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Helping Someone Off the Hook: Post-Moral Disengagement as an Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Strategy in a Hypothetical Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assault Vignette
No full textPost-moral disengagement (PMD) is posited as a form of interpersonal emotion regulation that involves altering the severity of harmful conduct and/or the transgressor’s personal responsibility to facilitate avoidance of negative emotions like guilt, which could maintain problematic behaviors. A pervasive harmful behavior on college campuses is alcohol-involved sexual violence, wherein intoxication is often used as an excuse or justification for assault. Though some aggressors of sexual violence experience guilt afterwards, it is unclear how bystanders might respond to this display of emotion and the potential applicability of PMD. As an initial step to assessing PMD as interpersonal emotion regulation, the present study aimed to (1) adapt an existing hypothetical vignette depicting alcohol-involved sexual assault wherein a male aggressor expresses guilt; and (2) explore the applicability of PMD mechanisms as a form of interpersonal emotion regulation in response to the vignette. College students aged 18 and older (N = 16; 50% female) with frequent exposure to alcohol use completed cognitive interviews regarding their perceptions of and reactions to the vignette to inform the final version of the adapted vignette. Participants also answered a follow-up question on what someone in their position might do or say to comfort the aggressor. Participant responses were analyzed using a thematic analysis and hybrid coding approach, respectively. The finalized version of the vignette and follow-up question are presented based on participant feedback with a rationale for changes to the scenario. The preliminary results of bystander responses to the aggressor’s expression of guilt included the presence of PMD, strategies of direct and diffuse, encouragement of reparations, and collection of more information. Applicability to bystander intervention programming, potential clinical implications, and future research directions are discussed
A Security Worth Having: The Pursuit of Happiness through Reading Burney, Radcliffe, and Austen
No full textThis dissertation explores the works of three female authors of female protagonists in the long 18th century: Frances Burney’s Camilla and Evelina; Anne Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Italian; and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. By following the paths to security the female protagonists of these novels fashion, and identifying the elements of Stoicism and related Hellenism and the aspects of cybernetics, this dissertation delves into the choices female protagonists make along the way regarding their security and how such choices lead to agency and self-fashioning for these women. Emotional, economic, and social security are analyzed for the way characters prioritize their own security and the way various forms of security can be layered together into a secure environment from which to practice agency and craft one’s ideal self. Such self-fashioning becomes a way for readers to expand their imaginative boundaries and thus also creates an aesthetic education for readers by vicarious and virtual means so they can similarly learn to craft their more “ideal” selves. By crafting one’s ideal self, characters and readers learn to embrace and define their own pursuits of happiness, and readers can understand and realize the difference between the foundational threshold to happiness and the ultimate ideal happiness further on the happiness spectrum
Intention to Take Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as an HIV Preventive Medication: An Application of The Health Belief Model and Theory Planned Behavior
No full textSouth Africa (SA) has 7.7 million citizens (12.6% of its 2023 population) living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as an antiretroviral medication for HIV-negative individuals is a promising HIV prevention strategy in SA that can help the attainment of an HIV free generation. PrEP offers greater than 90% protection against HIV acquisition. Despite SA’s efforts in increasing PrEP coverage for its citizens, primarily to those at substantial risk, its adoption remains relatively low. Structural barriers related to access, costs, lack of awareness, and, more recently, US funding cuts exacerbate the challenges of PrEP’s potential and continued adoption. To explore intentions of PrEP adoption, we simultaneously measured constructs from the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in two samples (adults and caregivers of adolescents). Data was collected from approximately 801 adults and 690 caregivers of adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. Classifying these samples further into the high/target and low/non-target populations for PrEP based on perceived risk allowed the study to focus on differences in intention to adopt PrEP among those at substantial risk of HIV versus those who are not, and understand how caretakers of adolescents view or support PrEP adoption by their children. Estimates from structural equation modeling (SEM) results revealed that perceived susceptibility significantly influences intentions to adopt PrEP