Business Commons^™

Documenting Night Sky Brightness Using Sky Quality Meters, Ryan Sergent, Jennifer Birriel

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

The use of artificial light at night contributes to light pollution across the globe. Prior to 2005, artificial sources of light at night were mainly high- and low-pressure sodium light sources, which are yellow rich. The increased use of LED lighting is changing spectral signature of the night sky is changing. LEDs emit a peak in blue light. Blue light is scattered much more effectively than yellow and red, increased use of LEDs will increase both glare and skyglow. Unihedron’s Sky Quality Meter (SQM) is an instrument used widely by astronomers to measure the luminance of the night sky. Data …

Kentucky Soldiers At The Battles Of Frenchtown And The River Raisin Massacre, Christian Wright, Adrian Mandzy

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Research on The War of 1812 has been sporadic over the last two hundred years. In spite of the two centuries which have passed, significant gaps in the scholarship remain. Most individuals recognize that Kentucky troops played a major role in the war, but their participation and the number of casualties they suffered remains speculative. American newspaper accounts of the period, written with an eye to sell more copies, may not be accurate as they historically over inflated the number of dead. At the same time, British accounts have a tendency to downplay the numbers of American troops involved for …

Effects Of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy On Intraocular Pressure In Dogs, Sierra Ott, Lauren Mirus

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a method in which pressurized oxygen is used to improve oxygen delivery to tissues. This treatment has been found to be effective in a variety of disorders in human and animal medicine, however it is underutilized in small animal medicine, in part because veterinary professionals may not be adequately familiar with how it works and when it is worthwhile. There has been hesitancy to utilize this method of treatment due to the fear of the unknowns, one example being a potential for an increase in intraocular. The mission of this project was to expand knowledge …

Relation Among Potential Predictors Of Drug Abuse Risk In Rats, Emma Brock, Wesley White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Animal models have been used to investigate behavioral processes and mechanisms that underlie addiction. A variety of measures have been developed for rats that are modest predictors of drug abuse risk. The purpose of this pilot study was to begin to assess whether several established and potential measures of drug abuse vulnerability were correlated. The subjects were eight adult male Wistar rats. The rats were run on procedures that yielded measures of anxiety, sensation seeking, short term responsive to acutely administered drug, and sensitivity to conditioned stimuli. These measures were correlated with a potential new measure of drug abuse vulnerability—withdrawal …

Use Of Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy To Study Hydroxyfulvenes, Ashley Stefani

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

This project was conducted to determine the conditions necessary in Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GCMS) for various hydroxyfulvenes. Several samples each having unique characteristics, such as high molar mass or specific functional groups, were used to determine the optimal conditions for each compound. Different GC parameters were varied including the inlet temperature, initial oven temperature and oven temperature ramp. Compounds were also studied at varying concentrations in order to determine the optimal conditions needed to produce reliable molecular ion data in the MS.

Past Sexual Assault, Daily Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, And Sexual Functioning: The Role Of Pre Sex Drinking, Natalie Fyffe, Elizabeth Neilson

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Women with a history of adolescent or adult sexual assault (ASA) report difficulties with sexual functioning. One hypothesized contributor is posttraumatic stress (PTS), however, for whom and under what circumstances PTS affects sexual functioning is unclear. While ongoing research has found that some ASA survivors may drink to cope with PTS symptoms, little research has examined the association between PTS, pre-sex drinking, and sexual functioning at the proximal level. This study examines the moderating effects of number of standard drinks prior to sex on the indirect association between ASA and sexual functioning via PTS symptoms. Method: First- and second-year college …

Who Are You? The Evolution Of Appalachian Identity, Kiersten Baum, Ashton Culp

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

No abstract provided.

