All Faculty Deposits

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https://hdl.handle.net/10919/70873

The "All Faculty Deposits" collection contains works deposited by faculty and appointed delegates from the Elements (EFARs) system. For help with Elements, see Frequently Asked Questions on the Provost's website. In general, items can only be deposited if the item is a scholarly article that is covered by Virginia Tech's open access policy, or the item is openly licensed or in the public domain, or the item is permitted to be posted online under the journal/publisher policy, or the depositor owns the copyright. See Right to Deposit on the VTechWorks Help page. If you have questions email us at vtechworks@vt.edu.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 6718

Using Human Factors Engineering to Enhance New Trauma Bay Effectiveness
Scarboro, Don B.; Jones, Nathan A.; Wolfe, Laurie D.; Collier, Bryan R.; Lollar, Daniel (Elsevier, 2025)
Background: Spatial design can contribute to patient harm and healthcare inefficiencies if the design process does not consider how workers interact with each other and their environments. Human factors engineering (HFE) applies human-centered design assessment to the built environment to evaluate implications for patients and staff. HFE assessment was applied to a proposed trauma bay design prior to construction. We hypothesized that HFE evaluation would produce significant changes to a new trauma bay layout that would improve provider safety and decrease errors and costs. Materials and Methods: Cardboard mockup of the proposed trauma bay were created. Mock scenarios were performed with two interdisciplinary teams. An iterative process whereby the architectural plans were adapted by the trauma medical director and then each subsequent team was performed with changes made in real time. We utilized a mixed-methods analysis including pre/post surveys as well as video analyses including link analysis, bump analysis, and crossover analysis. Our results were integrated into layout design recommendations provided to the architects. Results: Mockup cost was $2,986 and required 10 hours of labor. Two teams completed six scenarios. Staff simulation time was 70 hours while analysis took 36 hours. Survey data indicated improvements in “ability to do your job” from 3.85 to 4.25 (unchanged median 4.0). Link analysis demonstrated areas in certain layouts that created work inefficiencies. Bump analysis demonstrated a decrease in bumps from 47 to 33. Crossover analysis showed a decrease in patient crossovers from 7 to 0. Estimated cost savings were estimated at $333,200. Conclusion: The opportunity for HFE assessment integration into the construction of new healthcare facilities is rare. We present a structured and iterative approach to testing new physical design changes prior to construction. We identified improvements in staff satisfaction, staff safety, and estimated cost.
A Cross-cultural Analysis of Attributes that Influence Customers’ Hotel Experience in Green Hotels
Bernard Simpson, Shaniel; Ho, Jo Ann; Dias, Alvaro; Zizka, Laura; Singal, Manisha (SAGE, 2025-08-10)
Although there is increasing awareness of hotels’ sustainability efforts, there are gaps in understanding both how and when green practices influence guest evaluations. To address this gap, this study applies the complexity theoretical framework and fsQCA to examine key attributes that influence guest experiences as reflected in online reviews of green hotels. In our study, emotions emerged as a critical attribute, surpassing the impact of sustainability measures. Results indicate specific combinations of hotel characteristics, such as ratings and sustainability practices as well as socio-cultural factors like collectivism and gender, drive positive and negative feedback in hotels. An intervention model for hotel managers to encourage proenvironmental behavior of guests is proposed based on their attribute grouping. Different strategies such as social norm messaging, co-creation with customers, and status signaling, will encourage guests to recognize and highlight sustainability practices in online reviews.
AAMC Group on Educational Affairs
Harendt, Sarah M. (AAMC, 2025)
Produced an infographic for the AAMC to utilized across multiple applications to describe the Group on Educational Affairs overall and the regional sections scope and role.
