Digital Commons Network^™

Gender Inclusivity In Italian: Can Gender Neutrality Be Reached In A Gendered Language? Difficulties, Proposals And Public Perception Of The Phenomenon, Gaia Prunotto

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Italian is a gendered language in which reference to grammatical gender has been constant and inevitable. As language reflects and shapes society, grammatical gender reinforces binary views of social gender and the invizibilization of non-binary identities. Movements for social justice have inspired gender-fair linguistic innovations, such as the feminization of job titles and gender-neutral markers, to promote gender equity and challenge hierarchies of power and dominance in society. This research aimed to explore gender-neutral forms in the Italian grammatical system and public perceptions of these innovations through two studies with two groups of participants.

The first group of participants (n=27) …

Survival Of Listeria Monocytogenes On Organic Honeycrisp And Fuji Apples During Storage At 5, 12 And 22.5◦C, Connor S. Freed

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study aimed to evaluate and model the survival of Listeria monocytogenes on organic HoneyCrisp (HC) and Fuji (FJ) apples during storage at various temperatures. Fresh organic HC and FJ apples (without wax coating) obtained from a local wholesale market were inoculated with a 2-strain mix of L. monocytogenes followed by storage at 5.0 (22.9% RH), 12.0 (37.0% RH), and 22.5oC (50.4% RH) for 60, 35, 7 days, respectively, and periodically (day-0 to 60) analyzing microbial populations. Surviving L. monocytogenes were spread-plated on Modified-Oxford agar after 10 or 100-fold serial dilution. Data were analyzed using the mixed-model procedure of SAS …

Condition And Modeling Assessment Of Geomorphic Landform Design On Coal Refuse Impoundments, Titus C. Smith

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Coal refuse impoundments are the primary storage facility used in the mining industry for the placement and dewatering of fine coal refuse. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) promulgate prescriptive impoundment closure and requirements for the long-term breach and reclamation of the facilities. Typical impoundment reclamation designs consist of backfilling the impoundment with coarse coal refuse and placing soil cap with a minimum 2% slope to the perimeter drainage ditch. Geomorphic landform design (GLD) promotes long term stability of a regraded structure through simulating local topography. By balancing the hydraulic response of the site, runoff and erosion can …

A Guide To Chinese Art Songs From 1970 To 2010, Tingyu Yan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study aims to provide a repertoire guide of Chinese art songs for the pedagogy and research of musicians. The world is becoming more open to accepting and embracing different social and cultural elements, and diverse musical styles and repertoire are now being showcased internationally. There are more opportunities for musicians who wish to perform their homeland's music in public concerts around the world, and repertoires from different languages (e.g., Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and Czech) are more widely seen. However, there is still a lack of repertoires in other languages not very common internationally, and one of them is the …

Intercultural Competence In The Esl Classroom: Challenges And Successes, Breno Santos Rodrigues Pereira

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This action-based research study investigated the challenges and successes involved in the teaching of intercultural competence in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. Most studies on intercultural competence take place in English as a foreign language classroom, and very few are centered on ESL instruction. It is this gap in the research that motivated the present study, in which the following research questions were posed: 1) How do targeted training practices in the classroom promote the development of intercultural competence as demonstrated by quantitative data?; 2) What challenges are associated with teaching intercultural competence to ESL learners?; 3) …

Understanding Mentorship In Undergraduate Research: Three Perspectives On Experiencing, Conceptualizing, And Contextualizing Mentorship, Carinna F. Ferguson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation aimed to explore mentorship in undergraduate research (UR) contexts. Specifically, the work aimed to provide three perspectives of mentorship from the perspectives of both mentors and mentees in undergraduate research. These three studies contributed to a greater understanding of the experiences, conceptualizations, and contextual factors that impact mentorship in the UR setting.

