Digital Commons Network^™

Soft Sets Extensions: Innovating Healthcare Claims Analysis, Daniela Gifu, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In the dynamic arena of healthcare research, where the complexities of data often rival the intricacies of biological systems, the ability to model and analyze such multifaceted datasets is crucial. This comprehensive review delves into the evolution and application of Soft Sets and their extensions, including HyperSoft Sets, SuperHyperSoft Sets, IndetermSoft Sets, IndetermHyperSoft Sets, and TreeSoft Sets, in healthcare claims data analysis.

Two Masked Prime Arrows Simultaneously Affect A Response To A Target: Revealing Of An Additive Unconscious Priming Effect, Shen Tu, Jiuhong Yan, Chengzhen Liu, Jieyu Lv, Jerwen Jou, Jiang Qiu

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Since there are many sources of unconscious information in our minds, there is a possibility that multiple channels of unconscious information can affect a response at the same time. However, this question has been largely ignored by researchers. In the present study, we presented two opposite pointing arrows as the masked primes followed by a target arrow. The results suggested that the two directions in which the two prime arrows are pointing influenced the response to the target simultaneously and additively, that is, the overall priming effect caused by the two opposite pointing prime arrows was equal to the net …

Social Experiences, Life Satisfaction, And Social Support Of Immigrant Families With Young Children In A Highly Urban City, Zeynep Isik-Ercan, Huan-Tang Lu, Nicole Edwards, Madji Fall, Latifa Sebti

College of Education Departmental Research

Grounding this study in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, the authors used a survey that includes psychometrically sound measures, to investigate the social experiences of 54 immigrant families with young children and the factors that shape their perceptions of life satisfaction and social support in a highly urban city. Results show persistent challenges related to discrimination and access to resources. Despite these challenges, participants’ overall satisfaction with life was rated high and positively correlated with their comfort with practicing their culture and with their perceived social support. Implications involve the need to design evidence-based policies and programmes that promote immigrant families’ wellbeing.

Promoting Emergent Literacy In Preschool Through Extended Discourse: Covert Translanguaging In A Mandarin Immersion Environment, Robin E. Harvey, Kevin M. Wong

Education Division Scholarship

Rich oral language practices, including the opportunity and ability to participate in cognitively and linguistically challenging extended discourse, are foundational to early literacy development. To meet children’s needs in their first exposure to the languages of schooling, educators may engage students in extended discourse multilingually. The current study focuses on student-centered translanguaging conversations to examine strategies that preschool teachers employ to support young children’s emerging bilingual and biliteracy development in a Mandarin immersion preschool serving primarily nonheritage learners of Mandarin in the United States. Findings indicate that, despite the school’s Mandarin-only policy, teachers engaged in covert translanguaging practices to extend …

Enhancing The Efficacy Of Task-Based Grammar Teaching: A Study Through Error Analysis Of Esl Learners At The Tertiary Level, Dhivya P

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of modern methods of teaching grammar and to test the student's learning through activities and games. The objective is to identify the students' grammatical errors regarding prepositions, articles, concord, tenses, and redundancy by practical methods and task-based activities. The study employed Corder’s Error Analysis method to understand the students' language learning process, indicate errors, and identify opportunities to develop learners' language awareness.

A pilot study was conducted involving both pre test and posttest for the students. The primary research involved pre test, posttest and retention tests for the students to evaluate the error …

Middle Eastern Privilege: A New Global Narrative?, Essraa Nawar

Library Articles and Research

"But then a deeper question emerged—what if, instead of solely focusing on challenging stereotypes, we could also highlight the profound privileges inherent in being rooted in the MENA region? This reflection led me to coin a brand new term: Middle Eastern Privilege. This concept seeks to redefine what it means to come from the Middle East and North Africa by emphasizing the richness of cultural, linguistic, religious, and geopolitical heritage alongside an openness to diverse perspectives. It challenges the dominance of Western privilege in global discourse and celebrates the advantages that this community brings to the table."

Social Anxiety, Voice Confrontation And Voice Recognition: A Bilingual Exploration, Jigar Jogia, Justin Thomas, Mariapaola Barbato, Richard Bentall

All Works

Many people dislike the sound of their voices, especially when listening back to audio recordings (voice confrontation). Previous research reports that disliking the sound of one's voice is associated with elevated levels of social anxiety. The present study investigated the relationship between social anxiety and voice dislike and voice misrecognition among a bilingual population: Arabic (L1) and English (L2). Participants (N = 176) completed self-report measures of social anxiety and own voice liking. Additionally, they performed a novel own voice recognition task, assessing their ability to recognise a recording of their voice, differentiating it from digitally altered versions of the …

Comparing The Roles Of Secondary Schools And Universities In The Formation Of British Cabinet Ministers1922-2022, John William Hogan, Sharon Feeney

