Middle Tennessee State University
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Community College Students' Understanding and Perception of Evolution
No full textLearning about evolution is a foundational part of introductory biology education. In evolution education research, most studies are conducted at four-year universities, leaving community colleges understudied. This study investigates the understanding and acceptance of evolution of community college compared to university students and what factors are related to community college student evolution acceptance. A survey was conducted of 2288 university students and 202 community college students in Arizona and California. The survey included questions about interest in evolution, along with understanding and acceptance of microevolution, macroevolution, and human evolution. Multiple linear regressions were run controlling for state and major to identify potential differences between community college and university students. Community college students had a similar interest, but lower understanding of evolution compared to university students. Community college students also had a lower acceptance of microevolution and human evolution and a higher perceived conflict with evolution and their religion. Unlike among university students, community college student understanding of evolution is not associated with acceptance of human evolution or macroevolution, but we found the strongest factor relating to all three is religiosity. Instructors moving forward could use Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCEE) to help increase student acceptance and understanding of evolution at community colleges.M.S
The Implications of Virtue Ethics on Emotional Intelligence
No full textVirtue Ethics; Emotional Intelligence; Eudaimonia; Aristotle, Aristotelian Philosophy; Moral Philosophy; Emotional Quotient (EQ
Poems of Confabulation
No full textThis creative project, consisting of ten poems, aims to illustrate the effects of confabulation on memory. In addition, each poem is accompanied by epigraphs, diary entries, and commentary sections inspired by Alexander Pope and his moral essays, also known as Epistles to Several Persons. In this way, the project attempts to make use of polyvocality, or rather, the mingling of multiple speakers surrounding each piece. This element relates to confabulated memory, as it often feels as though several versions of the past could be, or are, true all at once with no real way of discerning fact from misremembering. KEYWORDS: poetry; memory; confabulation; women and gender; healing; Alexander Pop
Digital Seed Grant Winners and Final Projects 2020-2021
No full textHiddentown in 3D by Molly Taylor-Poleskey;
Studio Art Teaching Resources by Mark McleodWalker Library Digital Scholarship Initiatives supports individual and collaborative digital projects in research, teaching, and public outreach from any discipline on campus. The Digital Seed Grant is an annual award for start-up funds, developed to encourage and create opportunities for faculty, staff, and graduate students to use digital technologies in their research, service, or teaching.
The Digital Seed Grant (dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant) had impressive applications for its fourth year (award period 2020-2021), which initially launched in 2016 for the award period of 2017-2018. The Digital Seed Grant Review Committee and Library Dean decided to award two grants for the 2020-2021 academic year and extended this into 2022 to help projects impacted by Covid.
The AY 20-21 awardees were announced on the website at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant20-21. Below is a summary of the winning projects and resulting outcomes.The Digital Seed Grant is made possible by generous funding and support from the Library Dean and the Digital Scholarship Initiatives team. For many, this is a starter grant, which can lead to national grant opportunities in the future and Walker Library wants to encourage and support such creativity activity.
As a competitive grant, evaluation of applications and assessment of digital lifecycles of selected projects takes time. The Digital Seed Grant is indebted to the time of the Review Committee, comprised of digital project experts from Walker Library and the Digital Partners (a rotating member from the Department of History, Center for Historic Preservation, Center for Popular Music, Albert Gore Research Center, and the University Archives). The Walker Library also thanks those that help promote the grant and encourage participation. Since 2017, the library has jumped-started campus research by funding 15 digital seed grant projects across various academic disciplines
Childhood Maltreatment and Depressive Symptoms in College Students
No full textThe current study examined the relationship between the different types of child abuse (i.e., sexual, physical, psychological maltreatment, neglect, and witnessing violence) and depression in college students. Potential variables of the relationship also were investigated. The final analyses included 89 (21 males, 60 females, 6 non-binary individuals, and 2 not specified individuals) college students. The participants completed several self-report surveys measuring demographic information, depression, stress, and childhood abuse histories. Results indicated that a history of childhood abuse correlated positively with depression in college students. However, none of the different types of childhood abuse were independently predictive of depression in the current sample. Additionally, stress was found to be positively correlated with depression in college students. There also was a significant difference in depression scores for females as compared to other gender categories assessed.M.A
THE EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON CARDIAC REHABILITATION ATTENDANCE RATES AND ITS POTENTIAL EFFECT ON REOCCURING MYOCARDIAL INFARCTIONS AND MEDICAL CARE COSTS IN THE MIDDLE TENNESSEE AREA
