategies, Kürşat Arslan, İnan Aydın

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

This study aimed to determine senior prospective teachers’ coping knowledge and strategies for cyberbullying in terms of demographic variables. The sample consisted of 471 prospective teachers (324 female and 147 male) studying in the 4th grade in Dokuz Eylül University Buca Education Faculty in Izmir in the 2019-2020 academic year. It was a quantitative study using a causal-comparative research design to find out whether prospective teachers’ coping knowledge differed by independent variables. The "Coping with Cyberbullying Scale" developed by Koç et al. (2016) was employed to discover prospective teachers’ coping strategies for cyberbullying. A "Personal Information" form was also prepared …

Examination Of Cybersecurity Technologies, Practices, Challenges, And Wish List In K-12 School Districts, Florence Martin, Julie Bacak, Erik Jon Byker, Weichao Wang, Jonathan Wagner, Lynn Ahlgrim-Delzell

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

With the growth in digital teaching and learning, there has been a sharp rise in the number of cybersecurity attacks on K-12 school networks. This has demonstrated a need for security technologies and cybersecurity education. This study examined security technologies used, effective security practices, challenges, concerns, and wish list of technology leaders in K-12 settings. Data collected from 23 district websites and from interviews with 12 district technology leaders were analyzed. Top security practices included cloud-based technologies, segregated network/V-LAN, two-factor authentication, limiting access, and use of Clever or Class Link. Top challenges included keeping users informed, lack of buy-in from …

Cast Iron Repair Through Directed Energy Deposition And Ancillary Processing Modes, Jakob D. Hamilton

Theses

A cast iron repair process that restores above 80% of the original tensile strength without thermal pre-conditioning is presented. Cast iron, an integral alloy to transportation and agricultural sectors, is a difficult alloy to repair owing to the presence of discrete graphite flakes and the tendency to form brittle iron-carbide phases and porosity. Preheating and post-process annealing assist in preventing premature fracturing but are economically and environmentally impractical for large castings. Thus, methods that circumvent these limitations while avoiding defect formation are crucial. Laser-based directed energy deposition (DED) offers a highly controllable method of remanufacturing cast iron and high carbon …

Effects Of Coastal Freshening On Porewater Salinity And Nitrogen Cycling In Brackish Marsh Soils: Implications For Biogeochemical Resilience In Barataria Basin, La, Robert C. Feder

LSU Master's Theses

The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion will divert sediments and fresh water from the Mississippi River into mid-Barataria Basin, LA for the purposes of building and sustaining coastal marshes, potentially reducing the estuarine salinity to 0 during operation. Increased freshwater inputs to the area of project influence may reduce porewater salinity and induce ammonium adsorption in brackish marsh soils of the region, potentially impacting the activity of ammonium-producing and denitrifying bacteria. However, brackish soils occur in zones of intermediate salinity and may, therefore, exhibit biogeochemical resilience to episodic changes in surface water salinity. I hypothesized that inundating brackish marsh soils with fresh …

Can Video Comparison Facilitate Children's Stem Learning?, Alexis Rene Colwell

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of a video comparison activity in teaching 6- and 7-year-old children that a diagonal brace provides stability in structures, which is an important engineering principle. Children were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Comparison, Single Model, or No Training. The children in the Comparison group saw two metal towers in a training video where the researcher pushed on the towers to demonstrate that one was stable (diagonal brace tower), and one was unstable (horizontal crosspiece tower). Children in the Single Model group saw a video of the one …