13251 research outputs found
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Tracing Global Experiences to Employer Favorability
No full textGlobalization has elevated society\u27s workforce contributions, forcing employees to have global competence for career success. Global competence is a term used to describe the proficiencies an individual can gain from experienced-based learning opportunities, like study away. This form of experiential learning has proven to have many benefits for students in secondary and higher education. Existing evidence suggests cross-cultural and international experiences provide travelers with professional, intellectual, and integral traits, increasing their working social capital and aiding in experiential learning. However, research is lacking if employers desire study abroad experience in their new hires and/or if global competence is a skill related to favorability in the hiring process. We used a mixed method convergent design to understand the perceived gains of study away and the weight employees place on the value of experience-based opportunities, like study abroad, in professional workplace settings. Researchers found that study away develops cultural competencies. These skills and thematic codes are ready to communicate, ready to travel, building the foundation, prepared for work, and ready for missions. Individuals who did not study away were perceived to have an idealistic view of global experiences and have a more favorable view of skills developed through study away experiences. Study away experiences give students and employees assets to use in the workplace and throughout life. These skills are likely to be valued and recognized at an organization with an international focus. Future research should seek to promote experiential learning by means of study away, international professional development, and cross-cultural engagement to increase the favorability employees may gain from these experiences which may have a direct impact on their workplace success and opportunities
Comparative Study on Different Fmoc Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis Protocols Towards Reduced Solvent Consumption and Improved Efficiency
No full textIn this study, I optimized the amount of solvent, dimethylformamide, and the coupling reagent equivalencies of N,N’-diisopropylcarbodiimide and either 1-hydroxybenzotriazole or Oxyma Pure for small-scale solid-phase peptide synthesis. The synthesis of truncated and full-length Leu-enkephalin amides were chosen as the model system for this study. In order to analyze the yield and purity of crude peptide products, I developed LC-MS methods. Thereafter, I investigated the utility of in situ Fmoc removal method to reduce the solvent consumption in solid-phase peptide synthesis using N,N’-diisopropylcarbodiimide and 1-hydroxybenzotriazole. As a control experiment, I reproduced the previously reported experiment on the use of in situ Fmoc removal method using N,N’-diisopropylcarbodiimide and Oxyma Pure. The results showed that the yield and purity of the obtained peptide products were comparable when these two sets of reagents were used as the coupling reagents. These results demonstrate that the in situ Fmoc removal method is not limited to N,N’-diisopropylcarbodiimide and Oxyma Pure
Empowered Womanhood in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie: Keys to the Ideal World
No full textRokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” (1905) and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) present feminist utopias separated by more than a century. Despite the temporal gap, both works introduce worlds where traditional gender roles are reversed. This thesis explores Hossain’s and Gerwig’s suggestions to create ideal worlds through empowerment of women. Considering evolution of feminist utopian thought from the beginning of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, and the differences in feminisms from East to West, this thesis analyzes the narrative structures, thematic elements, and cultural contexts of these works. Despite differences, both authors seek not just female but human emancipation from oppressive, non-equitable cultural practices. By bridging distinct cultural landscapes and artistic mediums, I aim to deepen the understanding of the shared ideals and unique expressions of these feminist utopias, emphasizing the transformative power of storytelling in advocating for gender equality. I also introduce and explore a new idea of “Synthetic” feminism, which contributes to feminist thinking about the present, technologically-mediated, cultural moment
Role of pH and Plant Age on the Selection of Rhizobial Endophytes in Soybean Root Nodules
No full textSoybeans form symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their root nodules to acquire most of their nitrogen requirement; nitrogen is often one of the limiting nutrients in the soil. Members of the Bradyrhizobium, Sinorhizobium, Mesorhizobium, and Rhizobium genera can nodulate soybeans. Bradyrhizobium is preferentially selected over other types of rhizobia in varying environmental conditions and is often found in acidic soils. Sinorhizobium is often identified in the root nodules of soybeans in neutral and alkaline soil. So far, the potential role of soil pH on the selection of rhizobial endophytes with soybean root nodules is unknown. Likewise, how the relative abundance of rhizobial cells in the rhizosphere influences the selection of rhizobial endophytes is unclear. This study was focused on the potential influence of