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2020

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High-Fidelity Mini-Led And Micro-Led Displays, Yuge Huang Jan 2020

High-Fidelity Mini-Led And Micro-Led Displays, Yuge Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Mini-LED and micro-LED are emerging disruptive display technologies, because they can work as local dimmable backlight to significantly enhance the dynamic range of conventional LCDs, or as sunlight readable emissive displays. However, there are still unresolved issues impairing their display fidelity: 1) motion blur on high-resolution, large-size and high-luminance devices, 2) limited contrast ratio on mini-LED backlit LCD (mLED-LCD), 3) relatively high power consumption, and 4) compromised ambient contrast ratio. This dissertation tackles with each of these issues for achieving high display fidelity. Motion blur is caused by slow liquid crystal response time and image update delays. Low-duty ratio operation …

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An Exploration Of Evolving Faculty Instructional Beliefs And Practices Viewed Through The Lens Of Transformative Learning, Joseph Huston Jan 2020

An Exploration Of Evolving Faculty Instructional Beliefs And Practices Viewed Through The Lens Of Transformative Learning, Joseph Huston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of transformative learning within the context of instructional beliefs and practices among collegiate math and science faculty. Participants included nine full-time instructional faculty teaching within a biological science, mathematics, or physical science department at a public, two-year degree-granting state college. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, engaging participants in semi-structured interviews through a descriptive phenomenological design. Qualitative coding and thematic analysis were conducted, consistent with Colaizzi's (1978) Method for phenomenological research. Data analysis resulted in the emergence of four themes related to transformative learning experiences and four themes related …

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Experimental And Numerical Investigations Of Granular Dynamics In Microgravity, Stephanie Jarmak Jan 2020

Experimental And Numerical Investigations Of Granular Dynamics In Microgravity, Stephanie Jarmak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

During the first stages of planet formation small particles (~0.1 – 1 µm) in the protoplanetary disk collide at low relative velocities (less than 1 m/s) and tend to aggregate into cm-size "pebbles" through a combination of electrostatic interactions and gravitational streaming instabilities. Particles in this size regime also compose a layer of regolith on small, airless bodies that evolves under conditions very different than those on Earth. Characterizing the response of regolith to low-energy impacts in a microgravity environment is therefore critical to our understanding of the processes that lead to the formation of these objects and our ability …

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Factors Related To Physical Education Course Enrollment At The Community College Level, Jennifer Katz Jan 2020

Factors Related To Physical Education Course Enrollment At The Community College Level, Jennifer Katz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study was designed to evaluate the factors related to Physical Education course enrollment at a predominately two-year state college operating under a community college model in the state of Florida as it pertains to enrollment declines in electives focused on health and wellness. The mixed-methods study included a survey of current students at the college (n =177) perceptions and reasons for enrolling in physical education classes. Further, a historical data analysis (n = 87,399) of students' institutional records was conducted to investigate the relationship between student success and physical education. Groups included those who took physical education courses and …

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Compressibility Of Fine-Grained Soil In Central Florida, Andre Kruk Jan 2020

Compressibility Of Fine-Grained Soil In Central Florida, Andre Kruk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Fine-grained soils are responsible for most site settlements through a time dependent process known as consolidation. The magnitude of consolidation is quantified with three terms: the recompression and compression indices, referred to as the soil's compressibility indices, and preconsolidation pressure. The ideal methods to estimate these parameters are direct measurements from lab or in-situ field tests, other method include estimation from experience or from correlations to soil parameters. This study refines correlations between compressibility indices and index properties as previously researchers and soil mechanics suggest a strong correlation exists. This study also suggests a correlation to CPT parameters as this …

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Multi-Parameter Optical Metrology: Quantum And Classical, Walker Larson Jan 2020

Multi-Parameter Optical Metrology: Quantum And Classical, Walker Larson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The insights offered by quantum mechanics to the field of optical metrology are many-fold, with non-classical states of light themselves used to make sensors that surpass the sensitivity of sensors using classical states of light. Unfortunately, this advantage, referred to often as "super-sensitivity" is notoriously fragile, and even the slightest experimental imperfections may greatly reduce the efficacy of the non-classical sensors, sometimes completely obviating their advantage. In my thesis I have shown that the performance of an otherwise ideal two-photon interferometer, which exploits entanglement between photons to make super-sensitive measurements of phase, is crippled by the slightest introduction of decoherence …

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Efforts In Numerical Modeling Of Undulating Propulsion, George Loubimov Jan 2020

