Digital Commons Network^™

Pressure Points: A Quantitative Study Of Young Adults Perception Of Police Officers, Yasmean Talas

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to quantify factors contributing to young adults' perceptions of law enforcement based on their experiences and exchanges with police. Data were collected via an online survey from young adults to assess variables such as peer influence, familial influence, social media impact, police interactions, and perceptions of law enforcement (POPS).

On average, participants exhibited neutral perceptions of law enforcement. The analyses revealed significant relationships between family influence, social media impact, police interactions, and POPS scores. Specifically, family and police interactions showed significantly positive associations with POPS scores, indicating that strong family bonds and positive police interactions tend to …

Case Study: Implementing Strategies To Meet The Needs Of English Language Learners, Sierra Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide an understanding of effective ways to meet the needs of English language learners. To focus its inquiry and gain a thorough understanding of the experiences and methods of teachers in various classroom environments, the study used a case study approach. Extensive interviews with the participants yielded interesting insights into the methods they use to tailor their instruction to the requirements of their students as well as the useful resources they include into their instruction. A thorough grasp of instructional dynamics was also made possible by the participants' permission for the researcher to observe …

Strategies Teachers Use To Encourage Student Reading Motivation And Engagement In The High School Setting: A Generic Qualitative Study, Shelia Tate

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide an understanding of the practices and strategies used by Title 1 high school teachers to promote student reading motivation and engagement. Engaging students in the curriculum and motivating them to read is essential to a successful classroom experience. As districts move to a more prescribed curriculum with provided scope and sequence, teachers look for ways to engage their students and provide relevant resources to meet their students' needs creatively.

The researcher interviewed teachers to explore their beliefs, strategies, and practices for fostering student reading motivation and classroom engagement in high school. The guiding …

Female Offenders: Exploring Risk Factors For Adulthood Violence, Lauren N. Fowler

Theses and Dissertations

The number of females under correctional supervision has been increasing in the last four decades. For adult women, these offenses are generally drug offenses; however, there have also been increases in the number of women committing violent crimes. Unfortunately, violent females are an understudied population, which limits the data available to inform programs and policies that could address the problem. This study explored potential factors related to violent behavior among adult females by analyzing public-use data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016. More specifically, violent and nonviolent state and federal female inmates were assessed regarding …

Exploring The Role Of The Teacher In Motivating Students To Learn Mathematics At Alternative High Schools, Anne-Marie Johanne Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this applied dissertation was to provide an in-depth understanding of the teacher’s role in motivating students to learn mathematics at alternative high schools because motivation impacts academic achievement in mathematics. Students in South Florida must pass an end-of-course exam in algebra as a requirement to receive a high school diploma. Therefore, it is essential that students are motivated to learn the mathematics concepts that are necessary to pass the end-of-course exam. This research study was guided by the following research questions:

1. How and in what ways do mathematics teachers adjust and integrate instructional strategies to support …

Active Code Learning: Benchmarking Sample-Efficient Training Of Code Models, Qiang Hu, Yuejun Guo, Xiaofei Xie, Maxime Cordy, Lei Ma, Mike Papadakis, Yves Le Traon

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The costly human effort required to prepare the training data of machine learning (ML) models hinders their practical development and usage in software engineering (ML4Code), especially for those with limited budgets. Therefore, efficiently training models of code with less human effort has become an emergent problem. Active learning is such a technique to address this issue that allows developers to train a model with reduced data while producing models with desired performance, which has been well studied in computer vision and natural language processing domains. Unfortunately, there is no such work that explores the effectiveness of active learning for code …

Soci+: An Enhanced Toolkit For Secure Outsourced Computation On Integers, Bowen Zhao, Weiquan Deng, Xiaoguo Li, Ximeng Liu, Qingqi Pei, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Secure outsourced computation is critical for cloud computing to safeguard data confidentiality and ensure data usability. Recently, secure outsourced computation schemes following a twin-server architecture based on partially homomorphic cryptosystems have received increasing attention. The Secure Outsourced Computation on Integers (SOCI) [1] toolkit is the state-of-the-art among these schemes which can perform secure computation on integers without requiring the costly bootstrapping operation as in fully homomorphic encryption; however, SOCI suffers from relatively large computation and communication overhead. In this paper, we propose SOCI+ which significantly improves the performance of SOCI. Specifically, SOCI+ employs a novel (2,2)-threshold Paillier cryptosystem with fast …

