Digital Commons Network^™

Nola 2150, Kristopher Ferber

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Abstract

Speculative fiction often takes a dystopic approach where authors envision what will be lost from books being banned in Fahrenheit 451 to us losing our civil liberties in 1984 to most of humanity being wiped out by an engineered virus in Oryx and Crake. This creative thesis takes a more optimistic approach by the act of preservation. In this case the city of New Orleans thriving as an underwater city protected by a glass dome in the year 2150. The city’s vibrant culture remains the same despite being almost too close to comfort to marine life. This work …

Officers’ Perceptions Of Body-Worn Cameras: An Exploratory Study Of Small Police Departments In Upstate New York, Stefan A. Dela Riva

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The aim of this exploratory study is to examine how police officers perceive the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on their use of discretion when communicating with members of the public. In this context, “discretion” refers to an officer’s authority to make independent judgments while enforcing the law; deciding whether to issue a warning, make an arrest, or resolve an incident informally when legality permits. To understand officers’ opinions, a cross-sectional, quantitative online survey was distributed to various police departments and sheriff’s offices in upstate New York. Participants completed a series of Likert-style survey items addressing their general views on …

Improving Generalizability In Image Manipulation Detection, Zhenfei Zhang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Image manipulation detection (IMD) aims to determine whether an image has been tampered with and to identify the manipulated regions. These capabilities have become increasingly important with the rapid advancement of media editing and generation technologies, such as Photoshop and generative AI methods, which underscore the need for robust tools for media authentication. Although current state-of-the-art (SoTA) methods achieve strong results on common manipulation types, such as splicing, copy-move, and removal, they often struggle to generalize to manipulation types not represented in the training data. Consequently, their real-world applicability remains limited, with performance degrading significantly in practical scenarios.

In this …

Gendered Images In Online Political Advertising Videostyles: A Case Study Of 2024 Taiwan Presidential And Parliamentary Elections, Chia-Heng Chang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Despite the increasing visibility of female politicians in Taiwan, the resurgence of the #MeToo movement ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections underscores the enduring influence of patriarchal norms and gender stereotypes within Taiwanese society. Prior research in political communication has documented how gendered expectations shape voters’ perceptions of politicians’ appearances, behaviors, and perceived competence in addressing political issues. These expectations, in turn, inform how candidates strategically construct their public personas during electoral campaigns. This dissertation contributes to this body of scholarship by analyzing how Taiwanese political candidates perform gender through political advertising. Integrating the videostyle framework, gender schema …

Buoy-Based Eddy Covariance Drag Coefficient At A Near-Shore And Offshore Site, David P. Marcial

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

An eddy covariance (EC) flux system was integrated onto a Navy Oceanographic Meteorological Automatic Device (NOMAD) floating lidar buoy fitted for measuring the offshore wind resource. The EC flux system consisted of two sonic anemometers and an inertial measurement unit that together provided high-frequency (10 Hz) motion-corrected wind measurements. To assess possible impacts of flow distortion, EC momentum fluxes (10 min) were calculated in gravity-aligned, natural, and planar fit (PF) coordinate frames. The buoy was anchored near the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory Air-Sea Interaction Tower (ASIT; near-shore) for validation of the buoy-based EC fluxes against the fixed tower measurements before …

A Comparison Of College Readiness Among Adult And Traditional-Age College Students, Oxana Rosca

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines age-based differences in college readiness by comparing newly enrolled adult undergraduates (age 24 and older) with traditional-age undergraduates at two public institutions: a large online university serving primarily working adults and a residential research university serving primarily younger students. The study uses secondary data from 5,447 incoming students who completed the Diagnostic Assessment and Achievement of College Skills (DAACS) Reading and Mathematics assessments between May 2022 and May 2023. The primary goal was to test whether adult and traditional-age students differ in reading and mathematics readiness after adjusting for background characteristics.

