Digital Commons Network^™

Actuator Optimization And Control Of Pediatric Knee Exoskeleton For Community-Based Mobility Assistance: More Lightweight, More Affordable, And More Stable, Sainan Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

Lightweight and smart exoskeletons offer the potential to improve mobility in children. State-of-the-art pediatric exoskeletons are typically clinic-based since they are either tethered or portable but cumbersome, and their design is often not optimized across a range of environments and users. Child growth progressively alters key exoskeleton design requirements, yet no prior work investigated actuator optimization to accommodate child growth. Moreover, exoskeletons typically use the torque sensor or spring mechanics as exteroceptive feedback, but these torque sensing methods not only lead to extra cost and mass but also cause a small range of stable controller gains.

To facilitate pediatric exoskeleton …

Synthesis Of Novel 5-Aryl 2’-Deoxyuridine And 2’-Deoxycytidine Analogues, Kevin E. Persaud

Dissertations and Theses

Briefly, the following report details a synthetic route to prepare 5-phenyl-2’-deoxycytidine analogues. This multistep synthesis began with silyl protection of the 3’- and 5’-hydroxyl groups of 5-iodo-2’-deoxyuridine. Next, the installation of a phenyl ring at the C5 position of the nucleobase via a Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction, yielding 5-phenyl-2’-deoxyuridine (5-PdU). After that, modification of the obtained 5-PdU at the C4 position was performed with benzotriazole-1-yl-oxy-tris-(dimethylamino)-phosphonium hexafluorophosphate (BOP, a peptide-coupling agent) and a base (cesium carbonate) to activate the amide group of the uridine nucleobase for subsequent displacement with a variety of amines. Modification of the C4 position resulted in protected 5-phenyl-2’-deoxycytidine …

Dostoyevsky And Wright On Becoming The Underground Man, Zain Alam

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the parallels between Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground and Richard Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground, focusing on their shared use of the "Underground Man" archetype to critique philosophical and societal structures. Dostoyevsky's Underground Man embodies the contradictions of Determinism and Rational Egoism in 19th-century Russia, exposing the flaws of these ideologies through satire. In contrast, Wright recontextualizes this character to address racial injustice in mid-20th-century America, using Fred Daniels' descent into a literal underground to highlight systemic oppression. By comparing these works, the thesis demonstrates how both authors utilize the underground as a metaphorical space …

Factors That Influence The Use Of Culturally Relevant And Responsive Pedagogies For Elementary School Leaders, Stephanie Lindstrom

Theses and Dissertations

The presence of minority students in public schools has highlighted the need for teachers and school leaders to seek and implement exclusive instructional strategies that will foster cultural diversity. The climate, culture, and vision of a school are a direct reflection of the school’s leadership. The purpose of this study was to explore the cultural readiness of elementary school leaders, as measured by the cultural readiness leadership scale (CRLS), and their beliefs and perceptions of culturally relevant and responsive practices. The foundational philosophy used to support this research was the transformational leadership theory. The research methodology entailed a mixed-method approach …

Torricelli's Law And The Turn-Up Number, Bianca K. Hampel

Theses and Dissertations

We investigate Torricelli's differential law for solids of revolution. Computing the ratio of times of drainage under the same circumstances (same existing requirements) but rotating the solids 180 degrees allows us to define a "Torricelli turn-up number" associated with the solid. For various solids, we calculate this turn-up number and construct solids that are not symmetric under the 180-degree rotation but with a turn-up number of 1. That allows us to construct nonsymmetric clepsydra.

