University at Albany, State University of New York
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Understanding Engineering Students’ Ethical Decisions: Machiavellianism, Ultimatum Bargaining Choices, Student Experience, And Implications For Engineering Education
Get PDFThe Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) which accredits higher education programs globally, has placed the ability for students to recognize professional and ethical responsibilities among their seven stated student outcomes that undergraduate engineering programs must ensure their students achieve to maintain their accreditation. This is to ensure that these students are appropriately prepared to enter professional practice (ABET, 2021). Because of this, along with the importance of engineers understanding their obligations to act ethically in ensuring public safety and professional integrity, there is a need to better understand the ethical decision-making of undergraduate engineering students. Knowing what factors may increase or decrease their tendency to act in accordance with their ethical obligations could shed light on different curricular and co-curricular approaches undergraduate engineering programs should consider in determining how to effectively train their students in the subject of professional ethics. Two factors of particular importance in ethical decision-making are a person’s disposition toward self-interest- something that can have potentially devastating consequences in engineering- (assessed here by their agreement to a Machiavellian worldview) and their behavioral tendency to make certain decisions within professional practice in light of that disposition. Of particular interest to this study were students’ tendencies to make either cooperative or non-cooperative choices in a forced-choice scenario as well as abide by their professional obligation to hold public safety paramount. To answer this question of possible associations between undergraduate engineering students’ ethical behavior, their ethical dispositions, and other possible mitigating factors (e.g. gender, co-curricular activity, and professional preparation), a survey was conducted which collected 110 responses from undergraduate students at a R-1 institution located in the American Northeast with both engineering and business/management programs. 85 of the respondents were undergraduate engineering students and 23 were business/management majors. Only two of 110 participants scored in the High-Mach region of the Mach-IV instrument, signaling an agreement with a Machiavellian disposition. Significant relationships were found between student participation in affiliation-based co-curricular/professional preparation experiences (e.g. professional society membership, student organization membership, etc.) and lower Mach-IV scores. Additionally, engineering students and women were also more likely to take part in affiliation-based experiences than business/management students. A qualitative analysis of student explanations of their ethical decisions found that students differed in their definitions of what constituted engineering work, with some students understanding it more broadly. The strong influence of a student’s understanding of real-world professional practice/organizational culture on their ethical decision-making was also apparent. Finally, students were found to not always consider public safety as a non-negotiable value if the safety risk was deemed ‘minor’. Also, due to the low presence of High-Mach individuals in the sample population, the study raises the question of whether the Mach-IV instrument, as currently devised, is a suitable measure of ethical disposition for the current generation of undergraduate students
School Resource Officers: History, Efficacy, And Unintended Consequences
Get PDFThere have been police and school partnerships in the United States for as long as public schools have existed, dating to the early- to mid-1800s. These partnerships have formalized as educational philosophies have changed, particularly in the context of school safety and discipline practices. In this dissertation, I explore the impact of implementing a School Resource Officer (SRO) program on school safety and I contribute to the national conversation about disparities in exclusionary discipline practices related to the presence of SROs. There have been several key turning points in these police and school partnerships, notably the Flint, Michigan, school liaison program in the 1950s, the creation of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) in 1991, the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, and the backlash against the racially disparate school-to-prison pipeline throughout the 21st century, most recently