Highlighted in the first study were the storied experiences of eight faculty members who had served as a mentor to undergraduate students at a mid-Atlantic, research-intensive university from a range of research disciplines. Results of the first study highlighted the impact of faculty members’ initial and …

Giving Power To Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Of The Organization-Public Relationship Between A Public Utility And Its Community Stakeholders, Rhyanna C. Wiethe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this research is to examine how, if at all, relationships between public utility companies and their stakeholders changes following a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, and based on the results, how can companies restructure their initiatives to better serve their publics in order to build stronger, more positive relationships. A multi-method case study using in-depth interviews and two content analyses (a social media analysis and a news coverage analysis) was used to explore the relationship between a public utility company and a community affected by the implementation of a CSR initiative. The findings suggest that the relationship …

Generative Adversarial Network And Its Application In Aerial Vehicle Detection And Biometric Identification System, Moktari Mostofa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In recent years, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have shown great potential in advancing the state-of-the-art in many areas of computer vision, most notably in image synthesis and manipulation tasks. GAN is a generative model which simultaneously trains a generator and a discriminator in an adversarial manner to produce real-looking synthetic data by capturing the underlying data distribution. Due to its powerful ability to generate high-quality and visually pleasing
results, we apply it to super-resolution and image-to-image translation techniques to address vehicle detection in low-resolution aerial images and cross-spectral cross-resolution iris recognition. First, we develop a Multi-scale GAN (MsGAN) with multiple …

Visual Sensing For Comprehensive Granular Traffic Data Collection In Support Of Intelligent Transportation Applications, Linjun Lu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Comprehensive granular traffic data collection has been identified as one of the most essential tasks in the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS). With the recent advances in electro-optical sensors and computational capacities, machine vision is regarded as cost-efficient for traffic data collection. However, the existing vision-based methods are only applicable for collecting limited types of traffic data, and a unified method allowing for comprehensive traffic data collection is still missing in the existing literature. Moreover, there are still challenges that exist for the use of the existing vision-based methods in real settings, including low accuracy and compromised applicability due …

Examining The Use Of Social Media Applications By West Virginia Agriculture Producers, Mikayla Rae Hargis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Social media has become part of the typical individual’s everyday routine, with no exception to those in the agricultural industry. The purpose of this study was to examine social media usage by West Virginia agricultural producers. The population for this study consisted of agricultural producers in West Virginia. The study yielded 44 responses from those who attended the 2022 West Virginia Farm Bureau meeting. An explanatory sequential design methodology was employed for this study. After the initial quantitative phase, a qualitative phase was conducted with producers who use social media in their operations. Based on the results, there is much …

Three Essays On Emotional Cues, Clay Collins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The first paper investigates the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) and United States presidential elections. There exists a sizeable literature studying IPV that occurs during or after stressful events (such as a sports team loss), and a considerable non-economics literature examining election-related stress. However, very limited research has been done studying potential negative outcomes after a political loss (when one’s candidate loses), and these findings in other fields have not been synthesized into the economics lexicon. By interacting with the margin of victory for each state, I find large and significant decreases in IPV in states that vote for …

Il-27 Negatively Impacts Immunity Developed Following Bcg Administration, Shelby D. Bradford

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), a predominantly respiratory pathogen responsible for over ten million infections and one million deaths last year. Despite it being a primary objective of the World Health Organization (WHO) for several decades to irradicate TB, progress toward this objective has fallen short of the 2020 target to end TB by 2035. Meeting this goal will require advancements in diagnostic tools, education, healthcare access, and treatments and preventatives. Regarding prevention, the primary tool for this strategy is through vaccination. Currently, the only licensed vaccine for protection against TB is the century old …

An Assessment Of The Forensic Aspects Of Genetic Genealogy, Sarah Hester

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Forensic genetic genealogy has grown in both popularity and controversy in recent years. The genetic information comes from large numbers of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Polymorphism variations can be traced through familial lineage, determining how closely individuals are related to each other based on the similarities and differences in SNPs within their DNA. Polymorphisms account for approximately 85% of human variation. Genealogy and ancestry determination companies trace the lineage of a person back through multiple generations using polymorphisms. As more individuals submit their DNA for analysis the genealogical profile databases continue to grow in size. Law enforcement uses genealogical …

Conditioning Grandparent Care-Labour Mobility At The Care-Migration Systems Nexus: Australia And The Uk, Majella Kilkey, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

