Digital Commons Network^™

An Acoustic Analysis Of The Monophthongs Of Penang Malay, Muhamad Farid Abdul Latiff

Student Works (2020-2029)

The study aims to examine acoustically the production of monophthongs of Penang Malay by five (5) selected female participants who are of the Jawi Peranakan community. Two (2) female participants of Standard Malay were also selected as a comparator to Penang Malay. The first research question focuses on the acoustic features of Penang Malay and Standard Malay based on their formant frequencies of F1 and F2, while the second research question examines the similarities and differences between Penang Malay and Standard Malay based on their acoustic properties. The target vowels are: [a], [i], [u], [ɛ], [ɔ], [ə], [e], and [o]. …

English Language Learners And Cultural Responsivity In The Art Classroom, Jessica Wycoff

Masters Theses

English Language Learners are a heterogeneous population of students that face social, emotional, and academic obstacles as they assimilate into a new culture while learning new subjects in a new language. In this study, I discuss the educational, social, and emotional needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) in PK-12 education and offer strategies to support kindergartener’s social and cultural identity while improving their language and academic skills in the unique environment of the art classroom.

Educator Perspectives On English Learner Identification: An Explanatory Mixed Methods Study, Rachel E. Hoffman

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore English learner identification and placement through the lens of teacher knowledge and attitude, with the goal of identifying ways to ensure that the intended outcome (correct identification and placement) occurs. Employing explanatory mixed methods research, data was collected from teachers and other educators in the Jackson Public School district through both a web administered survey and one to one phone interviews. The survey data showed that the number of ELs that an educator has had in the past few years had a statistically significant effect on educator knowledge, but none of the …

School Social Workers As Nepantleras In Equity Work For Immigrant Students: A Conceptual Exploration, Sophia Rodriguez, Benjamin Roth, Leticia Villarreal Sosa

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

This article investigates the critical role school social workers play in promoting equity and advocating for immigrant students in K–12 settings. We explore and conceptualize the notion of nepantlera from the work of Gloria Anzaldúa and draw from qualitative data to show how school social workers function as nepantleras in service and advocacy roles for immigrant students. We further argue that the school settings in which these services take place should be understood as borderlands. Throughout the article, we explore the following questions: What is a paradigm for school social worker practice with immigrant students that is informed by the …

Exploring Student Perceptions Of Flipgrid In Online Courses, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Asynchronous video-based discussions have affordances that can address some of the constraints of asynchronous text-based discussions. However, little research has been conducted on the use of asynchronous video-based discussions in online courses. As a result, the purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate students’ perceptions of using Flipgrid for asynchronous video-based discussions in fully online courses. We used a cross-sectional survey design to survey 79 students who used Flipgrid in a fully online course. Students overall reported that they liked using Flipgrid, it was easy to use, and that it helped improve social presence. In this paper, we will …

“Spanish Citizenship And Responsibility For The Past: The Case Of The Sephardim, Moriscos, And Saharawis”, Michael James

Faculty Journal Articles

In 2015, the Spain passed a law expediting citizenship for the descendants of the Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492, but not to the descendants of the Moriscos expelled in 1609. In this essay, I use Spain’s 2015 citizenship law as a test case for assessing three normative models for linking citizenship with collective responsibility for the past: reparations for historic injustice; the principle of coercively constituted identities; and remedial responsibility. I argue that the first two models confront intractable philosophical problems that are circumvented by the third model, remedial responsibility, which prioritizes contemporary suffering and looks to the past only …

Neutrosophic Sets And Systems, Vol. 38, 2020, Florentin Smarandache, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Said Broumi

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Schools’ Civil Rights Obligations To English Learners: Leadership Perceptions On Key Issues, Pamela R. Schwallier

Dissertations

English Learners (ELs), who now represent nearly 10% of all K-12 public school students, 4.8 million of who speak over 400 different languages and dialects, continue to lack equitable educational opportunities as demonstrated through gaps in achievement outcomes, poor graduation rates, and identified systemic barriers related to the intersectionality of language, culture, race, and racism (Crump, 2014; DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2017; Menken & Solorza, 2015; Morita-Mullaney, 2018; National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition [NCELA], 2015, 2018). This quantitative study captured over 800 K-12 educational leaders’ perspectives, via an anonymous electronic survey, on key issues regarding equitable programs for ELs that …

