Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying Roles Of Software Developers From Their Answers On Stack Overflow, Dean Power

Dissertations

Stack Overflow is the world’s largest community of software developers. Users ask and answer questions on various tagged topics of software development. The set of questions a site user answers is representative of their knowledge base, or “wheelhouse”. It is proposed that clustering users by their wheelhouse yields communities of similar software developers by skill-set. These communities represent the different roles within software development and could be used as the basis to define roles at any point in time in an ever-evolving landscape of software development. A network graph of site users, linked if they answered questions on the same …

The High Confidence Data Classification Method With Near Zero Classification Error, Truong Xuan Tran

Dissertations

Many machine learning applications require a high degree of confidence in the correctness of the classification results. Ideally, no decision made by the classification model should be a misclassification. However, no classifier can guarantee to provide a correct classification for all data items. Therefore, it is reasonable to allow the classification model to classify a data item only when the certainty level is high and reject to make a decision if the certainty level is not high. In this dissertation, a high confidence data classification method is developed. The method helps the classification model avoid classifying data items that are …

Secure Data Integrity In Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, Elbasher O Esalmi Elmahdi

Dissertations

Wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs) have become increasingly popular in our everyday business and personal lives. As long as nodes in the network belong to the same organization and share the same goal, it can generally be expected that all nodes can be trusted. So, without any security measures in place, any node is capable of compromising the integrity of the data it forwards. It is necessary to save or secure data transmission in WANETs to achieve effective communication because most of the routing protocols proposed for WANETs assume a trusted and reliable environment and they do not consider the …

Effects Of Altering Variable, Basic Residues Of Ribosomal Proteins Ul4 And Ul22 Facing The Ribosomal Exit Tunnel On Growth, Resistance,And Gene Expression In Escherichia Coli: Focus On Ul22 K90d, Elizabeth A. Franklin

Dissertations

Mutational changes in bacterial ribosomes that confer antibiotic resistance decrease cell fitness. Determining the genetic factors that interconnect antibiotic resistance and cell fitness is critical in the fight against bacterial infections. This study describes gene expression and phenotypic changes presented in Escherichia coli cells carrying a uL22 K90D mutant ribosomal protein, which showed growth defects and resistance to macrolide antibiotics. Other uL4 and uL22 mutation, in basic, non-conserved residues, were examined for phenotypic changes, however the uL22 K90D mutation displayed the most consistent phenotypes when compared to the wild type strain, and thus was the focus of this study. Ribosome …

Event-Driven Servers Using Asynchronous, Non-Blocking Network I/O: Performance Evaluation Of Kqueue And Epoll, Lorcan Leonard

Dissertations

This research project evaluates the performance of kqueue and epoll in the context of event-driven servers. The evaluation is done through benchmarking and tracing which are used to measure throughput and execution time respectively. The experiment is repeated for both a virtualised and native server environment. The results from the experiment are statistically analysed and compared. These results show significant differences between kqueue and epoll, and a profound impact of virtualisation as a variable.

The Development Of The Country Satisfaction Scale, Daewon Kim

Dissertations

In light of nation-wide events and its impact on mental health, this study developed the Country Satisfaction Scale (CSS) to measure individual’s country satisfaction. This study interviewed 7 participants in the United States to generate scale items, collected data for preliminary factor analysis (N = 371), and for final factor analyses (N = 802). The results confirmed a 3-factor (Systemic Structures, Equality & Acceptance, and Resources & Benefits) structure with two additional complementary factor models: second-order 3-factor model and bifactor-(S-1) model with general (G) factor and 2 specific factors. Further validity tests also confirmed the CSS. The results of this …

Political Justificationism: A More Realistic Epistemology Of Political Disagreement, Randolph Jay Carlson

Dissertations

Disagreement is probably the most salient feature of our contemporary political environment. This project aims to examine political disagreements from the perspective of the recent discussions of the epistemology of disagreement more generally. Some, known as conciliationists, argue that when confronted with a disagreement with someone who is equally knowledgeable and well-informed as you are on the issue (known as an "epistemic peer"), one should become substantially less confident in that antecedently held belief. While some have tried to straightforwardly apply the conciliationist approach to political disagreements, I argue that such an approach makes us vulnerable to significant cognitive biases …

Disrupting The School-To-Prison Pipeline: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review Of Alternative Discipline Practices To Reduce Exclusion And Promote Equity, Cara Diclemente

Dissertations

Zero tolerance policies were designed to create safety by implementing automatic exclusion (e.g., suspensions, expulsions) for misbehavior in response to rising school violence in the United States. However, evidence over the past four decades shows that these policies fail to increase objective and subjective safety, and instead foster poor school climate and disproportionate rates of minority groups in the school-to-prison pipeline. Previous research and literature reviews suggest there are a host of developing Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) practices that have promising potential to reduce exclusionary outcomes and foster equitable treatment of vulnerable student populations, such as Positive Behavioral Intervention …

