Digital Commons Network^™

What Of It? Coding The Unmarked Of-Preposition In Language Samples From Young Aae Speakers, Denise A. Finneran, Maura J. Moyle, Alaina Nash, Sixia Chen

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

We examined the of-preposition in language samples because it is a highly variable feature that can be marked or unmarked (e.g., “out [of] the door”) depending on context. Children who speak African American English (AAE) produce unmarked of-prepositions in contexts that are universal across AAE and General American English (GAE; e.g., “out [of] the window”) and in contexts specific to the AAE dialect (e.g., “out [of] the car”). Guidance in the literature on this variability is limited for language sample analysis. Participants included 113 children who spoke AAE. We examined contexts with unmarked of-prepositions in narrative language samples in a …

Glacier Velocity Estimation Using Adaptive Search Window And Patch Size, Pratik Patil

Master’s Dissertations

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology offers a robust solution for monitoring glacier surface motion, particularly in regions with challenging environmental conditions, since it do not dependence on time of day and weather. This paper presents an enhanced glacier motion monitoring approach based on a Deep Matching Network (DMN), which learns patch-pair correspondences in an end-to-end manner. Unlike traditional shallow feature tracking methods, DMN utilize deep feature similarity through a Siamese network architecture with dense connection blocks to maximize feature reuse and improve training efficiency. To further improve precision and reduce computational cost, the proposed method uses a variable search window …

Modeling And Verification Of Sigma Delta Neural Networks, Sirshendu Das

Master’s Dissertations

In the context of modern day embedded safety-critical systems and low-resource edge devices in particular, Sigma-Delta Neural Networks (SDNNs) offer a promising alternative to traditional Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) by leveraging eventdriven, sparse computations inspired by biological neural processing. This energyefficient paradigm makes SDNNs well-suited for neuromorphic hardware and realtime applications, particularly in scenarios with temporal redundancy, such as video processing. However, as neural networks become integral to safety-critical systems, ensuring their robustness against adversarial perturbations is an absolute necessity. In this work, we propose an end-to-end framework for formal modeling and verification of SDNNs using Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT). …

Addressing Class Imbalance Problems To Improve Animal Detection Through Aerial Image Data, Suryang Koushal

Master’s Dissertations

Monitoring animal populations in wildlife reserves is essential for conservation, especially for endangered species, but manual censuses are costly, risky, and logistically challenging due to vast, inaccessible terrains. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with digital cameras provide a safer, scalable solution for collecting aerial imagery to estimate animal populations. However, semi-automated processing of these images faces significant challenges due to class imbalance in datasets, including foreground-background disparities, where background terrain dominates over sparse animal instances, and inter-class imbalances from uneven species representation and varied visual appearances (e.g., species, sizes, fur patterns) against diverse backgrounds like deserts or forests. These imbalances hinder …

Enhancing Expressive Power Of Graph Neural Networks Using Geometric Transformations, Suranjan Dey

Master’s Dissertations

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are highly effective in many real-world tasks, such as molecular property prediction, modeling protein structures, analyzing user-item relationships, and making link predictions. What sets them apart is their ability to learn meaningful representations by capturing not just the features of individual nodes, but also the overall structure of the graph they belong to. This expressive strength allows GNNs to model complex relationships more accurately. In this work, we take a step further by introducing geometric transformations aimed at improving how GNNs handle spatial information. In particular, we focus on angular aggregation methods that maintain rotational consistency, …

Application Of Deep Learning In Analysis Of Stellar Spectra, Piyush Yayati

Master’s Dissertations

In recent years, the analysis of high-resolution stellar spectra has become increasingly important for estimating key stellar parameters such as effective temperature (Teff ), surface gravity (log g), metallicity ([M/H]), and rotational velocity (v sin i). Traditional methods often rely on manual calibration or spectrum synthesis, which can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially for M dwarfs whose spectra are dense with molecular features. In this study, we investigate the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to automate the estimation of stellar parameters using synthetic and observed data.We adopt a StarNet-like CNN architecture trained on synthetic spectra generated from the PHOENIX-ACES …

Prevalence Of Very High Cholesterol Levels In Asymptomatic Military Recruits: A Single Center Study, Ghada A. Rashwan, Hadiza O. Ibrahim, Adil I. Jumani, Rima Y. Alsayari, Majdi S. Alnajjar, Khalid M. Alfakih

