Digital Commons Network^™

Examining The Multilevel Effects Of Instructional Leadership On Teachers’ Professional Commitment And Classroom Management, Nuruddin Ahmed Masud, San Su Su San, Kim Ki Bong, Mst Taherun Nesa Subarna

Georgia Educational Researcher

This study examined the multilevel effects of instructional leadership on teachers’ professional commitment and classroom management in secondary schools. Using a multilevel modeling (MLM) approach, data were collected from 250 teachers nested within 8 schools. The analysis assessed the influence of both school-level instructional leadership and teachers’ perceptions of leadership on professional commitment and classroom management outcomes.

Results indicated that instructional leadership at both levels significantly predicted teachers’ professional commitment (teacher-level: β = .32, p < .001; school-level: β = .45, p < .001). Similarly, instructional leadership demonstrated significant positive effects on classroom management (teacher-level: β = .28, p < .001; school-level: β = .41, p < .001). Furthermore, teacher professional commitment was positively associated with classroom management (β = .36, p < .001) and moderated the relationship between instructional leadership and classroom management, such that the effect was stronger under higher levels of leadership support.

These findings highlight the importance of instructional leadership in shaping teacher-related outcomes across organizational levels. The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence …

Validity Of The Polar Verity Sense Optical Armband And Iphone Accelerometer For Heart Rate Variability Assessment, Chinelo C. Chukwuma

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test the validity of the Polar Verity Sense optical armband and iPhone accelerometer (Kubois seismocardiography, SCG) against the Polar H10 across different body positions (for both devices) and measurement durations (for Verity Sense only) while accounting for skin pigmentation. Healthy young adults (n = 46) participated in simultaneous recordings in the supine, seated, and standing positions using the Kubios mobile application on separate devices. Verity Sense measurements were collected for both 1‑ and 5‑min durations, whereas accelerometer measures were 1 min. Skin pigmentation was quantified with the melanin index (M-index). For resting heart …

The Ambitions Of History And Tradition In And Beyond The Second Amendment, Joseph Blocher, Reva B. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the ambitions of history-and-tradition review in and beyond the Second Amendment. In Bruen and Rahimi, the Roberts Court rejected means-end review in favor of a historical-analogical approach, claiming to constrain the exercise of judicial discretion and thus to promote the democratic decisions of the founders. But our examination of these cases shows that the Court has created new opportunities for judges to advance their values in considerably less transparent ways. We identify contexts in which Second Amendment doctrine enables judicial discretion, key among them that it allows judges to reason about gun rights and regulation at disparate …

Drawing And The Pursuit Of Progress In The Late 19th-Century Dominican Republic, Felix V. Rodriguez Suero

Faculty Publications – Art

Eugenio Maria de Hostos, with the support of late 19th-century Dominican liberals, spearheaded the transition from scholastic education to an education grounded on scientific principles and liberal ideals. Through the discussion of four fundamental principles for drawing instruction in Hostos’s educational project, I examine why teaching young people drawing skills was central to his anticolonial political project. Drawing from decolonial and critical frameworks, I analyze the connection between art classes in schools and the political struggles to democratize and modernize Dominican society. I argue that, despite seemingly good intentions, the influence of Western philosophy and 19th-century scientific rationalism led Hostos …

Psychophysiological Recovery From Viewing Nature And Urban Settings: A Multisite Replication, A. E. Van Den Berg, K. Dijkstra, D. Meuwese, F. Beute, P. M. Darcy, S. Dewitte, B. Gatersleben, C. J. Gidlow, C. M. Hägerhäll, J. A. Hipp, Y. Joye, Y. A.W. De Kort, S. C.M. Lechner, C. Neale, Sang Ode Sang, J. Roe, D. T. Scheepers, K. Smolders, H. Staats, R. S. Steensma, K. J. Wyles, S. L. Koole