Characterization Of A Single Bladed Propeller Used For Actuating An Autonomous Undersea Vehicle, Donald Samuel Alexander

Open Access Master's Theses

An asymmetric propulsion design using a single bladed propeller is proposed as a viable method for a Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) to obtain maneuvering capability in all 6 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) with a single actuator. This substantially reduces the cost of the UUV while enabling it to perform missions which could be assigned to an Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) or Remotely Operate Vehicle (ROV). However, they are also extremely expensive for most research applications. Current UUV architecture is either optimized for long endurance survey missions as AUVs or precise maneuvering as tethered ROVs. Both versions require several hull actuators …

A C-Met Receptor Targeting Nanoparticle Platform For Combination Therapy Against Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Subarna Das

Open Access Master's Theses

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) poses a significant global health challenge, being the sixth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death, with over 906,000 new cases and 830,000 fatalities globally in 2020. Conventional HCC treatments like surgery, transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), and chemotherapy are limited by high recurrence rates, limited patient eligibility - particularly applicable only to a subset with early-stage disease and optimal liver function - and chemoresistance, complicating effective disease management. Existing targeted drug therapies are often hampered by limited efficacy, with many patients experiencing rapid disease progression or significant adverse effects. This situation is further exacerbated …

Rcs-Slam: Range Of Communication Swarm Slam, Adam J. Hoburg

Open Access Master's Theses

This work presents Range of Communication Swarm SLAM (RCS-SLAM) as a novel approach to simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) that is better suited for swarm robotic systems. RCS-SLAM introduces a novel SLAM front-end that leverages the effective range of an inter-robot communication medium to add inequality constraints between nodes in a pose graph whenever two robots communicate or relay communications. The centralized SLAM back-end then converts the inequality constrained pose graph into an unconstrained optimization problem using the penalty method to enforce the maximum possible range between communicating nodes. Converting to an unconstrained problem allows for the estimate to optimized …

Innovative Bioink Formulation For 3d Bioprinting Of Tissue-Engineered Intervertebral Disc Implants, Sophia Boiani

Open Access Master's Theses

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a significant contributor to back pain and disability globally, necessitating advancements in treatment options. This thesis presents the development and characterization of a novel bioink to be used for generating 3D bioprinted tissue-engineered constructs of the nucleus pulposus (NP) region of the IVD. The bioink, a composite of methylcellulose (MC, 7 wt%), polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA, 15 wt%), and Lithium phenyl-2,4,6-trimethylbenzoylphosphinate (LAP, 0.1 wt%), is optimized for enhanced mechanical properties and cellular integration. Polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles were also incorporated in the hydrogel to potentially delivery growth factors in the future, which will support cell …

Contested Landscapes: The Origins And Consequences Of Rhode Island’S Land-Grant Institutions (1862-1892), Jenny Sullivan

Open Access Master's Theses

The Morrill Act of 1862 granted states thousands of acres of federal land, or land scrip for those states that did not have sufficient available public land, for the development of higher education institutions throughout the United States. Rhode Island was granted 120,000 acres of scrip to be located, sold, and then invested in stocks to create an endowment. The mismanagement of this allocation caused Rhode Island to earn the lowest cents/acre payout from the scrip lands. Land dispossession occurred on many levels, over many years, and the scars of these historic policies are still seen and felt today. However, …

A Longitudinal Study Of Nonword Repetition In Bilingual Typically-Developing Children And Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder, Melissa Kluglein

