Digital Commons Network^™

New Approaches To Triglyceride Reduction: Is There Any Hope Left?, Annalisa Filtz, Siddhant Parihar, Garred S Greenberg, Christine M Park, Andrea Scotti, Daniel Lorenzatti, Juan J Badimon, Daniel E Soffer, Peter P Toth, Carl J Lavie, Vera Bittner, Salim S Virani, Leandro Slipczuk

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Triglycerides play a crucial role in the efficient storage of energy in the body. Mild and moderate hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) is a heterogeneous disorder with significant association with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), including myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and peripheral artery disease and represents an important component of the residual ASCVD risk in statin treated patients despite optimal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction. Individuals with severe HTG (>1,000 mg/dL) rarely develop atherosclerosis but have an incremental incidence of acute pancreatitis with significant morbidity and mortality. HTG can occur from a combination of genetic (both mono and polygenic) and environmental factors including poor …

Valorization Of Spent Zn-C Battery And Construction And Demolition Waste (Cdw): Fabrication And Characterization Of Geopolymer Composites For Radiation Shielding Applications, Raul Florez, Carlos H. Castano Giraldo, Sandra M. Restrepo-Arcila, Henry A. Colorado

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

There is a Serious Threat of Pollution Due to the High Waste of Energy and Materials Worldwide that Needs to Be Decreased. One Way is to Reduce Waste or Use Them in Secondary Processes. New Eco-Friendly Geopolymer Binders Were Fabricated using Metakaolin, CDW, and Battery Waste (BW) Powders as Starting Materials and a Mixture of Potassium Silicate and Sodium Hydroxide as Activation Solutions. 5 Formulations with BW Powder Replacements Ranging from 5 to 40 Wt% Were Prepared and Subjected to Heat Curing at 80 °C for 24 H. the Effect of Zn-C Battery Waste Content on the Phase Composition, Densification, …

Development Of Clinical Screening Tool For Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency In Patients With Definite Chronic Pancreatitis, Mohamed O Othman, Christopher Forsmark, Dhiraj Yadav, Vikesh K Singh, Luis F Lara, Walter Park, Zuoyi Zhang, Jun Yu, Jens J Kort

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background/objectives: No simple, accurate diagnostic tests exist for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), and EPI remains underdiagnosed in chronic pancreatitis (CP). We sought to develop a digital screening tool to assist clinicians to predict EPI in patients with definite CP.

Methods: This was a retrospective case-control study of patients with definite CP with/without EPI. Overall, 49 candidate predictor variables were utilized to train a Classification and Regression Tree (CART) model to rank all predictors and select a parsimonious set of predictors for EPI status. Five-fold cross-validation was used to assess generalizability, and the full CART model was compared with 4 additional …

Adaptive, Behavioral, And Emotional Outcomes Following Postoperative Pediatric Cerebellar Mutism Syndrome In Survivors Treated For Medulloblastoma, Kimberly P Raghubar, Andrew M Heitzer, Fatema Malbari, Jason Gill, Roy V Sillitoe, Livia Merrill, Johanna Escalante, M Fatih Okcu, Guillermo Aldave, Avner Meoded, Stephen Kralik, Kimberly Davis, Marina Ma, Emily A H Warren, Mark D Mccurdy, Howard L Weiner, William Whitehead, Michael E Scheurer, Lisa Rodriguez, Amy Daigle, Murali Chintagumpala, Lisa S Kahalley

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: Patients who experience postoperative pediatric cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS) during treatment for medulloblastoma have long-term deficits in neurocognitive functioning; however, the consequences on functional or adaptive outcomes are unknown. The purpose of the present study was to compare adaptive, behavioral, and emotional functioning between survivors with and those without a history of CMS.

METHODS: The authors examined outcomes in 45 survivors (15 with CMS and 30 without CMS). Comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations, which included parent-report measures of adaptive, behavioral, and emotional functioning, were completed at a median of 2.90 years following craniospinal irradiation.