A ‘transnational turn’ in welfare regime theory has disrupted methodologically nationalist analyses of care regimes generating analytical frameworks that capture the interdependencies between care and migration regimes. Those frameworks share a focus on migration for paid care labour as the vehicle connecting care and migration regimes transnationally. In this paper, we highlight familial care-labour mobility as an additional mechanism connecting care and migration regimes across borders. Drawing on the care circulation framework, we argue that a focus on these informal global care chains helps to bridge macro structural level approaches of the frameworks that focus on paid care labour with …

Optimizing Technical And Economic Aspects Of Off-Grid Hybrid Renewable Systems: A Case Study Of Manoka Island, Cameroon, Reagan J. J. Molu, Serge R. D. Naoussi, Patrice Wira, Wulfran F. Mbasso, Saatong T. Kenfack, Barun K. Das, Enas Ali, Muhannad J. Alshareef, Sherif S. M. Ghoneim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The lack of accessible and reliable electrical energy in Cameroon has become a pervasive obstacle to the nation's progress, with energy availability, quality, and cost identified as key hindrances to development over the past 15 years. Conventional solutions that rely on combustion engines and electrochemical storage systems have proven to be cost-prohibitive, limited in power output, and constrained in capacity. The dependence on traditional diesel generators has perpetuated maintenance challenges and a continuous demand for fuel supply, while the accompanying noise and pollution have restricted their use in residential areas. Recognizing the imperative of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and …

The Effects Of Cognitive-Linguistic Interventions To Treat Aphasia In The First 90 Days Post-Stroke: A Systematic Review, Emily Eley, Maayken Van Den Berg, Miranda L. Rose, John E. Pierce, Abby Foster, Edwina Lamborn, Sarah D’Souza, Erin Godecke, Lucette Lanyon, Ciara Shiggins, Ian Kneebone, Caroline Baker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Cognitive-linguistic interventions for aphasia are behavioural-based approaches to therapy that aim to treat language impairment skills post-acquired brain injury. The purpose of cognitive-linguistic intervention is to restore and rehabilitate language impairment skills through targeting phonologic, semantic and syntactic systems, which may support goals to improve everyday communication. Aims: The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the effects of cognitive-linguistic interventions on language processing for aphasia in the first 90 days post-stroke. Secondary aims include the investigation of the effects of these interventions on functional communication and quality of life. Methods: A systematic search was conducted across six …

The Relationships Between Multidimensional Sleep Health And Work Productivity In Individuals With Neurological Conditions, Mitchell Turner, Manja Laws, Madeline Griffiths, Kate Turner, Leah Dempsey, Simon M. Laws, Travis Cruickshank

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Numerous studies have reported the negative impacts of poor sleep on work productivity in the general population. However, despite the known sleep issues that individuals living with neurological conditions experience, no study has explored its impact on their work productivity. Sleep health is a concept that includes multiple domains of sleep, measured with a combination of objective and subjective measures. Therefore, this study aimed to ascertain the associations between sleep health and its domains and work productivity in individuals with neurological conditions. Sleep health domains were determined through actigraphy data collected over 1 week and sleep questionnaires. Work productivity was …

Utilizing Proteomics To Identify And Optimize Microalgae Strains For High-Quality Dietary Protein: A Review, Sara Hamzelou, Damien Belobrajdic, James A. Broadbent, Angéla Juhász, Kim L. Chang, Ian Jameson, Peter Ralph, Michelle L. Colgrave

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Algae-derived protein has immense potential to provide high-quality protein foods for the expanding human population. To meet its potential, a broad range of scientific tools are required to identify optimal algal strains from the hundreds of thousands available and identify ideal growing conditions for strains that produce high-quality protein with functional benefits. A research pipeline that includes proteomics can provide a deeper interpretation of microalgal composition and biochemistry in the pursuit of these goals. To date, proteomic investigations have largely focused on pathways that involve lipid production in selected microalgae species. Herein, we report the current state of microalgal proteome …

Digital Literacy: A Review Of Literature, Lennie Barblett, Raisa Akifeva, Leanne Lavina, Fiona Boylan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This report describes the main themes of collected literature to examine and explain the information in relation to making best practice recommendations for using digital technologies with children, and their families using Better Beginnings programs. These themes include:

• definitions of literacy,
• digital literacy in the context of childhood and children’s rights,
• dimensions of children’s digital literacy,
• digital technology, children and families,
• digital divide and diversity,
• eSafety, privacy, protection,
• children’s digital literacy learning, and
• librarian staff as digital literacy mentors and advocates.