AAMC Group on Educational Affairs Website Product
Harendt, Sarah M. (2025-07-21)
FIWARE-Based Telemedicine Apps Modeling for Patients' Data Management
Aizaga-Villon, Xavier; Alarcon-Ballesteros, Karen; Cordova-Garcia, Jose; Sanchez Padilla, V.; Velasquez, Washington (IEEE, 2022)
Open-source technologies enable communication channels between web platforms and innovative architectures to provide reliable data distribution, in which healthcare applications can particularly benefit from them. This work presents a communication channel design to improve the user experience about telemedicine apps, especially when patients are in remote locations while assuring their information using an innovative approach. The general purpose is to avoid users having to physically go to medical facilities by the correct data management related to their appointments and medical history. By preventing the attendance to healthcare facilities, patients do not expose themselves unnecessarily to viruses and bacteria. Therefore, this research includes a data communications model based on the FIWARE platform and cloud technologies for reliable user medical information distribution. The prototype is developed based on open-source technologies and registered the evaluation of different performance metrics that included cases scenarios in which administrators of healthcare centers configured options according to the availability of assets and informatics resources. The results show the effectiveness of the communication model under realistic conditions for encouraging the acceptance of telemedicine alternatives, especially when patients and medical staff present limitations regarding mobility.
Sound diffuser inspired by cymatics phenomenon
Algargoosh, Alaa; Hossameldin, Hany; El-Wakeel, Hala (2015-06)
Sound diffusers are important components in enhancing the quality of room acoustics. The present disclosure relates to a sound diffuser obtained by using properties of the cymatics phenomena. Cymatics is the study of sound and vibration made visible, typically on the surface of a plate, diaphragm or membrane. Two examples of diffusers are designed by the cymatic shapes and modeled by using a quadratic quadratic residue sequence. It is found that this type of acoustic diffusers can be used to maintain the acoustic energy in a room and at the same time can treat unwanted echoes and reflections by scattering sound waves in many directions. The design allows for creating different interior space designs by changing the arrangement of the diffuser panels, and this leads to different applications for the diffusers.
From asking “would I be ready?” to “would I belong?”: Preparedness perceptions of forest and natural resources university students in the United States to enter the workforce
Chamlagain, Kamana; Larasatie, Pipiet; Rubino, Elena; Knowles, Shanna (Elsevier, 2025-09-01)
Despite its economic contribution, the forest and related natural resource (FNR) sector in the U.S. faces significant challenges, which higher education has been instrumental in overcoming. This study aims to investigate the patterns of entry of university students into the FNR workforce, with a focus on their perceptions of preparedness to enter the workforce. We followed the perceived fit theory as a framework to model students' preparedness. Based on survey results, we found students chose “analysis, synthesis, and critical skills” as their highest level of competency development. However, within the same measurement, the recruiters placed significantly high importance on “responsibility and perseverance” competency. We discuss the differences in perceptions between Gen X recruiters and Gen Z students from generational perspectives in the workplace. Furthermore, we highlight the broader competency units that these students and recruiters have selected. Theoretically, “analysis, synthesis, and critical skills” and “responsibility and perseverance” are grouped into “lifelong learning.” However, despite lifelong learning being considered essential for cultivating a versatile, adaptive, and employable workforce, further analysis reveals a significant negative correlation between students' lifelong learning competencies and their perceived preparedness for entering the workforce. The significant negative correlation is also found on student respondents who identified themselves as Black, or woman, or other gender identity, suggesting the less sense of belonging. Leaders of the FNR program could facilitate chances for students to articulate their experiences of belonging, through mentorship or networking based on shared social identities or life stages.
Airport Layout Updater Using Flight Surveillance Information
Gradzki, Tomek; Hotle, Susan (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2025-07-02)
Accurate airport layout information is essential for airport surface movement research. This study evaluates if flight movements from the Airport Surface Detection Equipment—Model X, combined with taxiway design standards from the Federal Aviation Administration, can automatically update surface polygons on airport layouts and distinguish whether the new polygon is a taxiway or apron. The study updates the layouts for six United States airports. The Airport Layout Updater developed uses [Formula: see text]-means to detect the taxiway centerlines before applying the widths and fillets based on the design aircraft that used that surface. New apron areas are detected where the transponders are turned on/off, indicating a gate-out/gate-in event. Airport surfaces are removed if they overlap with the runway polygons, which the Federal Aviation Administration updates every 28 days. The Airport Layout Updater had a 98.8% success rate of detecting a new surface and 81.0% of generating a surface that accurately represents the bearing, shape, and size of the real-life surface. Future research could improve the fillet generation algorithm by differentiating between nonexisting fillets and those that exist but were not used by flights. Similar limitations were found for apron areas, where flights do not travel near the apron perimeter.
