Digital Commons Network^™

Reforming State Policies On Sex Education Through Local Elections: Navigating The Intersection Of Parental Rights And The Fourteenth Amendment, Alyssa Duffy

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Access And Opportunity For All: How New Jersey’S Current Educational System Disenfranchises Students, And How School Choice Vouchers And Scholarships Would Help Students Succeed, Bernadette Menendez

Student Works

No abstract provided.

The Feedback Loop: A Critical Race Theory Interpretation Of The Relationship Between Compensatory Damages And Environmental Justice, Amelia Hadar

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Balancing The Scales: Harnessing The Power Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Healthcare Fraud Detection While Navigating Ai’S Perils, Ally Winter

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Development Of Functional Plasmonic Nanoceria For The Ultrasensitive Detection Of Ebola Glycoprotein, Carissa A. Sutton

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Infectious diseases have been increasing in both severity and prevalence, leading to increasing economic burdens and health concerns. Ebola hemorrhagic fever is an infectious disease that is both highly communicable and highly fatal. Current detection methods for the virus have high specificity and sensitivity but have long and/or complicated procedures that do not allow for early virus detection in highly affected areas. Compared to the lengthy procedure of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), real-time RT-PCR is more time-efficient; however, specificity and sensitivity are reduced. Since early detection of the virus is the only way to increase survival rates, sensitive detection …

University Of Central Florida Graduate Catalog, 2024 - 2025, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Waking The Nightmare: Understanding The Relationship Between Trauma And Sleep In Children, Jacklyn Ewald

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

This clinical dissertation expands upon previous research investigating the impact of trauma on children’s sleep quality. Prior research utilized subjective reports of trauma’s impact on sleep in children or objective measures which studied a specific traumatic event. This study used objective measures through cardiopulmonary coupling to study sleep in children with trauma exposure. Participants completed a questionnaire which included the Pediatric Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Related Life Events Screener (PEARLS) or Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) questionnaire, Pediatric quality of life scale, the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire, and demographic information. Trauma was defined by endorsement of any items on the …

Demystifying The Hosting Infrastructure Of The Free Content Web: A Security Perspective, Mohammed Alqadhi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This dissertation delves into the security of free content websites, a crucial internet component that presents significant security challenges due to their susceptibility to exploitation by malicious actors. While prior research has highlighted the security disparities between free and premium content websites, it has not delved into the underlying causes. This study aims to address this gap by examining the security infrastructure of free content websites. The research commences with an analysis of the content management systems (CMSs) employed by these websites and their role. Data from 1,562 websites encompassing free and premium categories is collected to identify CMS usage …

Multi-Agent Optimization Of Non-Cooperative Multimodal Mobility Systems, Md Nafees Fuad Rafi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

While multimodal mobility systems have the potential to bring benefits to travelers, drivers, environment, and traffic congestion, such systems typically involve multiple non-cooperative decision-makers who may selfishly optimize their own objectives without considering the overall system benefits. This paper aims to investigate market-based interactions of key stakeholders (i.e., service providers, drivers, and travelers) in the context of multimodal transportation (MT) systems. We propose a unified mathematical modeling framework to capture the decentralized travelers and drivers' decision-making process and balance the spatial demand and supply by locational service pricing. Such a model allows analyses of the impact of decentralized decision-making on …

Effects Of Premixing On Emissions And Flame Stabilization For A High-Pressure Reacting Jet In Crossflow, Penelope Torres Serrano

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The effects of fuel premixing on the emissions and flame stabilization characteristics of a high-pressure, axially staged combustion system are experimentally examined. The experimental facility is split into two major components. The main stage provides a high-pressure, high-temperature crossflow that is consistent for all test conditions, and the axial stage provides the reacting jet-in-crossflow, where the flame temperature is varied by equivalence ratio sweep. Methane is injected through the axial stage into a high-speed vitiated crossflow under varying conditions, ranging premixing states, for various equivalence ratios. Experimentally, it is observed that NOx emissions increase with equivalence ratio and decrease under …

Design And Development Of A Real-Time Autonomous Uav Swarm Control System, Berk Cetinsaya