across both samples and risk groups. However, notable variations exist in the predictors of PrEP adoption intention between Adult and Adolescent samples in their target and non-target populations. While Adults in both target and non-target populations are strongly influenced by cues to actions, perceived barriers related to costs and access, together with cues to action, they carried an amplified effect in predicting adoption of PrEP for those in target populations. In adolescents, self-efficacy strongly influenced both risk populations. However, its impact is reduced or reversed when barriers to adoption exist. Target populations exhibited complex predictor relationships, with perceived benefits and subjective norms being positive predictors for PrEP adoption intentions and perceived severity having a small adverse impact. The study highlights the importance of tailored interventions to facilitate the expansion of PrEP adoption and points out the sustainable long-term demand for PrEP hinging on public health policies, HIV prevention response funding model leaning on increasing domestic healthcare funding to prevent its collapse. Amid the abrupt reduction and shutdown of foreign US funding, the proposed interventions remain easily eroded by financial gaps. Policymakers are pressed to implement immediate service gaps, public health policies that are sensitive to group differences in order to serve the specific needs of these populations and counteract growing barriers in the short term
Analysis and Predictive Modeling of Stall and Spin Accidents in General Aviation Fixed-Wing Aircraft
No full textStall and spin accidents represent a persistent safety concern in General Aviation, with approximately 41% resulting in fatalities despite their relatively low occurrence. This study analyzes 1,079 General Aviation stall and spin accidents from 2008 to 2023 using the National Transportation Safety Board accident database. Our analysis identified the top phases of flight, injury outcomes, and causal factors in stall/spin accidents. Findings indicate that over 93% of stall/spin events involved General Aviation aircraft, with most accidents occurring during initial climb, takeoff, or low-altitude maneuvering. Pilot-related control errors, especially poor airspeed and angle-of-attack management, were the most common causes. To assess accident severity prediction, we trained machine learning models—Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and XGBoost—on structured features. The Random Forest model achieved the best performance (accuracy = 0.81, ROC-AUC = 0.89), demonstrating potential for integration into safety monitoring and training systems. The findings offer an interpretable, data-driven framework for identifying high-risk scenarios and informing targeted training to prevent stall/spin accidents in General Aviation. Building on prior text-mining and state-based modeling of NTSB reports, we also examined environmental factors such as airport elevation, altimeter settings, and light conditions, as well as human factors like pilot age. Feature-importance analysis revealed that in-flight loss of control, engine power loss, and recovery attempts are among the strongest predictors of fatal outcomes. Temporal trends show a modest decline in fatality proportion since 2015, suggesting improvements in pilot training and aircraft safety systems. The resulting severity-prediction tool is highly interpretable and can be embedded in real-time flight-data monitoring platforms to support proactive risk mitigation in General Aviation
Impact of Three Professional Development Models (Online, Face-to-Face, and Hybrid) on Bhutanese Inservice Science Teachers\u27 Conceptions of Aspects of Nature of Science (NOS) with Reports of Translation of NOS Content into Classroom Teaching Practices
No full textHaving a scientifically literate citizenry is an asset nationally and globally, and knowledge of the nature of science (NOS) is a crucial element in such literacy. Science teachers are a vital link if students are to understand key elements of the NOS, yet teachers themselves often lack knowledge of NOS and how to integrate NOS content into science lessons. Investigating the impact of a series of inservice professional development experiences using three distinct delivery modes (face-to-face, hybrid, online) for teachers in my home country of Bhutan is the overarching goal of the study reported here. The study used a mixed-methods approach, involving twenty-five in-service secondary science teachers from thirteen schools in Bhutan as part of a professional development program referred to here as the Bhutan NOS Teacher Development Program (BNTDP). Participants in this study were selected using purposive sampling, and each professional development cohort featured a mix of eight educators divided between those teaching chemistry, biology, and physics Data regarding the degree of NOS knowledge gained by participants were collected using the VNOS-C (Views of Nature of Science) instrument, with semi-structured interviews conducted to determine the benefits and challenges of integrating NOS into science lessons. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Two non-parametric tests (Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank) were used to explore statistical differences between the three delivery modes. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed no significant difference (p \u3c 0.187) in participants’ responses between the three professional development program delivery modes in the pre- and post-VNOS-C surveys. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test revealed a significant difference between participants’ pre- and post-test NOS responses, regardless of the delivery mode. Changes related to the qualitative results revealed that Bhutanese teachers preferred the face-to-face mode of delivery of professional development. The inservice secondary science teachers reported that a lack of knowledge of NOS, pedagogical knowledge, and resources, along with assessment pressure, and time constraints were some of the limiting factors that impeded Bhutanese inservice secondary teachers from integrating NOS into science lessons. These findings have important implications for science educators, policymakers, and stakeholders to rethink the professional development modes of delivery used out of convenience and cost-effectiveness, in a geographically challenging country like Bhutan
I Think I Can: Kindergarten Teacher Perceptions on the Impact of Loose Parts Play on Self-Efficacy Behaviors
No full textPlay in the classroom is often a source of debate. The merits of play on early childhood development are well documented, especially regarding self-efficacy - an individual’s belief in their ability to perform a task or complete a goal. Self-efficacy has, in turn, been linked to academic resilience and achievement. Despite these findings, research shows a decline in unstructured play opportunities in both preschool and kindergarten. During a play intervention study, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers were interviewed about student behaviors before, during, and after loose parts and other playful materials were added to their classroom environment. This thesis examines the teacher-perceived relationship between the addition of open-ended loose parts play materials and student self-efficacy. Utilizing interview data from seven kindergarten and pre-kindergarten teachers over two academic years, the relationship between loose parts play and student self-efficacy will be examined. Findings suggest that increased self-efficacy behaviors resulted from the presence of loose parts, and that this was an agent for perceived positive behavioral outcomes in classrooms
Classifying Advanced Persistent Threat Stages and Techniques via Graph-Enhanced Network Flow Representations
No full textAdvanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are complex, stealthy attacks that involve multiple stages and many attack techniques used in each stage, making them difficult to defend against. Although many solutions can detect APTs, most of them only detect the existence of attack, but cannot produce fine-grained classification over the stage of the APT and the specific attack technique used. Some existing solutions can classify the stages of APT, but few of them provide attack technique classification, and existing work do not provide interpretability for the classification or countermeasures for the attack. In this thesis work, we propose a solution named CAPTure, to detect APT stages and attack techniques, provide interpretability for detection, and map the attack to MITRE D3FEND countermeasures. Specifically, we introduce a selective undersampling technique to address the imbalanced data distribution problem, and a hybrid graph representation concatenated with numerical flow statistics features to capture both structural and quantitative contexts for detection. Leveraging these features, we further design a stacked hierarchical classifier for APT stage detection and attack technique detection, followed by feature importance generation for interpretability and countermeasure mapping for attack mitigation. Evaluations on two open-source APT datasets show that our work can detect APT stages and attack techniques accurately, with higher performance than baseline schemes. It also has a short latency of below 1.25 seconds in detection, making it capable of real-time detection
Cotton Yield and Tissue-Potassium Response to Potassium Fertilization
No full textPotassium (K) deficiency is a common yield-limiting factor in cotton (Gossypium hirsu tum L.) production across the U.S. Cotton Belt. Adequate fertilizer-K management is paramount to ensure optimum plant growth and development, minimizing yield losses. Currently, fertilizer K recommendations for cotton in Arkansas are derived from expected yield responses of other crops, with no calibrated fertilizer-K rates or critical tissue-K concentrations defined to maxim ize crop yield. Our research objectives were i) to investigate cotton yield response and fiber qual ity to K fertilization on soils with different K availability; ii) to correlate relative yield with tis sue-K concentrations at individual growth stages to establish critical tissue-K concentrations; iii) to define which tissue (leaf or petiole) is more sensitive to diagnose K nutritional status, and iv) to improve the cotton fertilizer-K correlation and calibration database. Ten fertilizer-K rate (0 to 187 kg K ha-1) trials were conducted on silt loam soils with soil-test K ranging from Very Low to Optimum during the 2023 and 2024 growing seasons. Cotton was planted on raised beds and fur row-irrigated. Leaf and petiole