ROAR: Repository for Open Access, Archives, and Research (Univ. of North Alabama)
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The mismatch in distributions of vertebrates and the plants that they disperse
Get PDFLittle is known about how mutualistic interactions affect the distribution of species richness on broad geographic scales. Because mutualism positively affects the fitness of all species involved in the interaction, one hypothesis is that the richness of species involved should be positively correlated across their range, especially for obligate relationships. Alternatively, if mutualisms involve multiple mutualistic partners, the distribution of mutualists should not necessarily be related, and patterns in species distributions might be more strongly correlated with environmental factors. In this study, we compared the distributions of plants and vertebrate animals involved in seeddispersal mutualisms across the United States and Canada. We compiled geographic distributions of plants dispersed by frugivores and scatter-hoarding animals, and compared their distribution of richness to the distribution in disperser richness. We found that the distribution of animal dispersers shows a negative relationship to the distribution of the plants that they disperse, and this is true whether the plants dispersed by frugivores or scatter-hoarders are considered separately or combined. In fact, the mismatch in species richness between plants and the animals that disperse their seeds is dramatic, with plants species richness greatest in the in the eastern United States and the animal species richness greatest in the southwest United States. Environmental factors were corelated with the difference in the distribution of plants and their animal mutualists and likely are more important in the distribution of both plants and animals. This study is the first to describe the broad-scale distribution of seed-dispersing vertebrates and compare the distributions to the plants they disperse. With these data, we can now identify locations that warrant further study to understand the factors that influence the distribution of the plants and animals involved in these mutualisms
Student-Athlete Compensation: An Alternative Compensation Model for All Athletes Competing in NCAA Athletics
Get PDFThe Ed O’Bannon case (O’Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2015) has brought student-athlete compensation to the national spotlight. While the NCAA continues to defend its policy of amateurism, the time for college athlete compensation may soon become a reality (NCAA Division I Manual, 2019). Recent college athlete compensation models have explored revenue sharing models similar to that of professional sports leagues, although previous research failed to develop a compensation model for athletes in sports beyond basketball and football (Huma & Staurowsky, 2013). The current research argues for a more applied, market-economy compensation model to offer fair compensation to collegiate athletes. This model takes into account the revenues generated by each university team, while also accounting for both the student-athlete and team’s performances on and off the field. Justifications for this model are explored, as this model will allow for a new way to compensate athletes via on and off-field metrics. This paper concludes with an example of the model’s utility through using publically accessible data for a major Division I college program
Protecting Academic Integrity in the Online Era
No full textInstitutions of higher education are concerned that academic honesty violations undermine the integrity of their online degree programs (D’Souza & Siegfeldt, 2017). In an effort to combat cheating, many institutions are requiring remote proctoring software for online course exams. The College of Business from a mid-size, regional university in the southeast tried several online proctoring solutions over the past few years, including automated proctoring, recorded proctoring, and live proctoring. This study focused on one aspect--the relationship between student exam means and online proctoring solutions as vehicles to protect academic integrity and to better ensure that student test scores more accurately reflect knowledge gains. Current research suggests that as the level of proctoring increases the level of academic dishonesty decreases (Hylton, Levy, & Dringus, 2016). However, the relevance of this research is in showing that recorded proctoring, with the assistance of artificial intelligence, can be just as effective as live one-on-one proctoring
Retrofitting first-year English critical thinking and information literacy instruction sessions for remote digital presentation, while maintaining an engaged and interactive user experience
No full textVehicle Make as a Determinant of Automobile Loan Default, Exposure at Default, and Duration Until Default
No full textIn the automobile loan market, lenders face the risk that borrowers will default. In evaluating potential clients, lenders would benefit from the ability to answer three questions: Who will default? What is the potential loss exposure when the borrower defaults? When will the borrower default? This paper suggests that lenders consider the make of vehicle purchased by the borrower when attempting to answer these questions. We analyze applicant-level and loan-level data from an American credit union, employing logistic, tobit, and censored normal regression. Our results suggest that lenders could more efficiently price for risk by including a borrower’s choice of vehicle in predictive models specific to their market
