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Ai: A Path Forward In Education - Teachers’ Insights On Implementation, Challenges, And Future Innovations, Mercedes Cordoba Meeks

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a global phenomenon permeating the fabric of society and transforming the course of culture and commerce (Kishor et al., 2023; Moore, 2024). A review of the extant literature indicates that while many industries have seen significant innovations due to the infusion of AI, the field of education has witnessed a technological evolution inspired by AI-based tools and strategies (Bessen, 2018; W. M. Lim et al., 2023). Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) has a history that parallels the development of AI. AIED has shown steady growth and influence in educational programs around the world, with the growth …

Empowered Creation: Investigating Business Acumen And Technological Engagement Among Female Artists As Creative Entrepreneurs, Heggins-Jackson Tracey

Theses and Dissertations

The most powerful vehicle for communication and change is art. Creative endeavors have served humanity as a source of motivation and inspiration, as agents for shaping meaning and, most importantly, evoking empathy. Unfortunately, women in the arts face significant challenges due to deeply entrenched stereotypes, social expectations, societal norms, and gender-related misinformation, which result in destructive narratives. Paradoxically, this marginalized population possesses the skills and insights needed to address disparities through authentic narrative dissemination. Research indicates a limited focus on the contributions and pathways of women in the creative arts industry as entrepreneurs, explicitly highlighting their genuine needs conveyed through …

Generative Ai's Impact On Student's Motivation And Well-Being In Online Graduate Programs: A Phenomenological Study Through Self-Determination Theory, Sohee Linda Lee

Theses and Dissertations

While higher education has increasingly embraced emerging technologies, limited research explores how adult learners at the graduate level navigate AI-driven feedback, content generation, and learning supports, particularly within online programs that require self-regulation and advanced academic rigor. To address this gap, this qualitative, phenomenological study examined how graduate students enrolled in online degree programs experience and interpret the use of generative AI (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, in their coursework. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study focused on how the use of GenAI tools may influence students’ perceptions on autonomy (volition and choice in tasks), competence (confidence in academic …

Characterization Of The Solid-State Bonding For Simulated Charge And Seam Welds In The Porthole Die Extrusion Process, Randall L. Bowers

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

The isothermal (ISO-T) compression configuration is ideal for utilizing as a material input of flow stress at temperature and strain rate in models of the porthole die extrusion process due to the isothermal nature of the test. Micro-tensile testing was conducted to validate the solid-state welding integrity of the ISO-T samples at various temperatures and strain rates. Results of the mechanical testing were correlated with fractography and microstructural evaluations of the welds to confirm bonding behavior. Both clean interface conditions and oxidation and lubrication layers were evaluated to simulate the difference of seam and charge welds in the process. Results …

Computational Modeling Of The Heat Treatment Of White Oak Bound For Spirit Maturation, Kate E. Mclarney-Popham

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Maturation of distilled spirits in white oak barrels is a long standing practice known to have great impact on spirit character. Much of this impact can be controlled by the thermal modification of the barrel, since thermal degradation of the wood determines what wood compounds are available to interact with the spirit during maturation. In this work, a computational model for the thermal degradation of wood was developed and, with flavor compound data from literature, was used to investigate the effect of heat treatment on lignin-derived flavor compounds. The computational model in this work accounted for three solid species, three …

The Optimization And Manufacturing Scale-Up Of Polymeric Membranes Using Eco-Friendly Solvents, David Lu

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Polymeric membranes have become a prominent technology applied in water filtration due to the lower cost, energy input, and simpler manufacturing process relative to other separation technologies. However, the environmental impact of polymeric membrane fabrication remains a hindrance due to the use of hazardous solvents derived from fossil fuels (e.g., DMAc, NMP, DMF) that pose a risk to the environment and human health. Whereas recent studies have demonstrated the proof-of-concept of polymeric membrane derived from eco-friendly solvents, the next steps of optimizing and upscaling the production of these membranes remains understudied and a gap between lab-scale studies and the path …

Combinatorial Thin Film Approach To Accelerate Materials Discovery: Development Of Nanoporous And Bulk Multi-Principal Element Alloys, Tibra Das Gupta

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) have garnered significant attention in materials science due to their potential for exhibiting a combination of desirable properties stemming from their unique configurational entropy. While early research focused on equiatomic compositions, recent studies have indicated that non-equiatomic MPEAs may offer superior mechanical performance. However, the identification of optimal non-equiatomic compositions remains challenging due to the vast compositional space and the reliance on time-consuming and computationally expensive methods. This dissertation presents a combinatorial thin film approach as a rapid and efficient strategy for discovering two types of materials: nanoporous and bulk MPEAs.

