Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Divergent Social Dimensions Of Ceo Narcissism On Internal Firm Outcomes, Andrew Brandon Blake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I move away from the common clinical conception of narcissism in management to a novel two-dimensional concept and measurement of narcissism. Because these dimensions are shown to have divergent motives, goals, social strategies, and behaviors, I theorize that these differences in narcissism will have diverging effects on the firm. Then, I shift the conceptual focus of CEO narcissism research from the CEO as an agentic decision-maker seeking external praise for firm consequences to an implicit social strategist who prioritizes short-term interpersonal interactions in service of narcissistic supply. I examine four internal outcomes likely to be influenced by …

Digital Pastoral, Rebecca Holifield

Master's Theses

Digital Pastoral is a collection of original poems and a creative nonfiction essay, accompanied by a critical introduction.

Infidelity And The Bioecological Protective Factors For Mental Health: A Longitudinal Investigation, Lindy Williams

Master's Theses

Infidelity is an important topic of research due to the profound effects on the individual experiencing the trauma. Through the lens of bioecological systems and betrayal trauma, the impact of infidelity on mental health is examined in relation to the most proximal systems to an individual which include personality traits such as agreeableness and neuroticism as well as support from friends, family, and community. This research explores the hypotheses that more support leads to more positive mental health outcomes after the experience of infidelity and the possibility that support from friends, family, and community may buffer specific personality traits and …

Upland Migration Of Coastal Marshes As A Response To Sea Level Rise And Fire Management: Past, Present, And Predicted, Devin Jen

Master's Theses

Coastal marshes are one of the most productive and intensively used ecosystems in the world. However, they are under threat due to natural and anthropogenic stressors, such as sea level rise (SLR). SLR can cause marshes to drown, converting them to open water. Marshes can respond to SLR through landward migration when suitable habitat is available. My research focuses on the landward migration pattern and mechanisms. I evaluated the historical land cover changes at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Pascagoula River delta over two-time intervals since 1955 and focused on the forest-marsh dynamics. I found that …

Alt-Right Of The_Donald And Authoritarian Communists On Reddit: Internet Memes To Build Community, Joshua Hendricks

Master's Theses

This project infuses Lacanian psychoanalysis further into the rhetorical study by exploring authoritarian discourses on Reddit. I analyze the alt-right community that found a home on the subreddit r/The_Donald and chart their discourse as it shaped from the quarantine to the establishment of an independent forum called TheDonald.win. I selected memes and the comments around them to build the analysis. The second aspect of this thesis examines authoritarian communist discourse on Reddit. The leftist community splintered when r/socialism banned a community member because the person made catgirl art. The ban sent shockwaves through the leftist community on Reddit and generated …

A Bioarchaeological Investigation Of The Courtney-Anderson Cemetery, Lauren Scott

Master's Theses

Located in Perry County, Mississippi, the Anderson Family Cemetery represents an abandoned turn-of-the-century Piney Woods cemetery. The cemetery is located on land once owned by the Courtney and Anderson families, who farmed the area until it was taken under eminent domain by the United States government in 1942. The purpose of this thesis is to present three osteobiographies created from human remains and material culture recovered from three graves excavated from within the cemetery in 2022 to explore the lifeways of rural Piney Woods families of Mississippi at the turn-of-the-century.

Among the graves explored, one did not contain evidence of …

Validation In Vietnam: Motivations And Experiences Of Vietnam Veterans Who Returned To Vietnam As Tourists, Brian Washam Ii

Master's Theses

The current historiography on the memory of the Vietnam War has primarily looked at how the collective memory of the war has been constructed through various factors. Scholars such as Jerry Lembcke, Patrick Hagopian, and Marita Sturken tend to examine monuments, film, and oral histories to establish a basis for how the memory of the Vietnam War was constructed and how these legacies from the war shaped the U.S. as a society going forward. Recently, scholars have begun looking more at the return trips of veterans to Vietnam as a source for understanding how veterans remembered their service.

