Digital Commons Network^™

Essays On Urban Economic Geography In Developing Countries, Taylor Lathrop

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation contains two papers on urban economic geography in a developing country context. In the first, I identify and quantify local spillovers between firms of heterogeneous ownership type using a rich dataset of Indonesian manufacturing firms with granular location information. Within local clusters of manufacturing employment, I find an elasticity of domestic firm productivity with respect to the average quality of domestic neighbors of 0.025, and an elasticity of domestic firm productivity with respect to the average quality of foreign neighbors of 0.002. For foreign-owned firms, I find little evidence of productivity spillovers from neighbors of either ownership type. …

Neural Processing Of Japanese And Korean Phonological Items In Romanized Versus Native Writing Systems, Kyle Thayne Chipman

Theses and Dissertations

Romanization is a common, yet sometimes controversial, tool used to make Korean and Japanese more accessible to beginning learners, but its effects on orthographic processing and phoneme discrimination ability are not well understood. The participants consisted of 34 university students (21 female, 13 male; mean age = 20.97) enrolled in 100- and 200-level Korean and Japanese courses at Brigham Young University. Using a quasi-experimental, counterbalanced design, participants completed phonological judgement tasks in three orthographies per language while accuracy, reaction time, and cortical activation were measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS); post-task surveys contextualized learner responses. Orthography significantly affected accuracy in …

The Top 50 Cited Articles In Pediatric Neurology: A Bibliometric Analysis, Anas Alyazidi, Osama Muthaffar, Ahmed Bamaga, Hebah Qashqari, Abdulmalek Alhithlool, Ahmad Alanezi, Sameer Almehmadi, Mohamed Babiker, Fahad Bashiri

Neurosciences

Objectives: To identify and analyze the most influential articles within the field of pediatric neurology through a bibliometric lens. As pediatric neurology continues to expand across subspecialties, identifying landmark studies is critical for understanding clinical and research priorities. Bibliometric analysis enables the evaluation of citation trends to highlight impactful contributions that have shaped the field.

Method: A bibliometric analysis of the 50 most-cited pediatric neurology articles was conducted. Articles were assessed by citation metrics, study design, subspecialty, journal impact factor (JIF), and funding status. Correlation and regression analyses evaluated associations between variables.

Results: Citation counts ranged from 185 to 1,440 …

Prevalence Of Depression Among Patients With Epilepsy In Saudi Arabia: A Nationwide Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Mothana Y. Al Jabr, Aryam M. Alenizi, Faisal S. Aleisa, Mazen A. Alghamdi, Noura I. Alfehaid, Muteb M. Alqahtani, Abbas S. Almutair

Neurosciences

Objective: To assess the pooled prevalence of depression among epilepsy patients and find the associated demographics and psychosocial factors. Mood disorders are significant comorbidity between patients diagnosed with epilepsy, adversely influencing quality of life and complicating disease management. However, the incidence, prevalence, and associated risk factors of depression in patients diagnosed with epilepsy in Saudi Arabia are not well elucidated.

Methods: This review was employed used studies retrieved from medical databases and the Saudi Digital Library. Observational and cross-sectional studies assessing depression between patients diagnosed with epilepsy in Saudi Arabia were included. Data were analyzed using the Freeman–Tukey double arcsine …

(R2080) Homomorphism And Anti-Homomorphism Of Interval Valued Neutrosophic Fuzzy Ideals Of Near-Rings, K. Lenin Muthu Kumaran, S. Selvaraj

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

This paper introduces and elucidates the concepts of homomorphism and anti-homomorphism for interval-valued neutrosophic fuzzy ideals of near-rings. Here we proved if an interval valued neutrosophic fuzzy left ideals of R′ then its inverse image is interval valued neutrosophic fuzzy left ideals of R and converse part is true if the mapping is onto homomorphism. Additionally, we establish the notion of the direct product of n-interval-valued neutrosophic fuzzy ideals within near-rings is also a interval-valued neutrosophic fuzzy ideals of near-rings. To illustrate these concepts, we provide an example showcasing the direct product of interval-valued neutrosophic fuzzy ideals of near-rings.

