Digital Commons Network^™

A Qualitative Case Study In Esl Education: Navigating Sexual Identities And Queerness In Language Learning On The Us-Mexico Border, Majd Sarah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the language learning experiences of community college students who self-identify as LGBTQ+ and study English as a Second Language (ESL) on the U.S.-Mexico border. In order to understand the relationship between ESL language learning and the identities of community college LGBTQ+ students on the US Mexico border, data was collected using semi-structured life-history interviews of three participants. This examination was framed in the theory of social identity and the theory of performativity. Findings were analyzed using a discourse analysis approach that highlights the meaning making of student experiences and their …

Scaffolding Strategies That Benefit And Support Adult English As A Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: A Literature Review, Walkiris Mejia Ortega

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The poor reading proficiency and the lack of reading comprehension strategies have been a major flaw for adult university learners in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, particularly in the case of English majors at the School of Foreign Languages in the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Research has shown this reading gap can be improved through suitable instructional strategies and assistance referred to as scaffolding. The purpose of this literature review was to investigate how beneficial scaffolding is for EFL adults´ reading comprehension, which scaffolding strategies prove effective in supporting EFL reading comprehension, and how those …

The Needs That Instagram Satisfies For People Seeking News & How This Displaces Time Spent With Traditional Media, Madeleine Dunn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how the current climate of mainstream media is changing, and how this may affect journalistic norms and practices. There are many outlets for consumers to receive news, including traditional media, such as television news, newspapers, magazines, etc. There is also social media. The future of mainstream media outlets, like television stations, newspapers, magazines and radio stations, seems to depend on the growing use of social media sites for the use of getting news. This research will focus on Instagram as an alternative to traditional media, and why people prefer to use this outlet to get their news. …

Vulnerability And Discretion: Mental Health And Humanitarian And Compassionate Applications, Letty Condon

UBC Law Review

No abstract provided.

They’Re All Interpretative: Towards A Consistent Approach To Ss 25–31 Of The Charter, Gerard J. Kennedy

UBC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Examining Law Faculty Members And Indigenous Law Students’ Conceptualizations Of Reconciliation, Kory Smith

UBC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Being A Trafficked Teacher: An Asiancrit Autoethnography Exploring The Exploitation Of Filipino Migrant Teachers In Louisiana, Christopher R. Jose

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this autoethnographic study is to critically explore the lived curriculum of Filipino migrant teachers trafficked by a Louisiana school district using the theoretical lens of AsianCrit. Using the different tenets of AsianCrit, this study wrestles with the injustices of this lived curriculum as connected to a broader set of hegemonic curricular experiences and demonstrates the ways such injustice still permeates the lived curriculum of migrant teachers. It explores its discussion on critical race theory in education, migrant teachers and human trafficking in the United States. This study shares the effects of human trafficking of teachers and the …

How An Instructor's Noticing For Equity Can Foster Students' Sense Of Belonging And Mathematical Confidence, Sthefania Espinosa

Theses and Dissertations

There are many aspects a teacher can notice inside the mathematics classroom, and the more a teacher notices, the more difficult it is to teach. In this study, I particularly focus on noticing for equity, which describes the role of the teacher in attending to students’ mathematical thinking through an equity lens that can allow the instructor to notice the aspects of classroom mathematical activity that can make students feel less or more empowered in their mathematical practices (van Es et al., 2017). There exists few research about how students perceive their instructor’s effort to promote equity and …

Learning To Learn In Mathematics: Two Fulbright Distinguished Awards In Teaching Fellows’ Narratives, Sabrina Goldberg, Jana Dean, Paivi Portaankorva-Koivisto

Journal of Global Education and Research

Two middle school educators earned a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching fellowship. A Fulbright Finland Foundation inter-country travel grant provided the grantees with a unique opportunity to connect and collaborate at the University of Helsinki. Within this research, they described their inquiry experiences. The research included examining authentic student-centered learning continuums and phenomenon-based learning in Finland and teachers’ adaptability in relation to meeting the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse math classrooms in the Netherlands. This paper summarizes how cross-cultural dialogues, classroom observations, and informal interviews with educators, students, and thought leaders informed each grantee’s discovery of how student-centered learning …

Facilitating Effective Mathematical Teaching Practices In Preschool, Funda Gonulates, Jasook Gilbert