in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Complicating study of this topic, there is no national accreditation of School Resource Officers (SROs) and there is inconsistent data collection on these programs, leading to a dearth of empirical evaluations of their efficacy and unintended consequences. Addressing this issue from the federal level, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recently published a report on this topic and recommended using the US Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) managed by the Office of Civil Rights, as it contains a national measure of sworn law enforcement in schools (McKenna & Petrosino, 2022). In this dissertation I use these CRDC data to examine some of the key metrics that these programs are intended to achieve, mainly a reduction in crime, and explore in a more nuanced way the impact that the presence of police officers in schools has on racial disparities in exclusionary discipline. Study One examines whether the adoption of an SRO program is related to short-term decreases in an array of school-based offenses, including assaults and threats, contributing to the national conversation regarding SRO efficacy in the US context. Study Two aims to describe the relationships between the presence of SROs and disparities, across race and disability status, in the use of exclusionary discipline practices, providing additional nuance to the national conversation about school pushout
Neural Network Based Digital Twin For A Half-Bridge Llc Resonant Converter
Get PDFThis paper introduces a Neural Network based approach for creating a Digital Twin of a Half-Bridge LLC Resonant Converter. By using a set of measured inputs, the Digital Twin system can characterize the component values, and hard to measure switch characteristics such as the Junction Temperature or Gate-Source Capacitance. This capability is useful for reliability or health applications, and may also be useful for adaptive control. A case study is done for the LLC Resonant converter designed around an operating point. Data sweeps around that operating point are simulated to form a dataset. An introduction to Neural Networks is given before determining the input vector for each output parameter. The results and final best design of each Neural Network will be discussed with experiments demonstrating their performance. The range of the Mean Absolute Errors for all parameters was from 0.3% to 7%, with an average over all parameters of 2.3%. Predictions on the boundaries of the dataset proved difficult, while the midpoints were fit without issue
Social Determinants Of Health As A Correlate Of Patient And Clinical Characteristics In Community Mental Health Care
Get PDFBackground: Social determinants of health (SDOH) are conditions in the environment in which people live and work that influence health risks and outcomes. These include a range of social, economic, psychosocial, and behavioral factors such as food insecurity, hazardous housing, and financial resource strain. Such factors account for variance in numerous health outcomes, including life expectancy and quality of life. Studies on university student populations also demonstrate that unmet SDOH needs are associated with poorer self-assessed general health as well as higher anxiety and depression symptom severity. However, little is known about SDOH in the context of routine outpatient psychotherapy in community mental health settings. The current study examined the association between unmet SDOH needs and other patient and clinical characteristics, including demographics and baseline symptom severity, at a community mental health clinic. Method: This study used routinely collected data from treatment seeking adults presenting at a county community mental health clinic (N = 247). Patients completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) routinely throughout treatment. The Health Leads Social Needs Screening Toolkit was also administered to collect information about SDOH. Results: Around half (47.8%) of patients endorsed at least one unmet SDOH need. Having at least one unmet need was associated with higher symptom severity at the start of treatment. Additionally, patients with non-psychotic disorders reported unmet SDOH needs at a higher rate than patients with psychotic disorders. Finally, exploratory analyses revealed that non-conditional SDOH items together had acceptable internal consistency. Discussion: Implications for treatment planning and patient care informed by patients’ SDOH needs are discussed
Is The Language Surrounding Current Punk Culture Signaling A Watering Down Of Dissent? Culture Mapping The Signifying Language Of Present-Day Punk Against Original Punk To See If It Is Still Addressing Societal Issues And Challenging The Status Quo.
