Digital Commons Network^™

Fake News Detection In Online Platforms, Elena Shushkevich

Doctoral

This thesis presents research conducted during a Ph.D. program at Technological University Dublin from 2020 to 2024. The objective of this research is to develop and evaluate effective methods for detecting and classifying fake news in social media and press, addressing the critical issue of misinformation in the digital age. The relevance of this study is underscored by the increasing prevalence of fake news and its potential societal impact, emphasizing the importance of advanced tools for identifying and mitigating misinformation.

Stable Energy-Efficient Macro-Scale Partial Flow-Boiling Operations Using Microstructured Surfaces And Ultrasonics, Divya Kamlesh Pandya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Controlled but explosive growth in vaporization rates is made feasible by ultrasonic acoustothermal heating of the microlayers associated with micro-scale nucleating bubbles within the microstructured boiling surface/region of a millimeter-scale single-channel heat exchanger (HX) – part of a typically multi-channel heat-sink. The experiments illustrate the achievement of a remarkably high stable heat flux (10 – 80 W/cm²) for a partial flow-boiling-based cooling approach and exceptional efficiency through active/passive enhancement in the vaporization rates into the heterogeneously nucleated micro-bubbles (through acoustothermal heating of their microlayers) and their removal rates (typically within the passive microstructured region of boiling). A controlled …

Application Of Fusion Based Deep Learning Models To Improve Millimeter Wave Beamforming, Abishek Subramanian

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study addresses the challenge of selecting millimeter Wave (mmWave) beamforming pairs for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, to mitigate latency in highly dynamic vehicular environments. We investigate the use of out-of-band sensor data as side information to model mmWave ray tracing paths and predicting a subset of top-K optimal beamforming pairs for efficient and low-latency searches. Unimodal-Fusion Deep Learning (F-DL) networks was applied to enhance mmWave beamforming process. We started by first investigating the centralized architecture, and then explored a novel distributed architecture through federated learning to minimize resource and latency overheads. The distributed architecture incorporates two biased client selection strategies: …

Developing Robust Autonomous Vehicles With Ros, Dylan J. Kangas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The demand for autonomous vehicles (AVs) is rising across both military and civilian sectors. These unmanned systems offer numerous advantages, such as improved efficiency, safety, and adaptability. Addressing this demand requires the development of resilient and versatile autonomous vehicles crucial for the transport and reconnaissance markets.

The sensory perception of autonomous vehicles of any kind is paramount to their ability to navigate and localize in their environment. Factors such as sensor noise, erroneous readings, and deliberate attacks should all be considered when developing a robust autonomous system. This work aims to quantify the degradation of sensor data which causes mapping …

Wave Energy Converter Wave Force Prediction Using A Neural Network, Morgan Kline

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Due to the unpredictable nature of large bodies of water, wave energy can be a difficult renewable resource to rely on. One way to make Wave Energy Converters (WECs) more efficient is to apply a control strategy. In many control solutions, it is assumed that the wave excitation force is known into the future. In many instances, especially with complex waveforms, this is simply not the case. Simulation studies have shown the promise of wave force prediction using neural networks. This study demonstrates this experimentally and aims to characterize the important factors when designing such a network. Several wave elevation …

Assessing The Nutritional Quality And Fate Of Saginaw Bay Dreissenid Mussel Veligers, Mitch R. Kehne

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The introduction and establishment of dreissenid species including zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga (D. bugensis) mussels into the Laurentian Great Lakes has resulted in significant biological and ecological change over the past 30 years. Much of the current research completed to date on understanding dreissenid mussel impacts in the Great Lakes has primarily focused on the adult life stages with less known about the larval veliger form. The goals of this thesis were to; i) investigate veliger energy densities and fatty acid profiles to compare and contrast these nutritional metrics against pelagic zooplankton and; ii) determine …

Epi- And Genomic Assessments Of Stamp Sand Toxicity And Population Structure Of Lake Superior Lake Trout (Salvelinus Namaycush) And Whitefish (Coregonus Clupeaformis), John C. Mccall

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Native Lake Superior salmonid conservation is a notable success, as the only Great Lake with stable lake trout (LT) and whitefish fisheries (LWF). To quantify toxicity to LT and LWF from legacy pollution by mine tailings at Buffalo Reef in the Keweenaw Peninsula and assess their genetic structure across U.S. waters, I used reduced representation bisulfite sequencing and genotyped ~750 fishes from Buffalo Reef and Lake Superior. ~200-300 epigenetic marks in Buffalo Reef LT and LWF indicated dysregulation of pathways related to DNA damage, immune response, stress, and metabolism, relative to Lake Huron and Michigan outgroups. Population genomic analyses showed …