Open Access Master's Theses

This study aims to investigate nonword repetition (NWR) performance longitudinally in Spanish-English bilingual children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Two hundred and thirty -- typically- developing (TD) children and 41 children with DLD participated in NWR tasks in both English and Spanish. These children entered the study and were followed for 2 to 4 years between kindergarten to fifth grade. Language ability status, age, age of first exposure to English, percent of current language use, semantics, and morphosyntax measures were collected. The results indicated that, when comparing rates of change (slopes) between TD and DLD groups, there was …

Motor Insurance Claims Prediction: Comparative Study Using Machine Learning, Sankhadip Roy

Open Access Master's Theses

The report by the Insurance Information Institute underscores a notable increase in both claims frequency and severity, particularly highlighting a significant surge in accident claim severity within US car insurance from 2010 to 2019. Simultaneously, there has been a marked rise in the average expenditure on US car insurance during this timeframe. These shifts emphasize the critical need for accurate predictions to fine-tune premium adjustments and enhance the accessibility of car insurance coverage for a broader demographic of drivers. Consequently, numerous insurance companies are transitioning from traditional methodologies to incorporate machine learning (ML) techniques, providing a more sophisticated and reliable …

The Interaction Of Early Life Experiences, Physical Health, And Socio-Economic Status On Neurocognitive Function In Youth, Janis Gaudreau

Open Access Master's Theses

Previous research demonstrates that cognitive and brain function and development during childhood are associated with greater physical activity (PA) levels, fitness, income, less adverse early life experiences (ELE), healthier body mass index (BMI), body composition of lean and fat mass, and fewer experiences of mental health disorders.

We used the Child Mind Institute’s Healthy Brain Network open-access dataset to evaluate neurocognitive outcomes in children. We predicted that children with combined greater SES and positive physical health outcomes, alongside fewer adverse ELE, will exhibit greater cognitive function and resting state electroencephalography (EEG) outcomes, and fitness and PA will positively protect neurocognitive …

Knockoff Methods For Nonlinear Feature Selection In Data With Categorical Features, Behrooz Khalil Loo

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis addresses the challenge of nonlinear feature selection in datasets that include categorical features. Conventional feature selection methods often struggle with nonlinear relationships and are ineffective in handling categorical variables. This limitation leads to suboptimal model performance and interpretability issues. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop methodologies that can robustly handle nonlinearities and categorical features simultaneously.

To tackle this problem, this thesis proposes and explores novel knockoff methods. Knockoff methods have shown promise in feature selection tasks by generating "knockoff" features that mimic the statistical properties of the original features, enabling robust variable selection while controlling the …

Seasonal And Spatial Variations Of The Sediment Transport Along The Southern Shore Of Rhode Island, Pumee Rojchanaborworn

Open Access Master's Theses

This study investigates sediment transport trends in southern Rhode Island by analyzing seasonal and spatial variations in different wave climates using numerical models, specifically XBeach and Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN). SWAN simulates offshore wave propagation, while XBeach simulates beach morphology and sediment transport. In terms of temporal variability, this study focuses on Green Hill Beach, Rhode Island, and simulates four seasonal storm conditions, including Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene, nor’easter in the Spring of 2013, and nor’easter in the Fall of 2012. The data from the US Army Corp of Engineers, Northeast Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS) were also incorporated to examine …

Testing The Ontogenetic Migration Hypothesis In The Emerging Rhode Island Jonah Crab (Cancer Borealis) Fishery Using Stable Isotope Analysis, Lindsay Agvent

Open Access Master's Theses

In southern New England, rapid ocean warming over the past two decades has caused substantial redistributions of fishes, invertebrates, and the fisheries they support. The rapid emergence of the warm water-tolerant Jonah crab (Cancer borealis) fishery, once discarded as bycatch from the now declining lobster fishery, illustrates a prime example of climate-adaptive shifts in southern New England fisheries. However, limited data exist on the basic life history of Jonah crab, despite their growing economic and societal value. This lack of knowledge hinders ocean management capacity to meet multiple ecological, economic, and socio-cultural goals of sustainable harvest. Off the …