Improved Isosurfacing Through Compression And Sparse Grid Orientation Estimation, Brian Wood

Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on increasing isosurfacing speed through novel compression approaches. The compression occurs on a cell-by-cell basis during isosurface extraction, as opposed to compressing the mesh in a post-processing step. The compression is applied to isosurfacing on cluster computers, and it postpones scalability plateauing of prior parallel isosurfacers by reducing communication on cluster computers (versus the prior state of the art). A novel view-dependent isosurface mesh decompressor and improved isosurface orientation estimator for sparse datasets via quadratic splines fit to tetrahedral decompositions of the datasets are also described. Experimental results for all efforts, which quantify their effectiveness, are also …

Network Based Pressure Drop Modeling Of Heterogeneous Porous Hybrid Rocket Motor Grains, Joseph Robert Kennedy Buckley

Dissertations

Analytic Transport Network Theory (ATN), a heuristic model developed for electrochemical systems, is adapted to predict the gas pressure drop across heterogeneous porous hybrid rocket motor grains. Experimental pressure drop estimations from previous studies of these grains disagree with existing empirical correlations that assume uniform morphology. An adapted ATN model could significantly improve the gas pressure drop prediction with relatively low resource requirements. To test the applicability of ATN, porous hybrid motor grain samples with length 40 mm, diameter 20 mm, and nominal pore size (NPS) of 200 and 100 microns, based on manufacturer specifications, were studied using microstructural analysis …

The Effect Of The Vocabulary Spelling City App On Student Performance In Spelling, Vocabulary, And Reading Comprehension In Grades 5-8 At Glenview Adventist Academy, Fernando Oleynick Lista

Dissertations

Problem and Purpose

Students in fifth through eighth grades at Glenview Adventist Academy (GAA) presented difficulties in the subjects of spelling, vocabulary and reading comprehension. The school had not followed the previous 10-year trend of technology implementation in the classroom, in spite of conclusive research on its advantages. This study was conducted to determine to what extent teaching methodology and the use of technology could affect academic performance in the areas of spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Research on the implementation of software and the use of tablets (iPad Minis) in the classroom has been scarce and contradictory in the …

Measures Of Student Engagement As Predictors Of Grade Point Average (Gpa) And Degree Completion At Andrews University, Michael D. Milmine

Dissertations

Purpose of the Study

In a time of rising costs, social discourse questioning value of an undergraduate degree, and declining enrollment, institutions of higher education are under increasing pressure to provide stakeholders and potential students with measures of accountability and student success. These pressures renew the need to leverage student engagement data to understand what makes undergraduates successful in their academic programs. An understanding of student engagement factors is key to helping all students succeed, but especially to identifying areas that colleges and universities can devote their attention in order to improve their students’ likelihood of success. The purpose of …

Marketing Adventist Higher Education In North America : College Choice - Motivators And Barriers, George Charles Dart Jr.

Dissertations

Purpose/Problem

It is estimated more than 75% of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) college-bound students (rising freshmen) who live in the North American Division (NAD) do not attend an SDA college/university. This is a major challenge for the NAD colleges/universities. Discovering motivators and barriers for SDA college-bound students is vital in understanding what influences this population in their college choice selection.

Method

This is a quantitative, cross-sectional, comparative study. An electronic survey using Qualtrics was sent to over 14,000 students with 461 respondents as the sample size. Respondents were sorted into four study groups, using the type of high school attended and …

An Exploratory Study Of Mathematics Anxiety In Caribbean Preservice Teachers, Franka Atwell-Chin Hong

Dissertations

The Problem

Correlational studies suggest that gender, attitudes to mathematics, mathematics performance, the number of college mathematics courses taken, and mathematics teacher efficacy beliefs may be related to mathematics anxiety among preservice teachers (Boyd et al., 2014; Gresham, 2018; Jaggernauth & Jameson-Charles, 2015). Exploratory studies of mathematics anxiety and teacher self-efficacy among elementary teachers exist in Trinidad and Tobago (Jaggernauth 2012; Jaggernauth & Jameson-Charles, 2015). However, the differences in samples, and weakness in methodology, may make it challenging to generalize the results to the preservice teacher population. In addition, no studies have found which variable or combination of variables is …

Coping Skills, Emotional Intelligence, Attachment, And Resilience On Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Private Sector Emergency Medical Technicians, Brenda-Joyce Gonzales Orozco Markert-Green

Dissertations

Problem

Private sector Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are first responders who respond to traumatic incident scenes along with firefighters and police officers. However, news agencies and the public do not acknowledge private sector EMTs with the same vigor or accolade as public sector EMTs, nor are the risks to life, health, and mental well-being recognized among this population. Thus, the research literature has been sparse regarding how private sector EMTs experience PTSD, and what unique risk factors and needs may be present.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between PTSD symptoms and coping skills, …

