Digital Commons Network^™

Language Education For Ab Initio Flight Training: A Plan Going Forward, Jennifer Roberts, Alan Orr

Publications

English language proficiency for the aviation industry is a critical issue given the industry’s growth in regions of the world where English is not a first or a national language. This chapter discusses language training for ab initio flight students who will comprise much of the next generation of aviation professionals (NGAP). It describes aviation English as a form of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and the language skills required for flight school contexts where English is the Medium of Instruction (EMI). The chapter advocates for the assessment of incoming ab initio flight school students using a tool adapted from …

Iran, Diane M. Zorri

Publications

Internet access in Iran is characterized by strong censorship, limited access, surveillance, and widespread state-sanctioned propaganda. The regime in Tehran views internet freedom as a critical threat to its national security (Henry, Pettyjohn, and York 2014). Using an index of variables such as obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights, the nongovernmental organization Freedom House rates Iran’s internet access as “not free” (Freedom House 2018). On a scale of zero to one hundred, where zero is “free” and one hundred is “not free,” Freedom House scores Iran at an eighty-five, making it the least free nation …

0704: Satellite Network Of West Virginia (Satnet) Records, 1986-2001, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Satellite Network of West Virginia Collection consists of the bulk of documents and other corollaria accumulated by the entity from its inception in 1986 to the time its Director, John H. Buskey, retired from his position early 2001. These documents consist of Minutes and Correspondence, Technical Information, Budgetary Data, Personnel Files, and Work Product, to name several examples. Other corollaria consist of programs found on Videocassette. The Collection is divided into fifteen (15) user-friendly sections as listed in the Table of Contents. In the collection itself, Folders are designated by two different reference numbers. First, Folders are numbered as …

0074: Letters Received By The Office Of The Adjutant General [Microfilm], 1876-1896, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

These sixteen microfilm reels contain correspondence relating to military operations in the Departments of the Platte and Dakota against the Sioux tribes ("Sioux War Papers"), 1876-96. Letters are organized by date of receipt and include materials received between 1876 and 1896.

0566: Robert S. Tamplin Jr. Papers, 1948-1992, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The Robert Tamplin Collection is composed of two broad series of materials: personal papers and professional papers related to Tamplin’s life as a CBS executive. Personal papers, comprising a portion of only one box, include greeting cards (mostly Christmas), personal correspondence, clippings, financial materials, and yearbooks. Professional papers and materials, comprising approximately 43 boxes, include correspondence and memos, planning materials for shows and events, show schedules and contact information, employee newsletters, script drafts for television and radio shows, professional magazines and publications, materials from Tamplin’s office, resumes, programs for plays and events, and audiovisual materials of programs that Tamplin directed …

Middle School Parent Involvement: Perceptions In Two South Carolina School Districts, Jessica Vanvalkenburgh

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study was created to explore the parent involvement perceptions of teachers and parents of middle school students in two South Carolina districts. The study is grounded in Epstein et al.’s (2019) theory of overlapping spheres and six typologies of parent involvement. An exploratory mixed methods study was used to gather research. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected to determine the perceptions of teachers and parents at five different sites. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test reliability, and a MANOVA test was used to test for mean differences of dependent variables. Univariate ANOVA tests were used to further explore differences …

Growing A Gritty Culture: A Grounded Theory Study, Andrea Lee Meyer

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study explores building level administrators’ thoughts on the role grit plays in a school’s culture and how building level administrators can foster a culture of grit. Duckworth’s (2016) text Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance was used as a basis for this study. This is a qualitative study using the grounded theory research method. This inquiry-based research method afforded the researcher the immediate opportunity to explore relationships among the data collected from the participant interviews. The findings are grounded in their responses. Eight building level administrators participated in this grounded theory study. The study found that grit plays …

Perceptions Of Co-Teaching In Secondary Inclusion Classrooms, Tori Hill

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study examined secondary teacher and administrator perceptions of co-teaching practices as they relate to preservice and in-service training. In this mixed-methods study, general education math and English teachers and special education teachers in three suburban high schools were given a survey to provide input regarding co-teaching practices in their school/district. The survey results were analyzed to determine trends of variables relating to teacher perceptions. Additionally, interviews with four administrators (three schools and one district) were conducted to correlate expectations, strengths and weaknesses, and training with the results of the teacher survey. Multiple themes emerged, which included collaboration/planning, administrative support, …

The Impact Of Early College Programs On Transitioning To 4-Year Institutions, Tracie Hope Anderson Swilley

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Being college and/or career ready is the standard set for high school graduates today in the United States. High schools have the task of making certain that students possess the skills necessary to be prepared for college and/or the workforce. Specific measures are outlined to assess college and career readiness. Dual enrollment programs allow students to be enrolled in college and high school at the same time. Students are given the opportunity to experience college courses while still in the supportive environment of their high school and families. This study depicts the transition to 4-year institutions of nine students from …

Parental Involvement In Middle School: The Parent's Perspective, Brittany D. Orange