Examining Driver Preferences For Intelligent Audiovisual Warnings At Highway-Rail Grade Crossings, Samantha Walker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Driver noncompliance and poor decision-making are known contributors to highway-rail grade crossing incidents and accidents. Recent advances in intelligent in-vehicle warning systems have provided new opportunities for improved safety at highway-rail grade crossings. Intelligent warning systems that can communicate between connected vehicles and the infrastructure (V2I) have been proposed to improve safety. However, limited human factors research has been conducted regarding how drivers might react to these in-vehicle warnings. This study evaluated driver preferences, use cases, and message design variations for in-vehicle audiovisual warnings for rail crossing warning violations by varying two message factors: message length and whether the message …

Establishing A Two-Color Fluorescence Probe Assay For The Simultaneous Screening Of Glut5 And Glut2 Fructose Transporters In Live Cells, Oluwanifesimi Mary Afolabi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The mammalian facilitative glucose transporter (GLUT) family comprises 14 members that mediate the transport of hexoses across cell membranes. GLUT5 is the only member specific to fructose, and together with GLUT2, which transports fructose in addition to glucose, they make up the primary fructose transporters in humans. This study introduces a novel two-color fluorescence assay designed to simultaneously monitor the activity of GLUT5 and GLUT2 in live cells. 2,5-anhydro-D-mannitol (2,5-AM) a GLUT5 targeting compound has facilitated the development of various fructose-mimicking probes with a wide range of properties, such as radioactive imaging, fluorescent, photoactive, and drug delivery capabilities. Effective and …

Bayesian And Frequentist Approaches To Rescuing Disrupted Trials, Cornelia Ursula Kunz, Sergey Tarima, Gary L. Rosner, Richard Emsley, Madeline Bauer, Christopher Jennison, James L. Rosenberger, Nigel Stallard, Sarah Zohar, Nancy Flournoy

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted clinical trials in ways never expected. However, similar challenges should now be expected going forward. These challenges made us aware of statistical problems arising from other types of disruptions that had not previously captured the attention of the statistical community. This article describes some frequentist and Bayesian statistical tools that can be used with future disruptions and illuminates issues that could benefit from more statistical research. Disruptions may threaten a clinical trial’s validity. Here, we address two resultant challenges: (a) performing an unplanned analysis with options to stop and/or change the sample size; and (b) changes …

Gwas Of Multiple Neuropathology Endophenotypes Identifies New Risk Loci And Provides Insights Into The Genetic Risk Of Dementia, Lincoln M.P. Shade, Yuriko Katsumata, Erin L. Abner, Khine Zin Aung, Steven A. Claas, Qi Qiao, Bernardo Aguzzoli Heberle, J. Anthony Brandon, Madeline L. Page, Timothy J. Hohman, Shubhabrata Mukherjee, Richard P. Mayeux, Lindsay A. Farrer, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Jonathan L. Haines, Walter A. Kukull, Kwangsik Nho, Andrew J. Saykin, David A. Bennett, Julie A. Schneider, Julie A. Schneider, Lindsay A. Farrer, Richard P. Mayeux, Subhabrata Mukherjee, Andrew J. Saykin, Walter A. Kukull

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >80 Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD)-associated genetic loci. However, the clinical outcomes used in most previous studies belie the complex nature of underlying neuropathologies. Here we performed GWAS on 11 ADRD-related neuropathology endophenotypes with participants drawn from the following three sources: the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center, the Religious Orders Study and Rush Memory and Aging Project, and the Adult Changes in Thought study (n = 7,804 total autopsied participants). We identified eight independent significantly associated loci, of which four were new (COL4A1, PIK3R5, LZTS1 and APOC2). Separately testing known ADRD loci, 19 loci …

Individual-Network Based Predictions Of Microbial Interaction Signatures For Response To Biological Therapies In Ibd Patients, Federico Melograna, Padhmanand Sudhakar, Behnam Yousefi, Clara Caenepeel, Gwen Falony, Sara Vieira-Silva, Sreenikhitha Krishnamoorthy, David Fardo, Bram Verstockt, Jeroen Raes, Severine Vermeire, Kristel Van Steen