Multistage bifactor and unidimensional two-parameter logistic …

Effects Of Formative Assessment On Students’ Regulation Of Learning: A Meta-Analysis, Ching-Yen Yu

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Does formative assessment (FA) promote self-regulated learning (SRL)? Theoretically, FA has long been believed to facilitate SRL due to their overlapping conceptual frameworks, yet empirical evidence has remained scattered and inconclusive. This study presents the first comprehensive, large-scale meta-analysis to examine whether, to what extent, for whom, and under what conditions FA enhances SRL.

Following a preregistered, PRISMA-guided protocol, we systematically searched the literature from 1998 to 2024 and synthesized 999 effect sizes from 138 studies (n = 23,293 students) using multilevel meta-analytic models that accounted for dependent effects. Across educational levels and contexts, FA, on average, demonstrated a …

Teacher Retention Bright Spots: A Four Case Analysis, John Costello

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The teacher retention crisis has been extensively studied over the 21st century. Robust survey data from the National Center of Educational Statistics (NCES) has produced volumes on the quantitative characteristics of the teachers, students, and schools associated with low teacher retention (Ingersoll, 2001; Boyd et al., 2011; Ronfeldt, Loeb & Wyckoff, 2013). However, few studies have examined what is going right at high poverty schools which nonetheless maintain exceptionally high teacher retention. This dissertation utilizes a positive deviance lens to examine four schools; two typical schools that had normal teacher retention rates for New York State, and two outlier schools …

Perspectives Of Corporate Instructional Design Experts On Effectiveness, Personal Traits And Attributes, And Technology, Thomas A. Gant

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological descriptive study explored corporate instructional design experts' perspectives on effectiveness, personal traits and attributes, and technology that enhance their expertise. Three central themes emerged: "Mastering Instructional Design: The Journey of Continuous Learning and Skill Development," highlighting the importance of mentorship, lifelong learning, and professional development; "Accessing Instructional Design Expertise Through Individual Strengths," emphasizing adaptability, problem-solving, and empathy; and "Navigating Technological Integration and Innovation in Instructional Design," showcasing the transformative role of tools such as virtual reality, learning management systems, and authoring software. Semi-structured interviews conducted via Zoom with 10 corporate instructional designers with at least 10 years …

Perceptions Of Victims On The Influence Of Domestic Violence Programs On The Decision To Leave, Tiffany Kleiman-Bourdeau

Theses and Dissertations

Dating back to earlier times, domestic violence was referred to as marital disputes and was not even considered a crime by law enforcement. However, that has since changed and now individuals are convicted for such crimes against another person. There are several treatment plans and options for these abusive individuals to take to receive the help they need to refrain from being abusive towards others, but what of the victims? What programs and/or services are available to them? Do these services even help the victims? This Idea Paper will examine the effectiveness of the programs and services available to domestic …

A Study Of The Effect Of Incentives On Police Recruitment And Retention, Taylor R. Wiggins

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines factors contributing to the staffing crisis in police departments, focusing on officers' perceptions of their organizations. It explores their attitudes toward their departments, motivations for joining law enforcement, and reasons for remaining in their positions. Additionally, the research assesses the impact of various incentives on officer retention.

A total of 140 participants were surveyed, with 113 completing the survey in its entirety, ensuring reliable data analysis. Demographic findings revealed a predominantly male sample (85.8%), with most officers aged between 25 and 44. Analysis of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) indicated that intrinsic satisfaction (M = 3.85; range …

Regenerating Justice: Chatgpt And The Legal Minefield Of Generative Ai, Katie Szilagyi

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper adopts an automation bias lens to cast doubt on the growing claims that GenAI is a transformational tool for legal industry. In this context, automation bias refers to the well-known psychological phenomenon in which human decision-makers unwittingly defer to automated processes, flowing from overreliance on the accuracy of the automation. Even well-meaning individuals aiming to keep a “human-in-the-loop” of any automated decision can fall prey to this well-documented phenomenon, trusting the technology more than it deserves to be trusted. Champions for current GenAI technologies often do acknowledge limitations within the existing landscape of tools, like GenAI’s tendency to …