Emotion Recognition Using Brainwave Datasets, Bethlehem Seid, Heba Elgazzar

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

The purpose of this research project is to analyze the brainwave data collected from MUSE EEG headband and use machine learning techniques to select a small number of features and accurately predict the emotional state of an individual. The brainwave dataset records the reading of the MUSE EEG headband. Supervised machine learning techniques are designed and implemented on a brainwave dataset to predict positive, negative, and neutral emotional state. The classification algorithms: K-Nearest neighbors (KNN), Random Forest, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are used in this research. Further, the dimensions of this dataset were also reduced without compromising the accuracy …

An Overview Of The Qualified Immunity Doctrine And Its Application In Kentucky Law, Ethan Garvin, Joe Dunman

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that protects law enforcement officers from lawsuits if the courts find their actions fit three criteria: the action must be discretionary rather than ministerial, the action must be in good faith, and the action must be within the scope of the employee’s authority. By conducting a survey of cases in both the Kentucky court system and the federal court system, this presentation analyzes how qualified immunity is applied. This presentation looks at the doctrine and what the courts look for in various tort claims involving police officers, such as negligence, assault, and false imprisonment. …

Testing Turmoil, Laura Von Mann, Christopher Beckham

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Test anxiety affects students throughout all grade levels, higher education, and even into adult life, at various levels of severity. With standardized testing becoming increasingly more present in the American school system, the condition known as test anxiety has also become a more prevalent topic amongst researchers and educators. This research aims to better understand test anxiety, its symptoms, causes, and possible treatments in order to ensure student success.

Continuous Authentication Of Smartphone Users Using Machine Learning, Suhana Ambol, Sherif Rashad

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

Current smartphone security techniques offer less reliability. As an instance, personal identification numbers can be easily guessed or hacked, fingerprint scan requires hardware to operate, and face recognition can be affected by light, other people in the background, or different poses by the users. In addition, they are beneficial for one-time security, therefore commonly used at the time of login to verify users. However, what if there’s a change of user while accessing the smartphone, and the phone is accessed by an intruder after login. To deal with this issue, continuous authentication is applied which regularly and unnoticeably will address …

Analytical Method Development For The Analysis Of Biomass Degradation Products, Calista Dean, Emma Schmittzehe

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The goal of this project is to study the kinetics of hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass. Biomass contains stored chemical energy that can be converted to renewable liquid and gaseous fuels through various processes, but an in-depth understanding of the kinetics of these processes is important in order for them to be feasible on a large scale. Since biomass degradation products depend on the type of biomass used as well as the reaction conditions, this task can be quite complicated. To minimize complications in our initial studies, we will use D-glucose as the starting material. To better understand the degradation pathway’s …

Parental Sensitivity And Children's Emotion Regulation Development, Griffin Newell, Olivia Kee, Shari Kidwell

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Parental sensitivity is critical in the development of children’s attachment to their caregivers. Sensitivity refers to a parent's ability to understand and react synchronously with their child's emotions. Covert hostility is a form of insensitivity in which parents are subtly dismissing. The current study examines both parenting constructs during a frustration task, in relation to child behavior in an emotion interview. As part of a larger longitudinal study, 35 children (average age 6 years) and their parents waited eight minutes for children to be permitted to open a bag of prizes. Parental reactions to their children's behaviors were coded into …

Data Acquisition For Physics With Arduino, Kyle Litton, James Adkins

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Arduino is an open-source electronics microcontroller board that allows us to marry technology with our environment. There are countless modules commercially available that can be easily manipulated with programs written in the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE), giving users full control of input and output. Several of these modules naturally relate to physics and data acquisition. Since physics analyses rely on data, the Arduino is a natural choice for a system where the user has full control of data collection methods. This poster will present our development of a data acquisition system that integrates equipment commonly found in physics laboratories. …

Improving Patient Outcomes With High Nurse To Patient Ratios: A Quality Improvement Study, Abigail Ross, Alexis Bradshaw, Brenna Murphy, Carson Jones, Cierra Connelley, Haley Nyderek, Hannah Dorton, Morgan Minton, Mary Suzi White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

According to the United States Registered Nurse Workforce Report Card and Shortage Forecast: A Revisit published in the May/June 2018 issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality, a shortage of registered nurses is projected to spread across the country between 2016 and 2030. Surveyed nurses see the shortage in the future as a catalyst for increasing stress on nurses (98%), lowering patient care quality (93%) and causing nurses to leave the profession (93%) (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021). A thorough literature review was conducted, and 40 studies were reviewed. Common themes that emerged include: high nurse to …

Analytical Derivation And Numerical Validation Of The Functionally Graded Arches Under Pressure And Thermal Loadings, Seba Gravitt, Zhaochao Li