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This dissertation focuses on advancing control systems and path planning techniques for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), particularly in drone swarm operations and real-time digital twin (DT) integration. The research addresses key challenges in scalability, real-time responsiveness, and system adaptability to improve the efficiency and situational awareness of UAV systems. A comprehensive review of existing methods highlights the importance of swarm intelligence and nature-inspired algorithms. The study introduces a real-time DT that integrates multiple drone video feeds into a unified 3D environment. Additionally, the Camera-based Adaptive Line Formation and Dynamic Leader-Following Optimization (CALF-DLFO) strategy enhances drone swarm coverage and reduces update …

Hydrogen Cryo-Adsorption In Silica Aerogel: Analytical Model Of Adsorption In Porous Media And Experimental Validation, Adil Riahi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Hydrogen has incontestably gained attention as one of the best alternative energy sources to fossil fuels due to its volatility, abundance and eco-friendly attributes. The classical methods for hydrogen storage in its gaseous or liquid forms such as high-pressure tanks or cryogenic temperatures display several challenges. Hence, the need to come up with innovative methods to store and transport it is imminent. Comparative studies have demonstrated that material-based hydrogen storage has proven promising in enhancing energy efficiency. However, material selectivity is the missing part of the puzzle to achieve optimal hydrogen storage performance. This dissertation introduces a novel material for …

High-Performance, Energy-Efficient, And Scalable Accelerator Design For Emerging Machine Learning Applications, Lingxiang Yin

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The use of machine learning (ML) is pervasive in numerous application domains, such as autonomous driving, scientific computing, robotics, and among others. However, the continuous growth of ML model complexity and data size is posing unprecedented computation and communication demands on current computing systems, especially in the era of large language models. The problem is further compounded by unstructured data and technology limitations.

To address these challenges, this dissertation research explores novel accelerator designs tailored for a wide range of machine learning applications. First, this research investigates a flexible communication fabric that can enable efficient training for deep learning applications …

Dordt University 2024-25 Catalog, Dordt University. Registrar's Office

Academic Catalogs

Academic Catalog for 2024-25

Iere Annual Report 2024, Erin Largo-Wight, Nicole Lowe, Kelly Rhoden, Abbey Townsend, Ruby Cox

Annual Reports

2024 Annual Report of the Institute for Environmental Research and Education

Training Practitioners For Real-Time Product Development Using Generative Artificial Intelligence, Antoine J. Jetter, Ameeta Agrawal, Dahm Mongkol Hongchai, Charles Weber, Yufei Tao

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

A workshop to train practitioners in real-time new product development (NPD) using generative artificial intelligence (AI) was conducted. Three teams of graduate students in Engineering and Technology Management (many with work experience as managers and engineers) were given minimalist instructions to develop a product concept and a preliminary marketing plan for a product of their choosing within six hours using ChatGPT, search engines, and other Internet-based tools. The product was to be novel, and the plan was to include customer identification, market analysis, generating personas, and a 15-minute presentation at the end of the workshop. The goal was to 'inspire …

Greta Thunberg (2021) By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Picture Books

Greta Thunberg learned about climate change in school at the age of eight, when she persuaded her parents to make lifestyle changes to reduce their carbon footprint. At fifteen, after winning a writing competition about the environment, she came up with the idea of a school strike, inspired by student walkouts in the United States to protest legislative inaction on gun control. Though she couldn’t interest anyone else in the idea, her one-child strikes soon gained international attention. Greta’s story demonstrates some of the challenges and gifts that neurodiverse children bring to activism. This book also prods adults to think …

A New Tiger Beetle Algorithm For Cybersecurity, Medical Image Segmentation And Other Global Problems Optimization, Ahmed Saihood, Mohammed Adel Al-Shaher, Mohammed A. Fadhel

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

The tiger beetle is a fierce and cunning predator insect that uses deception to hunt its prey. The tiger beetle traps and hunts them by digging holes along the path of other insects. This study has used the tiger beetle's hunting strategy to create the tiger beetle optimization (TBO) algorithm. In this algorithm, each solution represents the position of a tiger beetle, with the optimal position being the prey's location. Using this method, the tiger beetles gradually converge to the optimal solution, creating holes around them and searching for them. We evaluate the TBO algorithm's search capability using a series …

