Digital Commons Network^™

Language And The Navigation Of Individual Understandings Of Multiracial Belonging In Hong Kong, Ailbhe Ong

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how self-identified multiracial individuals in Hong Kong navigate identity, belonging, and community within the city’s unique historical, political, and cultural landscape. Through interviews with young adults who grew up in Hong Kong, the project examines how language, family dynamics, schooling, and social spaces shape the formation and performance of multiracial identities. It argues that although Hong Kong’s environment offers a degree of fluidity, societal expectations, language hierarchies, and shifting political dynamics often challenge this flexibility. Moreover, Cantonese emerged as a key site where cultural competency, belonging and acceptance intersect, highlighting the tension for multiracial individuals when trying …

Through Their Eyes: Investigating The Broad Autism Phenotype In Parents An Exploration In Eye Tracking During A Phonemic Restoration Paradigm In Conjunction With Social Communication Measures, Elena Esposito

Open Access Master's Theses

The Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) refers to traits that resemble those seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The BAP traits are more common in first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD which suggests a potential genetic contribution to the disorder. Understanding how these traits manifest in communication remains limited. Previous research has shown differences in eye gaze patterns between children with ASD and neurotypical children. This study explored whether similar patterns exist in parents of children with autism (pASD) during a phonemic restoration task. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) and Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) were also used in this study …

A Methodological Study: Using Eye Tracking & Comprehension Questions With L1 And L2 Spanish Readers, Julia Cerveira-Bianchi

Open Access Master's Theses

Eye tracking with a violation paradigm is an online, real-time measure, used within the field of second language acquisition to measure implicit or automatic knowledge (Godfroid, 2019). Native speakers (L1) demonstrate implicit knowledge, and second language learners (L2) exhibit various levels of developing implicit knowledge, which serves as a measure of proficiency. In a violation paradigm, L1 and L2 speakers read grammatical and ungrammatical stimuli. The eye-tracking data provides insight into participants’ sensitivity to grammatical violations. Previous studies have included comprehension questions, an offline measure, to ensure that participants read for meaning. However, eye tracking has rarely been applied to …

Total Governance, Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci, Daniel J.H. Greenwood

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Everyone has values which conflict with the sheer maximization of profit. When those conflicts occur, virtually no one will consistently choose profit over conflicting values, especially when the potential profit is small or conflicts with other economic values, promoting the common good or preserving a functioning ecosphere. This Article explores a multi-stakeholder approach that will increase the quantum of humanity in the governance of American large public companies in the era of social media and online communication. We dub this crowd-based strategy of steering public corporations “total governance.” Total governance recognizes that individuals can engage with public corporations from multiple …

Exploring The Perception Of Learning Environment Among Undergraduate Medical Students In South India – A Cross-Sectional Study, Suba A, Suma S, Shobana R, Abeetha S, Chitra M, Shruthy K M

Health Professions Education

Purpose: The term "learning environment" refers to the combined social, physical, and psychological context in which the students learn. While a dismissive environment can lead to stress and burnout, a supportive environment enhances professionalism and academic success. Students' perceptions of the medical school learning environment might vary significantly depending on their age, gender, kind of institution and based on their academic year. Comprehending the disparities in perceptions towards the educational setting related to the above said variations may aid in devising interventions that promote favourable experiences for medical students. This study aimed to assess perception of learning environment by South …

Editorial Insights: Reflections On The Volume And Charge To The Field, Heather Howell, Meghan Shaughnessy, Barbara Stengal, Carrie Wilkerson Lee, Liza Bondurant, Bima Sapkota, Gregory Benoit, Yvonne Lai

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this, the final chapter of Section 3, the authors document an interview that took place in June of 2024, as the editorial team wrapped up reviews of the chapters submitted to this volume. The interview was led by two of the advisory board members, Meghan Shaughnessy and Barbara Stengal, and included the editorial group, Heather Howell, Carrie Wilkerson Lee, Liza Bondurant, and Bima Sapkota, and other members of the advisory board, Greg Benoit and Yvonne Lai. The motivation to create this interview-based chapter was to capture some of the authors' own learning and reflection as they brought the volume …

2025 Viewbook, Office Of Admissions

Viewbook

At IMSA, you will be part of a community of over 650 diverse students passionate about learning. Located in suburban Aurora, IMSA’s campus consists of seven residence halls spread across 97 acres. While living and learning on campus, you’ll make new friends, encounter new ideas, and learn to live independently. You will also have the opportunity to explore over 85 clubs, organizations, and IHSAsponsored co-curricular and athletic programs. IMSA provides a safe, nurturing environment. Professional Resident Counselors (RCs) live in each hall and will help you navigate your home away from home through the Residential Life Curriculum. Through this curriculum, …

In It For The Long Haul: Long-Haul Trucking And The American Myth, Ava Flum

Scripps Senior Theses

In It for the Long Haul: Long-Haul Trucking and the American Myth explores the intersection of culture, economics, and politics in the world of trucking, using the freight industry as a case study to interrogate the promises and failures of the American Dream. This thesis examines how the myth of trucking—framed as a pathway to freedom, prosperity, and autonomy—collides with the lived realities of truck drivers, who face economic precarity, corporate exploitation, and intense personal sacrifice.

