Digital Commons Network^™

An Improved Bayesian Pick-The-Winner (Ibpw) Design For Randomized Phase Ii Clinical Trials, Wanni Lei, Maosen Peng, Xi K. Zhou

COBRA Preprint Series

Phase II clinical trials play a pivotal role in drug development by screening a large number of drug candidates to identify those with promising preliminary efficacy for phase III testing. Trial designs that enable efficient decision-making with small sample sizes and early futility stopping while controlling for type I and II errors in hypothesis testing, such as Simon’s two-stage design, are preferred. Randomized multi-arm trials are increasingly used in phase II settings to overcome the limitations associated with using historical controls as the reference. However, how to effectively balance efficiency and accurate decision-making continues to be an important research topic. …

Investigating The Experiences Of Evangelical Couples Coping With Painful Intercourse During Early Marriage, Arielle L. Leonard Hodges

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Women who internalize evangelical purity messages face heightened risk for persistent pain or difficulty with penile-vaginal intercourse. Drawing on research in communication, psychology, and sexual medicine, the aim of this multilevel qualitative study is to increase understanding of how evangelical couples communicatively cope with painful intercourse and the memorable messages they believe contribute to their experiences of coping. This study involved conducting qualitative interviews with 20 evangelical married couples (40 total spouses) who currently or recently experienced a wife’s persistent pain during (attempted) penile-vaginal intercourse and 16 female clinicians (pelvic floor physical therapists and mental health professionals) who regularly work …

An Examination Of Missing Person Social Media Engagement Through Data Mining And Experimentation: An Application Of The Crisis And Emergency Risk Communication Model, Cailin M. Kuchenbecker

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), approximately 600,000 individuals are reported missing each year in the United States (2022). When missing person cases do not meet alert (e.g., AMBER) criteria, law enforcement often utilize social media to crowdsource information to ultimately return the missing home. Therefore, guided by the crisis and emergency risk communication model (CERC; Reynolds & Seeger, 2005) and its recently clarified propositions (Miller et al., 2021), the purpose of this dissertation was to (a) identify strategies law enforcement use to crowdsource missing person information and (b) experimentally test message characteristics that facilitate prosocial sharing of …

Spatiotemporal Negative Inventory Outlier Decomposition For Supply Chain Applications In Consumer-Packaged Goods (Cpg), Hayden Mcdonald

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Coca-Cola is a popular soft drink brand with sales occurring in every Walmart store across the world, which generates large quantities of data and requires a robust supply chain system. However, the company does not currently have a sophisticated, automated, and/or prescriptive system for detecting where, when, and why inventory outages occur and applying preventative measures to avoid loss of revenue from the absence of inventory on store shelves. This thesis proposes and applies a novel, prescriptive system for this purpose. An inventory outage can be seen as a ‘negative’ statistical outlier in a time series of inventory for an …

A Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Violent Crime In Little Rock, Arkansas From 1999-2022, Nicole Rogers

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Little Rock, Arkansas is not only the capital and largest city in Arkansas, but it has one of the highest crime rates amongst cities with over 100,000 people in the country. According to the US Census in 2020, Little Rock had a population of 202,591. In the same year, Little Rock Police Department recorded 3,567 cases of violent crime, leading to a violent crime rate of 1,805 violent crime occurrences per 100,000 people. For perspective, Chicago’s violent crime rate was approximately half of that of Little Rock during the same time period. Crime, like other social phenomena is unevenly distributed …

Experiences Of Latine Lgbtq+ High School Students In California, Michael Gorse

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Throughout history, Latine LGBTQ+ students have experienced discrimination, bullying, a lack of safety, and a lack of support in United States schools. In the unique political and social climate of California, the Latine LGBTQ+ student population have encountered a variety of supports (e.g., FAIR Act), successes (e.g., increased graduation rates), and challenges (e.g., Proposition 227, tracking) to their existence in schools. The limited prior research on Latine LGBTQ+ students has demonstrated that Latine LGBTQ+ students in positive school climates earn higher grades, attend school regularly, experience positive mental health outcomes, and feel a sense of connectedness to their schools. However, …