Articles

The role played by the education system in the creation and reproduction of governing elites, and its countervailing potential to create a more meritocratic and egalitarian society, has been a topic of enduring concern. However, these debates have been rendered opaque by an inability to directly compare elite formation systems both within and between countries. To resolve this problem, we employ elite formation quantitative indices to compare the roles of the secondary school and higher education systems, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in the formation of its political elite – cabinet ministers – between 1922–2022. …

National Blue Ribbon School Principals’ Descriptions Of Their Leadership Practices, Demere Houston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately 7% of all U. S. K-12 schools have received the United States Department of Education’s (USDOE) National Blue Ribbon (NBR). Information was needed about how leaders prepare their schools to earn this award. This study was focused on the leadership practices of school principals honored with the award between 2005 and 2021 to learn more about this gap in leadership practice. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how NBR-award principals describe the leadership practices that enabled them to build school environments worthy of the highest designation a school can receive from the USDOE. The conceptual …

Barriers To Infant Safe Sleep Practices In New Mexico, Yvonnie Vitanzos, Theresa H. Cruz, Analissa Gutierrez

Posters and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Dynamic, Context-Aware Computing Device Initialization For Personalized User Experiences, Sudeep Chauhan, Eusebius Lai

Defensive Publications Series

This document describes techniques for tailoring the initial setup and default configuration of computing devices such as smartphones and smartwatches, to individual users. The proposed computing device personalization engine utilizes a multi-faceted analysis of user data, environmental context, and device usage patterns, collectively referred to as contextual signals, to derive a set of abstract dimensions and scores that encapsulate user preferences. In some instances, the personalization engine uses machine learning models to derive the abstract dimensions and scores. The set of abstract dimensions and scores are translated into a predefined set of default Enum values that are indicative of a …

Nadeau Earns Grant To Create Spanish Medical Textbook, Chris Francis

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Beyond Boundaries: Third Space Leadership In Schools, Corinne Brion

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This case study is relevant to practicing and prospective leaders because it raises issues related to third space leadership. I define third space leadership as the spaces/places between school and home, school and before or after school programs, school, and extra-curricular activities, such as the commute in a school bus. Third space leadership is grounded in adaptive leadership, cultural proficiency, equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging. This teaching case study exposes educational administrators to a holistic approach to leadership that includes the in-between spaces that are integral parts and moments of students’ educational journeys. The Teaching Notes outline key concepts on …

Acknowledging Dispossession: A Cda/Pda Perspective On Discourse Dealing With Unceded Land, J. R. Martin, Priscilla Angela T. Cruz

English Faculty Publications

This paper illustrates what can be revealed by a linguistic analysis of the discourse strategies deployed in a bilingual text acknowledging the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in Mindanao (Philippines). The analysis draws on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) descriptions of English, which model language as a resource for making meaning. It explores the choices involved from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA), exposing language in the service of power, and positive discourse analysis (PDA), appreciating language as an instrument of social change. In doing so we exemplify the role of SFL-informed CDA/PDA in processes of reconciliation, including personal and public …

Development Of A New Individual Interest Questionnaire In Physical Education, Minting Zhang, Bo Shen, Jin Bo

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Recognizing the close interconnection between implicit-affective control and cognitive-rational aspects of individual interest, we designed this study to develop a new instrument - the Individual Interest Questionnaire in Physical Education (IIQ-PE). In study 1 (N=132), an exploratory factor analysis supported a model consisting of a single unified factor. In study 2 (N=117), Confirmatory Factor Analyses corroborated the construct validity of the IIQ-PE. Also, when examining multi-group invariance across the two study samples, no significant differences were found, suggesting that this factor structure held consistently. In study 3 (N=121), a path model further demonstrated that the individual interest significantly predicted learning …

Utilizing Metadata From Heterogeneous Sources Within The Framework Of The Jvmg And Golem Projects To Identify Patterns In Anime-Based Fandoms On Ao3, Zoltan Kacsuk, Xiaoyan Yang, Saskia Dreßler, Federico Pianzola, Martin Roth

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper offers an overview of the first step in the data alignment and joint research efforts between the Japanese Visual Media Graph (JVMG) and the Graphs and Ontologies for Literary Evolution Models (GOLEM) projects. Focusing on fully or in-part anime based fandoms in the Archive of Our Own (AO3) data in the GOLEM knowledge graph we connected 534 fandoms with 1,734 anime works from the JVMG knowledge graph. The fanfiction publication numbers and dates for these fandoms were then analyzed in conjunction with the various metadata available on the corresponding anime works, such as release date, genre, content rating …

A Matter Of Life And Death: The Conceptualization And Theological Significance Of Blood In The Pentateuch, Jared Greer