The first study explores the …

Microstructural Characterization Of Complex Metal Alloy Systems With A Focus On Electron Microscopy, Alexandra Allamon

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs)/high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a class of materials that provide novel and superior combinations of properties, with promise for use in challenging application areas that many of the current established materials cannot fit. With a higher number of constituent elements, many of the newly created alloys are compositionally complex in nature, known to contain combinations of relatively soft FCC phases, hard BCC phases, and, in some cases, even harder intermetallic phases. Microstructural study of these new materials is essential to understanding the enhanced properties they may possess, but their complexity can make this study much more challenging …

Ion Hydration In Bulk And Nanoconfined Water: Insights From Machine Learning Force Fields, Zachary D. Baker

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Understanding ionic hydration remains a central challenge in physical chemistry and materials science, as the interactions between ions and water molecules govern diverse phenomena ranging from electrolyte transport to selective ion separation. While experimental techniques have provided invaluable insights into solvation energetics and coordination numbers, they often lack atomistic resolution, particularly under nanoscale confinement where direct measurement becomes infeasible. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can bridge this gap; however, conventional classical force fields are limited by their simplified, fixed functional forms and empirical parameterization, whereas ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) achieves higher accuracy at the expense of severe computational cost and …

Understanding The Influence Of Applied Magnetic Field On Aluminum Alloys: Implications On Strength, Precipitate Development And Diffusion Of Solutes, Damilola David Alewi

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

The processing of certain metals and alloys under magnetic fields presents a promising yet underexplored frontier for controlling microstructure alongside improving physical and mechanical properties. Magnetic fields can be strategically applied at different stages of materials processing, from melting and solidification to subsequent heat treatments to achieve targeted properties in materials. Although magnetic fields have been found to aid changes in microstructural evolution and phase equilibria in ferrous materials, there is limited application of this technique in non-ferrous material systems. This dissertation aims at contributing to the understanding of the influence of magnetic field on the mechanical properties and solid-state …

The Battle For The Church Of St. Francis In A Town In The Czech Republic Between “Hipster-Culture” And “Tradition” - Discourses In Religiosity, Youth, And Intra-Parish Civic Engagement – A Case Study, Jan Váně, Jan Kaňák

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The relationship between civic engagement and religiosity is an already relatively researched and described phenomenon. However, insufficient attention is paid to the phenomenon of civic engagement within the parish, and moreover in the context of various discourses of religiosity In the article, we present an answer to the question: How do various discourses and their dominant positions influence Intra-Parish Civic Engagement of Youths? To formulate the answer, we use elements of constructivist grounded theory. Based on the analysis of 14 interviews and 36 documents, we describe the course of the process of dominance of traditional and hipster-culture discourse, which played …

Christianity As “Resistance” In Authoritarian Regimes Reflexions And Case Studies From A Conference In Helsinki, Liisa Lahdelma, Katharina Kunter, Andrej Bukovac-Mimica, Miro Leporanta

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article is based on presentations held in the Workshop “Christianity as ‘Resistance’ in Authoritarian Regimes” at the University of Helsinki on April 11–12, 2024. The workshop explored how Christianity could provide space for reflection and resistance in the context of authoritarian regimes. In this article Prof. Katharina Kunter provides a general historical and theological view of the issue entitled “Historical anchor points for Christian resistance” while the other contributors either present current doctoral or postdoctoral research or introduce broader issues.

Rigorous Care: The Early Warning Syllabus 2.0, Michelle Warren, Jenny Oh, Guadalupe Ortega

Dartmouth Scholarship

This document includes a set of policies that are designed to provide efficient ways for instructors to implement pedagogies of care. The principle of “rigorous care” is informed by research on learning, accessibility, and mental health. The idea of “early warnings” is meant to help students identify their needs and seek support before problems become unmanageable. Both ideas respect the fact that both students and instructors work under enormous pressure.