Journal of Global Education and Research

Initial seeds for mathematics literacy are planted during early childhood. Children benefit when they are exposed to and provided with opportunities for math experiences that emphasize their holistic development and not just mathematics proficiency in isolation. This way of viewing and presenting mathematics to young children requires teachers who are equipped with strong mathematics teaching skills. This study examined a 21-hour professional development series for public school preschool teachers on early numeracy, geometry, mathematical reasoning, and teaching pedagogies. This professional development series aimed to help preschool teachers incorporate effective mathematical practices and increase their comfort level in teaching mathematics. Participants …

The Impact Of Relationship On Goal Attainment In A Home-Based Family Support Program, Emily Siedlik, Danielle Chiang, Stephen Gardner, Oneta Templeton

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Home-based family support programs provide early intervention to support families with young children. Home visiting models typically serve pregnant and parenting women with risk factors known to influence the caregiver-child relationship including history of trauma, low academic achievement, low income, limited support networks, maternal depression, and maternal substance use. Few, if any, home visiting models, however, were developed specifically to support families affected by maternal substance use. The Team for Infants Exposed to Substance use (TIES) Program is a home-based family support program exclusively serving families affected by maternal substance use. The model design and intensive services allow TIES participants …

Sackett And The Continued Atomization Of The Clean Water Act, Robert W. Adler

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Apples And Oranges, Daragh Henchy

Postgraduate

This exegesis delves into the complex relationship between cinema and art, focusing on the development of story documents within the cinematic arts. Positioned within the realm of practice-led research, it is an academic companion to a creative work—a fantasy murder mystery augmented treatment set in Paris, 1914. The exegesis and the creative work collectively aim to describe an aesthetic experience akin to that of fine art, drawing upon Gilles Deleuze’s taxonomy of cinema, specifically the concepts of movement-image and time-image.

. Central to this study is the exploration of how cinema, as a form of art, engages with philosophical ideas …

The Persuasive Effect Of Ai-Synthesized Voices, Hannah H. Chang, Anirban Mukherjee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology seeks to emulate humans. One aspect is AI-synthesized voices, used in voice assistants (such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant) to assistive technologies (such as voiceover narration in product videos). For example, there are currently more than 3.25 billion voice assistants; a number that is expected to touch about 8 billion by next year (i.e., 2023) (Statista 2022). With the extensive availability and enhanced accuracy of AI-synthesized voices, consumer research is starting to examine the impact of AI-synthesized voices on consumer information processing and decision making. The extant literature, however, is relatively limited because …

Did That Help? Harnessing Natural Language Processing To Uncover Characteristics Of Peer Feedback And Their Impacts On Teamwork-Skills Learning., Annamaria V. Wolf

All Dissertations

Peer Evaluation Systems (PESs) allow members of student teams to provide one another with computer-mediated feedback in the form of qualitative, open-ended comments. The current research leverages unsupervised Natural Language Processing (NLP), namely Biterm Topic Modeling (BTM) and sentiment analysis, to uncover latent topics and degree of positivity and negativity expressed in peer feedback, respectively. BTM results revealed a 6-topic model that was reliably replicated over 10 Gibbs initializations 80% of the time. Topics were labeled Timely Communication, Idea Generation, Coordination & Adaptation, Work Quality, Team Support & Focusing, and Work Accountability. Qualitative comparison suggests that these topics demonstrate …

Force Displacement, Forced Perspective: The Rhetorics Of Refugee Experience, Jonathan Burgess

All Dissertations

This dissertation interrogates the intersection of digital media, displacement, and human rights within the contemporary geopolitical landscape, with a specific focus on the MENA region. From a perspective firmly rooted rhetoric, it dissects the complex relationship between technology and displaced populations, emphasizing the role of transmedia storytelling in shaping refugee experiences and narratives and the potential for transmedia storytelling to facilitate greater insights into needs and gaps for displaced people. Central to the analysis is the paradox of digital tools both as emancipatory devices and tools of surveillance and control, which are further elucidated through case studies.