A Discrepancy In Discrepancy Scores? Comparing The Borich And Ranked Discrepancy Models For Determining Professional Development Needs, Donald M. Johnson, Will Doss, Chris Estepp, Henry O. Akwah, George W. Wardlow

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Borich (1980) model has been widely used to determine professional development (PD) needs of school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers over the past 40-plus years. However, recent criticism, primarily focused on a purported statistical issue, has led to development of the Ranked Discrepancy Model [RDM (Narine & Harder, 2021)] as a potential alternative. This article provides perspective on the statistical issue in question and compares the results of using the Borich model and the RDM to assess precision agriculture (PA) PD needs of Arkansas SBAE teachers (N = 44). Our quantitative results indicated the two models produced different PD …

Rapid Expansion Of The Limpkin Aramus Guarauna Across Anglo-America, A. Alam, R. Kaddoura, J. Jackson, R. Kannan

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We quantitatively document and describe the recent rapid expansion of the Limpkin Aramus guarauna across Anglo-America (United States and Canada). Using data downloaded from eBird (www.eBird.org), we present graphs showing the explosive growth in reports of number of individual birds and frequencies in checklists for this species in several parts of Anglo- America outside Florida (its traditional Anglo- American range). We also provide geographic progression maps to illustrate the expansion through time (2013-2023) and furnish qualitative information on foods consumed by the bird in new areas, based on a survey of 274 images uploaded by citizen scientists in eBird. Possible …

Geographical Variation In Songs Of Bachman’S Sparrow (Peucaea Aestivalis), L. Nguyen, K. Doñas, J. Jackson, R. Kannan

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We present an analysis of geographic variation in primary song components of the Near Threatened North American endemic, Bachman’s Sparrow (Peucaea aestivalis). These songs have 2 distinct portions: an introductory tweet we call the "whistle" and a more complex second portion that we call the "trill". We analyzed 327 songs from 111 recordings downloaded from eBird.org from the entire current range of the species. We grouped the recordings into 3 distinct geographic clusters, East, Central, and West. The data measured from spectrograms suggest a significant statistical difference among groups for 3 measured characteristics: frequency range of trill, number of horizontal …

A Review Of Herpetofaunal Distributions In Arkansas With Special Emphasis On Contributions From Citizen Science: Part I – Snakes, R. Jacobs, N. Ortiz, J. Jackson, J.D. Willson, K.G. Roberts, R. Kannan

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We present a comprehensive updated review of the distributions of the 38 species of snakes in Arkansas. We compare historical and current distributions with citizen science data uploaded and verified in iNaturalist, a leading biodiversity monitoring online citizen science database. The Arkansas Herpetological Atlas, a website maintaining species occurrence records, is also used and compared. We highlight the role played by iNaturalist in enhancing our knowledge of snake distributions in Arkansas. 10,885 verified and vetted Research Grade (RG) observations of Arkansas snakes have been recorded in iNaturalist, expanding the known distributions of 36 of the 38 species. This is the …

Energy Content Of Acorns Of Shinnery Oak (Quercus Havardii) In The Diet Of Scaled Quail (Callipepla Squamata) In Southeastern New Mexico, J.L. Hunt, M.E. Grilliot, T.L. Best, D. Lozano-Lopez, E.R. Neilson, I.C. Castillo

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) is a deciduous, low-growing shrubby tree that is a dominant plant in large areas of grassland in western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, and eastern New Mexico. Acorns of the plant are important food items for many wildlife species, including scaled quail (Callipepla squamata), mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), and endangered lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). We analyzed the energy content of acorns of shinnery oak obtained from the crops of scaled quail collected from plains-mesa sand-scrub in Lea and Eddy counties, New Mexico. Acorns were removed from crops and dried for 48 hours at 60°C to remove moisture …

Digital Image Correlation Guided Wearable Sensor Design And Fabrication Of Novel Microfluidic Pump For Human Movement Classification Using Machine Learning Models, Nick Cmager

Bioengineering Master's Theses

Wearable technologies are transforming healthcare and enabling physicians to customize treatments through continuous non-invasive data acquisition. Microfluidic sensors have been gaining attention due to their flexibility and ability to conform to the human skin. However, individual variations in skin properties necessitate personalized sensor designs. This thesis presents a novel approach for designing and fabricating wearable microfluidic sensors, leveraging digital image correlation (DIC) to guide the development of a microfluidic pump for human movement classification. An open-source DIC platform Ncorr was utilized for 2D and 3D DIC analysis of human skin strain. The results were used to guide the design of …