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The functionally graded materials (FGM) were developed originally to resist the high temperature of aircraft in the 1980s. With the development and improvement of the manufacturing technology, more and more FGM types have been used and studied in practical engineering applications. The present work focuses on the stability performance of the heated FGM arch subjected to the pressure field. The material properties distribute non-uniformly in the thickness direction of the FGM arch, which may show different buckling mechanisms from the conventional uniform materials. It is found the arch expands when the thermal field is introduced. The uniform pressure is applied …

Preservation Of Morehead State History, Jacob Bush, Alana Scott, Dieter Ullrich

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

This project is being undertaken in an effort to preserve the buildings and history of Morehead State University. It is the goal of this project to make additions to the historic district of MSU by adding qualifying buildings to the National Register of Historic Places. By adding buildings to the Register, they would be recognized on the federal level as historic sites and receive support for their preservation. The Register seeks to protect sites of importance through many ways including the gifting of funding to ensure preservation. The goals of this project will be achieved using historical texts from our …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 62 Number 1, Spring 2021 [Print Issue V.61:1], Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

14 - VALUE PROPOSITION With more people going to college than ever before, how do we calculate the worth of a college degree? Lauren Loftus.

22 - HUMANITY IN THE HUMOR Santa Clara Magazine sat down with Assistance Professor Danielle Morgan to explore how laughter can be lifesaving—and life affirming. Leslie Griffy.

26 - TOMORROWLAND So really, what happens next? We chat with experts about how the pandemic could change our world as we know it. Leslie Griffy and Tracy Seipel.

32 - A BREAK Explore what you see when you step away from it all—and discover some flighty friends …

Ua19/16/2 Women's Basketball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases, photos and game statistics for WKU women's basketball team in 2021.

Ua19/16/2 Basketball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases, photos and game statistics for WKU basketball team from January to July 2021.

Changes In Consumer Market Preference And Purchase Frequency In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sean Thomas Dial

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research literature throughout 2020 indicate consumer behavioral changes in response to the systemic effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but these studies investigate transient adaptations in consumer behaviors during the early quarantine period of the pandemic. This study intends to investigate lasting or permanent changes in consumer market preference and purchase frequency between BAM and online retail due to the effects of the pandemic. The principal investigator designed a survey for participants to estimate purchase frequencies and market preferences for apparel, electronics, groceries, and general purchases before and after the pervasive effects of the pandemic (N = 1195; n = …

Macra And Accountable Care Organizations: Is It Working?, Bukola Abodunde, Chelsea Slater, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

The purpose of this study was to examine how the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) has improved health care delivery and to determine its impact on Accountable Care Organization (ACO) goals. ACOs have provided quality care through the reduction in readmission rates, coordinated care, and cost savings. With the passage of the MACRA, it has been estimated that it would further decrease Medicare spending on physician and hospital services. Also, ACOs have had a positive impact on improving health care delivery and have played a significant role in providing exceptional quality of care while also managing to increase …

Emergent Trends In The Chinese Counterfeit Pharmaceutical Supply Chain And Opportunities For Public-Private Reform, Mary Monk

Senior Theses

This research seeks to identify and analyze emerging trends in the Chinese counterfeit pharmaceutical trade, extending from the supply chain’s point of origin to domestic and overseas retail dispensary. To aid readability, Chapter 1 of this thesis opens with key conclusions and policy recommendations for various Chinese and U.S. stakeholders based on the shortcomings identified in Chapter 5. Chapter 2 begins with a review of international roadblocks to diagnosing the issue, such as lack of consensus on working definitions and cross-border discrepancies in pharmaceutical oversight regulation. This section also provides a general overview of existing factors driving demand for counterfeit …

Spring 2021, Joëlle Walls

The Investigator Research Magazine

Dear readers,

We are proud to present the spring issue of The Investigator and share with you the expansion of diverse research and scholarly activities occurring at Kennesaw State. Although this year was met with challenges, KSU’s research enterprise has thrived and grown.

In this issue, Pamela Whitten discussed the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Innovation Initiative, an internal funding program to spur new collaborations focused on KSU’s research themes. And alumni Carl Saint-Louis and Karen Armstrong, featured in our cover story, have returned as faculty to mentor the next generation.