High Neuraxial Blockade In A Parturient After Epidural Placement: A Quality Improvement Simulation., Samir Patel, Noah D Le, John Carter, Nick Melott, Andrew Kalnow, Camille D Hawkins, Alexander Luong, Matthias Franzen

Medical Education Articles

Background Epidural anesthesia is a commonly used procedure in obstetrics for managing labor pain, with a potential complication of high neuraxial blockade. Proficiency in performing epidural or spinal anesthesia and promptly recognizing and managing high neuraxial blockade are critical components of anesthesiology residency training. Methods A simulated case was designed involving a 21-year-old female in labor receiving epidural anesthesia. After the administration of local anesthetic, she develops symptoms of nausea, hypotension, and respiratory distress, progressing to high neuraxial blockade. The simulation environment included a labor and delivery suite setup, an epidural cart, airway supplies, a Laerdal SimMan 3G PLUS mannequin …

Masthead & Table Of Contents

Dalhousie Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Antibody-Induced Multicellular Behaviors Of Salmonella Typhimurium, Samantha K. Lindberg

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Salmonella enterica is a globally distributed bacterial pathogen that is commonly acquired through consumption of contaminated food and water. The enterica subspecies includes over 1500 unique subvariants, or serovars, that are classified by antigen presentation. Due to its global environmental prevalence, broad host range, and increasing pathogenicity, serovar Typhimurium is of particular concern for human and animal health, as well as food safety. Once in the gastrointestinal tract, Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) exploits host immune mechanisms, implements an arsenal of virulence factors, and outcompetes the microbiota to invade the intestinal epithelium. While STm infections are generally self-limiting and relatively mild, emerging …

Symbols Of Sovereignty And How They Speak To Us: Reading Contemporary Wampum Artwork In New York State Museums, Marie Peterson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Contemporary Haudenosaunee artworks in exhibit spaces across New York State are bringing cultural information and counter-historical narratives to the public that they might not encounter otherwise. Artwork that includes wampum depictions or materials has heuristic qualities that can engage viewers with Haudenosaunee ways of knowing and relating. Wampum heuristics and Haudenosaunee scholarship are employed to interrogate how wampum materials were collected, categorized, and researched by the New York State Museum during the salvage anthropology era. The narratives embedded in wampum artworks are traced from this salvage era history, throughout the century between the salvage era that began at the end …

A Study Of Regulatory Compliance In U.S. Nursing Homes, Patrick Schumacher

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The federal government is responsible for ensuring that nursing homes comply with regulations designed to protect residents from abuse, neglect, and substandard care. To this end, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) partners with states to conduct onsite inspections of nursing homes, during which regulators may identify violations. The agency can take one or more actions in response to violations, including imposing civil money penalties (fines), appointing a state monitor, or mandating remedial education for staff. Despite this regulatory framework, the quality of care in nursing homes remains poor, with many facilities failing to protect the well-being of …

Towards Human Explainable Digital Forensics: Generating Human Interpretable Evidence For Semantic Understanding In Manipulated Images And Text, Yuwei Chen

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Detecting and characterizing manipulations in digital media continues to pose a significant challenge within the field of digital forensics. Despite notable advancements, the discipline often remains in a reactive stance against emerging threats. Current state-of-the-art methods, typically evaluated within academic settings, fails to mirror the complexities of real-world disinformation scenarios. These methods generally prioritize high performance based on quantitative metrics, yet they demonstrate a considerable dependency on training data and lack adaptability to new novel attack signatures. With the rapid evolution of attack methodologies, the dependency on highly accurate models that do not generalize or adapt well to unseen threats …

A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Examining The Impact Of The First Step To Success/First Step Next Intervention: A Pbis Tier 2 Intervention For Pre-K - 3rd Grade Students, Shawna L. Belanger

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders often experience significant challenges that adversely affect their academic performance and overall well-being. Although the First Step to Success/First Step Next (FSS/FSN) intervention has been widely implemented as a PBIS Tier 2 intervention to support Pre-K to 3rd-grade students with challenging behaviors, research findings have been inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes the literature on the intervention’s effectiveness across studies, focusing on both social-emotional behavioral outcomes and academic performance.