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which includes Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD), is marked by dysbiosis of the gut microbiome. Despite therapeutic interventions with biological agents like Vedolizumab, Ustekinumab, and anti-TNF agents, the variability in clinical, histological, and molecular responses remains significant due to inter-individual and inter-population differences. This study introduces a novel approach using Individual Specific Networks (ISNs) derived from faecal microbial measurements of IBD patients across multiple cohorts. These ISNs, constructed from baseline and follow-up data post-treatment, successfully predict therapeutic outcomes based on endoscopic remission criteria. Our analysis revealed that ISNs characterised by core gut microbial families, …

Stigma And Efficacy Beliefs Regarding Opioid Use Disorder Treatment And Naloxone In Communities Participating In The Healing Communities Study Intervention, Nicky Lewis, Barry Eggleston, Redonna K. Chandler, Dawn Goddard-Eckrich, Jamie E. Luster, Dacia Beard, Emma Rodgers, Rouba A. Chahine, Philip M. Westgate, Shoshana N. Benjamin, Janae Holloway, Thomas Clarke, R. Craig Lefebvre, Michael D. Stein, Donald W. Helme, Jennifer Reynolds, Sharon L. Walsh, Darcy Freedman, Nabila El-Bassel, Kara Stephens, Anita Silwal, Michelle R. Lofwall, Janet E. Childerhose, Hilary L. Surratt, Brooke N. Crockett, Amy L. Farmer, James L. David, Laura Fanucchi, Judy Harness, Ben Wilburn, Kelli Bursey, Kristin Mattson, Sarah Mann, Rebecca D. Jackson, Aimee Shadwick, Katherine Calver, Deborah Chassler, Jennifer Kimball, Nancy Regan, Jeffrey H. Samet, Rachel Sword-Cruz, Michael D. Slater

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background The HEALing Communities Study (HCS) included health campaigns as part of a community-engaged intervention to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths in 67 highly impacted communities across Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. Five campaigns were developed with community input to provide information on opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose prevention, reduce stigma, and build demand for evidence-based practices (EBPs). An evaluation examined the recognition of campaign messages about naloxone and whether stigma and efficacy beliefs regarding OUD treatment and naloxone changed in HCS intervention communities.

Methods Data were collected through surveys offered on Facebook/Instagram to members of communities participating in …

Retaining Resilient Teachers In Turbulent Times, Rachel N. Capitano, Allison L. Castellano

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Teacher vacancies were at an all-time high. It was time, as Becky Pringle, National Education Association (NEA) President, stated, to address this “five-alarm crisis” (Walker, 2022). The demands on educators were really high during the recent pandemic (Casey, 2022). Emotional intelligence was essential to a leader’s as well as an organization’s success. Having emotionally intelligent leaders had an impact on an employee's job satisfaction and possibly helped with teacher retention at schools.

This study used a two-stage mixed-methods approach to examine whether there was a correlation between a principal’s emotional intelligence rating (EQ) and their teachers’ annual school effectiveness questionnaire …

The Impact On Growth Of The Scientific And Engineering Practices Throughout The Semester In 9th Grade Earth Science, Mallory Wills-Howe

Graduate Research Papers

The goal of my Non Thesis Masters Project is the development of three instructional units that emphasize the Scientific and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and give students the opportunity to show growth in those SEPs. The three instructional units were implemented in a 9th grade Earth Science classroom over the course of the semester. In all three units students focused on the following SEPs: Asking questions, Analyzing and Interpreting Data, and Engaging in an Argument from Evidence. The content and Next Generation Science Standards that were addressed included: Unit One- Earths Changes addressing NGSS (HS-ESS2-1), Unit Two- Earths History addressing NGSS …

Representation Of Lgbtq+ Characters In The 2019 To 2022 Iowa Teen Award Books, Jamie Thompson

Graduate Research Papers

This qualitative literary content analysis examines the representation of LGBTQ+ themes in the student-nominated Iowa Teen Award (ITA) books from the past three years to help librarians and classroom teachers build an inclusive library collection. The research question posed in this study is: In what ways are LGBTQ+ characters represented in the Iowa Teen Award books? The analysis of eight middle-grade books (Appendix A) using the book analysis tool (Appendix B) identified three themes: Transformation of Understanding, Hopefulness, and Richness of Plot. Results showed that while all the books had a complex storyline, only five of the books showed a …