The impact of sulfatide loss on the progress of Alzheimer's disease
Finkielstein, Carla V.; Capelluto, Daniel G. S. (Wiley, 2023-08)
Cholesterol modulates membrane elasticity via unified biophysical laws
Kumarage, Teshani; Gupta, Sudipta; Morris, Nicholas B.; Doole, Fathima T.; Scott, Haden L.; Stingaciu, Laura-Roxana; Pingali, Sai Venkatesh; Katsaras, John; Khelashvili, George; Doktorova, Milka; Brown, Michael F.; Ashkar, Rana (Springer, 2025-07)
Cholesterol and lipid unsaturation underlie a balance of opposing forces that features prominently in adaptive cell responses to diet and environmental cues. These competing factors have resulted in contradictory observations of membrane elasticity across different measurement scales, requiring chemical specificity to explain incompatible structural and elastic effects. Here, we demonstrate that - unlike macroscopic observations - lipid membranes exhibit a unified elastic behavior in the mesoscopic regime between molecular and macroscopic dimensions. Using nuclear spin techniques and computational analysis, we find that mesoscopic bending moduli follow a universal dependence on the lipid packing density regardless of cholesterol content, lipid unsaturation, or temperature. Our observations reveal that compositional complexity can be explained by simple biophysical laws that directly map membrane elasticity to molecular packing associated with biological function, curvature transformations, and protein interactions. The obtained scaling laws closely align with theoretical predictions based on conformational chain entropy and elastic stress fields. These findings provide unique insights into the membrane design rules optimized by nature and unlock predictive capabilities for guiding the functional performance of lipid-based materials in synthetic biology and real-world applications.
Book review: História da informática na América Latina, and Por uma história da informática no Brasil
Prieto-Nanez, Fabian (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025)
A review of two books: História da informática na América Latina: Reflexões e experiências (Argentina, Brasil e Chile), Edited by Marcelo Vianna, Lucas de Almeida Pereira, and Colette Perold. Jundiaí: Paco Editorial, 2021. Pp. 340. Por uma história da informática no Brasil: Os precursores das tecnologias computacionais (1958–1972), by Marcelo Vianna and Lucas de Almeida Pereira. Jundiaí: Paco Editorial, 2021. Pp. 316.
A child-robot theater afterschool program can promote children’s conceptualization of social robots’ mental capacities and engagement in learning
Dong, Jiayuan; Yu, Shuqi; Choi, Koeun; Jeon, Myounghoon (Frontiers, 2025-03-14)
Research on integrating emerging technologies, such as robots, into K-12 education has been growing because of their benefits in creating engaging learning environments and preparing children for appropriate human-robot interactions in the future. However, most studies have focused on the impact of robots in formal educational settings, leaving their effectiveness in informal settings, such as afterschool programs, unclear. The present study developed a 9-week afterschool program in an elementary school to promote STEAM (STEM + Art) education for elementary school students. The program incorporated four modules (Acting, Dancing, Music & Sounds, and Drawing), each with specific learning objectives and concluding with a theater play at the end. This program facilitated hands-on activities with social robots to create engaging learning experiences for children. A total of 38 students, aged 6–10 years, participated in the afterschool program. Among these students, 21 took part in research activities, which included answering questions about their perceptions of robots compared to other entities (i.e., babies and beetles), learning interest and curiosity, and their opinions about robots. In addition, four teachers and staff participated in interviews, sharing their reflections on children’s learning experiences with robots and their perceptions of the program. Our results showed that 1) children perceived robots as having limited affective and social capabilities but gained a more realistic understanding of their physiological senses and agentic capabilities; 2) children were enthusiastic about interacting with robots and learning about robot-related technologies, and 3) teachers recognized the importance of embodied learning and the benefits of using robots in the afterschool program; however, they also expressed concerns that robots could be potential distractions and negatively impact students’ interpersonal relationships with peers in educational settings. These findings suggest how robots can shape children’s perceptions of robots and their learning experiences in informal education, providing design guidelines for future educational programs that incorporate social robots for young learners.