By engaging …

Effects Of Shoreline Development And Freshwater Discharge On Nekton Assemblage And Trophic Structure In A Northern Gulf Of Mexico Estuary, Glenn Schumacher

Master's Theses

Coastal salt marshes support a diversity of nekton and facilitate critical ecosystem functions but are threatened by shoreline development and climate change. Therefore, coastal ecosystem managers have begun incentivizing the use of living shorelines (LS), erosion control structures incorporating native plantings, to mitigate ecological consequences of marsh loss. However, post-restoration climate changes may shift habitat templates and negate positive effects of ecosystem restoration. I evaluated the ecology nekton along LS, natural marshes, hardened shorelines and greyed shorelines within Biloxi Bay, Mississippi, during a high freshwater discharge (HFD) period by comparing nekton assemblage (using species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity, and relative abundance), …

Explorative Role Of Mir-216a/217 As A Tumor Suppressor In Pancreatic Cancer, Shreya Repakula, Nagabhishek Sirpu Natesh, Ramakanth C. Venkata, Surinder K. Batra, Satyanarayana Rachagani

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a lethal malignancy with a 5-year survival rate of 10.8%. Gemcitabine, in combination with Abraxane and Folfirinox, are current treatments available for metastatic PC, however, all these therapies provided limited patient survival benefit, often resulting in high toxicity. Therefore, there is a need to identify novel therapeutic targets and combination therapies to combat this lethal cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) have been shown to regulate PC proliferation and metastasis. Recently, miRNA therapies have shown promising results as a single miRNA is predicted to target more than 200 genes, involved in multiple pathways. The objective of this …

Effects Of Hormones On Follicular Gata4 And Gata6 Expression, Danielle D. Oberpriller, Shyamal K. Roy Dr.

Posters: 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The GATA gene family consists two sub-groups of six genes namely, gata1-3, and gata4-6 transcription factors.GATA4 increases in developing gonads in the context of sex determination. Both gata4 andgata6 are present primarily in granulosa cells, but also in the theca, germinal epithelium, and corpus lutem. However, little is known about hormones, which may affect GATA4 expression in specific cell types within the ovary. The regulation of both gata4 and gata6 expression seems to be controlled by several factors including hormones, calcium signaling, oxygen levels and transcriptional/translational mechanisms. Deletion of gata4in mice lead to a 75%decrease in litter size while deletion …

Ethical Behaviour And The Use Of Social Media By Undergraduates, University Of Ibadan., Tolulope Elizabeth Adenekan Phd, Ayomide Joy Lala

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The attraction of social media tools in higher education has been attributed to the affordances and participatory nature that the tools offer. For undergraduates in this generation, social networking has become an “addiction”. Ordinarily, a student who has a Facebook account opens the account daily to check new updates and spends hours studying new updates until he/she realizes that there are more important things to do like school work that has been missed because of logging in to a social platform. The research design adopted for the study is a descriptive survey. A multistage random sampling technique was used for …

State-Of-The-Art Review: Evidence On Red Meat Consumption And Hypertension Outcomes, Tara Shrout Allen, Harpreet S Bhatia, Alexis C Wood, Shabnam R Momin, Matthew A Allison

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Hypertension (HTN) is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including ischemic heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. The prevalence of HTN, as well as mortality rates attributable to HTN, continue to increase, particularly in the United States and among Black populations. The risk of HTN involves a complex interaction of genetics and modifiable risk factors, including dietary patterns. In this regard, there is accumulating evidence that links dietary intake of red meat with a higher risk of poorly controlled blood pressure and HTN. However, research on this topic contains significant methodological limitations, which are described in …

