The Dissertation Research Proposal Process: A Systematic Approach

A dissertation research proposal is more than just a document that represents the foundation of a doctoral candidate\u27s research journey. It is essential to communicate the study\u27s intent to be undertaken and to gain approval from an academic committee. The present analysis provides a systematic approach to writing a dissertation proposal, offering insights and strategies that align with contemporary research practices. From framing the research with an introduction and formulating research questions to outlining the methodology, this guide highlights the key components contributing to a successful proposal. Emphasizing clarity, originality, and scholarly rigor, this guide also draws from current academic literature and offers practical, actionable advice for doctoral candidates

Bimetallic Nickel-Palladium Nanoparticles Supported on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Suzuki Cross-Coupling Reactions in Continuous Flow

An efficient Suzuki cross-coupling reaction under continuous flow conditions was developed utilizing an immobilized solid supported catalyst consisting of bimetallic nickel-palladium nanoparticles (Ni-Pd/MWCNTs). In this process, the reactants can be continuously pumped into a catalyst bed at a high flow rate of 0.6 mL/min and the temperature of 130 °C while the Suzuki products are recovered in high steady-state yields for prolonged continuous processing. The catalyst was prepared by mechanical shaking of the appropriate nickel and palladium salts using ball-mill energy without the requirement of any solvent or reducing agent. This straightforward, facile, and simple method allows for bulk production of Ni-Pd/MWCNTs nanoparticles with a small particle size ideal for application in continuous flow cross-coupling catalysis. The as-prepared catalyst mostly contains nickel (7.9%) with a very small amount of palladium (0.81%) according to ICP-OES analysis. This remarkable immobilized catalyst can be used several times for different Suzuki reactions with a minimum loss of reactivity and no detectable leaching of the metal nanoparticles. Notably, by modifying the groups on both aryl halides and phenylboronic acids, the method provides access to a diverse array of the Suzuki products in flow with high steady-state yield, making it suitable for applications in industrial and pharmaceutical scales. Moreover, several spectroscopic techniques were employed to identify the structure and composition of the as-prepared Ni-Pd/MWCNTs nanoparticles before and after the reaction in flow such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), BET surface area (physisorption), and FTIR spectroscopy. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved

Intention to Use Cryptocurrencies for Business Transactions: The Case of North Carolina

Financial technologies and payment applications have revolutionized money flow recently, with cryptocurrencies offering decentralization, though still limited in transactional use. This study investigates the factors influencing the use of cryptocurrencies for business transactions in North Carolina (NC). This exploratory research utilizes an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) using survey data collected from 228 North Carolina residents and applying Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to find the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Our results indicate that perceived usefulness, social influence, and personal innovativeness significantly impact users’ intentions to adopt cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange. A surprising finding is that ownership has a negative effect on the intention to use cryptos for business transactions. The findings imply that regulators and cryptocurrency issuers should make the system more useful, take full advantage of social media to promote cryptos, and encourage crypto holders to use cryptos for their intended utility rather than just as speculative instruments. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved

Free Sampling, Bundling, and Digital Formatting: Exploring Strategy Effects of Digital Goods Retailers

Retailers of digital goods such as e-books, online newspapers, and mobile applications often use strategies in multiple aspects. Meanwhile, they need to consider the interrelation between their strategies. Nevertheless, little rigorous research has been conducted on the strategy effects of retailers. Our paper makes an exploratory effort by investigating retailers’ bundling and multi-formatting strategies on their free sample size decisions. Drawing from the prior literature, we develop a set of hypotheses related to the interplay of strategies. We collected data about 316 e-books from a popular e-commerce platform. Based on this unique dataset, we conducted a set of regression analyses to test the interactions of retailers’ strategies. Our results show that retailers would like to offer smaller free samples for e-books with which retailers offer bundling options and audiobook formats with the same content. In addition, for the bundle design features, we find that the bundle size has a significant impact on the free sample size, but the recommended bundle has not exerted such impact. Overall, our research contributes new knowledge and presents practical insights for retailers to better manage their strategy mix. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved

Factors Influencing Jordanian College Understudies\u27 Impressions of Learning through Emergency Distance Learning (EDL)

In this study, which used a quantitative and correlational approach, the variables influencing Jordanian university students\u27 perceptions of their education under emergency remote learning scenarios were investigated. An online survey was administered to a sample of 765 male and female education stage students. Jordan offers higher education for both genders and at different levels in different regions. Many criteria connected to perceived learning were taken into consideration when administering the study questionnaire. It was discovered that the economics students had a more positive perception of learning than the education and science students, followed by deep learning, avoiding superficial learning factors, and comparing the means after analyzing the data, extracting the values of the various correlation indicators, and analyzing linear regression

Teacher Retention and the Future of Learning: Alarming Concerns about Preparing the Next Generation of Citizens

Research is robust in detailing the various reasons teachers leave the profession. There is scant literature on why teachers stay and what should be done to improve teacher retention. Teacher retention is a primary concern nationally and internationally. The inability to retain teachers has resulted in a teacher shortage and significantly affects student learning. Sorenson and Ladd (2020) This study yielded three emergent themes related to integral factors of teacher retention: changing attitudes on administrative support, workplace collegiality, and persistence of passion and purpose. Recommendations offered include encouraging administrators to leverage the passion and commitment of the educators to create and develop school cultures that influence long-term teacher retention