Administrator Stress And Well-Being: Lessons Learned From Retired Administrators, Carrie Bosco

Dissertations

School and district leaders work in stressful jobs and a better understanding is needed about how these conditions affect their personal and professional lives. This study presents the stories of experienced K–12 public school and district administrators contending with and managing administrative stress and its effects on administrators. Through qualitative inquiry and narrative analysis, the learning that comes from experience is explored as a way of understanding administrative practice. Storied examples of stressful situations range from the most serious and traumatic events a school administrator might face to the daily grind of always being “on.” Powerful themes that emerged from …

An Analysis Of Job Stress As Experienced By Public School Site Administrators, Joseph A. Bosco

Dissertations

Public school site administrators face enormous challenges day in and day out. COVID-19 has created more challenges than ever for any organization, but for public school site administrators these types of challenges are once in a lifetime. When crisis hits, leaders are expected to be strong and levelheaded. However, these leaders are experiencing high levels of stress which can lead to burnout, depersonalization, or worse. Using a quantitative method, the study was done to better understand the stress public school site administrators are under. Public school administrators in Silicon Valley were surveyed using the Administrator Stress Index, which is the …

Reading Ethics: Modernism, Narrative, Violence, Katie Dyson

Dissertations

Reading Ethics hinges on the relationship between its two central terms, tracing how modernist narrative innovations reimagined reading as an ethical practice. To ask how we read is to return to a core question for the discipline. Building on recent reevaluations of reading methodologies by Rita Felski, Sharon Marcus and Stephen Best, and other scholars, I argue that modernist narrative forms foreground the ethical dynamics between text, reader, and world, asking readers to rethink how we understand the world even as they work to build new ones. Focusing on British and American modernist and meta-modernist fiction from writers such as …

F Plasmids In Escherichia Coli Decrease Permissivity To Coliphage, Cesar Eber Montelongo Hernandez

Dissertations

The urinary tract contains a community of bacteria called the urinary microbiota (urobiota) thatmay be relevant to health; the genomic component of the urobiota is the urinary microbiome (urobiome). Urinary bacteria have been associated with both asymptomatic states and disease conditions, such as urinary tract infection (UTI), overactive bladder (OAB), and urge urinary incontinence (UUI). Some bacteria, such as E. coli, are considered urinary pathogens (uropathogens) but also can be commensals. Bacteriophage (phage) are ubiquitous in nature and likely shape bacterial populations in every niche; thus, phage may be one factor that modulates the urobiota. Phages have a specific host …

Dismantling Tools Of The Incompetent: Exploring Cultural Competence Training In Undergraduate Education Policy And Education Studies Programs, Ashley P. Allen

Dissertations

Cultural competence is described as a set of skills, values, and principles that acknowledge, respect, and work toward optimal interactions between the individual and the various cultural and ethnic groups with which an individual might come into contact. Scholars have been critical of cultural competence training because the three-dimensional approach which is its foundation fails to address institutional and systemic racism. I posit that undergraduate programs should provide training, so graduates are culturally competent entering their respective fields. I examined cultural competence training within education policy and studies undergraduate programs because these graduates will work within education at all levels …

Emancipatory And Controlling: Examining The Negotiation Of Masculinity-Centered Practices By Women's And Gender Equity Center Practitioners, Ashley M. Brown

Dissertations

Initiatives to understand and transform masculinity have increasingly emerged in higher education, calling attention to the consequences of dominant, masculine gender expectations that permeate throughout college campuses. These masculinity-centered practices in higher education encompass formalized, departmental initiatives for students, faculty, and/or staff that examine topics related to masculinity through educational workshops, speaker events, professional development sessions, dialogue spaces, and other efforts. While it is often assumed that these practices support the advancement of gender equity, scholars have theorized the ways in which this work can also lead to depoliticized efforts that may, in fact, reify patriarchal and other systems of …

Peace Bodies: Women, Encampments, And The Struggle Against Nuclear Weapons During The Cold War, 1979-1992, Janette Clay

Dissertations

"Peace Bodies: Women, Encampments, and the Struggle against Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War, 1972-1992" examines the global 1980s women's peace camping movement. This study aims to explore and comprehend peace in new ways. It is specifically targeted to define peace campers' fundamental peace principles and to discover how they embodied them. This research interrogates the ways in which the peace camping movement influenced the political and cultural developments that led to nuclear de-escalation in the final years of the Cold War. The sources for this research include women's peace camp archival records, film footage and photographs, interviews, and oral …

Cardioprotective Extracellular Vesicles Derived-Micrornas: Sorting Mechanisms And Functions, Anh P. Phan