A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis On Prevalence Of And Risk Factors Associated With Depression, Anxiety And Insomnia In Infectious Diseases, Including Covid-19: A Call To Action, Kai Yuan, Yong-Bo Zheng, Yi-Jie Wang, Yan-Kun Sun, Yi-Miao Gong, Yue-Tong Huang, Xuan Chen, Xiao-Xing Liu, Yi Zhong, Si-Zhen Su, Nan Gao, Yi-Long Lu, Zhe Wang, Wei-Jian Liu, Jian-Yu Que, Ying-Bo Yang, An-Yi Zhang, Meng-Ni Jing, Chen-Wei Yuan, Na Zeng, Michael V Vitiello, Vikram Patel, Seena Fazel, Harry Minas, Graham Thornicroft, Teng-Teng Fan, Xiao Lin, Wei Yan, Le Shi, Jie Shi, Thomas Kosten, Yan-Ping Bao, Lin Lu

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Infectious disease epidemics have become more frequent and more complex during the 21st century, posing a health threat to the general public and leading to psychological symptoms. The current study was designed to investigate the prevalence of and risk factors associated with depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms during epidemic outbreaks, including COVID-19. We systematically searched the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, OVID, Medline, Cochrane databases, bioRxiv and medRxiv to identify studies that reported the prevalence of depression, anxiety or insomnia during infectious disease epidemics, up to August 14th, 2020. Prevalence of mental symptoms among different populations including the general public, …

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Public High School Teachers And Instructional Coaches Participating In Virtual Instructional Coaching During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Alyson J. Manion

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of public high school teachers (grades 9-12) and instructional coaches who have participated in virtual instructional coaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three research questions guided this study: (1) How do public high school teachers and instructional coaches describe their experience with virtual instructional coaching during the COVID-19 pandemic?, (2) How do public high school teachers and instructional coaches describe the changes in instructional coaching experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic?, and (3) How do public high school teachers and instructional coaches describe their relationships with their instructional coaching …

Fully Kinetic Particle-In-Cell Simulations Of Plasma-Surface-Dust Interactions For Lunar Exploration, Jianxun Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

"The studies involving lunar surface explorations have drawn attentions in recent years. A better understanding of possible potential hazards to astronauts and electronic equipment has become a necessity for future lunar explorations. The lunar surface, lacking an atmosphere and global magnetic field therefore directly exposed to solar radiation and solar wind plasma, is electrically charged by the bombardment of solar wind plasma and emission/collection of photoelectrons. Additionally, lunar dust grains can also get charged and levitated from the surface under the influence of the electric field as well as gravity within the plasma sheath. Since the plasma sheath formed near …

Dynamic Path Planning For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Under Deadline And Sector Capacity Constraints, Sudharsan Vaidhun, Zhishan Guo, Jiang Bian, Haoyi Xiong, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The US National Airspace System is currently operating at a level close to its maximum potential. The limitation comes from the workload demand on the air traffic controllers. Currently, the air traffic flow management is based on the flight path requests by the airline operators, whereas the minimum separation assurance between flights is handled strategically by air traffic control personnel. In this paper, we propose a scalable framework that allows path planning for a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) taking into account the deadline and weather constraints. Our proposed solution has a polynomial-time computational complexity that is also …

Pressure Ulcer Risk Factors Associated With Level Of Paralysis In Persons With Spinal Cord Injury: Analysis Of The National Spinal Cord Injury Database, Donnalee Pollack

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

The National Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) were established in 1970 to provide and study comprehensive care for anyone with a traumatic spinal cord injury. A spinal cord injury (SCI) is defined as transient or permanent motor and/or sensory deficits as a result of an acute traumatic injury to the spinal cord. Twenty-nine federally funded Model System Centers have collected data from approximately 6% of new SCI cases in the United States since the founding of the National Spinal Cord Injury Database. The National Spinal Cord Injury Database (NSCID) was created in 1973 to store the collected data, and …

Analyzing Staphylococcal Contamination On Surfaces And Bedside Areas Of A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Of A Children's Hospital, Daniel See