Engaging with thinkers …

Educational Robotics And Computational Thinking In Elementary School Students, Sonia D. Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of educational robotics in fostering computational thinking in elementary settings, both in classrooms and extracurricular programs. Among growing concerns over K–12 students’ computational thinking deficits, the research evaluated the impact of Lego EV3 and VEX IQ platforms. Data was sourced from lesson plans, student work surveys, and teacher interviews and then subjected to thematic analysis using a qualitative approach. The participants were Texas educators engaged in robotics instruction, even though specific robotics statistics are absent in the Texas Education Agency. Instructional strategies varied from hands-on experiences to translating mathematical concepts into robotic actions. A key …

Measuring The Level Of Entrepreneurial Orientation: Analytical Research In The National Security Advisory, Muntaha Rasheed Yarallah, Nisreen Jasim Mohammed

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

The current research aims to measure the level of entrepreneurial orientation and its dimensions (creativity, independence, proactivity, risk tolerance, and achievement) in the National Security Chancellery, as its importance and role in guiding senior leaders of the chancellery to make strategic decisions with high quality in various Iraqi concerns, more specifically the security aspect. The data was collected from 94 individuals (the research sample) from the research community (120) individuals at different administrative levels and intentionally where the questionnaire was adopted as a main tool for data collection and the primary data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical methods …

Employ The Knowledge Accumulation Of Human Resources In Strategic Performance, Anmar Muhammad Farag, Mohammed Yaseen Raheem

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

The main purpose of this research is to diagnose the role of the Knowledge Accumulation of Human Resources KAHR in Strategic Performance SP, and for that, the research was applied to the represented sample by the administrative leaders consisting of (108) individuals distributed according to their positions and the organizational structure of the ministry. Correlations, effects, and benefits from generalizing the results in the field of research. The research involved a mixed-methods approach through two stages. During the first stage, the researcher gathered quantitative data from a questionnaire. The second stage gathered qualitative data to explore the survey results more …

What The Unburied Said, Katharine Rees

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

"What the Unburied Said" is a short collection of documentary poetry written during the waning years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In conversation with T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, it seeks to exalt the beauty of humans who help each other live within an often-tragic, always-fascinating world.

Cortical Thickness Is Related To Variability In Heritage Bilingual Language Proficiency, My V H Nguyen, Kelly A Vaughn, Hannah Claussenius-Kalman, Pilar Archila-Suerte, Arturo E Hernandez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Research suggests that bilingual experience is associated with gray matter changes, such that initial language gains are associated with expansion and language expertise is associated with renormalization. Previous studies on language proficiency development primarily focused on between-subjects, quasiexperimental comparisons of monolinguals and bilinguals. This study proposes a new paradigm to examine language expertise and cortical thickness within heritage bilinguals (

Innovative Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach For Supplier Evaluation: Combining Tlf, Fuzzy Bwm, And Vikor, Ikhwan Arief, Dicky Fatrias, Ferry Jie, Armijal Armijal

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Addressing the performance issues of underperforming suppliers necessitates a thorough evaluation, serving as a catalyst for initiating supplier development efforts. However, the inherent inaccuracies in information introduce complexity, especially when human judgment is involved in the supplier evaluation process. Associated with such problem, this study presents a novel methodology for supplier performance evaluation in the crumb rubber industry, integrating the Taguchi Loss Function (TLF), fuzzy Best-Worst Method (BWM), and VIKOR technique in group decision-making environment. Aimed at addressing the challenges in industries with variable supplier quality and performance, such as the crumb rubber industry in Indonesia, the methodology was empirically …

Cervical Cancer Screenings Among Hispanic Women: A Literature Review Of Evidence-Based Interventions, Sara A. Cortez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Despite effective methods to help detect and prevent cervical cancer, it remains the fourth most common type of cancer impacting women worldwide. Screening practices have significantly decreased the incidence and mortality from cervical cancer; however, Hispanic women continue to experience a much higher incidence compared to their non-Hispanic female counterparts. Screenings are often offered to women with regular access to healthcare who encounter far less barriers to access, such as language, culture, and overall knowledge about the disease. This paper used a qualitative approach which used social-ecological model (SEM) to examine some of the existing evidence-based interventions that aim to …

Classification Of Iraqi Children According To Their Nutritional Status Using Fuzzy Logic, Hussein Ali Hasan, Mohammed Jasim Mohammed

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

In this paper, we build a fuzzy classification system for classifying the nutritional status of children under 5 years old in Iraq using the Mamdani method based on input variables such as weight and height to determine the nutritional status of the child. Also, Classifying the nutritional status faces a difficult challenge in the medical field due to uncertainty and ambiguity in the variables and attributes that determine the categories of nutritional status for children, which are relied upon in medical diagnosis to determine the types of malnutrition problems and identify the categories or groups suffering from malnutrition to determine …