Saudi Medical Journal

ABSTRACT Objectives: To determine the prevalence of very high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (≥4.9 mmol/L) among asymptomatic military recruits in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an underdiagnosed genetic disorder associated with significantly elevated LDL-C levels, increasing the risk of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Zayed Military Hospital in Abu Dhabi, UAE, between August 2023 and July 2024. 30,000 UAE national military recruits aged 17 to 40 underwent routine lipid screening. Electronic medical records (EMRs) were reviewed, and individuals with LDL-C ≥4.9 mmol/L were identified. Results: Among the participants, …

The Impact Of Antibiotic Prophylaxis Appropriateness, Duration And Associated Cost On The Rate Of Surgical Site Infection At A Tertiary Hospital In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Study, Amal Bin Akresh, Deema S. Alzeet, Njoud Z. Alshalan, Marwa M. Alhawsawi, Nada A. Alsaleh, Reem A. Binsuwaidan, Alaa A. Alhubaishi, Abdulaziz I. Altowaijri, Najla N. Alebedah, Nisreen M. Sherbeeni, Lina I. Alnajjar

Saudi Medical Journal

ABSTRACT Objectives: To evaluate the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) based on compliance with surgical antibiotic protocols and the duration of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP). Secondary objectives include assessing 30-day rehospitalization rates, 30-day mortality, antibiotic-associated adverse events, and the estimated additional costs of prolonged antibiotic use in patients receiving long courses of antibiotics. Methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted at Prince Sultan Military Medical City from 2021 to 2022. It included adult patients who underwent elective surgery and received antibiotic prophylaxis. Patients were divided into 4 groups based on SAP compliance and prophylaxis duration. Using data from electronic …

How “Green” Are Green Acquisitions Really?, Sri V Srinivasan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Our study finds that 43.14% of global green mergers & acquisitions (GMAs) from 2001 to 2020 may be susceptible to Green Embellishment—the gap between corporate environmental representations and actual performance, regardless of intent. Using a multi-criteria theoretical framework, we show that financial constraints strongly drive Green Embellishment in GMAs, with regulatory stringency and national culture moderating this effect. GMAs in weak regulatory environments are especially vulnerable, particularly under high stakeholder pressure. We further provide empirical evidence that financially constrained GMAs with lower green profiles and those in “browner” industries exhibit a higher propensity for Green Embellishment. Even in stringent …

Exploring How The High Or Low Of Firm Transparency And Speed Of Adjustment In Its Capital Structure Relates To The Implied Cost Of Capital Of A Firm, Yung Chee Leong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation tackles a core challenge in corporate finance — how firms can optimise both their capital structure decisions and the way those decisions are communicated to investors. It shows that while financial responsiveness (SOA) and transparency each help lower a firm’s implied cost of capital (ICC), the most meaningful reduction occurs when both are present and working together. For CFOs, the research offers a practical way to connect capital structure planning with communication strategy to improve market understanding and reduce financing costs. For investors and analysts, it introduces the idea of a transparency–SOA alignment measure to better assess firm …

The Association Between Different Succession Methods And Innovation Investments In Family Businesses In China, Lei Wu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Amidst the deepening of economic globalization, countries around the world are being progressively steered toward paths of innovative development, laying a solid foundation for enhancing national comprehensive strength and elevating international standing. Especially after the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy in our country, technological innovation has become the main direction of our transformation. According to the requirements of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, innovation-driven development will be fully applied to the country's development, creating favorable conditions for the realization of strategic development goals. National development and social progress are directly linked to corporate …

Interactive Generative Modeling: A Pathway For Improved Simulation And Decision Making, Changyu Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation presents Interactive Generative Modeling (IGM), a unified perspective that integrates interactive paradigm and generative modeling to advance the development of general-purpose intelligent systems. IGM is motivated by the observation that while reinforcement learning (RL) has mastered a wide range of complex simulated tasks, it struggles to generalize in high-dimensional, open-ended tasks. In contrast, generative models excel in such settings due to their expressivity and their ability to serve as powerful priors (e.g., LLMs pretrained on massive corpora). By bridging these two paradigms, IGM offers a promising path forward.