No full textCardiac rehabilitation is a vital source of therapy after a patient experiences a myocardial infarction. Cardiac rehabilitation aides in decreasing the risk of having a reoccurring myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study is to determine the changes in CR enrollment rates, dropout rates, and completion rates from pre lockdown to post lockdown. The secondary purpose of this study is to predict how these changes will affect potential increases in myocardial infarctions (MI) and hospital costs within the region. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, facilities shut down for weeks at a time and patients were unable to attend cardiac rehabilitation. Enrollment rates, completion rates, and dropout rates were compared between pre COVID-19 shutdown and post COVID-19 shutdown. Medical care costs were also estimated due to a potential increase in myocardial infarctions due to the shutdown. Out of the eight hospitals that were contacted, two facilities met the criteria and chose to participate. Results showed a significant decrease in enrollments (F(1,34) = 43.18, p= .000) and completion rates of a cardiac rehabilitation program (F(1,34) = 5.374, p= .027). The estimated increase of myocardial infarctions over the 16 month post shutdown period was 33.1 with an associated increased cost of $626,829.10. Since the shutdown from COVID-19, the Greater Nashville region can potentially see an increase in recurrent myocardial infarctions and an increase in medical care costs. A push for an increase in participation in a CR program will need to be addressed in order to alleviate the influx of heart attacks in the next few years.M.S
Abusive Supervision: A Systematic Comparison Between Military and Civilian Leadership Perceptions
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of abusive supervision. Specifically, this study aimed to investigate how perceptions of abusive supervision differ between individuals who have previously been enlisted or are currently enlisted in the military and individuals who have only been employed in civilian workplace settings. Using an experimental design, participants with military and non-military experience were randomly assigned to one of two supervisor conditions (abusive or non-abusive). Data were collected using a survey that was published on Amazon Mechanical Turk and various Facebook groups, which included several questionnaires regarding personal outcomes (intent to leave, satisfaction with supervision style, and affective organizational commitment) and perceptions of supervisor behaviors based on a vignette (behaviors of abuse, consideration, and initiating structure). A sample of 438 participants who were at least 25 years of age, proficient at reading and speaking English, currently working a full-time job in the United States and had at least 5 years of either civilian work experience with no military service experience (civilian only survey), or at least 5 years of military service experience (military survey) were recruited and used for the study. Results showed that the participants were more likely to rate their personal outcomes lower if they rated the supervisor in the scenario as abusive. Other findings, limitations, and future research suggestions are also discussed.M.A
Essays on Occupational Licensing
No full textThese essays analyze the labor market implications for workers in the health industry licensed by government agencies in the United States. Licensure is often justified on the grounds that it will protect the public from incompetent practitioners. In practice, however, occupational licensing is often used to restrict entry to a profession in order to raise wages for incumbent practitioners. The first essay examines how the expansion of optometrist scope of practice affects optometrist earnings and population eye health outcomes. Using the scope of practice expansion across states from 1976 to 2011, our estimation shows the expansion increased optometrist hourly wages by about 14 percent. In the second essay, we explore the effect of the Nurse Licensure Compact on telemedicine. The study shows that patients in NLC states used more telemedicine services from out-of-state providers than patients in non-NLC states. Our evidence indicates that the NLC reduces some barriers to practicing telemedicine for nurses. The third essay examines the possibility of using referenda to reform occupational licensing. More specifically, the essay examines how referendum would have impacted policy in regard to the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact in CaliforniaPh.D
SOLAR POWERED IN SITU SENSOR NETWORK FOR REMOTE SOIL HEALTH MONITORING
No full textThis thesis presents the design, development, and testing of a fleet of long-range wireless, solar powered sensors for the study of soil conditions throughout a given geographical location for the measurement of important metrics that affect overall soil fertility. Farmers require active monitoring for informed maintenance on their fields to maintain optimal crop growth. Having practical, real-time data to analyze assists in determining tasks that need to be completed for an optimal crop yield. The common practice is sending soil samples off to a lab for chemical analysis. Therefore, no known system has been developed to remotely measure soil-gas, soil moisture, and other environmental variables in situ through the use of an IoT sensor network across a large farm. This thesis discusses the implementation of a real-time and historical soil health monitoring system that is used for the measurement of temperature, humidity, soil moisture, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen, ethanol, atmospheric pressure, and sunlight. The network functions on a gateway-bridge architecture, whereas the gateway connects to the database server via the internet using a cellular modem, and subsequent bridge nodes send telemetry to the gateway via LoRa radio protocol. This system directly communicates to the ThingsBoard open source software via the MQTT messaging protocol for the uploading of data to the SQL database, resulting in the ability to query and plot telemetry values. M.S
Virtue Ethics in AI Advertising: A Content Analysis of AI Advertising Company Websites
No full textTechnological advances have made it possible for the advertising industry to rely on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to facilitate effectiveness. As a result, previous efforts may no longer be sufficient in maintaining ethical practices in the advertising industry due to the AI often operating autonomously or within parameters that could lead to consequences affecting consumers in a negative manner. This study is a content analysis of the messaging on the websites of organizations providing AI advertising services to determine if the messaging reflects practices in line with virtue ethics. It expands the current literature by building support for the use of applied virtue ethics and demonstrating the importance of conveying those ethics. Using eight virtuous character traits as indicators the researcher found very few of the websites studied contained messaging indicative of applied virtue ethics. These findings align with previous research in the need to increase ethical considerations in the advertising industry yet show with the addition of AI in advertising there has been progress.M.S