Gamification And Engagement In A 3rd Grade Classroom, Ellen Braet

Graduate Research Papers

Structural gamification is the addition of elements traditionally found in games into a classroom environment. This research examines the effects of gamification on student engagement in 3rd grade in a math classroom. In this mixed-methods research, a group of 3rd grade students were taught both gamified and non-gamified lessons. At the end of each lesson, the students were given surveys to assess their thoughts on both lesson formats and were observed for on-task and off-task behaviors. This research found that gamified lessons were more effective at improving engagement compared to non-gamified lessons. Future research on gamification in elementary classrooms was …

Body Image In College Athletics, Tyrell Gordon

Graduate Research Papers

Body image dissatisfaction of college athletes is a real problem and it is affecting female athletes at an alarming rate compared to their male counterparts. Body image is a multidimensional construct involving perceptions and attitudes of the body’s functional capabilities and physical appearance. Although women experience a greater level of body dissatisfaction than men, previous research shows that men are experiencing greater levels of negative body image than in the past. The dominant explanation for this trend is one of two things, the first of which is that women participate in more aesthetically pleasing sports such as soccer, gymnastics, volleyball, …

Implications Of Educational Environments For Gender And Sexually Diverse Adolescents, Margaret J. Staff

Graduate Research Papers

Gender and sexually diverse adolescents (GSD) experience extreme risk to their safety and well-being in all parts of their lives, including in their educational experience (The Trevor Project, 2023). With the risks GSD adolescents experience, it is important to understand the negatives and positives they report. Positive experiences included their self-defined identities, peer connections, and the GSD community and negative experiences surrounded their families, schools, religious institutions, and residential communities (Higa et al., 2014).

Adverse Childhood Experiences Increasing The Likelihood Of Substance Use Disorder, Kelsey L. Cain

Graduate Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Alcohol Use In Adulthood, Callie Franzen

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and alcohol use in adulthood among individuals who responded to the BRFSS 2022 study. Secondary data was used to gather information on adults. The BRFSS 2022 survey was a national survey conducted by the CDC that utilized stratified sampling to create two groups of participants based on phone number type. The final number of participants used in this sample was 445,132 adults aged 18 to 80 with 209,238 males and 235,894 females, and the races consisted of 333,514 Whites, 35,876 Blacks, 20,607 Asians, 42,977 Hispanics, …

Evaluating The Impact Of Model-Evidence-Link Charts In Seventh-Grade Student’S Ability To Engage In Scientific Argumentation Over Plant Reproductive Structures, Josephine Libby

Graduate Research Papers

The MEL has been utilized in a variety of topics, but not plant reproductive structures. The resource would allow students to form connections between provided scientific text and provided models. The goal is to have students understand the text and connect it to the correct model over the model based on a common misconception.

The study also investigated whether the use of these models would gain student confidence in the area of scientific argumentation. Scientific argumentation is a scientific practice a part of the Next Generation Science Standards that have been adopted by the state of Iowa. The middle school …

Measurement: The Forgotten Unit: Introduction To Quantitative Data Acquisition In Ninth Grade Physical Science, James F. Duff

Graduate Research Papers

What if you have determined that the students you teach need foundational knowledge and skills that are not addressed in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? My Ninth Grade Physical Science class provides an introduction to the data intensive subjects of subsequent secondary science classes. Sound data requires accurate measurements. Students in my classes have struggled with layering the metric system of measurement on top of the Imperial system and the NGSS lacks a standard that directly addresses measurement with metric units.

I used the Backward Design process of Wiggins & McTighe (2005) to construct a unit centered on the …

Neural Correlates Of Audiovisual Narrative Speech Perception In Children And Adults On The Autism Spectrum: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study, Lars A. Ross, Sophie Molholm, John S. Butler, Victor A. Del Bene, Tufikameni Brima, John J. Foxe

Articles

Autistic individuals show substantially reduced benefit from observing visual articulations during audiovisual speech perception, a multisensory integration deficit that is particularly relevant to social communication. This has mostly been studied using simple syllabic or word-level stimuli and it remains unclear how altered lower-level multisensory integration translates to the processing of more complex natural multisensory stimulus environments in autism. Here, functional neuroimaging was used to examine neural correlates of audiovisual gain (AV-gain) in 41 autistic individuals to those of 41 age-matched non-autistic controls when presented with a complex audiovisual narrative. Participants were presented with continuous narration of a story in auditory-alone, …