The first direction explored in this dissertation is IGM for …

Concrete Patio Demolition And Construction, Tyler Nielsen

Construction Management

A 6.25 cubic yard unreinforced concrete patio was constructed for the non-profit organization. This project included three phases: concrete slab demolition, grading and formwork, and concrete pouring. Each phase was estimated and then received owner approval prior to execution. The demolition phase involved obtaining city permits for a roll-off container for debris removal. This phase also included two days of work with over 10 demolition crew members, who were given the required training and equipment to ensure safety and productivity. The following weeks included grading and setting up formwork. Once the grade was complete, the formwork was laid out and …

Case Study On Using Soil Nails In Unstable Substrates, Joseph Hass

Construction Management

Soil nailing is becoming a popular method in construction projects to anchor retaining walls into soil. To maximize installation success rates and minimize pullout failure during testing, this case study examines efficient techniques and installation protocols for soil nails in unstable substrates through research and studying an active construction site utilizing soil nails. In geotechnical engineering, unstable soil conditions present serious difficulties that frequently result in delays, cost overruns, and compromised structural integrity. This study determines the main elements affecting nail performance by carefully examining field data, installation trials, and performance testing. Using real life experience and in-depth research of …

Carolyn Parker's Electronic Frequencies, Charnell Chasten Long

Faculty Publications

The chapter illustrates what it meant for Carolyn Beatrice Parker (1917–1966) to be a Black woman physicist in the US during the Jim Crow era. Her father, a physician, and her mother, a teacher, shepherded her into Fisk University, an historically Black college. As a physics major she studied infrared spectroscopy with the Black physicist Elmer Imes, graduating with a BS in 1938. She later attended the University of Michigan, obtaining an MA in physics in 1941. But like many Black women, she spent time before and after graduate school teaching in the K–12 system. In 1943, she became a …

Ni-Mn-In Heusler Alloy Ribbon For Magnetocaloric Application, Bao Nguyen

Masters Theses

A traditional cooling system, which applies compression technology within the working fluid, has had a lot of negative impacts on the environment and has low efficiency. They have almost reached the thermodynamic efficiency; there is little room for further improvement. Therefore, solid-state cooling systems, especially those that use the magnetocaloric effect (MCE), have drawnmuch interest as an alternative solution for the vapor-compression system. The Heusler alloy, especially Ni-Mn-In in this research, can be an excellent candidate for this application due to its unique properties, such as the shape memory effect and giant MCE. Their giant MCE results from a first-order …

Using Computerized Instruction To Increase Professional Competence With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Cbt) Modifications, Paige Lee Sherlund-Pelfrey

Masters Theses

One in thirty-six children receive an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis, and an estimated 5.4 million adults in the United States have previously received an ASD diagnosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022). At least seventy percent of individuals with ASD have one comorbid disorder (Valderas et al., 2009). Some common comorbid disorders for individuals with ASD include depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an evidence-based therapy that can support depressive, anxiety and OCD symptoms, and has empirically supported modifications that can be used with the ASD population. However, research reports that clinicians are not …

22q11.2 Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Pathway (Eras), Children's Mercy Kansas City

Clinical Pathways

No abstract provided.

Creating Possibilities: The Ethelind Pope Brown Collection: An Overview Of Who May Have Illustrated America's Oldest Naturalist Paintings, Maksym Dedenko

University Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the Ethelind Pope Brown Collection at the University of South Carolina, a rare assembly of hand-illustrated naturalist artworks depicting an assortment of flora and fauna from the eighteenth century. Despite its artistic and educational value, the creator of the collection remains unidentified. Through close textual and visual analysis, archival research, and comparative stylistic study, this project explores several potential authorship theories while providing background to the necessity of evolving science that facilitated its creation.

Beauty In The Feed: Exploring The Role Of Social Media In Women's Body Image And Emotional Satisfaction, Momina Hassan

University Honors Theses

Through a thematic analysis assessing four peer-reviewed studies, this thesis explores the relationship between social media (e.g., content, engagement factors) and how it impacts women's body image and emotional satisfaction. The studies varied in methodological approach and age demographics, but included only female participants. The research reviewed in this thesis calls attention to the harmful effects social media can have on women's health such as body dissatisfaction, anxiety, depression and disordered eating. The two main themes that emerged were appearance-based social comparison, and psychological impacts on mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression, disordered eating). Exposure to idealized images on social media …

Determining Sphincs+ Readiness For Standardization Of Slh-Dsa Signature, Jessica Ancillotti

