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Volatile Organic Compound Identification Using Metal Oxide Sensors And Machine Learning, Hunter Tiner Apr 2023

Volatile Organic Compound Identification Using Metal Oxide Sensors And Machine Learning, Hunter Tiner

Theses and Dissertations

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are emitted gases that include many chemicals that can be created by biological processes or the byproduct of industrial processes, and can be present in a variety of pollutants. VOCs can cause a variety of ailments in humans and animals, and are expressed in plants as a way of signaling damage or the presence of pests. In this Thesis, an Internet of Things (IOT) E-nose device is outfitted with a gas array of eight Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) type gas sensors, which are sensitive to a broad range of VOCs, yet lack selectivity and are unable …

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Reporting Factors Of Sexual Assault On College Campuses, Kia Mills Apr 2023

Reporting Factors Of Sexual Assault On College Campuses, Kia Mills

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault occurs when a sexual act is attempted against an individual’s will. A large concern regarding sexual assault on college campuses is the lack of reporting. The purpose of the current study is to focus on the different reporting factors of college campus sexual assault and to identify the factors that impact students’ disclosure of sexual assault incidents. The need for research on this topic is to provide more information to colleges and universities and their students on the many factors that are still persistent in preventing students from reporting campus sexual assault experiences. Additionally, the current study is …

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Development, Reliability, And Validity Of A Measurement Of Attitudes Toward Non-Binary Individuals, Jane Green Apr 2023

Development, Reliability, And Validity Of A Measurement Of Attitudes Toward Non-Binary Individuals, Jane Green

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have commonly clustered together both binary transgender and non-binary individuals in their research studies. When assessing attitudes, it is likely that attitudes toward these two groups have been combined leading to valuable reports of attitudes missing from the literature. While measurements within the field of psychology have been created to assess attitudes toward binary transgender individuals, there currently is no measurement to assess attitudes toward non-binary individuals. As such, three studies were conducted to create a reliable and valid measurement of attitudes toward non-binary individuals. In Study 1 Part 1, 33 items were reworded and utilized from previously created …

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Factors That Influence The Recruitment And Retention Of Civil Engineers, Gina Young Souriac Apr 2023

Factors That Influence The Recruitment And Retention Of Civil Engineers, Gina Young Souriac

Theses and Dissertations

With a growing demand for civil engineers in the United States, understanding factors that influence students to choose civil engineering (CE) as a major in college, pursue an M.S. degree in CE, and persist in the CE industry can lead to valuable insights for recruitment and retention of future and current civil engineers. Additionally, understanding factors that prominently influence male and female civil engineers to persist in and depart from CE, separately, can lead to valuable insight towards improving focused recruitment and retention of both genders. This thesis includes three research studies that identify, analyze, and discuss these important factors. …

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Dorothy Wordsworth, Religion, And The Rydal Journals, Emily Stephens Kasper Apr 2023

Dorothy Wordsworth, Religion, And The Rydal Journals, Emily Stephens Kasper

Theses and Dissertations

Dorothy Wordsworth’s religious practices continued to evolve throughout her life. She was baptized Anglican, but after her mother’s death she resided with her mother’s cousin, where she practiced Unitarianism. When she later moved in with her uncle, she embraced evangelical Anglicanism. Records of her religious beliefs in her twenties are scarce, as after moving to Racedown with her brother William in 1795 and throughout her years living in Alfoxden, she rarely wrote of her involvement with organized religion. Only in the 1810s while at Grasmere did Dorothy Wordsworth begin to record a gradual return to church attendance. Concerning her religious …

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Understanding Gendered Hierarchy In Highly Religious Couples, Jolyn C. Schraedel Apr 2023

Understanding Gendered Hierarchy In Highly Religious Couples, Jolyn C. Schraedel

Theses and Dissertations

Although religious beliefs often associate with gendered hierarchy in sociological studies, very few studies have examined religion and gendered hierarchy within intimate relationships. This study used an exemplary sample to explore how religious, heterosexual married couples view and possibly practice gendered hierarchy. Interviews from 77 highly religious, highly satisfied couples provided insight into the following themes: (1) the potential harm of hierarchy, (2) misunderstanding hierarchy, (3) rejection of hierarchy, and (4) acceptance of hierarchy. For couples who expressed acceptance of hierarchy, further exploration revealed subthemes explaining how they conceptualized this practice. Subthemes included (4a) mutual submission, (4b) joint discussion, and …

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Transition From Clinician To Academician: A Heuristic Inquiry Of Role Change, Work-Role Conflict And Identity Development In Occupational Therapy, Theresa Rhett-Davis Apr 2023

