Digital Commons Network^™

A Defense Of The Resurrection Miracle And Critique Of The Hallucination Theory, Joshua James Smothers

Masters Theses

Many Christian scholars simply laugh at the notion of the Hallucination theory. However, while it is laughable that the hallucination theory claims the disciples of Jesus all shared a hallucination in which they saw their beloved friend risen from the grave, there is more to the hallucination theory than meets the eye. This thesis defends the resurrection using history while critiquing the hallucination theory. Jesus did rise from the grave in the same physical body that was crucified at Calvary, and the disciple's claims of seeing a risen Jesus are true and can be proven with fact and evidence.

Burmese Buddhist Monks, The Seventh Precept, And Cognitive Dissonance, Heather Maclachlan

Department of Music Faculty Publications

Burmese Theravada Buddhist monks have varying degrees of involvement with music; this study of 22 monks from across Burma/Myanmar reveals that most of them often listen to recorded music. At the same time the monks acknowledge that Buddhism’s Seventh Precept is (or ought to be) a guide for their behavior, agreeing that to be “attached” to music is to violate their monastic rule. They therefore experience cognitive dissonance, and they respond to this dissonance in predictable ways - that is, in ways documented by researchers working with Western populations. They differ, however, in their phenomenological experiences of attachment.

Determinant Of Land Use Change In South Kalimantan: An Evidence From Banjarbaru City And Banjar Regency, Supriatna Supriatna, Fathia Hashilah, Mutia Kamalia Mukhtar, Kartika Kusuma Wardani

Forest and Society

Environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and other environmental catastrophe are negative impacts caused by irresponsible land use change. It is vital to investigate the driver of the land use change to avoid undesirable environmental catastrophes. On the other hand, determinants of the occurrence of the land use change are very complex to be identified. In the last few years, floods hit many parts of the world, one of them was a massive flood in South Kalimantan in the last few years. There is a presumption that this disaster is caused by land use changes inside the watershed. This paper …

Disempowering Traditional Spatial Arrangement Of Dayak Community: A Case Study Of Tumbang Marikoi Village, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Tari Budayanti Usop, Sudaryono Sudaryono, M. Sani Roychansyah

Forest and Society

The rapid industrialization in the last decades significantly changed the traditional spatial arrangement in Central Kalimantan Island. The indigenous community’s traditional forest lands management and ownership were transferred to oil palm plantations and mining corporations. Therefore, it disempowered the traditional spatial arrangement by changing the community’s living conditions and transforming their livelihood sources from primary (forests) to secondary and tertiary. The disempowered traditional spatial arrangement of the Tumbang Marikoi village community includes a living area with rivers, forests, and dwellings. They access the forest through the village Kahayan Hulu and the Marikoi River. There is no power grid in Marikoi …

The Role Of El Nino Variability And Peatland In Burnt Area And Emitted Carbon In Forest Fire Modeling, Ida Bagus Mandhara Brasika

Forest and Society

This study was conducted to model fire occurrence within El Nino variability and peatland distribution. These climate and geographical factors have a significant impact on forest fires in tropical areas such as Indonesia. The re-analysis dataset from ECMWF was observed with respect to climate characteristics in Indonesian El Nino events. The INFERNO (INteractive Fire and Emission algoRithm for Natural envirOnments) was utilized to simulate fires over Borneo Island due to its capability to simulate large-scale fires with simplified parameters. There were some adjustments in this INFERNO model, especially for peat fire as peatland has a significant impact on fires. The …

Incommensurate Conformable-Type Three-Dimensional Lotka–Volterramodel: Discretization, Stability, And Bifurcation, Feras Yousef, Billel Semmar, Kamal Al Nasr

Computer Science Faculty Research

The classic Lotka–Volterra model is a two-dimensional system of differential equations used to model population dynamics among two-species: a predator and its prey. In this article, we consider a modified three-dimensional fractional-order Lotka–Volterra system that models population dynamics among three-species: a predator, an omnivore and their mutual prey. Biologically speaking, population models with a discrete and continuous structure often provide richer dynamics than either discrete or continuous models, so we first discretize the model while keeping one time-continuous dependent variable in each equation. Then, we analyze the stability and bifurcation near the equilibria. The results demonstrated that the dynamic behaviors …