Theses

As quantum computing advances, public-key cryptographic algorithms risk becoming obsolete, requiring the development and implementation of quantum-resistant alternatives. This thesis evaluates SPHINCS+, a stateless hash-based digital signature scheme recently standardized by NIST under the FIPS 205 standard named Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Algorithm (SLH-DSA), which was selected for being a conservative and robust choice due to its reliance solely on well-understood cryptographic primitives. In the context of the growing need for quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions, determining the readiness of SPHINCS+ involves assessing its practical viability across different application domains and evaluating how well it meets today’s and future needs. To achieve …

Mechanisms For Oxygen Vacancy Defect Migration In Srtio3/Nio Heterostructures, Anish Rajesh More

Theses

Perovskite-based oxide heterostructures display promising properties resulting from interface phenomena, making them good candidates for next-generation solid oxide fuel cell electrolytes. Amongst the different features exhibited by these interfaces, misfit dislocations play an important role in influencing ionic transport, yet their role remains poorly understood, which is the case in rock salt-perovskite interfaces too. In SrTiO3/NiO heterostructures, to comprehend interface ionic transport, we investigate oxygen vacancy migration near misfit dislocations. To this end, we developed a high-throughput framework that integrates atomistic simulations with nudged elastic band method to predict migration energy barriers across disparate interface atomic environments. By comprehensively mapping …

Tourism, Trade, Energy, And Economic Development: Drivers Of Ecological Footprint In The World's Top Tourist Destinations, Abdul Waaje, Md Mustaqim Roshid, Sohidul Islam, Reday Chandra Bhowmik, Muhammad Abdur Rahaman, Md Mahedi Hassan

Michigan Tech Publications

Ecological sustainability, energy consumption, tourism, and economic growth interact in complex ways, a pressing concern for modern policy and study. Using data from 1999 to 2023, this study looks at the top 10 tourist destinations to see how these variables relate to their environmental impact. The primary regression analysis employs the Driscoll-Kraay Standard Errors (DKSE) approach, while Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) are used for robustness checks. The DKSE results show that a 1 % increase in economic development reduces the ecological footprint by 0.775 %. Similarly, renewable energy minimizes the EFP by 0.140 %, …

Reference Correlations For The Density And Viscosity Of Molten Alkali And Alkaline Earth Fluoride Salts, A. Birri, R. Chesser, N. Termini, J. C. Numbers, Kevin Garland, M. A. Rose

Michigan Tech Publications

While there is a significant body of literature pertaining to thermophysical property measurements of molten salts, there is often a wide degree of variability among independent measurements of the same compounds. As such, the scientific community benefits greatly from an unbiased, independent assessment of duplicate datasets, so that reference correlations which describe these thermophysical properties as functions of temperature can be determined and then commonly used by researchers, scientists, and engineers. With regard to molten fluoride compounds, a significant time has elapsed since density and viscosity reference correlations have been determined; Janz conducted the most recent effort, in 1988, to …

The Frequency, Type, And Function Of Visual Displays In Upper Elementary Standardized Science Tests, Daibao Guo, Katherine Landau Wright, Lianne Josbacher, Eun Hye Son

Boise State University Publications and Presentations

Limited research has explored the use of visual displays (ViDis) in science tests, making it challenging to know how these tests align with classroom instruction and what skills students need to be successful on these tests. Therefore, the current study aims to describe the use of ViDis in upper elementary grade standardized science tests. We quantified the frequency, types, and functions of ViDis in science tests in 23 states and Washington, DC. Findings show that in the 741 test items examined, 74.5% included ViDis. Tables, diagrams, and images are the most common ViDis. Importantly, 42.1% of the ViDis in the …

Light & Faith: June 2025, Taylor University

Light & Faith

No abstract provided.

Kin 447.01: Analytical And Communicative Techniques, Melanie L. Mcgrath

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Neutrosophic Z-Number For Measuring Teaching Effectiveness In Ideological And Political Education: A University-Level Study Based On Student Perception, Binna Li

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Application Of Interval Neutrosophic Logic Model For Diagnosis Of Cattle Disease, Lola Safarova, Dilnoz Muhamediyeva, Sokhibjan Muminov, Seyyed Ahmad Edalatpanah

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Neutrosophic Hammer Operator For Assessment Of Product Processing Quality Monitoring System In A Machining Line, Shuai Yuan

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.