Transition From Clinician To Academician: A Heuristic Inquiry Of Role Change, Work-Role Conflict And Identity Development In Occupational Therapy, Theresa Rhett-Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Transitioning can be a daunting experience for occupational therapists shifting to an academic job as new faculty with new roles, responsibilities, and expectations. As newcomers to academia, occupational therapists can become overwhelmed by meeting the demands of the academic roles of teaching, scholarship, and service. Through a heuristic approach, I explored the lived experiences of occupational therapists who transitioned to academia from the clinical setting to better understand role change, work-role conflict, and academic identity development during the transition process. The person-environment-occupation-performance model provided a framework to understand the findings and give meaning to the OT faculty transition experience. The …

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Development Of A Valid And Reliable Survey To Assess Personal, Behavioral, And Environmental Factors Surrounding Food Insecurity In A College Population, Jennette Kilgrow Apr 2023

Development Of A Valid And Reliable Survey To Assess Personal, Behavioral, And Environmental Factors Surrounding Food Insecurity In A College Population, Jennette Kilgrow

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The aims of our present study were to develop a valid and reliable survey framed around the social cognitive theory, which would evaluate internal and external factors associated with food insecurity from the student's perspective, and to test the survey with a multi-state population. Design: The College Perspectives around Food Insecurity (CPFI) survey was developed through several revision and improvement steps using a mixed methods approach. In Phase 1 (2018-2019), data were translated into survey items and assigned to a theoretical concept (personal, behavioral, or environmental) in the social cognitive theory. In Phase 2 (2019-2020), content validity testing occurred …

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Cross-Cultural Adjustment Factors Influencing International Collegiate Student Athletes, Samantha Young Apr 2023

Cross-Cultural Adjustment Factors Influencing International Collegiate Student Athletes, Samantha Young

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to further investigate the experience of international student-athletes (ISA) studying and competing at the collegiate level in the United States. This mixed methods study used a survey and interviews to probe ISAs' challenges and support sources. ISAs attending a large private four-year university located in the western United States along with university athletic support staff participated in this study. In the survey comments and interviews the ISAs expressed that they are highly concerned with their ability to financially survive in this new environment. A demanding schedule requiring the balancing of athletics and academics does …

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Disentangling Sexual Selection On A Complex, Multicomponent Trait: Song Of The Northern House Wren, Rachael A. Disciullo Apr 2023

Disentangling Sexual Selection On A Complex, Multicomponent Trait: Song Of The Northern House Wren, Rachael A. Disciullo

Theses and Dissertations

Beautiful and abundant, bird song has long captured the attention of evolutionary biologists interested in sexual selection. Although most studies have examined single facets of song in relation to male-male competition (intrasexual selection) and female mate choice (intersexual selection), selection typically acts on multiple components that collectively influence an individual’s mating success. By studying how multiple components of song simultaneously play a role in male-male competition and female mate choice, we can better understand how sexual selection has directly and indirectly shaped this elaborate trait. I explored the role of male song in the context of sexual selection in northern …

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The Impact Of Independence: A Look At First-Generation College Student Writers' Help-Seeking Behaviors, Emily Durney Apr 2023

The Impact Of Independence: A Look At First-Generation College Student Writers' Help-Seeking Behaviors, Emily Durney

Theses and Dissertations

In this qualitative research study, I share first-generation college students' help-seeking experiences with writing tasks and use an affective lens to investigate how first-generation students feel when navigating various help-seeking situations. Often, students' experiences and emotions highlight their commitments to independence. In this study, I found that students' feelings of insecurity and confidence both encouraged and discouraged help seeking with writing, that students expressed determination as a central affect when describing their commitment to independence, and that loneliness is a significant affect in regards to writing help seeking and independence. These findings provide writing center faculty and tutors and first-year …

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A Survey Of Graph Neural Networks On Synthetic Data, Brigham Stone Carson Apr 2023

A Survey Of Graph Neural Networks On Synthetic Data, Brigham Stone Carson

Theses and Dissertations

We relate properties of attributed random graph models to the performance of GNN architectures. We identify regimes where GNNs outperform feedforward neural networks and non-attributed graph clustering methods. We compare GNN performance on our synthetic benchmark to performance on popular real-world datasets. We analyze the theoretical foundations for weak recovery in GNNs for popular one- and two-layer architectures. We obtain an explicit formula for the performance of a 1-layer GNN, and we obtain useful insights on how to proceed in the 2-layer case. Finally, we improve the bound for a notable result on the GNN size generalization problem by 1.

