Student Authored Works RG-053
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This collection includes unpublished academic work created by NKU students at various levels for graduation and other purposes as well as the student newspaper.
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Item 3D Printed Concrete Block with Steel Reinforcements(Northern Kentucky University) Falch, Tiffany"A few years back a 3D printer was used in the construction of a structure. This brings into play the materials that the 3D printer will use to be able to make the structure. The printer that is going to be used is of a large-scale. The 3D printer will be performing the act of making a concrete cinder block that will have steel reinforcements. To be able to do this it will be a combination of a 3D printer and a 3D welder. The first step is to figure out the dimensions and coding that is needed to combine the two together. Once the sample fabrication of the concrete cinder block with reinforcements is made there will be test done to determine the fabrications mechanical properties. The reason for the 3D printed concrete block with reinforcements is because new research is needed for sustainable and affordable housing."Item Abusive Leadership Among Coaches(Northern Kentucky University) Lonsbury, Bryson"Famous athletic coaches Vince Lombardi and John Wooden exemplify authentic leadership practices, a leadership approach that has been recognized as the most effective leadership approach in athletics. Unfortunately, not all coaches follow those tenets of leadership. This study explores abusive leadership practices that are all too often leveraged by coaches and discusses what can be done to reduce abusive leadership in the world of sports. Using a literature review methodology, journal articles were reviewed to draw conclusions about abusive leadership approaches among athletic coaches."Item Ace Scored Effect on Substance Use and Academic Success(Northern Kentucky University) Moore, RebeccaAdverse Childhood Experiences are traumatic experiences such as physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and many more that happen before the age of eighteen. Ace’s can affect an Individuals substance use as they grow through adolescents and enter into college age. Little research has been done to show the effects of ace scores, substance use, and academic success. This research can help us learn how student success is affected by ace scores and substance use and provide resources to support students in treatment and servicesItem Acetone Centrifugation and Acid/Base Work Up for Palladium-catalyzed Heteroarylation of Ketones Reaction(Northern Kentucky University) Le, Thao Linh (Rosie); Nguyen, Binh"The research belongs to the CURE program which exposes students to research. 2.5 million women in the US are currently fighting against breast cancer. Fortunately, placental aromatase cytochrome exists an active site that is potential for interacting with drug inhibitors. Tropinone derivatives (I80-H40, I80- H44, and I80-HIH45) were synthesized using the microwave to yield H- bonding and interaction with the Heme group in aromatase. The reaction is catalyzed by Palladium catalysis to prevent (bishero)arylation. During the process, a new work up method by acetone and acid/base wash was found to yield a better purification of the product."Item Active/Passive Failover Using Corosync(Northern Kentucky University) Koch, JacobWhen hosting a website, maintaining constant availability is a must. Long outages can lead to a large loss in revenue and potential customers. To address this issue, the concept of high availability must be implemented. There are several methods of which to accomplish this, one however, in which we will explore is failover. More specifically, active passive failover. In our investigation, we will attempt to create a solution using corosync and pacemaker, services which help to monitor and implement solutions to maintain high availability. This will attempt to address the four principles of failover: transparency, speed, automation, and consistency.Item Activity performance and sprint speed in Lazarus lizards (Podarcis muralis)(Northern Kentucky University) Holsclaw, NatalieAs thermoregulators, lizard movement is influenced by changing temperatures across seasons in temperate ecosystems. Lizard thermal performance may or may not be plastic to allow successful invasion or introduction to new locations with different thermal regimes. Measuring locomotor performance can determine an individual’s ability to capture prey or escape predation. This study tests sprint speed performance in the introduced European wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, established in Cincinnati since 1952. Measuring performance of introduced lizards at various body temperatures on a 0.5 m racetrack will determine if their thermal optimum differs from the 33-35˚C thermal optimum of native European populations.Item Addiction and COVID-19(Northern Kentucky University) Dubovsky, ElizabethAddictions are influenced by genetics, neurobiology, past experiences, and stressors. Social isolation due to COVID-19 is especially stressful for addicts. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the pandemic on the frequency of drug use. Using an electronic questionnaire, this study will compare the frequency of illicit substance use prior to and during the pandemic. The findings are expected to show that drug use has increased since the COVID19 pandemic. In turn, these findings will help advocate for the allocation of resources to substance use prevention and intervention programs.Item ADDICTION IN AMERICA– COULD DECRIMINALIZATION HELP TO REWRITE THE FUTURE?