Get PDFPunk, originating from the economic turmoil of 1970s Britain, has transitioned into the digital realm, shedding its traditional symbols of rebellion while posing questions about contemporary dissent, such as: Are Punk ideals still addressing societal issues and challenging the status quo, or are they becoming more superficial or commercialized? Or are expressions of dissent genuine and rooted in lived experiences, or are they being appropriated for commercial gain? This study delves into the language of the shifting subcultures of Punk, silently thriving online through Cyberpunks, Cypherpunks, Anarchists, Anarcho-capitalists, and Cryptopunks. Each subgroup expresses rebellion uniquely: Cyberpunks through hacking, Cypherpunks through encryption, Anarchists through institutional distrust, Anarcho-capitalists through self-ownership, and Cryptopunks through decentralized technologies. Investigating the linguistic trends within these online communities is crucial for grasping the current landscape of rebellion and its potential future implications. The current language found in the subreddits of each of the named subcultures of Punk was compared against the language within three seminal works of Original Punk: A Clockwork Orange (1962), The Basketball Diaries (1978), and Blood and Guts in High School (1984). scenarioDNA’s Culture Mapping method was used to establish four classifications for language: residual, dominant, emergent, and disruptive. Provalis’s WordStat was used to build out an existing dictionary rooted in masculinity. It was also used as a content analysis tool to gauge the frequency of the signifying words used and the percentage of each classification. Prior, the linguistic coding of scenarioDNA’s Culture Mapping was conducted manually. The research reveals a schism, but not a watering down of dissent, in Contemporary Punk discourse. By aggregating the diverging patterns seen across the subreddits, two Contemporary Punk paths emerge: an Individualist Punk and an Influencer Punk. Individualist describes the singular focus of Cypherpunk and Anarcho-capitalist Punk ideologies. “Influencer” describes the popularity, reach, and affective behavior found across Cryptopunks, Cyberpunks, and Anarchists
Survival Of The Optimist: How Emotion Words Are Processed Within The Survival Paradigm
Get PDFMemory for words encoded for their fitness relevance is enhanced compared to memory for words encoded based on relevance to other scenarios (Nairne et al., 2007). Much of the work examining emotion within the survival paradigm has focused on the presented scenarios (Bell et al., 2013; Kazanas & Altarriba, 2017, 2018; Kroneisen et al., 2022). However, no work has yet to focus on the emotionality of the information that is being encoded. A possible contributor to the advantage may be the emotional valence of the encoded items, as emotion has been known to have effects on memory (Dev et al., 2022; Gao et al., 2024; Kensigner, 2007; Tyng et al., 2017). The current study aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining how different types of emotion words are encoded within the survival paradigm. In a series of two experiments, emotion-laden (e.g., slap, prize) and neutral words (e.g., cigar, photon), were compared in order to determine the role of valence in survival processing. The first experiment compared negative and positive emotion-laden words to the original words used in Nairne et al. (2007). The second experiment compared the original Nairne words to a set of neutral words. The survival advantage was replicated across both experiments, as words rated for their fitness relevance were better remembered than words rated for their relevance to a moving scenario. Interestingly, positive valence was found to produce better recall compared to negative and neutral valence. These results are discussed with regards to the survival and emotion processing literatures
Clarifying The Relationship Between Weight Suppression And Eating Psychopathology: The Role Of Fear Of Weight Gain And Intolerance Of Uncertainty
Get PDFObjective: Weight suppression (WS), the discrepancy between a person’s highest and current body weight, is largely associated with eating pathology in clinical and non-clinical samples. WS may put individuals in a biobehavioral bind: biological factors may drive the body toward weight regain, which in turn drives eating disorder (ED) behaviors in an attempt to prevent weight regain. However, few studies have examined psychological factors that may play a role in the biobehavioral bind of WS. As such, the present study aimed to (1) whether WS was associated with fear of weight gain (FOWG) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and (2) whether WS was uniquely associated with eating pathology after accounting for gender, BMI, FOWG, and IU. Method: Participants were N = 436 undergraduate students at a large, Northeastern university who completed a series of self-report questionnaires including the Goldfarb Fear of Fat Scale (GFFS), the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale – Short Form (IUS-12), and the Eating Disorder-Examination – Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Results: Correlation analyses demonstrated that WS was associated with GFFS score and EDE-Q global score, but not with IUS-12 score. Hierarchical linear regression analyses demonstrated that WS was not uniquely associated with EDE-Q global score after accounting for gender, BMI, GFFS score, and IUS-12 score. Discussion: Results of this study support a relationship between WS and FOWG and suggest that these factors may serve to maintain eating pathology. This study highlights the need to target FOWG in ED treatment for weight suppressed individuals. More research is needed in order to clarify the temporal relationship between WS and FOWG and to examine how FOWG may differentially impact the relationship between WS and distinct ED symptoms