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An Industry Study Of Best Practices In Life Insurance Automated And Accelerated Underwriting Models, Kartik Sakthivel Apr 2023

An Industry Study Of Best Practices In Life Insurance Automated And Accelerated Underwriting Models, Kartik Sakthivel

Theses and Dissertations

Having life insurance is critical for hundreds of millions of people around the world as a key part of sound financial protection for individuals and families, but there are unacceptably high populations that lack coverage. 106 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, the protection gap being pronounced in communities of color. Making the rigorous process of purchasing insurance easier is crucial in helping protect the financial security of millions. Automated and accelerated underwriting, a relatively nascent practice in the mature life insurance industry, is intended to streamline this process and narrow this coverage gap by making it easier to obtain …

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Rowan University Full-Time Instructors’ Knowledge And Attitudes Regarding Neurodiversity And Neurodivergent Undergraduate Students, Serena Powell Apr 2023

Rowan University Full-Time Instructors’ Knowledge And Attitudes Regarding Neurodiversity And Neurodivergent Undergraduate Students, Serena Powell

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to use quantitative research methods to better understand the knowledge and attitudes that full-time instructors of undergraduate students at Rowan University have regarding the concept of neurodiversity and neurodivergent students. The sample consisted of 97 full-time instructors of undergraduate students at Rowan University. Participants completed an online survey about their knowledge and feelings regarding the concept of neurodiversity, participation in neurodiversity-related professional development, knowledge and attitudes regarding neurodivergent students and accommodations, and knowledge of support resources on campus. Overall, the findings showed that full-time instructors of undergraduate students at Rowan University have high levels …

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Open Educational Resources And Equity: Lived Experiences Of Minoritized Educators, Jacob Rogers Apr 2023

Open Educational Resources And Equity: Lived Experiences Of Minoritized Educators, Jacob Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Open educational resources (OER) have been heralded for their ability to provide educational equality amongst learners worldwide. While this possibility offers to transform the availability of educational materials with only very specific limitations (devices, bandwidth, and ability to engage), it is seriously noted that the production of OER is typically sourced from the same homogenous sources as traditionally published texts (e.g., white males at elite universities in the U.S.). Additionally, while there are emboldened strides towards equality (equal access to materials), there remains an educational gap providing educational equity (equal opportunity to succeed) in the design as well as the …

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Prevalence And Predictors Of Intern-Related Burnout In Dietetics Preceptors, Holly Hopkins Apr 2023

Prevalence And Predictors Of Intern-Related Burnout In Dietetics Preceptors, Holly Hopkins

Theses and Dissertations

Dietetics preceptors are at risk for abandoning the role of preceptor because of potential burnout. Quantifying the prevalence of burnout and identifying the predictors of burnout can help key stakeholders identify and implement strategies that prevent or mitigate burnout in dietetics preceptors. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of intern-related burnout in dietetics preceptors and to identify the predictors of this burnout. This study used a cross-sectional study design. A survey instrument that included burnout and precepting measures, and items about the respondents’ personal and work characteristics was distributed to a random sample of 10,000 dietetics …

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Improving Peer Feedback In Ua Little Rock Creative Writing Department Classes, Jana Jolly Apr 2023

Improving Peer Feedback In Ua Little Rock Creative Writing Department Classes, Jana Jolly

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to produce constructive feedback is an essential skill for writing students that transfers into many careers. However, students do not instinctively know how to structure helpful comments about others’ writing. Training students to construct feedback that is nonjudgmental, specific, and useful is important not only to produce good writers but also to help students succeed in other professions. Writing instructors need to recognize the benefits of teaching their students how to review the work of others and offer helpful suggestions for improvement. This project explores current research into the value of training students to give effective feedback as …

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The Impact Of Data Quality On Adverse Event Detection Methodologies In Medical Claims Data, Mary Aruna Jyothi Gadde Apr 2023

The Impact Of Data Quality On Adverse Event Detection Methodologies In Medical Claims Data, Mary Aruna Jyothi Gadde

Theses and Dissertations

A 2016 survey conducted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) found that 96 percent of United States hospitals currently utilize certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology and meet meaningful use requirements promoted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. With the increasing use of EHR, early studies on data quality within electronic health records revealed a long list of concerns within EHR workflows. The work in this dissertation applied Rule-based data quality assessment to Adverse Events (AEs) within the All Payers Claim Database (APCD). An adverse event is any patient harm resulting from …