Using a comprehensive search strategy, studies meeting rigorous inclusion criteria were identified, and effect sizes (Hedges’s g) were calculated to …

Intention-Setting Among Recreational Psychedelic Users: Associated Acute Effects And Changes In Well-Being, Zi Ling Fiona Low

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Psychedelic intentions play an important role in shaping acute psychedelic experiences and influencing long-term outcomes. Limited existing literature suggests that different types of intentions are linked to acute experiences and outcomes in varying ways. However, data on the types of intentions set by recreational users remain scarce, and their effects lack clarity. This study investigates intention-setting practices among recreational psychedelic users, aiming to establish a taxonomy of intentions in naturalistic use contexts and clarify user perspectives on the impact of intention-setting. We also examine how domain-specific intentions correlate with acute psychedelic effects and changes in well-being. Finally, we test a …

The Response Of Tropopause Phenomena To Stratospheric Variability: Rossby Wave Breaking And Tropopause Polar Vortices, Cameron R. Paquette

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Variability in the high-latitude wintertime stratospheric flow, often referred to as the stratospheric polar vortex, can precede anomalous conditions in tropospheric flow on subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescales and impact surface weather. The range of stratospheric impacts on tropospheric conditions range from shifts in the North Atlantic storm tracks, formation of cold spells, and development of extreme precipitation. Impacts of stratospheric variability are known to persist for up to 60 days, providing ample windows of opportunity in forecasting on S2S timescales. This dissertation focuses on the stratospheric impacts on tropopause-level processes, such as Rossby wave breaking (RWB) events and tropopause polar vortices …

Families’ Experiences Participating In A Collaborative, Multimodal Writing Workshop: Agency, Home Literacies, And Home/School Connections, Erin M. Faeth

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Students benefit academically and socially from strong home and school partnerships (Padak & Rasinski, 2010; Patrikakou et al., 2003; Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2009), yet there is often a gap between these contexts (Nelson, 2019; Padak & Rasinski, 2010; Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2009). To bridge the divide between these spaces, I drew on a sociocultural view of writing, the paradigm of family literacy, and third spaces of literacy to investigate four families’ experiences participating in a collaborative, multimodal writing workshop. Through practitioner research and case study methods, I explored the following research questions: (1) How do families talk about writing while …

First-Gen Latinx/Afro-Latinx And Complex: Keeping Resilient Responses On Shuffle, Tibisay I. Hernandez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This qualitative study examined the racialized experiences of first-generation Latinx and Afro-Latinx students in higher education. Fourteen participants engaged in pláticas, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups to reflect on how their identities, race, and institutional dynamics shaped their collegiate journeys. The study examined how these students navigated both personal and institutional settings, revealing the emergence of tensions around belonging, authenticity, and cultural responsibility in everyday interactions. Using Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) alongside Multidimensional Identity Negotiation Theory (MINT) and Co-Cultural Communication Theory (CCCT), this study developed an emergent framework—the Resilient Response Model—to better understand how students respond to complex identity …

Understanding How County Governments Strategically Plan And Strategize Technology: A Multiple Case Study In New York State, Battulga Buyannemekh

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Embedded in the communities they serve, local governments increasingly leverage technology to modernize processes and operations to digitally transform public services and interactions with stakeholders to create and add value. Concomitantly, they must ensure that the use of technology does not threaten the rights and safety of individuals and organizations. Digital transformation requires alignment of technology with institutional, organizational, and environmental factors in addition to persistent innovations in technology, policy, and management. This balancing act hinges on governments’ capacity for strategic technology decision-making. As technology’s value propositions expand and local governments become more reliant on it, there is a growing …

The Job Satisfaction Of New York State’S Public School Business And Marketing Education Teachers, Michael Lamastra

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century (Perkins) Act defines career and technical education as organized educational activities in which students learn applied academics, professional skills, and career training in a specific technical field. Many United States students, and ,specifically, New York State students, do not have access to CTE coursework. New York has seven CTE content areas: agriculture, business and marketing, computer science, family and consumer science, health sciences, technology, and trade/technical education.

