Racing To Safety: Tax Policy For Ai Safety-By-Design, Mirit Eyal-Cohen, Yonathan Arbel

SMU Law Review

The White House recently announced its vision of artificial intelligence (AI) policy: AI development is a race and America must win it. To that end, a new America’s AI Action Plan directs federal agencies and states to remove regulatory barriers to AI development and accelerate innovation. This approach leaves limited room for regulatory measures that would address the safety risks of powerful AI systems: their behavior in novel domains remains unpredictable, their decision-making opaqueness, and their alignment with human values is uncertain. While experts warn of large-scale accidents, policymakers find themselves in a bind: Regulate AI and cede ground to …

Tracking Co2 Illinois Ccs Monitoring Wells, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the Illinois carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. Includes information on the project's CO₂ monitoring system.

Mitigating The Effects Of Technology Use In The Classroom: An Occupational Therapy Approach, Hannah E. Ibach

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Background: The average child spends three times the recommended time on technology, which is leading to a wide range of consequences affecting education, such as fine motor, cognitive, and social deficits (Christensen, 2021; McGough, 2021; Qi et al., 2023). Parents and teachers play a crucial role in helping children be prepared for their education, yet many are not aware of the impacts of too much technology use (Srivastava, 2022). Developing strong foundational skills early in childhood is critical for setting the stage for long-term educational success. When skills are nurtured from a young age, children are better prepared to adapt …

Pathways To Participation: Enhancing Inclusion For Individuals With Idd, Katie Koxlien

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Background: Youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) continue to experience barriers to meaningful community participation despite policies promoting inclusive community-based services (Friedman, 2017). Sensory sensitivities, difficulty with transitions, and overstimulating environments frequently limit engagement and increase anxiety or behavioral responses when appropriate supports are not present (Bagatell et al., 2022; Dean et al., 2018; Tint et al., 2017). Research indicates that inclusion requires intentional programming that incorporates structured supports, consistent routines, and opportunities for meaningful engagement (Edwards et al., 2021; Hall, 2016).

Methods: The purpose of this scholarly project was to develop a week long sensory exploration camp for …

Evaluating Llms For Cpe Identification In Iot Reconnaissance, Christopher Davisson

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Vulnerability identification during penetration testing relies on rigid string-matching to map network scan data to Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) identifiers and downstream Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). The approach frequently fails on physical Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which produce non-standard, irregular service banners that resist deterministic parsing. Large Language Models can reason through these fuzzy associations, but cloud-hosted models introduce cost, latency, and operational security concerns when processing reconnaissance data from live networks. This thesis asks whether locally-hosted open-weight Large Language Models (LLMs) can perform this task well enough to be useful, and how performance varies with model scale, …

Handwriting Recognition In Vr, Dominique Mosley

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Virtual Reality (VR) is slowly becoming more popular for more than just entertainment. VR can be found in educational, office, and even healthcare settings to help discover more intuitive ways to teach, collaborate, and treat patients. Outside of the virtual world, these environments typically rely on writing for communicating or note-taking. Currently, VR input forces users to rely on clunky on-screen keyboards which disrupts the user’s immersion and breaks the flow of natural interaction. This thesis explores the potential of VR as a learning platform by combining it with artificial intelligence (AI). It aims to develop a VR-enhanced handwriting practicing …

Macroinvertebrate Taxonomic And Functional Diversity In The Spokane River Watershed, Kaitlin L. Abell

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Changes in land use, such as agricultural expansion, have impacted stream systems by modifying discharge, substrate diversity, channel morphology, and nutrient inputs. The Spokane River Watershed is heavily impacted by human activity, including urban and agricultural development. Rehabilitation efforts are being organized to reintroduce Salmonidae species in the Spokane River Watershed. The first step of this reintroduction is to perform habitat studies to inform allocation of restoration efforts. As part of this effort, I performed benthic macroinvertebrate surveys throughout the watershed.

The objective of my research was to use the macroinvertebrate community as a biological indicator to determine which habitat …

Dietary Ecology Of Waterfowl Nest Predators In The Prairie Pothole Region: Evaluating Resource Use From Species To Individual Using Stable Isotope Analysis, Grace Barthelmess

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Nest predation is a primary factor influencing waterfowl productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America. Although this system is intensely managed and studied, research has largely focused on how predators affect waterfowl populations, with comparatively little attention to how predators actually rely on waterfowl as a resource. Understanding predator feeding ecology is therefore critical for informing effective management strategies and interpreting the complexity of predator-prey interactions on this landscape. My objective overall was to elucidate the feeding ecology of nine focal predator species commonly associated with waterfowl nest predation in the Aspen Parkland Ecoregion of the PPR: …