the sand pH and rhizobial abundance in the rhizosphere in the selection of rhizobial endophytes within soybean root nodules. Soybeans were grown for fifty-four days in sterilized sand and inoculated with Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110 (B. japonicum) and Sinorhizobium fredii USDA 191 (S. fredii) in three different cell densities (1:1, 1:100, 100:1) during different weeks of their growth. I assessed the bacterial composition within soybean root nodules and rhizospheres using Illumina paired-end DNA sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. I observed a preferred selection of B. japonicum over the S. fredii strain as soybean root nodule endophytes across both treatments including various sand pH and inoculum cell density. In summary, sand pH and the number of rhizobial cells inoculated did not appear to be the driving factors behind the selection of rhizobial endophytes in soybean root nodules. This study can help identify potential rhizobia strains for developing superior bioinoculants under different soil pH conditions
Gastrointestinal Parasite Prevalence of Missouri Dogs Against Various Risk Factors
No full textGastrointestinal parasites infect various mammalian species, including dogs, causing symptoms like diarrhea, lethargy, anemia, and possible death. Some gastrointestinal parasites possess zoonotic potential posing risk to dog owners, shelter workers, trainers, veterinary staff, groomers, and the public since dogs have access to public areas such as parks and stores. This study aims to understand the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of dogs in southwest Missouri under different environmental conditions. Fecal samples were collected from the Polk County Humane Society, local dog trials, and dog owners. The Mini-FLOTAC fecal flotation method was employed to quantify the type and number of parasite ova present. An owner-completed questionnaire provided information about the dog. Parasitic prevalence was compared to demographic factors such as age, breed, gender/reproductive status and environmental risk factors such as season, ownership status, number of dogs on property, elimination flooring, and sleep flooring. Data was first analyzed using Python 3.11 (Python Software Foundation, 2023) to find significant relationships between each parasitic species and various risk factors using multivariate linear regression. ANOVA and Tukey’s test, ran in Minitab 19 (Penn State, State College, PA), further verified significant F-tests. The overall parasitic prevalence for the study was 28.1% with significant differences noted in age, breed, ownership status, gender/reproductive status, season, elimination flooring, and sleep flooring
Effect of P2Y2 Receptors on Leukocyte Behavior Under Acute Inflammation in Transgenic Male Mice in Vivo
No full textP2Y2 receptors, G-protein coupled receptors and transmembrane proteins, are present on most cells in the body and hold a wide variety of roles. Previous research indicates that under resting conditions, P2Y2 receptors suppress the movement of leukocytes but it is unknown how inflammation will alter this in the body. The objective of this project was to determine the effect of P2Y2 receptors on leukocyte behavior in vivo under acute inflammation using Intravenous Microscopy (IVM) in post-capillary venules of the cremaster skeletal muscle. Lipopolysaccharide was injected into the scrotum of transgenic male mice to cause localized acute inflammation. Leukocytes conjugated with Rhodamine 6G injected through the tail vein are visualized with an IX81 Olympus florescence microscope. We hypothesized observing an increase in recruitment, rolling, and adhesion of leukocytes when compared to a control group. If this was the case, it could suggest that the P2Y2 receptors expressed on both endothelial cells and leukocytes regulate the leukocyte response during inflammation. With better understanding of P2Y2 receptor role in inflammation, better control of an inflammatory response by potentially diminishing harmful effects of inflammation on normal tissue is possible
Temporal Distribution of Potential Waterborne Pathogens in Sequiota Spring
No full textWaterborne pathogens from human fecal matter pose a significant health risk in karst environments, where domestic wastewater can easily be transferred to the shallow groundwater system via old, leaky septic tanks and damaged sewer lines. This study monitored fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and potential pathogens in Sequiota Spring located in the karst region of southwest Missouri, using Microbial Source Tracking (MST) and Illumina DNA sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. MST identified high levels of human fecal indicator bacteria (HFIB) (up to 110,000 cells/L) in July 2020. By June 2022, HFIB levels had dropped significantly (55-fold reduction) after the City of Springfield replaced old clay sewer pipes in the upstream catchment area. Similarly, 16S rRNA sequencing showed reduced Enterobacteriaceae DNA sequences post-repair, although sequences related to Campylobacteraceae and Legionellaceae increased slightly in the summer of 2022. Waterfowl FIB levels remained low (~300 cells/L) and stable from 2019 to 2022, suggesting that sewer repairs were the primary driver of HFIB reduction. This study highlights the effective use of combined laboratory techniques and fieldwork in addressing nonpoint human fecal contamination at Sequiota Spring
Inorganic Chemical Reasoning Skills: An Exploratory Study into Understanding Students’ Choices and Thought Processes