School of Psychology

The idea that merely viewing nature can promote stress recovery has profound societal implications, driving the use of nature imagery in the design of environments where access to real nature is limited. Scientific support for this concept originates from a pioneering study by Ulrich et al. (1991), which demonstrated superior psycho-physiological stress recovery during exposure to nature videos compared to urban videos. Despite its influence, this foundational study has never been systematically replicated. To address this gap, ten research teams across the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Sweden, and the USA collaborated on a multisite replication. A final sample of 959 …

Freedom Of Expression Protection And Corporate Concealment Of Bad News: Evidence From State Anti-Slapp Laws, Jimmy Lee, Shaphan Ng, Il Sun Yoo, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The protection of free speech enhances the ability of various public stakeholders to disseminate privately observed adverse information about public firms, making it difficult for corporate managers to conceal negative information about their companies. Using the staggered enactment of anti strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) laws across U.S. states as a shock that strengthens free speech protection, we show that stronger protection is associated with less concealment of bad news. This is evidenced by a lower likelihood of stock price crashes, a decreased probability of accounting fraud, and an increased frequency of firm-initiated negative press releases. These results are …

A Narrative Review Of The Central Neural Control Of Swallowing And Its Implications For Dysphagia Rehabilitation, Kuo-Chang Wei, Tyng-Guey Wang, Ming-Yen Hsiao

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Swallowing is controlled by a distributed neural network spanning the brainstem central pattern generator, subcortical modulatory circuits, and cortical regions responsible for volitional planning and sensorimotor integration. Evidence from lesion studies, neuroimaging, and neurophysiology demonstrates that dysphagia arises from disruptions at different nodes of this network, producing lesion-specific impairment profiles rather than a uniform swallowing deficit. This network-based perspective has shifted rehabilitation from predominantly compensatory management toward mechanism-driven interventions aimed at restoring physiological function. Behavioral skill-training and resistance-based exercises harness motor learning and cortical plasticity, whereas neuromodulatory approaches—including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), pharyngeal electrical …

Experience And Barriers In Pediatric Dysphagia Rehabilitation: A Quantitative Survey Study, François-Xavier Brajot, Ai-Ju Wu, Pao-Chuan Torng

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Purpose: Despite an important need for health care services targeting pediatric dysphagia, there exist a number of barriers to doing so, including workforce competence. The current study surveyed practicing Speech-Language Pathologists to determine (1) the importance of pediatric dysphagia in their caseload, (2) the adequacy of existing educational resources, and (3) perceived barriers to providing quality care in Taiwan.

Methods: An anonymous survey was completed by Speech-Language Pathologists working in Taiwan. Responses were analyzed with respect to current work setting, experience, preparation, and perceived barriers.

Results: Survey results from 122 respondents indicated that the pediatric dysphagia caseload is unexpectedly low …

Bridging The Gap Between Function-Based And Iddsi Standards In Dysphagia Care, Chien-Hui Cheng

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

No abstract provided.

Intelligent Torque Control Of Switched Reluctance Motors Based On Ditc And Wavelet Neural Network, Ameer L. Saleh, László Számel

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) have been considered a high-performance and environmentally friendly solution for Electric Vehicle (EV) applications owing to their simpler construction, robust design, and high efficiency. However, it suffers from high torque ripple and acoustic noise due to its highly nonlinear magnetic characteristics and double-salient structure.  This paper introduces a nonlinear torque control based on the Direct Instantaneous Torque Control (DITC) scheme and a Wavelet Neural Network (WNN)  to achieve better dynamic response and mitigate torque ripple.  The proposed WNN is employed as a nonlinear torque controller, inserted between the torque error and the hysteresis torque controller within …

Rethinking The Fund Termination Sanction, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Articles

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is often referred to as the “sleeping giant” of civil rights law. It is a “giant” because it prohibits any form of race discrimination engaged in by any recipient of federal financial assistance, and because the remedy set forth in the statute for a violation is the termination of federal funds. And it is “sleeping” because, except for a brief moment during the desegregation era, the federal government had never seriously attempted to terminate a recipient’s federal grants for a violation of the statute. Nor had the federal government seriously attempted …