Framework For Reasoning With Speech Processing, Ahmed Laarfi

Theses and Dissertations

It is known that programming languages are textual. We try here to take the advantages of Speech Recognition (SR) and employ them in creating a verbal Language, which takes its instruction from the voice. Because this work is a novel approach in the programming world, we could not find any resources. This dissertation aims to make essential developments in Speech Recognition (SR)and Artificial Intelligence by constructing a new compiler that receives commands verbally and executes them. That means entering data into the Computer by voice commands. This method of input means that we link several major computer topics with several …

Generating Concept Based Api Element Comparison Using A Knowledge Graph, Yang Liu, Mingwei Liu, Xin Peng, Christoph Treude, Zhenchang Xing, Xiaoxin Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recommender systems are a valuable tool for software engineers. For example, they can provide developers with a ranked list of files likely to contain a bug, or multiple auto-complete suggestions for a given method stub. However, the way these recommender systems interact with developers is often rudimentary—a long list of recommendations only ranked by the model’s confidence. In this vision paper, we lay out our research agenda for re-imagining how recommender systems for software engineering communicate their insights to developers. When issuing recommendations, our aim is to recommend diverse rather than redundant solutions and present them in ways that highlight …

Improving Gan Training With Probability Ratio Clipping And Sample Reweighting, Yue Wu, Pan Zhou, Andrew Wilson Gordon, Eric Xing, Zhiting Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite success on a wide range of problems related to vision, generative adversarial networks (GANs) often suffer from inferior performance due to unstable training, especially for text generation. To solve this issue, we propose a new variational GAN training framework which enjoys superior training stability. Our approach is inspired by a connection of GANs and reinforcement learning under a variational perspective. The connection leads to (1) probability ratio clipping that regularizes generator training to prevent excessively large updates, and (2) a sample re-weighting mechanism that improves discriminator training by downplaying bad-quality fake samples. Moreover, our variational GAN framework can provably …

Modern Standard Arabic Speech Recognition: Using Formants Measurements To Extract Vowels From Arabic Words’ Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Vowel Structure, Mohamed Ali Alshaari

Theses and Dissertations

Arabic texts suffer from missing diacritics (short vowels) which become obstacles for new learners. Speech Recognition is the translation of words spoken to text through intelligent computer programs. As of today, it has been integrated into many computer systems. Arabic Speech Recognition has made progress over the years, but it is still not as good as English speech recognition due to the problem of short vowels not being recognized. This is mainly because the Arabic language is unlike the English language in the nature because it is a Semitic language. This is reflected in different characteristics such as grammar, morphology, …

From Garlic To Acupuncture: Cultural Models Of Covid-19 In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Molly Eaton

Honors College Theses

Ever since I studied Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Yunnan, China, I have been curious about it. The cultural and historical aspect of TCM combined with the medical perspective provides a unique concept that is vastly different from Western Medicine (WM). TCM has been practiced for thousands of years in China and surrounding areas. It has seen the rise and fall of kingdoms. It has fought against all types of injuries and illnesses. With the curiosity of TCM combined with the daunting COVID-19, I opted to research how people 3 practice TCM during COVID-19. This research project seeks to understand …

Nationalism In The Age Of Brexit: The Attitudes And Identities Of Young Voters, Emma Wolkenstein

Honors College Theses

The Brexit referendum marked the first time in the United Kingdom when political lines were drawn along distinct generational lines. In 2016, 73% of young people, aged 18-24, and less than 40% of older voters, aged 65 and over, voted to Remain. In comparison, over 60% of older voters and only 27% of young voters voted to Leave (Fig. 1). Voters aged 25 to 64 remained fairly split between two options, but the difference between older and younger generations is incredibly significant (Kelly 2016). Voter differences have historically been between socioeconomic classes; the urban and the rural, the wealthy and …

Reading With Daddy: Parent Gender, Joint Book Reading, And Emergent Literacy Growth, Julia Kate Bentley

All Dissertations

For decades, educational researchers have reported joint book reading with caregivers promotes children’s emergent literacy development (Bus et al., 1995; Demir-Lira et al., 2019; NELP, 2008; Pelligrini et al., 1990). However, the bulk of this research has been conducted with mothers (Bingham, 2007; Bojczyk, 2016; Roberts et al., 2005). Mothers have been the focus of such research because, historically, the primary responsibility for caring for young children was placed on them (Fagot et al., 2012). Recent societal changes have resulted in fathers taking on more childcare roles (Banchefsky & Park, 2016). Yet, their contributions are rarely noted in literacy research. …

Analysing User Experience Of Mobile Banking Applications In Nigeria: A Text Mining Approach, Omotosho Babatunde S.