Academic Performance And Educator Efficacy In Supporting Military-Connected Adolescents Among High Schools In A Georgia School District, Megan Louise Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The effects of a parent’s military service on their children are well-researched in the post-9/11 era, particularly for elementary-aged students. However, research involving adolescents is much narrower, despite 25% of all military dependents ranging between 9th and 12th grade. These students are already enduring major changes as adolescents, but military-connected adolescents are also navigating the many stressors of their family’s military affiliation. These students are oftentimes burdened by frequent moves, parental deployment, and acclimation to their circumstances. While the military family is acutely aware of the heightened stressors that potentially create chaos among the family unit, teachers’ awareness of these …

Modelling And Optimization Of Rice Production In Nigeria: Bibliometric Analysis And Future Research, Daniel Dzarma Ezra, Ngutor Nyor, Guy Degla

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

Rice production plays a vital role in enhancing employment opportunities, GDP, and food security, thereby contributing to the prosperity of the country. This study aimed to evaluate the current state of research in the field and identify potential areas for future modeling and optimization of rice production. Data were sourced from the reputable academic citation database and research tool, Web of Science, spanning the period from 2012 to May 2023. Bibliometric software, such as Bibliometrix or Biblioshiny, was employed for data analysis. The analysis revealed insights such as 4058 authors contributing to 1965 articles published across 188 journal sources. The …

Reliability Evaluation Framework For Centralized Agricultural Internet Of Things (Agri-Iot), Fatoumata Thiam, Maissa Mbaye, Maya Flores, Alexander Wyglinski

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

This paper presents a holistic reliability evalua-tion framework for Agri-IoT based on real-world testbed and mathematical modeling of network failure prediction. A testbed has been designed, implemented, and deployed in the real-world in the experimental farm at Saint-Louis/Senegal as a representative area of Sahel conditions. Data collected has been used for real-world reliability analysis and to feed mathematical modeling of network reliability based on energy and environ-mental conditions data with Kaplan Meier and Nelson Aalen estimators. Key factors affecting the network’s lifespan, such as network coverage and density, are explored, along with a comprehensive evaluation of energy consumption to understand …

Adjusting For Covariates Representing Potential Confounders, Mediators, Or Competing Predictors In The Presence Of Measurement Error: Dispelling A Potential Misapprehension And Insights For Optimal Study Design With Nutritional Epidemiology Examples, Roger S Zoh, Diana M Thomas, Carmen D Tekwe, Xiaoxin Yu, Colby J Vorland, Nikhil V Dhurandhar, David M Klurfeld, David B Allison

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Variables such as dietary intake are measured with error yet frequently used in observational epidemiology. Although this limitation is sometimes noted, these variables are still often modeled as covariates without formal correction or sincere dialogue about measurement unreliability potentially weakening the validity of statistical conclusions. Further, larger sample sizes increase power (bias) to detect spurious correlations. Counterintuitively, recent work suggested a non-monotonic relationship between confounder unreliability and how much controlling for the confounder reduces (or induces) bias when testing for an exposure-outcome association. If true, such non-monotonicity would be especially concerning for applications such as nutrition, where measurement reliability …

Keynote Address And Meeting Program, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Instructions To Authors, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Business Meeting Report (Secretary's And Treasurer's Report), Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Journal Acknowledgements And Editorial Board, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Academy Presidents And Institutional Members, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Journal Of The Arkansas Academy Of Science Volume 78, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

GröBner Bases With An Application To Tame Functions, Jessica D. Marconi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Grobner bases are essential tools in algebraic geometry, used to simplify and solve systems of polynomial equations. These bases revolutionized computational methods in various branches of mathematics after being introduced in 1965 by Bruno Buchberger. This thesis explores the foundational concepts of Grobner bases, including their formation and properties. It also demonstrates their use in solving mathematical problems in algebraic geometry, including the ideal membership problem. As an application, we show how Grobner bases can be used to determine whether a polynomial mapping is tame. This concept is crucial for analyzing the topology near singular points and establishing whether a …

Wakening Past Concepts Without Past Data: Class-Incremental Learning From Online Placebos, Yaoyao Liu, Yingying Li, Bernt Schiele, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Not forgetting old class knowledge is a key challenge for class-incremental learning (CIL) when the model continuously adapts to new classes. A common technique to address this is knowledge distillation (KD), which penalizes prediction inconsistencies between old and new models. Such prediction is made with almost new class data, as old class data is extremely scarce due to the strict memory limitation in CIL. In this paper, we take a deep dive into KD losses and find that "using new class data for KD"not only hinders the model adaption (for learning new classes) but also results in low efficiency for …