samples were collected at first square and at weekly intervals throughout reproductive growth to quantify the tissue-K concentration. At maturity, cotton was harvested to measure lint yield, and subsamples were collected to evaluate cotton lint turnout and fiber quality. Cotton lint yield was positively affected by K fertilization (P ≤ 0.10) on soils with soil-test K ≤ 90 mg K kg-1. At responsive sites, cotton yield was maximized with applications of 56 kg K ha-1 in long-term trials and 75 or 112 kg K ha-1 in single-site-year trials, with yield in creases of 53, 47, and 70%, compared to the no-K control, respectively. These results suggest that current fertilizer-K recommendations for cotton are adequate. Lint turnout and fiber quality were affected by K availability. Lint turnout was 2.4% greater across cultivars in relation to the control, and fiber elongation, uniformity, strength, and micronaire increased by 0.35%, 0.67%, 1.84 g tex-1, and 0.50 with K fertilization. Relative cotton yield was positively related to leaf- and petiole-K concentrations, with petioles showing greater R2 values (up to 0.65 during peak flow ering). The critical leaf- and petiole-K concentrations to maximize cotton yield were 10.3 and 47.3 g K kg-1 at the first flower growth stage, respectively, and decreased throughout the growing season, being 7.15 and 20.3 g K kg-1 during peak flowering and 5.14 and 7.5 g K kg-1 during boll fill, respectively. These findings emphasize the importance of adequate K management to max imize both cotton yield potential and fiber quality, as well as the need for growth-stage-specific tissue-K concentrations for optimal plant nutritional status diagnosis
Effects of Flavonoids on Reducing Colon Cancer Risk via Macrophage Polarization
No full textColorectal cancer is one of the most fatal diseases in the United States. Chronic tissue inflammation can cause cell proliferation, which leads to tumor formation and cancer development. Macrophages are responsible for maintaining tissue homeostasis and for inflammatory responses. M1 macrophages exhibit proinflammatory responses while M2 macrophages exhibit anti-inflammatory responses. Imbalance between M1 and M2 macrophages is closely related to inflammation-associated disease development. The anti-inflammatory effects of apiaceous vegetable constituents, specifically flavonoids, have been studied for their preventative effects towards reducing disease risk. However, sufficient evidence is lacking on the mechanisms by which flavonoids impact M1/M2 macrophage polarization. RAW 264.7 cells were pre-treated with apigenin for 2 hr prior to applying lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon γ (IFNγ) for M1 macrophage polarization or interleukin-4- 4 (IL-4) for M2 macrophage polarization. After 22-hr incubation, culture media was used for nitric oxide (NO) quantification, and the cells were used to quantify gene expression, and the expression and nuclear translocation of proteins. We screened nine polyphenols for their effect on NO production in M1 macrophages. Among them, apigenin was the most effective in reducing NO production in LPS/IFNγ-induced M1 macrophages. Apigenin downregulated mRNA expression of M1-related genes, including TNFα, CD86, and IL-6 in M1 macrophages but had no effect on IL-1β and iNOS. Apigenin reduced IL-6 and IL-10 cytokine production in LPS/IFNγ-induced macrophages but had no effect on IL-1β and TNFα. Apigenin did not induce M2 marker genes such as CD163, CD206, and IL-10 in M1 macrophages, which indicates apigenin does not repolarize M1 macrophages toward M2 macrophages. Apigenin also suppressed M2 macrophage polarization by downregulating M2 gene expression of Arg-1, CD206, and IL-13 in IL-4-induced M2 macrophages. Apigenin suppressed M1 macrophage polarization by inhibiting phosphorylation of p65 and STAT1, downstream targets of LPS and IFNγ, respectively. These are major transcription factors regulating M1 macrophage polarization. Although nuclear translocation of p65 was not influenced, apigenin inhibited NF-κB transcriptional activity. Taken together, apigenin inhibited M1 macrophage polarization through suppression of LPS/IFNγ signal transduction, implying that apigenin could be a promising anti-inflammatory polyphenol for preventing inflammation-associated diseases and might play a critical role in colon cancer development
Key Contributions to Agricultural Law Select Works by Agricultural Law Professor, Susan A. Schneider, An Annotated Bibliography
No full textThe authors provide an annotated list of publications, remarks, books, and book chapters authored by agricultural law scholar and professor, Susan A. Schneider, in honor of her forthcoming retirement.
The growth and evolution of the study of agricultural and food law may be attributed to several legal scholars who, based on a personal connection with agriculture, chose to dedicate their careers to advocating for the family farmer. Professor Susan A. Schneider is one such legal scholar.
Professor Susan A. Schneider, a native of Minnesota, is currently the William H. Enfield Professor of Law and the Director of the LL.M. in Agricultural & Food Law Program at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Her visionary leadership of the LL.M. program led to its further expansion into food law, enabling the program to provide an all-encompassing education from farm to fork