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From Point Estimates To Predictive Distributions In Machine Learning Models - A Statistical Importance Sampling Framework, Giuseppina Carannante Apr 2023

From Point Estimates To Predictive Distributions In Machine Learning Models - A Statistical Importance Sampling Framework, Giuseppina Carannante

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we leverage powerful statistical frameworks for optimal sequential estimation and tracking in non-linear and non-Gaussian dynamical models, which enjoy proven (asymptotic) optimality properties. Initially, we build upon our previous work, which employed first-order Taylor series approximation to propagate the first two predictive moments, to derive Bayesian encoder-decoder networks. This work introduced the notion of dense, pixel-level uncertainty map that is crucial in fields, such as autonomous vehicles and medical segmentation. We then extended the Bayesian framework to an ensembling scheme based on ensemble Kalman Filtering (EnKF). While EnKF represents the predictive distribution with an ensemble of draws, …

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Collaboration Between Special Education Teachers And Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Megan Elizabeth Squires Apr 2023

Collaboration Between Special Education Teachers And Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Megan Elizabeth Squires

Theses and Dissertations

As of January 2023, there are 59,976 Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) with current licensure throughout the world. This number has substantially grown compared to the meager 392 persons so certified in the year 2000 (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2023) In the past 11 years, demand for Board Certified Behavior Analysts has increased by 4,209% (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2022). As the need for this resource has increased, the presence of BCBAs is becoming more prevalent in public schools today. A BCBA can be a beneficial and critical resource to teachers in aiding in their behavior knowledge, and classroom management. …

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First Episodic Atmospheric Deposition Of Nutrients To Utah Lake: Statistical Analysis And Characterization, Cristian Alun Dorrett Apr 2023

First Episodic Atmospheric Deposition Of Nutrients To Utah Lake: Statistical Analysis And Characterization, Cristian Alun Dorrett

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric deposition (AD) is a significant but poorly understood source of nutrients to many aquatic systems around the world. Accurate characterization of the nutrient budgets of aquatic systems is critical to good management decisions, so a better understanding of AD-related nutrient loads is essential, especially for water bodies where nutrient loads from atmospheric deposition are significant. Due to its large surface area, proximity to Great Basin dust sources, high values of atmospheric particulates due to inversions, and the high phosphorus content of local soils, Utah Lake, in the semi-arid Utah Valley, USA, experiences significant phosphorus loading from AD. The lake …

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Not In This House, Satan! An Integrative Framing Analysis Of Body-Positive Posts On Instagram, Gladys Mana Momade Apr 2023

Not In This House, Satan! An Integrative Framing Analysis Of Body-Positive Posts On Instagram, Gladys Mana Momade

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have associated the portrayal of idealized images of the body on social media with the negative body image of users, which manifests as several mental health problems such as eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and anxiety in users. To tackle this issue, body-positive (BoPo) influencers on Instagram, having achieved a state of positive body image, post verbal and visual messages to advocate against normative ideologies that foster the negative body image of social media users. These messages have some implications for health communication and body image research. This study analyzes body-positive influencers’ self-assertion and self-expression in …

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Permanent Passive Fire Protection Against Wildland-Urban Interface Fires, Makenzie Wilson Apr 2023

Permanent Passive Fire Protection Against Wildland-Urban Interface Fires, Makenzie Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The average intensity and frequency of wildland fires have been on the rise over the years, leading to an increase in the risk to homes located in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). Fire suppression is the most used method of wildland fire control, but this suppression can cause wildland fires to become more frequent and devastating. Increased development in the WUI also puts these homes at greater risk. Current methods of passive fire protection are effective, but these methods are expensive, time consuming to set up, and not fully effective. This research proposes a permanent passive fire protection system that is …

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Dopamine D2 Receptors As A Peripheral Biomarker For Brain Dopamine Levels, Christina Small Apr 2023

Dopamine D2 Receptors As A Peripheral Biomarker For Brain Dopamine Levels, Christina Small

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to objectively index dopamine (DA) levels in the brain has the potential to revolutionize the field of neuropsychopharmacology, as having a peripheral biomarker of brain DA would enable the objective monitoring of the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other DA-dependent psychiatric states. Of particular relevance to commercialization, it would provide an objective measure of treatment efficacy. We used a DA-depletion approach to determine if peripheral D2Rs are a biomarker for brain DA; mainly, the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) neurotoxin model and PD subjects, which are well-known models of DA depletion in the midbrain of rodents and humans, respectively. Dopamine …

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Adolescence And Stress: A Longitudinal Examination Of The Role Of Stress On Health Outcomes And The Moderating Role Of Self-Regulation And Social Support, Joshua T. Christensen Apr 2023

