Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Circadian Entrainment In Rice Blast Disease, Ciaran Griffin

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

A circadian clock is present in some capacity in almost all forms of life, and is useful for a wide array of traits, but crucially allows organisms to predict future conditions and adapt their behaviour to synchronise with, and thrive under, their dynamic environment. Accordingly, plant environmental stress responses are gated in a circadian manner, including that for pathogenic defence and immunity. Comparatively less work has been carried out on the plant pathogens, but there are increasing reports of pathogens capable of rhythmically altering their behaviour and virulence-related traits. Magnaporthe oryzae, the fungal pathogen responsible for the destruction of enough …

Towards The Validation Of Novel Cognitive And Physiological Indicators Of Affective State In Horses (Equus Caballus), Sarah Kappel

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Assessing animal emotions reliably is crucial for making accurate decisions about animal welfare, but subjective affective (emotional) states are inaccessible for direct measurement. We know that negative affect modulates attention in humans and some animals. The overarching aim of this thesis is to investigate if the preferential attention allocation towards certain information (i.e. attention bias, AB) could be a potential proxy measure of affective valence in horses. First, I provide an overview of the theoretical background to attention and AB by reviewing the literature on AB in humans and animals (Chapter 2). I examine which methodological aspects need consideration when …

River Water Quality In Agricultural Areas • R (Sahota) V Herefordshire Council And Another [2022] Ewca Civ 1640, B Coupland, J Sellick, J Lowther

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Introduction. The issue at the heart of this judicial review relates to the maintenance of water quality in agricultural areas and where there is documented stress placed on river systems though nutrient run-off. Often this is caused through manure spreading and/or the use of chemical fertilisers. The case concerned a proposal for relatively small agricultural development, the consequences of which would be additional manure generation and land spread in the River Wye catchment. The river is noted as under pressure from such inputs and a challenge was brought against a decision of the respondent local authority to permit the proposed …

Using Machine Learning To Identify Patterns In Learner-Submitted Code For The Purpose Of Assessment, Botond Tarcsay, Fernando Perez-Tellez, Jelena Vasic

Conference papers

Programming has become an important skill in today’s world and is taught widely both in traditional and online settings. Instructors need to grade increasing amounts of student work. Unit testing can contribute to the automation of the grading process but it cannot assess the structure or partial correctness of code, which is needed for finely differentiated grading. This paper builds on previous research that investigated machine learning models for determining the correctness of programs from token-based features of source code and found that some such models can be successful in classifying source code with respect to whether it passes unit …

Detecting Road Intersections From Satellite Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Fatmaelzahraa Eltaher Ph.D, Luis Miralles-Pechuán, Jane Courtney, Susan Mckeever

Conference papers

Automatic detection of road intersections is an important task in various domains such as navigation, route planning, traffic prediction, and road network extraction. Road intersections range from simple three-way T-junctions to complex large-scale junctions with many branches. The location of intersections is an important consideration for vulnerable road users such as People with Blindness or Visually Impairment (PBVI) or children. Route planning applications, however, do not give information about the location of intersections as this information is not available at scale. As a first step to solving this problem, a mechanism for automatically mapping road intersection locations is required, ideally …

Queer In Ai: A Case Study In Community-Led Participatory Ai, Anaelia Ovalle, Arjun Subramonian, Ashwiin Singh, Claas Voelcker, Danica Sutherland, Davide Locatelli, Eva Breznik, Felip Klubicka, Hang Yuan, Hetvi J, Huan Zhang, Jaidev Shriram, Kruno Lehman, Luca Soldaini, Maarten Sap, Marc Peter Deisenroth, Maria Leonor Pacheco, Maria Ryskina, Martin Mundt, Melind Agarwal, Nyx Mclean, Pan Xu, A. Pranav, Raj Korpan, Ruchira Ray, Sarah Mathew, Sarthak Arora, S.T. John, Tanvi Anand, Vishakha Agrawal, William Agnew, Yanan Long, Zijie J. Wang, Zeerak Talat, Avijit Ghosh, Nathaniel Dennler, Michael Noseworthy, Sharvani Jha, Emi Baylor, Aditya Joshi, Natalia Y. Bilenko, Andrew Mcnamara, Raphael Gontijo-Lopes, Alex Markham, Evyn Dong, Jackie Kay, Manu Saraswat, Nikhil Vytla, Luke Stark