One barrier to accessing this coursework is the availability of teaching staff. According to data collected by the New York State Education Department …

Socio-Economic And Infrastructural Determinants Of Response Time Disparities Across Emergency Service Agencies, Alice N. Ottah

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This study comprehensively analyzes the determinants of disparities in emergency response times for EMS, Fire, and Police agencies in San Francisco from 2021 to 2023, utilizing a multilevel modeling framework and publicly accessible data. Contrary to a primary reliance on structural neighborhood factors, this research reveals that while neighborhood disadvantage statistically significantly interacts with agency type to influence response times, its direct effect is weak and not uniformly consistent across services. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates that variance in call response times across neighborhoods is minimal (Intraclass Correlation Coefficients < 0.02), the effects of disadvantage are agency-specific (null effects for Police and Fire), and even when significant (for EMS calls only), response times are faster in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. These findings challenge the existing literature on emergency response times and highlight the need for tailored policy interventions that consider both neighborhood context and agency-specific operations to promote equitable emergency response.

Tapping A Hidden Resource In Classrooms: Peer Interactions And Their Role In Language, Literacy, And Disciplinary Literacy Practices Among Adolescent English And Non-English Learners, Jina Byeon

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This qualitative case study examines how peer interactions among six seventh-grade English Learners (ELs) and non-ELs serve as both a context for and a method of developing adolescents' literacy and disciplinary literacy practices. Data sources include two semi-structured interviews with each student and their four classroom teachers, student and teacher ethnographic interviews, 300 hours of classroom observations (in English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Science, English as a New Language Tutorial), and student-generated artifacts (e.g., worksheets).

Through the application of iterative and thematic data analysis, three key themes were identified: 1) adolescents' interactions with their peers fostered a supportive …

Investigation Of Electromigration Stresses Of Advanced Node Conductors Through Pulsed Power Behavior, Mohd Mueen Ul Islam Mattoo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The microelectronics industry continues to put a heavy focus on preventing electromigration (EM) failures at advanced node conductors. The continuous scaling coupled with higher operating current densities further accentuate the problem. Most of the electromigration testing in the industry is performed with DC currents to evaluate the electromigration reliability of metal interconnects. However, most of the real-world applications operate using a pulsed current rather than a constant direct current. EM testing with pulsed direct current (PDC) show interesting results with how the current induced stress gradient evolves in absence of the electromigration driving force. It is generally assumed that the …

A Dynamically Adapting Forecast Cone Based On Ensemble Spread, Michael N. Barletta

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Dynamically based ensemble prediction systems have gained considerable attention because they can provide a greater range of possible forecast outcomes and quantify the uncertainty in forecasts. In turn, forecasters can convey clearer messages to the public on the range of forecast scenarios and display inherent uncertainty in weather forecasts, which can be difficult to do with deterministic forecasts. Although global ensemble prediction systems have demonstrated skill in their probabilistic track predictions, the information contained within them is not always fully utilized beyond the mean forecast and standard deviation (i.e., spread). One way that these ensembles could be better employed is …

Further Results On Learning Quantum Measurement Classes: Quantum Pac Model For Povm Hypothesis Classes, Arka Prabha Das

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This thesis investigates the problem of learning from quantum systems, where each example consists of a quantum state paired with a classical outcome. The task centers on choosing an effective measurement rule from a fixed set to enable accurate prediction of the classical outcome from the quantum state. A central focus lies in understanding whether joint measurement strategies that cannot be separated into local operations offer a real benefit in terms of the number of examples needed for successful learning. We examine conditions under which a non-separable measurement within a given hypothesis class achieves strictly better sample complexity bounds compared …