Middle Tennessee State University
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The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Perceived Social Support in College Students
Get PDFThere is a current lack of studies that investigate how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
predict difficulties with social competency skills. To address this, the current study analyzed how
self-reported ACEs predicted six social support competencies, namely, attachment, social
integration, reassurance of worth, reliable alliance, guidance, and opportunity for
nurturance. College students (N = 338) were administered the ACE Questionnaire,
(Felitti, et al., 1998) and the Social Provisions Scale (Cutrona & Russell, 1987). Results
indicated that ACE scores significantly predicted more difficulty with overall social
support skills. Results generally document the presence of a cumulative effect, that is,
more ACEs are associated with more difficulty with social competencies in a non-clinical
U.S. sample of college students.M.A
DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-SPECTRAL SCHEME FOR IDENTIFYING DYES AND THEIR TOXICOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
No full textThe synthetic dye industry, one of the largest chemical sectors in the global market, was worth $31.9 billion dollars in 2019.1 With wide applicability in the food, textile, and cosmetic sectors, synthetic dyes are heavily regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to the harmful carcinogenic effects of specific dyes. Many countries, including the U.S., those in European Union, and Japan differ on the accepted dyes for usage. A surge in recreational activities has caused an increase in synthetic color powders used for events, specifically the Color Run races. Due to Internet commerce and a lack of regulatory oversight, a wide variety of color powders can be obtained quickly and cheaply from overseas; some of these foreign sources may contain unapproved toxic dyes.
Among the myriad dyes used in industry, minor modifications in the functional groups often lead to new dyes of varying shades/colors. Effective analysis of similar dye structures requires a wide range of analytical instrumentation. Two unknown color powder samples labelled as CC Red and India Green were donated from a color run race in Florida. Through the positive dye identification of CC Red and India Green using mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, and optical spectroscopy, this study evaluates the development of a multispectral scheme for dye identification. The identification of toxic compounds from water leaching can provide insight on how dyes can contaminate the aquatic ecosystem via industrial wastewater discharge.M.S
Impact of Multimodal Feedback and Formulaic Sequences on Improving Fluency of English Learners on Computer-Based Speaking Assessments
Get PDFWhile recent research has shown that multimodal feedback and use of formulaic sequences (FS) are effective in improving student performance on writing tasks, there is a dearth of studies on the impact of these aspects on computer-based academic speaking assessments. This dissertation seeks to fill this gap by examining the impact of both multimodal feedback and formulaic sequences (FS) on improving performance and fluency of adolescent English Learners (ELs) on computer-based speaking assessments. Students in this interactive sequential mixed methods study were randomly assigned to a group receiving asynchronous feedback or a group receiving synchronous video feedback. Both groups were evaluated using the WIDA Speaking Interpretive Rubric that analyzes speech holistically at the word/phrase level, sentence level, and discourse level. Students then engaged in a second speaking task and were evaluated using the same rubric. Results indicated that both groups showed significant overall improvements: asynchronous feedback (n = 12, Task One Mdn = 3.00, Task Two Mdn = 4.50, Z = 3.07, p < .001, r = .89) and synchronous feedback (n = 12, Task One Mdn = 3.00, Task Two Mdn = 3.83, Z = 2.59, p = .008, r = .75), with the asynchronous feedback group out-performing the synchronous feedback group. Furthermore, regression analysis indicated that formulaic sequences significantly predicted speech fluency (β = 1.01, t(46) = 9.65, p < .001). Formulaic sequences also explained a significant proportion of variance in fluency scores (R2 = .67, F(1, 46) = 93.20, p < .001). Results from this study can inform and optimize remote and face-to-face (F2F) instruction in academic speaking and the implications include not only potentially improving EL students’ skills on standardized measures of academic speaking performance, but also enhancing their linguistic skills in general education classes and improving their college and career readiness.Ph.D
EXPERIENCES WITH THE FUNDAMENTAL FLUENCY INTERVENTION: A CASE STUDY WITH 3RD GRADERS WITH READING DIFFICULTIES
Get PDFThis qualitative research study investigates the experiences of both students and parents in the way they respond to the Fundamental Fluency Intervention, which aims to help students improve fluency to bridge the gap between word call and comprehension. Although students reported positive experiences throughout the study and data revealed gains in fluency throughout the investigation in two cases, further research is needed to better understand any implications that may be associated with the researcher-created intervention and rubric. Phrasing was the main strategy used in the intervention. Both students and parents indicated that it was helpful. This may be worthy of future investigation. If the current study is repeated using a qualitative design, an additional recommendation would be that participant selection is made carefully.Ed.D