To The Bone And Back, Noelle Christine Thomas

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

To the Bone and Back, a memoir by Noelle Thomas explores Thomas’s college journey while struggling with mental health conditions. To the Bone and Back primarily focuses on how anxiety, depression, and eating disorders can impact friendships. Thomas documents her journey through college and grad school in four parts. In a way, Thomas’s memoir is a story of self-assembly.

Part one, made up of poems, narratives, letter excerpts, YouTube transcripts, and text messages, mirrors the clutter and chaos of Thomas’s brain at that time. Part one establishes the friendship between the main characters: Thomas and Jenna.

Part two begins to …

Antibacterial Activity Of Commiphora Molmol (Myrrha) Against The Periodontal Pathogen, Aggregatibacter Actinomycetemcomitans, Khalid Nafea Alharbi

Selected Full-Text Master Theses 2021-

The exogenous pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcomitans) is most frequently involved in periodontitis and other systemic diseases. The treatment of these infections involves antibiotic therapy with Amoxicillin being the most popular antibiotic against A. actinomycetemcomitans but now, the drug is not 100% effective due to the development of 0-84% antibiotic resistance. The present study aimed to determine antibacterial activity of Commiphora molmol (Myrrha) against the periodontal pathogen, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. In detail, the strain LIU1239 of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans was used where the plasmid pVJT128 is used for transposon mutagenesis and the Escherichia coli strain MV10Nal (stock # LIU4). The …

Small Gestures And Unexpectedconsequences: Textualist Interpretationsof State Antidiscrimination Lawafter Bostock V. Clayton County, Anastasia E. Lacina

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County expanded Title VII’s coverage of victims of sex discrimination in employment by interpreting the statute to also protect LGBTQ+ employees who were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Although Bostock only applies precedentially to Title VII, the long and interwoven history of state antidiscrimination statutes shows that the ruling may reach beyond federal law. This Note examines state court cases that have considered whether to apply Bostock’s reasoning to the interpretation of state antidiscrimination statutes. Furthermore, this Note argues in favor of a path …

Investigating The Role Of Phonological Awareness In The Training Of Phonetic Transcription With Slp Students, Jennifer Kay Binkley

Dissertations and Theses

A dissertation study was developed and completed to further explore the relationship between phonological awareness (PA) and phonetic transcription skills in undergraduate speech-language pathology students. A review of the literature provides gaps in knowledge which the proposal seeks to address. Based upon this literature review, the researcher compared PA skills of undergraduate students of various majors, to determine if there was a change in PA by taking a traditional phonetics course, and to explore phonetic transcription outcomes as the result of direct PA intervention with undergraduate SLP students. Quantitative analysis was used to answer three research questions, which were organized …

Biofilmgeneset: Leveraging Multi-Omics Data Mining And Ica To Discover Biofilm Stage Genes Of Interest From Condition-Specific Expression Dataset, Mathew Olakunle Alaba

Dissertations and Theses

Biofilm formation occurs in the attachment, colony, maturation, and dispersion stages. Understanding the molecular basis at every point of this process is essential to developing efficient diagnostics devices and effective antibiofilm agents. Gene expression data provide molecular insight for both static and temporal biofilm development. The most used analytic techniques for biofilm gene expression data are clustering and network inference algorithms, which class genes with similar expressions across the samples. However, these methods are inherently deficient because they do not capture gene(s) expressed in a subset of the samples. These subsets might be unique to a developmental stage, for example. …

Colorado's Sb 19-181 And The Cogcc Rules Are First Of Their Kinds, Yet Still Not Enough, Lauren Davis

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Molecular Genetic Investigation Of Twins, Families, And Populations, Jeffrey John Beck

