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Religiosity and Mental Health: Examining Potential Influences on Mental Health Outcomes
No full textScholarship has extensively studied the relationship between religiosity and mental health, and the findings remain contradictory. Overall outcomes and wellness of mental health are dependent on religiosity beneficially and adversely; however, the factors that build an individual’s religiosity also influence this relationship. Community support, ritualistic behavior, social connections, and beliefs held and practiced through a religion can shape mental health, and these patterns are visible throughout various religions globally. While gender, race, socioeconomic status, nationality, and immigrant status are additional facets that may contribute to either robust or poor mental health quality, they also interact with the levels of religiosity in an individual’s life. Therefore, this study wishes to explore how the importance of religion can affect an individual’s mental health status. Although this study currently resides in its preliminary stages and does not have concrete findings yet, it will be conducted through secondary analysis of the 2021 General Social Survey (GSS) dataset. Some preliminary findings will likely be ready to present at the Midwest Sociological Society meetings in March
Minimizing Musculoskeletal Injury Risk in Health Care Professionals with Education on Physical Activity Recommendations
No full textWorking in healthcare settings that require patient handling is physically demanding - over 80% of providers involved in patient handling report work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Injuries or exacerbation of a previous injury may occur if the individual cannot tolerate heavy workloads. Injuries that cause lost work time or work restrictions impact the healthcare team, may alter quality of life, and impact employee income. A practical way to minimize these effects is to prevent WMSDs. Training providers to use proper body mechanics, practice patient handling, and engage in regular exercise designed to increase muscular strength and endurance through resistance training improves tissue tolerance to loads. Graded exposure to resistance training builds muscle strength and mass, increases bone density, and improves the overall functioning of the body. The education of future healthcare providers is essential to improving their knowledge base and ultimately reducing the risk of injury. Nursing students enrolled in a basic skills course were provided with information about injury risks linked to patient handling, appropriate handling techniques, and the importance of exercise. A hands-on training lab was implemented to develop essential skills related to patient handling. The nursing students were then given a pre- and post-test survey to assess their knowledge and the effectiveness of the intervention through education. The results of these tests were compared, and showed that participants had an improvement in scores of approximately 15.5 percentage points, or about two more questions answered correctly after education
Computational study of interactions between the superoxide radical and thymine
No full textWe report the first computational study of the intermolecular interactions between the hard anion fluoride (F⁻) and the nucleobase thymine. Calculations were performed using density functional theory (DFT) with the B3LYP functional and the aug-cc-pVDZ basis set. The study included geometry optimizations, vibrational frequency analysis, and construction of radial and angular potential energy surfaces. Our results reveal nearly complete selective proton transfer from the N–H groups of thymine to fluoride, accompanied by bond elongation of 0.55 and 0.46 Å, respectively, for each site. This transfer results in the formation of thymine anions and HF units stabilized by strong ionic hydrogen bonds of 0.93 Å; bond dissociation energy = [insert value] kcal·mol⁻¹. Two distinct hydrogen bonded dimer motifs were identified, with the negative charge localized at different thymine nitrogen sites. Comparison of interaction strengths indicates preferential binding at one N–H site, with stabilization energies of –40.69 and –53.66 kcal·mol⁻¹. Vibrational analysis reveals red-shifts of 1030 and 1466 cm⁻¹, consistent with strong hydrogen-bonding interactions. These findings highlight the role of proton acidity and the local chemical environment in determining the site selectivity of F⁻–thymine interactions. Calculated geometrical parameters and vibrational frequencies will be compared to available experimental data. Building on these results, ongoing work is now focused on extending this approach to the radical anion superoxide (O₂⁻) to further probe nucleobase–anion interactions and their implications for oxidative stress and DNA damage
A REVIEW OF THE EFFECT THE KENTUCKY CENTER FOR SCHOOL SAFETY HAS ON KENTUCKY SCHOOL DISTRICT’S SAFE SCHOOLS DATA
No full textThe study examines the impact of the Kentucky Center for School Safety on safety data from Kentucky Schools. The data consisted of behavior events reported in the Safe Schools Data collected from the student information system, Infinite Campus. The analysis was conducted using interaction data from the Kentucky Center for School Safety and behavioral data from Kentucky Public Schools
Personality Factors Relating to Dishonest AI Use in Higher Education
No full textAs artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models become more advanced, students in higher education are increasing their use of these tools for academic purposes (Marshik et al., 2025). There are many personal attributes that might influence whether and how students make use of AI, especially for academically dishonest purposes.
Academic dishonesty has been positively correlated with fear of failure (Mih & Mih, 2016; Ifeagwazi, 2019). A meta-analysis by Krou, Fong, and Hoff (2021) found a significant negative correlation between academic dishonesty and a mastery goal orientation. Students with low need for cognition are more likely to disengage from difficult classes (Lavrijsen et al., 2025), which may lead them to use AI to complete assignments they deem too difficult or unimportant. Self-efficacy, or students’ belief in their own abilities, strongly affects academic performance. Students with higher self-efficacy are more motivated to put in effort, and are more likely to achieve better grades (Wood et al., 1987). Further, having higher self-efficacy has been found to be negatively associated with academic dishonesty (Krou et al., 2021).
While much research has looked at these variables as they relate to traditional methods of academic dishonesty, little research has examined how they relate specifically to dishonest use of AI tools. The current study aims to provide a foundation for understanding how and why students in higher education utilize AI for their coursework, with the goal that this knowledge can be used for further development of strategies to guide students to use AI in legitimate ways.