Factors Influencing College Students’ Learning Satisfaction With Educational Videos, Fei Wang

Education (PhD) Dissertations

With the development of digital education worldwide, the Chinese Ministry of Education has accelerated the pace of building online education platforms. Especially during the COVID-19 global pandemic from 2020‒2022, online education produced a large number of educational videos. Educational videos have become supplementary teaching resources for teachers in the classroom and independent digital learning materials for students outside of the classroom. However, the rapid production of educational videos to meet teaching needs has led to uneven video quality and caused complaints from students.

This study was conducted in a private university in China, aiming to explore the influencing factors of …

Fair Or Unfair? Chinese Undergraduates’ Perceptions Of College Classroom Assessments, Ying Zhu

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This study aimed to extend the research on fairness in classroom assessment by examining undergraduates’ fairness perceptions of and their emotional and behavioral responses to college classroom settings in relation to personal justice beliefs and fairness dimensions at a private university in China. Organizational justice theory offered the theoretical framework for identifying major factors influencing students’ general fairness perceptions and their emotional and behavioral consequences for learning. The research employed a survey-based quantitative approach through a correlational design to show associations among fairness-related variables in hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Adopting a translated and culturally adapted fairness survey of classroom assessment, …

Becoming And Thriving As An Efl Instructor: Exploring Key Factors Contributing To Positive Identity Construction, Weiyi Xia

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This mixed methods study delved into the identity construction of English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors in private universities in China through a sequential two-stage exploration. The first stage adopted a 34-item EFL teacher identity questionnaire. Ninety valid responses were collected and subjected to correlation analysis using SPSS. Due to nonnormality in the data, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s rho tests were employed to derive referential outcomes. Data analysis revealed teaching experience and overseas experience were not influencing factors, whereas professional title was important in identity construction. Quantitative data provided references to participants’ recruitment and question design in the second stage …

Shattering The Glass Ceiling: A Grounded Theory Exploration Of Barriers And Facilitators To Women Leaders’ Career Advancement Within Private Universities In China, Xiuying Han

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The underrepresentation of female leaders across various career sectors, especially within higher education institutions (HEIs), has been an ongoing challenge worldwide. Moreover, little has been probed into women’s leadership development within the context of private HEIs in China. This study addresses the gap in academic research by applying a constructivist grounded theory to explore the experiences of women leaders in Chinese private universities. Through interviewing 26 mid- and senior-level women leaders, this study investigates the barriers and facilitators experienced by women leaders in their leadership development journeys within private HEIs in China. The study indicates these women leaders have overcome …

Investigating Factors Influencing Chinese Private College Students’ Engagement In Emergency Online Learning, Limei Cao

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Online learning has witnessed a rapid growth following its widespread adoption across global higher education throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although online learning was intended to maintain continuity of education during the public health emergency, the issue of student engagement in emergency online learning (EOL) has risen to prominence. Given the close association between student engagement and academic outcomes, investigating factors influencing student engagement in EOL is crucial for informing effective educational policies and interventions that support student success. In the absence of a comprehensive theoretical model for understanding student engagement in the unique context of EOL, this study proposed …

Rising From The Abyss: A Grounded Theory Exploration On How Afghani And Ukrainian Mothers Navigate Major Milestones Following The Onset Of Political Conflict, Rabab Atwi

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The political conflicts that have erupted around the world have disrupted the lives of millions of people. This constructivist grounded theory study delved into the experiences of ten mothers from Afghanistan and Ukraine who had to overcome three major milestones: conflict in their homelands, liminal places, and resettlement in the United States. Although the wellestablished literature has highlighted the challenges refugee women encounter following the onset of political conflict, limited literature exists on the experiences of refugee mothers and the resources of support available to help them navigate conflict-related challenges. The findings of this study highlighted mothering, community, and governmental …