Each policy statement is preceded by a brief framing justification and followed by a selected bibliography of the research and testimonials that have informed the policy.

Medical Students’ Disaster-Specific Self-Efficacy And Willingness To Respond Following An Introductory Preparedness Training, Brooke Wagner, Libby Washburn, Joseph D Visker, Carol Cox

Health Professions Education

Purpose.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine medical students’ disaster self-efficacy and willingness to respond to disasters before and after attending an introductory disaster preparedness training program during fall 2023.

Method.

Medical students (eight Year 1 and 18 Year 2) attending a one-day introductory disaster preparedness program that focused on an all-hazard approach and used lecture and applied scenario practice instruction were surveyed pre-post program using a written, four-section questionnaire on their disaster-specific self-efficacy and willingness to respond to disasters. Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics (v29) and primarily consisted of descriptive statistics (frequencies and …

Using A Self-Directed Learning Technique For Learning Suturing Skills: Does Medical Student Self-Assessment Agree With That Of Faculty Observers?, Divya Srinivas, Rebecca Gilbird, Jennifer Bennett, Mehdi Bilgrami, Samuel Pankey, Dmitry Tumin, Walter Robey

Health Professions Education

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine if students’ self-rating of suturing skills learned in a self-directed manner was concordant with physicians’ ratings.

Methods. Second year medical students were provided a video-based, self-directed curriculum, and a suture pad to use over eight weeks. Each student rated their performance of placing three simple interrupted sutures using a Global Rating Scale. Video recordings of the students’ performance were then assessed by three faculty using the same rating scale. The students’ self-assessments were compared to the average of faculty assessments to test for bias, correlation, and concordance.

Results. A total of …

A Critique Of Findings On Gun Ownership, Use, And Imagined Use From The 2021 National Firearms Survey: Response To William English, Deborah Azrael, Joseph Blocher, Philip J. Cook, David Hemenway, Matthew Miller

SMU Law Review

For a paper that has not yet been through peer review or even been formally published, William English’s “2021 National Firearms Survey” has been remarkably prominent in gun rights advocacy and scholarship. As of December 2024, it has been cited in roughly sixty-five briefs, invoked at oral argument in the Supreme Court and multiple courts of appeals, and regularly cited in public writings and published academic work.

This response is offered in the spirit of a peer review. Our focus is on methodological issues, questionable statistical results, and problematic conclusions. Because of serious methodological issues, English’s draft fails to provide …

Judge–Scholar Collaboration And The Second Amendment, Andrew Willinger, Eric Ruben

SMU Law Review

Legal scholarship is overly abstract and theoretical, making it unhelpful to judges and lawyers. That, at least, is the classic critique from the bench. When it comes to the Second Amendment, however, a different pattern has emerged: judges consistently cite law review articles and look to the academy for guidance. Most recently, in United States v. Rahimi, some Justices went further, implicitly inviting more scholarly work to help the Court answer open questions raised by its novel methodological approach to the Second Amendment. This Article explores this aberrant trend.

We raise several explanations for the distinctive scholarly role in …

Modelling Leaching Using C-S-H Solid Solutions: Applied Sciences, Niall Holmes, Mark Tyrer

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Leaching from cement can lead to a loss in performance and durability and can also have an environmental impact. Therefore, it is an important aspect to consider when new cements are being developed and where concrete is to be placed that could lead to the contamination of groundwater. Calibrated thermodynamic models can provide very useful predictions in a matter of seconds for any cement-based material. However, such models need to include accurate representations of the solid-solution nature of the C-S-H gels that are included for the incongruent dissolution of calcium and silica. This study presents the calibration of a thermodynamic …

Quantifying Metabolic Food Waste And Associated Global Warming Potential Attributable To Overweight And Obese Adults In A Temperate High-Income Region, Courage Y. Krah, Daniel T. Burke, Majid Bahramian, Paul Hynds, Anushree Priyadarshini

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Traditional discussions on food waste often excludes metabolic food waste (MFW), which occurs when individuals consume food beyond their caloric needs. This study is the first to quantify MFW among adults with excess body weight (overweight and obese) in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and globally the first to explore its socioeconomic and health-related predictors. Using an online food frequency questionnaire, MFW was estimated via the excess energy intake method, and Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was applied to identify significant predictors of MFW volumes. Median per capita MFW was 121.84 kg/year, with potatoes being the most wasted food item (23.4 …