Data collection for this project is currently ongoing. Students complete a questionnaire regarding both AI-driven and traditional forms of academic dishonesty, attitudes towards AI, goal orientation, need for cognition, self-efficacy, and fear of failure using adapted, well-cited scales. Correlational analyses will be conducted to determine if there are any significant relationships between students’ academic AI use and the traits measured. It is expected that academic AI use will be positively related with fear of failure, and negatively related to self-efficacy, need for cognition, and mastery orientation. Outcomes and implications will be discussed, particularly in regard to where relationships between AI-driven and more traditional dishonesty demonstrate different relationships with the personality variables
Community Vitality: Establishing Blue Zone Based Education for Elementary Students
No full textBlue Zones are areas of the world where people live longer and healthier lives. These areas share several key characteristics called the Power 9 (Buettner & Skemp, 2016). The goal of this study was to increase general knowledge of Blue Zones as well as the implementation of healthy habits to increase the longevity of the population of Calloway County, Kentucky through educational sessions of elementary students. Researchers involved in this study asked participants to fill out a pre-test to gauge knowledge of Blue Zones. Participants then underwent several educational sessions and activities surrounding the Power 9. Participants were then asked to complete a post-test in order to gauge knowledge and potential implementation of healthy habits discussed during these educational sessions. This study spanned across four weeks and required participants to retain knowledge learned over the course of educational sessions. This study found that general knowledge of Blue Zones increased after these educational sessions and that potential implementation of Blue Zone practices increased as well
THE EFFECTS OF SPEAK OUT! ON HYPOKINETIC DYSARTHRIA IN INDIVIDUALS WITH IDIOPATHIC PARKINSON’S DISEASE
No full textThe purpose of this single subject research study was to prove the efficacy of SPEAK OUT! therapy in improving loudness, rate of speech, and quality of life for individuals who have hypokinetic dysarthria due to Parkinson’s Disease. In this A-B-A design, five weeks of SPEAK OUT! therapy was provided twice a week to four individuals with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Results showed an increase in loudness in conversation and improved quality of life measured by statistical and visual analysis. These findings contribute to the research behind the use of SPEAK OUT! therapy for individuals with HKD due to PD
Development of a Mechanochemical Synthesis for a Palladacycle: Exploring Solvent Characteristics and Reaction Kinetics
Full text linkPalladacycles are a class of palladium complexes that show utility in catalyzing carbon-carbon cross coupling reactions. Mechanochemistry provides a greener alternative to synthesizing these palladacycles via repeated impacts that transfer mechanical energy into the reaction mixture, promoting formation of the desired complex. Specifically, liquid assisted grinding (LAG) has proven to be a viable tradeoff to neat mechanosynthesis of adding a small amount of liquid to decrease synthesis times or improve conversion. Some liquids actively participate in the reaction in a process termed as non-innocent LAG. This work focuses on the development of a mechanosynthetic method using non-innocent LAG for a palladacycle commercially known as Najera Catalyst II. This work will explore the effect that solvent properties such as donor number, acceptor number, and viscosity have on reaction conversion. Additionally, this work examines the kinetics of the formation of Najera Catalyst II, fitting the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Yerofeev-Kolmogrov (JMAYK), Finke-Watzky (FW), and First Order models to the collected conversion fraction data. Finally, a statistical analysis of the model fits is done to further elucidate the kinetics.
Twelve solvents were selected to be screened with varying donor numbers, acceptor numbers, and viscosities. These solvents included: acetonitrile, acetone, methanol, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran, 2-propanol, 2-phenylethanol, formamide, cyclohexanol, dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, and pyridine. The solvent with the best performance was found to be formamide, with a conversion fraction of 0.77 after 600 minutes of milling. It was also found that middle range donor numbers, high acceptor numbers, and relatively low viscosities were best at promoting the formation of the complex.
Kinetic analysis of the synthesis of Najera Catalyst II found the rate constant, k, of the JMAYK model to be 6.103×10-3 min-1 and n to be 0.8464. For the FW model, the value of k1was 7.054×10-3 min-1 and k2\u27 was -2.594×10-3 min-1. Finally, the value of k for the First Order model was 5.795×10-3 min-1. Coefficient of determination (R2) values for each model were as follows: 0.9558 for the JMAYK model, 0.9523 for the FW model, and 0.9486 for the First Order. As the FW and JMAYK models tend to fit data equally well, further statistical analysis was done which proves that the FW and First Order models fit equally well within experimental error. The evidence ratio was found to be 0.2901, which is between the upper and lower bounds of 104 and 10-4 to consider one model statistically a better fit than the other
Simulations of Magnetar Spin-Down Lifetimes Using Magnetic Braking Models
Full text linkThe beginnings of magnetar lifetimes are not very well understood. It is important to improve our understanding of magnetar origins in order to investigate possible evolutionary connections to other classes of NS, such as X-ray dim isolated NSs (XDINSs). Here we follow in the steps of another paper1 in modeling the spin evolution of magnetars, utilizing two avenues of evolution: one involving exponential B-field decay, and the other involving suband super-exponential B-field decay. We replicate the results of the paper, utilizing Monte Carlo methods to generate and evolve synthetic populations of magnetars, which are then compared to the current known magnetar population. We replicate the heat maps generated in their search for optimal model parameters; we also generate for other models heat maps that were not included in the original paper. We then investigate modifications to the B-field decay model in the case of sub-exponential decay, particularly investigating the introduction of a non-decaying core B-field
John Waters Scrapbook Asphalt Plant
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/julian-carroll-coll/1002/thumbnail.jp