Digital Commons Network^™

Leveraging Volunteer Fact Checking To Identify Misinformation About Covid-19 In Social Media, Hyunuk Kim, Dylan Walker

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Identifying emerging health misinformation is a challenge because its manner and type are often unknown. However, many social media users correct misinformation when they encounter it. From this intuition, we implemented a strategy that detects emerging health misinformation by tracking replies that seem to provide accurate information. This strategy is more efficient than keyword-based search in identifying COVID-19 misinformation about antibiotics and a cure. It also reveals the extent to which misinformation has spread on social networks.

Graphical Representation Of Text Semantics, Karl Kevin Tiba Fossoh

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

A text is a set of words conveying a particular semantic based on their order, representation and structure. Those elements can be associated through a different set of interpretations, based on frequency and proportionality. The problem with context is that numbers do not help understand the semantics and fall short to convey the message of the text. The graphical representation of text semantics focuses on the conversion of text to images. Contrarily to word clouds that simply produce frequency mapping of words within the text and topic models that essentially give context to word frequencies and proportionalities, images keep intact …

Orientation: Seeing And Sensing Rhetorically, Megan Poole

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Many visual terms exist in Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical schema, yet the optical implications of such terms remain largely unconsidered by rhetorical scholars. This study presents Burke’s orientation as both a method of seeing and a way of uncovering rhetoric’s relationship to sensation. Burkean orientation—deriving from ophthalmology and Gestalt psychology—brings into focus three practices of studying the senses in rhetoric: attending to lived experience, considering sensation as elemental to rhetorical work, and practicing rhetorical criticism attuned to the entrenchments and slips of the senses. Engaging the biology of vision reveals sensation as connective tissue between nonsymbolic motion and symbolic action.

"Fat Is A Queer Issue, Too": Complicating Queerness And Body Size In Women's Sexual Orientation And Identity, Hannah R. Long

Communication ETDs

This dissertation explores the experiences of self-identified Lesbian-Bisexual-Queer-Transgender (LBQT) women wearing U.S. clothing size 1x and up. Drawing on research within queer theory, fat studies, and Crip theory, the main goal of this study is to explore how these women engage in their embodied everyday performances of the body and identity, particularly through looking at relationship to body and self, intersectional complications, and navigation of physical and discursive space(s). Through analyzing their narratives collected in in-depth interviews, I find that fatness contributes to how people see desire for their selves and others, community, and space-taking. Additionally, within the narratives of …

What Moves, Why, And How: The Contribution Of Austronesian, Lisa Demena Travis, Diane Massam

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Subjecthood And Unmarkedness In Niuean, Rebecca Tollan

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

V=Nya In Colloquial Malay, Mathieu Paillé

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Relative Clause Processing In Tongan: An Effect Of Syntactic Ergativity On The Object Preference, Hajime Ono, Koichi Otaki, Manami Sato, 'Ana Heti Veikun, Peseti Vea, Yuko Otsuka, Masatoshi Koizumi

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

The Prosodic Structure Of Pazeh, Benjamin Macaulay

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Crossed-Control In Malay/Indonesian As Long-Distance Passivization, Paul Kroeger, Kristen Frazier

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Marking Accessible Information In Kimaragang, Paul Kroeger

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

On The Structure Of Tagalog Non-Dp Extraction, Henrison Hsieh

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Pseudo Noun Incorporation And Differential Object Marking: Object Licensing In Daakaka, Jens Hopperdietzel

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Clause Truncation In South Sulawesi: Restructuring And Nominalization, Daniel Finer, Hasan Basri

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

The Typology Of Nominal Licensing In Austronesian Voice System Languages, Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine, Theodore Levin, Coppe Van Urk

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Roviana Fronting And The Relationship Between Syntactic And Morphological Ergativity, James N. Collins, Peter Schuelke

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Raising-To-Object In Amis, Tingchun Chen

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Tsou Exclamatives In Comparative Syntax, Henry Y. Chang

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Optional Wh-Movement And Topicalization In Eastern Cham, Kenneth Baclawski Jr.

Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA)

No abstract provided.

Promising Practices For Boating Safety Initiatives That Target Indigenous Peoples In New Zealand, Australia, The United States Of America, And Canada, Mitchell Crozier, Audrey R. Giles

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Boating-related incidents are responsible for a significant number of the drowning fatalities that occur within Indigenous communities in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and Canada. The aim of this paper was to identify promising practices for boating safety initiatives that target Indigenous peoples within these countries and evaluate past and ongoing boating safety initiatives delivered to/with Indigenous peoples within these countries to suggest the ways in which they – or programs that follow them - may be more effective. Based upon evidence from previous research, boating safety initiatives that target Indigenous peoples in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and Canada …

Using Extensive Reading And Digital Flashcards For Vocabulary Acquisition, Zijin Feng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Non-native English learners often find it difficult to acquire adequate vocabulary knowledge. This can prevent them from making progress in other aspects of English learning, because learners have to understand most of the words that they hear or read to obtain comprehensible input. Fortunately, second language acquisition literature has long identified pleasure reading and spaced retrieval practice as effective in learning vocabulary. This field project examines the effectiveness of these two methods on vocabulary acquisition in adult English learners, and presents a handbook on how teachers can implement pleasure reading and spaced retrieval practice in the classroom. The handbook lays …