What's The Point Of Reparation?, Daniel Fryer

Articles

Despite its ancient history in philosophical and legal thought, importance to progressive social movements, and relative simplicity as a notion of fairness—if you break something, you ought to fix it—reparative justice is largely misunderstood. This is problematic given increasing calls for reparation from historically disadvantaged groups. Rather than assessing the validity of these claims, this Article addresses a fundamentally antecedent issue: what’s the point of reparation? Rejecting arguments that claim reparation is about compensation, supplementing distributive justice, and reconciliation, I argue that the point of reparation is to repair unjust social relations created by past wrongdoing. The relational theory of …

Sex Differences In The Use Of Cognitive Strategies In Brown-Headed Cowbirds (Molothrus Ater), Nicole E. Robinson Ms.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Cognition is widely believed to be adaptive, yet few studies directly show that variation in cognitive performance is related to fitness. Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) provide a powerful system for addressing this gap because brood parasitism creates strikingly different reproductive problems for females and males. Females face the spatial demands of nest-prospecting, whereas males face social and competitive demands associated with access to mates. Across five experiments, cowbirds were tested on an outdoor foraging task designed as an analogue of nest prospecting, with manipulations of retention interval, cue conflict, and breeding condition, followed by observations of reproductive behaviour. …

Mixed Methods Insights Into Understandings Of And Stigma Towards Autism In Children And Young Adults, Natalia Gc Van Esch

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

BACKGROUND: Autism is widely stigmatized and misunderstood. Existing research using methods such as questionnaires finds that autistic individuals are often evaluated more negatively than their non-autistic counterparts. Unfortunately, this approach provides limited insight into the underlying representations of autism that individuals hold. The present study seeks to examine how children and adults define, describe, and represent autism, and how these representations relate to stigma. METHODS: In Part I, children participated in a semi-structured interview in which they defined autism and created autistic and non-autistic characters using a guided character-building task. Children then rated their characters on a series of social …

Exploring The Role Of Cognitive Load In Applicant Faking And Prevention Methods, Sabah Rasheed

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Personnel selection is critical to organizational success, and personality assessment is widely used to identify the best job candidates. However, applicant faking threatens the validity of personality assessments in high-stakes contexts. Faking is widely assumed to be more cognitively demanding than honest responding, and several faking-prevention methods rest on this premise. This dissertation examines that assumption across three studies using the dual-task paradigm to impose cognitive demands during personality assessments. Study 1 used a verbal digit-span task with a student sample and limited faking on the three job-relevant personality composites. Study 2 used a visual dual-task with a student sample …

Timing, Targets, And Teaching: How Employee Help-Seeking Influences Downward Knowledge Sharing, Nicholle E. Kovach

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Knowledge sharing between managers and employees is critical for employee development and organizational performance. However, managers differ in whether they share knowledge, and in the type of knowledge shared. While solution-oriented knowledge offers immediate answers to improve short-term performance, process-oriented knowledge promotes long-term learning and employee development. The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate factors that influence managers’ knowledge-sharing decisions.

I conduct two studies to investigate my predictions. In Study 1, I examine how the timing of employee help-seeking requests, the source of performance targets and employee historical performance influence the type and quality of managers’ knowledge-sharing responses. Drawing …

Neural Correlates Of Cognitive Fatigue In Regular Cannabis Users And Non-Users: A Pilot Fnirs Study, Mariia Vistyzenko

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Background: Cognitive fatigue impairs performance across multiple domains, yet how regular cannabis use affects fatigue responses remains unclear. This pilot study investigated neural and behavioural correlates of cognitive fatigue in abstinent cannabis users versus non-users.