Board # 377: Improving Graduation Outcomes In Stem: Preliminary Results From The Rise Scholars S-Stem Program, William John Palm

Engineering, Computing & Construction Management Faculty Publications

The S-STEM funded RISE Scholars Program examines the effects of engaging undergraduate students in a structured practice of science communication on their academic performance, persistence, and graduation in a STEM field. The program includes a weeklong summer bridge experience intended to develop incoming students’ curiosity, introduce science communication, and build community within the cohort; two STEM communication courses (on public speaking and science writing); and a variety of co-curricular activities with STEM and communication themes. This paper presents preliminary results on 4-year graduation outcomes. Data on academic performance and progress, as well as incoming student characteristics, were obtained from university …

Numerical Simulation And Group Homework In A Second-Year Dynamics Course, Matthew Stein

Engineering, Computing & Construction Management Faculty Publications

Roger Williams University engineering faculty believe that properly preparing students to use modern engineering tools is best accomplished through integration into coursework throughout the four-year curriculum. But this is challenging in practice, as engineering courses are already packed with essential technical content and any encumbrance to delivering this material is unwelcome. The author’s engineering mechanics course (Dynamics) is an effort to satisfy the conflicting goals of building technical skills while delivering complex content. This paper describes a multi-year effort to integrate solid modeling into the course by requiring numerical validation of symbolic solutions to homework problems. Working in homework groups, …

Data-Driven Functional Connectivity Investigations Into Neural Correlates Of Lateral Preferences, Link Tejavibulya

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Lateral preferences are ubiquitously present throughout the body despite its oversimplifications towards handedness. Studies on lateral preferences have therefore been simplified and binarized based on handedness preferences despite incongruencies and reduced proportions of right-preference as other limbs and measures are taken into consideration. In spite of this, studies on brain-laterality preferences that have been simplified and confined towards brain-handedness studies have demonstrated that handedness greatly affects how the brain is functionally organized and that these preferences are linked to high concurrences with other behavioral traits, both normative and psychiatric. For instance, males are more likely to be left-handed than females …

From Diagnosis To Triumph: Confronting A Rare Case Of Primary Cardiac Lymphoma, Soumyadeep Bag, Pranayraj Kondapally, Ali Hachem, Frank Honkanen, Farrah Ibrahim

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2025 oral presentation

Racial Differences In The Prevalence And Outcomes Of Venous Thromboembolism In Usa, A Nationwide Estimate, Soumyadeep Bag, Tumpa Patra, Badal Thakkar, Srikanth Puli, Sarah Kelangi, Ya-Ching Hsieh, Tanja Dudenbostel, Urvish Patel

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2025 research poster

Meta-Analysis Of Overall Survival In Intramedullary Spinal Gliomas: Comparing Gross Total Resection To Subtotal Resection And Biopsy, Matthew Jarrell, Mohammad Hamo, Dagoberto Estevez-Ordonez, Travis Atchley, Nick Laskay, Mark Hadley

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2025 research poster

Uncovering The Mystery Of Pancytopenia: Mesalamine As A Rare Cause, Tina Huang, Anmol Ahuja, Josh Bush, Jesse Faulk

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

No abstract provided.

Zuranolone: A Game-Changer In Postpartum Depression Care, Racquel Mccrary, Janaki Nimmagadda, Anupama Yedla, Clinton Martin

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

No abstract provided.

A Bizarre Biliary Battle: A Case Of Hafnia Alvei In Ascending Cholangitis, Ahmed Qaedi, Hope Lackey, Kaehler Roth, Alan Baggett

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

No abstract provided.

Understanding Lewy Body Dementia: A Comprehensive Overview, Muskan Vankwani, Janaki Nimmagadda, Anupama Yedla, Richard Shelton, Clinton Martin

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intellectual Property, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The year is 2031. You just got up. Your smartwatch has registered the movement, and the coffee maker is on. After your shower, you pick up your phone or read the latest news on the New York Times app on your VR goggles or palm. Except for a few remaining columnists, the news is all written by AI machines. At work, you are responsible for a report on a new product for your company, and you use Al to design the product and prepare the pitch, including the visuals and text of your presentation to the C-suite. The Al system …