Digital Commons Network^™

Densely Connected Bidirectional Lstm With Applications To Sentence Classification, Zixiang Ding, Rui Xia, Jianfei Yu, Xiang Li, Jian Yang

Student Publications

Deep neural networks have recently been shown to achieve highly competitive performance in many computer vision tasks due to their abilities of exploring in a much larger hypothesis space. However, since most deep architectures like stacked RNNs tend to suffer from the vanishing-gradient and overfitting problems, their effects are still understudied in many NLP tasks. Inspired by this, we propose a novel multi-layer RNN model called densely connected bidirectional long short-term memory (DCBi-LSTM) in this paper, which essentially represents each layer by the concatenation of its hidden state and all preceding layers’ hidden states, followed by recursively passing each layer’s …

Basket Case: Treatment And Analysis Of A Northwestern California Basket, Stephanie Cashman

Art Conservation Master's Projects

A northwestern California basket was brought to the SUNY Buffalo State Garman Art Conservation Department for treatment and analysis in the fall of 2016. The basketry materials, colorants and fabrication methods were investigated. Material analysis was carried out using polarized light microscopy (PLM) to identify the types of woody plant materials used. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) were performed to better understand possible colorants. Mockups and a 3D model, both digital and printed, were created to gain insight into the construction techniques. Analysis confirmed the baskets place of origin …

The State Of Outdoor Education In Northeast Tennessee: Preschool Teacher Attitudes Toward Outdoor Education, Cathy Landy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the state of outdoor education in preschool classrooms in Northeast Tennessee, with a specific focus on preschool teachers’ attitudes toward outdoor education. This comparative, mixed-methods study focused in part on teachers’ current beliefs about outdoor education, how they use the outdoor environment, and whether their attitudes influence their lesson planning for outdoor education. Participants were preschool teachers in public, private, church-affiliated, and Head Start preschools in 4 counties in northeast Tennessee. The study sample consisted of 81 participants (80 female; 1 male). Ages ranged from 20-65 years (M = 40.76). The …

Title X Family Planning Secondary Data Analysis Needs Assessment, Laura Triplett

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

The goal of the Title X Needs Assessment is to ‘Provide individuals the information and means to exercise personal choice in determining the number and spacing of their children', prevent unintended pregnancies, and reduce the number of abortions.’ Objectives include but are not limited to family involvement, abstinence and safer sex practice, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, contraceptive services, pregnancy testing and counseling, achieving pregnancy, basic infertility services, preconception health, STI/STD testing and treatment and HIV testing, Well Women/Men Exams; screening for breast cancer, cervical cancer, and testicular cancer in males. Sexual health education and reproductive life planning will be …

No Tv For Woodpeckers By Gary Barwin, If Pressed By Andrew Mcewan, And Ecology Without Culture: Aesthetics For A Toxic World By Christine L. Marran, Michael D. Sloane

The Goose

Review of Gary Barwin's No TV for Woodpeckers, Andrew McEwan's If Pressed, and Christine L. Marran's Ecology without Culture: Aesthetics for a Toxic World.

Facebook Intensity Use Related To Gender Identity And Self-Esteem Among Female College Students, Li Zhang

Masters Theses

As a popular social media platform, Facebook has already become a vital part of college students’ social lives. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among Facebook use, gender identity and the level of self-esteem among young female college students (from age 18 to 23). Previous studies have argued that Facebook has the ability to enhance or reshape gender identity by providing control over online self-presentation. In addition, by using Facebook intensively and frequently, users gain popularity (a larger network of Facebook friends), which also increases users’ self-esteem and the feeling of being connected with others. In …

2018-2019 Undergraduate Catalog, The University Of Alabama In Huntsville

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Traversing The Digital Frontier: Culture's Impact On Faultline Emergence In Virtual Teams, William S. Kramer

All Dissertations

As organizations continue to spread across geographic boundaries, we must understand the complex interplay between an individual's cultural values and the effects of distribution. Despite the fact that almost half of all organizations utilize virtual tools to collaborate across nations, there is a dearth of research on this topic. Without considering cultural differences in this context, issues can emerge ranging from increased social loafing to decreased trust. In this study, I argue that the lack of social cues in virtual teams renders high-/low-context cultural differences imperative and that variations therein can cause the emergence of faultlines, thereby leading to negative …