Through an analysis of deregulation, industry practices, and the persistence of the myth in public consciousness, this work exposes how the romanticized ideals of …

Sense Of Belonging And Perceptions Of Learning In An Introductory College Course, Ellen Wang

Scripps Senior Theses

A sense of belonging (SB) – the feeling of deep connection with social groups, places, and experiences – has been described as a fundamental, pervasive need among humans (Allen et al., 2021; Baumeister & Leary, 1995). SB, and lack thereof, predicts myriad mental, physical, social, and economic outcomes. Belonging is a complex, multidimensional concept with a breadth of research across disciplines. It has been applied to school contexts in association with academic and psychosocial outcomes. The researcher partnered with an undergraduate course at The Claremont Colleges, and administered electronic surveys at two time points of the course. Students' sense of …

Dei And Antisemitism: Bred In The Bone, Suzanna Sherry

FIU Law Review

The article explains why no one should have been surprised by the antisemitism that exploded on college campuses after October 7, 2023. The article demonstrates that the worldview espoused by the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) movement -- and its cousins, antiracism and wokeness -- is inherently and inevitably antisemitic. The antisemitism "bred in the bone" of DEI was bound to come to the surface eventually, and it did.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligent For Optimized Crop Production: An Ann-Based Approach, Yahya Layth Khaleel, Fadya A. Habeeb, Mustafa Abdulfattah Habeeb, Fatimah N. Ameen

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

To incite modern day crop production and ensure sustainability, exact crop recommendations are key to the process. This study pays significant attention to the need for the use of big data tools in studies involving comprehensive data sets that contain information on soil and other environmental characteristics. The set of data used in this research includes Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium content coordinated with Temperature, Humidity, pH Value, and Rainfall. Knowing these factors is to make a favorable decision about improving agricultural products yield, availability and management of the resources, as well as general well-being of the crops. Specialized advisory on …

Self-Attention Enhanced Dual Bigru For Arabic Fake News Detection, Baqer M. Merzah, Jafar Razmara, Jaber Karimpour

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

The rapid proliferation of social media platforms has greatly amplified the dissemination of fake news, representing significant obstacles to public trust and evidence-based decision-making, particularly for the Arabic-speaking population. Meeting the challenge of Arabic fake news detection is a problem compounded by the complex morphological nature of the language, as well as limited resources. This study presents a hybrid deep learning framework that integrates two Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Units (BiGRUs) along with an attention mechanism for efficiently detecting misinformation in Arabic news. The method leverages FastText word embeddings for disambiguating the intricate semantics of the Arabic language. The model is …

Agentic Ai-Enhanced Virtual Reality For Adaptive Immersive Learning Environments, Indra Kishor, Udit Mamodiya, Mohammed Almaayah, Amer Alqutaish, Rami Shehab, Theyazn H. H. Aldhyani

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

Immersive learning using Virtual Reality (VR) has gained prominence for delivering experiential, engaging education. However, most VR learning environments lack real-time adaptability, personalization, and cognitive responsiveness. This study presents an Agentic AI-enabled VR framework that autonomously adjusts pedagogical content, interaction style, and challenge level based on learner behavior, emotions, and performance feedback. The proposed system integrates a reinforcement learning-based agent with a virtual reality module to form an intelligent tutor capable of independent decision-making. A neuro-symbolic model processes multi-modal feedback (gesture, speech, gaze, performance) to determine context-aware pedagogical strategies. The system employs a self-evolving curriculum logic that adapts in real …

A Systematic Review Of Artificial Intelligence's Function In The Diagnosis Of Lung Cancer (2018–2024), Rokan Hazim Hamad

Mesopotamian Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality, often diagnosed at advanced stages. This systematic review explores AI applications in lung cancer diagnosis, focusing on medical imaging, pathology, and genetic analysis. A systematic literature review methodology was employed, analyzing studies from databases such as PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and Scopus (2018–2024). Findings indicate that AI-powered diagnostic models, particularly deep learning techniques, outperform conventional methods in accuracy, sensitivity, and early detection capabilities. However, integration into clinical practice presents challenges, including data privacy concerns, model biases, and regulatory limitations. This review highlights the potential of AI in lung cancer screening and provides …

Computer Vision-Based Framework For Data Extraction From Heterogeneous Financial Tables: A Comprehensive Approach To Unlocking Financial Insights, Iftakhar Ali Khandokar, Priya Deshpande

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Information extraction from financial document images is crucial in computer vision and NLP, as financial data often exists in image or PDF format, enabling organizations to analyze and make informed business decisions using OCR advancements. The table contents of financial document images are one of the prominent structures to confine important portions of data of the document and many Deep learning-based methods have been proposed to detect Table regions inside document images. The shortcomings of the current approach are that it is bounded within the detection of the table region and struggles in cases such as handling different layouts and …

Redesigning Executive Incentives: The Rising Role Of Subjective Performance Measures, Zackery D. Fox

Faculty Publications

Despite the growing use of subjective performance incentives used in executive bonuses, empirical evidence on their effectiveness remains inconclusive. This study explores three aspects of subjective metrics in bonus plan design: their prevalence, the goals they target, and their impact on managerial behavior and firm outcomes. First, I document 53.8 percent of CEO bonus plans include at least one subjective performance measure, and among these plans, an average of 38.9 percent of total bonus weight is allocated to these measures. Using machine learning, I show subjective metrics target incentives related to employees, firm culture, and executive performance. Second, using the …

Epistolary Technologies Of Separation And Archives Of Emotion, James Daybell

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Intertidal Encounters: Centre For Sustainable Practice In The Arts Quarterly, Sarah Blissett, James Jordan Johnson, Cherry Truluck, Anastasia (A) Alevtin, Monstera Deliciosa, Arbonauts, Sam Hodge, Olga (F) Koroleva

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Intertidal Encounters ask: what are the stories cast up by intertidal being/s and how do they come to matter?

Social Exclusion Of Refugees With A Disability In Australian Society Within The Context Of Healthcare Quality Theory And E-Health, Hossein Adibi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The phrase social exclusion came to Australia via Britain. Discussion on 'inclusion and exclusion' mainly focus on those individuals and groups living in poverty. Socially excluded occurs as a result of many factors, based on sex, race, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. Until 2012 people with a disability were excluded from Australian' resettlement programs representing a significant discrimination concern. As a result of strong opposition to this issue, the policy changed in 2012 and the number of refugees with disabilities increased. This in turn led to more ethnic diversity of people with disabilities within NDIS. However, since NDIS …

Educator Professional Subjectivities In Gamification: Knowing, Being And Doing, Natalie-Jane Howard, Elizabeth J. Cook

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Gamification has emerged as a prominent innovation in contemporary education, yet its influence on the enactment of educators’ professional subjectivities remains underexplored. As such, little is known about how online gamification applications like Kahoot shape the dynamic ways educators perceive, understand and enact their professional selves within higher education contexts. Adopting a tripartite framework of knowing (epistemological), being (ontological) and doing (praxiological), this qualitative study employed visual-elicitation interviews and remote observations with ten lecturers at a Middle Eastern college. The analysis revealed three key themes shaping educator subjectivities: creating and sharing quiz content; conforming with institutional culture; and infantilizing students …

Assessment Of Multilingual Children By Western Australian Speech-Language Pathologists: A Survey Of Practices, Barriers And Facilitators, Emily Frances Hunt, Charn Nang, Suzanne Jacqueline Meldrum, Elizabeth Armstrong

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: In the past decade, diagnostic criteria for developmental language disorder, guidelines for assessment of multilingual children, and reviews of the diagnostic utility of dynamic assessment have been published. It is unknown how Australian speech-language pathologists currently assess multilingual children or how local factors influence assessment. Method: A mixed-method anonymous online survey of Western Australian speech-language pathologists explored the frequency and perceived usefulness of assessment practices recommended for multilingual children, elements of dynamic assessment used, and the utility of specific client factors for diagnosis. Confidence ratings and descriptions of barriers and facilitators that affect assessment of multilingual children were also …

Elizabeth Usher Memorial Lecture 2024: Speech-Language Pathology Practice In Aboriginal Spaces: A Journey Of Learning And Unlearning, Elizabeth Armstrong

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this paper I describe learnings gained from 15 years collaboration with Aboriginal colleagues in Australia, in endeavours to improve rehabilitation services for Aboriginal people with brain injury and their families. Colleagues include Aboriginal researchers, clinicians, and people with communication and other disorders associated with brain injury and their families. My research journey in this field has been made possible through the work, mentoring, and support of these colleagues who introduced me to Aboriginal ways of knowing, being, and doing. My journey has involved challenging and un-learning some widely accepted Western tenets of speech-language pathology practice in order to explore …

Asian Women’S Studies After Three Decades: Institutional Success, Epistemic Limitations, And The Imperative Of Transnational Solidarity, Trimita Chakma