Efforts In Numerical Modeling Of Undulating Propulsion, George Loubimov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Naval propulsion is a critical component for every vessel, and it is the subject of this thesis, specifically bio-inspired propulsion. Numerical modeling is used as a tool to understand the relationship between mechanical undulation and the hydrodynamic response. Through three stages, the research presented here examines and refines tools for understanding fundamentals of undulating propulsion. Those three objectives are: to verify and validate the proposed numerical models against existing experiments, establishing a baseline of fidelity; to examine the causal linkage between fluid-boundary interactions and undulating propulsion; and to create a moment based method for characterizing generalized undulating propulsive mechanisms. First, …

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An Examination Of The Quality And Development Of Educational Plans For Gifted Students, David Maddock Jan 2020

An Examination Of The Quality And Development Of Educational Plans For Gifted Students, David Maddock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This two-phase mixed-methods study applied a researcher-created instrument (Education Plan Quality Assessment) to extant documents created by teachers in a single central Florida school district. A true random sample of 337 student educational plans was drawn from a gifted population of 2,370 students. A snowball sample, which utilized the student sample to recruit a teacher sample, was created from teachers who worked on the plans and those teachers were contacted to complete the Opinions about the Gifted and their Education (OGE) opinionnaire which provided teacher opinion scores related to giftedness. Teachers were surveyed as to their opinions of giftedness to …

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Video Content Understanding Using Text, Amir Mazaheri Jan 2020

Video Content Understanding Using Text, Amir Mazaheri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The rise of the social media and video streaming industry provided us a plethora of videos and their corresponding descriptive information in the form of concepts (words) and textual video captions. Due to the mass amount of available videos and the textual data, today is the best time ever to study the Computer Vision and Machine Learning problems related to videos and text. In this dissertation, we tackle multiple problems associated with the joint understanding of videos and text. We first address the task of multi-concept video retrieval, where the input is a set of words as concepts, and the …

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The Position Of An Instructional Literacy Coach: A Case Study Of The Perceptions Of High School Administrators, Classroom Teachers, And Coaches In One Florida School District, Rachel Miracolo Jan 2020

The Position Of An Instructional Literacy Coach: A Case Study Of The Perceptions Of High School Administrators, Classroom Teachers, And Coaches In One Florida School District, Rachel Miracolo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this quantitative case study was to examine the position of an instructional literacy coach as perceived by high school administrators, teachers, and coaches in one Florida school district and to determine if any perceptual variance existed among those groups. A problem existed with understanding how the instructional literacy coach position manifested in different school contexts and how that manifestation impacted workplace dynamics. Given the dynamic nature of instructional coaching, this study further explored the level of congruence or incongruence between key faculty groups in order to better understand perceptions of coaching as a professional learning tool. The …

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Structural Investigation On The Thermal Degradation Of Aqueous Amines In Post-Combustion Co2 Capture, Jeffrey Alexander Laub Jan 2020

Structural Investigation On The Thermal Degradation Of Aqueous Amines In Post-Combustion Co2 Capture, Jeffrey Alexander Laub

Online Theses and Dissertations

One of the major issues concerning the increase in global temperature is with the elevating levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Combustion of fossil fuels in power plants is a leading contributor to the elevated anthropogenic CO2 concentration. To help alleviate this issue, the investigation of aqueous amines being implemented for the capture of CO2 in the post-combustion carbon capture (PCCC) in power plants has been a growing interest to chemists. One of the concerns with aqueous amines, is their ability to thermally degrade. Thermal degradation is a prominent aspect for the loss of aqueous amines during the stripper process …

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Types Of Social Support In Distance Education And Academic Performance At A Southwestern Historically Black College And University, Jennifer Paige Miles Jan 2020

Types Of Social Support In Distance Education And Academic Performance At A Southwestern Historically Black College And University, Jennifer Paige Miles

Online Theses and Dissertations

As a result of rapid growth in distance education, increasingly more students are enrolling in online courses. Nearly 81% of all U.S. postsecondary institutions offered “at least one fully online or blended course” in 2003 (Jones & Davenport, 2018). Previous research has demonstrated African American students site “convenience” as an influence in enrolling in an online course (Kwun et al., 2012). While online learning offers benefits to both institutions and students (Anderson, 2008), research has also found students may exhibit stress and anxiety as a result of isolation and loneliness caused by distance learning (Duranton & Mason, 2012; Heinman, 2008; …

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Abundance Of Songbirds In Eastern Hemlock Stands Following Chemical Treatment For Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Natalie Sweeting Jan 2020

Abundance Of Songbirds In Eastern Hemlock Stands Following Chemical Treatment For Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Natalie Sweeting