Effects Of Specific Language Impairment On A Contrastive Dialect Structure: The Case Of Infinitival To Across Various Nonmainstream Dialects Of English, Andrew M. Rivière, Janna B. Oetting, Joseph Roy

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Using data from children who spoke various nonmainstream dialects of English and who were classified as either children with specific language impairment (SLI) or typically developing (TD) children, we examined children’s marking of infinitival TO by their dialect and clinical status. Method: The data came from 180 kindergartners (91 speakers of African American English, 60 speakers of Southern White English, 29 speakers of +Cajun); 53 were children with SLI, and 127 were TD children. Data included 4,537 infinitival TO contexts extracted from language samples; each was coded as zero or overtly marked and by preceding verb context (i.e., verbs …

2018-2019 Graduate Catalog, The University Of Alabama In Huntsville

Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Studies In The History Of The Greek Text Of The Apocalypse : The Ancient Stems, Josef Schmid, Juan Hernández Jr., Garrick V. Allen, Darius Müller

Faculty Books

Josef Schmid’s landmark publication, Studien zur Geschichte des Griechischen Apokalypse-Textes, has been the standard work for understanding Revelation’s Greek manuscript tradition and textual history for more than sixty years. Despite the fact that most major studies on the book are based on Schmid’s work, the work itself has long been out of print, making it difficult for the broader scholarly community to reassess Schmid’s conclusions in light of recent manuscript discoveries and technological advances. This new translation of the work makes Schmid’s detailed review of the history of textual scholarship; his comprehensive examination of the origin, history, and development of …

Changes In Audiovisual Word Perception During Mid-Childhood: An Erp Study, Elizabeth Ancel

Open Access Theses

Throughout school-age years, speech perception is an important skill that often relies on the child’s ability to combine both auditory and visual information from the speaker. In order to better understand the development of multisensory speech perception during mid-childhood, we analyzed audiovisual word perception in three groups of participants: 8-9-year olds, 11-12-year olds, and adults. Participants matched visually-perceived articulatory movements with corresponding auditory words. In “congruent” trials, the auditory word matched the subsequently presented silent visual articulation. In “incongruent” trials, the words presented differed on the initial phoneme. From this task, we evaluated specific neural components —the N400 and the …

Effects Of A Mobile Tablet Device And An Augmentative And Alternative Communication (Aac) Application On Individuals With An Acquired Communication Disorder: Influence On Communication Abilities And Quality Of Life, Yamini Balasubramanian

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a mobile tablet device and an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) application on the communicative abilities and quality of life of individuals with acquired communication disorders. A preexperimental single subject research design was replicated across one client with progressive dysarthria, and two clients with non-fuent aphasia to investigate effects of specifc communicative abilities (message intelligibility for the client with dysarthria and correct information units for the clients with aphasia) in addition to quality of life. Results suggest that improvements were noted in percent message intelligibility and correct information units …

Theories On The Origin Of The Etruscan Language, Adelle Rogers

Open Access Theses

Etruscan was a language once spoken in what is now Tuscany. The origins of both the Etruscan people and the Etruscan language have been debated for thousands of years. The languages of Lemnian and Raetic may be related to Etruscan, however very little is currently known about these two languages. The similarities between Raetic and Etruscan led to the ancient author Livy to claim that Raetic and Etruscan were related. The historian Herodotus had claimed that Etruscans and their language had originated in Anatolia. However, Dionysius of Halicarnassus claimed that the Etruscans were autochthonous to Italy. This debate has continued …

Exploring The Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities Of Data Science Professionals, Corey S. Seliger

Open Access Theses

The feld of data science is growing at break-neck speeds. More industries are looking towards data science professionals to fnd, compile, explore, and model data from numerous areas of interest. Currently, there are over 130,000 data science positions open. Professional training and institutions of higher education are unable to train enough individuals to place into these positions. Initial research in this space has started reviewing some of the data in this space, including determining the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) employers seek in data science candidates and what institutions are providing in the means of preparation in this space. With …

On The Front Line: Locating Mentorship In The Composition Practicum, Sherri Elaine Craig

