Middle Tennessee State University
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Invisible Labor Engagement
No full textThe present study aimed to identify reasons for employee engagement with invisible labor tasks. This study also measured task enjoyment. An online survey was distributed via Prolific. To sum the present findings, there were not gender differences between task frequency for administrative and physical care tasks. Also, task enjoyment was not related to task frequency suggesting there may be tasks employees enjoy but do not engage in. Overall, employees engaged in invisible labor tasks because they align with their personal values and are seen as beneficial to their colleagues.M.A
How Sustainable Branding Among Grocery Foods Affect the Shopping Habits of Gen-Z Undergraduate Students
No full textSociety is becoming more concerned with environmentally sustainable practices as younger generations establish themselves in their workforces and communities. The focus this study was the grocery industry, as people tend to make recurring payments and spend a sizable portion of their disposable incomes there. By sending a survey to undergraduate Gen-Z students at Middle Tennessee State University, we could gauge their beliefs, motivations, and reported actions toward sustainable grocery products. While most students showed concern for the current environmental and sustainability practices, there was an apparent discrepancy between this concern and their behaviors. This inconsistency could be attributed to the students’ lack of time or money. Specific demographics showed stronger beliefs and behaviors toward sustainability. This study offers insights that can be utilized to improve market sustainable grocery products, support industry growth, and inspire further research in consumer sustainability behavior
The Educational and Personal Impact of a Study Abroad Course
No full textThe topic of this thesis is not a new discussion point. Study abroad benefits have been investigated by many universities and programs. However, within this thesis, I aim to incorporate not only statistical proof of personal development but also my own experiences as a study abroad student in New Zealand. As a result of my trip, I strongly believe that study abroad is a phenomenal way for students to learn about other cultures, cultivate personal growth, and expand their knowledge of the world. The purpose of this thesis is to share the profound impact I experienced as a study abroad student and to explore if this experience is common across students who engage in study abroad courses. I will also seek to debunk the common misconception that all study abroad is expensive. Study abroad is financially available to anyone who is willing to work hard. I believe that this trip changed me as a person and that all students should make an effort to participate in a study abroad trip during their academic careers
PERFORMANCE ESSENTIALS VALIDATION AND TESTING
No full textSelection of employees has drawn on tests and other tools to determine which employees may succeed or best fit the organization’s needs. Measures of personality and situational judgement tests have often been used by organizations and are a subject of study by IO psychologists. New tools that can be tailored to organizations’ use continue to be developed and, in this study, we aimed to evaluate one such new tool, the Performance Essentials Measure (PEM), alongside the HEXACO and measures of attitudes towards lateness and absence. We used data gathered from students and faculty Middle Tennessee State University and from prospective law enforcement officers. Our exploratory factor analysis of the PEM did not match the proposed structure, with seven factors initially identified, and one discarded due to the few items and low internal consistency. While one factor, Cooperativeness, still fit with the proposed factor, many items were eliminated and some items from other factors fit better with it. Our two strongest factors, Forthcoming and Ruthless as we tentatively named them, came from our proposed Honesty PEM Factor being split in two, with the addition of some items from other proposed factors. The other factors found were composed of items from a mix of the proposed factors. While our strongest factor had strong correlations with the HEXACO, revision and updated items are needed to proceed further with the development of the PEM.M.A
Hindu-Muslim Relations during the Long Partition of Bengal: The Case of Noakhali, 1946-65
No full textJust before the British Empire relinquished its Indian colony in 1947, riots swept across India’s Hindu-Muslim territories. On October 10, 1946, riots erupted in Noakhali, a Muslim-majority district of East Bengal where some Muslims targeted, and other Muslims protected, the Hindu minority. Mohandas Gandhi visited soon after the riots, but his mission of peace was not enough to stop the splitting apart of this community before, during, and after the official Partitioning of India in August 1947. The primary questions my dissertation seeks to answer are: What were Hindu-Muslim relationships like when the world around them was being torn apart by religious violence and Partition? What transpired when their socio-agricultural relationships and ways of being were transformed by riots, displacement, and the establishment of separate nation-states?