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper analyses textual data mined from 37,460 reviews written by mobile banking application users in Nigeria over the period November 2012 – July 2020. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the best), the average user rating for the twenty-two apps included in our sample is 3.5; with the apps deployed by non-interest banks having the highest average rating of 4.0 and those by commercial banks with national authorisation having the least rating of 3.4. Results from the sentiment analysis reveal that the share of positive sentiment words (17.8%) in the corpus more than double that of …

Eager To Follow: Methodological Precedent In Statutory Interpretation, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

An important recent development in the field of statutory interpretation is the emergence of a movement calling for "methodological precedent"--a regime under which courts give precedential effect to interpretive methodology. In such a system, a case would establish not only what a particular statute means but could also establish binding rules of methodology--which tools are valid, in what order, and so on. The movement for methodological precedent has attracted sharp criticism on normative grounds. But both sides of the normative debate agree on the premise that the federal courts generally do not give precedential effect to interpretive methodology today.

This …

Making Christian Art In A Contemporary Setting, Raven Cordy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the past 4 and a half years, I have studied contemporary art and seen countless artworks being made in an academic setting. In doing so, I have come to the realization that religious content is rare in today’s time. While it is not actively discouraged, the environment I am in and the current art community does not seem to be particularly interested in merging the two concepts. Without understanding why, I subconsciously kept art and my faith as separate entities for the first few years of my higher education. But as I matured and developed my own artwork, I …

Flavonol Specific 3-O Glucosyltransferase (Cp3gt) Mutant S20g+T21s: Enzyme Structure And Function, Hayden Fobare

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Flavonols are a major subclass of flavonoids and are considered the most abundant subclass of flavonoids. Flavonols are classified as having a hydroxyl group on the 3^rd carbon of the C ring. The most prevalent modification to flavonols is glucosylation. The flavonol specific 3-O glucosyltransferase (Cp3GT) enzyme from grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) is the topic of this research and specifically adds glucose to flavonols at the 3-OH position. The level of activity varies depending on the flavonol structure. This makes Cp3GT an ideal model system for studying the structure/function relationship of Cp3GT using site-directed mutants. S20G+T21S is a …

Attentional Parsing Networks, Marcus Karr

Master's Theses

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have dominated the computer vision field since the early 2010s, when deep learning largely replaced previous approaches like hand-crafted feature engineering and hierarchical image parsing. Meanwhile transformer architectures have attained preeminence in natural language processing, and have even begun to supplant CNNs as the state of the art for some computer vision tasks.

This study proposes a novel transformer-based architecture, the attentional parsing network, that reconciles the deep learning and hierarchical image parsing approaches to computer vision. We recast unsupervised image representation as a sequence-to-sequence translation problem where image patches are mapped to successive layers …

The Importance Of Recess In The Lives Of Children, Kayla L. Villanueva

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Current research suggests that when children get the chance to play outdoors, they reap the benefits. However, in today’s society children aren’t outdoors very often. Children also don’t have very much time to play outdoors during recess time while in a school setting. The purpose of this project was to educate and inform elementary school principals about the importance and benefits that recess has on children, as well as help them become an advocate for recess. A video was created that focused on the benefits of outdoor play for children, the importance of recess for children, as well as ways …

An Analysis Of Policies And Practices For The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities In Public Universities In Mexico, Lilia G. Lopez Arriaga

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the laws and regulations regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in selected Mexican universities. Seven public autonomous universities on the northern border of Mexico were selected for participation. Official documents were reviewed and administrators were surveyed to determine the extent to which federal legislation requiring inclusion was implemented at their respective institutions. Faculty members of psychology were also surveyed regarding the guarantees and accommodations provided by their institutions and the effectiveness of those efforts. Principal findings were that the commitment to serve students with disabilities was high, however the existing plans …

Removing The Fence?: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Corequisite Courses, Faculty Validation, And Equity For Men Of Color In Community College English, Daniel Hogan