(R2175) Application Of Similarity Measures On Bipolar Complex Neutrosophic Matrices In United Nations’ Sdg-17 Using Python, T. Muthuraji, N. Krishnapraveen

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The increasing complexity of decision-making environments demands mathematical frameworks capable of modeling bipolar, indeterminate, and phase-dependent uncertainty simultaneously. Bipolar Complex Neutrosophic theory provides such a structure, but the extension of similarity measures to matrix-based environments remains largely unexplored. In this study, we formally develop cosine, Dice, Jaccard, and hybrid vector similarity measures for Bipolar Complex Neutrosophic Matrices (BCNMs). Each matrix element is represented by a Bipolar Complex Neutrosophic Number (BCNN), enabling structured representation of multidimensional uncertainty within a matrix framework. We also design and implement efficient Python-based computational tools to automate similarity evaluation for BCNMs. The proposed algorithms reduce computational …

(R2187) Analysis Of Neurological Impairments In Hospitalized Patients Using Cubic Neutrosophic Sets, B. Anitha, M. Lavanya

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

This study introduces an MCDM-based framework for identifying neurological diseases in hospitalized patients using symptom-based evaluations. A team of interns, guided by the chief doctor, was responsible for determining each patient’s precise condition from the presented neurological symptoms. To enhance diagnostic accuracy, the interns employed the TOPSIS and WASPAS methods to assess and rank the potential disease options. The combined analysis yielded a clear identification of the highest ranked disease for every patient, highlighting the effectiveness of these MCDM techniques in supporting clinical decision making.

Career Decidedness Among Multicultural Adolescents In South Korea: Relational Support And Internalized Psychological Resources, Kahyen Shin

Dissertations - ALL

Despite the growing number of multicultural adolescents in South Korea, little is known about how to support their career development. Specifically, Korean multicultural adolescents who have foreign-born mothers and Korean fathers have experienced educational and career gaps compared to non-multicultural adolescents in Korea. Given that relational supports are documented to have significant associations with adolescents' career decidedness, this study aims to examine the relationship between relational supports and career decidedness through internalized psychological resources such as self-esteem and achievement motivation. Grounded in the Relational Theory of Working (RTW; Blustein, 2011), the researcher focused on the mediating role of internalized psychological …

Understanding The Perspectives Of Refugee Youth On Education And Freedom In Malaysia, Seok Wun (Shiila) Au Yong

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines how refugee youth in Malaysia understand, experience, and reimagine education and freedom within a socio-political context that denies them legal recognition, mobility, access to public education, opportunities for legal employment, and affordable healthcare. As Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are not formally recognized by the state. Situating itself within refugee education scholarship and drawing on transnational feminism, critical refugee studies, critical disability studies, and queer theory, this study centers refugee youth as knowledge producers, interrogates dominant narratives of refugee youth, and challenges the conventional approaches to refugee education in order to …

“Cutting-Off With My Family Is Never An Option In My Mind”: An Exploration Of Navigating Identity, Connections And Relational Resilience In Family And Intimate Relationships For Transgender Asian Americans, Jixuan Zhao

Dissertations - ALL

Transgender Asian Americans navigate gender identity within complex cultural, familial, and relational contexts shaped by collectivist values, racialized stereotypes, and social stigma. Despite increasing research on transgender experiences, limited scholarship has explored how transgender Asian Americans understand and negotiate their identities within family and intimate relationships. Grounded in Minority Stress Model and intersectionality theory, the current study, adopted strength-based perspectives, aims to understand unique experience related to familial and intimate relationships as well as their supports, and how they manage their relational needs as well as resilience process, shaped by the intersection of transgender identity and racial/ethnic identity. Through semi-structured …

Talking From The Soul: Exploring The Impact Of African American Vernacular English (Aave) In Digital News On Black Youth Political Behavior, Ananda Collins

Dissertations - ALL

Black youth have a long history of political engagement yet consistently report the lowest levels of traditional forms of political participation in the entire U.S electorate. While social media has emerged as an alternative political space, structural and linguistic barriers continue to limit their engagement. This dissertation examines whether African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in digital political news media influences the political behavior of young Black Americans. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines a survey experiment and in-depth interviews, this study tests whether political news written in AAVE, compared to Standard American English (SAE), affects political engagement, information retention, and …

Complex Question Analysis In Voice Commands Using Generate Sql For Database Searching, P. Prabaswara, D. Wardani

Baghdad Science Journal

The definition of a complex question is a long sentence with many focal points that may have many answers, involve many entities, or use non-standard linguistic constructs. Complex questions can be obtained from voice commands. It will help some people with blindness or visual impairments. Voice commands have become a mandatory feature of applications, including the basic one to access databases. In this work, the Generate Structured Query Language Configuration (GSC) approach was developed to answer complex questions in the Indonesian language. The non-learning approach was chosen as the learning process needs costly computation and is inappropriate for low-resource languages. …

Grit, Self-Assessment, And Second Language Proficiency: A Large-Scale Examination Using Data From The Language Ability Self-Evaluation Resource, Andrew T. Skoy