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative study of fifteen WPA instructors of the composition practicum. Driven by the primary research question, how do WPAs enact mentorship within composition practicum?, the study sought to better identify how WPAs enact and perceive mentorship within the composition practicum through an activity-theory framework in three distinct phases: a collection and analysis of twenty-six pedagogical materials, twelve structured interviews, and one case study. Through these phases, it was determined the difficulty of locating mentorship of TAs required distinguishing between performing mentoring acts and establishing mentoring relationships first, and second, a construction of the practicum course materials …

Baroque Modes Of Seeing: Reinventing Neo-Baroque In Contemporary Latin American Cinema, Liana Hakobyan

Open Access Dissertations

While the Latin American literary neo-baroque garnered significant attention, scholarship on its cinematic counterpart has been relatively scarce. What is more, existing studies situate this aesthetics within the anti-dictatorship contexts of the 1970s-80s, which contradicts major neo-baroque theories that view it as an ahistorical aesthetics relevant to Latin American modernities. “Baroque Modes of Seeing: Reinventing Neo-baroque in Contemporary Latin American Cinema” is a dissertation that addresses this gap in research and argues for the relevance of the neo-baroque in contemporary Latin American cinema. I engage texts by Severo Sarduy, José Lezama Lima, Alejo Carpentier, Serge Gruzinski, Irlemar Chiampi and others …

An Examination Of Underrepresentation In Florida, Indiana, And Washington, Jaret Hodges

Open Access Dissertations

Black, Latinx, and Native American students are underrepresented in gifted education programs across the United States. This underrepresentation is one way in which the excellence gap manifests in gifted education. In turn, the underlying causes for underrepresentation are debated by scholars. This dissertation examines the issue of underrepresentation through three case studies. In all case studies, a generalized linear mixed model is used as the framework to analyze publicly available data acquired from the associated state departments of education.

The first case study examines underrepresentation in the state of Florida. In this study, the influence of socioeconomic status on rates …

The Alien Eye: Chinese Self-Images And The External Observer, 1874–1911, Yingying Huang

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a literary study of how and why late Qing Chinese self-image formation involved the “alien eye,” by which I mean the view of the foreigner observing and writing about China. I investigate writings and occasionally images produced within the period from 1874 to 1911, framed by the founding of the first Chinese-owned modern newspaper and the overthrow of the Qing empire. The literary genres I address include essays, short stories, novels, and plays. While effects of foreign views of China on the Chinese varied from positive stimulation to psychological damage, I argue that Chinese’ appropriation of the …

I Just Don't Feel Like I Am The Authentic Me: Navigating Identity And Organizational Identification Through Experiences Of Workplace Incivility, Jennifer S. Linvill

Open Access Dissertations

Workplace incivility is a pervasive problem in organizations worldwide. Given the current political and social climates in the United States, it is a relevant and timely topic that requires further understanding. The current study contributes to this growing body of empirical research by examining how individuals’ multiple identities (i.e., age, gender, national origin, race, sexual orientation) and organizational identification relate to their experiences with workplace incivility. Additionally, this project explores how targets’ experiences with workplace incivility relate to power and control. Through in-depth interviews with individuals who have experienced workplace incivility, the study makes several important contributions.

This study provides …

Towards Ontology-Based Phishing Detection, Gilchan Park

Open Access Dissertations

Detection of phishing emails is a topic that has received a lot of attention both from academia and industry due to the devastating effects that phishing enabled data breaches have had on private individual and companies. Notwithstanding enormous efforts to detect phishing attacks, phishing still remains a major threat in information security, and the damages from it are not forecasted to disappear in the near future. One of the reasons is the diversity of attacks, especially within spear phishing and whaling. Another reason is that the natural language part of the detectors is usually devoid of semantics. Many of the …

Hispanic Children Thrown Into Limbo: Language Ideologies Of Spanish Heritage Speakers And Their English Peers In A Monolingual And A Bilingual School In Indiana, Carmen Octavio

Open Access Dissertations

Spanish heritage speakers are a growing and heterogeneous population that shares a status of inequality within society regarding their language and culture. This study explored the language ideologies of Spanish heritage speakers and their English peers in two different settings: an urban monolingual school and a sub-urban bilingual school with a Dual-Immersion language program in Indiana.