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The passage of California’s AB 705 in 2017 mandated that community colleges drastically reimagine their English course offerings in an effort to increase student throughput and eliminate equity gaps. This typically meant replacing traditional remedial coursework and placement with corequisite models of remediation, wherein students took transfer-level courses with built-in concurrent remedial support.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the relationship between these structural changes and non-traditional relational success markers, namely faculty validation, especially for male Black and Latino students in English at a large urban California community college. The quantitative phase was a survey of over …

Performance Guide And Recording Of Three Twenty-First-Century Compositions For Solo Cello, Katarina Majcen Pliego

Dissertations

The twenty-first century boasts a vast repertoire of solo cello pieces. While many editions might feature phrase markings and other performance indications by the composer, they rarely include bowing indications, fingerings, and other practical advice. Due to the diversity and sometimes technical difficulty of the twenty-first-century solo cello repertoire, most new works now include guidelines or performance guides written by the composer or first performer. I have selected three pieces according to the following criteria: no performance guide is currently available; the published score lacks editorial guidance on performance issues such as bowing and fingering; and no commercially available recording …

The Student Loan Bankruptcy Gap, Jason Iuliano

Duke Law Journal

Each year, a quarter of a million student loan debtors file for bankruptcy. Of those, fewer than three hundred discharge their educational debt. That is a success rate of just 0.1 percent. This chasm between success and failure is the titular “Student Loan Bankruptcy Gap,” and it is a phenomenon that is unprecedented in the law.

Drawing upon an original dataset of nearly five hundred adversary proceedings, this Article examines three key facets of the Student Loan Bankruptcy Gap. First, it establishes the true breadth of the gap. Second, it explores why the gap has persisted for more than two …

Music Participation And Achievement Scores Among Middle School Students With Disabilities: A Causal-Comparative Study, Ashley Anne Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative, causal-comparative study examined the differences in reading and math achievement between students with disabilities who participated in music for two or more years and those who did not. This study’s purpose was to show if participating in music can impact the academic achievement of middle school students as measured by the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The covariate in the study was the reading and math STAAR scores from fifth-grade students in the 2015–2016 school year before they participated in middle school music. These students’ eighth-grade 2018–2019 math and reading scores were used to show …

The Union Of Opposites: Carl Jung, Folklore, And The Caduceus And Ouroboros In Alchemy, Jack Daly

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis advocates for the use of Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theory in folkloristics by examining the role of the caduceus and the ouroboros in alchemy as a case study. Although a Jungian lens has not been widely accepted by folklorists, it can and should be applied to folklore, particularly in the context of binary oppositions. Folklorists such as Alan Dundes have been harshly critical of this perspective. However, Dundes also stressed the importance of binaries in folklore. Furthermore, Dundes championed the theory of symbolic equivalences, and in my paper I argue that the caduceus and the ouroboros are examples of …

Effects Of A Telerehabilitation Group On Continuing Language Treatment After Participation In An Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (Icap), Alexis Missel

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder encompassing oral and/or written language expression and comprehension affecting an estimated two- to two to four million people in the United States, (Simmons-Mackie, 2018; National Aphasia Association, 2016). The primary aim of the current study was to investigate an option for targeted intervention as a follow-up to an Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program (ICAP). There is little research assessing maintenance of communication profile gains following conclusion of the ICAPs, and there are few options that exist as tailored ICAP follow-up programs or continued intervention guided by the ICAP principle features. To address this, a …

Broadening Perspectives: Using Multiple Teaching Approaches To Meet The Needs Of Language Students, Kalen Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is comprised of research, opinions, and ideas that the author has learned during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It is a representation of experiences gained through teaching lower division Spanish courses at USU. In addition to experiences, it is also comprised of research perspectives which were furthered by coursework in the MSLT program.

Contained within the pages is a road map of the author’s journey of learning and research. The portfolio begins with the author’s perspectives on teaching including his philosophy on teaching and how he has developed by observing …

The Economic And Health Impacts Of Community Gardens On Refugee Populations: Cric Garden Case Study, Joseph Montoya

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic benefits of community gardens and incubator farms, both of which support the populations they serve from an economic viewpoint as well as socially, and as a benefit to public health and nutrition. The findings were gathered from the large body of research concerning the benefits of community gardens as well as program evaluation responses conducted with gardeners at the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection (CRIC) garden in Logan, Utah in 2020. They are also informed by experiences had and lessons learned while working as the garden manager. There is a …