Digital Commons Network^™

Disaggregating Longer-Term Trends From Seasonal Variations In Measured Pv System Performance, Chibuisi Chinasaokwu Okorieimoh, Brian Norton, Michael Conlon

Articles

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are widely adopted for renewable energy generation, but their performance is influenced by complex interactions between longer-term trends and seasonal variations. This study aims to remove these factors and provide valuable insights for optimising PV system operation. We employ comprehensive datasets of measured PV system performance over five years, focusing on identifying the distinct contributions of longer-term trends and seasonal effects. To achieve this, we develop a novel analytical framework that combines time series and statistical analytical techniques. By applying this framework to the extensive performance data, we successfully break down the overall PV system output into …

Dynamic Thermal Effect In A Hollow Core Microbottle Resonator, Zhe Wang, Zhuochen Wang, Anuradha Rout, Rayhan Habib Jibon, Anand V. R, Fangfang Wei, Qiang Wu, Yuliya Semenova, Northumbria University

Articles

Dynamic thermal wavelength shift in hollow core microbottle resonators has been experimentally demonstrated using the frequency-detuning method. A linewidth broadening phenomenon is observed when the tunable laser is swept from a shorter wavelength to a longer wavelength. The thermal effect in the microbottles with various diameters as a function of the power and sweep frequency of the tunable laser has been studied and analyzed. In addition, the effect of thermal broadening on multiple WGM resonances within the spectrum has been observed, demonstrating that broadening of the linewidth of the first WGM resonance suppresses the subsequent WGM resonances during the up-scanning …

Addressing The Complexity Of Spatial Teaching: A Narrative Review Of Barriers And Enablers, Ergi Bufasi, Ting Jun Lin, Ursa Benedicic, Marten Westerhof, Rohit Mishra, Dace Namsone, Inese Dudareva, Sheryl Sorby, Lena Gumaelius, Remke M. Klapwijk, Jeroen Spandaw, Brian Bowe, Colm O'Kane, Gavin Duffy, Marianna Pagkratidou, Jeffrey Buckley

Articles

Extensive research has established that spatial ability is a crucial factor for achieving success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). However, challenges that educators encounter while teaching spatial skills remain uncertain. The purpose of this study is to develop a research framework that examines the interrelationships, barriers, and enablers amongst various educational components, including schools, teachers, students, classrooms, and training programs, that are encountered when teaching for spatial ability development. A thorough examination of international research, in combination with a detailed review of the primary Science and Mathematics curricula in Ireland, Latvia, Sweden, and the Netherlands, is undertaken to …

Common Data Set, 2023-2024, Planning, Research, And Policy Analysis

Common Data Set (2001-present)

Common Data Set 2023-2024 for Illinois State University

Pacing Beside The Pool: Coaching Champion Writers To A Strong Finish In Clinic (Without Jumping In And Finishing For Them), Hillary A. Wandler

Faculty Law Review Articles

No abstract provided.

Suicidality Among Black Women: Considering Resiliency Within The Historic And Societal Context Of Risk, Samantha J. North

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Suicide is a global health challenge that has been historically understudied among Black women. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidality (IPTS) is a primary theory examined in suicidality; however, the three factors within the theory (lack of belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and capability to die) focus on the individual. The purpose of the current study was to examine these factors in an expanded context of the historical and societal impact of oppression. A mixed methods Qualtrics study was administered to Black women who voluntarily completed the survey anonymously. Quantitatively, the study found significant differences between the impact of the IPTS factors on …

Exploring Integrated Active Learning Practices In An Accelerated Fully Online Graduate-Level Course At A Hispanic Serving Institution, P. Ming-Tsan Lu, Seokmin Kang

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study aimed to explore integrated active learning (IAL) practices in a graduate-level fully online, accelerated course at an HSI, with a focus on students’ perceptions, and to evaluate the implementation of integrated active learning based on student feedback and reflections. Course instructors started implementing IAL practices for the same course in 2022. Data from before and after IAL implementation in terms of course syllabi and course designs on Blackboard, the LMS used in the HSI, were collected. To investigate students’ perceptions, survey methods were also conducted. Findings revealed that graduate students overwhelmingly preferred IAL over traditional …

A Phenomenological Study On University Students’ Perceptions And Attitudes Of The Effectiveness Of Mobile Apps On Communicative Competence, Leveth Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study is focused on understanding how university students who are learning English as a foreign language (EFL) perceive and experience using mobile application on their speaking abilities. The primary goal was to examine the perception and attitudes of EFL learners towards using mobile apps for independent English-speaking practice and creating a customized learning experience outside of the classroom.