Stopping The Bleed At Uri, Emily Lefebre

Senior Honors Projects

The number one cause of preventable death is uncontrolled bleeding from traumatic injury. From the unlikely scenario of a school shooting, to a campus car accident or an injury during a sports or club event, possessing skills to effectively stop a life-threatening bleed becomes a matter of life or death. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) STOP THE BLEED® program is a campaign to teach communities how to respond effectively and efficiently to life-threatening bleeding in emergencies. STOP THE BLEED® aims to empower individuals with the knowledge and skills to stop severe bleeding by tourniquet application, …

Moisture Sorption And Quality Characteristics Of Instant Rice, Anna Mays, Griffiths Atungulu

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Market demand for instant rice--a processed form of rice that is cooked and dehydrated before it is sold--has risen tremendously and become a significant component of the rice industry. Compared to freshly cooked rice, the quality of instant rice (in terms of texture, color, aroma, etc.) is much lower. There exists little information regarding how instant rice’s storage conditions affect its quality. Such information may be elucidated by studying sorption isotherms which describe the storage temperature, relative humidity, and instant rice moisture relationships.

The purpose of this study was to generate moisture sorption isotherms of instant rice for temperatures and …

Editor's Note, W. Jackson Latty

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Admiralty Law, John P. Kavanagh Jr.

Mercer Law Review

The cases discussed herein represent decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, as well as District Courts within the Circuit, issued in 2023. While not an all-inclusive list of maritime decisions during that timeframe, the Author identified and provided summaries of key rulings of interest to the maritime practitioner,

Evidence, W. Randall Bassett

Mercer Law Review

In its 2023 term, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit focused heavily on the role and admissibility of expert testimony under Rules 702–704 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. For example, in two opinions, the court considered the role of an expert’s qualifications and experience in supporting the admissibility of the expert’s opinions. In another case, they analyzed the scope of an expert’s ability to opine on an ultimate issue in a criminal case. The court also considered the role of lay witness opinion testimony compared to that of a retained expert and the admissibility of …

Class Actions, Thomas M. Byrne, Stacey Mcgavin Mohr

Mercer Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s 2023 class-action decisions continued to grapple with Article III standing requirements while also demonstrating, in two decisions, the court’s longstanding generally permissive posture toward approval of class-action settlements. A significant deviation from the latter tendency is the court’s increasingly isolated position on payment of incentive awards to class representatives. Alone among the circuits, the court prohibits such payments, creating an inter-circuit conflict that seems inevitably headed to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, within the circuit, class counsel face a unique hurdle in crafting settlements and dealing with class representatives.

Labor And Employment, W. Jonathan Martin Ii, Patricia-Anne Brownback

Mercer Law Review

This Article focuses on recent cases concerning federal labor and employment laws. The following is a discussion of those opinions.

Starting With The Text: Textualist Interpretation At The Eleventh Circuit, Stephen J. Greenway Jr.

Mercer Law Review

In the field of statutory interpretation, textualism has emerged as a foundational doctrine, emphasizing the supremacy of the statutory text. Among the courts that have fully embraced textualism in recent years is the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Although the Eleventh Circuit previously favored a purpose-based approach to statutory interpretation, the court’s opinions now broadly align with the common textualist principles advocated by Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas, consistently emphasizing that the starting point in statutory interpretation is the text itself. Through an examination of the Eleventh Circuit’s textualist methodology, this Comment argues that the court’s …

University Of Minnesota Morris Constitution And By-Laws, May 2024 Revision, University Of Minnesota - Morris

Constitution and By-laws

No abstract provided.