Conference papers

Queerness and queer people face an uncertain future in the face of ever more widely deployed and invasive artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies have caused numerous harms to queer people, including privacy violations, censoring and downranking queer content, exposing queer people and spaces to harassment by making them hypervisible, deadnaming and outing queer people. More broadly, they have violated core tenets of queerness by classifying and controlling queer identities. In response to this, the queer community in AI has organized Queer in AI, a global, decentralized, volunteer-run grassroots organization that employs intersectional and community-led participatory design to build an inclusive …

Robustness Of Image-Based Malware Classification Models Trained With Generative Adversarial Networks, Ciaran Reilly, Stephen O Shaughnessy, Christina Thorpe

Conference papers

As malware continues to evolve, deep learning models are increasingly used for malware detection and classification, including image based classification. However, adversarial attacks can be used to perturb images so as to evade detection by these models. This study investigates the effectiveness of training deep learning models with Generative Adversarial Network-generated data to improve their robustness against such attacks. Two image conversion methods, byte plot and space-filling curves, were used to represent the malware samples, and a ResNet-50 architecture was used to train models on the image datasets. The models were then tested against a projected gradient descent attack. It …

Interpretable Input-Output Hidden Markov Model-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning For The Predictive Maintenance Of Turbofan Engines, Ammar N. Abbas, Georgios C. Chasparis, John Kelleher

Conference papers

An open research question in deep reinforcement learning is how to focus the policy learning of key decisions within a sparse domain. This paper emphasizes on combining the advantages of input-output hidden Markov models and reinforcement learning. We propose a novel hierarchical modeling methodology that, at a high level, detects and interprets the root cause of a failure as well as the health degradation of the turbofan engine, while at a low level, provides the optimal replacement policy. This approach outperforms baseline deep reinforcement learning (DRL) models and has performance comparable to that of a state-of-the-art reinforcement learning system while …

Detection Of Pause In A Pedestrian’S Movement On A Linear Walkway Using Bluetooth Low Energy Received Signal Strength Indicator, Mayank Parmar, Paula Kelly, Damon Berry

Conference papers

In recent years, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has amassed significant attention in several applications. Its potential, however, remains largely unexplored for understanding pedestrian behaviour. This study focuses on investigating the potential of BLE in identifying pedestrian activity in an outdoor linear walkway. We specifically examine the likelihood of detecting pauses in the movement of pedestrians on a linear walkway using the strength of the signals obtained from a BLE device carried by the pedestrian. To accomplish this, a volunteer pedestrian intentionally pauses at selected points on the chosen walkway for varying predetermined intervals. The obtained data was conditioned using a …

Responsive, Adaptive, And Future-Centred Leadership In Response To Crisis: Findings From Australia, Fiji, And New Zealand, Michelle Striepe, Pauline Thompson, Sylvia Robertson, Mohini Devi, David Gurr, Fiona Longmuir, Adam Taylor, Christine Cunningham

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to education and highlighted the importance of effective leadership during times of crisis. This paper considers the impact of the pandemic on school leaders in Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand. A secondary analysis of data from five interpretivist, qualitative studies was conducted. The aim of the study was to investigate the similarities and differences between the leaders’ experiences across school settings, states/provinces, and countries. Our findings place renewed importance on understanding the role of schools within the community and the vital role school leaders play in helping schools respond to volatile and dynamic …

Acceptability, Feasibility And Preliminary Efficacy Of Low-Moderate Intensity Constraint Induced Aphasia Therapy And Multi-Modality Aphasia Therapy In Chronic Aphasia After Stroke, John E. E. Pierce, Robyn Ohalloran, Leanne Togher, Lyndsey Nickels, David Copland, Erin Godecke, Marcus Meinzer, Tapan Rai, Dominique A. Cadilhac, Joosup Kim, Melanie Hurley, Abby Foster, Marcella Carragher, Cassie Wilcox, Gillian Steel, Miranda L. Rose

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: High-intensity Constraint-Induced Aphasia Therapy Plus (CIAT-Plus) and Multi-Modality Aphasia Therapy (M-MAT) are effective interventions for chronic post-stroke aphasia but challenging to provide in clinical practice. Providing these interventions may be more feasible at lower intensities, but comparative evidence is lacking. We therefore explored feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the treatments at a lower intensity. Methods: A multisite, single-blinded, randomized Phase II trial was conducted within the Phase III COMPARE trial. Groups of participants with chronic aphasia from the usual care arm of the COMPARE trial were randomized to M-MAT or CIAT-Plus, delivered at the same dose as the …