Towards Interpretable Propaganda Detection In News Text Through The Use Of Rhetorical Devices As Features, Kyle Hamilton

Doctoral

This doctoral thesis presents research undertaken towards interpretable propaganda detection in news text. Propaganda and mis/disinformation in the media have been identified in the social sciences literature as a major threat to the functioning of democratic society. While mis/disinformation is false by definition, propaganda is intended to modify the beliefs and behaviors of the information consumer but does not have to be false. Propagandistic text is often characterized by the use of rhetorical devices and linguistic style designed to exploit the reader’s cognitive and emotional biases. One way of counteracting this effect is by shifting the focus from “what” is …

Polymeric Spray-Applied Pipe Lining Selection, Evaluation And System Design, Sanaz Ghalambor

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

POLYMERIC SPRAY-APPLIED PIPE LINING SELECTION, EVALUATION

AND SYSTEM DESIGN

Sanaz Ghalambor, PhD

The University of Texas at Arlington, 2024

Supervising Professor: Dr. Mohammad Najafi

Numerous pipes are considerably aged, and most are no longer functional. Immediate attention is required to either restore or replace these pipelines. To avoid digging up and replacing underground pipes, the Spray-Applied Pipe Lining (SAPL) rehabilitation technology, also known as Spray-In-Place-Pipe (SIPP) lining, can be used for pipe rehabilitation. This approach lowers expenses and downtime while preserving landscapes and structures and enhancing hydraulic characteristics. Although lining water pipes through spray application is the oldest pipeline rehabilitation …

Advanced Network And Graph Theoretical Approaches To Urban Traffic Control And Optimization, Peirong Wang

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This article-based dissertation consists of four complete manuscripts related to using proposed advanced network and graph theoretical approaches to optimize traffic control. Manuscript One addresses the integration of Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and human-driven vehicles in heterogeneous traffic networks. Traditional models assume uniform driving behaviors, which are now inadequate. To address this, an integer programming formulation for a vehicle-oriented traffic dynamics model in space-time networks is introduced. This model distinguishes between individual vehicles and their unique driving behaviors, capturing diverse attributes of heterogeneous traffic flow. The manuscript demonstrates how the model can estimate the propagation of backward shockwaves for scheduled …

Flood Frequency Analyses Using Depth-Area Reduction Factors (Darfs) In Texas, Mohamad Ahmadzadeh

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The increasing frequency and severity of flood events globally necessitate more accurate and reliable hydrologic models to inform flood risk management and mitigation strategies. Traditional hydrologic models have often relied on the simplification of uniformly distributed rainfall across watersheds, a method that fails to account for the spatial variability inherent in real-world storm events. This dissertation addresses this critical gap by applying Depth-Area Reduction Factors (DARFs) in hydrologic modeling, specifically focusing on the Trinity and Neches River Basins in Texas. DARFs are used to adjust point rainfall data to reflect the reduction in rainfall intensity as storm areas increase, thereby …

Evaluating The Performance Of Different Long Short-Term Memory Networks (Lstm’S) On Financial Timeseries Data Using Mean Squared Error In Order To Identify The Optimum Lstm Variant For Regression Performance On Financial Timeseries Data., Patrick O’ Connor

ICT

This study explores the use of Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks, a variant of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), in the context of financial forecasting, specifically oil price prediction. The research follows the CRISP-DM (Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining) methodology and tests six different LSTM variants. The models are evaluated based on Mean Squared Error (MSE), aiming to determine the optimal parameter settings for each LSTM type. Among the variants tested, the Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) emerged as the highest performer, achieving an MSE of 0.100. This was surprising, as simpler variants outperformed more complex ones, suggesting that simpler …

Maize Crop Pests And Diseases Classification Using Hybrid Models., Diana Flora Namaemba

ICT

This research focuses on improving the detection and classification of maize crop pests and diseases to enhance agricultural yield and food security. A dataset comprising 5389 images of maize conditions (healthy, pest-affected, and disease-affected) across seven classes was used. The images underwent preprocessing, including resizing to 299x299, class balancing using augmentation techniques, and noise reduction with Gaussian filtering.

Feature extraction utilised EfficientNetB0 and InceptionV3 architectures, with PCA employed for feature selection. Classification was conducted using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) with a One-vs-One strategy, alongside a baseline 2D CNN model. Data engineering included label encoding, standardisation, and an 80:10:10 train-test-validation …