No full textPredicting the products of reactions is a fundamental skill for practicing inorganic chemists. However, the current knowledge of the strategies that students use to solve them is limited. Presumably, instructors of inorganic chemistry courses give complete-the-reaction assessment items hoping that students will use their knowledge of inorganic concepts to solve them; but it is conceivable that a successful student could use heuristics or domain general problem-solving methods. I proposed this study to determine which strategies were used by students when solving complete-the-reaction tasks in inorganic chemistry, and also to make qualitative connections between strategy and accuracy. This was done in order to determine if any problem-solving strategies result in greater task accuracy, and if so, how they promote the greater accuracy. I investigated the strategies of students enrolled in inorganic chemistry courses at a regional, four-year undergraduate institution in the Midwestern United States, using phenomenography as the theoretical framework. For the tasks, I gave participants one reactant and one product of a chemical reaction and asked them to provide the additional reactant(s) and product(s). I conducted semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 45 minutes using a think-aloud protocol. During data analysis, I used transcriptions and accuracy data to qualitatively compare using content analysis to categorize and interpret participant strategies. This study found that participants’ overall problem-solving strategy was made of initial steps, strategies, and verification strategies. The main strategy combined means-ends analysis and heuristics. Though each had low relevance to inorganic chemistry classroom concepts, the combination still often resulted in correct answers. While the other strategy components had relevance to inorganic topics, students often struggled with accurate recall of the concept or application to problem solving. The best performing participants engaged in a variety of strategies as needed, based on task category, and they were able to verify their answers before moving on. The results indicate that students are able to solve complete-the-reaction tasks relying on recognition or memorization, rather than class concepts
Changes in Visual Scanning During Stimulus Equivalence Training
No full textStimulus equivalence-based training allows learners to gain new knowledge by deriving novel relations without being directly taught. This is an important skill that some individuals, especially in special populations, have as a deficit. One possible reason individuals may struggle with stimulus equivalence is a deficit in visual experience that promotes selective attention to stimulus properties. With the advancement of technology, visual tracking and visual scanning offers a means to assess visual behavior in detail while learning stimulus associations. Identifying individual differences, and deficits in visual scanning behavior should provide researchers with better means to design interventions, promoting appropriate visual scanning training and therefore increasing the probability of subsequent stimulus equivalence. The present study is designed to describe visual scanning behavior during a stimulus equivalence training task. The visual behavior of twelve adults were recorded using the Tobii Eye Tracker as they were trained on a series of stimulus-stimulus relations. Pilot work has demonstrated that as participants participate in a stimulus equivalence task, visual scanning begins to decrease, and response latency becomes faster and more accurate. It is hypothesized that these results indicate that as participants become familiar with the stimuli, they become less influenced by stimulus salience and gain greater volitional control over their attending indicating greater associative learning. The purpose of this study is to further document these findings and support that visual scanning behavior is crucible to account for individual differences in associative learning
Road Extraction on Remote Sensing Imagery: Historical Mapping of the Brazilian Amazon
No full textThis work proposes an artificial intelligence model based on U-Net architecture to map road networks in the Brazilian Amazon. Over the years, the Amazon region has been heavily exploited, leading to increased deforestation rates, contributing to CO2 emissions, amplifying global warming, and causing a disturbance in local fauna and flora. The expansion into the forest by illegal miners, loggers, and land grabbers can be tracked down by the construction of roads, which we can refer to as the arteries of deforestation. Previous works on the matter proposed algorithms that use high-resolution imagery to map roads precisely. However, this work approach goes a step further and proposes the usage of medium-resolution imagery from Landsat satellite to map the roads of the Amazon, spatially and temporally. By taking advantage of years of data acquired by the Landsat satellite family, I was able to create a historical map of roads in the Amazon from 1985 to 2020, which provides information on the process of expansion of roads into the Amazon region. The model was trained on Landsat 8 imagery using more than 3 million kilometers of roads as its dataset, reaching 0.6577, 0.6237l, and 0.6401 for precision, recall, and f1-score metrics. These results are important for predictive models of high-risk areas of deforestation, allowing for more precise estimation of roadless forests, having been made publicly available