I examine these questions about how the riots, Gandhi’s visit, and the larger processes set in motion by Partition reshaped the social and intellectual life of Bengali Hindus and Muslims in Noakhali, beginning with the 1946 riots and ending with the 1965 India-Pakistan War—which led to the permanent separation of Muslims from their workplaces in Calcutta. I argue that Noakhali’s Hindus and Muslims had a shared history and shared material interests (e.g., with respect to abandoned properties) that enabled them to transcend their religious differences during Partition and after. Using oral interviews, artifacts, and archival research, I show that the experiences of the common people were far more complex than narratives of simple, inevitable religious hatred suggest. Questioning the dominant notion that religious differences inevitably produced animosity between Hindus and Muslims in Bengal, my research demonstrates how displaced Hindus often retained deep ties to the Noakhali community, even when conditions deteriorated. I further demonstrate that the permanence of Partition – and the severing of communal ties – was not fully evident until 1965, nearly two decades after Bengal was officially split in two.
Ph.D
Mechanistic Insights of a Non-specific Inosine-Uridine Nucleoside Hydrolase (IU-NH) found in Arabidopsis thaliana
No full textHerbicides are crucial tools used to control unwanted vegetation to increase crop yields and landscape aesthetics. Current herbicides target metabolic pathways for protein production in plants using chemical inhibitors to inhibit metabolic pathways involved in protein synthesis, but an alternative strategy may involve targeting nucleoside salvage pathways in plants. Salvage pathways in plants recycle nucleosides to create the nucleotide monomer pools they need to synthesize DNA and RNA for protein production. The process by which nucleosides are produced varies from organism to organism, but nucleoside hydrolases are enzymes utilized by plants to catalyze purine and pyrimidine hydrolysis to create an energy efficient pathway allowing recycling of nucleobases in early seedling development. Salvage processes with nucleoside hydrolases have been found to occur in many organisms such as plants, yeast, bacteria, and protozoa, but are absent in humans. This research was conducted to understand the mechanism by which a non-specific inosine-uridine nucleoside hydrolase (IU-NH), designated URH1 from Arabidopsis thaliana catalyzes the hydrolysis of selected nucleosides. URH1 was cloned, overexpressed, and purified to greater than 95% homogeneity to determine the activity, optimum pH, oligomerization state, calcium content, and substrate specificity. In silico structural models and molecular dynamic simulations were performed with URH1 and several different nucleoside hydrolases from protozoa and plant models to determine if conserved residues were present in the active site and if any flexible loops were present. URH1 was discovered to be a non-specific nucleoside hydrolase with a broad pH range and a high activity for uridine at high concentrations. Several uninvestigated residues and flexible loops were discovered around the active site which may serve as key sites for mechanistic control.Ph.D
English Medieval Queens and Kings in Religious Partnership: Choices, Resources, and Connections
No full textABSTRACT
During the early Middle Ages in Britain, people struggled to survive after the Romans left to try to save their own empire. People formed groups for survival, protection and procreation; some of the successful groups grew into tribes and quasi kingdoms. The Roman empire brought Christianity to Britain but, after its fall in 409, its presence declined greatly during the invasions of Picts and Irish and during the attacks and migration of several Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, among others (Bede, EH I.13-15). Eventually, however, what came to be one ruling monarchy and a strong Christian church grew to be two of the most essential institutions of England in the Middle Ages. Although movements and influences came from all parts of society, historical and literary records are most available for those leading kingdom and church. This study exams such records for evidence of how kings and queens are represented as working to some degree in partnership to benefit Christianity. Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, The Bible, The Regularis Concordia, and coronation records provide the history of royals and church leaders working together. Records of land donations and a small illustration from a church register show some of the gifts that provided the church its economic start from kings and queens which helped grow the church. Another unique resource explored is the practice of intercession between kings and queens, often taking place in public to benefit themselves, their subjects, and the church. In addition to historical reports, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Knight’s Tale” and “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale,” as well as John Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes are examined to assess the successes, failures, and nuances of intercessions represented as significant. Relationships between England’s royal couples and those with the most influence in Christianity as its leaders are recorded in Bede, the Bible, letters, literary prayer poetry, and anonymous art depicting the Virgin Mary, and Christ crowning the Virgin Mary at her heavenly coronation. Although limited by scarce sources, three factors related to the unique and privileged positions of rulers emerged as being crucial to the potential for success in working together to support Christianity: their ability to exercise religious choice, to use deep resources for religious patronage, and to develop relational connections between themselves and others who held ruling religious positions in Europe, in the Christian Bible, and in heaven.Ph.D
