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Use of Magnetic Iron-coated Halloysite Nanotubes in Cell Growth, Differentiation, and Combating Cancerous Growth
Get PDFMagnetic Halloysite Nanotubes can be used in multiple ways in combating growth of osteosarcoma. The adsorption ability of the inner and outer surfaces of halloysite nanotubes allows for attachment of different molecules, including anti-cancer drugs, polymer layering for controlled drug release, and magnetic coating. This magnetic coating would allow for cell membrane disruption, hyperthermia, and for targeting of specific tissue. In this project, the goal was to create these magnetic nanotubes and test their cytotoxicity against stem cells and osteosarcoma cells. To create these magnetic nanotubes, we used electrodeposition to adsorb ferrous oxide nanoparticles (FeNPs) onto halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) to create iron-coated halloysite nanotubes (FeHNTs). These FeHNTs were then imaged using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and underwent elemental analysis, using the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), to ensure placement of the FeNPs onto the HNTs. The FeHNTs were then tested for their cytotoxicity and cell differentiation potential against human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hASCs) and mouse osteosarcoma cells. The viability of both cell lines was compared. Next, the proliferation capability, the potential tissue formation, and the potential ossification of hASCs was compared with increasing concentrations of FeHNTs
A Case Study of School District Level Leaders’ Communication of Expectations and Relationships with School Level Leaders During the Implementation of New Initiatives
Get PDFThis qualitative case study of district-level and school-level leaders’ roles in implementing new initiatives explored district-level leaders’ support of principals’ implementation of new school-wide initiatives. The theoretical framework for this study was distributed leadership. Participants included district-level leaders and school principals in secondary schools. Research methods consisted of interviews and observations. Findings of the study included (1) district-level leaders and principals play vital roles but have different perspectives on implementing new district-level initiatives, and (2) district-level leaders and principals understand the importance of communication. These understandings lead to shared leadership that provides more stakeholders with a voice and helps to develop a more inclusive decision-making process, and district-level leaders are focused on having a relationship with principals where principals are supported and valued when principals make critical decisions at their schools
Fostering Effective School-University Partnerships Within Teacher Preparation Programs: Lessons from Leaders in a Qualitative Case Study
Get PDFThe purpose of this qualitative study was to discover crucial elements that serve as the foundation for developing effective, sustainable school-university partnerships within teacher preparation programs. This study employed an instrumental case study guided by the distributed leadership theory to understand the operational leadership process of developing and sustaining a school-university partnership within a teacher preparation program. Data from this study consisted of partnership leader interviews and essential partnership documents. Findings of this study included the following: leaders recognize personnel with defined roles within the partnership, leaders believe open communication is vital to the partnership, leaders perceive a positive relationship between the district and the program, and leaders believe the partnership is mutually beneficial. The elements crucial to developing and sustaining an effective school-university partnership within teacher preparation programs identified by this study are mutual needs, mutual benefits, defined personnel roles, open communication, shared personnel, honesty, trustworthiness, and shared culture
What Do Facial Products Have to Do with a Waterfall? The Role of Remoteness, Social Comparison, and Envy in the Purchasing Effectiveness of Sponsored Product Social Media Content
Get PDFAdvertising has gone from magazines, to television, and now social media. However, unlike the robust advertisement literature, the influencer marketing literature has not caught up to explain how social media sponsored content can perform its best. While companies rely on follower count and interaction (i.e., likes) to determine who to partner with, the need for clarity on how to best predict digital advertisement success is needed. This study brings the literature of advertising and cognitive psychology, and applies the associative memory, visual persuasion, and remote conveyor theories into the influencer marketing context. This study specifically looks at how creativity through remoteness in sponsored social media images affects purchase intentions and upward social comparison. This study then reaffirms the literature relationships between upward social comparison and purchase intentions through envy, while establishing a psychological boundary condition of self-esteem. Between two studies, this dissertation tests the conceptual model through fabricated Instagram posts, and with the partnership of a lifestyle influencer and their following
Analyzing Extreme Cases: How Quantile Regression can Enhance Our Ability to Identify Productivity Stars
Get PDFRecent research suggests that individual productivity may not be normally distributed and is best modeled by a power law, a form of a heavy-tailed distribution where extreme cases on the right side of the distribution affect the mean and skew the probability distribution. These extreme cases, commonly referred to as “star performers” or “productivity stars,” provide a disproportionately positive impact on organizations. Yet, the field of industrial-organizational psychology has failed to uncover effective techniques to identify them during selection accurately. Limiting factors in the identification of star performers are the traditional methods (e.g., Pearson correlation, ordinary least squares regression) used to establish criterion-related validity and inform selection battery design (i.e., determine which assessments should be retained and how those assessments should be weighted). Pearson correlation and ordinary least squares regression do not perform well (i.e., do not provide accurate estimates) when data are highly skewed and contain outliers. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate whether an alternative method, specifically the quantile regression model (QRM), outperforms traditional approaches during criterion-related validation and selection battery design. Across three unique samples, results suggest that although the QRM provides a much more detailed understanding of predictor-criterion relationships, the practical usefulness of the QRM in selection assessment battery design is similar to the OLS regression
Graphene Nanoscroll Field-Effect Transistor-Based Radiation Sensors