Reinforced Target-Driven Conversational Promotion, Huy Quang Dao, Lizi Liao, Dung D. Le, Yuxiang Nie

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The ability to proactively engage with users towards pitching products is highly desired for conversational assistants. However, existing conversational recommendation methods overemphasize on acquiring user preferences while ignore the strategic planning for nudging users towards accepting a designated item. Hence, these methods fail to promote specified items with engaging responses. In this work, we propose a Reinforced Target-driven Conversational Promotion (RTCP) framework for conversational promotion. RTCP integrates short-term and long-term planning via a balanced gating mechanism. Inside which, the dialogue actions are predicted via a knowledge-integrated multi-head attention and guided via reinforcement learning rewards. RTCP then employs action-guided prefix tuning …

End-To-End Task-Oriented Dialogue: A Survey Of Tasks, Methods, And Future Directions, Libo Qin, Wenbo Pan, Qiguang Chen, Lizi Liao, Zhou Yu, Yue Zhang, Wanxiang Che, Min Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

End-to-end task-oriented dialogue (EToD) can directly generate responses in an end-to-end fashion without modular training, which attracts escalating popularity. The advancement of deep neural networks, especially the successful use of large pre-trained models, has further led to significant progress in EToD research in recent years. In this paper, we present a thorough review and provide a unified perspective to summarize existing approaches as well as recent trends to advance the development of EToD research. The contributions of this paper can be summarized: (1) First survey: to our knowledge, we take the first step to present a thorough survey of this …

Clusterprompt: Cluster Semantic Enhanced Prompt Learning For New Intent Discovery, Jinggui Liang, Lizi Liao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The discovery of new intent categories from user utterances is a crucial task in expanding agent skills. The key lies in how to efficiently solicit semantic evidence from utterances and properly transfer knowledge from existing intents to new intents. However, previous methods laid too much emphasis on relations among utterances or clusters for transfer learning, while paying less attention to the usage of semantics. As a result, these methods suffer from in-domain over-fitting and often generate meaningless new intent clusters due to data distortion. In this paper, we present a novel approach called Cluster Semantic Enhanced Prompt Learning (CsePL) for …

Mermaid: A Dataset And Framework For Multimodal Meme Semantic Understanding, Shaun Toh, Adriel Kuek, Wen Haw Chong, Roy Ka Wei Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Memes are widely used to convey cultural and societal issues and have a significant impact on public opinion. However, little work has been done on understanding and explaining the semantics expressed in multimodal memes. To fill this research gap, we introduce MERMAID, a dataset consisting of 3,633 memes annotated with their entities and relations, and propose a novel MERF pipeline that extracts entities and their relationships in memes. Our framework combines state-of-the-art techniques from natural language processing and computer vision to extract text and image features and infer relationships between entities in memes. We evaluate the proposed framework on a …

About Semi-Parametric Methodology For Fuzzy Quantile Regression Model Estimation: A Review, Elaf Baha Alwan, Omar Abdulmohsin Ali

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

In this paper, previous studies about Fuzzy regression had been presented. The fuzzy regression is a generalization of the traditional regression model that formulates a fuzzy environment's relationship to independent and dependent variables. All this can be introduced by non-parametric model, as well as a semi-parametric model. Moreover, results obtained from the previous studies and their conclusions were put forward in this context. So, we suggest a novel method of estimation via new weights instead of the old weights and introduce another suggestion based on artificial neural networks.

Beyond Factuality: A Comprehensive Evaluation Of Large Language Models As Knowledge Generators, Liang Chen, Yang Deng, Yatao Bian, Zeyu Qin, Bingzhe Wu, Tat-Seng Chua, Kam-Fai Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large language models (LLMs) outperform information retrieval techniques for downstream knowledge-intensive tasks when being prompted to generate world knowledge. Yet, community concerns abound regarding the factuality and potential implications of using this uncensored knowledge. In light of this, we introduce CONNER, a COmpreheNsive kNowledge Evaluation fRamework, designed to systematically and automatically evaluate generated knowledge from six important perspectives - Factuality, Relevance, Coherence, Informativeness, Helpfulness and Validity. We conduct an extensive empirical analysis of the generated knowledge from three different types of LLMs on two widely-studied knowledge-intensive tasks, i.e., open-domain question answering and knowledge-grounded dialogue. Surprisingly, our study reveals that the …