Nurses' Experience Of Managing Adults Living With Multimorbidity: A Qualitative Study, Lisa Whitehead, Peter Palamara, Olutoyin Oluwakemi Babatunde-Sowole, Jennifer Boak, Natasha Franklin, Robyn Quinn, Cobie George, Jacqueline Allen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The number of adults living with two or more chronic conditions is increasing worldwide. Adults living with multimorbidity have complex physical, psychosocial and self-management care needs. Aim: This study aimed to describe Australian nurses' experience of care provision for adults living with multimorbidity, their perceived education needs and future opportunities for nurses in the management of multimorbidity. Design: Qualitative exploratory. Methods: Nurses providing care to adults living with multimorbidity in any setting were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview in August 2020. Twenty-four registered nurses took part in a semi-structured telephone interview. Results: Three main themes were …

Policy Innovation As The Cornerstone Of Energy Transition: An Analysis Of Energy Policy In The Shipping Economy And Operations, Peyman Ghaforian Masodzadeh

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

Despite being excluded from most climate change treaties, the maritime sector is expected to manage and reduce carbon emissions in line with global decarbonization goals. Although the IMO's effort has been evident by the adoption of energy regulations and the GHG strategy during the past decade, however, the effectiveness and adequacy of the adopted energy policy remain questionable. This thesis aims to identify problems associated with energy policy in the shipping industry and propose appropriate solutions. Initially, this study was premised on the hypothesis that “energy policy in the shipping industry involves problems associated with policy design, policy implementation, and …

Application Of A Variable Path Length Repetitive Process Control For Direct Energy Deposition Of Thin-Walled Structures, Elias B. Snider, Douglas A. Bristow

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Direct Energy Deposition (DED) Additive Manufacturing is Well Suited to Fabricating Large Thin-Walled Metal Structures Such as Rocket Nozzles but Suffers from Layer-To-Layer Defect Propagation. Propagating Defects May Exhibit as Slumping or a Ripple in Bead Geometry. Recent Works Have Used Repetitive Process Control (RPC) Methods for Additive Manufacturing to Stabilize the Layer-Wise Defect Propagation, But These Methods Require Repetition of the Same Path. However, Typical Thin-Wall DED Applications, Sometimes Referred to as Vase Structures, Have Changing Paths with Each Layer Such as Expanding or Contracting Diameters and Changing Profiles. This Paper Presents an Extension to Optimal RPC that Uses …

Re-Imagining The Nuclear Power Industry Through Innovation, Architecture, And Education For A More Sustainable Dynamic Between The Built And Natural Environment, Luke Hoberg

Architecture Theses

The natural world is being destroyed and needs to be protected. To do that we need low polluting and efficient forms of energy production. The fossil fuel industry is one of the main sources of harmful pollutants that are damaging our environment and contributing to multiple health, social, and environmental crises. The need to transition to clean reliable energy has never been greater. Nuclear power is the only method that has comparable, if not less, carbon emissions rates than green energy and is able to be sited in a variety of geographies and climates. After decades of innovation the latest …

Designing Inclusively: Innovative Design Strategies For Inclusive Accessibility In The Built Environment For The Blind And/Or Deaf, Camille Becker

Architecture Theses

Individuality, freedom, and a chosen lifestyle improves with enough space for people to live with confidence and safety. This equitable value is not one which someone who is blind and/or deaf tends to benefit from. These groups of people live in a sighted, hearing world with minimal adaptations for them. Designing for equity is essential for the disabled to participate in sighted and hearing activities. To improve this quality of life, how can we design a building whose organization and function makes inherent sense to the blind and/or deaf? In addition, how can the found strategies be applied within architecture …

Linguistic Spaces Within The Urban Fabric: Music, Story, And Collective Memory In New Orleans, Caiden Gray

Architecture Theses

The modern American city has been shaped by the aggressive domination of circulation and efficiency leading to a continual decline in urban public space. The potential of qualitative public space are often unmet by modern design solutions. Architects and city planners have deemed language as unnecessary, alternatively shifting their focus to pragmatic, functionalist design concerns failing to offer participatory and communicative spaces within the city. This being just as relevant in cities deep-rooted in stories and narrative such as New Orleans, Louisiana. Canal Street being a historically infamous street in heart of Downtown New Orleans sits as a reflection of …

Mofx-Db: An Online Database Of Computational Adsorption Data For Nanoporous Materials, N. Scott Bobbitt, Kaihang Shi, Benjamin J. Bucior, Haoyuan Chen, Nathaniel Tracy-Amoroso, Zhao Li

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Machine learning and data mining coupled with molecular modeling have become powerful tools for materials discovery. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a rich area for this due to their modular construction and numerous applications. Here, we make data from several previous large-scale studies in MOFs and zeolites from our groups (and new data for N2 and Ar adsorption in MOFs) easily accessible in one place. The database includes over three million simulated adsorption data points for H2, CH4, CO2, Xe, Kr, Ar, and N2 in over 160 000 MOFs and 286 zeolites, textural properties like pore sizes and surface areas, and …

Relation Between Parent Feeding And Emotional Overeating In Preschoolers As Mediated By Emotion Regulation, Lindsay Nicole Baker

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emotional overeating is defined as eating in response to negative emotions, and the shift from emotional undereating to overeating around the preschool years indicates environmental influences. Parent feeding practices such as using food to regulate emotions and behavior may impede children’s ability to regulate their emotions, leading to emotional overeating. This study analyzed the relation between parent feeding practices, child emotion regulation, and emotional overeating in 4- and 5-year-old children. For study 1, mothers of 4- and 5-year-old children completed online questionnaires through MTurk and Prolific. Questionnaires measured parent feeding practices, emotion regulation, and emotional overeating. Parent use of food …

Effects Of Altering Physiologically Relevant Cholesterol Levels And Media Types On Porin Gene Expression In Klebsiella Pneumoniae And The Resulting Impact On Antibiotic Resistance, Megan R. Camden

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative, non-motile bacterium belonging to the Enterobacteriaceae family. K. pneumoniae is a rising threat in the clinical setting, as there has been a large increase in the presence of antibiotic resistant isolates. While much research is conducted on laboratory and clinical strains of bacteria, not much is known regarding the impact that human physiology can have on bacterial gene expression, and in response, to antibiotic susceptibility. The goal of this study is to determine if physiologically relevant cholesterol levels and media types impact porin gene expression and antibiotic resistance in K. pneumoniae. To accomplish this, …

Eye Of The Tiger: Does Cultural Mismatch Affect The Evaluation Of Graduate Program Brochures?, Roshonda Bissainthe

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although first-generation college students (FGCS) are enrolling in graduate school at the same rate as continuing-generation students (CGCS), they are earning their degrees significantly slower or not at all. We add to the growing literature by examining whether the independent culture encouraged at many American universities clashes with the interdependent culture of FGCS. We hypothesized that when participants are randomly assigned to read an independently focused brochure, FGCS compared with CGCS will report a lower tendency to seek college resources, self-efficacy, and persistence. FGCS and CGCS read an independent or interdependent focused ecopsychology graduate program brochure and indicated their self-efficacy …

Nutrition Care For The Transgender Population: A Retrospective Study To Investigate Relationships Between The Nutrition Care Process Model And Patient Outcomes, Alana Minnee Marrero Gonzalez

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the most important roles of the registered dietitian nutritionist is to provide medical nutrition therapy that is fitting to an individual’s culture, reality, ethnicity, and dietary preferences. A review of existing literature exposes the lack of information available on LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) health, for transgender communities. The purpose of this research was to generate knowledge of the nutrition-related problems and barriers to adequate nutrition and health, and their impact in nutrition assessment in a sample of Hispanic transgender adult patients living in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A retrospective observational study was conducted, data from 114 …

Theoretical Background Of Cryptography, Rusul Mansoor Al-Amri, Dalal N. Hamood, Alaa Kadhim Farhan

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

Cryptography is the practice of secure communication and the study of secure communication techniques. The theoretical foundations of cryptography include concepts such as cryptography, secure key exchange, digital signatures, and authentication. These technologies are used to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and reliability of information while it is being transmitted over a network or stored in digital form. The core of encryption is the concept of an encryption algorithm, which is a set of mathematical rules used to encrypt and decrypt data. The security of a cryptographic system depends on the strength of the underlying algorithm and the confidentiality of the …