The focus for heritage language students in US schools is usually on the linguistic components of bilingual or English monolingual development and does not focus on ideologies or climate within classrooms where heritage students are taught. With little to no focus on ideologies or …

Cognitive Poetics, Conceptual Metaphors And Blending In German Travel Literature On India, Aditi S. Rayarikar

Open Access Dissertations

In recent years there has been a growth in travel writing and its reception despite the effects of globalization that has brought the world closer than previous centuries. This trend can be further supported with the publication of recent anthologies and theoretical works that explore multi-dimensional approaches to travel writing, especially in the Anglo-American Literature and Cultural Studies.1 But this trend is not just limited to Anglo-American Studies and is equally present in German literature where travel literature also encompasses what is termed as “literature of movement” highlighting migrant literature, transnational and transcultural literature.2 The recently published Reiseliteratur der Moderne …

Contested “Chineseness” In Transnational Narratives: Works By Post-1979 Chinese/American Immigrant Writers Ha Jin And Geling Yan, Ping Qiu

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation aims to claim immigrant literature as an essential part of Chinese American studies. It responds to the challenge by considering how “Chineseness” is negotiated, challenged, and transformed in the literary texts produced by both writers. I argue that “Chineseness” as presented by post-1979 immigrant writers Ha Jin and Geling Yan is a transnational process of defamiliarization, radicalization, and transformation. In their work, new immigrant writers are self-consciously and strategically positioning themselves as both insider and outsider. They engage in, negotiate, and challenge the troubling term “Chineseness” as defined in either U.S-centric/Eurocentric or Sinocentric points of view. For writers, …

Exploring The Role Of Reflexivity In Supporting Preservice Elementary Teachers' Conceptions Of Science As Socially And Culturally Embedded, Jeffrey Radloff

Open Access Dissertations

Achieving widespread scientific literacy has been a longstanding goal of US science standards, requiring that students and teachers possess contemporary nature of science (NOS) conceptions. However, NOS conceptions are repeatedly found to be wide-ranging or ‘naïve’, resulting in regular efforts by science education researchers to hone, or standardize them. While this has improved some aspects of NOS conceptions, others remain relatively unchanged, specifically within prospective, or preservice elementary teacher populations.

One unaffected aspect concerns preservice science teachers’ views of science as socially and culturally embedded, or mutually connected with changes in society and culture. However, understanding this facet of NOS …

Electrophysiological And Spatial Orientation Ability Differences In Expert And Novice Aircraft Pilots, Karthik Sukumar

Open Access Dissertations

Exploring differences between experts and novices by observing task-specific performance has been an important area of research in several domains. This study examined differences in expert and novice aircraft pilots based on their cortical activity and spatial orientation ability. Twenty-eight aircraft pilots (eight experts, 20 novices) performed 23 in-flight sequences inside a flight simulator while their cortical activity was recorded using an electroencephalographic (EEG) device. Thirty-two aircraft pilots (11 experts, 21 novices) attempted a 30-question multiple-choice spatial orientation ability test. Outcomes of the study revealed significant differences in cortical activity between expert and novice groups. Novice pilots projected higher mental …

Early Turn-Taking Prediction For Human Robot Collaboration, Tian Zhou

Open Access Dissertations

To enable natural and fluent human robot collaboration, it is critical for a robot to comprehend their human partners’ on-going actions, predict their behaviors in the near future, and plan its actions accordingly. Specifically, the capability of making early predictions can allow robots to determine the precise timing of turn-taking events and start planning and executing preparative tasks to take the turn. Such proactive behavior would save waiting time and increase efficiency and naturalness in collaborative tasks.

To that end, this dissertation presents the design and implementation of an early turn-taking prediction framework, centered around physical human robot collaboration tasks. …

Alternative-A Candidate Handbook Master Of Arts In Teaching (M.A.T.), University Of Alabama In Huntsville

Student Handbooks

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Candidate Handbook, University Of Alabama In Huntsville

Student Handbooks

No abstract provided.

Safety From Flawed Forensic Sciences Evidence, Boaz Sangero

Georgia State University Law Review

This article addresses the way to safety in the context of forensic sciences evidence. After presenting the current lack of safety, which I term “unsafety,” I raise some possible safety measures to contend with this. My suggestions are grounded on two bases: first, the specific analysis of each type of evidence in line with the most recent research on the subject; and second, modern safety theory and its application to the criminal justice system. It is important to stress that my proposals represent only some of the conceivable safety measures. Developing a comprehensive safety theory for the criminal justice system …