Dakodia Wohdaka: Indigenous Language Revitalization In The Lower Sioux Indian Community, Gavin Zempel

Student Research, Papers, and Creative Works

Many Indigenous languages in the Americas are drastically declining in the number of fluent speakers and use within their own communities. The Bdewakantunwan Dialect of Lower Sioux Indian Community in southwestern Minnesota is one of the afore-mentioned Indigenous languages with the last fluent speaker of Dakota in the community passing years ago. Language is essential for maintaining identity, conducting ceremony, mental health, maintaining Indigenous sovereignty, and much more. Revitalizing the Dakota language in Lower Sioux would facilitate the growth of and maintenance of all of the previously said benefits, along with the advantages of bilingualism. The text explores many different …

Evaluating “Grit” (Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied) Groups At The Highland Church Of Christ: An Intergenerational Enhancement Of Small Group Community Life, Beth Ann Fisher

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT This project, Evaluating “GRIT” (Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied) at the Highland Church of Christ: An Intergenerational Enhancement of Small Group Community Life is a response to the request for intergenerational partnership in worship, fellowship, and ministry by the university students at Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. The church’s robust small group life was a logical place to create a vehicle in which intergenerational partners could ride for a determined period in pursuit of their common goals of furthering Highland’s mission and vision. The “Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied” or GRIT groups were formed by combining existing small groups …

Protocols For Enhancing The Role And Value Of Spiritual Care Resources In The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Garrett Harper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the assessment of innovative practices in police chaplaincy. The purpose of the project intervention is to develop protocols that can guide police chaplains through an assessment process. The intervention relies on practical theology as exemplified through the ministry of chaplaincy. This ministry comprises police chaplains offering spiritual comfort to persons encountering critical incidents involving violence, accident, or other trauma-intensive events and situations. Adoption of innovations can allow police chaplains to be more effective in fulfilling many outward-focused tasks such as delivery of death notifications. I conclude that: (1) police chaplaincy is amenable to use of protocols to …

Drselects: Global Health Sig’S Emmanuel Tsekleves And Cláudia Libânio, Emmanuel Tsekleves, Cláudia Libânio

DRSelects

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Wind Direction Variability On The Dynamic Response Of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines In The Gulf Of Maine, Bhargavi Nimoji

Master's Theses and Capstones

In today's world, meeting the growing energy demand is crucial to sustaining the modern way of life. This has primarily been achieved through non-renewable sources, which are depleting and causing environmental harm. To tackle these challenges, a shift towards renewable energy sources is essential. The offshore wind sector, in particular, is rapidly expanding, exploring suitable sites for offshore wind farms and Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT). This study looks at the viability of the Gulf of Maine for FOWTs based on extreme environmental conditions associated with a 50-year storm return and wind directionality. The International Energy Agency (IEA) 15-MW Reference …

Cctfv2: Modeling Cyber Competitions, Basheer Qolomany, Tristan J. Calay, Liaquat Hossain, Aos Mulahuwaish, Jacques Bou Abdo

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Cyber competitions are usually team activities, where team performance not only depends on the members’ abilities but also on team collaboration. This seems intuitive, especially given that team formation is a well-studied discipline in competitive sports and project management, but unfortunately, team performance and team formation strategies are rarely studied in the context of cybersecurity and cyber competitions. Since cyber competitions are becoming more prevalent and organized, this gap becomes an opportunity to formalize the study of team performance in the context of cyber competitions. This work follows a cross-validating two-approach methodology. The first is the computational modeling of cyber …

The Price To Parent: How The Supreme Court Of North Carolina’S Decision In In Re J.C.J. To Terminate Parental Rights For Nonpayment Of Foster Care Costs Violates Equal Protection, Becca Pearson

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Agrivoltaics On Irrigation Water Consumption In Central California, London Camba

Undergraduate Theses

An agricultural system where solar energy generation and agricultural systems are used together for mutual benefit, agrivoltaics reduces loss of water due to evaporation, particularly in drylands. Central California has faced extreme droughts, and water has become a scarce resource. However, the wide-scale use of agrivoltaics has been limited due to lack of knowledge about agrivoltaics and also the lack of funding for start-up agrivoltaics projects. Therefore, this research investigated the potential for agrivoltaics in Central California to reduce irrigation water consumption using a review of multiple crop studies using agrivoltaics to determine an optimal crop for agrivoltaics and a …

2024 Gla Advocacy Division Update, Angela Stanley, Angela Cortellino

Georgia Library Quarterly

Updates from the Georgia Library Association's Advocacy Division, including Print Day at the Capitol and Legislative Updates.