The Impact Of Blockchain Technique On Trustworthy Healthcare Sector, Nour Sadeq, Zeid Hamzeh, Ghalia Nassreddine, Tamima Elhassan, Tamima Elhassan

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

Following the COVID epidemic, the healthcare sector faced numerous issues as telehealth became more prevalent and the necessity for a safe and efficient healthcare record system became critical. Many issues plague the healthcare industry today, including security, trust, data availability, and drug traceability. Blockchain technology is a relatively new technology that has demonstrated its effectiveness in a variety of industries, including finance, banking, bitcoin, and healthcare. This research investigates the impact of blockchain on the trustworthiness of healthcare. The authors adopt a descriptive-analytical methodology. The trustworthiness of the healthcare sector is considered a dependent variable. However, blockchain technology is considered …

Constitutional Review Of Federal Tax Legislation, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Yoseph M. Edrey

Articles

What does the Constitution mean when it says that “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States” (U.S. Const. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1)?

The definition of “tax” for constitutional purposes has become important considering the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (“NFIB”), in which Chief Justice Roberts for the Court upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) under the taxing …

Semiparametric Multivariate Analysis Of Covariance Test Of Treatment Effects, Leonard Allan F. Almero, Elfred John C. Abacan

Journal Article

Traditional multivariate analysis of covariance test is based on restrictive assumptions like homoscedasticity and normality of errors. A semiparametric multivariate analysis of covariance model is postulated. Nonparametric regression and multivariate analysis of variance are imbedded into the backfitting algorithm to estimate the model. The responses are adjusted for covariate effect through a nonparametric function of the covariates. Simulation study indicates that a bootstrap-based test for treatment effects is correctly sized. The proposed semiparametric multivariate analysis of covariance is shown to be powerful in detecting multivariate differences in the presence of nonlinear covariates and is robust to different error distributions with …

Measuring Self-Regulated Learning Skills Of Uplb Students Enrolled In Hk 12 Walking For Fitness, Joanna L. Israel

Journal Article

This paper aims to develop a questionnaire that measures the self-regulated learning skills of students enrolled in HK 12 Walking for Fitness, which was offered in a mode of blended online learning and distance education. All students enrolled in HK 12 Walking for Fitness for the first and second semesters of the academic year 2021 to 2022 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), were invited to answer the self-reported questionnaire via electronic mail or e-mail. Out of the 1,168 students, 117 or 10.02% participated. The reliability of a scale and Principal Axis Factoring were calculated in validating …

Decoding The Mechanism Of Hypertension Through Multiomics Profiling, Eric Adua

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hypertension, characterised by a constant high blood pressure, is the primary risk factor for multiple cardiovascular events and a major cause of death in adults. Excitingly, innovations in high-throughput technologies have enabled the global exploration of the whole genome (genomics), revealing dysregulated genes that are linked to hypertension. Moreover, post-genomic biomarkers, from the emerging fields of transcriptomics, proteomics, glycomics and lipidomics, have provided new insights into the molecular underpinnings of hypertension. In this paper, we review the pathophysiology of hypertension, and highlight the multi-omics approaches for hypertension prediction and diagnosis.

Fortifying The Seams Of Software Systems, Hong Jin Kang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

A seam in software is a place where two components within a software system meet. There are more seams in software now than ever before as modern software systems rely extensively on third-party software components, e.g., libraries. Due to the increasing complexity of software systems, understanding and improving the reliability of these components and their use is crucial. While the use of software components eases the development process, it also introduces challenges due to the interaction between the components.

This dissertation tackles problems associated with software reliability when using third-party software components. Developers write programs that interact with libraries through …

Association Of Igg N-Glycomics With Prevalent And Incident Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus From The Paradigm Of Predictive, Preventive, And Personalized Medicine Standpoint, Xiaoni Meng, Fei Wang, Xiangyang Gao, Biyan Wang, Xizhu Xu, Youxin Wang, Wei Wang, Qiang Zeng

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objectives: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a major metabolic disorder, is expanding at a rapidly rising worldwide prevalence and has emerged as one of the most common chronic diseases. Suboptimal health status (SHS) is considered a reversible intermediate state between health and diagnosable disease. We hypothesized that the time frame between the onset of SHS and the clinical manifestation of T2DM is the operational area for the application of reliable risk assessment tools, such as immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans. From the viewpoint of predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (PPPM/3PM), the early detection of SHS and dynamic monitoring by glycan biomarkers …