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Over the years, parental involvement has been studied from the perspectives of administrators and teachers. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to expound upon parental involvement from the parent’s perspective. The researcher’s goal is to understand the reasons why parents choose to get involved and the strategies they consider beneficial and a hindrance in facilitating their involvement. Parental involvement declines as students move through the K-12 system (Benner, Boyle & Sadler, 2016). As students move to middle school, the educational structure changes. Students go from having one teacher to multiple teachers, which presents a challenge to parents, as they …

Responsive Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study Of The Impact On Academic Achievement And Social Skills, Amy Hildenbrand

Doctor of Education Dissertations

In a single-year mixed methods explanatory study, the researcher sought to determine the impact the Responsive Classroom approach had on student achievement and social skills. The participating elementary school had 14 teachers and two administrators voluntarily participate in the 4-day Responsive Classroom training. The school used the train-the-trainer model, and the participating teachers and administrators brought the training to all other staff for the school-wide implementation of the Responsive Classroom approach. At the end of the year, the researcher analyzed student achievement data to look for any statistically significant changes as measured from the non-implementation year to the year with …

A Case Study On The Self-Perceptions Of The Role, Responsibilities, And Professional Development Needs Of Instructional Coaches, Karen Auton

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This case study was an exploration of how instructional coaches self-perceived the role and the responsibilities of the role, the barriers encountered in the role, and the professional development needs of both novice and seasoned instructional coaches. Results revealed that the role of an instructional coach is ill-defined, and the role can often be complicated by the lack of a shared definition of the role. Data also revealed that a lack of time allocated for carrying out duties assigned to instructional coaches along with the lack of experience and understanding of the role serve as significant barriers encountered by coaches. …

Coaching Conversations: Examining Job-Embedded Professional Development Action Research Using Danielson's Framework To Develop Shared Understanding Of Effective Teaching Practices, Diana Parnell Dubisky

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This action research study investigated the effects of biweekly coaching conversations using a common language of effective teaching practices, Charlotte Danielson’s (2013) Framework for Teaching (CDFfT), to guide collegial discourse during coaching sessions with beginning teachers utilizing a partnership approach to coaching. The study was conducted in a middle school setting with three instructional coach participants and eight beginning teachers. Data were collected using qualitative tools, including (a) pre and post professional development survey, (b) coaching communication logs, (c) coach-to-coach weekly debriefing responses, (d) coaching preparation logs, and (e) survey responses at the end of the 8-week study. Analysis of …

Summer Reading Loss: A Program Evaluation On The Impact Of A Summer School Program On Reducing Summer Reading Loss In High-Poverty Middle School Students In An Urban School District, Rossi J. Volley

Doctor of Education Dissertations

Summer vacation is an opportunity for students to relax from the academic demands of school. Unfortunately, during the summer break, student literacy skills decline, and growth is limited. This decline is especially significant for high-poverty students within urban public school districts. High-poverty students lose, on average, 3 months of academic learning over the summer months while other students gain or stay the same (Stein, 2016). Participating in an intensive reading program and engaging in academic experiences similar to those of their advantaged peers minimize summer reading loss (Schacter, 2003). The purpose of this program evaluation was to examine the impact …

Relational Sequential Decision Making, Kaushik Roy

Publications

Markov Decision Processes(MDPs) are the standard for sequential decision making. Comprehensive theory and methods have been developed to deal with solving MDPs in the propositional setting. Real world domains however are naturally represented using objects and relationships. To this effect, relational adaptations of algorithms to solve MDPs have been proposed in recent years. This paper presents a study of these techniques both in the model based and model free setting.

Knowledge-Infused Statistical Learning For Social Good, Kaushik Roy, Manas Gaur

Publications

Humans are able to provide symbolic knowledge in structured form for potential use by an AI system in learning human-desirable concepts. In clinical settings, for instance, prediction of patient outcomes by an AI can be guided by knowledge from patient history. This history contains concepts such as treatment information, observational and drug-related information, mental health conditions, and severity of disease/disorder. Additionally, there is also often a certain graphical structure to the knowledge among the concepts, for example, ”patient symptoms cause certain tests to be taken”, which in turn affects the prescription of medication. This type of structure between human interpretable …

Pennsylvania’S Covid-19 Response Vs. Homeland Security Frameworks And Research: Masking The Whole Community, Alexander Siedschlag

Publications

This essay offers an intermediate discussion of select policy, strategic, operational, and tactical issues that demonstrate where and how the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s novel coronavirus response on the one hand, and homeland security frameworks and research on the other, converge or—more often so—diverge, and how to narrow this gap. Although typically framed as a pandemic owned by the public health sector, the COVID-19 response falls directly within the homeland security mission space, whose core missions include “Ensuring Resilience to Disasters.” In some respects, Pennsylvania’s response exemplifies best practices suggested by research. In other dimensions, it is neither in line with …

An Adaptable Interleaved Dc-Dc Boost Converter, Stuart Macveigh

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

A.H. Weinberg presented his classic boost topology in his 1974 publication intended for use in satellites. It comprises minimal external components and uses multiple coupled coil systems to provide a boost of up to 2x. Its simplicity makes it inherently robust and reliable as minimal components means lower chance of failure. While its simplicity makes it attractive it has limited boost capability which makes it unsuitable for many modern day applications. No significant investigation has been carried out on adapting the Weinberg topology for high boost operation so far as can be ascertained. An investigation into adapting the Weinberg converter …