Juries And Tax: The Effect Of Income Taxation On Tort Damages, Jeffrey H. Kahn, John E. Lopatka

Scholarly Publications

In some shape or form, most tort damages for personal injuries have been excluded from federal income taxation since 1919. Despite this rule having celebrated its 1 0 0th birthday, the tax policy justification for the exclusion eludes consensus. Whether the policy is justified or not, the exclusion raises two other issues: should compensatory damage awards reflect non-taxability, and should juries be informed about tax treatment when determining awards? Like the disagreement over policy justifications for the exclusion, states are not in accord on their damage rule or approach to jury instructions. Proponents of a rule that awards should reflect …

Towards Machine Learning-Based Control Of Autonomous Vehicles In Solar Panel Cleaning Systems, Farima Hajiahmadi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a machine learning (ML)-based approach for the intelligent control of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) utilized in solar panel cleaning systems, aiming to mitigate challenges arising from uncertainties, disturbances, and dynamic environments. Solar panels, predominantly situated in dedicated lands for solar energy production (e.g., agricultural solar farms), are susceptible to dust and debris accumulation, leading to diminished energy absorption. Instead of labor-intensive manual cleaning, robotic cleaners offer a viable solution. AVs equipped to transport and precisely position these cleaning robots are indispensable for efficient navigation among solar panel arrays. However, environmental obstacles (e.g., rough terrain), variations in solar panel …

Teachers’ Conceptions Of Students’ Data Literacy In Life Science And Physical Science Classes, Bridget Nicole Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Data literacy in science is an evolving field of study as students need to be able to collect, analyze, interpret, and make inferences from different sources of data. Much research centers on teachers' use of data to improve instructional practices, but less focus on teachers' conceptions of student data literacy and strategies used to foster data literacy in life and physical science high school classes. Thus, there is a need to address this area as recent Georgia assessments reveal that over 50% of students are performing below proficiency level in science. Consequently, this research sought to understand teachers’ conceptions of …

Towards Energy-Efficient Edge Computing For Tiny Ai Applications, Vamsi Krishna Bhagavathula

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence (AI) applications become more common on the edge of networks, like Raspberry Pi servers, it is crucial to optimize their energy use. This research project investigates how AI algorithms affect energy efficiency and resource usage on Raspberry Pi servers. Two models were created: one predicts resource usage, and the other predicts power consumption of AI algorithms on Raspberry Pi. Several factors are considered like CPU and memory use, algorithm speed, dataset size, and types of algorithms and datasets. Using regression-based methods, we model how these factors affect energy use. By converting categorical factors into numerical ones, we …

Examining The Perspectives Of Rural Secondary Students Who Are And Are Not Considering Music Education As A Collegiate Major, Eugene Talmadge Butler Ii

Theses and Dissertations

A problem exists in recruiting new music educators to the teaching profession. This problem is impacting the quality of instruction students are receiving from teachers in music education. The shortage of music teachers in music education is continuing to grow. This teacher shortage includes both core classes and specialized classes including music education. Many possible factors contribute to this problem, including teacher recruitment at the secondary level. This mixed methods research study attempts to provide in-depth answers to the problem through examining the perspectives of secondary students who are and are not considering music education as a major in college. …

3ddp Engineering Design Intervention Impacts On Student Perceptions, Attitudes, And Interest Towards Engineering, James Robert Kane

Theses and Dissertations

The study, “3DDP Engineering Design Intervention Impacts on Student Perceptions, Attitudes, and Interest Towards Engineering” explored the impact of a culturally responsive, semi-formal 3D printing (3DDP) intervention on middle school students' perceptions, attitudes, and interest in engineering. The intervention aimed to broaden access to engineering education by providing formative experiences outside traditional classroom settings within the regular school day. A multifaceted approach was employed, utilizing quantitative analysis of assessments and surveys, qualitative analysis of written responses, follow-up interviews, and student-produced artifacts. The intervention functioned as a student-driven engineering club, integrating culturally relevant themes and hands-on activities spanning diverse engineering domains. …