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Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on College Students and their Teamwork Abilities
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic left a significant negative impact on the mental health of the world, most notably on traits that affect how people work well with others. Previous research into the effects of the pandemic have found how education has been impacted from the sides of both colleges and students to detract from upper education as a whole. Teamwork and group efforts also ran into unforeseen issues, heavily impacting college students both in the middle of and well past the effects of pandemic restrictions. This thesis uses and analyzes data from a survey disseminated to the University of New Haven Chargers Marching Band, who is classified as a large-scale team that saw significant changes due to the aforementioned pandemic restrictions. Said survey goes over the impacts to the mental health of marching band members, as well as their perception on how their teamwork was impacted by the restricted season. This data highlights how the aspects of goal-setting and social interaction were hit the hardest by pandemic restrictions in the marching band, and potentially for the future of all current college students as they move into the workplace
Near-Infrared Dye-Glycogen Conjugates for Photodynamic and Photothermal Therapy
Get PDFNear-Infrared (NIR) dyes are small organic molecules emerging as promising imaging agents and therapeutics for anticancer application. However, their small size inevitably resulted in several drawbacks, including low in vivo stability, inherent toxicity, and lack of targeting ability, which compromise their potential for clinical use. This project aims to address those issues by developing a novel “macromolecular” NIR dye. By covalently engineering the glycogen surface with indocyanine green (an FDA-approved NIR dye), we will create a series of glycogen-NIR dye conjugates with a size of 100-200 nm. In addition, this NIR dye is not stable in water for a long time, and by conjugating it to glycogen, the stability and storage condition of this material would be highly improved. The tumor-targeting ability of nanoscale glycogen-NIR dye conjugate is expected to outperform traditional small molecular dyes because of the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect. More importantly, upon cell uptake, macromolecular NIR dyes can promote photodynamic and photothermal therapy of cancer cells under NIR irradiation. We envision that our design of macromolecular NIR dyes will provide new insights into the development of next-generation photodynamic and photothermal therapeutics, which could be an exogenous drug delivery system for the photothermal therapy of cancer cells
Economic Freedom, Capital, and Growth: Evidence from the States
Get PDFHall et al. (2010) develop a growth model where the allocation and productivity of human and physical capital depend on the quality of institutions in a country. We apply their model to the US states from 1980 to 2000. Using the Economic Freedom of North America as our measure of institutional quality, we find evidence that increases in human capital lead to increases in output per worker only in states with average EFNA scores above 5.91. Physical capital, unlike in the cross-country case, always has a positive effect on output per worker
The Application of Cayman Chemical’s Fentanyl Analog Screening Kit toward the Evaluation of Portable Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to Identify Fentanyl Analogs with Similar Retention Times
No full textThe opioid epidemic is a growing global concern. In 2021, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded preliminary data stating that there were 93,331 deaths because of drug overdoses. Of those deaths, over 69,000 were attributed to opioids. An opioid of particular concern is fentanyl, which is 50 - 100 times more potent than morphine and has multiple analogs of variable potencies. In street samples it is primarily linked to illegally made fentanyl. To combat this growing crisis, suitable instrumentation that can be successfully deployed at the sample site is necessary. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is commonly used in forensic science laboratories to provide confirmatory identification of drugs providing a highly specific result. For this reason, its potential value for the identification of various fentanyl analogs is significant. In this research, a portable GC-MS system, one with an ion trap mass analyzer, was evaluated to establish its abilities to detect a selection of fentanyl analogs. The GC-MS system was used to analyze Cayman Chemical’s fentanyl analog screening kits, which contain 250 synthetic drug samples and of those 210 are fentanyl analogs. The results were evaluated to determine the identification capability for the portable GC-MS system. After this evaluation, a new library was created based on the data from the ion trap GC-MS to better identify the fentanyl analogs using this type of instrumentation. This GC-MS library was tested for its ability to identify different fentanyls with similar retention times both on its own and in mixtures of varying concentrations
A Social Learning Perspective on Sexual Coercion
Get PDFAkers’ (2009) social learning theory proposes that individuals learn deviant behavior through the same learning processes by which they learn conventional behavior. Social learning theory has been applied as an explanation for an array of deviant behaviors; however, no known published research has explored the theory’s ability to explain the perpetration of sexual coercion. This project investigated the extent to which Akers’ social learning theory can be applied to sexual coercion. This project utilized a sample of undergraduate students enrolled in various courses at a private four-year institution in the northeast. Descriptive statistics revealed a lack of variability among responses to the sexual coercion inventory. Therefore, the project explored the relationship between differential association and modeling, and definitions. Chi square analyses revealed that individuals who are exposed to prosocial influences regarding sexual assault, such as media relating to the #MeToo movement and family who support the movement, are more likely to hold beliefs which emphasize the necessity of freely given consent and trust media depictions of the prevalence of sexual assault. Findings from the project suggest that social influences can impact the beliefs they develop regarding healthy sexual behavior