Relationships Between Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities And Environmental Conditions In Headwater Tributaries Of The Pend Oreille Lake Watershed, Idaho, Devlin Mee

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Benthic macroinvertebrates are widely used indicators of stream condition, and their communities respond to thermal and land-use conditions in headwater streams. This study characterized macroinvertebrate biomass, community composition, and diversity across forested headwater tributaries of the Pend Oreille lake watershed in northern Idaho, and examined their relationships with summer temperature, land development, and road proximity. Samples from thirteen streams collected in 2024 were identified to genus, measured, and converted to estimated biomass using published length–mass regressions; ten streams had recovered temperature loggers. Because environmental variables were characterized once per stream, all analyses were conducted at the stream level.

Estimated total …

The Journey Of High School Teachers Evolving Into Career Educators, Diane B. Ried

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Teacher attrition has been a major challenge in the United States for decades, but more so after covid. This case study explored and expanded the understanding of the different levels of environmental impact on high school teacher retention in a Florida high school as they evolved into career educators. The present study used Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory to examine the teacher’s retention in a county in northcentral Florida. In order to better understand the experience of career development, this study used Savickas’ Career Construction Theory (2019). This case study investigated strategies, supports, and diversity related initiatives impacting a …

Student And Faculty Outcomes And Experiences In High School Career And Technical Education: A Vocational Program Evaluation, Ayana E. Moore

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive program evaluation of vocational schools in Duval County, with the goal of laying the groundwork for assessing effectiveness of vocational education. This study utilized exploratory mixed-methods approach, gathering quantitative and qualitative data about high school graduation rates, career readiness, college enrollment, experiences, and satisfaction levels from students and faculty at fully accredited vocational high schools. By synthesizing findings from existing literature and analyzing data, the study sought to elucidate the impact of vocational high school programs and offer insights into the benefits and areas for improvement in vocational programs. Ultimately, the research aims to inform …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Perceptions Of Professional College Consultants Regarding The History And Future Of College Acceptance Inequity, Kimberly A. Spencer

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While inequities in college admissions processes in the United States have long been discussed, there have been seismic changes in policies during the last decade with increased competition for limited spots, significant cultural and political shifts affecting higher education, and the effects of the pandemic all further contributing to what has become a very complicated process. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to explore the perceptions of professionals working as Independent Educational Consultants counseling students through the college admissions process to gain insight into how the system is functioning for all students from those working closely with both …

Performance Of Numerical Methods Applied To The Black–Scholes Model, Scott Cameron Williams

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We compare five numerical approaches for approximating solutions to the Black–Scholes partial differential equation for pricing European call options: FTCS, BTCS, Crank– Nicolson, Monte Carlo simulation, and a physics–informed neural network (PINN). These methods span finite difference techniques, probabilistic simulation, and machine learning. Performance is evaluated based on computational efficiency and accuracy relative to the analytical Black–Scholes solution.

Among the methods, Crank–Nicolson and the PINN demonstrated the strongest overall performance. Crank–Nicolson achieved the highest accuracy but exhibited increased runtime as the number of underlying stock price grid points grew. In contrast, the PINN produced slightly less accurate results but with …

Multi-Objective Optimization Strategy For Component Sizing In Solar-Hydrogen Microgrids Using An Advanced Hybrid Genetic Algorithm, Dylan Jones

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the development of a genetic algorithm (GA) optimization framework for the design and component sizing of hybrid solar-hydrogen microgrids. The framework addresses a critical gap in research and existing commercial tools by unifying performance maximization and cost minimization objectives across both grid-tied and islanded configurations. Integrating solar photovoltaics, electrolyzers, hydrogen storage, fuel cells, and batteries, the GA employs adaptive weighting and dynamic boundary constraints to balance technical feasibility with economic efficiency. To ensure real-world viability, the algorithm relies on a novel Daylight Sun Factor (DSF) for localized solar assessment and was rigorously validated against multi-year, high-fidelity irradiance …

A Comparative Evaluation Of Data Imbalance Handling Techniques In Machine Learning Models For One-Year Mortality Prediction In Liver Cirrhosis, Sumiya Hasan Trisha

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Liver cirrhosis is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, making one-year mortality prediction a clinically relevant problem. Using a liver cirrhosis dataset as the motivating application, this thesis evaluates five machine learning classifiers—Logistic Regression, Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost—under five class-imbalance handling strategies: Baseline learning, Random Oversampling, SMOTE-NC, ADASYN, and Cost-Sensitive Learning. Hyperparameter tuning was conducted using randomized search, and predictive performance was assessed over 200 iterations of Monte Carlo Cross-Validation using Accuracy, Precision, Recall, Fl-score, and ROC-AUC.