Methods: Twenty-six participants (18 non-users, 8 regular cannabis users after 24-hour abstinence) completed cognitive tasks before and after a 60-minute Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) designed to induce fatigue. Tasks assessed working memory (N-Back), cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting), psychomotor speed (Digit Symbol Substitution), sustained attention (Continuous Performance Task), inhibition (Stroop, Stop Signal), and motion perception. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) continuously monitored prefrontal cortex …

Religious And Spiritual Struggles: The Stories Of Nigerian, Immigrant, Christian Women In Waterloo Region, Halima D. Fuller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT This research investigates religious and spiritual struggles among Nigerian, immigrant, Christian women in Waterloo Region. Twelve women settled in the region for six months to 11 years participated in the study. Qualitative methodology, narrative inquiry, and a storytelling paradigm informed the research. Semi-structured, in-depth interview questions were used to explore the experiences of religious and spiritual struggles. A meticulous review identifies a scarcity of literature on religious and spiritual struggles in the context of immigration. However, immigration challenges such as language barriers, precarious employment, and mental health issues are well-documented (Bauder, 2012; Beiser & Hou, 2016; Berry et al., …

Exploring Leadership In A Changing Church, Tanya Varner

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present phenomenological study investigated the experience of leaders and leadership among active Lutheran clergy serving congregations in the Eastern Synod of the ELCIC in a time of change. Eleven rostered leaders of the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) were interviewed individually using a semi-structured interviews addressing leadership and changes in the church to facilitate the conversation. Participants also completed a participant questionnaire in advance of the semi-structured interview to make sure the sample was diverse in gender, years of ordination and geographical context of ministry. Participants were able to articulate what values and requirements …

Eeg Correlates Of Tactile Synchrony, Devon K. R. Gallagher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

New research on the tactile system has suggested that cortical representations of body parts are not fixed, as previously thought, and are instead dynamically maintained through constant sensorimotor information and feedback. Within the somatosensory cortex (S1), the capacity for both permanent and temporary changes have been the topic of ongoing research. The current study aimed to corroborate whether 24 hours of a finger adhesion manipulation is sufficient to elicit behavioural and electrophysiological correlates from cortical reorganization of digit representations in S1, using a behavioural paradigm outlined by Kolasinski et al. (2016). Through electroencephalography (EEG) recording during a tactile discrimination task, …

Moral Identity And Cognitive Mechanisms In Moral Decision-Making, Zachariah I. Hamzagic

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Moral identity can be broadly conceptualized as the degree to which an individual places moral values as directly relevant to their personal identity. A recently introduced developmental framework of moral identity argues that moral identity can be conceptualized as a lifelong goal. According to this theoretical framework, the moral identity goal (i.e., to be a moral person and engage in moral action) becomes stronger over the course of development by becoming more abstract (i.e., general), internalized (to satisfy personal ideals) and promotion (i.e., action) oriented. Additionally, the strength of the moral identity goal predicts moral functioning. To date there has …

Methylseleninic Acid Transformations In Nutrient Rich Water Containing Algae Exposed To Simulated Sunlight, Mikayla Cormier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Methylseleninic acid (MSA(IV)) is an organic form of selenium that has been suggested to be one of the most bioaccumulative forms of selenium in aquatic ecosystems. However, there have been no lab studies that confirm this, which is the reason this study was conducted. Once MSA(IV) and other bioavailable forms of selenium enter aquatic ecosystems, organisms such as algae take up these compounds which then bioaccumulate through the food chain. S. obliquus was exposed to 10 ppb MSA(IV) in 10% Bold’s basal medium (BBM) in a growth chamber to mimic environmental conditions over a 7-day period. Carbon traps and filters …

Identifying The Physical Activity Promotion Practices Of Obstetricians And Gynecologists: Patients With Endometriosis And Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Allison P. Herman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite efforts to promote physical activity, many females in Canada do not meet recommended physical activity guidelines. For individuals with gynecological conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), physical activity may aid in symptom management and improve daily functioning. Healthcare settings, including obstetrics and gynecology, represent an area of opportunity to promote physical activity among this population. This thesis aims to understand the physical activity promotion practices of Ontario-based Obstetricians and Gynecologists (OBGYNs) to patients with endometriosis and/or PCOS. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted to explore OBGYNs promotional practices and perceived factors influencing their engagement in physical …

" Who Am I Here?" Exploring The Racial Identity Development Of Chinese Adolescent International Students In Canada: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach, Wen Juan Song