Honors Theses

Staphylococci species are known to be a cause of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). There is limited research about the surveillance and identification of staphylococci bacteria from NICUs. Surveillance of bacteria within the NICU helps to identify areas acting as reservoirs for bacteria so that new cleaning policies and techniques can be put in place to stop the spread of HAIs. The objective of this study was to swab sample sites in a local level IV hospital NICU and identify locations of staphylococci presence throughout the NICU. Forty-one swabs were selected from over 900 swabs collected …

Black Families Matter: Exploring The Sociocultural Impacts Of Race And Class On Parental Engagement, Keneisha Harrington

All Dissertations

Across diverse educational spaces, parental engagement is regarded as a critical factor in determining student academic achievement. However, dominant narratives of low-income African American parent (LIAAP) disengagement have been perpetuated in scholarship and practice, adding to the centuries of misuse and maltreatment Black families have experienced historically by way of educational institutions in the United States. Therefore, to counter these narratives and better understand parental engagement from the perspectives of LIAAP, in this three-article dissertation, I explored the impacts of race and social class on LIAAP engagement. Through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens and a phenomenological Community-Based Participatory …

2022-August-01-Etsu Theatre And Dance Presents 2022 - 2023 Season, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – Four shows will headline the 2022-2023 season for East Tennessee State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

“Our previous season marked our first year in the Martin Center’s new Bert C. Bach Theatre, and it was truly an epic season,” said Karen Brewster, professor/chair of Theatre and Dance. “All of our shows were performed to sold-out audiences, and we were able to transform this black box space to become a stretch of the Colorado River, followed by a family living room, to various locations across the mountains of North Carolina. That is the beauty of having …

August 2022: Love And Marriage, Gardner-Webb University

President William Downs' Blog

August brings with it the start of a new academic year and a wonderful sense of renewal at our University. Indulge me for a moment, however, as August also has an additional special meaning in the Downs household. On August 5, Kim and I celebrate our 33 wedding anniversary. This year, we also celebrate that our two children, Rachel and Bradley, have each found their own special someone and gotten engaged over the summer. That means detailed plans are well underway for two weddings in 2023…pray for us!

Automating Defeasible Reasoning In Law With Answer Set Programming, How Khang Lim, Avishkar Mahajar, Martin Strecker, Meng Weng Wong

Centre for Computational Law (2022-2025)

The paper studies defeasible reasoning in rule-based systems, in particular about legal norms and contracts. We identify rule modifiers that specify how rules interact and how they can be overridden. We then define rule transformations that eliminate these modifiers, leading in the end to a translation of rules to formulas. For reasoning with and about rules, we contrast two approaches, one in a classical logic with SMT solvers, which is only briefly sketched, and one using non-monotonic logic with Answer Set Programming solvers, described in more detail.

My Journey To Positivity And Its Influence On Creativity And Education, Jennifer P. Youngblood

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project is about positivity and its impact on education and creativity. This Master's Project in Creative and Change Leadership is aimed to investigate, comprehend, and apply positively in the fields of creativity and learning. Our learning and creativity suffer when we lack positivity. One may even argue that without positivity, our lives deteriorate. My objective is to cultivate positivity in both my personal and professional lives, thus transforming myself into an unconsciously talented individual.

2022-August-01-Calling Etsu Choirs Alumni, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – East Tennessee State University has issued a call to alumni of the ETSU Choirs to gather for a special reunion concert. 

The event, which will help kick off Homecoming week at ETSU, happens at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15, in the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts. 

Greyscale will be honored at concert

“We are inviting all eras of the ETSU Choirs to come together for what will be a truly special evening,” said Dr. Alan Stevens, director of choral activities and chair of the Department of Music.  

ETSU is home to many award-winning …

2022-August-01-New Etsu Faculty - Part 1 - Bucwire, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Leendert Craig

Lecturer

Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology, Surveying, and Interior Architecture
College of Business and Technology

What are you looking forward to the most about being an ETSU faculty member?

I am looking forward to learning all I can from my fellow faculty members and working with the students. I think it is fun to watch them grow as they learn.

Where were you most recently working?

Last year I was working as an adjunct at ETSU.