This publication would not have been possible without the visual …

Preventing Needle Stick Injuries: A Quality Improvement Project, Adrianna Kerns, Emilea Pitts, Grace Richman, Katie Rawlings, Megan Riley, Mary Suzanne White

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

"Needlestick injuries (NSI) affect approximately 1,000 people per day across U.S. hospitals. Needlestick injuries cost an estimated $3,042 per victim annually, according to the report. The costs go toward laboratory fees for testing exposed employees, associated labor and counseling and post-exposure follow-ups." (Beckner's Clinical Leadership & Infection Control, 2020). It was noted at an urban teaching hospital that needlestick injuries are an issue. Researchers believe this number is an underestimate of the actual amount of needle stick injuries. The purpose is to increase the education of staff nurses on the topic of needle stick injuries. We thoroughly reviewed 56 studies …

Cultivating Gratitude And Learning: Virtual Agriculture Education For Elementary School Students, Heather Smith, Joy Gritton

2021 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Oral Presentations

In a time when the majority of young children know more about a computer than agriculture, this project brings agriculture to them in a unique way. This presentation introduces a program that aims to connect elementary students with the vast agriculture industry in the digital age using appropriate technology. The project consists of teaching children in Eastern Kentucky and beyond about agriculture and land use through the virtual dissemination of relevant stories, facts, and activities. In this way children can learn how agriculture is vital to their everyday life. Featured topics include horticulture crops, agronomic crops, livestock, and the history …

Dentistry And The Law: Unreasonable Non-Compete And Damages Provisions In Employment Contracts, Dan Schulte Jd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Non-compete and liquidated damages clauses in dental employment contracts must adhere to specific limits for enforceability. Courts require reasonable geographic and temporal constraints on non-competes, typically within patient-served areas under two years. Liquidated damages should reflect actual losses, especially in cases where damages are difficult to gauge. Courts may still reject these provisions if they find breaches or inequity. Employers are advised to strike a balance between safeguarding their interests and fostering positive work environments.

Implementation And Evaluation Of Employee Health And Wellness Program Using Re-Aim Framework, Unab I. Khan, Asra Qureshi, Karishma Lal, Shehreen Ali, Arshnoor Barkatalia, Shamim Nayani

Department of Family Medicine

Purpose: To describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of an employer-sponsored health screening program [Employee Health and Wellness Program (EHWP)] in an academic healthcare system in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach: One-year after implementation, we use the RE-AIM framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance) to evaluate and report participant- and organizational-level indicators of success.
Findings: Of 5286 invited employees, 4523 (86%) completed blood work and 1809 (34%) completed health risk assessment (Reach). Of the 915 (51%) who required referrals, 3% were referred for new diagnoses of diabetes, hepatitis C or severe anemia; 63% for elevated 10- year risk of cardiometabolic diseases (cardiovascular …

Reporting Health Data In Waiting Rooms With Mobile Technology: Patient Expectation And Confirmation, Iris Reychav, Ankur Arora, Rajiv Sabherwal, Karina Polyak, Jun Sun, Joseph Azuri

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Objectives: Hospitals and medical staff use digital devices such as mobile phones and tablets to treat patients. Prior research has examined patient-reported outcomes, and the use of medical devices to do diagnosis and prognosis of patients, but not whether patients like using, and intend to use in future, mobile devices to self-report medical data. We address this research gap by developing a theoretical model based on the expectancy confirmation model (ECM) and testing it in an empirical study of patients using mobile technology to self-report data.

Design: This study adopts a non-interventional cross-sectional research design. Randomly-selected patients provided data via …

J Mich Dent Assoc April 2021

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

In the April 2021 issue of the Journal of the Michigan Dental Association, we offer a comprehensive range of original feature content showcasing the latest developments in dental practice and knowledge, including:

1. AI in Dental Care Delivery: Explore the groundbreaking role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning in dental care, revolutionizing efficiency, safety, care outcomes, and treatment planning consistency.
2. AI in Dental Claims Processing: Discover how AI is employed by third-party payers to streamline dental claims processing, resulting in cost containment and the proactive identification of potential fraud, waste, and abuse.
3. Evidence-Based Dentistry: As part of …