Theses and Dissertations

Grit has been defined as being "perseverance and passion for long-term goals" (Duckworth et al., 2007). Research has tied grit to success in the discipline of second language acquisition (SLA), where researchers have adapted Duckworth's general grit self-assessment instrument to capture measurements of grit within second language learners (Teimouri et al., 2022). Such a scale appears on the Language Ability Self-Evaluation Resource (LASER), a standardized language proficiency test developed by researcher at Brigham Young University. With the aim of replicating the studies that were done to validate the design of the LASER, responses to the grit-measuring section of the test …

A Black Feminist Materialist Consideration Of Reconstruction Era Education In Virginia March - August 1866, Lida Colón

Dissertations - ALL

In this archival study of outgoing correspondence from the Superintendent for Freedmen's Schools in Virginia, I developed a Black feminist intervention into New Materialisms in writing studies that names the material conditions of Reconstruction era education beyond the settler colonial narratives of federal archives. In doing so, I aimed to develop a frame of reference for navigating our contemporary teaching conditions as antiracist writing pedagogues. I aimed to address three overarching research questions for this dissertation: (1) What context for our own material conditions can be provided from an examination of Reconstruction era education? (2) What context can be provided …

The Unintended Consequences Of Deregulating Confidential Treatments, Jiahui Han

Dissertations - ALL

This paper examines how the SEC’s deregulation of confidential treatment under the FAST Act affected firms’ material contract redaction behavior and the broader economic consequences associated with disclosure opacity. Using a large sample of SEC filings, I document that confidential treatment is positively associated with both product market competition and lower 10-K readability, suggesting that redaction reflects both proprietary protection incentives and broader disclosure opacity. Further analyses using abnormal file size show that discretionary disclosure complexity remains significantly associated with redaction behavior after controlling for firms’ underlying economic complexity and reporting environment. I further find that the association between redaction …

Heritage Without Equity: Afro-Descendant Representation, State Governance, Museums And The Limits Of Cultural Policy In Belize, Sherilyne L. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how heritage governance in Belize shapes the representation, recognition, and participation of Afro-descendant communities within national cultural institutions and policy frameworks. Focusing on Creole/Kriol and Garifuna communities, the study analyses how law, institutional designs, museum practises, tourism development, and community-based heritage work to produce uneven forms of cultural visibility. I argue that Afro-descendant communities are not absent from Belizean heritage. Rather, their cultural presence has not consistently translated into institutional authority, sustained investments, or meaningful participation in decisions about national representation. Drawing on critical heritage theory, critical museology, post-colonial scholarship, and the concept of authorised heritage discourse, …

Testimonios From Latine Educational Leaders Supporting Youth Development Programs, Luis E. Feliciano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States has been experiencing a demographic change for the last twenty years representing a rise in both Latiné students and families. Despite this demographic change, Latiné folk remain widely underrepresented in school leadership, and furthermore underrepresented in specific Youth Development Programs (YDPs), with the relationship between educational leaders and YDPs being widely unexplored in academia. This study sought to bridge the gap between YDPs and educational leadership, specifically for Latiné folk by asking how Latiné educational leaders used their cultural heritage to encourage YDP development. To accomplish this a testimonio methodology was implemented via a two staged interview …

Evaluating The Role Of Individual Differences: Impact On Fruit And Vegetable Intake Outcomes In Nourish-T+ Caregivers Of Pediatric Cancer Survivors, Sandra Soca Lozano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric cancer survivors are at increased risk for obesity and related long-term health complications, highlighting the need for interventions promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors during survivorship. The present study examined caregivers’ fruit and vegetable intake in the full NOURISH-T+ intervention and evaluated whether their dietary outcomes changed from baseline to the 3-month post-assessment and differed by selected caregiver sociodemographic characteristics. The study also examined whether these characteristics accounted for variance in 3-month fruit and vegetable outcomes. Participants included 68 caregivers in the full NOURISH-T+ condition who completed both baseline and 3-month post-assessments. Fruit and vegetable intake was assessed using the Healthy …

Uncovering New Insights Through Young Children's Voices: A Qualitative Research Meta-Synthesis On Practicing Mindfulness At School, Elizabeth J Erwin, Mj Palombo, Meredith Valentine, Laura A Clark

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

The intention guiding the design of this study was to amplify and listen to children's voices in early years research. The aim of this qualitative research meta-synthesis was to engage in new analyses and interpretations about mindfulness through the lens of young children. Our research question emerged as a result of a gap in the literature about the importance of young children as the experts in their own lives, and the absence of a collective understanding about their first-hand perspectives about mindfulness practices in school. We critically examined findings from eight studies using a distinct seven-stage qualitative research meta-synthesis process, …

Human-Centred Generative Ai In Postgraduate Education Why Mediation, Calibration, And Contextual Flexibility Matter, Gabriela Zapata

Journal of Academic Research and Innovation

No abstract provided.