Mobile App for the information management of pre-existing diseases towards preventing COVID-19 severity
Velasquez, Washington; Coronel, Romulo J.; Loayza, Anghelo A.; Padilla, V. Sanchez; Filian-Gomez, Margarita (IEEE, 2023)
World Health Organization (WHO) studies indicate that people with pre-existing diseases are prone to suffer the severity of the effects of COVID-19 in case of infection. This work presents a mobile application development through open-source software and machine learning techniques for the prediction of the COVID-19 severity in an individual based on pre-existing disease information. For the prediction of the severity and to determine the possibility that an individual ends up in an intensive care unit (ICU), we set a machine learning algorithm, which resulted in a higher probability of prediction when the user undergoes cases of pre-existing diseases, with an efficiency rate of 98 %. We carried out load and stress testing to verify the processing performance, battery consumption, startup latency, and maximum amount of user connections supported by the application, complemented with a wristband for individual's real-time monitoring to attain low battery consumption when using public cloud services and low-power technologies for the connection.
Happiness improves perceptions and game performance in an escape room, whereas anger motivates compliance with instructions from a robot agent
Dong, Jiayuan; Jeon, Myounghoon (Academic Press - Elsevier, 2025-08)
Emotions have been discovered to have critical impacts on human-robot interaction (HRI), but research has focused more on robots’ emotion expressions than user emotions. The present study investigated the impact of users’ emotions (happiness and anger) on their perceptions and trust toward robots, perceived workload, and task performance in an escape room with a robot agent. Forty-six college students participated in our study. The results suggested that happy participants rated the robot agent as significantly more likable, safer, and more comfortable than angry participants. Angry participants complied significantly more with the robot agent's instructions than happy participants, but fewer succeeded. Among the participants who failed to escape the room, angry participants showed significantly higher cognitive trust in the robot than happy participants. The results underscored the importance of user emotions in shaping user perceptions and trust in robots, providing valuable theoretical and practical implications for emotions in HRI.
Investigating drivers' responses to cyber-attacks while conducting non-driving related tasks in highly automated vehicles
Ban, Gayoung; Jeon, Myounghoon (Academic Press - Elsevier, 2025-08)
As automated vehicles (AVs) advance, understanding human factors in cybersecurity incidents is essential to ensuring driver safety and system resilience. While prior research has explored driver responses to cyber-attacks in partially automated (Level 2–3) vehicles, less is known about how drivers in highly automated vehicles respond. In Level 4 automation, drivers are not required to monitor the roadway continuously but may still need to intervene in unforeseen cyber-attack, making re-engagement dynamics fundamentally different from lower levels of automation. This study examines the impact of non-driving-related task (NDRT) engagement and cyber-attack criticality on situation awareness, visual attention, response time, and workload in Level 4 AVs. To this end, forty-five participants drove in a driving simulator with two types of cyber-attack criticality (non-safety-related, and safety-related as within-subjects) and three non-driving related tasks (NDRTs) engagement levels (no, single and dual as between-subjects). Results indicate that drivers engaged in any level of NDRT (Single or Dual) had significantly reduced situation awareness of road conditions and delayed response time and gaze reallocation to critical information after a cyber-attack, particularly in Dual NDRT conditions. Additionally, safety-related cyber-attacks induced greater cognitive workload, suggesting that drivers exert more mental effort when responding to high-risk threats. These findings highlight the unique re-engagement challenges in Level 4 AVs, where drivers must transition from passive engagement in NDRTs to active situation awareness during cybersecurity incidents. The results emphasize the need for human-centered AV cybersecurity systems that optimize alert delivery, minimize cognitive overload, and facilitate rapid driver response to emerging threats in highly automated driving environments.