Learning What To Say And What To Do: A Model For Grounding Language And Actions, Alexandre Antunes

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Automation is becoming increasingly important in nowadays society, with robots performing a lot of repetitive tasks in industry and even entering our households in the form of vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers. When considering regular tasks outside of the controlled environments of industry, robots tend to perform poorly. In particular, in situations where robots have to interact with humans, a problem arises: how can a robot understand what the human means? While a lot of work has been made in the past towards visual perception and classification of objects, but understanding what action a verb translates into has still been …

Rivals Without A Cause? Relative Performance Feedback Creates Destructive Competition Despite Aligned Incentives, Jan K. Woike, Sebastian Hafenbrädl

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Improving The Quality Of Life In Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: A Case Study, C Turner, D Crocker, J Rhodes, K Nedza, J May

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Nature Contact, Nature Connectedness And Associations With Health, Wellbeing And Pro-Environmental Behaviours, L Martin, Mp White, A Hunt, M Richardson, S Pahl, J Burt

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

A Measure To Assess The Workplace Well‐Being Of Psychological Practitioners, Elisabeth M.A. Summers, Reg C. Morris, Gita E. Bhutani

School of Psychology

No abstract provided.

Intentions And Creative Insights: A Reinforcement Learning Study Of Creative Exploration In Problem-Solving, Thomas R. Colin

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Insight is perhaps the cognitive phenomenon most closely associated with creativity. People engaged in problem-solving sometimes experience a sudden transformation: they see the problem in a radically different manner, and simultaneously feel with great certainty that they have found the right solution. The change of problem representation is called "restructuring", and the affective changes associated with sudden progress are called the "Aha!" experience. Together, restructuring and the "Aha!" experience characterize insight. Reinforcement Learning is both a theory of biological learning and a subfield of machine learning. In its psychological and neuroscientific guise, it is used to model habit formation, and, …

Enhancing Video Streaming Quality Of Dash Over Cloud/Edge Integrated Networks, Ibrahim Mohammedameen

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

With the advancement of mobile technologies and the popularity of mobile devices, mobile video streaming applications/services have increased considerably in recent years. Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) or MPEG-DASH is one of the most widely used video streaming techniques over the Internet. It adapts video sending bit rate according to available network resources, however, in case of low bandwidth, DASH performs poorly, which will cause video quality degradation and video stalling. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) or Multi-access Edge Computing, in connection with the backend cloud has been used to reduce latency and overcome some of the video quality degradation …

Fall And Activity Detection Framework On A Robotic Platform For Older Person Care, Frederico Belmonte Klein

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis describes the classification human activity for the purpose of detecting falls, later extended to multiple activities. This was done with the final intention of implementing a robotic companion for older persons that can provide a certain level of automated care in case of some sort of emergency. The complexity of this work, combined with restrictions of the robot, motivated a creation of an infrastructure abstraction to allow deferred (decentralized) processing. The initial work was done by implementing classifiers that work use pre-processed skeleton data extracted from RGBD sensors and implements some steps in order to make classification robust …

Felony Disenfranchisement & The Nineteenth Amendment, Michael Gentithes

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

The Nineteenth Amendment and the history of the women’s suffrage movement can offer a compelling argument against felony disenfranchisement laws. These laws leave approximately six million citizens unable to vote, often for crimes wholly unrelated to the political process. They also increasingly threaten gains in female enfranchisement.

Today’s arguments in support of felony disenfranchisement laws bear striking similarities to the arguments of anti-suffragists more than a century earlier. Both suggest that a traditionally subordinated class of citizens is inherently incapable of bearing the responsibility that the right to vote entails, and that their votes are somehow less worthy than others. …

App Permissions And The Third-Party Doctrine, Michael Gentithes

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

Apple’s trademarked catchphrase “there’s an app for that”1 suggests that every app on a modern digital device is perfectly tailored to provide a specific, necessary convenience. Whether the user wants to check the weather, get updates on her favorite baseball team, find a coupon for her next purchase, or track her fitness and activity levels, she can use an app to fill gaps in her life that she may not have known existed. What the user might also not know, however, is that “permissions” either she or the phone’s operating system have granted to the app allow it to access …

Fact Sheet, Yale University Office Of Institutional Research

Fact Sheets

No abstract provided.

Storytelling And Relevancy, Stefan H. Krieger, Jonathan D. Krieger

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Relevancy decisions, according to the prevailing view, are matters of probability, whether a given piece of evidence makes any legal proposition more (or less) likely to occur. This view has long held sway, from the early rationalist scholar James Bradley Thayer through the codification of formal rules of evidence, supplanting the common law’s acceptance of witness-framed narratives. But a purely logical analysis, one famously framed in terms of a mathematical equation, seems ill-suited for trial decisions. And the Probabilistic Paradigm often excludes context necessary for a party to present its case. This Article brings together two areas of scholarship that …