Digital Commons Network^™

2024-2025 Common Data Set, Systems Intelligence And Data Analytics, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Common Data Sets

The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers as represented by the College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report. The combined goal of this collaboration is to improve the quality and accuracy of information provided to all involved in a student’s transition into higher education, as well as to reduce the reporting burden on data providers.

Topical Text Segmentation For Stream Of Consciousness Writing, Yuwei Lu, Ryan Benton

Shelby Hall Graduate Research Forum Posters

Stream of consciousness writing has a long history, including novelists James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. However, there has been little work done in automated and semi-automated analysis of such writing, which is the focus of this work. We plan to divide real streams of consciousness writing into distinct topical units and then capture different momentary meaningful topics from these units. By doing this, researchers and readers could gain a more nuanced understanding of the narrative structure and thematic elements. In addition, it would also support applications in fields like psychology and linguistics, where understanding thought processes and narrative structures is …

Light In The Darkest Places: Analyzing News Coverage Of A U.S. Immigrant Detention Center, Stephanie M. Madison, Mikel W. Cole, Susan Cridland-Hughes

Publications

Immigrants remain one of the most disempowered groups within the United States. Drawing on critical media literacy research that focuses on power dynamics and positioning, this article addresses ways the news media reports on immigrants and immigrant detention centers. We conducted a critical content analysis of 180 articles on one specific location, Stewart Detention Center (SDC), to demonstrate variability in newspaper reporting on several levels, including frequency, geographic location, and context. Our first research question explored changes in reporting over time, and our second research question considered differences in reporting by geographic level. Our third research question examined differences in …

Cultural Trailblazers, Ana I. Berdecia, Megan Ellen Olsen, Dayana Velasco Manzano, Darimar Weert, Ashley Reid

Center for the Positive Development of Urban Children

No abstract provided.

Peripheral Lives, Central Meanings: How The Global South Can Participate In Reimagining Psychology For The Future, Nandita Chaudhary, Mila Tuli, Punya Pillai

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Emerging from an invited lecture presentation at the APA conference in 2024, this article discusses how communities of the Global South can actively participate in the future of psychology theory, research, practice and publication. It is abundantly clear that psychology is a product of Euro-American academic practice, with the transportation of knowledge from this region to the rest of the world. Inevitably, there have been many concerns about this transfer of the model to regions that are vastly different in their ontological orientations. After a brief overview of the key issues in this global epistemic imbalance, we raise some critical …

Informal Removal Of Students With Disabilities In Tennessee, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Office of Research and Education Accountability

No abstract provided.

Villain Or Victor: Advocating For Middle Level Students In The Face Of Systemic Challenges, Dywanna Smith, Kenesha Johnson, Jada Williams, Myles-Anthony Johnson

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

Middle level students often face significant systemic challenges that can hinder their academic and personal development, positioning them in narratives where they are perceived as “villains” instead of “victors.” This paper explores the role of educators as advocates for these students, drawing parallels between the concept of superhero villains— figures who, like many students, are misunderstood or marginalized by society. Preservice educators will examine historical examples of heroes, who were initially viewed as villains for challenging the status quo but later celebrated for their transformative impact. Grounded in the principles of This We Believe (2020) by the Association for Middle …

Quantum Finite Automaton Using Ternary Rotation Quantum Gates And Chrestenson Family Quantum Gates, Yuchen Huang, Marek Perkowski, Xiaoyu Song, John M. Acken

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Quantum automata can solve certain problems with a smaller state space than classical automata. We developed a quantum finite automaton using ternary rotation quantum gates and the Chrestenson family of ternary quantum gates. The main idea of this paper is to show how to combine rotation ternary quantum circuit-based QuantumFinite Automaton and quantum reversible circuit-based Deterministic Finite Automaton to build a more powerful machine. The combined machine can enable more complex language and pattern recognition. The developed quantum finite automaton and resulting combined machine can be used for robotics applications such as language, gesture, and motion recognition.

Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education Accreditation: Advancing Quality, Accessibility, And Special Education Inclusion, Jacques D. Singleton

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming higher education accreditation by enhancing quality assurance, accessibility, and inclusion. Traditional accreditation relies on manual evaluation, but AI- driven tools improve efficiency through realtime data analysis, predictive insights, and automation. This chapter explores AI’s role in adaptive learning, automated accessibility tools, and predictive analytics for student success, with a focus on supporting students with disabilities and ensuring compliance with accessibility standards. Ethical concerns, including bias, privacy, and transparency, are addressed to ensure AI complements human judgment. Through case studies and policy recommendations, this chapter provides a roadmap for institutions and accrediting bodies to integrate AI …

Plural Water Narratives: An Environmental Justice Lens On A Systematic Review Of Q-Methodology Water Research, Melissa Haeffner, Alida Cantor, Janet Cowal, Andrea Bryant, Darius Mani Yaw, Kinna Je Palacios, Daniela Serna, Bryce Sprauer, Abigail Tran-Gruver

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Environmental justice research has shown that people's experiences and perceptions of water differ because systematic inequalities shape the extent to which people access clean water and are exposed to water hazards. Q‐methodology is one technique that has been used to aggregate multifaceted subjective narratives and understand different perspectives on a topic. In this paper, we systematically review 77 case study articles applying Q‐methodology to water‐related topics, to inventory how people perceive their relationships with water. We create a classification system based on environmental justice theory to examine (1) distributive justice issues around alternative water sources and agricultural and urban water …

Cognitive-Affective Intercultural Sensitivity (Cais): A Self-Transformative Conception And Its Methodological Challenges, Paraskevi Simou, Valentin El Sayed, Julien Teyssier, Patrick Denoux

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

In today's rapidly evolving global landscape, individuals are increasingly required to navigate diverse cultural interactions, prompting extensive research into intercultural competence. This paper examines the multifaceted concept of intercultural sensitivity, drawing from cross-cultural psychology, intercultural communication, and emerging intercultural psychology. Despite the lack of a universally accepted definition, previous studies have highlighted the importance of an affective component within intercultural competence which usually refers to intercultural sensitivity. While acknowledging the contributions and limitations of seminal models such as the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) and Chen's affective intercultural sensitivity model, we propose a novel conceptualization termed cognitive-affective intercultural sensitivity …

Emoji Marketing: Toward A Theory Of Brand Paralinguistics, Jacob Almaguer, Reto Felix, Colleen M. Harmeling

Marketing Faculty Publications

Emojis, or pictographs that supplement or replace written language, have become ubiquitous in contemporary communication, including emoji marketing. Drawing on insights from linguistics and sign theory, the current research proposes an emoji marketing framework in which emoji symbolism (symbolic vs. iconic emoji use) affects consumers’ message appraisals (perceived message intimacy and clarity), which in turn influence brand cultural relevance (propositions P1 and P2). Emoji syntax (i.e., whether emojis are supplemented with text or not) and marketer-consumer group relatedness (shared vs. unshared group membership) moderate the relationship between emoji symbolism and consumers’ message appraisals. The framework suggests that messages that use …

Reimagining Education: Keeping The Human In The Loop, Pradeep Varakantham, Sidney Tio

Asian Management Insights

How educators can work with generative artificial intelligence models to improve learning. Artificial intelligence (AI) helps break the mould of one-size-fits-all education by creating personalised learning paths that adapt to each student’s pace and style. By combining human expertise with AI capabilities, educators can create learning experiences that are both structured and flexible, thus getting the best of both worlds. While promising, AI used in educational contexts must carefully navigate privacy concerns, ensure fairness across all student groups, and support appropriate learning progression.

Graph Foundation Models: Concepts, Opportunities And Challenges, Jiawei Liu, Cheng Yang, Zhiyuan Lu, Junze Chen, Yibo Li, Mengmei Zhang, Ting Bai, Fang Yuan, Lichao Sun, Philip S. Yu, Chuan Shi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Foundation models have emerged as critical components in a variety of artificial intelligence applications, and showcase significant success in natural language processing and several other domains. Meanwhile, the field of graph machine learning is witnessing a paradigm transition from shallow methods to more sophisticated deep learning approaches. The capabilities of foundation models in generalization and adaptation motivate graph machine learning researchers to discuss the potential of developing a new graph learning paradigm. This paradigm envisions models that are pre-trained on extensive graph data and can be adapted for various graph tasks. Despite this burgeoning interest, there is a noticeable lack …

Adapting Knowledge Prompt Tuning For Enhanced Automated Program Repair, Xuemeng Cai, Lingxiao Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Automated Program Repair (APR) aims to enhance software reliability by automatically generating bug-fixing patches. Recent work has improved the state-of-the-art of APR by fine-tuning pre-trained large language models (LLMs), such as CodeT5, for APR. However, the effectiveness of fine-tuning be-comes weakened in data scarcity scenarios, and data scarcity can be a common issue in practice, limiting fine-tuning performance. To alleviate this limitation, this paper adapts prompt tuning for enhanced APR and conducts a comprehensive study to evaluate its effectiveness in data scarcity scenarios, using three LLMs of different sizes and six diverse datasets across four programming languages. Prompt tuning rewrites …

Revisiting Sentiment Analysis For Software Engineering In The Era Of Large Language Models, Ting Zhang, Ivana Clairine Irsan, Thung Ferdian, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Software development involves collaborative interactions where stakeholders express opinions across various platforms. Recognizing the sentiments conveyed in these interactions is crucial for the effective development and ongoing maintenance of software systems. For software products, analyzing the sentiment of user feedback, e.g., reviews, comments, and forum posts can provide valuable insights into user satisfaction and areas for improvement. This can guide the development of future updates and features. However, accurately identifying sentiments in software engineering datasets remains challenging.This study investigates bigger large language models (bLLMs) in addressing the labeled data shortage that hampers fine-tuned smaller large language models (sLLMs) in software …

Backdoor Token Unlearning: Exposing And Defending Backdoors In Pretrained Language Models, Peihai Jiang, Xixiang Lyu, Yige Li, Jing Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Supervised fine-tuning has become the predominant method for adapting large pretrained models to downstream tasks. However, recent studies have revealed that these models are vulnerable to backdoor attacks, where even a small number of malicious samples can successfully embed backdoor triggers into the model. While most existing defense methods focus on post-training backdoor defense, efficiently defending against backdoor attacks during training phase remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, we propose a novel defense method called Backdoor Token Unlearning (BTU), which proactively detects and neutralizes trigger tokens during the training stage. Our work is based on two key findings: 1) …

Intersecting Paths: Balthasar’S Theological Aesthetics And Filipino Ganda In The Poón And Traslación, Rheadh R. Dela Torre

Loyola Papers

This article examines the convergence between Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theological aesthetics and the Filipino concept of ganda, with a particular focus on two elements of the Black Nazarene devotion – the Poón and the Traslación – as illustrative examples of this convergence. Aware that the scope of his theological works remained primarily European, Balthasar expressed a desire for his theology to resonate with other cultures. In response, this article explores how his theology can be connected to the Filipino understanding of beauty through the concept of ganda.

Poder Familiar: A Culturally Tailored Health Intervention For Latino Families Of Children With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Amy Pei-Lung Yu, Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, Vanessa L. Errisuriz, Deborah Parra-Medina, Mansha Mirza, Minyu Zhang, Pei-Chiang Lee, Weiwen Zeng, Jasmine P. Brown-Hollie, Nazanin M. Heydarian

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: This two-site pilot study examined the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary outcomes of PODER Familiar, a culturally tailored intervention to promote the health and well-being of Latina family caregivers and their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Method: Using the Promotora de Salud model and mixed-methods design, we co-developed PODER Familiar with Latina caregivers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and community stakeholders. Thirty Latina caregivers and their children with disabilities were recruited to participate in the intervention, which included 10 individual sessions and 3 group sessions.

Results: Twenty-six Latina caregivers completed all 10 individual sessions, with high intervention …

Are Emojis The New Words? A Sentiment Analysis Of Social Media Brand Conversations, Yashodhan Karulkar, Dev T. Vora, Siddharth Vaddepalli, Yash Thakur

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Emojis have become an increasingly important aspect of consumer-brand interactions in the Indian subcontinent. However, the impact of emoji use on brand image and mental health remains underexplored, particularly in emerging economies like India, where structured research on this topic is limited. To address this gap, the present study analyzes over 4,600 consumer tweets related to 19 prominent brands across eleven industries. Using VADER sentiment analysis, the research develops a metric to assess consumer sentiment and brand engagement in relation to emoji usage. The findings indicate that effective integration of emojis contributes to positive consumer sentiment and enhanced brand engagement. …

Validity And Reliability Of The Arabic Version Of Topical Corticosteroid Phobia (Topicop©) Questionnaire, Hashem M. Al-Dujaily, Huda A. Hussein, Bahaa Abdelrahim, Mohammad Shawer, Ahmad Mehyar, Baha’ Aljeradat, Dima Batarseh, Sarah Khraim, Amjad Abdeen, Noor Almaani

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To translate the topical corticosteroid phobia (TOPICOP) scale into Arabic and assess its validity, reliability, and feasibility. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Jordan University Hospital, Amman, Jordan, in 2 phases. Phase one involved translation of the TOPICOP scale into Arabic using a 2-step process, followed by pilot testing and content validation by 6 bilingual dermatologists. Phase 2 involved subsequent validation and feasibility testing on a larger sample of 145 participants. To assess reliability, the scale was administered twice for test-retest analysis. Results: Calculated content validity indices revealed satisfactory values, establishing content validation of the Arabic version. …

The Impact Of Marriage Status On Career Aspiration And Performance, Qiang Yi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study explores the impact of marital status on employee workplace behavior and job performance. Specifically, it finds that compared to unmarried employees, married employees demonstrate higher career aspirations and job performance. Further analysis reveals that this effect is primarily driven by the enhancement of family and career commitments brought about by marriage. These increased commitments significantly contribute to the improvement of employees' career aspirations and job performance. Moreover, this study examines the gender differences in the influence of marital status on family and career commitments.

The results show that marriage has a stronger effect on promoting family commitments among …

The Cross-Sectional Association Between Lifestyle Behaviors And Breast And Cervical Cancer Screening Among Hispanic Women Along The Texas-Mexico Border, Paul Gerardo Yeh, Audrey C Choh, Susan P Fisher-Hoch, Joseph B Mccormick, David R Lairson, Belinda M Reininger

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: Lifestyle behaviors may influence timely cancer screening, but their relationship is unknown among Hispanic women who have low cancer screening rates.

Methods: We used Cameron County Hispanic Cohort data from 2014 to 2022 to evaluate the relationship between lifestyle and compliance with mammography and Papanicolaou (Pap) screening guidelines ("up-to-date") among Hispanic women along the Texas-Mexico border. The 2018 World Cancer Research Fund scoring system characterized cancer-preventive lifestyle adherence. Multivariable logistic regression assessed the association between lifestyle behaviors and mammography and, separately, Pap screening.

Results: Among 385 age-eligible women for mammography and 412 age-eligible women for Pap test screening, up-to-date …

Examining Children's Verb Learning In The United States And Japan: Do Comparisons Help?, Jane B. Childers, Mutsumi Imai, Masato Ohba, Faith Perry, Leah Marsh

Psychology Faculty Research

Learning verbs is an important part of learning one's native language. Prior studies have shown that children younger than 5 years can have difficulty in learning and extending new verbs. The current study extended these studies by showing children multiple events that can be compared during learning, including Japanese- and English-speaking children. In the study, 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds saw two similar events and then one varied (progressive alignment) or three varied (low alignable) events in a learning phase before test, and this was repeated for four sets. Children were asked to extend these novel verbs in easy (non-cross-mapping) and …

Integrated Mental Health Care In Specialty Clinics For Children With A Diagnosis Of Asthma Or Diabetes: A Mixed Methods Study, Joan P. Totka, Maria Peña, Joshua A. Steinberg, Peter M. Wolfgram

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction

Using patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) in a shared-space mental health-integrated specialty clinic, we explored the feasibility, acceptance, and experience of youth with asthma and diabetes, their families, and the healthcare team.

Method

Using mixed methods, we examined feasibility, acceptability, and experience of PROM inclusion in caring for youth with asthma (n = 7) and diabetes (n = 11), their families (n = 18), and healthcare providers (n= 13). Completion and receipt of PROM (feasibility), postvisit surveys (acceptance), and structured interviews (experience) between June 2019 and February 2020.

Results

Targeted PROM met feasibility goals (80%) …

Understanding Avionics Maintenance Training Student Outcomes In A Student-Centered Active Learning Environment, Scott M. Wyman

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of active learning compared to didactic methodologies on two soft skills, namely teamwork and self-efficacy using regression analyses and connected letter reports. Learning styles and personality traits were used as predictors. Findings indicate significant interaction effects between methodology, aural learning style, and personality traits on self-efficacy and teamwork ability. The findings highlight the nuanced role of learner traits in shaping teamwork outcomes across instructional methods. While active learning supports soft skills, individual differences must be considered in instructional design to optimize teamwork in technical education settings.

Improving Zero Shot Learning By Linking Multi-Label Cnns With Llms, Michael A. Wegner

Theses and Dissertations

Classifying previously unseen objects poses a significant challenge for traditional computer vision algorithms, which rely on extensive labeled training data. Zero-shot reasoning offers a way to overcome this limitation. This research explores a novel method for image recognition using the Animals with Attributes 2 (AWA2) dataset as a proof of concept. A multi-label ResNet50 model predicts core attributes like color, ear shape, or number of limbs. Those attributes then feed into ChatGPT which leverages its extensive knowledge base to classify the animal based on the provided attributes. This novel approach skips the need to train on every possible class. Instead, …

Cognitive Warfare In The South China Sea: Analyzing Media Influence And Public Opinion In Taiwan, Wyatt F. Blatti

Theses and Dissertations

In a time where conflict extends beyond traditional battlefields, cognitive warfare emerges as a powerful tool to influence perceptions and gain strategic advantages. This study investigates China’s cognitive warfare strategies against Taiwan through trend analysis, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis of news media articles from March 2013 to August 2024 to uncover evolving techniques and mitigation efforts. The findings highlight the potential for tracking cognitive campaigns overtime but will require more than news media alone and suggests future research to better understand indicators of cognitive warfare.

Performing Requirements Specification And Analysis Through Open Generative Pre-Trained Transformers, Harvey J. Hurst

Theses and Dissertations

Every acquisition program begins with a requirement, and for those programs to succeed, robust requirements engineering (RE) must be implemented. RE encompasses eliciting, analyzing, specifying, and validating requirements—a critical process throughout a program's lifecycle. Despite its importance, RE faces challenges such as scope creep, ambiguity, redundancy, and inadequate automation support, often exacerbated by reliance on historical data. To address these issues, this thesis leverages advancements in Generative Technology, particularly large language models (LLMs) such as Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPTs). This research developed two GPT-based tools: the Single Requirement Analysis Tool and the Set of Requirements Analysis Tool. These tools were …

Generative Ai And Llms For Critical Infrastructure Protection: Evaluation Benchmarks, Agentic Ai, Challenges, And Opportunities, Yagmur Yigit, Mohamed Amine Ferrag, Mohamed C. Ghanem, Iqbal H. Sarker, Leandros A. Maglaras, Christos Chrysoulas, Naghmeh Moradpoor, Norbert Tihanyi, Helge Janicke

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Critical National Infrastructures (CNIs)—including energy grids, water systems, transportation networks, and communication frameworks—are essential to modern society yet face escalating cybersecurity threats. This review paper comprehensively analyzes AI-driven approaches for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). We begin by examining the reliability of CNIs and introduce established benchmarks for evaluating Large Language Models (LLMs) within cybersecurity contexts. Next, we explore core cybersecurity issues, focusing on trust, privacy, resilience, and securability in these vital systems. Building on this foundation, we assess the role of Generative AI and LLMs in enhancing CIP and present insights on applying Agentic AI for proactive defense mechanisms. Finally, …