Determine the Orientation of β-Sheet Conformation for Specific Residues in N-Terminus of α-syn(61－95) in Monolayer by pMAIRS
No full textParkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, and the hallmark of PD is the presence of Lewy bodies in the midbrain. The protein component of Lewy bodies is α-synuclein, a protein that consists of 140 amino acids. The sequence of α-synuclein can be divided into three distinct domains, namely, the N-terminus domain, the non-amyloid component domain or NAC, and the C-terminus domain. The NAC domain, which consists of residues 61-95, has been of utmost importance due to the disordered self-assembly behavior. In addition, NAC and other segment peptides have been detected in Lewy bodies. Previously in our research group, NAC was investigated by p-Polarized Multiple Angle Incidence Resolution Spectroscopy (pMAIRS) which can be used to detect the orientation of various vibrations in ultrathin films (such as monolayer). The overall conformation of NAC in a freshly prepared monolayer structure was shown to be α-helix. In addition, 13C isotopic label has been introduced into residue 93C in NAC. By pMAIRS, the orientation of the α-helix at 93G is parallel to the interface. In this thesis, the monolayer of NAC was compressed for several days, and β-sheet conformation was detected in the monolayer of NAC. By introducing 13C isotopic label into the other residues in the sequence of NAC, 93G was found to be still in α-helix after three days of compression. However, the N-terminus residue (68G) changed its conformation from α-helix to β-sheet after three days of compression. Moreover, 63V which is closer to the N-terminus changed its conformation after only two days of compression. Furthermore, edge-up orientation was detected for the newly generated β-sheet conformation. Therefore, the capability of pMAIRS to analyze the structure of membrane proteins in a monolayer with residue-level resolution was demonstrated.M.S
Data-Driven Deep Learning Algorithms for Dynamical Systems
No full textArtificial neural networks have revolutionized scientific problem-solving, offering reliable techniques for modeling and understanding complex processes. This trend is most apparent in dynamical system simulation, where experts continuously seek methods to increase accuracy and efficiency. Learning the time-varying parameters of a dynamical system is essential, especially when trying to understand how a system reacts to different situations over time. We present three deep learning algorithm approaches to address the learning of time-varying parameters from a dynamical system. The first algorithm, a logistic-informed neural network, is motivated by using physics-informed neural networks on logistic differential equations to predict the number of individuals infected by the COVID-19 Omicron variant. This algorithm learns the time-varying parameters of four mathematical models to predict individuals infected with the COVID-19 Omicron in a country with strict and partial mitigation measures. The second algorithm, optimized physics-informed neural networks, allows us to understand nonlinear dynamics in various fields, such as biochemistry, ecology, and epidemiology. By optimizing the model, a constant parameter of a system of ordinary differential equations can be learned as a time-varying parameter, revealing hidden patterns in complex systems. Finally, we tackle the difficulties of learning the time-varying parameter and solving stiff dynamical systems by introducing a novel approach called physics-informed transfer learning neural network. This model is developed by transferring prior knowledge of optimized neural network parameters and pre-training using physics-informed neural networks with a simple adaptive scheme to learn the time-varying parameters of stiff dynamical systems. These algorithms improve neural network's capacities for analyzing dynamic systems, learning time-varying parameters, and predicting system behavior. We are confident that our research significantly contributes to the journey toward more complex and accurate modeling of dynamic processes.Ph.D
Social Media and Self-Talk: Exploring Self-Talk Related Motives for Social Media Use and Links Between Social Media Usage and Self-Talk Frequency
No full textResearch into social media usage and its correlations to adverse individual and social qualities have shined a light on possible effects it may have on its consumers. The motivations for why we use these platforms is a question many researchers have asked. Previous studies have documented through qualitative and quantitative means that some motives for using social media include: self-expression, entertainment, peer comparison, and ego validation. The present study investigated motivations for social media usage by modifying a measure intended to quantify self-talk frequency. In addition, correlations between self-talk frequency, using the Self-Talk Scale (STS), and social media usage were studied. Findings suggest a relationship between self-reinforcing related motives and social media usage as well as between frequency of self-managing and social-assessing self-talk and social media use. Further research into why these correlations exist and into using scales in unintended ways is needed