How Do General Education Teachers (K-5th Grade) In The Mat-Su Borough School District Teach Handwriting Skills For Automaticity, Rebecca W. Williams

Education

In 2012 the State of Alaska adopted English Language Arts Standards with no handwriting standards beyond the first grade. This change does not display an understanding of how students develop handwriting skills, nor the importance of a student's ability to write with automaticity. The stage many students make the greatest gains in handwriting fluency is at the intermediate level (grades 3-5). This study surveyed kindergarten through fifth grade general education teachers in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District to learn if handwriting skills are being taught and what instructional methods are being used to develop automaticity. This study found that teachers …

Aspirations, Motivations And Needs Of Russian Far East International Students Pursuing Higher Education At The University Of Alaska Anchorage, Anna V. Goldin

Education

The United States has always been the top destination for international college students. However, the number of international students attending the United States higher institutions has decreased within the past three years, while the overall number of international students worldwide doubled in the same period of time. New international enrollments have also decreased in Alaska. This qualitative phenomenological study is an attempt to reveal some valuable insights into motivations, challenges and needs of Russian Far East international students who have studied and who are currently enrolled at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Based on the analysis of twenty one surveys …

An Overview Of Sla Theories With A Focus On The Affective Filter Hypothesis, Nina R. Fehrenbach

Education

For many years foreign language acquisition has been a focal point of linguistic research. Theories of language learning is composed of essentially five major fields of thought (although there are many more theories, along with subtheories, correlational theories, methods and approaches) and a consensus has yet to be reached as to which one is the most accurate, for whom, in which context, what they are called or even how each one should be defined. This study aims to work with the five major ones, and dive deeper into each of them, with a specific focus on the Affective Filter Hypothesis, …

La Maestra’S Circle Of Care: Studying The Impact Of An Integrated Service Model On The Health And Well-Being Of Vulnerable Populations, Zara Marselian

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

There is an urgent need to reform the health care delivery system in the United States, as recognized through current bipartisan efforts. Society’s vulnerable populations especially need health care reform as health care outcomes are the poorest among disadvantaged populations. Moreover, vulnerable populations are twice as likely to develop chronic diseases than the general population and they remain ill due to other contextual, societal factors affecting their ability to achieve health and well-being. This population is subjected to adverse life events that suggest a more comprehensive approach to health and well-being is called for.

The Circle of Care is …

Luciddream: Dynamic Story Generation Through Directed Chatbot Interactions, Ryan Stonebraker

Computer Science

Natural Language Understanding and Generation are both areas of active research with widespread potential for story telling. This paper proposes an architecture for dynamically generating stories that allows a scene to be constructed and then dynamically written through the interaction of individual chatbots. Each chatbot in this environment is meant to mimic either the specific emotional profile of a character or holistically represent all of the character’s attributes. Chatbots are created using the conversation history so that they can understand context, a relevant sentence suggestion provided by a question-answering model to keep generated output on topic, and a finetuned version …

Trait Extraction From Article Text, Trace Braxling

Computer Science

For a particular object, vast amounts of information exists within the Wikipedia article relating to that object. From this article, it is often desirable to produce simple, sentence length facts about this object. The purpose of this project is to explore a number of methods for producing single sentences that provide informational facts (or traits) from a given text. These methods are then evaluated in comparison to each other, as well as a hand picked ground truth . By analyzing these results, it can be determined which aspects of the methods is worth further examination for the task of trait …

When Uŋalaqłiq Danced: Stories Of Strength, Suppression & Hope, Ayyu Qassataq

Rural Development

In the late 1800’s, Uŋalaqłiq (Unalakleet), a predominantly Iñupiaq community along the Norton Sound in Western Alaska, was missionized by the Evangelical Covenant Church. Missionaries were integral in establishing a localized education system under the direction of General Agent of Education, Sheldon Jackson, in the early 1900’s. By 1915, the community was no longer engaging in ancestral practices such as deliberating, teaching and hosting ceremonies within the qargi. Nor were they uplifting shared history and relationships between villages or expressing gratitude for the bounty of the lands through traditional songs, dances, or celebrations such as the Kivgiq Messenger Feast. This …

Qikertarmiut Nunat Apertaarait Anirturluki: Preserving The Indigenous Place Names Of The Kodiak Archipelago, Dehrich A. Schmidt-Chya

Rural Development

This project explores Indigenous place names from the Kodiak Archipelago toward the goals of exhibiting Indigenous identity, increasing pride in Indigineity, and to document Indigenous knowledge. Sugpiaq/Alutiiq people have lived on Kodiak Island for at least 7500 years, while the first foreign contact didn’t come until about 260 years ago, in either 1761 or 1763. Within the past 257 years, Qikertarmiut (Kodiak Alutiiq) place names have been in a continuous state of jeopardy due to the linguistic and cultural assimilation of Indigenous people into Western cultures. In order to preserve the place names of the Kodiak Archipelago, I compiled and …

Customer Complaints Auto-Assignment Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Muammar Nasser Saleh Mohammed

Theses

Managing customer complaints is a very challenging activity, especially when it comes to a government entity like Roads a Transport Authority (RTA) that manages the roads infrastructure and services. RTA for the management of the customer complaints requires a sophisticated and intelligent responsive system for the large volume of cases and calls, which result in needs to a lot of human resources to receive, record and handle customer calls and cases. "The key customer-save course of action is the complaints-handling process. Customers who complain to service providers and are well treated by the process are less likely to churn than …