Dissertations and Theses

Twins have long been of interest for illuminating genetic and environmental influences on human traits and diseases. These explorations have been accelerated by the substantial amount of information collected from twins and their families participating in twin registers around the world. In this dissertation, I review what is known and what remains unknown about the biology and genetics of twins and the underlying twinning process. To elucidate additional genetic factors of the twinning process, I employed pedigree-based analysis to identify genetic regions shared among distantly related mothers of dizygotic twins. The shared regions may potentially contain rare genetic variants with …

Nonhematopoietic Erythropoietin: A Study Of Signaling, Structure, And Behavior, Nicholas John Pekas

Dissertations and Theses

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a cytokine hormone known for initiating red blood cell proliferation by binding to its homodimer receptor (EPOR)2 in the bone marrow. Recent progress in neurobiology has shown that EPO also exerts robust neurotrophic and neuroprotective activity in the CNS. It is widely thought that EPO’s neurotrophic activity is centrally involved in its antidepressant and cognitive enhancing effects. However, EPO’s potent erythropoietic effects prevent it from being used in the clinic to treat psychiatric disorders. A chemically engineered non-erythropoietic derivative of EPO, carbamoylated EPO (CEPO), produces psychoactive effects without activating hematopoiesis. However, CEPO is expensive to produce and …

Investigating Synthetic Methods For Tio2-Nayf4 Hybrid Nanocrystals, Nurul Muttakin

Dissertations and Theses

The capacity to develop and expand the utility of a single nanostructure is one of the major issues in the field of hybrid nanocrystals. Major advancements in the fabrication of materials with multiple functionalities by combining many materials into a single nanoparticle entity are intriguing, but they still pose obstacles that must be addressed. This trend has been spurred by significant progressions in the wet-chemical synthesis of durable and easily programmable nanocrystals with various morphologies. The extent of the structural complexity of solution-based nanocrystals looks to be one of the inevitable avenues along which nanoscience will increasingly focus. We have …

Understanding How Different Personality Models Can Predict Non-Suicidal Self-Injurious Behaviors, Rachel Chavin

Dissertations and Theses

The current study seeks to examine the role of maladaptive personality traits and personality functioning’s relationship with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) engagement and suicidal behavior. Specifically, this study examined the validity of the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) in predicting historical and prospective self-harm behavior in comparison to the Five Factor Model. This study recruited 400 female participants, ages 18-24, who completed a battery of measures about personality functioning, traits, self-harm, and suicidal history. Two weeks after the initial assessment, participants completed a follow-up survey to assess their NSSI behavior over the past two weeks. Through point-biserial correlations, this study …

Encouraging Persistence Among Native American Nursing Students By Fostering Cultural Identity Development At A Predominantly White University, Valeriah Rose Big Eagle

Dissertations and Theses

There has been a calling to promote diversity in the healthcare workforce to alleviate the health problems that currently exist among the Native American population. Minorities are disproportionately represented in the nursing workforce (Beard, 2014), especially Native Americans. Increasing the number of Native American nurses in the healthcare workforce has been found to significantly reduce these health disparities (Eddie, 2018; Eschiti, 2004; Gebbie et al., 2003), supporting the need for more Native American nursing students to graduate from college. There has been little research regarding the implications of cultural identity experienced by Native American nursing college students in higher education …

Externalizing Psychopathology In Individuals Who Have Criminally Offended: Factor Structure And Differential Outcome Associations, Robert Doss

Dissertations and Theses

In light of recent grievances with categorical conceptualizations of psychopathology, researchers recommend shifting away from categorical toward dimensional conceptualizations. However, research on dimensional conceptualizations and existing measurement tools’ ability to capture these dimensions is still in its early stages. Specifically, special attention has been paid to the externalizing dimension’s structure as a general dimension or two specific dimensions with shared characteristics (i.e., disinhibited externalizing and antagonistic externalizing). The current study aims to validate the PAI’s dimensional structure, focusing on the externalizing dimensions as depicted by the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) model, an emerging dimensional model of psychopathology. Participants were …

Disruption Of Cholesterol Biosynthesis Contributes To Glial Dysfunction And Disturbs Astrocyte-Microglia Crosstalk, Bethany Ann Freel