Online Theses and Dissertations

In the 1960’s the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae [hereafter, HWA]) began to spread west across the hemlock stands of the Eastern U.S. killing a significant number of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). While chemical treatments, primarily with the active ingredient imidacloprid, have been implemented, their effects on hemlock dependent avian species are largely unknown. A 2009 study, which took place as HWA was beginning to invade Kentucky, identified six indicator species that were positively and negatively correlated with eastern hemlock stands throughout the Appalachian Mountain region of Kentucky. Our study repeated bird and vegetation surveys at the same 65 …

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Effects Of Nutrient Overload And Environmental Conditions On Algal Bloom Formation: A Case Study Of Water Sources In Eastern Kentucky, Lauren Sutton Jan 2020

Effects Of Nutrient Overload And Environmental Conditions On Algal Bloom Formation: A Case Study Of Water Sources In Eastern Kentucky, Lauren Sutton

Online Theses and Dissertations

Eastern Kentucky is home to many private ponds used for agricultural and recreational purposes. Each year, the owners of these ponds observe harmful algal blooms (HABs) that release toxins into the water, potentially limiting the use of these ponds. A pilot study in summer 2018 observed a harmful algal bloom (HAB) occurring in one pond in Madison Country that roughly correlated with a rise in water sulfate levels with no detectable levels of nitrate or phosphate present. A follow-up study of this pond and others in the area was conducted during Summer 2019. The purpose of this project was three-fold: …

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Bee Abundance Along A Tropical Montane Elevational Gradient And Implications For Crop Pollination Services, Kristin M. Conrad Jan 2020

Bee Abundance Along A Tropical Montane Elevational Gradient And Implications For Crop Pollination Services, Kristin M. Conrad

Online Theses and Dissertations

Tropical forests are among the biologically richest ecosystems on Earth, but how most organisms in these forests will respond to a warming climate remains uncertain. Insects are expected to be highly responsive to climate change due to their short life cycles that are strongly influenced by temperature. Plants depend on pollinators to set seed and reproduce, and many animal populations rely on the resources provided by flowering plants. There is an urgent need to document elevational distributions and thermal specialization for tropical bee species to understand how these important pollinators may respond to warming temperatures. My four-year study (2016-2019) aims …

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Development Of Novel Analytical Methods For Detection And Determination Of Tamoxifen In Oral Fluid And Discrimination Between Regioisomeric Aromatase Inhibitors For Doping Control Purposes, Brooke A. Sutton Jan 2020

Development Of Novel Analytical Methods For Detection And Determination Of Tamoxifen In Oral Fluid And Discrimination Between Regioisomeric Aromatase Inhibitors For Doping Control Purposes, Brooke A. Sutton

Online Theses and Dissertations

The use of SERMs (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators) – most notably the drug Tamoxifen – has significantly increased among athletes over the past decade to enhance athletic performance and/or negate certain side effects of using anabolic steroids. This “doping” is always banned by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) for all athletes, but SERMs can naturally increase testosterone production so they are a tempting alternative to using steroids or androgenic supplements that can cause significant health problems (e.g. acne, breast development, frequent urge to urinate, low libido, etc.). Similarly, the use of AIs (Aromatase Inhibitors) has also increased among athletes for identical …

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Culturally Responsive Leadership: Beliefs, Espoused Practices And Supports In High Performing Urban Schools, Jessica Schofield Jan 2020

Culturally Responsive Leadership: Beliefs, Espoused Practices And Supports In High Performing Urban Schools, Jessica Schofield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The racial academic achievement gap, identified as the underachievement of racially, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse (RCELD) students and documented by research, is visible in all education organizations (Griner & Stewart, 2013; National Center for Education Statistics, 2019; O'Connor, Hill, & Robinson, 2009). Since the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, repudiating the concept of separate but equal, laws concerning the need for equal education access have been enacted and educational policies have been created and implemented, but this achievement gap continues to exist (Williams, 2011). Culturally responsive leadership and culturally relevant …

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Wind Turbine Generator Overheating Solution, Gopal Singh Jan 2020

Wind Turbine Generator Overheating Solution, Gopal Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

An increase in the demand for electrical power and tremendous growth of renewable energy sources has been seen in the last decade, which resulted in designing the wind turbine system components for higher load point performance, resulting in higher annual energy production. Cost optimization, weight reduction, and lower non-conformance cost are some of the expectations that the wind turbine needs to meet in the present stringent market condition. Overheating of the wind turbine system components is one of the primary challenges to overcome when the system operates at a higher load point. The overheating issue of the wind turbine generator …

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Characterization Of Left Ventricular Volumes And Ejection Fraction In Patients With A Left Ventricular Assist Device, Viswajith Siruvallur Vasudevan Jan 2020