Master's Theses

This 2024 Master of Theological Studies thesis at Lipscomb University analyzes the conceptualization and theological significance of blood within the Pentateuch. While the thesis does attend to various anthropological concerns (i.e., the sociocultural understandings of blood that inform the text), it is more chiefly concerned with how such understandings of blood contribute to the broader theology of the Pentateuch. Using a canonical interpretive approach that respects both the diachronic nature of the text and the theological unity intended by its final redactors, the thesis primarily explores the two principal contexts in which blood appears in the Pentateuch: Israel’s cultus and …

Examining The Overall Impact Of Computer-Based Mathematics Instruction On Math Achievement In An Alternative High School, Jacqueline Levon Gilyard

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, the United States has witnessed a remarkable surge in computer-based instruction, revolutionizing the way students learn and educators teach. This action research study aimed to investigate the overall impact of computer-based instruction on mathematics achievement in the alternative high school setting. The research design incorporated both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather comprehensive data for twenty high school students enrolled in an alternative high school setting. The quantitative data analysis involved examining pre-and post-test scores, graduation data, and final course grades to assess the effect of computer-based instruction on mathematics achievement. All of the students showed …

Reflections Of Chinese Opera In Contemporary Chinese Piano Repertoire: A Cutural, Analytical, And Pedagogical Guide, Mengyu Song

Theses and Dissertations

Over 5,000 years, Chinese opera has been inspired by many imperial dynasties, regions, and ethnic cultures, making it a unique reflection of Chinese culture. Chinese composers have incorporated traditional Chinese opera in piano compositions to express cultural identity and artistic significance. This music has a broad and profound cultural significance, fostering cultural interchange and understanding and presenting a diverse and inclusive musical experience for non-Chinese students and musicians.

This research study provides a comprehensive overview of Chinese traditional operas, vocal technique and instrumentation, the development of piano music in China, and corresponding piano literature in progressive difficulty for early-intermediate to …

(Re)Imagining Decolonial Cookbooks After Deforestation, Kamran Shams

Theses and Dissertations

Food, like most else, is fundamentally changed by colonization. It is not just the aftermath of colonization, the settlement, that changes food—it is the act of colonial infiltrating itself. Such is the case made by Fernando Ismael Quiñones Valdivia in “Colonial Imaginations: Solitude in the Cartas y Relaciones of Hernán Cortés”—though not for food but for colonized societies broadly. More specifically, he contends that a new epistemological possibility arises when colonizer regards land as an object to be conquered, which precedes the epistemological articulation of subject/object divide. His article supplies a framework for thinking about coloniality so that a close …

Bridging The Global Divide In Ai Regulation: A Proposal For A Contextual, Coherent, And Commensurable Framework, Sangchul Park

Washington International Law Journal

As debates on potential societal harm from artificial intelligence (AI) culminate in legislation and international norms, a global divide is emerging in both AI regulatory frameworks and international governance structures. In terms of local regulatory frameworks, the European Union (E.U.), Canada, and Brazil follow a “horizontal” or “lateral” approach that postulates the homogeneity of AI, seeks to identify common causes of harm, and demands uniform human interventions. In contrast, the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), Israel, and Switzerland (and potentially China) have pursued a “context-specific” or “modular” approach, tailoring regulations to the specific use cases of AI systems. …

How Do Doctoral Students Perceive Supervision? Lessons Learned From Indonesia, Elok Putri Nimasari, Syihabul Irfan, Ariyanti Ariyanti, Ahmad Iklil Saifulloh

The Qualitative Report

Theorised in Vygotskyan sociocultural and Bakhtinian dialogical perspectives, this article addresses Indonesian postgraduates’ perceptions of their doctoral supervision for their thesis proposal. Twelve Indonesian doctoral students participated in this interpretative phenomenology study. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews lasting eight months. Drawing on interpretative phenomenological analysis, the findings identified four micro themes of sociocultural and dialogical theory (i.e., shared expertise, critical dialogue, constructive feedback, and encouraging diverse perspectives). The present study contributed empirical evidence on how doctoral students benefit from their supervisory process in sociocultural and dialogical perspectives embedded with different supervisory dimensions.