Dissertations and Theses

The brain is the most cholesterol rich organ in the body, containing ~25% of the body’s total cholesterol content. Due to the blood-brain barrier, cholesterol in the brain is primarily synthesized de novo by astrocytes and transported to neurons. Genetic disorders of cholesterol biosynthetic enzymes result in reduced CNS cholesterol levels and sterol precursor accumulation. Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) is caused by mutations in 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7), which is responsible for the reduction of 7- DHC to cholesterol in the final step of the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway. SLOS results in broad neurodevelopmental malformations and neurological deficits. While much work has focused …

A Model Of Childhood Maltreatment, Ptsd Symptoms, Reinforcement Sensitivity, And Alcohol Outcomes In Young Adults, Logan E. Welker

Dissertations and Theses

Alcohol use poses a significant public health concern, particularly among young adults, 35% of whom report binge drinking (SAMHSA, 2019). Childhood maltreatment is reported by over 50% of young adults (Maples et al., 2014) which places individuals at a greater risk of problematic drinking (Goldstein et al., 2010). Developmental traumatology theory posits that 1) maltreatment-related psychobiological changes are responsible for the increased risk of dysfunctional alcohol use in maltreated individuals and 2) PTSD may be a good indicator of this psychobiological change (De Bellis, 2002). PTSD symptoms have mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and alcohol outcomes in previous studies …

Affective Dependence, Self-Regulation, And Alcohol-Related Problems: Between- And Within-Person Associations, Kyle James Walters

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to elucidate the role of affective dependence (i.e., PA-NA correlation) as a predictor of goal pursuit and alcohol-related problems at the within- and between-person levels and trait urgency at the between-person level. Affective dependence, that is, the extent to which PA and NA are correlated, may be a marker for self-regulation on the one hand (weaker dependence) and impulsivity on the other (stronger dependence). Importantly, the association between PA and NA varies both within and between individuals (Dejonckheere et al., 2019; Zautra et al., 2001). I designed and implemented an intensive longitudinal study to test hypotheses that …

Native American Women Superintendents’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs During The Covid 19 Pandemic, Janet Jeannine Metzger

Dissertations and Theses

This multiple case study focused on three Native American women superintendents’ self-efficacy beliefs and the impact of the Indigenous culture on their decision making as they led their school district through the Covid 19 pandemic. Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theory served as the underpinning theory of this study. The qualitative research design for the study relied on data gathered from individual interviews and written responses to journal prompts. All participants had at least two years of superintendent experience in public school districts during the time of the pandemic. The researcher analyzed the data through open coding/In Vivo coding. The data were …

Anti-Counterfeiting Warnings: Do They Influence Consumer Behavior And Perception Of Overt Indicators?, Elizabeth K. Sterling

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined if overt anti-counterfeiting indicators on product packages and warning labels added to the product, informing that the product might be a counterfeit, influenced participants to spend more time examining the product package for genuineness. The overt indicators used were a QR code, and a holographic security tag that were added to packages as a sticker. There was little research regarding what consumers were looking for when examining a product package to determine if the product was genuine or counterfeit. Arguments for both involving the consumers in the counterfeit identification process, and not involving the consumers in this …

Embodied Intelligence: Smooth Coping In The Learning Intelligent Decision Agent (Lida) Cognitive Architecture, C. Kronsted, S. Kugele, Z. Neemeh, K. Ryan, S. Franklin

CCRG Papers

No abstract provided.