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

This dissertation explores the racial identity development and associated mental health challenges of Chinese Adolescent International Students (CAIS) in Canada, a population navigating complex intersections of race, age, migration, and belonging. Despite their growing presence in Canadian secondary education, CAIS remain understudied in both educational and mental health research, particularly in relation to racial identity development within Western, multicultural societies. Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, this study draws on in-depth interviews with twenty-five CAIS participants, including ten current high school students, three returnees to China, and twelve who remained abroad in post-secondary education or employment.  The study is …

Error-Driven Density Control For Compact Gaussian Splatting Under Sparse Supervision, Abdelrhman Elrawy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis studies efficiency and stability challenges in Gaussian-splatting-based reconstruction under sparse supervision. In few-shot novel view synthesis, standard 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) can overfit the limited training views and grow an unnecessarily large number of primitives due to limitations in its Adaptive Density Control (ADC) mechanism. This thesis introduces an error-driven reformulation of ADC that triggers densification using opacity gradients as a lightweight proxy for rendering error, and shows that such aggressive densification must be paired with delayed and conservative pruning to prevent destructive create--destroy cycles. When combined with depth-based geometric regularization, the resulting framework produces substantially more compact …

Robust And Interpretable Medical Image Segmentation Via Retrieval And Mechanistic Analysis, Salma Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Medical image segmentation is a critical component of clinical decision-making, yet deep learning based segmentation models face persistent challenges. These models typically require large volumes of densely annotated data, exhibit strong sensitivity to domain shifts across scanners and patient populations, and lack explicit anatomical priors. Furthermore, despite continual architectural advances beyond fully convolutional networks, most segmentation models remain opaque, where they lack the granularity required for component-level analysis. As a result, when segmentation models fail, it is difficult to identify which internal representations are responsible, limiting developers’ ability to diagnose errors, improve robustness, or establish trust in clinical settings. Existing …

Investigation Of Mercury Bioaccessibility In Subsistence Fishes From The Canadian Subarctic, Kiran Mateo Sharma Mr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Fish consumption is the primary pathway for human exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), a global contaminant of concern known to cause adverse health effects. Fort Albany First Nation, a remote Indigenous community in northern Ontario that relies on fish for both subsistence and cultural practices, has expressed concern regarding the safety of local fish consumption. Community members and leaders have communicated several priorities for scientific research that are the foundation of this thesis. Specifically, consumers of wild-caught fish have asked how traditional cooking methods may affect mercury concentrations in fish, and how mercury concentrations in little-studied organs, such as liver and …

Antihypertensive Medications And Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease: Evidence For Specific Medication Use, Osvaldo J. Laurido-Soto, Alejandra Camacho-Soto, Irene M. Faust, Kassu M. Beyene, Aaron Katz, Jordan A. Killion, Brad A. Racette

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Association Between Neighborhood Social Determinants Of Health And Stillbirth, Tetsuya Kawakita, Misa Hayasaka, Ann M. Harper, John Brush, George Saade

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE:

To examine the association between neighborhood-level social determinants of health and stillbirth.

METHODS:

We performed a retrospective cohort study of deliveries that occurred at a gestational age of at least 20 weeks within a five-hospital system (2012-2022). Electronic health record data mapped to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model were geocoded using addresses at the time of delivery and linked to neighborhood health indices, which included the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI), and Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) at the Census tract level. Stillbirths were adjudicated by medical record review. Modified Poisson regression generated relative …

Acute Fatty Liver Of Pregnancy And Fetal Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders: A Systematic Review, Dante Varotsis, Sarah Araji, Rebecca Horgan, Jennifer E. Powel, Rodney Mclaren Jr., Brian Kirmse, Mona Makhamreh, Huda B. Al-Kouatly

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE:

To evaluate the association between maternal acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) and fetal fatty acid oxidation (FAO) disorders and to define the clinical and genetic characteristics of mothers with AFLP and their fetuses affected by FAO disorders, we performed a systematic literature review of all reported cases of AFLP that underwent genetic testing for FAO disorders.

DATA SOURCES:

We searched PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL (EBSCO), Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov. Terms included were related to AFLP and FAO testing.

METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION:

We conducted a systematic literature review from inception through May 18, 2025, to evaluate the …