Dissertations

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano-size membrane bound vesicles that are derived from the fusion of multivesicular endosomes with the plasma membranes. EVs have important roles in intercellular communication through the transfer of their unique cargoes including RNA, DNA and protein molecules to recipient cells. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived EVs have been shown to reduce infarct size and reduce the progress of heart failure after cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in animal models. Small non-coding RNAs such as microRNA (miRNA) have been indicated as one of the active components that mediate the beneficial effects of MSC-derived EVs. However, the selective packaging mechanisms …

Identification And Characterization Of Calcium As A Biofilm Promoting Signal By Vibrio Fischeri, Alice Hannah Tischler

Dissertations

The marine bacterium, V. fischeri actively engages in an exclusive partnership in the light organ of its squid host, Euprymna scolopes. A critical step in this colonization process is the formation of a bacterial aggregate, or biofilm, which is a community of bacteria embedded within a protective extracellular matrix. While V. fischeri readily forms biofilms in nature, genetic overexpression must be utilized to achieve biofilm formation in the laboratory. Recent work investigating media composition led myself and others to evaluate how seawater salts impacted growth and biofilm formation in a number of mutant backgrounds, leading to the identification of calcium …

Elementary Principals' And Teachers' Educational Beliefs And Practices In Inclusive Schools, Dawn Hill

Dissertations

This qualitative study will explore the educational beliefs and practices of elementary principals and teachers in inclusive schools. Nine elementary schools in a unit district are the focus of this study given the significant gains made in closing the achievement gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. The research questions in this study are as follows: (1) How are principals’ LRE beliefs and practices related to student achievement? (2) How are teachers’ LRE beliefs and practices related to student achievement? The elementary schools included in this study not only narrowed the achievement gap between students with IEPs and …

Machine Learning For Auditory Hierarchy, William Coleman

Dissertations

Coleman, W. (2021). Machine Learning for Auditory Hierarchy. This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Technological University Dublin. Audio content is predominantly delivered in a stereo audio file of a static, pre-formed mix. The content creator makes volume, position and effects decisions, generally for presentation in stereo speakers, but has no control ultimately over how the content will be consumed. This leads to poor listener experience when, for example, a feature film is mixed such that the dialogue is at a low level relative to the sound effects. Consumers can complain that they must turn …

Examining University Stakeholders' Perception Of The Implementation Of Internationalization In Higher Education Institutions In The Uae, Mohammed Madi Yousif

Dissertations

The globalization of economies and societies worldwide, has brought massive transformations in the field of higher education, creating a context to include an ‘international’ dimension in higher education institutions (HEIs). Global learning is essential in the development of cognitive skills, as well as for increased success among academics, hence institutional stakeholders such as administrators, faculty, and students are key participants in initiatives to internationalize academia. The current study examines the perspectives of institutional stakeholders (top administrators, faculty, and students) concerning the process and implementation of internationalization of higher education in the UAE, revealing its potential benefits and challenges. In a …

Family, School And Community Educational Partnerships: Development Of A Comprehensive Program For The United Arab Emirates, Sherin M. Abu Shamon

Dissertations

Family, school and community educational partnerships (FSCEPs) contribute significantly to the development and growth of students. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this has not received due consideration. This study aimed to evaluate current FSCEPs practices and develop a comprehensive, culturally appropriate program for the UAE. A three-phase mixed method design was used: exploratory sequential design phase, developmental phase using the Delphi Method, and a pilot to test the proposed model. Structured and semi-structured interviews, observation and case study surveys were used to investigate current FSCEPs implementation; barriers and opportunities influencing practices and partnerships, and recommendations from participants. Data was …

The Relationship Between Teacher Preparation And Attrition In The Teaching Field, Gerardo Trujillo

Dissertations

In this study, the researcher investigated the relationship between the preservice preparation and attrition in the field of teachers employed at Chicago Public Schools. The researcher administered a survey to teachers working in Chicago and its neighboring suburbs, and their responses revealed their perceptions about their preparation program and their real-world experiences in the classroom. The results indicated that new teachers need coursework in the areas of classroom management, social-emotional skill integration, and cultural competence. The expectation is that the findings will support the creation of a uniform policy for all universities to implement nationwide. Such a program could result …

Development Of Novel Inks And Approaches For Printing Tissues And Organs, Shen Ji

Dissertations

Tissue engineering is a multidisciplinary field that investigates and develops new methods to repair, regenerate and replace damaged tissues and organs, or to develop biomaterial platforms as in vitro models. Tissue engineering approaches require the fabrication of scaffolds using biomaterials or fabrication of living tissues using cells. As the demands of customized, implantable tissue/organs are increasing and becoming more urgent, conventional scaffold fabrication approaches are difficult to meet the requirements, especially for complex large-scale tissue fabrication. In this regard, three-dimensional (3D) printing attracted more interest over the past decades due to its unrivaled ability to fabricate highly customized tissues or …