Get PDFCarbon nanomaterials have excited both academia and industry with their extraordinary electronic, mechanical, optical, thermal, and chemical properties for over forty years, providing opportunities for significant advances in fundamental and applied science and leading to the development of disruptive technologies and applications. While graphene and carbon nanotubes have been at the forefront of research, a relatively new one-dimensional carbon allotrope, graphene nanoscrolls, will likely play significant roles in future technologies. Graphene nanoscrolls have structures similar to carbon nanotubes with a key difference in that they are not seamless – there are exposed edges along their lengths. As such, they share many of the electronic, mechanical, and thermal properties that have brought so much interest to graphene and carbon nanotubes while offering their own unique features.The current body of work on graphene nanoscrolls is sparse, with the majority of presented research either being theoretical in nature or pertaining to the synthesis of these nanostructures. This work provides some of the first experimental work into the application of graphene nanoscrolls. New and promising synthesis techniques were experimentally evaluated for scalability and throughput. Preferred synthesis techniques were employed to create back-gated field-effect transistors that utilize graphene nanoscrolls as the channel material. It was shown that extraordinary current densities and room temperature ballistic transport over long channel lengths are achievable. The field-effect transistors were further extended to the application of radiation sensors by functionalizing the graphene nanoscroll channel material with nanoparticles with high radiation interaction probabilities. The developed radiation sensors are shown to be capable of detecting low levels of X-ray, gamma, and neutron radiation with very small footprints and negligible power consumption. Production of these devices are scalable and inexpensive
Influence of acute online guided meditation on inhibitory control and stimulus discrimination in college-aged adults
Get PDFToday’s young adult experience a world designed to constantly demand the individual’s attention through a barage of stimuli, making the ability to adequately inhibit irrelevant stimuli a necessary skillset for this population. While health behaviors such as exercise have shown positive effects on this ability, other behaviors such as mindfulness meditation have been less explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of an acute bout of guided mindfulness meditation on inhibition aspects of attention in college-age adults. Using a within-subjects repeated measures design, twenty-four participants (age = 21.35 ± 0.92 years) engaged in both a 15-minute guided mindfulness meditation intervention and a control condition across two separate days. Prior to and following the experimental conditions, participants completed a cognitive assessment battery including a modified Eriksen flanker task and a three-stimulus oddball task. In addition, participants completed the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire during each session. Results from this study indicated no effect of either condition on any of the measures of cognitive performance (mean reaction time and response accuracy) or on either of the questionnaires. These findings suggest that an acute bout of mindfulness mediation may not be sufficient to elicit detectable changes in cognitive performance, indicating either a need for more sensitive measurement tools for future studies or a greater duration/frequency for the intervention protocol
Novice Teachers as Teacher Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study of Years of Experience and Teacher Leadership Development
Get PDFThe aim of this research was to address the gap in the literature on novice teacher leadership development from novice teachers’ perspectives. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used to identify the differences that years of experience may or may not have on southern US public school novice teachers’ teacher leadership identity, readiness, and engagement. Distributed leadership theory provided the theoretical lens and Sinha and Hanuscin’s (2017) Teacher Leadership Development Process Model was used as the conceptual framework.
Survey data were collected from 306 full-time pre-k through fifth grade teachers from 71 public elementary schools. One-way ANOVAs measured statistical differences between four teacher experience level subgroups. Factorial ANOVAs identified interactions between demographic and experience variables. A single-case study with embedded units examined the perceptions of novice teachers, experienced peer teachers, and administrators. Interview, observation/reflection, and online data were collected and analyzed.
Results showed that years of teaching experience have a significant effect on teacher leadership identity and engagement but not on readiness. The teacher leadership readiness factor of teacher autonomy is significantly affected by type of teaching program, but that effect is not dependent on years of experience. When combined, years of teaching and number of schools taught at significantly affect teacher leadership identity. These combined variables also significantly affect teacher leadership engagement in school change/improvement, school/district curriculum work, and professional development of colleagues. Additionally, novice teacher leadership development is significantly affected by school location, achievement levels, leadership style, culture, team dynamics, acceptance, and support
Implicit Biases: Employee Selection Using Social Networking Sites
Get PDFRecent research has shown that the rate of use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) for recruitment, screening, and selection purposes is rising steadily (Alexander et al., 2019; CareerArc, 2021; SHRM, 2013), prompting many to call for research regarding the fairness and effectiveness of SNSs for these purposes (Alexander et al., 2019; Blacksmith & Poeppelman, 2014; Davison et al., 2011; Davison et al., 2012; Dwyer et al., 2007). The current study focuses on LinkedIn, a SNS designed specifically to connect working professionals and explores implicit racial discrimination in hiring. Implicit racial discrimination occurs when an individual unconsciously treats another individual prejudicially based on perceived or actual racial-group membership. The current study examined whether participants with at least some hiring experience (representing “employers” in this study) provided higher employability ratings and starting salary estimates to applicants whose race reflected their own compared to applicants whose race did not reflect their own. Participants were randomly assigned to groups wherein each group was shown an identical job description and then asked to rate LinkedIn profiles differing only in one aspect: the race of the applicant. Each participant rated a LinkedIn profile displaying a picture of either a white, black, or Hispanic applicant, and for the purposes of the study were coded as either matching or not matching the applicant’s race (one independent variable, two levels).The same picture of the same individual was used for each LinkedIn profile, his skin tone changed with photo-editing software to approximate each race. Participants did not assign significantly higher ratings of employability or a higher proposed salary to LinkedIn profiles containing an applicant picture that matched their race
