Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Phenomenon Of Code-Switching In Immersive Esl Kindergarten In The Uae, Abeer Nabeel Albayari

Theses

This thesis explores the phenomenon of code-switching among those learning English as second language in an immersive kindergarten setting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There is a lack of research on code-switching practices, specifically among kindergarten students in immersive language programs in the UAE. They argue that this gap in research is particularly concerning, given the growing number of young learners who are enrolled in such programs in the UAE.
The main objective of this study is to identify when kindergarten students switch from English to Arabic their L1 during their immersive English language classes, intending to understand the …

An Analysis Of Machine Learning Hardware From Tenstorrent, Matthew Stephen Doerner

Theses

Machine learning is growing at an exponential rate in industry today, with contemporary machine learning models having parameter counts in the high hundred millions to trillions paired with a huge computing requirement. As the field continues to grow and the models get larger and more computationally expensive, there is a greater need for specialized hardware that can accelerate the inference and training computations that are required of these machine learning models. The design of a custom hardware device specifically made to accelerate machine learning models is very intricate, with software and hardware development that needs to work together at the …

Attentional Alchemy: Crafting Meaning In The Fabric Of Experience ---An Argument From Attention For The Content View, Ling 鳕鱼 张 Zhang

Theses

Abstract: In the realm of philosophy of mind, a central inquiry concerns whether perceptual experiences have content. This paper aims to construct an argument, termed Argument from Attention, which asserts that all visual experiences have content in the minimal sense, drawing upon insights from phenomenological features of attentional experience and mechanisms of attention elucidated in The Erotetic Theory of Attention. To achieve this goal, the paper begins by clarifying the essential features of contentful experience in Section 2. Furthermore, the second subsection scrutinizes Siegel's Argument from Appearances, highlighting the susceptibility of her Weak Content View to the …

On Learning Your Gender: A Comprehensive View, Audra M. Hazelwood

Theses

This essay provides a metaphysical and epistemological account of gender. The metaphysics involves a ‘non-reductionist view of gender’, which is to say that gender cannot be reduced to a single factor. On this view gender begins with one’s innate gender inclinations (in the vein of Julia Serano). These inclinations pick out a specific range of gender possibilities from the gender spectrum that apply to a person. At the same time we live in communities and cultures with certain gender norms. This is where epistemology comes into play since our gender inclinations are filtered through gender norms and some people are …

Between Fodor And Sellars -- A Middle Ground For Language-Like Neural Representations, Hanzhe Dong

Theses

The recent resurgence of the language of thought (LOT) hypothesis has drawn much attention. The history of philosophy and cognitive science has provided us with various versions of LOT. From Sellars to Fodor, theorists have offered us considerations on the vehicles, content, and functions of such a representation format. However, it’s been more than 50 years since Fodor’s publication on LOT (1975), and the resurgence suggests that we need a modern iteration of LOT to fit with recent developments in the study on cognition. Therefore, in this paper, I argue that we need a middle ground between Fodor and Sellars’s …

Paul Celan And The Processes Of Survival In Post-Shoah Jewish Writing, Ari Savage

Theses

The following is a study of the poetry of Paul Celan as a representation of psychological and social processes present in the written works of Shoah survivors. It begins with an analysis of the place of writing in Jewish culture, then identifies three primary processes which operate in sequence: alienation, individuation, and integration. By examining Paul Celan’s highly personal and autobiographical texts in the context of his life experience as a Shoah survivor it is possible to discern the social and psychological forces at work which compel survivors to express their traumas in written form, and to gain a better …

Transformer-Based Deep Learning Model For Sign Language Recognition, Ganzorig Batnasan

Theses

Sign language recognition research aims to develop systems and tools that can interpret and translate sign language into text or spoken language. During the past two decades, the challenges faced in this domain are multifaceted. The first and foremost challenge is the complexity of sign language, which includes intricate hand gestures, facial expressions, and body movements. Recognizing and interpreting these components accurately is challenging. The second challenge is variability among different regions and communities, leading to variations in signs and gestures. This variability poses a challenge for developing universal recognition systems.
Limited data is another challenge which makes it difficult …

Prevalence And Risk Factors Of Hikikomori In Young Adults In The Middle East, Harshil Paresh Shah

Theses

Hikikomori, a form of severe social withdrawal that can occur without the presence of any other psychological disorder, was once thought to be a Japanese culture-bound phenomena. However, studies have emerged from several parts of the world showing that this may be a global issue. Extant literature suggests associations between hikikomori and behavioral addictions such as gaming addiction and Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU). Since there is a relative paucity of research examining this phenomenon in the Middle Eastern context, this study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of hikikomori in young adults of the Middle East. It …

