Digital Commons Network^™

Dna Combing Versus Dna Spreading And The Separation Of Sister Chromatids, Alice Meroni, Sophie E Wells, Carmen Fonseca, Arnab Ray Chaudhuri, Keith W Caldecott, Alessandro Vindigni

2020-Current year OA Pubs

DNA combing and DNA spreading are two central approaches for studying DNA replication fork dynamics genome-wide at single-molecule resolution by distributing labeled genomic DNA on coverslips or slides for immunodetection. Perturbations in DNA replication fork dynamics can differentially affect either leading or lagging strand synthesis, for example, in instances where replication is blocked by a lesion or obstacle on only one of the two strands. Thus, we sought to investigate whether the DNA combing and/or spreading approaches are suitable for resolving adjacent sister chromatids during DNA replication, thereby enabling the detection of DNA replication dynamics within individual nascent strands. To …

April 2024, Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Restorative Practices Effect On The Culture And Climate Of A School Or District, Stephanie Daly

Dissertations

Restorative practices have emerged as a transformative approach within various domains, particularly education, aiming to nurture constructive relationships, address conflicts, and foster community. This research delves into the multifaceted world of restorative practices in educational settings, exploring their impact on school climate, conflict resolution, social and emotional learning, and broader implications for equity and justice in the classroom. This study looks to see if restorative practices affect the culture and climate of a school or district. It looks at how students describe a classroom that uses these practices. The feelings and reactions of students participating in these practices were also …

A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Examining The Experiences Of Substance Use Disorder Clients Engaging In Adventure Therapy, Heather Cresswell

Dissertations

Drug overdose deaths in the United States continue to rise. In 2019, over 70,000 drug overdose deaths were recorded, marking a 4% increase from the previous year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). More recent estimates suggest the death toll exceeded 100,000 in a twelve-month period ending in April 2021, indicating a significant rise (Johnson, 2021). The high mortality rate linked to addiction highlights the necessity for effective interventions for individuals diagnosed with SUD. The study presented focused on the impact of Adventure Therapy (AT) as an addition to the treatment of adults diagnosed with SUD. The chosen research …

Impact Of Financial Literacy And Financial Capability On Students' Self-Efficacy, Darren Scott

Dissertations

Low-income, first-generation college students experience unique obstacles in their pursuits of a college degree. One of the biggest stressors that exist within this population is financial stress which has led to money being the number one reason students do not persist to graduation. Despite this being one of their biggest stressors, many higher education institutions do not put an emphasis on financial literacy initiatives that research has shown can help alleviate this type of stress. This mixed methods study explores the impact financial literacy and financial capability has on a students’ self-efficacy. This research is guided by Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy …

Examining The Influence Of Professional Learning Communities On Grit And Social-Emotional Skill Development In Students And Collective Teacher Efficacy Within A Middle School, Sam Kurtz

Dissertations

There has been a change in student behavior and social-emotional competence following the isolation, independence, and disjointed nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of our efforts to engage students in learning, many are not emotionally available to participate in or avail themselves of the learning process. Through this study, I connected the potential development of collective teacher efficacy through utilizing a professional learning community (PLC) model, which focused on addressing students' lagging social-emotional skills in the middle school setting. This research aimed to determine if collective efficay and PLCs with a central focus on social-emotional learning could yield growth in …

An Evaluation Of The Factors That Lead To The Development Of Deferential Interactions Between Teachers And Students, Shondra Browne-Bolton

Dissertations

Schools have historically maintained a hierarchy with an expectation that students show deference. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that caused students to treat teachers disrespectfully. This mixed-methods inquiry included K-12 teachers and administrators who responded to a social media post and participated in surveys and interviews. Based on my findings, the factors that led to the development of deferential interactions between teachers and students included establishing trusting relationships, reciprocated respect, clear schoolwide behavior expectations, positive communication with parents, and teachers' professional dress. My recommendations were for establishing clear schoolwide behavior expectations, for school districts to …

My Legacy Document: A Story Told Through A Pedagogical Lens Of Three Landscapes. School, Work, And Faith, Debra Williams

Dissertations

Too often professionals, when answering the question “Who are you?”, resort to listing what they do. Although individuals are gifted, experienced, and qualified, as these persons influence and significantly impact others, one could get lost as a person and be unfulfilled. That’s a problem.

Positioning myself as the study of research, utilizing autoethnography as the chosen methodology, my doctoral journey is chronicled. Three landscapes, school, work, and faith, serve as the areas of emphasis.