The Use Of Space And Place In The Civil Rights Discourse Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pamelia Adams

Communication Theses

This thesis, The Use of Space and Place in the Civil Rights Discourse of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., analyzes the academic literature on the social change agent. The study provides a deeper understanding of the relevance of place/location, where Dr. King delivered his civil rights message nationally and internationally. Three historically significant sites and the events impacting the civil rights movement, in the cities of Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Alabama, are examined. The three sites included in Chapter 2: The Jail Site, Chapter 3: The Bombing Site, and Chapter 4: The March Sites as examples. The main findings of …

Long-Range White Matter Fibres And Post-Stroke Verbal And Non-Verbal Cognition, Rebecca W. Roth, Deena Schwen Blackett, Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht, Janina Wilmskoetter, Chris Rorden, Roger Newman-Norlund, Souvik Sen, Julius Fridriksson Ph.D., Natalie Busby, Leonardo Bonilha

Faculty Publications

Among stroke survivors, linguistic and non-linguistic impairments exhibit substantial inter-individual variability. Stroke lesion volume and location do not sufficiently explain outcomes, and the neural mechanisms underlying the severity of aphasia or non-verbal cognitive deficits remain inadequately understood. Converging evidence supports the idea that white matter is particularly susceptible to ischaemic injury, and long-range fibres are commonly associated with verbal and non-verbal function. Here, we investigated the relationship among post-stroke aphasia severity, cognition, and white matter integrity. Eighty-seven individuals in the chronic stage of stroke underwent diffusion MRI and behavioural testing, including language and cognitive measures. We used whole-brain structural connectomes …

The Effects Of Writing Groups On Student Self-Efficacy, Katie Francom

Theses and Dissertations

High school students often lack confidence in their writing. One way to change this is by increasing their self-efficacy regarding writing. Previous studies suggest that writing groups have effectively improved students' self-efficacy in higher education. However, more must be done to see if this same intervention would succeed in high school. This study aimed to test this hypothesis and answer the question: How does participating in writing groups shape adolescents' writing self-efficacy? To do this, 57 11th-grade students participated in writing groups in an Honors English 11 class over a semester. For the study, they were surveyed about their writerly …

Black Mph Internship Experiences In Racialized Organizations: Critical Counter-Narratives For A More Racially Just Public Health Workforce, Zach Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

Internships are a vital component of Master of Public Health (MPH) programs. Despite 14% of MPH students identifying as Black, limited research has examined their internship experiences. This is particularly troubling given the racial demographics of the public health workforce and the racialized nature of most public health organizations. Using critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework and critical counter-narrative as a methodology, this study sought to answer the following research questions: 1) How do Black MPH students describe their racialized experiences in their internships? and 2) What are the implications of Black MPH students’ narratives for policies and …

Implicit Vs. Explicit Approaches When Teaching Reflexive Structures In A Fifth-Grade Spanish Dual Immersion Classroom, Paula Valeria Ward

Theses and Dissertations

Dual language immersion (DLI) students can develop high levels of proficiency in their second language at a young age. However, they often have difficulties with their accuracy using advanced grammatical constructions (Watzinger-Tharp et al., 2018), such as using different verbs tenses or gender and number agreement in speaking and writing (Bateman et al., 2020). The goal of this study is to test whether explicit or implicit instructional approaches are more effective in the teaching of one such grammatical concept, specifically reflexive constructions, in two DLI classrooms. In this research, I investigated results from a five-lesson treatment in a case study …

In The Search Of Cosmopolitan Literacies: A Case Of Formerly Expatriated Language Teacher, Asiye Demir

Theses and Dissertations

Cosmopolitanism refers to becoming a world citizen who can live harmoniously with different cultures. Today, our classes in the United States have become diverse daily. While we teach students who can speak more than one language, our teachers are primarily monolingual and monocultural. Hence, teachers who can speak multiple languages are celebrated in the system (Pacheco et al., 2019). Expatriation refers to teacher mobility that can entail learning other languages and being exposed to different cultures. Expatriation, as a form of travel, is an essential construct for cosmopolitan literacies because cosmopolitan dispositions can be developed through traveling (Molz, 2006). Thus, …

On Parallelization Of Graph Algorithms, Performance Modelling And Autonomous 3d Printable Object Synthesis, Shams-Ul-Haq Syed

Theses and Dissertations

The degree of hardware level parallelism offered by today’s GPU architecture makes it ideal for problem domains with massive inherent parallelism potential, fields such as computer vision, image processing, graph theory and graph computations. We have identified three problem areas for purpose of this research dissertation, under the umbrella of performance improvement by harnessing the power of GPUs for novel applications. The first area is concerned with k-vertex connectivity in graph theory, the second area deals performance evaluation using extended roofline models for GPU parallel applications and finally the third problem area is related to synthesis 3D printable objects from …

Native American Nationalism: Chickasaw Identity And The Music Of Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Austin Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Native American nationalism in classical music has yet to be seriously researched and is not taught in music academia. One of the more well-known contemporary Native American composers is Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (b. 1968). Throughout his career, Tate has explored and expressed his identity as a Native American and Chickasaw citizen through his music. As a result, his compositional output is a rich resource for examining what Native American nationalism in classical music looks like and how it is utilized in his works.

In this document, I analyze three of Tate’s pieces written for orchestra: Tracing Mississippi, Ghost …