Intelligent Tutoring System Ontology, Wael Mohamed Hassan

Theses

The integration of pedagogical rules into Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) using semantic web technologies, particularly the Web Ontology Language (OWL), holds great promise for enhancing the capabilities of these systems. However, a significant challenge arises from the labor-intensive process of manually constructing ontologies, which can consume valuable time and resources. While ontologies offer numerous advantages, including robust knowledge inference and scalability, the limitations of manual ontology creation are evident in terms of time and flexibility. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to develop an efficient and automated solution that harnesses the benefits of ontologies while reducing the time …

The Impact Of Reflective Writing On Instructional Strategies Development: A Mixed Method Study On Prospective English Language Teachers, Fatema Naser Alshehhi

Theses

Reflective writing is a process in which individuals critically examine their experiences, thoughts, and actions to gain understanding and improve their performance. This thesis investigates the impact of reflective writing on the development of instructional strategies among prospective English language teachers in the United Arab Emirates. The study also explores their perceptions of using reflective writing as a tool for teacher development. The study employed a mixed-methods approach and was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved collecting qualitative data, including document analysis of reflective writings and semi-structured interviews with three prospective teachers. In the second phase, a questionnaire …

Query Augmentation For Information Retrieval (Ir) Using Large Language Model (Llm), Anish Bhusal

Theses

In the context of exponential data growth, the efficient retrieval of information remains a known challenge. One key problem lies in bridging the gap between the search query and the information available. This thesis introduces a framework for information retrieval with the help of large language models (LLMs) along with query augmentation. Given a query, its sub-queries are created, using a fine tuned Seq2Seq (sequence to sequence) model through a technique called knowledge distillation. Different prompting methods are applied to produce an efficient query graph. The graph generated is then fed through a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipeline to respond …

Hierarchical Multi-Label Text Classification In Earth Science Datasets, Rajashree Dahal

Theses

This thesis addresses the challenging problem of hierarchical multi-label text classification and introduces a novel zero-shot approach that recommends the label up to the depth of hierarchy in which it is confident. In order to validate the efficacy of the proposed method, we experimented using various potential embedding models such as text-embedding-ada-002, mpnet-all, instructor embeddings, and nasa-smd-ibm-st on Earth science datasets. The experimental results reveal that all considered embedding models surpass the baseline model supervised learning classifier, demonstrating the superiority of the proposed zero-shot approach. This proposed solution can minimize the label imbalance problem typically observed in the supervised learning …

Exploring The Experiences Of A South Asian Client And Facilitators Of Men's Behaviour Change Programs In Western Australia, Madhuri Mathisen

Theses

This study explores the experiences of male perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) attending men’s behaviour change programs in Western Australia from the perspective of program facilitators and a South Asian client. Informed by social and contextual constructionism with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study examines the experience of 10 mixed culture facilitators who worked with South Asian intimate partner violence perpetrators in men’s behaviour change programs and one South Asian client of an intervention. The participants’ experiences were contextualised through a semi-structured interview. The facilitators’ findings revealed that South Asian clients demonstrated patriarchal beliefs with a victim-blaming tendency and …

Closing The Culture Gaps: Policies And Codesign In Remote Western Australia. A Long-Time Story Of A Community-Based Kimberley Aboriginal Organisation, Arjati Schipf

Theses

This research is the result of a collaboration with the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC), a remote community-based Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) located in Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia. The research investigates the organisation’s strategies to overcome systemic barriers to support remote Aboriginal communities to achieve Closing the Gap (CTG) socioeconomic targets in improving education, employment, and health. KALACC believes that without culture at the centre of CTG strategies, the targets will not be achieved. The key question is how will diverse understandings of culture be achieved through codesign and engagement with Aboriginal people and their community-based organisations …

A Paradox Theory Approach To Investigating Individual Level Responses To Corporate Social Responsibility In Small To Medium Enterprises, Muhammad Abdulsater

Theses

In Australia, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) occupy important positions within their communities, contributing to employment and national economic growth. Despite their significance, it remains unclear how SME owners, as individuals, navigate and respond to the tensions arising from their unique business characteristics and the adoption of social and environmental activities. This research aims to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating how SME owners manage and respond to paradoxical tensions in implementing social and environmental responsibility practices within the SME context. The conventional definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) does not integrate with the lexicon or landscape of SMEs. This …