Benthic Landers In Oceanography – The Design And Justification Of A Multi-Use Novel Benthic Lander System, David M. Nadeau

Open Access Master's Theses

Benthic lander systems can empower researchers with access to long-term high-resolution data streams in challenging to access marine environments. In recent years, landers have emerged as key components for oceanographic research, particularly in the deep ocean due to their ability to work autonomously over long periods. However, these systems are expensive and complex, requiring specialized equipment and knowledge to design, develop, deploy, and recover that reduces broad accessibility to ocean data. Lightweight, cost effective, and multi-use benthic lander systems have the potential to provide economical platforms that reduce logistical barriers to support the next generation of oceanographic research. This project …

Examining The Narratives, Misinformation, And Delay Tactics In Newspaper Coverage Of Offshore Wind Development In Relation To Whale Strandings On The East Coast Of The United States, Rafeed Hussain

Open Access Master's Theses

The United States set a goal to develop 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy by 2030 as an ocean-based method to decarbonize the energy grid to combat climate change (The White House, 2021). The problem is that certain opposition groups are adopting delay and misinformation strategies to dissuade offshore wind development (Dunlap & Brulle, 2020; Supran & Oreskes, 2021; Climate and Development Lab, 2023; Slevin et al., 2023) by conflating actual environmental impacts (BOEM & NOAA Fisheries, 2024) with an unusual mortality event of North Atlantic Right Whales and humpback whales on the East Coast of the United States …

Underwater Vehicle Maneuvering With A Singlebladed Propeller, Benjamin C. S. Rahming

Open Access Master's Theses

Current convention in underwater vehicle propulsion utilizes a symmetrical propeller with fins or additional thrusters for maneuvering. These systems can become mechanically and electronically complex requiring multiple sensors and actuators such as motors, motor controllers, encoders and water tight seals. This creates many failure modes. Conversely, an asymmetrical propeller has fewer failure modes as the propeller can maneuver the vehicle by itself. By varying the speed of the blade within the rotation, the resulting force imbalance creates a turning moment in addition to forward thrust. This thesis designs, develops and utilizes a test bed to decipher the six axis dynamic …

Heat Transfer Mechanisms In Gold Nanoparticles Studied Via Pump-Probe Measurements, Ludovica Palazzo

Open Access Master's Theses

The investigation of gold nanoparticle thin films for cancer therapy is a topic of significant interest in the scientific community. A comprehensive examination of their heat transfer properties is crucial to explore their potential applications in materials science and medicine. This study focuses on measuring and analyzing the heat transfer properties of gold nanorod thin films utilized in cancer therapy, with a specific focus on the effective electron-phonon coupling factor. The thin film was realized through the spin coating of a gold nanorod solution onto a hydrogel platform to ensure adherence between the solution and the glass coverslip. Using pump-probe …

Past And Future Storm-Driven Changes To A Dynamic Sandy Barrier System: Outer Cape Cod, Ma, Daniel Jacob Harrington

Open Access Master's Theses

Sandy barrier systems are highly dynamic, with the most significant natural morphological changes to these systems occurring during the high energy conditions present during storms. These systems provide a range of economic and ecosystem benefits and protect inland areas from flooding and storm impacts, but the persistence of many coastal barriers is threatened by storms and sea-level rise (SLR). This study employs observations and modeling to examine recent and potential future influence of storms on a sandy coastal barrier system in Nauset Beach, MA. Drone-derived imagery and digital elevation models (DEMs) of the study area collected throughout the 2023-2024 winter …

Accessioning Practices Of University Teaching Collections, Arianna Gutierrez

Open Access Master's Theses

Many universities with historic textile and costume collections are not able to follow museum standard accessioning practices or policies because the unique nature of university teaching collections often necessitates the creation of custom practices. As a result, collections managers must create custom accessioning practices that address the specific challenges that their collections face.