Adolescence And Stress: A Longitudinal Examination Of The Role Of Stress On Health Outcomes And The Moderating Role Of Self-Regulation And Social Support, Joshua T. Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

Stress impacts all individuals during each developmental period of their lives. Stress has been linked to various physical and mental health outcomes across the lifespan. However, adolescence may prove to be a unique time to examine stress and its potential effects on various health outcomes, as well as possible mediating or moderating factors. The purpose of this study is to examine the link between stress and body mass index (BMI) percentile while incorporating the potential mediators of anxiety, depression, and externalizing behaviors as well as the moderators of social support and self-regulation. Using a sample of 500 adolescents living in …

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Navigating The Unfamiliar: The Lived Experience Of Elementary School Teachers As They Navigate The Use Of New Literacies During A Global Pandemic, Sydney Boyer Apr 2023

Navigating The Unfamiliar: The Lived Experience Of Elementary School Teachers As They Navigate The Use Of New Literacies During A Global Pandemic, Sydney Boyer

Theses and Dissertations

New literacies within schools is supported by both education policy and research; despite this, new literacies have yet to enter and transform the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic offered an unprecedented opportunity to study teachers' experiences as they are required to navigate new literacies while teaching online. Therefore, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of three upper elementary school teachers as they navigated the use of new literacies in a Title I school during a global pandemic. Data sources included three in-depth interviews and were analyzed through a thematic approach. Data analysis resulted in identifying …

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Validation And Development Of Top-Down Illumination For Optofluidic Biosensors, Matthew Marley Hamblin Apr 2023

Validation And Development Of Top-Down Illumination For Optofluidic Biosensors, Matthew Marley Hamblin

Theses and Dissertations

Lab-on-a-chip devices are changing the way that medical testing is performed by allowing rapid testing with small samples. Optofluidic biosensors are a type of lab-on-a-chip device that use light excitation on a fluid sample. One such application of an optofluidic biosensor is a device that can detect antibiotic resistant bacteria by combining DNA from a sample with fluorescent beads, flowing that sample through a hollow channel, and shining laser light on the channel. If the bacteria tested for is present, the fluorescent beads will give off photons that can be detected as a positive signal. The main method for illumination …

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Understanding Administrative Support From The Perspective Of Special Educators, Morgan M. Glasson Apr 2023

Understanding Administrative Support From The Perspective Of Special Educators, Morgan M. Glasson

Theses and Dissertations

A lack of support from administration is one of the most common reasons special educators are leaving the field of education (e.g. Sutcher, et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to better understand how special educators view and experience support from their administrators. This study surveyed 23 special educators in public schools in Illinois and Wisconsin to identify, what do special educators identify as essential actions of supportive administrators and how administrators have shown or missed opportunities to show support toward special educators. Researchers found five major themes of supportive actions including, (1) promoting collaboration amongst staff, (2) …

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Body In Rebellion: The Closing Body, Romantic Mesmerism, And Gothic Doubles In Hogg's Justified Sinner, Elizabeth E. Hinds Apr 2023

Body In Rebellion: The Closing Body, Romantic Mesmerism, And Gothic Doubles In Hogg's Justified Sinner, Elizabeth E. Hinds

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the western Romantic period as a transition between the medieval “open body” and the modern “closed body.” It focuses on “closing body” phenomena such as “mesmerism” (i.e. animal magnetism), somnambulism, substance abuse, and the “second-self,” including notions of the subconscious and the trope of gothic Doppelgängers. This study draws from many pieces of western Romantic literature but is most centered around James Hogg’s 1824 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. This new reading of Hogg’s novel suggests a core theme of body anxiety, rather than theological dispute.

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A Language-Model-Based Chatbot That Considers The User's Personality Profile And Emotions To Support Caregivers Of People With Dementia, Yeganeh Nasiri Apr 2023

A Language-Model-Based Chatbot That Considers The User's Personality Profile And Emotions To Support Caregivers Of People With Dementia, Yeganeh Nasiri

Theses and Dissertations

Chatbots are programs that mimic human conversation using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Recent advances in natural language pro- cessing pave the way for chatbots to generate more human-like responses. Therefore, chatbots are finding more complex tasks to perform, such as emotional support which requires both understanding emotions and the ability to properly respond to them. This work presents a chatbot capable of identifying the user's personality and creating responses based on that. During this process, emotion detection is being used to detect and react to users' emotions. The chatbot uses a dynamic knowledge graph to save information as the conversation goes …

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