Hardware-Assisted Live Kernel Function Updating On Intel Platforms, Lei Zhou, Fengwei Zhang, Kevin Leach, Xuhua Ding, Zhenyu Ning, Guojun Wang, Jidong Xiao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditional kernel updates such as perfective maintenance and vulnerability patching requires shutting the system down, disrupting continuous execution of applications. Enterprises and researchers have proposed various live updating techniques to patch the kernel with lower downtime to reduce the loss of useful uptime. However, existing kernel live update techniques either rely on specific support from the target OS, or are deployed in virtualized environments (i.e., systems running in virtual machines). In this article we present KShot , a hardware-assisted live and secure kernel function update mechanism for native operating systems. By leveraging x86 SMM and Intel SGX, KShot runs in …

Entire Volume Journal Of Banking And Financial Economics 2024, 1(21)

Journal of Banking and Financial Economics

Entire Volume Journal of Banking and Financial Economics 2024, 1(21)

Causal Disentangled Recommendation Against User Preference Shifts, Wenjie Wang, Xinyu Lin, Liuhui Wang, Fuli Feng, Yunshan Ma, Tat‑Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recommender systems easily face the issue of user preference shifts. User representations will become outof-date and lead to inappropriate recommendations if user preference has shifted over time. To solve theissue, existing work focuses on learning robust representations or predicting the shifting pattern. Therelacks a comprehensive view to discover the underlying reasons for user preference shifts. To understand thepreference shift, we abstract a causal graph to describe the generation procedure of user interaction sequences.Assuming user preference is stable within a short period, we abstract the interaction sequence as a set ofchronological environments. From the causal graph, we find that the changes …

Societal Impacts Of Artificial Intelligence: Ethics, Legal, And Governance Issues, Yuzhou Qian, Keng Siau, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly changing the way we work and the way we live. The emergence of ChatGPT has thrust AI, especially Generative AI, into the spotlight. The societal impact of AI is on most people's minds. This article presents several research projects on how AI impacts work and society. Three research works are discussed in this article. The first study develops a theoretical framework structuring the legal and ethical objectives that are needed and the means to achieve them. The second study concentrates on bias and discrimination issues embedded in AI applications. It focuses on enhancing the collaboration …

The Effects Of Human-Driven Land Use Change On American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis) Nesting Patterns, Madison Wallwork

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) have received little scientific attention in the context of human-driven land use change. The goal of my study is to investigate how land use change may be affecting the spatial ecology of alligator nesting in Florida. Areas directly impacted by humans are growing rapidly in Florida, yet the impacts of this land use change on alligator populations and reproduction are largely unknown. Alligators are ecosystem engineers and apex predators, and their nests often double as nests for other reptilian species. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand how human-driven land use change may be impacting …

Anomaly Detection Approaches Of Energy Storage Systems Using Kalman Filter And Machine Learning Techniques, Phadungsak Tubuntoeng

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing prevalence of cyber-attacks poses a significant concern, particularly within critical infrastructures like the power system. Such attacks have the potential to cause substantial impacts on essential services, economic stability, and national security. Energy storage systems (ESS) are integral components of the power grid and are particularly vulnerable to cyber threats. These vulnerabilities can be exploited through various means, including two-way communication, web portals, and remote access.