Honing The Craft Of Qualitative Data Collection In Extreme Contexts, Payal Sharma, Madeline Toubiana, Kisha Lashley, Felipe Massa, Kristie M. Rogers, Trish Ruebottom

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Over the past several years, there has been ongoing dialog within our academic journals and the profession regarding the value of examining extreme, unconventional, or unsettling contexts in management research. These conversations have highlighted that perhaps more than ever, we as a society are facing unprecedented grand and perplexing challenges, and conducting research in unconventional or extreme settings can reveal complex dynamics or relationships that we may not understand otherwise. Less discussed, however, are methodological considerations for conducting research in unique contexts. As such, we aim to extend the explicit discussion of effective strategies for scholars who consider the perspectives …

Low-Dimensional Criticality Embedded In High-Dimensional Awake Brain Dynamics, Antonio J. Fontenele, J. Samuel Sooter, V. Kindler Norman, Shree Hari Gautam, Woodrow L. Shew

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Whether cortical neurons operate in a strongly or weakly correlated dynamical regime determines fundamental information processing capabilities and has fueled decades of debate. We offer a resolution of this debate; we show that two important dynamical regimes, typically considered incompatible, can coexist in the same local cortical circuit by separating them into two different subspaces. In awake mouse motor cortex, we find a low-dimensional subspace with large fluctuations consistent with criticality—a dynamical regime with moderate correlations and multi-scale information capacity and transmission. Orthogonal to this critical subspace, we find a high-dimensional subspace containing a desynchronized dynamical regime, which may optimize …

The Australian Multidomain Approach To Reduce Dementia Risk By Protecting Brain Health With Lifestyle Intervention Study (Au-Arrow): A Study Protocol For A Single-Blind, Multi-Site, Randomized Controlled Trial, Samantha L. Gardener, Stephanie J. Fuller, Sharon L. Naismith, Laura Baker, Miia Kivipelto, Victor L. Villemagne, Stuart M. Grieve, Paul Yates, Stephanie R. Rainey-Smith, Juliana Chen, Belinda Thompson, Nicola J. Armstrong, Malika G. Fernando, Carolina B. Castro, Silochna Meghwar, Rema Raman, Andrew Gleason, Catriona Ireland, Roger Clarnette, Kaarin J. Anstey, Kevin Taddei, Manohar Garg, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Ralph N. Martins

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: The Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study (FINGER) led to the global dementia risk reduction initiative: World-Wide FINGERS (WW-FINGERS). As part of WW-FINGERS, the Australian AU-ARROW study mirrors aspects of FINGER, as well as US-POINTER.

Method: AU-ARROW is a randomized, single-blind, multisite, 2-year clinical trial (n = 600; aged 55–79). The multimodal lifestyle intervention group will engage in aerobic exercise, resistance training and stretching, dietary advice to encourage MIND diet adherence, BrainHQ cognitive training, and medical monitoring and health education. The Health Education and Coaching group will receive occasional health education sessions. The primary outcome measure is the change in a …

Low Power Logic Locking Using Design Space Modeling To Achieve System-Wide Security, Long Lam

Theses

Rising design complexity and smaller technology nodes are escalating fabrication costs, prompting design houses to outsource to untrusted external facilities, which raises trust and privacy concerns. These concerns stem from the risk of security breaches like IP piracy, reverse engineering, and hardware trojans. The critical need to protect design intellectual property prompted the development of logic locking, a combinational hardware security technique that corrupts the functionality of a design without the correct secret key. However, the effectiveness of logic locking varies substantially based on how and where it is implemented within a system, including the specific technique families selected, the …

Adjoining Gates: Mitigating Optical Side-Channel Attacks On Integrated Circuits Through Security-Aware Placement, Thomas Wojtal

Theses

With the rise of outsourcing in Integrated Circuit (IC) fabrication processes, vulnerabilities in chip security have become a growing concern. These vulnerabilities can lead to attacks such as reverse-engineering, piracy, overproduction, and malicious modification of high-value intellectual property (IP) in a design. In light of this, a method called logic locking has been developed to protect chips prior to end-user shipment. Logic locking incorporates additional logic gates in a design to conceal a chip’s functionality during manufacture and test processes. However, recent developments have shown logic locking to be vulnerable to optical side-channel attacks. In this work, we explore these …

Predictive Maintenance On Drone Batteries Failure Using Machine Learning, Khalifa Jamal Almannaei

Theses

Predictive maintenance, powered by machine learning models, presents an innovative solution to address the limitations of drone battery maintenance. The core aim of this study is to design and implement machine learning models suitable for drone batteries, predict battery health, and prescribe maintenance actions. The ultimate scope is to improve operational reliability, safety, and cost-efficiency for drone applications while advancing sustainability and efficiency within the drone industry. By integrating predictive maintenance, the management of drone batteries can be optimized, leading to more reliable, and cost-effective drone operations, the proposal will seek to identify different factors that impacts the health and …