Screening Novel Triazole Aurones for Anti-Inflammatory Properties
Get PDFInflammatory diseases affect millions of people and are typically treated with steroids or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with serious side effects. A subgroup of flavonoids, called aurones, are potential alternatives. To test this hypothesis, 45 triazole aurones (ATs) were screened for anti-inflammatory characteristics in mouse macrophages. An inflammatory response was induced by the bacterial molecule, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), ATs were added, and the inflammatory response was determined. Nitric oxide (NO), and cell viability assays, indicated two ATs (AT 102 and AT 122) reduced NO without causing cytotoxicity. These were further analyzed for suppression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Our analysis demonstrated that although AT 102 and AT 122 decreased NO production, TNF- α was not suppressed. This is possibly due to suppression of the signal transduction protein IκBζ, which is involved in normal inflammatory response regulation. Further studies are ongoing to elucidate this mechanism of action
READER-TEST INTERACTIONS: AN EXPLANATORY ITEM RESPONSE STUDY ON READING COMPREHENSION
Get PDFAccording to the RAND model framework, reading comprehension test performance is influenced by readers’ reading skills or reader characteristics, test properties, and their interactions. However, little empirical research has systematically compared the impacts of reader characteristics, test properties, and reader-test interactions across different standardized tests. The present study used the explanatory item response approach to investigate the reader-test interactions in two commonly used standardized tests: Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test-4th edition (GMRT-4; MacGinitie et al., 2000) and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test- 3rd Edition Reading Comprehension (WIAT-III; Wechsler, 2009). Five reader characteristics scores (i.e., decoding, pseudoword reading, vocabulary, fluency, morpho-syntactic knowledge) of 89 fourth graders were obtained. Six test properties (i.e., mean sentence length, mean log word frequency, referential cohesion, deep cohesion, genre, and question type) of the two tests were measured by The Lexile Framework for Reading (Schnick & Knickelbine, 2007) and Coh-Metrix Text Common Core Ease and Readability Assessor (Coh-Metrix-TERA; Graesser et al., 201). Genres were coded as narrative texts and expository texts, and question types were classified into literal questions and inferential questions. Explanatory item response models (EIRM) treated both reader characteristics and test properties as random variables. Results indicated in both GMRT-4 and WIAT-III, fluency and vocabulary were the most crucial reader characteristics over other reading skills. For GMRT-4, lower mean sentence length, higher referential cohesion, and higher deep cohesion made the passage easier to understand, and expository texts were more difficult than narrative texts. For WIAT-III, inferential questions were more challenging than literal questions. Three significant reader-test interactions were found in GMRT-4 between vocabulary and referential cohesion, vocabulary and word frequency, and referential cohesion and question type. Higher-level vocabulary students had better comprehension performance in passages with low referential cohesion and high word frequency in GMRT-4. Literal questions were easier than inferential questions for low referential cohesion texts, but the result was reversed for high referential cohesion texts. Through this study, fourth graders’ reading performance in the two standardized tests was better understood, and limitations and implications for practice and future research were discussed.Ph.D
IN GOD’S OWN IMAGE: LGBTQ+ STUDENT ACTIVISM AND LIVED EXPERIENCE AT LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY
No full textThis thesis examines the historical relationship between Lipscomb University, a liberal arts college in Nashville affiliated with the churches of Christ tradition, and its LGBTQ+ student population. Though LGBTQ+ individuals have always occupied space at Lipscomb, the school has not always recognized this, and in the early twentieth century, issues of sexuality were not on the school’s radar. An incident recalled by Norman Parks, a dean in the late 1930s and early 1940s, showed that when the school hired a gay man by mistake, the school was unsure of what to do about the situation or if it could even be true. By the 1960s and 1970s Lipscomb had a system in place for dealing with same-sex attracted students, but it was exceedingly punitive. The school routinely expelled gay students when it discovered them, and in one well-publicized incident from 1978, it also outed the two students involved to their parents and suggested they enroll their sons in conversion therapy. This culture of fear was so strong amongst students who experienced feelings of attraction to people of the same sex that even those who never acted on those feelings were afraid of being discovered by the school.