E3) Pop As Sacred Space: Rosalía’S Lux And The Reconfiguration Of Contemporary Spiritual Tourism, Dolors Vidal-Casellas, Adriana Figuerola Cortez

International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conferences

This paper analyzes Rosalía’s Lux album as a cultural device that reconfigures the relationships between spirituality, aesthetic experience, and contemporary mobility. Situated within a hybrid lineage of orchestral pop, sacred music, and avant-pop, the album constructs a sonic universe that transcends traditional musical consumption to offer a ritual-like experience. From the perspective of spiritual and cultural tourism, Lux is interpreted as a “symbolic pilgrimage space” where the listener engages in a sensory and affective journey. Its multi-movement structure, linguistic plurality, and references to mystical traditions and female figures from religious heritage shape a narrative of inner displacement that replaces physical …

The Shorthorn: September 29, 1982

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1980s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: September 23, 1982

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1980s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: September 22, 1982

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1980s

No abstract provided.

The Shorthorn: September 9, 1982

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1980s

No abstract provided.

Language, Life, And Indigenous Knowledge: Cultural Contexts In Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Education Approaches To Indigenous Language Revitalization In Kik'aslemal Ri Kaqchikela': An Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Textbook, José Israel Herrera

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. This article examines the relationship between Indigenous language revitalization and the continuity of socially embedded systems of knowledge through the case of advanced Kaqchikel Maya language education. Drawing upon scholarship on Indigenous pedagogies, linguistic anthropology, and Indigenous epistemologies, the article explores how culturally grounded approaches to language learning contribute not only to the development of linguistic competence but also to the reproduction of memories, values, and intellectual traditions. Particular attention is devoted to Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela': An Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Textbook, whose thematic organization and collaborative development illustrate broader processes of knowledge production and cultural continuity. Rather than …

A Scoping Review Of Sycophancy In Large Language Models: Operational And Theoretical Recognition, Kallen Zhou, Manning Littlejohn, Isabella Garrard

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

As large language models (LLMs) usage grows across different domains, sycophancy, the tendency for output to align with users, is increasingly being recognized as a primary issue arising from applying LLMs into critical areas. Current research has provided a variety of theoretical definitions, mitigation techniques, and quantification for sycophancy. However, there is little to no consistency across different papers. This scoping review seeks to connect different works on LLM sycophancy by identifying themes in theoretical definitions, measurement methods, and inducement techniques of sycophancy. By analyzing 26 papers (preprints, conference proceedings, and journal articles) from arXiv, ACL Anthology, and Scopus, this …

‘It’S A Win-Win Situation’— Cultivating University & School Partnerships, Emily Wisniewski, Kelly Virgin, Pauline Skowron Schmidt

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This qualitative case study examines Writing Zones, a fifteen-year university–high school partnership that embeds preservice English teachers in secondary classrooms as writing mentors. Drawing on surveys from 20 preservice teachers and eight high school teachers, along with follow-up interviews, the study explores perceptions of preparation, support, and program impact. Findings highlight Writing Zones as a mutually beneficial model that enhances student writing through individualized support while providing authentic, field-based learning for preservice teachers. However, effectiveness was conditional, shaped by mentor preparedness, clarity of roles, communication, and scheduling. The study underscores the importance of intentional training, sustained relationships, and institutional alignment …

A Systematic Review Of Writing Interventions For Elementary Pre-Service Teachers, Lindsey Wiggins, Hannah Carter, Katherine L. Wright

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Effective writing instruction in elementary classrooms depends on teachers who are prepared as both writers and instructors. Yet, writing methods courses remain limited in teacher preparation programs (TPPs), leaving many pre-service teachers (PSTs) underprepared to teach writing. This systematic literature review synthesized 20 U.S.-based studies (2011–2024) on writing and writing instruction interventions with elementary PSTs. Two questions guided the review: (a) How have researchers measured the effects of interventions? and (b) What are the characteristics of effective interventions? Findings show that most studies relied on self-reported measures, with limited use of validated or observational tools, raising concerns about consistency and …

Dismantling Future Writing Teachers’ English-Only Assumptions: Composing Videos To Learn The Value Of Linguistic And Cultural Inclusion, Ann N. Amicucci

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article presents the results of a study of 12 students’ video composing assignments and accompanying reflections in which students, all of whom were future writing teachers enrolled in an undergraduate TESOL course, examined how well public spaces acknowledged and included multilingual individuals. Students’ videos and reflections demonstrated that the assignment dismantled these future writing teachers’ assumptions that multilingual writers learn best in an English-only environment but perpetuated perceptions of languages as discrete rather than intertwined. Findings are discussed within the context of scholarship on writing teacher education and English-only policy and practice in the U.S.