Optimizing V2v Energy Exchange Using Ai, Marwa Alghawi

Theses

A key factor in promoting sustainable economies, industries, and society is the use of electric vehicles (EVs). They are an important step toward a greener future since they reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and encourage energy independence. The demand for charging stations (CSs) will undoubtedly rise as the global EV market continues to grow over the next few decades, requiring significant investments from both public and private players. By creating a cutting-edge AI model, this work tackles the crucial problems of EVs range prediction and charging optimization decisions. The contributions are summarized as the below: 1. Developed AI …

Leveraging Sentiment Analysis For Tokyo Airbnb Hosts And Decision Makers, Shaikha Aldahmani

Theses

This study focused on the growing challenges that Tokyo Airbnb hosts and policymakers face in the holiday homes and home stays market. The study aimed to empower hosts with insights to optimize offerings and assist policymakers in informed decision-making for enhancing neighborhood experiences, with a focus on data-driven business strategies grounded in sentiment analysis. The project employed a robust methodology that leverages sentiment analysis techniques to gain insights from guest comments of Tokyo Airbnb listings spanning from September 2011 to June 2023. The CART algorithm and the Affin sentiment lexicon were used for data cleaning, consolidation, and sentiment analysis. The …

Optimizing Supply Chain Dynamics Using Machine Learning, Mohammad Zubin Siddiqui

Theses

Supply chains face many challenges in today’s business environment. This paper examines how advanced analytics can be used to improve supply chain efficiency and resilience with a particular focus on demand forecasting and late delivery analysis. The thesis focuses on two areas, which are forecasting demand and analyzing late deliveries. With the help of data-driven models for forecasting demand and pinpointing reasons behind delayed shipments, establishments can take appropriate measures that will reduce risks and enhance operational efficiency. A complete analytic framework is suggested that integrates sophisticated analytics into supply chain management so that organizations can optimize all their operations …

Robust Machine Learning Under Vulnerable Cyberinfrastructure And Varying Data Quality, Sergei Chuprov

Theses

In our study, we investigate Machine Learning (ML) application robustness in ML Integrated with Network (MLIN) systems. We consider MLIN as an integration of three major components and interrelations between them: data sources, network facilities, and ML application. In contrast to the conventional approaches that focus on each separate component, we concentrate on their interrelationships, and consider them from the system integration perspective. We formulate our primary goal as to develop methods and tools aimed at assuring ML application performance towards Data Quality (DQ) variation in MLIN through improving ML application robustness. We examine the prior work on ML robustness …

Learning From Disagreement In Human-Annotated Datasets, Tharindu Cyril Weerasooriya

Theses

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems frequently need to learn from human decision makers, which aids in scaling systems for mass use. We see this in automated financial decisions, manufacturing processes, self- driving cars, and content moderation on social networks. These systems are built on human values and trained to mimic human decision-making through human annotation. However, different groups of human annotators, including domain experts, annotate content differently, leading to disagreements. Some practitioners treat dissenting opinions as “label noise”. A common approach to dealing with disagreement is to consider a majority vote, which effectively conceals the disagreements from the trained model. Although …

Predictive Analytics Of Road Traffic Incidents, A Machine Learning Approach, Maryam Essa Jaji

Theses

Traffic accidents rank among the world's most serious concerns due to the high number of deaths, injuries, and fatalities as well as the enormous financial losses they cause every year. Road travel is a necessary component of modern civilization, but because of the rise in traffic accidents, it costs the world economy billions of dollars and over a million deaths annually. Road accidents can be caused by a variety of elements. It can be possible to take action to lessen the severity and extent of the effects if these elements are better recognized and predicted. The goal of this project …

“Art For The Millions:” The Evolution Of Informal Learning From The Charleston Museum To The New Deal, Kristen Walker

Theses

The advent of the first museum in the United States in 1773, The Charleston Museum, sparked a shift in the way education is perceived and how it can be conducted. However, only recently has the intentional implementation of programs and exhibitions been created in a digestible way for the public. This thesis discusses how informal learning has evolved since the establishment of the Charleston Museum and the legacy of the Federal Art Project regarding informal learning and art education. Key research methods include the examination of primary and secondary resources, including oral histories held by the Smithsonian Archives of American …

There’S Always Room For Improvement: Implementing Indoor Navigation Using ‘Mappedin’ In The Rochester Museum And Science Center To Enhance The Visitor Experience, Izzy Moyer