This study meticulously surveyed university historic textile and costume collections in the United States to determine their accessioning practices and policies and how the challenges they faced influenced these practices. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to create a list of interview questions that accurately evaluated accession …

Effects Of Sea Level Rise And Anthropogenic Forcings On Salt Marsh Persistence In Upper Narragansett Bay, Ri, Dasan L. Mcelroy

Open Access Master's Theses

Salt marshes provide a wide range of ecological services to the coastal areas they inhabit, but today, salt marshes around the world are increasingly threatened by shoreline development, shoreline erosion, and submergence associated with accelerating sea level rise (SLR). Due to these threats, researchers and coastal managers have become more concerned about the fate of salt marsh systems. This study is focused on the past, present and future of salt marsh units in the upper Narragansett Bay, specifically near Providence, RI. Shoreline and elevation changes were analyzed using available aerial imagery and GPS elevation profiles, as well as accumulation rates …

Lidar Sensing Systems: A Viable Approach To Near-Field Wave Elevation Measurements, Megan Gimple

Open Access Master's Theses

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs), which operate in uncertain and irregular sea states, face challenges such as unpredictable loading and unloading of the structure, potentially reducing their operational lifespan. As the offshore wind energy industry moves farther from shore to access stronger wind resources, there is a growing need for reliable remote sensing methods for measuring wave elevations, to ensure the stability and longevity of these floating turbines. This thesis investigates the potential of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology as a reliable method for near-field ocean surface elevation measurements. A series of controlled laboratory experiments and field tests conducted …

Assessment Of Multi-Fidelity Hydrodynamic Models Of Floating Wind Turbines In Extreme Wave Events, Jacob Fontaine

Open Access Master's Theses

This paper compares the effectiveness of viscous Navier-Stokes solvers, potential flow-based methods, and linear state-space models in estimating the dynamics of offshore wind platforms subjected to extreme wave events in head-seas and still-wind conditions. The study demonstrates that potential flow-based models, when properly augmented, provide proficient estimates of maximum displacements and mooring line tensions. However, while the linear state-space model offers significant numerical efficiency, it struggles to maintain accuracy under these large wave events.

Estimating The Logistic Regression From Label Proportions, Anamika Dey

Open Access Master's Theses

With the advancement of artificial intelligence and deep learning, effective learning processes have become increasingly crucial. This thesis explores methods for logistic regression analysis in the context of grouped or clustered data, where only the number or proportion of positive binary responses within each group is observed. The primary focus is on developing and evaluating a proposed method designed to handle such grouped data structures effectively. The study compares the performance of the proposed method with several established techniques, including Generalized Linear Models (GLM), Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM), Easy Learning from Label Proportions (Easy LLP), and Proportion Matching (PropMatch).

The …

Effects Of Water Temperature On Solemya Velum Porewater Nutrient Consumption, David Jay Dickey

Open Access Master's Theses

Despite playing a potentially important role in seagrass bed climate resilience, the effects of global warming on Solemya velum metabolism have not been thoroughly explored. The Atlantic Awning clam (Solemya velum) is a gutless, soft shelled, infaunal clam native to the intertidal, eastern coast of North America, which hosts endosymbiotic bacteria in its gills that oxidize sulfide as the energy source for its nutrition. This clam and other symbiotic species with similar metabolisms increase seagrass bed resilience to global warming by oxidizing excess sulfide in sediment porewater. This study used an outdoor temperature controlled mesocosm system to simulate …

Helicsauto: Automating The Development Of Cyber-Physical Co-Simulation Framework For Smart Grids, Sayeb Mohammad Tadvin

Open Access Master's Theses

Modern smart grids are evolving into more complex systems than conventional power grids. Intelligent electronic devices equipped with off-the-shelf computing and communication technologies within the distribution and transmission systems of the power grids are replacing legacy sensors and actuators in conventional bulk power grids. Significant disparities between the characteristics of cyber and physical components of smart grids create substantial challenges for analyzing the runtime states of grids and planning for long-term stability.

Co-simulation is an essential tool for analyzing the behavior of modern smart grids. In co-simulation, various subsystems or components of large complex systems like smart grids are modeled …