Do We Have Agency? Early Childhood Educators' Experience Of Pedagogical Agency In Providing Child Agency, Clare Maree Omodei

Theses

The National Quality Standards (NQS) are the key means of assessing quality in early childhood education in Australia. In Western Australia, teachers in schools are expected to implement a modified NQS from kindergarten to Year 2 (K–2) that has been specifically developed for school settings, hereafter referred to as NQSWA. Like other early years educators, K–2 teachers in Western Australia are required to demonstrate adherence to approved learning frameworks and to value young children’s ideas, interests and opinions. These educators need to demonstrate that each child is afforded agency and that they are given the opportunity to make choices and …

Deconstruction Of Body Representation Of The Back In Healthy Back Pain-Free Individuals And People With Chronic Low Back Pain, Simon Pratt

Theses

Changes in various body representations have been increasingly investigated and subsequently posited to be potentially important factors in the development and maintenance of chronic low back pain. Three main domains of body representation are considered here: body model, body schema (comprising superficial and postural schema), and body image. Most studies informing our contemporary understanding of these body representations have been undertaken in areas such as the hand and forearm, with a comparative dearth of studies performed on the low back. Consequently, this thesis consists of a comprehensive investigation of body representation initially in healthy back pain-free individuals and then in …

Enhancing Accessibility : A Pilot Study For Context-Aware Image-Caption To American Sign Language (Asl) Translation, Oluwafolahanmi Adedamola Aluko

Theses

Since the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the explosion of Generative AI, much work has been done around image captioning, providing wildly accurate captions from still images, and more recently videos [3]. Alt-Text has improved dramatically with efforts to enhance context and sentiment captured during automated captioning. This thesis attempts to expand on a section on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and its relevance to promoting accessibility and context-awareness in the premise of the American Sign Language (ASL) application. This thesis explores what it means to give full context about a caption or image to the end user, including sentiments, …

Analyzing Trust In Automation Using Large Language Models, Derek Koehl

Theses

This thesis explores the measurement of trust in the context of human interactions with automated systems. Trust is influenced by factors like perceived ability, benevolence, and integrity which presents a measurement challenge. Given the lack of a universally accepted model for trust, there is an abundance of trust measurement methods in the literature. This research aimed to ascertain the reliability of NLP-based measurements to determine whether such methods can shed light on the dimensionality of trust as a construct and to isolate a Linguistic Fingerprint™ of trust. The results lent support to trust as a unidimensional construct. There was little …

Machine Learning Based Solutions For Detecting Social Media Spam And Phishing Incidents, Ahmed Al Shehhi

Theses

The growing digital interactions across various social media platforms increases the risks of phishing schemes and spam messages that compromise personal and organisational security. This thesis tackles such threats with the aid of machine learning and natural processing techniques that are utilized for detecting malicious communications with high accuracy. A total of three datasets were used in this study, two for phishing and one for spam. The research aims to explore the performance of classification models, including Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes, and Linear Discriminant Analysis, as well as a hybrid model combining Logistic Regression and Naïve Bayes. …

Humankind – Bias In Our Head, Luying Li

Theses

"HumanKind" is a dynamic exploration at the intersection of visual communication design and societal awareness, seeking to unravel and mitigate the far-reaching impacts of bias. Through the fusion of "Human" and "Kind," the project embodies a dual narrative, emphasizing individual humanity and the diverse fabric of the human collective. The core inquiry revolves around encouraging individuals to recognize and challenge biases before decision-making, fostering unbiased choices. Historical narratives of racial conflicts serve as the foundation, propelling the project's mission to explore, challenge, and diminish biases entrenched in our collective consciousness. Going beyond traditional exhibitions, "HumanKind" evolves into a dynamic dialogue …

Towards Bias-Resilient Deep Neural Networks, Robik Shrestha

Theses

Deep learning systems have brought about a paradigm shift in the field of artificial intelligence, often surpassing human performance across a wide range of tasks. Nonetheless, there are numerous apprehensions regarding their robustness when deployed in the real world. Multiple studies have demonstrated that deep learning models tend to latch onto biases present in their training data instead of truly solving the tasks. Given the pervasive nature of this issue across various datasets and tasks, researchers have proposed a variety of techniques to improve bias resilience. However, the evaluation protocols used in prior works leave many open questions regarding their …

From Chinese Language To Female - Him, Humans And Us, Dandong Ouyang

Theses

To establish a new sense of ownership of the female figure in my studio practice, this thesis investigates the unspoken secondary existence of women implied in the structural systems of both language and portraiture.