Etsu Today - Winter 2022, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU Today [magazine]

Throughout the fall 2021 semester, many alumni took the opportunity to return home to their alma mater. They came for Homecoming, to attend an event, or to move their child into the residence halls. Many had not been on campus since the pandemic began. Some told me they were curious to walk through the newly renovated Culp Student Center, or peek inside the new Martin Center for the Arts, or simply stroll through the new University Commons and test the new slide beside Stone Hall. Back in 2015, I shared with you the exciting news that ETSU was moving into …

A Meta-Analysis Examining Technology-Assisted L2 Vocabulary Learning, Aiqing Yu, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of technology-assisted second language (L2) vocabulary learning as well as identifies factors that may play a role in their effectiveness. We found 34 studies with 2,511 participants yielding 49 separate effect sizes. Following the procedure developed by Hunter and Schmidt (2004), we corrected for sample size bias and measurement error. The overall effect size for using technology to learn L2 vocabulary was d = 0.64, which is a moderate effect size. The Q statistic indicated a significant variability in effect size, so we followed up with a theory-driven moderator analysis. The results of the moderator …

Developing Intercultural Competence In Multilingual Science Classrooms: A Narrative Study, Uma Ganesan, Amanda Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Increased globalization of the world economy, growth in human migration, and rapid developments in science and technology have required people to develop intercultural communication skills. Teachers play a crucial role in developing intercultural competence among students in our globalized, multilingual classrooms. The need for fostering discourse and building intercultural competence among students is a common blind spot in teacher praxis. This can inhibit efforts to cultivate safe and supportive learning environments for all students and can ultimately threaten multilingual student success. As part of a larger study, this narrative inquiry explores the phenomenon of intercultural competence development through the lived …

Development And Implementation Of An Ai-Embedded And Ros-Compatible Smart Glove System In Human-Robot Interaction, Laury Rodriguez, Zofia Przedworska, Omar Obidat, Jesse Parron, Weitian Wang

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Robotics technology is being widely used for an array of tasks in today's evolving markets. Human-robot collaboration is inevitable which leads to the need for safe, untroublesome, and easy-to-produce products. A smart glove has capabilities to collect data concerning its wearer's movements by the use of sensors. Motivated by this, in this study, we develop an AI-embedded and ROS-compatible smart glove system to realize real-time human-robot interaction in collaborative tasks. To allow the robot to intelligently learn and predict new human intentions for human-robot interaction, we propose an Extreme Learning Machine (ELM)-based human gesture understanding approach using the data from …

Composted Sewage Sludge Application Reduces Mineral Fertilization Requirements And Improves Soil Fertility In Sugarcane Seedling Nurseries, Rafael Dos Santos Silva, Arshad Jalal, Raimunda Eliane Nascimento Do Nascimento, Nathércia Castro Elias, Karen Cossi Kawakami, Cassio Hamilton Abreu-Junior, Fernando Carvalho Oliveira, Arun Dilipkumar Jani, Zhenli He, Fengliang Zhao, Marcelo Carvalho Minhoto Teixeira Filho, Raffaella Rossetto, Gian Franco Capra, Thiago Assis Rodrigues Nogueira

Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sugarcane demands large amounts of nutrients to reach a high level of productivity. Nutrients are generally supplied by mineral fertilizers, but their high costs and negative environmental impacts have generated interest in greater use of organic nutrient sources such as composted sewage sludge (CSS). In this study, we evaluated changes in soil chemical properties after the application of CSS or CSS/mineral fertilizer (MF) combinations to soil containing sugarcane seedlings under nursery conditions. Treatments included: T1: conventional mineral fertilization (MF) without application of CSS, T2: 100% of the recommended MF (06–30–24); T3: application of 2.5 Mg−1 CSS; T4: 5.0 Mg−1 CSS, …

Mos2 Based Memristive Synapses For Neuromorphic Computing, Adithi Pandrahal Krishnaprasad Sharada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Brain inspired computing enabled by memristors have gained prominence over the years due to its nano-scale footprint, reduced complexity for implementing synapses and neurons. Several demonstrations show two-dimensional (2D) materials as a promising platform for realization of robust and energy-efficient memristive synapses. Ideally, a synapse should exhibit low cycle-to-cycle (C-C) and device-to-device (D-D) variability along with high maximum /minimum conductance (Gmax/Gmin) ratio, linearity and symmetry in weight update for obtaining high learning accuracy in neural networks (NNs). However, the demonstration of neuromorphic circuits using conventional materials systems has been limited by high C-C and D-D variability and non-linearity in the …