The results suggest that imbalance-handling strategies can materially affect predictive performance, particularly recall. Because the outcome of interest is death within …

Ridit-Based Adaptive Allocation In Two-Stage Clinical Trials With Binary Outcomes, Dewan Fahim

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores better ways to assign patients to treatments in clinical trials with binary outcomes, such as success or failure. Adaptive methods are used to learn from early results and adjust treatment assignments during the trial, helping more patients receive better performing treatments while maintaining reliable conclusions. We focus on trials comparing multiple treatments using a two-stage design. In the first stage, several treatments are tested to identify the most promising one; in the second stage, that treatment is compared with a control. Unlike traditional equal assignment, we use adaptive allocation in the second stage to make better use …

Variance Shrinkage In Dunnett-Type Multiple Comparisons With Missing Data, Md Habibullah

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dunnett’s procedure is widely used for comparing multiple treatments with a control, but its application becomes challenging in the presence of missing data and multiple com- parisons. An improved Dunnett-type procedure addresses this by using multiple imputation under Rubin’s framework and constructing unified confidence intervals based on a multi- variate t distribution, allowing valid simultaneous inference while controlling the family-wise error rate (FWER). This work further extends the method by incorporating shrinkage-based variance estimation. Specifically, individual group variances are shrunk toward a common value to improve stability. This approach is particularly effective when group variances are similar or moderately different, …

A Comparative Study Of Classification Methods For Healthcare Analytics, Xueting Zhao

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a comparative study of logistic regression, Linear Discriminant Analy- sis (LDA), and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA) for binary classification in healthcare analytics, integrating theoretical derivation, simulation, and real-data application. A facto- rial simulation study crosses the covariance structure (equal vs. unequal), predictor correla- tion (ρ ∈ {0, 0.5, 0.9}), dimensionality (p ∈ {2, 5, 10}) and sample size (n ∈ {50, 100, 200}) across 54 scenarios with 1,000 Monte Carlo replicates each. Three main findings emerge. Logistic regression and LDA are nearly interchangeable when the assumption of equal-covariance holds. QDA achieves substantially better discrimi- nation when class-specific …

Two-Stage Response-Adaptive Randomization Designs For Multi-Arm Trials With Normal Outcome, Tanjin Tamanna Happy

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on improving how clinical trials compare new treatments with a standard treatment, when the response is quantitative (normally distributed). In a common two-stage design, several new treatments are first evaluated, and the best-performing one is selected if it appears better than the standard. In the second stage, this selected treatment is compared again with the standard using additional data to confirm its effectiveness. This approach is known to be efficient in terms of accuracy and sample size savings. We extend this design by introducing an adaptive method for assigning patients to treatments in the second stage. Instead …

A Stability Analysis Of The Phase-Lock Equations, Brian M. Sunguza

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ginzburg and Landau have provided a set of equations that relate superconductivity to magnetic fields. Through a transformation process, Zhan has derived what are now called the phase-lock equations. A stability analysis of the spatially-independent phase-lock equations is the purpose of this presentation. This simplification is significant since it allowed for the analytical determination of equilibria, their stability, and the influence of a periodic forcing function. Through the use of an original code, numerical simulations are shown to corroborate the analytical results described above.

This analysis includes novel Lyapunov functions that allowed for the analytical determination of the instability region. …

When The Why Is Greater Than The What: "Exploring School Deans' Discipline Decision Making: A Grounded Theory Investigation Into Disciplinary Practices & Policies At The School Level", Lashawn S. Russ-Porterfield

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This constructivist grounded theory study investigated how school deans interpret and enact disciplinary decision-making within the complex social, organizational, and policy environments of contemporary secondary schools. Despite increasing advocacy for restorative and non-exclusionary disciplinary approaches, exclusionary practices—such as out-of-school suspension—remain prevalent, often contributing to disproportionality and adverse student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to generate a grounded theory explaining how contextual, relational, and structural factors shape deans’ decisions when selecting between exclusionary and restorative responses to student behavior.

Twenty-one deans from secondary schools in north Florida participated in semi-structured interviews. Data collection and analysis followed Charmaz’s (2014) constructivist …

Energy-Efficient Security For Narrowband Iot Using Blockchain And Ep-Cumac, Hafizullah Kakar

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) continues to expand but faces challenges such as cryptographic overhead and energy consumption. Security frameworks such as blockchain and Energy-Performance Cumulative Message Authentication Codes (EP-CuMAC) rely heavily on SHA-256, which is not optimized for energy-limited devices.