Dear Mama: An Exploration of Trauma and Black Feminist Healing Practices Through Letter Writing
Get PDFThis autoethnographic project delves into the multitude of strategies I\u27ve employed over the past decade since my mother\u27s passing to confront and heal from my trauma. Through a series of original letters spanning from girlhood to early adulthood, I narrate my journey, delving into the depths of my emotions, thoughts, and coping mechanisms as I navigate through various traumatic experiences. Guided by Black Feminist Autoethnography as its methodology and anchored in Black Feminist Thought as its theoretical framework, this project also explores the profound impact of transgenerational trauma on the psychological well-being of Black women. From enduring slavery and racialized violence to facing misogynoir, economic exploitation, and sexual violence, Black women have grappled with systemic injustices rooted in their race, gender, and sexuality for generations. Employing an intersectional lens, this project examines how Black women actively resist these oppressive systems. Additionally, it includes a comprehensive literature review encompassing canonical research, music, and literature authored by a diverse array of Black feminist theorists, scholars, and creatives addressing trauma
OfficeGuard: The Anti-Phishing Training Game
Get PDFAnti-phishing training is crucial for the business world. Therefore, much of the existing training is focused on employees. Education in the form of training tools and simulators helps increase the retention of information for these employees (Jampen et al., 2020). However, this education may be coming too late. Educating high school and college students on email etiquette and training during their formative years is essential to help protect students and their future employers. The gamification of training tools has the potential to “enrich the educational process and improve learning outcomes” (Lampropoulos & Sidiropoulos, 2024). The term ‘serious game’ describes a category of games that have a purpose beyond pure entertainment (Breuer & Bente, 2010). This includes the edutainment genre, which seeks to educate a player through engaging material. We propose that anti-phishing training should be given to students and geared towards them in an engaging way to prevent the formation of bad habits in the cyber world. By understanding the effects of game-based learning on students and the training materials in the workplace that have proved successful for retention, new software can be developed to bridge the gap between students and employees
Testing the Impact of Actinomyces Naeslundii on the Proliferation Dynamics of Corynebacterium and Revealing the Prescence or Absence of Inhibitory Properties
Get PDFThe gram-positive bacterium Actinomyces naeslundii is a core member of the oral microbiome and has been associated with states of health. In early human life, researchers unraveled the involvement of several different taxa of microbes present within the oral cavity in contributing to diseases including tooth destruction. Periodontitis is a prevalent oral disease that is proposed to be caused by dysbiosis, which is characterized by microbial shifts within the bacterial community resulting from changes in relative microbial abundance and spatial organization in the dental plaque microbiome, causing immense gum pain and inflammation. Corynebacterium matruchotii is also a gram-positive bacterium like Actinomyces. We hypothesize that A. naeslundii inhibits the growth of C. matruchotii due to the secretion of toxic metabolites by A. neasulundii when grown in the same colture. To test this hypothesis, we quantified the effect of A. naeslundii spent media and A. naeslundii heat-killed cells on the growth kinetics of C. matruchotii. To begin, we cultured A. neasulundii, then harvested the spent media and heat-killed the cells for the downstream experiment. We then tested different concentrations of spent media [25%, 50%, 75% ,75 %. and 100%] and heat-killed cells on C. matruchotii growth using optical densitometry. To further determine and quantify how long the C. matruchotti cells grew and the active replication occurring (by measuring nucleoids) within the cell, we performed cell plate counting to see how many colonies and cells were present in the culture at that time and then fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using genus-specific Corynebacterium FISH probes and DAPI. Collectively, the experiments furnished results that revealed a significant reduction in the measured optical densities (ODs) with an escalating concentration of spent media, although with heat-killed cells, the results exhibited a decrease in OD readings as well as the spent media. In turn, the findings from the numerous experiments offer more insights into comprehending metabolic interactions that facilitate the organizational dynamics of dental plaque structure in relation to periodontitis