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Empirical Investigation of Factors that Influence Website Performance
No full textRapid advancements in digital technology have had a significant influence on businesses\u27 websites. Organizations with well-designed websites have the potential of attracting customers, generating revenues, and increasing market share. Nevertheless, many organizations that are investing billions of US dollars on websites and page development are not attracting customers or generating revenues, incomes, and profits as expected. The study focuses on bounce rate as a key performance measure of website effectiveness. The research focus is on the factors that influence bounce rate to provide insights to advertisers and websites\u27 designers to predict the effectiveness and quality of online advertisements before these ads are shown to both web users and online visitors. The authors investigated the influence of page view, unique page view, average time on page, entrances, and percent exit on bounce rate. The study shows that unique pageviews, average time on page, entrance, and percent exit have a positive and significant effect on bounce rate and have practical and research implications
I am a Arkansas Man: An Analysis of African-American Masculinity in Antebellum Arkansas
Get PDFThis thesis examines the experiences of African-American men in the years leading up to and through the American Civil War in order to understand how they constructed their own sense of manhood. Contemporary slave narratives and abolitionists’ expositions routinely tailored their definitions of manhood to white notions of gender in order to garner white support. Prominent abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass tailored their language of resistance against slavers to cast them as honorable martyrs as opposed to vengeful slaves so as to undermine racist caricatures of brute violence. But black southern men struggled against the confines of their bondage and the chaos of wartime to assert their own sense of manhood. This thesis asks questions about how these African-Americans moved within and beyond the boundaries and expectations of Arkansas’s slave society, underscoring their attempts to define themselves as men. Making use of sources like WPA ex-slave interviews, court records, and other contemporary accounts, “I am a Arkansas man:” An Analysis of African-American Masculinity in Antebellum Arkansas, offers an understanding of the building of black masculinity within Arkansas, with implications for the African-American experience beyond
The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on Medical Students’ Academic Performance and Stress Levels Based on their Gender and Age
No full textThe COVID-19 academic interruption caused emergency pedagogical transformation of medical school curricula in the Spring of 2020 when the country went into lockdown. This transformation included changes in students’ contact hours, the use of technologies in classroom and laboratories, and the implementation of active self-directed learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of these pedagogical changes on students’ academic and mental states. To achieve this goal, we proposed two questions: First question was to examine whether there was a difference between male and female students’ exam grades in the brain and behavior module during the COVID-19 lockdown. In the second question, we examined whether there was a difference between students’ stress level in all age groups (22-24), (25-28) and 29 and above during the pandemic lockdown.
This study employed a between-subject design and utilized convenience sampling technique to include 79 first-year medical students. The present study included the following variables: students module final exam grades, students’ perception about their stress levels during COVID-19 and their age groups (22-24), (25-28) and 29 and above. We first used a comparison design between male and female students’ academic performance during COVID-19. Further, we used a comparison design to compare between students’ stress level in all age groups (22-24), (25-28) and 29 and above during the pandemic lockdown.
In the first question, the result of the one-way between subject\u27s ANOVA found that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female student’ grades in the brain and behavior module during the pandemic lockdown. These findings suggest that both male and female students were able to overcome many of the challenges triggered by the COVID-19 in the learning environment and succeed in this module. In the second question, the one-way between subject\u27s ANOVA found that there was no statistically significant difference between students’ stress level in all age groups (22-24), (25-28) and 29 and above during the pandemic lockdown. These findings suggest that students in all ages felt the same level of stress during the COVID-19 lockdown.
We concluded that there was no difference in students’ final grades during pandemic, regardless of their gender, where all students maintained a high level of academic success. Additionally, students in all age groups were subjected to the same level of stress during COVID-19. With the faculty help and guidance, students were able to adjust and counterbalance the missing elements of the face-to-face instruction during COVID-19
Demographic Differences in Hiker Cellular Technology Use in Backcountry Areas in Montana’s Custer Gallatin National Forest
No full textTechnology remains an important part of outdoor recreation, ranging from the introduction of lighter materials in gear to new gadgets that improve the outdoor experience. Recently, advances in cellular technology and mobile devices have presented new opportunities for using mobile technology in backcountry areas. Applications ranging from public lands apps to GPS apps are a now a common find in outdoor recreation areas. Use of mobile technologies, such as cellular phones, can differ by demographic variables such as sex, age, and income. This presents a valuable opportunity to explore how and why demographics may shape the use of cellular devices while in the backcountry. This study examines technology use among hikers in Montana’s Custer Gallatin National Forest. Using data from an online survey, the researchers explored the importance of eight different uses of cellular technology while in the backcountry and analyzed how these responses vary by sex, age, income, and education categories. The results indicate cellular technology plays a varied, albeit often neutral or even unimportant, role in backcountry outdoor recreation situations. Notably, these experiences do vary by age, education, and income categories but, surprisingly, not sex. Important outcomes include new understanding of hiker use of cellular devices as cameras, wayfinding devices, and for information gathering while in the backcountry
The Impact of Mentorship Programs on the Behaviors of Fifth-Grade African American Male Students