Virtual Teams During Covid-19: A Study on Group Perceptions, Emergent States, and Outcomes
Get PDFDue to the COVID‐19 pandemic, university students were forced to transition to emergency remote learning that, for many, required an abrupt shift from traditional face-to face instruction. The current study leveraged the unique opportunity provided by the change in communication modalities to compare pre and post pandemic perceptions of teamwork. Using the input-mediator-output-input (IMOI) framework, this study sought to discover how group processes, emergent states, and outcomes differed for face-to-face and virtual group work. As part of a retrospective pretest design, a convenience sample of fifty-two graduate students from the University of New Haven completed a single survey that asked them to compare their experiences before and after the transition from face-to-face to virtual team collaboration. Dependent-sample t-tests were used to compare before and after perceptions of team constructs, and correlational data illuminated underlying data trends. Results showed that when in post-pandemic virtual groups, graduate students reported fewer positive experiences with their groups as opposed to when they were able to conduct their teamwork in-person before the pandemic. Both satisfaction with group members and overall group cohesion were significantly lower in virtual groups than they were when the students were face-to-face. Consequently, group performance was also reported as significantly lower than it had been before the pandemic. Major differences were found primarily in second-year students. The study’s findings demonstrate that workgroup cohesion is strongly linked to the satisfaction and performance of student project teams and was substantially higher when teams met face-to-face. Recommendations for educational practice regarding building cohesive virtual student teams are put forth
Adaptation of Graphic Design for Inclusivity of Diverse Demographic Audiences
Get PDFBeing culturally aware of one’s target audience is essential in order to avoid insensitive design choices and communicate more effectively. Through secondary source research, I described design issues impacting populations that are frequently overlooked. I found examples that either lack cultural awareness or inclusivity for these populations. This project analyzes these existing design materials and provides a redesigned version following more inclusive standards
Is Honesty the Best Policy? Examining the Effect of Product Safety Communication on Blame Attributions in Causal Chains
Get PDFThis paper extends research on attribution theory through three studies examining how the accuracy and explicitness of product safety information communicated to various entities within a causal chain influences blame attributions after an accident. Unlike prior research, we find consistent evidence that entities in the causal chain were able to limit blame attributions by communicating safety information that’s quality met or exceeded the quality of information available to that entity. Entities did not, however, benefit from providing more accurate information than what had been communicated to them by previous members of the causal chain. This insight suggests that the controllability of information communicated played an important role in the relationship between accurate communication and blame attributions. Our findings provide meaningful insight into steps that organizations can take to limit their potential for receiving blame following an accident, helping to bridge the gap between basic and applied research
Numerical Modelling of Elastic Wave Propagation in Anisotropic Media Using the Finite-Difference Time Domain (FDTD) and Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique (EFIT)
Get PDFAs ultrasonic testing becomes increasingly widespread, education and simulation in UT becomes increasingly useful. This thesis describes development of two simulations - the first, a Finite Difference Time Domain method that can be deployed to consumer GPUs. This simulation is designed to be user-friendly and provide quick interactivity for pedagogical use, for example, in a classroom or industry training. The second simulation is an anisotropic Elastodynamic Finite Integration Technique implementation, which can be deployed to high performance computers for large-scale parallel simulations. This anisotropic simulation is, to the author’s knowledge, the first open-source implementation of anisotropic EFIT
Evaluation of Raman Spectroscopy as A Screening Tool to Predict DNA Recovery Potential in Skeletonized Human Remains
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to determine if Raman spectroscopy can be used as a rapid and non-destructive screening tool to predict DNA recovery potential for bone, and to explore the correlation between the compositional microstructure of bone and preservation of DNA. The two primary structural components of bone are calcium hydroxyapatite and collagen. It is proposed that by analyzing bone using Raman spectroscopy, the presence, state, and distribution of hydroxyapatite and collagen can be measured, which may be useful in predicting if the sample is viable for DNA analysis. The ultimate goal of this study is to develop a screening tool which has the potential to save both money and time for forensic DNA testing of recovered human remains. Previous research demonstrates that the best bones for DNA preservation and recovery are weight-bearing long bones and molar teeth. The diaphysis (shaft) of a long bone is sampled because it is dense, compact bone and contains many osteocytes (nucleated bone cells) that possess DNA. Multiple cuts are made along the diaphysis. However, since the microstructure of bone decomposes in a non-uniform (heterogeneous) manner postmortem, there is no way of knowing which cuttings or regions of the diaphysis contain the most intact microstructure (and presumably the most DNA). The current study hypothesized that by using Raman spectroscopy, the location of the most intact hydroxyapatite and collagen microstructure within the shaft of a long bone can be determined, and that these regions will produce higher yields of DNA (and better-quality DNA)