The early childhood phase of childhood (particularly birth to age five) is one of the most under - researched …

Factors Influencing Medication Adherence Among Adults Living With Diabetes And Comorbidities: A Qualitative Systematic Review, Kendall Gow, Amineh Qin, Lisa Whitehead

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose of review: Medication adherence plays an important role in improving health outcomes related to diabetes and comorbidity. The potential factors influencing medication adherence and how they contribute to health behaviors have not been synthesized to date. This review synthesized qualitative studies that identified factors influencing medication adherence among adults living with diabetes and comorbidity. Recent findings: Twenty-eight findings were extracted and synthesized into four themes: perceived support, lack of knowledge, medication issues, and the importance of routine. The findings highlight the factors that support medication adherence and areas that can be targeted to support and promote medication adherence. The …

Pedagogy Of Belonging: Pausing To Be Human In Higher Education, Narelle Lemon

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Valuing care and self-care in higher education requires a conscious pause and rethinking of how we are together as educators and students. The pandemic caused various complexities, including changes in curriculum delivery, deadlines, and assessment modes, leading to feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, and change fatigue, which contributed to the emergence of panicgogy. This paper argues for the need to disrupt this way of being and experiencing the pandemic through valuing humanity and repositioning self-care and care by and for academics to inform their pedagogy. Presented is the narrative and the design story behind Pedagogy of Belonging (PoB), a systems informed …

Effect Of 3d Printing Parameters On The Fatigue Properties Of Parts Manufactured By Fused Filament Fabrication: A Review, Hamed Bakhtiari, Muhammad Aamir, Majid Tolouei-Rad

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The advancement in 3D printing techniques has raised the hope to use additively manufactured parts as final products in various industries. However, due to the layer-by-layer nature of AM parts, they are highly susceptible to failure when they are subjected to fatigue loading. This review provides a detailed account of the influence of 3D printing parameters on the fatigue properties of parts manufactured by fused filament fabrication (FFF). Existing standards for fatigue testing of polymers and their limitation for 3D-printed parts are discussed. In addition, the cyclic behaviour of polymers is reviewed, and the impact of 3D printing parameters on …

The Benefits To Bone Health In Children And Pre-School Children With Additional Exercise Interventions: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Callum Mccaskie, Aris Siafarikas, Jodie Cochrane Wilkie, Vanessa Sutton, Paola Chivers, Nicolas H. Hart, Myles C. Murphy

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objective: Determine if exercise interventions, beyond what is already provided to children and preschool children, improve bone health and reduce fracture incidence. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis reported using the PRISMA guidelines. Certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE recommendations. Data sources: Five electronic databases were searched for records: PUBMED; CINAHL; CENTRAL; SPORTDiscus; Web of Science. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Randomised, quasi-randomised and non-randomised controlled trials (including cluster-randomised) assessing the impact of additional exercise interventions (e.g., increased physical education classes or specific jumping programs) on bone health in children (6 – 12 years) and pre-school children (2 – 5 …

Summary Of Alcohol And Drug Treatment For Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Australian Indigenous Healthinfonet

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This summary is based on the Review of alcohol and drug treatment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It provides an overview of the available evidence for treatment approaches to help a person reduce or stop substance use. These are treatments for when a person has evidence of either hazardous use or problem alcohol and other drug (AOD) use (see Box 1 for terms used). Some approaches to address substance use are not included in this summary (e.g. for tobacco cessation or volatile substance use). This summary presents information on:

• the available research and other evidence that underpins …

The Landscape Of Public Procurement Research: A Bibliometric Analysis And Topic Modelling Based On Scopus, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Andrea Appolloni, Yasanur Kayikci, Mohammad Iranmanesh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the structure and dynamics of academic articles relating to public procurement (PP) in the period 1984–2022 (up to May). The researchers also intend to analyse how this knowledge domain has grown since 1984. Design/methodology/approach: A bibliometric analysis was carried out to examine the existing state of PP research. Based on 640 journal articles indexed in the Scopus database and written by 1,247 authors over nearly four decades, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to reveal the intellectual structure of academic works pertaining to PP. Findings: Findings reveal that PP research from Scopus …

Tourism And Final Wish Making: The Discourse Of Terminal Illness And Travel, Gregory Willson, A. J. Mcintosh, C. Cockburn-Wootten

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper identifies a new discourse about tourism, that of final wish making. The website communications of charitable foundations whose dedicated purpose is to grant final wishes for adults with a terminal illness and their families were examined using critical discourse analysis. Specifically, the aim of this study was to understand how these charitable organisations construct, communicate and mediate meanings around terminal illness and travel for these individuals. Our study found that, promoted as a final wish in one’s life, tourism is framed as a transformational concept that is beneficial in the imminent time before death, as a legacy for …

‘Male Circumcision’ And ‘Female Genital Mutilation’: Why Parents Choose The Procedures And The Case For Gender Bias In Medical Nomenclature, James L. Nuzzo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Cutting of boys’ and girls’ genitalia is a debated human rights topic. Here, the first aim was to summarise why parents choose to have these procedures performed on their children. Results from 22 survey studies on ‘male circumcision’ and 27 studies on ‘female genital mutilation’ revealed that non-medical reasons, such as tradition, are prominent in the decisions for both procedures. The second aim was to describe researchers’ use of medical words (i.e. ‘circumcision’) and non-medical words (i.e. ‘cutting’, ‘mutilation’) when referring to these procedures. Relevant phrases were searched in titles and abstracts of articles indexed in PubMed. Total article count …

Editorial: Viral Infection, Tumor Development And Host Immune Response, Xin Li, Liwei An, Yucui Jin, Jun Gui, Weitao Lin, Zhenke Wen, Muzaffer Ahmad Kassab, Jie Chen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Cancer is a devastating disease that remains a leading cause of death worldwide. According to recent statistics, cancer was responsible for 10 million deaths in 2020 alone (Ferlay et al., 2021). Of these cases, viral infections associated cancers have been found to contribute to a significant proportion, with chronic infections such as hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV), human papillomavirus (HPV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being particularly noteworthy. Inflammation and immune response are also closely linked to tumorigenesis, making it crucial to understand how viral infections and host immune response contribute to cancer development …

Development And Validation Of The Montreal Cognitive Assessment For People With Hearing Impairment (Moca-H), Piers Dawes, David Reeves, Wai Kent Yeung, Fiona Holland, Anna Pavlina Charalambous, Mathieu Côté, Renaud David, Catherine Helmer, Robert Laforce, Ralph N. Martins, Antonis Politis, Annie Pye, Gregor Russell, Saima Sheikh, Marie-Josée Sirois, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Chyrssoula Thodi, Kathleen Gallant, Ziad Nasreddine, Iracema Leroi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Hearing impairment is common among older adults and affects cognitive assessments for identification of dementia which rely on good hearing function. We developed and validated a version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for people with hearing impairment. Methods: We adapted existing MoCA 8.1 items for people with hearing impairment by presenting instructions and stimuli in written rather than spoken format. One Attention domain and two Language domain items required substitution by alternative items. Three and four candidate items respectively were constructed and field-tested along with the items adapted to written form. We used a combination of individual item …

Outdoor Commercial Buildings: A Cfd Study Of The Impact Of Streets Layout On Airflow., Basma Maged, Bakr Gomaa, Alaa Sarhan

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The impact of the general layout of commercial streets and their orientation relative to prevailing wind direction on urban comfort due to natural ventilation is unknown. To study the natural airflow pattern in the commercial street mall, this research investigates the impact of different building layouts on airflow characteristics. To do this we conduct a parametric CFD simulation for 12 simulation cases, in which the commercial street layout changes to include secondary streets in four different cases. All cases are also subjected to three different wind directions. The study highlights that different wind orientations can significantly impact pedestrian comfort in …