Characterization Of Left Ventricular Volumes And Ejection Fraction In Patients With A Left Ventricular Assist Device, Viswajith Siruvallur Vasudevan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In the treatment of heart patients, as a bridge to recovery, the challenge currently in using a continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (LVAD), is to provide a method to monitor the recovery of the heart. This dissertation addresses the hypothesis that continuous monitoring of the ejection fraction of a patient implanted with an LVAD should be to examine the progress of the patient without the need for excessive in vivo measurements. Also, the ejection fraction can be used to provide a control mechanism for the pump depending on the requirements of each patient. In this dissertation, the left ventricle, in …

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Increasing Accuracy Performance Through Optimal Feature Extraction Algorithms, Genevieve Sapijaszko Jan 2020

Increasing Accuracy Performance Through Optimal Feature Extraction Algorithms, Genevieve Sapijaszko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This research developed models and techniques to improve the three key modules of popular recognition systems: preprocessing, feature extraction, and classification. Improvements were made in four key areas: processing speed, algorithm complexity, storage space, and accuracy. The focus was on the application areas of the face, traffic sign, and speaker recognition. In the preprocessing module of facial and traffic sign recognition, improvements were made through the utilization of grayscaling and anisotropic diffusion. In the feature extraction module, improvements were made in two different ways; first, through the use of mixed transforms and second through a convolutional neural network (CNN) that …

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Mfpa: Mixed-Signal Field Programmable Array For Energy-Aware Compressive Signal Processing, Adrian Tatulian Jan 2020

Mfpa: Mixed-Signal Field Programmable Array For Energy-Aware Compressive Signal Processing, Adrian Tatulian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Compressive Sensing (CS) is a signal processing technique which reduces the number of samples taken per frame to decrease energy, storage, and data transmission overheads, as well as reducing time taken for data acquisition in time-critical applications. The tradeoff in such an approach is increased complexity of signal reconstruction. While several algorithms have been developed for CS signal reconstruction, hardware implementation of these algorithms is still an area of active research. Prior work has sought to utilize parallelism available in reconstruction algorithms to minimize hardware overheads; however, such approaches are limited by the underlying limitations in CMOS technology. Herein, the …

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An Analysis Of Teacher Decision-Making In Grading 10th Grade Student Writing In English Language Arts, Guy Swenson Jan 2020

An Analysis Of Teacher Decision-Making In Grading 10th Grade Student Writing In English Language Arts, Guy Swenson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This qualitative study was conducted to investigate teacher decision-making while grading samples of 10th grade student writing in English language arts. Extensive research spanning 100 years has shown that inter-rater agreement of student work is weak at best (Ashbaugh, 1921; Brimi, 2011; Starch & Elliot, 1912). A cognitive laboratory interview method was chosen to focus on real-time teacher decision-making due to a discrepancy between teacher beliefs and teacher practices (Phipps & Borg, 2009). Qualitative data were gathered from 21 cognitive laboratory interviews in which the participants graded two samples of student writing while verbalizing their thoughts. The grading data revealed …

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Explore And Design Novel Structures For More Efficient And Better Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Min Wang Jan 2020

Explore And Design Novel Structures For More Efficient And Better Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Min Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Deep Convolutional Neural Networks have achieved remarkable performance on visual recognition problems, and have been extensively adopted in real-world applications, such as Apple's Face ID security system, autonomous driving cars, and automatic image tagging in online album services. One major concern in the development of CNNs is that their computational complexity grows along with the increase in their accuracy. Therefore, there is a continuous demand to find the right balance between accuracy and complexity in the design of CNN models. This dissertation focuses on designing various novel structures to enhance the performance of CNNs and their efficiency. Our efforts fall …

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A Corridor Level Gis-Based Decision Support Model To Evaluate Truck Diversion Strategies, Samar Younes Jan 2020

A Corridor Level Gis-Based Decision Support Model To Evaluate Truck Diversion Strategies, Samar Younes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Increased urbanization, population growth, and economic development within the U.S. have led to an increased demand for freight travel to meet the needs of individuals and businesses. Consequently, freight transportation has grown significantly over time and has expanded beyond the capacity of infrastructure, which has caused new challenges in many regions. To maintain quality of life and enhance public safety, more effort must be dedicated to investigating and planning in the area of traffic management and to assessing the impact of trucks on highway systems. Traffic diversion is an effective strategy to reduce the impact of incident-induced congestion, but alternative …

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Transient Mid-Ir Nonlinear Refraction In Air And Nonlinear Optical Properties Of Organometallic Complexes, Salimeh Tofighi Jan 2020