Get PDFAfrican American males inequitably experience two to three times more out-of-school suspensions among other exclusionary discipline practices in comparison with other racial groups, which causes them to become academically disengaged, increases their association with deviant peers, makes them resent of school personnel, and leads them to experience a heightened sense of alienation. Although much is known about the effects of mentorship programs, there has been little inquiry or research to investigate the relationship between in-school suspensions and out-of-school suspensions of fifth-grade African American male students with and without a mentorship program. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was any relationship between the number of suspensions and participation in a mentorship program involving fifth-grade African American male students in an urban school district located in central Arkansas. This study’s population consisted of 49 females, 26 males who received the mentorship intervention, and 16 males who did not receive the intervention. The researcher retrieved archived data from over two academic school years to examine the program’s effectiveness. The study findings suggest that the mentorship program did not affect the in-school suspension and out-of-school suspensions. The researcher recommended that the Kings-In-Training mentorship program increase the frequency of meeting times to be more effective. Consequently, the study suggested the following strategies: 1) convert to or partner with a community-based program; 2) deviate from a same-race, same-gender mentors to allow different-race or different gender mentors; 3) provide all mentors professional development about African centered education and the cultural risk contributors of the community. The researcher suggested future searchers consider using a larger sample size, a more affluent area where the crime rate is not as high, or even to involve other ethnicities
Overwinter Ecology of Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) in Arkansas
Get PDFRusty Blackbirds are one of the most rapidly declining songbirds in North America. They have lost an estimated 85-95% of their population since the 1960s. Unfortunately, we currently do not know what is causing their decline. However, since habitat alteration and loss in their nonbreeding range has been much more severe than in their breeding range, many think the decline is associated with winter habitat loss. Consequently, knowledge of winter ecology, with a focus on habitat use and selection, may provide management insights useful for reversing the decline. My field assistants and I (hereafter we) used radio telemetry to collect data on the Rusty Blackbird’s home range, habitat use, behavior, and survival during the winters of 2018-2019, and 2019-2020. Radio-tagged birds were captured and monitored in agricultural and urban landscapes. We found that home ranges were larger in the agricultural landscape, and blackbirds selected for pecan groves and riparian zones, while cattle fields and rice fields were used much less. In the urban landscape, we found that home ranges were smaller and much patchier, and selected habitats included seasonally flooded hardwood forest, residential lawns, and urban parks. Cattle fields, non-residential areas, and agricultural areas were generally avoided in the urban landscape. Home range size may have been associated with habitat patch size and fragmentation; Home ranges were larger and less patchy in unfragmented homogeneous pecan groves than in heterogeneous urban habitats. The overall high survival suggests that these largely anthropogenic habitats may be effective substitutes for more traditional bottomland hardwood habitat –much of which has been lost to human activity. The Rusty Blackbirds’ use of these anthropogenic habitats presents unique opportunities and challenges in the management of this species. Urban landscapes, which are highly fragmented, can be managed at the patch level to provide a mosaic of suitable habitats in a matrix of urban development. Agricultural landscapes v can be managed at the habitat level to provide large, contiguous patches of habitat. Due to the Rusty Blackbirds’ use of privately-owned land, outreach and education will need to be included in conservation efforts
Smallmouth Bass Feeding Dynamics and Growth in Headwater Streams of the Interior Highlands
Get PDFSmallmouth Bass have been extensively studied, but knowledge of the effects of temperature and hydrologic regime on populations in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas remains lacking. In 2018, I monitored diet characteristics of Smallmouth Bass, located in streams prone to dryness and representing a range of water temperatures, and presence of potential competitors. Diet characteristics of Smallmouth Bass, Green Sunfish, and Creek Chub were studied in the Boston Mountains ecoregion of Arkansas during the summer of 2018. In 2019, I expanded the scope of the project to search for relationships between Smallmouth Bass growth and hydrologic regime. My objectives were to compare growth rates of Smallmouth Bass among three ecoregions and to characterize the relationship between hydrologic regime and annual growth rates of Smallmouth Bass. I sampled Smallmouth Bass from five streams each in the Boston Mountain, the Ouachita Mountain, and the Ozark Highland ecoregions of Arkansas during the summer of 2019. Annual growth was estimated for each captured fish by measuring annuli on the whole otolith and then the sectioned otolith for individual fish deemed age-2 or older. Individual annual growth was significantly affected by both flow and age. I found an inverse relationship between the coefficient of variation of flow and individual annual growth of age-2 Smallmouth Bass from 2014 through 2018. Fluctuations in hydrologic regime may be influencing predatory success or evolved strategies of Smallmouth Bass in our study. Climate change could cause increases in stream temperatures and hydrologic fluctuations which may alter metabolic costs and prey availability. Thus, focusing on why Smallmouth Bass annual growth decreases with fluctuations in mean flow should be a primary concern for future studies in the Interior Highlands of Arkansas
Determining the Psychosocial Needs of the Nurses of COVID-19 Patients
Get PDFNurses are a vital element of the COVID-19 healthcare crisis and have been since the beginning of the COVID-19 response. The professional strain put on nurses included, but is not limited to: changing professional roles, rapidly changing policies and procedures, an influx of patients—particularly of high acuity, and change in workplace morale. However, nurses also had to carry the burdens of living as a member of society, family member, friend, community member, and above all, simply as a person surviving a pandemic themselves. With all of the stressors nurses have endured, it stands to reason that their psychosocial needs have changed. This study examines the psychosocial needs of the COVID-19 nurse