Improving Soybean Seed Sucrose Content using TILLING by Sequencing Analyses of The Soybean Sucrose Synthase Gene Family

Soybean seed quality is influenced by its soluble sugar composition, with high sucrose content being desirable for nutritional and industrial applications. In contrast, excessive raffinose and stachyose levels are considered undesirable due to their adverse effects on gastrointestinal function in humans and monogastric animals. Therefore, developing soybean mutant lines with elevated sucrose content and optimal raffinose and stachyose content is desirable. In this study, we characterized twelve sucrose synthase genes through a comprehensive phylogenetic tree analysis, synteny analysis, gene structure evaluation, and variations in conserved domains. Additionally, we conducted a TILLING by Sequencing approach to identify EMS mutations in the characterized Sucrose synthase genes. Numerous mutations have been identified in soybean sucrose synthases that resulted in high sucrose content, including the sucrose synthases mutants SL446 (R582W) and F1115 (G249E) on Glyma.02G240400 with a sucrose content of 9.5% and 9.1%, respectively. The obtained soybean mutants with enhanced sugar content can be useful in breeding programs to improve soybean nutritional quality without potential developmental trade-offs. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved

Social engagement and health in an aging society: Impact of Basic Old-Age Pension in Korea

Despite older people\u27s notable contributions to economic growth in Korea, a significant proportion of them were left financially unprepared for old age and faced a high risk of poverty after retirement. In 2007, the National Pension was reformed to gradually lower the income replacement ratio from 60 % to 40 %. The Korean government implemented the Basic Old-Age Pension (BOAP) to compensate for the loss in pension income in 2008. While the BAOP benefits mitigate income poverty, it may also have spillover effects on social activities and health outcomes that older people are likely to be deprived of. We use the 2006–2020 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging for the analysis. Using a doubly robust difference-in-differences model and event study, we investigate the impact of BOAP on social engagement and the health of older people. The results show that BOAP recipients tend to have more frequent meetings with children and are likely to have a better relationship with children while they are less likely to participate in social groups and have fewer social group meetings. These results are more evident among those recipients who have received pension benefits for longer years. We find a greater positive impact of BOAP on the health of non-employed, non-married, and poor recipients and the social activities of women, employed, and non-poor recipients. The impact of BOAP may vary by gender, employment status, marital status, and poverty status but the overall results emphasize the continual assistance of BOAP in promoting the social engagement and health of older Koreans. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved

Mediation Analysis of the Perceived Effects of Mentoring and Induction Programs by Beginning Teachers on Career Decisions

Mentoring has long been championed as an effective method to improve the early careers of beginning teachers and has been implemented in hopes of ameliorating the disproportionate attrition rates within the first five years for beginning teachers. This current study examined how important mentoring support is viewed by beginning teachers in influencing their decision to remain in education. Factor analysis was unitized to evaluate and validate using three constructs derived from the 2018 North Carolina Teachers Working Conditions Survey. The subsequent mediated analysis revealed that 1) beginning teachers viewed the support and engagement in mentoring related activities as important factors in their decision making, and 2) they viewed mentoring as influential in their commitment to stay in their current school. Implications for policy and leadership will be discussed. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved

Enable, empower, succeed: a bioinformatics workshop Harnessing open web-based tools for surveillance of bacterial antimicrobial resistance

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to global health, particularly in Western sub-Saharan Africa where 27.3 deaths per 100,000 lives are affected, and surveillance and control measures are often limited. Genomics research plays a crucial role in understanding the emergence, spread and containment measures of AMR. However, its implementation in such settings is particularly challenging due to limited human capacity. This manuscript outlines a three-day bioinformatics workshop in Cameroon, highlighting efforts to build human capacity for genomics research to support AMR surveillance using readily accessible and user-friendly web-based tools. The workshop introduced participants to basic next-generation sequencing concepts, data file formats used in bacterial genomics, data sharing procedures and considerations, as well as the use of web-based bioinformatics software to analyse genomic data, including in silico prediction of AMR, phylogenetics analyses, and a quick introduction to Linux© command line. Results: Briefly, a substantial increase in participants’ confidence in bioinformatics knowledge and skills was observed before and after the workshop. Notably, before the workshop most participants lacked confidence in their ability to identify next-generation sequencing technologies or workflows (64%) and analyse genetic data using web-based bioinformatics tools (81%). After the workshop, majority of participants were extremely confident using NCBI BLAST and other web-based bioinformatics tools for data analysis with a score ≥ 5 among which 45%, 9% and 18% had a score of 8, 9, and 10, respectively. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the effectiveness of this training approach in empowering local researchers and bridging the bioinformatics gap in genomics surveillance of AMR in resource-constrained settings. We provide a detailed description of the relevant training approaches used, including workshop structure, the selection and planning, and utilization of freely available web-based tools, and the evaluation methods employed. Our approach aimed to overcome limitations such as inadequate infrastructure, limited access to computational resources, and scarcity of expertise. By leveraging the power of freely available web-based tools, we demonstrated how participants can acquire fundamental bioinformatics skills, enhance their understanding of biological data analysis, and contribute to the field, even in an underprivileged environment. Building human capacity for genomics research globally, and especially in resource-constrained settings, is imperative for ensuring global health and sustainable containment of AMR. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved