Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Reading Motivation And Reading Experiences Of Secondary School Students With Dyslexia In England, Ahmet Kaan Alper

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

This research examines how a small group of secondary school students with dyslexia in England make sense of their reading experiences and motivation to read across school, home and everyday settings. It responds to concerns that literacy policy and practice foreground accuracy, speed and comparison, leaving limited space for reading for pleasure on students’ own terms. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts, the study treats dyslexia and literacy as historically and institutionally produced categories and explores how discourses, norms and accountability regimes shape what counts as legitimate reading and a motivated reader. The research is grounded in a relativist ontology and …

Plymouth Naval Command: A Study Of Interservice Co-Operation During The Second World War, James Bartle

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

This thesis examines the role of ideas of interservice co-operation in the operations of Plymouth Naval Command during the Second World War. The importance of naval shore commands has been a significant omission from studies of the war at sea. Located at strategic points around Britain, they were vital in controlling the flow of convoy shipping, while also co-ordinating attacks against enemy surface forces and submarines. This was achieved using a marriage of air and sea power between the Royal Navy and Coastal Command, a relationship that was developed during the 1920s and 1930s. Using Plymouth Command as an entry …

Navigating The Digital Shift In Mozambique: Teacher Agency And Digital Learning In Schools, Clive Ruraca

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

The educational technology industry frequently promotes the idea of a significant paradigm shift, proposing that technology can supplant traditional, transmission-based pedagogies such as ‘tell and practice’ approaches. In theory, this perspective positions digital tools as catalysts for systemic educational reform, capable of replacing rote learning with dynamic, technology-supported models (Voogt et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2024; Casilli & Posada, 2019). Employing an interpretative, empirical methodology, involving questionnaires and interviews with secondary school teachers. Data from this study are used to explore teachers’ experiences with digital learning tools through the lens of Activity Theory. This study examines the digital shift …

What Were Teaching Assistants' Perceptions Of Their Role While Working During The Covid-19 Global Pandemic And What Motivated Them To Fulfil Their Role?, Sarah Holt

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

This thesis considers Teaching Assistants’ perceptions of their role during the Covid-19 pandemic and their motivation to fulfil their role. Existing literature regarding Teaching Assistants’ work during the pandemic has focused on their role largely in terms of teaching responsibilities. In addition to this, the research draws out original observations of how Teaching Assistants worked in this highly unusual context. It explores their specific experiences and the changes experienced to their role, ways of working within their schools and to existing power structures in schools. This thesis seeks to understand these changes in identity and relationships through the theoretical framework …

Understanding The Support And Information Needs Of Family Members After Acquired Brain Injury: A Systematic Review, Craig Andrews, Alyson Norman, Sue Jackson, Mark Holloway

School of Psychology

The aim of this systematic review was to (a) identify the specific information and support needs of family members caring for ABI survivors and (b) assess the effectiveness of current support systems and resources available. A comprehensive search of the literature was carried out, focusing on studies that were published between the years 2000 and 2025. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. The review employed a narrative synthesis approach to collate findings across papers. The analysis identified five key themes: ABI Knowledge, The Strain of Unsupported Transitions, Emotional and Financial Cost, ABI Support Groups, and Supporting Social Connectedness. The findings …

Training Healthcare Professionals To Deliver A Group-Based Intervention For People Living With Severe Obesity: Lessons From The Progroup Feasibility Trial, Shokraneh Moghadam, Mark Tarrant, Lily Hawkins, Dawn Swancutt, Rod Sheaff, Laura Hollands, Raff Calitri, Jonathan Pinkney, Jenny Lloyd

School of Psychology

Introduction: Group-based programmes are increasingly adopted to support people living with obesity, as they have the potential to reduce staff time and costs and enhance motivation and capability for behaviour change. Group-based programmes could also provide members with opportunities to form meaningful social connections. As such, training should equip healthcare professionals to deliver group interventions successfully and be accessible and feasible for them to complete. This study presents how mixed-methods process evaluation data from the feasibility randomised controlled trial of PROGROUP (a group-based weight management intervention for people living with severe obesity) informed optimisation of the PROGROUP training programme. Methods: …

Children And Adults Across 15 Countries Believe In Human Uniqueness Of Mind: A Cross-Cultural Investigation Of Cross-Species Mind Perception, Karri Neldner, Luke Maurits, Magie Junker, Lara Abbas, Nayrouz Abbas, Arianna Abis, Federica Amici, Bernardo Arroyo-Garcia, Negar Asghari, Giovanna Barragán Pardo, Zhen Zhang, Junior Peña Chumacero, Ardain Dzabatou, Dustin Eirdosh, Susan Hanisch, Tom Herrnsdorf, Tom Hovehne, Alicia Junker, Patricia Kanngiesser, Felipe Villa Larens, Safaa Mahmoud, Sandra Masaquiza, Iino Masato, Risma Illa Maulany, Tongtong Meng, Kardelen Mutlu, Putu Oka Ngakan, Ebru Peközer, Ljubica Petrović, Mirella Christy Rehatalanit

School of Psychology

The way humans relate to other animals is fundamentally shaped by whether we perceive ourselves as unique, with feelings and thoughts not shared by other animals. How beliefs about animals’ ability to feel and think develop across cultures remains largely unexplored. We asked children and adolescents (4–17 years, N = 1025) and adults (N = 190) from 33 urban and rural communities across 15 countries whether animals have thoughts or feelings (judgments of presence), and whether those thoughts or feelings are human-like (judgments of similarity). Bayesian analyses revealed that participants generally ascribed non-human animals the ability for thoughts and feelings. …

Integrating Neuroscience And Social Psychology In Researching Interprofessional Education: The Inspire Framework, Kimberley Schenke, Pamela Rae, Jaysan Charlesford, Phil Gee

School of Psychology

There is an increasing focus on the importance of interprofessional education as an integral part of health and social care training. However, the fundamental psychological processes underlying successful interprofessional education are not well understood. Here we propose a single framework, Integrating Neuroscience and Social Psychology In Researching Interprofessional Education (INSPIRE), grounded in evidence from social psychology and neuroscience that could be used to generate testable hypotheses to inform the design, development and evaluation of interprofessional education. The application of this framework offers a novel, scientifically grounded approach to improving the learning outcomes of interprofessional education and provides a foundation for …

The Lived Experience Of Special Education Director Retention: A Phenomenological Study Of Motivational And Organizational Influences, Matthew R. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stability of leadership in special education is crucial for ensuring regulatory compliance, programmatic quality, and equitable services for students with disabilities. However, U.S. public schools face persistent challenges in retaining special education directors, resulting in a loss of institutional knowledge, service fragmentation, and increased risk of compliance failure. Drawing on self-determination theory and job embeddedness theory, this phenomenological study explored the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects that influence special education directors’ decisions to remain in their roles. Ten experienced special education directors from diverse public school settings in Texas participated in semistructured interviews and follow-up quantitative questionnaires. The analysis revealed …

Faculty Perceptions Of Engaging Generation Z Students Through Positive Education In The Classroom, Ashley D. Ragsdale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the engagement gap between Generation Z students and faculty in higher education, emphasizing how positive education approaches can help faculty become more confident and effective instructors. Generation Z students prefer instant internet access and digital learning, have shorter attention spans, and tend to be disengaged when instructors rely on traditional teaching methods. After the COVID-19 pandemic, this engagement gap became more evident. This basic qualitative study used semistructured interviews, reflexive journaling, and nonparticipatory observations. Participants included full-time health science faculty at a private university in central Texas. Each had at least 2 years of teaching experience …

The Impact Of Synchronous And Asynchronous Preference On The Performance Of Distance Learning Students, Christopher A. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Distance learning is a growing part of education. The transition to distance learning was underway at higher education institutions, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions of all types to rapidly transition to distance learning. The technology that was adapted during this emergency distance learning remained in the classroom once normal instruction resumed. This quantitative study examined two aspects of distance learning technology in education. The study examined student preference for either synchronous or asynchronous instruction through the framework of expectancy theory. Students who were more familiar with the course material were hypothesized to have a higher expectation of success and …

Accessing Campus Mental Health Services In A Nigerian Southwestern University: Barriers To Academic Success, Caroline Dada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health disorders are a significant health concern among higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. A substantial treatment gap exists in the Nigerian healthcare system, and this gap is further worsened by cultural and religious barriers, which reinforce stigma that discourages students from seeking professional help. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the barriers students encountered when accessing mental health services at a university in Southwestern Nigeria, to increase service access. Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with seven professional mental health providers at a university counseling center between March and April 2025. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify …

6g And Autonomous Vehicles: The Future Of Intelligent Transportation, Ali Yavari, Hamid Bagha, Negin Foroughimehr, Philip Branch

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

Connected autonomous vehicles are expected to become increasingly widespread in the coming decade, fundamentally transforming the utilization of communication networks across urban environments. These vehicles are highly data-intensive and continuously exchange information with surrounding vehicles, infrastructure, and cloud services to enable perception, decision making, and control. This constant connectivity imposes unprecedented loads on existing communication technologies such as mobile 5G broadband networks, which must handle massive volumes of real-time data transmission with low latency and high reliability requirements. This study examines how large scale deployment of connected autonomous vehicles could affect the performance and scalability of 5G networks, with a …

Browser-Based Phishing Detection System Using Modern Web Technologies, Muhammad Arshad, Beena Sherin Kuriakose, Choo Wou Onn, Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui, Mohammad Shahid Kamal

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Phishing remains one of the most persistent cybersecurity threats, exploiting human trust to steal sensitive information through deceptive websites. Traditional detection methods, reliant on blacklists and reactive reporting, offer limited protection against rapidly evolving zero-day attacks. To address these challenges, this study proposes and evaluates a hybrid browser-resident phishing detection framework that combines three complementary detection mechanisms: a locally executed Random Forest model using URL lexical features, lightweight real-time DOM structure analysis, and VirusTotal’s multi-engine reputation service. Communication between the client and server is optimised using gRPC over the QUIC protocol, ensuring secure, high-performance data exchange with built-in retry mechanisms …

Pab-Pif: A Hybrid Architecture To Evaluate Mutable And Immutable Blockchains In Iot–Fog Networks, Marco Scarpa, Mohammad Sadeghzadeh, Saeed Javanmardi, Bahareh Pahlevanzadeh, Mauro Iacono

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Blockchain provides secure and decentralized data storage. Normal blockchains permanently store data. Mutable blockchains allow users to change data, but this reduces tamper resistance. This paper tests both methods in PaB-PIF, a hybrid architecture for IoT-Fog networks. Our design uses an immutable mainchain in the cloud layer and mutable sidechains in the fog layer. We analyze throughput, latency, and tamper resistance using math models and simulations. Results show that blockchain greatly improves network security. Without blockchain, the network has zero tamper resistance. The mutable blockchain in the fog layer has a tamper resistance of 0.58. The immutable blockchain in the …

Exploration Of Best Practice Of Market Surveillance And Type Approval Of Internal Combustion Engines Emissions For Non-Road Mobile Machinery (Examine_Nrmm), Rita Hagan, Eoin Mcgillicuddy, Aoife Donnelly

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study examines market surveillance methods for engines in non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) in selected European Union (EU) Member States and the UK, to inform the development of an Irish NRMM market surveillance process in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/1628. The research found NRMM market surveillance approaches vary across Europe, with no uniform market surveillance strategy in place. Some countries, including Ireland, are currently developing an approach, while other countries have no set process in place. In countries, with an existing strategy, the process can be proactive, reactive or a combination of both.Findings highlight opportunities for Ireland to design a …

Restructuring The Institutional Logics Of Taiwan's Prison Labor: A Human Rights-Based Approach, Mao-Hong Lin