What are your favorite hobbies?

My favorite hobby is learning. I love taking things apart to learn their secrets and finding ways …

The Impact And Spillover Effects Of Hiv Self-Test Technology On Hiv Outcomes Of The South African Working Class, Cyprian Mostert

Brain and Mind Institute

Background: South Africa recently adopted HIV self-test technology (HIVST) to improve HIV testing and encourage earlier treatment initiation in working populations with a low uptake of conventional testing approaches. This study investigates the impact of HIVST on testing outcomes, focusing on both frequent and infrequent working-class testers. The paper also examines the spillover effect of HIVST on antiretroviral (ART) treatment initiation. To identify these effects, the author focused on South Africa and exploited the HIVST distribution data of 6259 beneficiaries of HIVST.

Methods: The author used a two-stage least-squared model to quantify the impact of the HIVST on …

Human-Centered Design Exploration With Kenyan Health Workers On Proposed Digital Mental Health Screening And Intervention Training Development: Thematic Analysis Of User Preferences And Needs, Manasi Kumar, Paul Macharia, Vincent Nyongesa, Joseph Kathono, Obadia Yator, Shillah Mwaniga, Mary Mckay, Keng Yen Huang, Rahul Shidhaye, Simon Njuguna

Brain and Mind Institute

Background: Health providers' perceived sense of knowledge, competency, and self-efficacy to support the needs of their patients contributes to optimal patient health outcomes. With regards to mental health service delivery in Kenya, this area needs further exploration. Guided by the e-health technology acceptance mode, the needs and preferences of health care providers around mental health training for clinical management and their ability to intervene in peripartum adolescent mental health care are explored. We probed how well-equipped service providers are, their engagement with technology to learn and offer services. The health care provider's technology use preferences were also explored.

Method: Guided …

A Computational Model Of The Line-1 Retrotransposon Life Cycle And Visualization Of Metabolic Networks In 3-Dimensions., Michael D. Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Computational modeling of metabolic reactions and cellular systems is evolving as a tool for quantitative prediction of metabolic parameters and reaction pathway analysis. In this work, the basics of computational cell biology are presented as well as a summary of physical processes within the cell, and the algorithmic methods used to find time dependent solutions. Protein-protein and enzyme-substrate interactions are mathematically represented via mass action kinetics to construct sets of linear differential equations that describe reaction rates and formation of protein complexes. Using mass action methods, examples of reaction networks and their solutions are presented within the Virtual Cell simulation …

Effects Of Monovalent And Divalent Ions In Factor Xiii Activation And Crosslinking., Richard Laporca Lumata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Factor XIII (FXIII) is an emerging target for treating blood clotting and cardiovascular related diseases. FXIII can be activated non-proteolytically by the presence of elevated Ca²⁺ levels (2-100 mM) or proteolytically by thrombin-cleavage of the Activation Peptide along with low mM Ca²⁺. The studies herein utilized fluorescence to examine how monovalent and divalent ions influence the transglutaminase activity and conformation of FXIII. Monodansylcadaverine assays revealed that increasing ionic radius (Cs⁺ > K⁺ > Na⁺ > Li⁺) and increasing ionic strength (XCl^- levels and SO₄^2- > Cl^-) elevated FXIII-A transglutaminase activity. Intrinsic …

Predicting The Impact Of Utility Lighting Rebate Programs On Promoting Industrial Energy Efficiency: A Machine Learning Approach, Phillip Shook, Jun-Ki Choi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Implementation costs are a major factor in manufacturers' decisions to invest in energy-efficient technologies. Emerging technologies in lighting systems, however, typically require small investment costs and offer short, simple payback periods, due, in part, to federal, state, and utility incentive programs. Recently, however, certain state and federal mandates have reduced the support for and efficacy of electricity utility incentivizing programs. To determine the impact of such support programs, this study examined historical data regarding lighting retrofit savings, implementation costs, and utility rebates gathered from 13 years of industrial energy audits by a U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Center in …