Given the critical nature of ESS, the ability to detect and mitigate malicious cyber-attacks is imperative. Various methods can be employed for cyber-attack detection, including signature-based, anomaly-based, and behavior-based approaches. In this …

The Perceptions Of Black Women In Principalships On Navigating And Negotiating The Racial Contexts Of Their Equity-Focused Leadership: A Q Methodology Study, Easter M. Brown

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One consequence of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling regarding desegregation of American public schools has been the destabilization of Black educators’ legacy of school leadership (Tillman, 2004). The effects of these failures continues to be problematic in US public education. Students of color account for over half of all P-12 enrollments, in contrast to the disproportionate lack of diversity among its teaching and leadership rosters (Frankenberg, et al., 2019; NCES, 2018, 2022). The stagnant rate at which American schools have diversified principal leadership since Brown v. Board (1954) begs the question of how equipped schools are to …

Infusing Universal Design For Learning With Trauma-Informed Educational Practice: What Early Childhood Personnel Think And How They'll Pull It Off, Marlena L. Jenkins

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research recruited ten early childhood personnel within a public elementary school and attempted to gain insight into their beliefs and attitudes directly related to the principles of universal design for learning and the tenets of trauma-informed educational practice. Through this qualitative study, the researcher posited the importance of explicit professional learning and a supportive and openly communicative school environment to support the implementation of a combined trauma-informed universal design for learning (Ti-UDL) framework. Such a model has implications not only impacting personnel and student relationships, but those occurring amongst school-wide personnel of all levels. This research employed multiple phases, …

Can A Phycosphere Associated Bacterium Be Used As A Biological Control For Floating Algal Mats?, Aubrey C. Patterson Holsworth

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a global water quality issue. Algae, especially cyanobacteria, are integrally associated with complex microbial assemblages, which cycle nutrients, provide microenvironments, breakdown potentially harmful molecules, etc. However, these same microbial consortia are competitors or even inhibitors to algae in these systems. One potential biological control is Rhodospirillum rubrum, a Gram- proteobacterium. To evaluate its capacity for HAB mitigation, experimental mesocosms were inoculated with a native assortment of algae and R. rubrum and grown for 2-months. Relative Fluorescence Units (RFU), Ash Free Dry Mass, and eukaryotic (23S rDNA) metabarcoding were conducted to estimate algal …

Implementation Of Algorithms For Sorting By Strip Swaps Using Alternating Cycle Graphs, Harsh S. Bhakharia

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Challenges in computational biology, such as genome rearrangement, and applications in optical character recognition, like zoning techniques, often require solving optimization problems. These involve reordering scrambled sequences of numbers into a sequential arrangement known as the identity permutation.

Rearranging any given permutation into the identity permutation with the minimum number of specific operations related to strips gives rise to various combinatorial optimization scenarios. Operations such as strip moves, transpositions, reversals, and block interchanges have been extensively researched.

This thesis builds on the foundational work of Roy et al., targeting the refinement of their cycle graph algorithm for sorting by strip …

A New Perspective On Teacher Attrition And Retention: What Can Be Learned From Teachers That Continue In The Profession, The Stayers?, Haley M. Vogel

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological research study focuses on closing the divide between ongoing teacher shortages created by labor market cycles and teacher attrition with retention practices that keep qualified teachers in K-12 public schools. The literature review of this study identified a gap in research related to teacher shortages. Significant research exists around why teachers leave the profession, however, research related to why teachers stay is limited. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand the lived experiences (Moustakas, 1994, van Manen, 2023, Creswell & Poth, 2018) of K-12 secondary public-school teachers continued decision to remain in the profession. The …

Critical Belief Analysis For Security Studies, Barnet D. Feingold, Michael W. Collier

EKUOPEN: Open Textbooks

Critical Belief Analysis for Security Studies is a companion volume to Security Analysis: A Critical-Thinking Approach. Critical Belief Analysis (CBA) is an emerging analytic technique for describing, explaining, and predicting decisions and actions of agents (actors, believers, decision-makers). CBA provides analysts a deeper understanding of agents’ points of view, assumptions, and the webs of belief supporting those points of view and assumptions. CBA also provides a framework for analysts to assess the quality of their final analytic efforts. While this volume is adapted to security studies and foreign policy analysis, the techniques included apply to any social science field analyzing …