(Northern Kentucky University) Bryant, Kristen"Seventy-thousand six hundred and thirty. That is the number of deaths from 2019 that resulted from drug overdose (CDC, 2020). With this staggering number in mind, it has become a struggle to determine the next steps to take in order to combat this issue that is both directly affecting the lives individuals plagued with substance abuse disorders but also that of their families, friends, and the community at large. A solution that has been tossed around more often in recent times is decriminalization— meaning to alleviate and/or eliminate the criminal penalties for specific actions (in this case, the action of drug use for oneself). At face value, this seems to be a solution that would prompt the complete opposite of improvement for levels of addiction. However, with time and research it is hoped that this argument can help to show just how helpful decriminalization can be in the fight against addiction in America. For this analysis and proposal, both qualitative and quantitative research findings are vital to the argument. The human and sociological factor to this issue cannot be ignored and there is a plethora of research on the psychology behind substance abuse which makes this information readily available."Item The Administration of The Mithraic and Eleusinian Mystery Cults: How They Compare(Northern Kentucky University) Spicer, Coralynn"Human beings love mysteries, and this past year I have focused on ancient mystery cults, with a particular interest in the kinds of punishments faced by those who shared the secrets. To be considered a mystery cult, sacred knowledge of the group must have only been available to initiates. For the Mithraic mysteries, knowledge was granted to male soldiers of the Roman Empire who swore allegiance to the Roman emperor in rituals to Mithras in underground chambers called mithraea. The Eleusinian Mysteries, active in the Greek and Roman periods, accepted both men and women as initiates, but they were chosen after a year-long series of festival acts. While little is known of the cult rituals, I was able to offer insight into ideas of punishment, rooted in the cults’ ideas about acceptance, intention, and fairness."Item Adverse Childhood Experiences and Single Parent Families(Northern Kentucky University) Salaah, JameelaCollege students who are single parents face unique challenges that may adversely affect their mental health, which has had limited research exploration. The purpose of this study is to examine any correlation between adverse childhood experiences and single-parent families. The study also determines if there are sufficient resources that support college students who have had adverse childhood experiences and single-parent families on campus. The study would suggest students advocate for appropriate services on campus.Item Adverse Childhood Experiences Change Adulthood(Northern Kentucky University) Earehart, Kaila"Early childhood events can unknowingly impact a person’s entire adult life. Learning some of what the milestones are for early childhood development is very important if a person works inside of a school. Being able to know these signs could potentially stop an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) from happening. Studies show the one in six people have experienced something of the sorts early on which explains why some people are the way they are in their adult life. Students causing problems in the classroom could scratch just the surface of what is actually going on in a tiny human’s life. It is up to the adults in any room where children learn and grow have a responsibility to recognize it and take action."Item Affordable High-Quality Music Education for All(Northern Kentucky University) Hart, Shelby"Music education is highly underfunded and disregarded as a core academic. Social, musical, and psychological reform is needed to provide high- quality music education to all children- including those of low-income backgrounds. Studies prove the long-term effects of music complimenting core academics and the improvement it has to cognition. I will discuss the interdisciplinary approaches to solving this problem and encourage reform."Item Affordances in Video Games: A Study of Perspective(Northern Kentucky University, 2019-05-08) Ocasio, Ana R.Item Al-shatrat_2021System and Metric Analysis Comparison of Neo4j and Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB(Northern Kentucky University) Al-shatrat, Mohammad; Mills, Jeffery; Street, Brian"Graph databases provide a powerful solution for designing databases to store and retrieve relationship dense datasets such as in social media and recommendation engines. Two of the leading graph database implementations used in mainstream application development are Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and Neo4j, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. In this paper, we test and compare the results of both offerings, focusing on key performance metrics like response speed, scalability, and cost, paired with an analysis of unique feature sets to identify which is the better option for application development."Item Algorithmic bias – does it compute?