Fordham International Law Journal

In Taiwan, inmates are mandated to participate in work programs, a system long criticized for its mistreatment of prisoners. Despite numerous reform efforts, substantive change remains elusive. This Article investigates the persistence of Taiwan’s in-prison work programs through the lens of institutional logics theory and proposes a human rights-based approach to address the issue. Drawing on in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion, the study identifies four key logics sustaining these programs: security and management, bureaucracy, accounting imperatives, and competitive disadvantages. These logics stem from two opposing ideologies, market-driven and state-driven, yet collectively function to resist reform. Consequently, reform initiatives …

Due Diligence In Global Supply Chains: The Troubled Journey Of The Eu Legislation And The Global Perspective, Fabrizio Cafaggi, Federico Pistelli

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Allies As Collateral: U.S. Economic Warfare And The Erosion Of Allied Autonomy, Julien Chaisse

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Concept Of An Agreement In International Law, William Thomas Worster

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

International Transfers Of Personal Data In Latin America: From The Brussels Effect To The Washington Effect, Pablo A. Palazzi

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Privacy In Peril: When Unchecked Surveillance Power And Unbalanced Presidential Power Collide, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Encryption And Globalization 15 Years Later: End-To-End Encryption And The Third Round Of The "Going Dark" Debate, Peter Swire, Kenesa Ahmad, Michael Specter

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

An Agrarian Force Before The Flames: A Greek Blueprint For Europe's Wildfire Prevention Strategy, Panayotis (Baki) Giorgos Agelarakis

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Considering Humanity: How The Martens Clause Implies A Legal Obligation To Conduct Risk Analysis In Decisions Regarding The Actual Or Threatened Use Of Nuclear Weapons, Emily Jones

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Inadequate Control: International Law And Principles Applicable To Address Nuclear Weapon Security, Chloe Scaglione Radtke

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ex Ante, Ex Post, Or A Combo Of Both? A Comparative Analysis Of Biometric Artificial Intelligence Across The Atlantic & The Self-Regulatory Solution, Ariana Tagavi

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Toward Ethical Provenance Tracking: The Ga4gh Model Data Access Agreement (Daa), Alexander Bernier, Bartha Maria Knoppers, Jonathan Lawson, Robyn Mcdougall, Maili Raven-Adams, Vasiliki Rahimzadeh

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: Standardizing contractual clauses that govern data access enables research institutions to responsibly steward genomic and related health data while enabling its efficient downstream reuse.

Methods: We describe a document analysis study using both qualitative and comparative law analytical approaches to identify the most common categories of clauses from 29 different data access agreements used by human biomedical research consortia globally. We furthermore characterized the legal positions and standard practices for each common element of the agreement and synthesized across them to develop model clauses. A total of 3 discussion sessions were organized virtually to refine the clauses among members …

Cerebellar Motor And Non-Motor Contributions To Dystonia Pathophysiology And Treatment, Linda H Kim, Cheryl Brandenburg, Roy V Sillitoe

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Dystonia is a complex neurological disorder characterized by sustained or intermittent abnormal movements and/or postures. However, dystonia's non-motor symptoms, particularly the sleep disturbances, are critical yet underexplored concerns that affect all ages. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on the motor and non-motor domains of dystonia, emphasizing the functional interconnections and plasticity within cerebellar motor, cognitive, and sleep-associated circuits to motivate more comprehensive and effective treatments that improve overall quality of life.

Investigating The Potential For First Year Residential Field Courses To Facilitate The Establishment Of Teacher-Student Relationships In Biological Sciences Undergraduate Degrees, Anne Plessis, Alison Stokes

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Teacher-student relationships (TSRs) in higher education impact many aspects of the student experience, including engagement and performance. However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms of establishment of TSRs, and in particular how these are influenced by specific learning environments and contexts. Here, we undertake an exploratory investigation using first year biological sciences undergraduate residential field courses to examine how this teaching context affected the frequency and nature of teacher student interactions, and consequently the development of TSRs. Data were collected from teacher and student participants using questionnaires and focus groups. We found that interactions during fieldwork took place frequently …