Transient Mid-Ir Nonlinear Refraction In Air And Nonlinear Optical Properties Of Organometallic Complexes, Salimeh Tofighi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This dissertation explores two main topics: Transient nonlinear refraction of air in Mid-IR spectral range and nonlinear optical properties of organometallic complexes. For seeing a vibrational and rotational Raman response the molecule should be Raman active. The first requirement for being a Raman active molecule is that the polarizability of molecule must be anisotropic. Linear symmetric molecules do have rotational Raman spectra. Not all the vibrational mode can be excited by a femtosecond pulse. The pulsewidth of our excitation beam should be less than the half of the vibration period. In this dissertation my excitation pulsewidth is not short enough …

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Differential Recurrent Neural Networks For Human Activity Recognition, Naifan Zhuang Jan 2020

Differential Recurrent Neural Networks For Human Activity Recognition, Naifan Zhuang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Human activity recognition has been an active research area in recent years. The difficulty of this problem lies in the complex dynamical motion patterns embedded through the sequential frames. The Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network is capable of processing complex sequential information since it utilizes special gating schemes for learning representations from long input sequences. It has the potential to model various time-series data, where the current hidden state has to be considered in the context of the past hidden states. Unfortunately, the conventional LSTMs do not consider the impact of spatio-temporal dynamics corresponding to the given salient …

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Breaking The Cycle Of Intergeneration Literacy Deficits: Describing Linguistic Interactions Between Adolescent Mothers And Their Young Children, Diana Abarca Jan 2020

Breaking The Cycle Of Intergeneration Literacy Deficits: Describing Linguistic Interactions Between Adolescent Mothers And Their Young Children, Diana Abarca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this pilot descriptive study was to begin the exploration of adolescent mothers' and their children's sociodemographic characteristics and language and literacy skills, the home literacy environment (HLE) provided by adolescent mothers, and the quality of linguistic interactions between adolescent mothers and their children. Eight adolescent mother-child dyads were recruited from local school counties. Data were collected through demographic and HLE questionnaires, various language standardized measures (i.e., Preschool Language Scales, Fifth Edition and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fifth Edition), and scored interactions between mother-child dyads using the Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes …

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Learning Transferable Representations For Visual Recognition, Yang Zhang Jan 2020

Learning Transferable Representations For Visual Recognition, Yang Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In the last half-decade, a new renaissance of machine learning originates from the applications of convolutional neural networks to visual recognition tasks. It is believed that a combination of big curated data and novel deep learning techniques can lead to unprecedented results. However, the increasingly large training data is still a drop in the ocean compared with scenarios in the wild. In this literature, we focus on learning transferable representation in the neural networks to ensure the models stay robust, even given different data distributions. We present three exemplar topics in three chapters, respectively: zero-shot learning, domain adaptation, and generalizable …

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Evidence Of Science Of Instruction Principles And Mathematics Teaching Practices In Undergraduate Elementary Education Mathematics Methods Courses' Coverage Of Geometry And Measurement In The State University System Of Florida, Rachel Adams Jan 2020

Evidence Of Science Of Instruction Principles And Mathematics Teaching Practices In Undergraduate Elementary Education Mathematics Methods Courses' Coverage Of Geometry And Measurement In The State University System Of Florida, Rachel Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study investigated the extent to which elementary education mathematics methods courses exposed preservice teachers to research-based pedagogical practices grounded in cognitive science as well as best practices for mathematics instruction. A line-by-line content analysis of textbooks and course syllabi from ten teacher education programs within the State University System SUS) of Florida was completed. Evidence of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) eight high leverage Mathematics Teaching Practices (MTPs) was documented on the © Scoring Rubric for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Mathematics Teaching Practices (MTPs), and Mayer's (2009) Science of Instruction Principles (SOIPs) were …

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Midwave Vs Longwave Infrared Search And Track And Aerosol Scattering Target Acquisition Performance, Steven Butrimas Jan 2020

Midwave Vs Longwave Infrared Search And Track And Aerosol Scattering Target Acquisition Performance, Steven Butrimas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The decision on whether to use a mid wave infrared (MWIR) or long wave infrared (LWIR) sensor for a given task can be a formidable verdict. The scope entails facts about the observable source, the atmospheric interactions, and the sensor parameters within the hardware device. Even when all the individual metrics are known, the combination ultimately determines whether a MWIR or LWIR sensor is more appropriate. Despite the vast number of variables at play, the reduction of inputs through focused studies can provide essential insight into MWIR and LWIR comparisons. This dissertation focuses on the roles of point source target …

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