The researcher also investigated the participants’ views on the challenges and advantages of incorporating mobile apps into university speaking courses. The findings of this investigation may inform language educators at universities on the potential benefits of using mobile apps in …

African American Parents And School-Based Parental Involvement At The Secondary Level, Mark A. Dykes

Theses and Dissertations

Parental involvement is a multifaceted construct that includes school-based, home-based, and academic socialization. School-based parental involvement in education has been positively associated with academic achievement for all students. However, educational leaders are challenged to get parents involved in school-based activities, such as the School Site Council, Parent Council, and Open Houses.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to examine the reasons why African American parents are not fully involved in the policymaking and organizational activities at the target secondary school. This study is guided by the combined conceptual frameworks of Critical Race Theory, the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler framework, …

Instructional Leadership And Self-Efficacy: A Case Study About Elementary School Principals, Barbara J. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this applied dissertation was to develop a better understanding of how elementary principals in a large school district in the southeastern United States perceive their self- efficacy as instructional leaders and administrators. The pressures of high accountability play an impactful role in how principals view their roles and their ability to perform effectively.

This qualitative case study utilized interviews and Photovoice for data collection. Participants were six elementary school principals from the same southeastern school district. Participants were interviewed independently. A second, photo-elicited interview was conducted with each participant to discuss the significance of their photographs. A …

A Post-Pandemic Measurement Of The Required Soft Employability Skills For Business School Graduates, Sean O. Stallings

Theses and Dissertations

This non-experimental descriptive quantitative applied dissertation was designed to identify and analyze the soft employability skills desired by mid-Atlantic employers of business school graduates in a post-pandemic environment. The study evaluated alignment of the competencies possessed by business school graduates and the desired skills of employers. The study explored opportunities to guide change in the development of learning outcomes for business school undergraduates that were influenced by the effects of COVID-19 to ensure adequate postgraduation placement and overall effectiveness of business school graduates.

Workplace readiness or employability also included identifying new hires who had the full package that included hard …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Visualization Of High Dimensional Data In Low Dimensional Space Via Clustered Manifold Mapping, David Perrone

Open Access Master's Theses

Visualizing high dimensional data can be a challenging task due to the difficulty people face in comprehending information beyond three dimensions. Further research and development of tools in this area could prove valuable for creating efficient, intuitive, and accurate visualizations. It could also provide insight into the manifold hypothesis, which suggests that high dimensional data can exist in low dimensional space.

This thesis proposes the utilization of clustered manifold mapping as a novel visualization technique that summarizes a dataset into a hierarchal tree of clusters by partitioning the data based on a user-specified distance metric. A subset of clusters can …

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 …

Comparative Analysis Of Smartwatch Data In Children With Adhd And Non-Adhd, Friederike Hicking

Open Access Master's Theses

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, which often lead to significant challenges in academic and social settings. Diagnostic methods for ADHD rely on subjective assessments which are prone to bias. Researchers have explored technology-based objective assessment methods to help diagnose ADHD. In particular, this thesis investigates behavioral differences between children with ADHD and neurotypical children (6-11 years old) using smartwatch data collected from both hands during various classroom-like activities including drawing, math and English worksheets, and magnetic tiles puzzles. The primary objective is to identify distinct behavioral patterns to enhance …

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 …

Uqsees-1, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model UQSEES-1 - granite - igneous rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/uqsees-1-cb8d8e00ce0340f4b6ffd3b95e0d890d

129, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 129 - granite - igneous rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/129-01de2e735f8e482c99f1a95417b7ad33

152, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 152 - pumice - igneous rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/152-47906f0c520349d99e885d362eba0947

142, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 142 - obsidian - igneous rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/142-9541b71ef7b34399a3f822938f599c73

200, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 200 - amphibolite - metamorphic rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/200-de19175088954efc83da6de6d085ec9a

185, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 185 - oolite - sedimentary rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/185-86c0cdff6970452691d5c8c05d87ea9d

242, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 242 - schist - metamorphic rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/242-e203c2aa90414627a6107474cbda4385

151, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 151 - pegmatite - igneous rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/151-fd641f4eb24e47cb900a1b783b9967cb

186, Scott Brande

All 3D Rock Models

Model 186 - oolite - sedimentary rock

SketchFab link: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/186-4ccc3d44148f45d682d63e00cd9ca1d7