Metrics of glycemic control but not body weight influence flavor nutrient conditioning in humans
Baugh, Mary Elizabeth; Ahrens, Monica L.; Burns, Amber K.; Sullivan, Rhianna M.; Valle, Abigail N.; Hanlon, Alexandra L.; DiFeliceantonio, Alexandra G. (Elsevier, 2025-07)
The modern food landscape, marked by a rising prevalence of highly refined, ultra-processed, and highly palatable foods, combined with genetic and environmental susceptibilities, is widely considered a key factor driving obesity at the population level. Gaining insight into the physiological and behavioral mechanisms that shape food preferences and choices is crucial for understanding obesity's development and informing prevention strategies. One factor influencing habitual eating patterns, which may impact body weight, is flavor-nutrient learning. Research suggests that post-oral signaling is diminished in both animals and humans with obesity, potentially affecting flavor-nutrient learning. By analyzing pooled data from two similar preliminary studies, we found that markers of glycemic control-specifically fasting glucose and HbA1C-rather than BMI, were negatively correlated with changes in flavor liking in our flavor-nutrient learning task. These findings contribute to the expanding body of research on flavor-nutrient learning and underscore the variability in individual responses to these paradigms. Obesity is increasingly recognized as a complex and heterogeneous condition with diverse underlying mechanisms. Together, our findings and existing evidence emphasize the importance of further investigating how phenotypic factors interact to shape food preferences and eating behaviors.
Warming air temperatures alter the timing and magnitude of reservoir zooplankton biomass
Wander, Heather L.; Lofton, Mary E.; Doubek, Jonathan P.; Howard, Dexter W.; Hipsey, Matthew R.; Thomas, R. Quinn; Carey, Cayelan C. (2025-10-01)
Warming air temperatures are altering many physical, chemical, and biological processes in freshwater ecosystems. Process-based ecosystem models are important tools for predicting potential future changes to water quality due to warming by simulating complex ecological interactions. However, while previous studies have modeled climate-driven impacts on water quality (e.g., water temperature, dissolved oxygen, phytoplankton), few have included zooplankton, despite their critical role in freshwater ecosystems. Zooplankton functional groups can exhibit variable responses to warming temperatures, but the implications of these responses on freshwater ecosystems are not well understood. To understand the effects of warming on reservoir zooplankton and water quality, we configured and calibrated a process-based freshwater ecosystem model simulating three zooplankton functional groups and then applied multiple air temperature scenarios to explore ecosystem responses. We found that warming air temperature increased modeled rotifer biomass and decreased modeled cladoceran and copepod biomass. While the timing of annual rotifer peak biomass was not altered by warming air temperatures, annual copepod biomass peaks were delayed by 54–100 days within a year across warming scenarios. The timing of cladoceran biomass peaks was more variable in response to warming. Changes to the timing and magnitude of modeled zooplankton biomass were likely driven by changes in nutrients and phytoplankton, as we observed a trophic mismatch between phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass. These results highlight the importance of including zooplankton functional groups in process-based models when exploring the future effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems, as changes in zooplankton communities can directly and indirectly alter ecosystem dynamics.
Heeding the messenger: The influence of sender characteristics on security message compliance intentions
Schuetz, Sebastian; Bansal, Gaurav; Weng, Qin; Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Thatcher, Jason (Wiley, 2025)
How security messages can be used to motivate information technology (IT) users’ security behaviour has been of keen interest to IS research. To that end, studies have focused on the content of security messages; however, few studies have examined the influence of message senders. In this paper, we build on social influence theory and integrate it with the concept of inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) to develop a model that examines how perceptions of sender characteristics—cybersecurity expertise, coercive power, and similarity—can yield positive and negative influence on message outcomes, captured in recipients’ message compliance intentions. We test our model in four different studies using field and scenario experiments across three target populations: the general public, students, and employees. Perceived expertise, power, and similarity had similar effects among the general public and students: Perceived expertise was positively associated with message outcomes, but perceived power and similarity were negatively associated. In contrast, employees reacted differently from the general public and students in that they responded positively to perceived power, with perceived expertise and similarity having negligible effects. Across these three target populations, we found that participants reacted to senders high in perceived power and similarity with IMI, which reduced their message compliance intentions. Our results suggest that senders must be chosen carefully, depending on the target population, because selecting the wrong sender can increase the likelihood of a message being rejected.
ROPES Hub Research Brief: Strengthening STEM Pathways - Lessons Learned in S-STEM Scholar Recruitment
Newcomer, James; Richardson, Amy Jo; Work, Anya; Knight, David B. (2025-08-04)
The MetLife Study of Elder Financial Abuse: Crimes of Occasion, Desperation, and Predation Against America’s Elders
Metlife Mature Market Institute; National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse; Center for Gerontology, Virginia Tech (MetLife, 2011-06-01)

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