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article examines the three-decade project of Asian Women’s Studies (AWS), an institutional and epistemic endeavor that, while successfully challenging Western-centric feminism, inadvertently reproduced center–periphery dynamics. Drawing on archival research, interviews with AWS pioneers, and a systematic analysis of 414 articles from the Asian Journal of Women’s Studies (AJWS) between 2001 and 2021, this study explores AWS’s central paradox: efforts to decenter the West inadvertently created new regional hierarchies. The analysis reveals patterns including minimal personnel overlap (2.7%) between AJWS authors and Asian Association of Women’s Studies (AAWS) members, concentration in East Asia (58.5%, declining to 44.93% by 2022-2025) with …

Advancing Person-Centred Care Through Palliative Care Wa’S Acp Workshops: The Longer-Term Impact, Gertrude G. Phiri, Emma Gunner, Philip Bafile, Davina Porock

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Planning for end-of-life and associated decision-making is one of global significance as it impacts the quality of care in palliative care settings, including ensuring that personal preferences are honoured. It is a priority for the Australian health system to use Advance Care Planning (ACP) as it is an effective tool for individuals and their families to make their personal preferences known and implemented. The aim of this project was to evaluate the longer-term impact of the Palliative Care Western Australia (PCWA) ACP workshops. Semi-structured, open-ended questions were used to collect data from 21 participants. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to …

The Experiences Of Systemic Invalidation In Chronic Pain Care Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Individuals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study, Claira Moro

School of Psychology Theses

This study explored the lived experiences of individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities living with chronic pain and prescribed pain-relief medication. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, eight participants were recruited from a single primary care network in England. Two Group Experiential Themes were developed. This paper reports one: From dismissed to disengaged: the trauma of seeking help, with three sub-themes: (1) “Being fobbed off” – dismissal across healthcare and benefit systems; (2) “It just seemed horrible to me, to take it off me” – pain relief as withdrawn, stigmatised, or conditional; and (3) “Do I want to poke the bear?” – disengagement …

Synthesising Cross-Speaker Data For Low-Resource Pathological Speech Recognition With Peft, Kesego Mokgosi, Milad Dadgar, Cathy Ennis, Robert Ross

Conference papers

Dysarthric speech recognition is essential for enhancing communication and accessibility for individuals with speech impairments, yet its development is hindered by a scarcity of robust, speaker-specific datasets. This study explores low-resource dysarthric speech recognition through cross-speaker transfer using synthetic data and parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT). We integrate SpeechT5 text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis with x-vector speaker embeddings to generate speaker-specific dysarthric speech, enabling model adaptation while preserving pathological speech characteristics such as prosodic irregularities. Experiments on the TORGO dataset show that mixed cross-synthetic data with LoRA fine-tuning achieves a WER of 0.17, representing a 71.7% improvement over the standard model (0.60 WER) without …

How Epilepsy Risks Might Be Introduced And Discussed In Clinical Consultations, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

AbstractAdverse impacts of epilepsy (e.g., injury, depression, and Sudden Unexpected Death from Epilepsy (SUDEP) can be mitigated by factors that patients may control, such as medication adherence, improved sleep and diet, reduced alcohol and taking care around pregnancy. New guidelines state that risk should be discussed at the time of diagnosis but some clinicians express concern about not wanting to raise anxiety.ObjectiveTo explicate practices by which epilepsy expert clinicians broach discussions of risk in specialist epilepsy clinics.Methods24 recordings of initial telephone appointments at specialist clinics where epilepsy is diagnosed from two specialist outpatient epilepsy services in England were subjected to …

Exploring Inclusive Education And Listening In Relation To Children's Experiences And Teachers' Perspectives, Ramazan Merk

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

This thesis addressed the field of inclusive education and the importance of listening from the perspectives of both children and teachers. Drawing on experiences in pre-school and reception classrooms in England, I explored the essence of inclusive education and effective implementation strategies to meet the needs of children, including those with diverse needs. Emphasis was placed on the necessity for teachers to acknowledge and address each child's individual needs when developing early years learning environments. Moreover, the study underlined the important role of active listening in promoting communication and understanding between teachers and children as a cornerstone of inclusive pedagogy. …

Un-Framing Transiting Trajectories: A ‘Beyond Disciplinary’ Approach To Curating In The Context Of Art And Science Discourse, Christina Ioanna Kazakou

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

Abstract

What Are Teacher Beliefs And Perceptions About Teaching Children To Read Within A One-Way Spanish Immersion School?, Kathleen Konrardy

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Immersion schools are a growing portion of schools in the United States. In 2021, there were over 3,600 immersion schools across the United States, a 1000% percent increase in the number of immersion schools in the last 40 years. Immersion schools may follow different models for instruction. In one model, children learn to read and write in the second language before they are taught to read and write in English. The purpose of this study was to explore practices in English literacy instruction delivered to students enrolled in one-way language immersion programs. The study also sought to examine the experiences …