Application Of Ai In Financial Sector: Earnings Call Dataset Analysis, Kesa M. Abbas

Theses

Deep learning has emerged as a cornerstone in diverse scientific domains, demonstrating profound implications both in academic research and conventional applications. The utilization of deep learning has branched to the financial sector for stock prediction, management of assets, credit score analysis, etc. During the end of the financial fiscal year, top executives present their companies’ growth and losses in earnings calls. These earnings calls invariably webcasted, furnish stakeholders with insights into a firm’s fiscal performance during a given period. These audios along with transcripts are published on the company website for the general public. If these audio and transcripts are …

Discourses Across Periods Of Time, Amanda Raquel Moreno

Theses

This literature review explores the revolutionary effect of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) on digital art history, specifically concentrating on their capacity to enable dialogical exchanges with historical figures and deepen the understanding of artworks. This study considers the current state of research, detecting key methodologies, areas of improvement, and possible challenges and ethical concerns. The example historical figure used in this analysis is the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo’s refusal to correspond to a specific artistic style makes her an ideal subject for generative AI and VR-based investigation, offering fresh insights into her work. The …

Knowledge Integration For Human-In-The-Loop Machine Learning, Ervine Zheng

Theses

Machine learning has evolved into advanced techniques for vision, language, and applications in different areas. However, human expertise is still essential in providing meaningful interpretations of the semantics for tasks in knowledge-rich domains, such as medicine, science, and security intelligence. It is beneficial to incorporate human knowledge into a machine learning system, and we consider human-in-the-loop an increasingly important area for future research. Human-in-the-loop machine learning aims to develop a reliable prediction model with minimal costs by integrating human knowledge and experience. In this thesis, we propose human-in-the-loop methods to address knowledge-rich data understanding challenges for different machine-learning tasks. Specifically, …

Pseudo-Dionysius’S Response To Neoplatonism: An Exploration Of Pseudo-Dionysius’ Historical Context And His Source Utilization In “The Mystical Theology”, Mhanna Joseph Kallas

Theses

This research delves into the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, particularly his blending of Neoplatonic ideas with Christian theology in his work "The Mystical Theology." Pseudo-Dionysius, a significant figure in Christian mysticism, draws upon a diverse array of sources to articulate his theological vision. An in-depth analysis of "The Mystical Theology" and its foundational texts reveals Pseudo-Dionysius's aim to align Neoplatonic apophatic strategies with Christian thought, suggesting that the essence of many Neoplatonic theological concepts is either inherent in or can be extrapolated from Christian doctrine. By shedding light on Pseudo-Dionysius's strategic selection and adaptation of various sources, this study …

Parental Participation In An Esl Take-Home Book Bag Program For A Second Grade Class In Al Ain, Dina Ahmad Al Khawaldeh

Theses

The purpose of this current study is to explore Emirati parents' attitudes toward their involvement in their children's ESL take-home book reading experience. The study aims to explore the reading habits of Emirati families and their perceptions of reading books in English with their children.

This study employed a sequential mixed methods design to gather data from parents and students. A pre-experimental demographic survey was sent to the parents and students to ask about their reading habits at home before experiencing it and after the book reading experience. In addition, a take-home literacy bag activity was disseminated to students and …

Ai Application In Architecture In Uae: Developing And Testing Advanced Optimization Model For A Parametric Shading Structure As A Retrofit Strategy Of A Midrise Residential Building Façade In Downtown Abu Dhabi, Anwar Ghaleb Ahmad

Theses

Artificial intelligence is a phenomenon that influences every aspect of our lives. AI applications have already started to change the methods in different disciplines. Architecture is one of the disciplines that is highly affected by the developments of AI technologies. With the United Arab Emirates heading to employ new technology to lead the country and region development, it is important to explore and develop the application of AI in the strategic disciplines of the country in which the built environment is essential. This study aimed to develop and evaluate an advanced model script (to be used as a tool) using …

Analysis Of Cycle 2 Science Textbooks For Representation Of Elements Contributing To Quality Science Textbooks As Learning Resources, Sohani Mehzabin Prova

Theses

Science textbooks are a valuable resource for both students and teachers. They hold a significant role in students' learning of science. Most science teachers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rely on science textbooks as the foundation for their teaching. However, until now, limited research has been conducted to assess the appropriateness of science textbooks prescribed by the Ministry of Education in the UAE. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the representation of elements contributing to the suitability of cycle 2 (grades 5 to 8) science textbooks as learning resources as prescribed by the Ministry of Education of the UAE. …