This work unifies two complementary approaches, a hybrid blockchain-based NB-IoT framework and an EP-CuMAC-based framework, by engineering their cryptographic core with an Energy Complexity Model-optimized SHA-256 (ECM-SHA256). ECM applies parallel memory-bank mapping and block-level access optimization to reduce redundant power usage while preserving algorithmic integrity.

Experimental evaluation on identical Intel DDR3 systems using pyRAPL shows energy savings of …

Experimental Validation Of Optical Wireless Communication And Power Transfer For Uav Applications, Fnu Dhruv

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionized emergency response, disaster assessment, and search-and-rescue operations. However, their operational efficacy is fundamentally constrained by limited battery endurance and the susceptibility of traditional radio-frequency communication to disruption in adverse weather. To address these limitations, this thesis proposes and experimentally validates a novel architecture integrating Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication with Simultaneous Lightweight Information and Power Transfer (SLIPT). This system utilizes a split-beam configuration to concurrently enable high-bandwidth data transmission and optical energy harvesting to replenish the UAV's battery pack. The research was conducted in three progressive phases. Initially, system feasibility was established through rigorous optical …

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Families Of Students With Significant Disabilities In Accessing Community Transition Supports In Rural Settings, Michael David Green Jr.

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The transition process beyond high school can be daunting for students with disabilities and their families. Families often encounter difficulties accessing community-based supports after students leave the K–12 education system despite federal legislative mandates under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Rural contexts further complicate the experience for families accessing adult services after high school. The current hermeneutic phenomenological study explored how families of students with significant disabilities experienced accessing community transition supports after leaving high school in rural contexts. Through the lens of van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology, the study explored …

Operationalizing Mtss: A Case Study Of Principal Leadership Practices In Guiding School-Based Leadership Teams Through Inquiry And Improvement Science, Heather M. Teto

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic widened academic achievement gaps, creating an urgent mandate for school leaders to implement systemic, data-driven frameworks to support student academic recovery. While the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is a widely adopted framework for addressing these disparities, its success is dependent on the strategic involvement and instructional leadership of the school principal. This qualitative case study explores the lived experiences and leadership characteristics of elementary school principals as they lead School-Based Leadership Teams in implementing a district-developed MTSS framework.

Guided by the principles of Improvement Science and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) inquiry cycle, this research examines the specific …

Fostering Reading: Review Of A College Bridge Program For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing High School Students, Cara Wilmot

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods formative program evaluation examined the reading component of a summer College Bridge Program (CBP) designed for high school students who are deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh). Persistent disparities in reading outcomes among d/Dhh students have been linked to differences in language access, communication access, and opportunities to receive specialized instruction. Using the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) evaluation model, this study evaluated how the CBP identified and addressed students' reading needs, implemented evidence-based instructional practices, and supported reading development through a three-week summer program.

Participants included 45 d/Dhh high school students from 12 southeastern states, as well …

Growth And Dielectric Characterization Of Epitaxial Sr1-Xmgxtio3 Thin Films, Richard Badu

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Complex oxide materials with ferroelectric ground states remain promising candi dates for next-generation high-capacitance and nonlinear microelectronic applica tions. One of those materials is SrTiO3 (STO). However, STO is an incipient fer roelectric with anomalously high dielectric permittivity at low temperatures. STO crystals possess a highly polarizable lattice that is sensitive to even small amounts of impurities. Substituting Mg into the STO matrix is predicted to induce a corre lation between ferroelectric and relaxor behavior. In this thesis, we demonstrated the growth of a series of epitaxial STO and Sr1-xMgxTiO3 thin films using molec ular beam epitaxy. The surface evolution …

Investigating The Effects Of Pressure On Fe And Co Intercalated 2h-Tas2 Through First-Principle Calculations, Ronald E. Putnam Jr.

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using first-principles methods, we investigate the effects of applied isotropic pressure on the electronic and magnetic properties of intercalated Fe1/3TaS2 and Co1/3TaS2. Fe1/3TaS2 has been shown to be a ferromagnet that undergoes structural and magnetic phase transitions under applied pressure. The magnetic phase transitions are observed to be linked to the structural shift, and a mixture of magnetic phase states is present between 3 GPa and 6 GPa. Co1/3TaS2 was found to be antiferromagnetic, as confirmed by experimental work. One- and two-unit-cell systems of Co1/3TaS2 are analyzed, both showing band splitting that disappears under pressure. The application of pressure forces …