(Northern Kentucky University) Goble, DaltonFurtherance in Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities has created unforeseen issues with unethical development and organizational structural transparency. With a more concise understanding of technological due process, the researchers are more cognizant of human interaction with AI policy, particularly relating to issues of bias and concerning how intersections of identity can increase the chance of failure in consequential decision-making in AI related software-design and distribution process. This research explores a conceptual model of variable interaction between developers/coder, management and audience in the “AI-sphere” and provides recommendations for organizational actors navigating AI complexities of transparency, accountability, and rulemaking and procedural adjudication fairness.Item Alzheimer’s Association Volunteer Family Support Group Facilitators: On-Boarding and Effectiveness(Northern Kentucky University) Witt, EmilyThe Alzheimer’s Association provides education, support, and resources to individuals affected by Alzheimer’s Disease. Family Support Groups (FSGs) are one identified resource. Within Region 10 of the Alzheimer’s Association, the majority of FSGs offered are facilitated by volunteers from the community, rather than trained clinicians. The effectiveness and experience of volunteer facilitators is a significant gap within this area of research. The study will examine the training and on-boarding processes for volunteer FSG facilitators, in comparison to facilitators’ perceived effectiveness and confidence.Item Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine Brand Sentiment on Twitter(Northern Kentucky University) Huesman, Shawn"During March and April, 2021, we collected tweets that contain both a COVID keyword and a vaccine keyword, using the Twitter free streaming API. In this work we focus on analyzing the tweets collected during the week, April 1 – April 7. Each tweet was placed in one or more subsets of tweets based on particular vaccine brand keyword that it contains. Using this approach, we created eight tweet subsets (non-disjoint) for the following COVID vaccines:‘Johnson and Johnson’, ‘AstraZeneca’, ‘Pfizer’, ‘Moderna’, ‘Novavax, ‘Sputnik’, ‘Sinovac’, and ‘Covaxin’. For each subset, we computed the number of tweets per unit of time and the average sentiment score of the tweets during that time window, using a publicly available lexicon-based technique (TextBlob). We visualize both the count and average sentiment values for all 8 vaccine types."Item An Analysis of Food Insecurity and Its Impacts on Higher Education(Northern Kentucky University) Kirshner, William"Food insecurity in higher education is one of the many issues that have been exacerbated by the COVID- 19 pandemic. This study paints a regional picture of food insecurity at a variety of institutions of differing sizes and educational levels. This mixed methods study consists of a survey for students and interviews of college food pantry staff. The results identify areas of need at institutions, as well as, highlight best practices that these pantries currently share. This information can help institutions in either scaling or starting new food pantries to serve their students."Item Analyzing Flaws in Educational Robots for Determining Alignment With IEEE Global(Northern Kentucky University) Ali, Abdikadar; Thaxton, Danielle"The last couple of years have seen a strong movement supporting the need of having ethically aligned trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) within intelligent system-based consumer products, including autonomous cars and robots. This global movement has led to multiple institutional recommendations towards ethical alignment and trustworthy design in AI based autonomous systems and intelligent consumer devices. The IEEE global standards on the design of ethically aligned, trustworthy AI includes a list of guideline principles in this regard. There has been prior research towards finding design flaws and vulnerabilities within various types of consumer robots. However, none of these previous works have studied whether discovering design flaws and security or privacy issues in these robots can help assess their alignment with these IEEE benchmark requirements for trustworthiness and ethical alignment. In attempt to address this gap in existing literature, we have performed a unique experimental study of two educational robots - Zümi and Cozmo. We have found specific vulnerabilities and design weaknesses in these robots within their system functionalities. Our initial research shows that these flaws can lead to hacking, injection attacks, and other robotic malfunctions that might affect the technology users negatively. We conduct a preliminary analysis of how these design flaws can be potentially non- compliant with the IEEE principles for ethically aligned, trustworthy AI. We demonstrate a novel case study of how discovery of design flaws in educational robots can assist in assessing whether their designs align with the new IEEE standards plus principles for robot ethics & trust."Item Analyzing the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic(Northern Kentucky University) Cox, Andrew"The COVID-19 pandemic created difficult choices for state leadership to make to manage the spread of the virus. Daily COVID-19 data were analyzed to assess the impact of political party on the spread. Two-sample t- tests were used to determine if there is a difference in the mean of a maximum 7-day period of positive cases based on party affiliation as well as gender. Evidence suggests that states with Democrat leadership of the House of Representatives and Senate had lower COVID-19 case rates as compared to states with Republican leadership. Some other differences were also observed."