By the year 2000, Lipscomb had begun to budge, but just slightly. Instead of outright expelling students who they were gay, the school gave them a chance to change. If a student enrolled in conversion therapy and thought of their queerness as a sin to give up rather than an identity, they could stay enrolled. It was not until the mid-2000s, when Lipscomb made a conscious decision to open itself up to the wider world and stop existing as a conservative island, that queer activism found an environment in which it could take root. As Lipscomb spent much of the late 2000s and early 2010s opening up, queer students recognized that the school’s culture and the wider world’s perspective had shifted in such a way that they could finally begin to push for the school to change its stance on LGBTQ+ issues. Now, nearly ten years after the first act of overt queer activism at the school, LGBTQ+ students have organized to an extent that the school can no longer control.M.A
CYBERBULLYING EXPERIENCES AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
Get PDFThe current study examined prevalence of seven forms of cyberbullying attacks among college students through different types of medium. Support was found for hypothesis 1; with exclusion/ignoring being the most frequently reported attack (90%), followed closely by flaming (82.7%) and denigration (81.3%). Support also was found for hypothesis 2; with social media sites being the most frequently reported type of medium used for cyberbullying, with 94.7% of participants reporting cyberbullying attack via social media sites. Additionally, text messaging was a frequently reported cyberbullying medium, with 81.3% reporting incidents of cyberbullying attack via text message. Hypothesis 3 was supported, with women reporting more cyberbullying attacks than men overall. By type of attack, women reported significantly more cyberstalking attacks than did men, and while not statistically significant, men reported more incidences of flaming.M.A
FORMING RED CLAY: THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE HISTORY OF RED CLAY STATE HISTORIC PARK
No full textRed Clay State Historic Park preserves and commemorates the last capital of the Cherokee Nation prior to removal, the Red Clay Council Ground. Since the forced removal, the land has ever since been contested ground. Whites quickly acquired it and turned what had been a Native American landscape into a landscape defined by property lines, deeds, and legal filings. Generations of whites, some dependent on enslaved labor, transformed the Council Ground into agricultural fields, soon boosted by the arrival of the railroad along the eastern border in the late nineteenth-century. Historians, archaeologists, Cherokees, and government officials combined efforts in the 1970s to reclaim some of the Council Ground for a state park, which it became in 1979. Red Clay became a place of symbolic reconciliation between the scattered nations of the Cherokees. Yet even that transformation into a Cherokee commemorative property was contested by Muskogee Creeks—because here too were Creek Indians before removal, and their story is scarcely acknowledged or told. Thus, this public history dissertation aims to identify and peel back the layers of history at Red Clay by taking the approach of a cultural landscape story. Red Clay is many things to many people, and the stories are just as rich. Understanding those layers of history and addressing the existing silences in public interpretation reveals an active, continuous cultural landscape.Ph.D
GENOMICS INSIGHTS INTO HOST- MICROBIAL INTERACTION IN RAINBOW TROUT: POTENTIAL ROLE IN FISH GROWTH, MUSCLE YIELD AND DISEASE RESISTANCE
No full textDiverse microbial communities colonizing the intestine of fish contribute to their growth, digestion, nutrition, and immune function. In this study, amplicon-based sequencing was used to study rainbow trout gut microbiota, which are associated with differential growth rates and muscle yield observed in fish breeding programs. For the growth rate study, four full-sibling families were stocked in the same tank and fed an identical diet. Fecal samples from two fast-growing and two slow-growing fish were selected from each family for 16S rRNA microbiota profiling. To determine whether gut microbiota correlated with muscle yield, microbial profiling of fecal samples from 19 fish representing an F2 high-muscle yield genetic line (ARS-FY-H) and 13 fish representing an F1 low-muscle genetic line (ARS-FY-L) were investigated.
Beta diversity of the bacterial communities from the growth rate fish samples showed significant variation between breeding families but not between the fast- and slow-growing fish. However, indicator bacteria with functional implications were representative of fast-growth rate. Similarly, microbial assemblages in muscle yield samples indicated that ARS-FY-H fish have higher microbial diversity compared to those of the ARS-FY-L (p<0.05) based on alpha diversity. Meanwhile, beta diversity indicated significant differences in microbial assemblages between the ARS-FY-H and ARS-FY-L (F1,36= 4.7, p<0.05, R2=11.9%). Tax4Fun analyses predicted characteristic functional capabilities of microbial communities in the ARS-FY-H and ARS-FY-L genetic line samples.
In another study, RNA-seq of the fish pathogenic bacterium, Flavobacterium psychrophilum (Fp), and its outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) identified sRNAs that potentially target immune genes in the rainbow trout host. qPCR results revealed characteristic reciprocal expression of the sRNAs and their targets in whole-body lysates of rainbow trout resistant (ARS-Fp-R) and susceptible (ARS-Fp-S) genetic lines. Whole transcriptome analyses identified transcripts associated with pathogenesis, including cell lysis, virulence factors, quorum sensing, and biofilm formation.
The present studies explore the potential contributions of microbial assemblages to phenotypic variation in important fish traits, muscle accretion, and growth rate. These studies also highlight bacterial small RNA (sRNA) involvement in suppressing host immunity during host-pathogen interaction between Fp and rainbow trout. Identification of genes associated with virulence and cell lysis in Fp might further understanding of the mechanism of pathogenesis during the host-pathogen interaction.Ph.D