Theses

Since March 2020, museums have dramatically increased their use of technology in museums to make their environments more engaging to their visitors. For indoor navigation, for instance, museums have used still images, PDFs, and QR codes as well as analog measures (such as directional signage and paper maps) to help their visitors navigate their institution. While these are helpful for understanding one’s general location, other digital wayfinding measures can foster information sharing as well as the opportunity to decrease “spatial anxiety.” This thesis describes the creation of a map for portable, indoor navigation using “Mappedin,” a cost-effective platform that is …

From Ordinary To Extraordinary: Using Storytelling To Reveal The Hidden Histories Of Objects And Enhance Meaning Making In A Living History Village, Jill Poppenheimer Johnson

Theses

Objects without a narrative are simply things. By contrast, an object with a story can be used as a vehicle for a museum to open dialogues with visitors about the people of that time period, how they lived their lives, and what social aspects influenced them. The story of an object, what makes it different from hundreds of others just like it, can change it from ordinary to extraordinary and be used as a powerful learning tool by helping the audience to create connections and make meaning of what they are seeing and experiencing. This thesis explores the relationships between …

Transfer Learning Across Domains And Sensing Modalities, Chowdhury Sadman Jahan

Theses

Transfer learning facilitates the training of a deep learning (DL) model with limited or no labeled data, by initializing the network parameters using a similar model already trained on a different but related dataset or task. This dissertation examines two special cases of transfer learning for image classification tasks: cross-modal supervised learning, and cross-domain unsupervised adaptation. This dissertation proposes to apply cross-modal transfer learning to guide the training process of a DL model on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images via knowledge distillation from a DL model trained on corresponding electro-optical (EO) images. Furthermore, this approach explores class-balanced sampling strategies and …

Teacher Professional Education And Student Learning: A Secondary Analysis Of Nationwide Data, Aisha Naz Ansari, Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta, Sohail Ahmad

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Professional qualification of teachers is widely recognised instrumental for enhancing students’ learning experiences and outcomes. Recently, the introduction of 4-year B.Ed Hons programme was introduced in Pakistan with the intention that it will help in preparing professionally qualified teachers who would not only demonstrate better classroom practices but also contribute to enhancing their students learning. This paper employed a secondary analysis of a nationwide dataset to compare students’ performance who are taught by teachers with B.Ed (Hons), B.Ed, and no professional qualifications. Furthermore, this study also present descriptive comparison of classroom teaching practices of these three types of teachers. The …

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

Barriers To Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Among People Who Use Drugs In The Rural United States: A Qualitative, Multi-Site Study., T. J. Stopka, A. T. Estadt, G. Leichtling, J. C. Schleicher, L. S. Mixson, J. Bresett, E. Romo, P. Dowd, S. M. Walters, A. M. Young, W. Zule, P. D. Friedmann, V. F. Go, R. Baker, R. J. Fredericksen

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: In 2020, 2.8 million people required substance use disorder (SUD) treatment in nonmetropolitan or 'rural' areas in the U.S. Among this population, only 10% received SUD treatment from a specialty facility, and 1 in 500 received medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD). We explored the context surrounding barriers to SUD treatment in the rural United States.

METHODS: We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews from 2018 to 2019 to assess barriers to SUD treatment among people who use drugs (PWUD) across seven rural U.S. study sites. Using the social-ecological model (SEM), we examined individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy factors contributing …

An Epck Challenge: A Study Of The Major Challenges That Certified, Nonveteran English Language Arts Elementary School Teachers In A Southeast State Of The United States Face With Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Lindsay Medford-Fazio

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The complexity and expansiveness of the discipline of English Language Arts makes it necessary to equip novice teachers with an understanding of pedagogical content knowledge within the ELA framework. This study aimed at discerning whether novice, elementary ELA teachers in a southeast state of the United States experienced challenges with PCK in ELA and at discovering the root of these problems. An extensive literature review was conducted. This review highlighted Lee Shulman’s theory of PCK which guided the study. The review found that ELA was the only discipline without a PCK model. The various components of ELA, with an emphasis …

Exploration On Lysing Microalgae Using Pulsed Electric Fields, Fereshteh A. Bunk

Physics

With a dangerously and rapidly changing climate [1], people globally are desperate to reduce CO2 emissions and protect our environment as evidenced by global initiatives such as the United Nations’ Paris Agreement [2]. Traditional fossil fuel extraction and combustion was responsible for 74% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, which contributes to climate change, ocean acidification, extreme weather events, sea level rise, pollution, and health issues which contributed to 350,000 premature deaths in the U.S. in 2018 [3]. This motivates the search for alternative, more sustainable fuel production. There have been many new, more sustainable solutions to traditional fossil …

Periods Of Technological Change In Higher Education, Miguel Casillas Alvarado, Alberto Ramirez Martinell, Rosbenraver Lopez-Olivera Lopez

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Special Issue