RESULTS: Adaptive functioning was significantly worse in …

Chatgpt In Indonesia-Arabic Translation: A Quality Analysis, Nudya Kuntum Khoirel Abidah, Rosyidatul Hikmawati, Very Erawanto

Al-Arabi: Journal of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

ChatGPT applications are increasingly popular for answering questions and providing information to users on various topics and languages, including text translation. In several previous studies, the use of the ChatGPT was deemed coherent, relatively ac

A Cefr-Based Analysis Of Speaking Proficiency In 9th Grade Arabic Textbooks, Resgi Widati Tria Lis Utami, Muhammad Jafar Shodiq

Al-Arabi: Journal of Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language

This research was conducted because there is no availability of learning materials that are able to support the needs of students in improving their understanding and skills of Arabic, especially in   mahārah kalām . The research method used is librar

The Association Between Body Image Satisfaction And Depressive Symptoms Among Young Women In The Uae With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (Pcos) And Non-Pcos: A Comparative Quantitative Cross-Sectional Study, Shaima Abdrahman Al-Mekhlafi

Theses

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common syndromes affecting women of reproductive age, (Laggari et al., 2009). PCOS not only impacts women's physical health but also their psychological well-being, often leading to depressive symptoms and lower body image satisfaction, Wang et al. (2023). Recent research indicates a growing prevalence of PCOS among women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mirza et al. (2023). However, there is a noticeable gap in understanding the psychological effects of PCOS on women in the UAE, likely due to cultural sensitivities. This study aims to investigate the association of depressive symptoms and …

Exploring English Language Teachers’ Selfefficacy Beliefs In Relation To Teaching Gifted Students, Shatha Mohammed Sobih

Theses

This study investigates the beliefs of English language teachers regarding their ability to identify and teach gifted students, focusing on how they perceive their own skills in teaching primary grade level students (grades 1, 2, and 3) with exceptional intellectual abilities in English language education. The study followed a qualitative research design and collected data using an open-ended survey consisting of questions that encouraged participants to provide detailed and unrestricted responses. This study also performed purposeful sampling to select respondents with the necessary knowledge and experience to offer rich and meaningful data. This study targeted English language teachers (n …

The Differences Between Metacognitive Reading Strategies Used By Native Arabic Speakers In The Uae When Reading Digital Versus Printed Materials, Razan Majed Shehadeh

Theses

This study explores the differences between the metacognitive reading strategies that native Arabic speakers college students use in the UAE when reading digital vs. printed texts. A convergent Mixed-Methods Design was employed to achieve the purpose of this study. The first data comprised a background questionnaire and two metacognitive reading surveys reflecting reading from digital materials that were conducted with college students (n=100), and the second data set comprised semi-structured interviews with a subset of students sampled from the original pool (n= 8). This study's participants were college students selected randomly from some of the UAE universities. Generally, the results …

Exploring Emirati High School Students' Attitude Towards Reading In L2 (English), Seba Dabik

Theses

Reading in a second language (L2) is a crucial skill for high school students as it helps to develop their second language proficiency and broadens their understanding of the world. It also holds substantial significance in both their personal and academic endeavors. Additionally, proficient L2 reading skills pave the way for promising prospects and professional opportunities. This study examines students' attitudes towards reading academically and recreationally in L2 and the factors that contribute to these attitudes. The study sample comprised of 20 grade 11 UAE national male students (16-17 years old) enrolled in a public Applied Technology School (ATS) in …

Childlessness, Social Network Profiles In Midlife And Late Adulthood, And Their Implications For Subjective Well-Being, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Dahye Kim, Christine Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

Objectives: Despite the rising prevalence of individuals reaching advanced age without children, little is known about the diversity of support networks within childless populations. We examine the network profiles of childless adults aged 50+ in Singapore, which observes high childlessness rates despite societal emphasis on familism. Methods: We employ latent class analysis to derive network typology based on a 2022 nationwide survey in Singapore. Additionally, we use logistic regression analyses to investigate the sociodemographic correlates of childless individuals' network types and the associations between these network types and subjective well-being. Results: Childless Singaporeans form a heterogeneous group characterized by different …

Enhancing Student Engagement In Introductory Economics With Interactive Videos And Synthesized Readings In Flipped Learning, Bei Hong, Duan Ning, Magdeleine Lew

Research Collection School Of Economics

A major challenge faced by university economics instructors is to find more time to incorporate active learning into the classroom, which encourages student participation. As a result, more instructors choose to flip their classrooms, in which students are encouraged to perform preparatory reading or watch videos to participate more meaningfully and learn more effectively. This study aims to examine how pre-lecture materials enhance student participation by examining the effectiveness of two types of materials: interactive videos and synthesized readings. The synthesized readings contain essential information extracted from the textbook and is presented in a structured manner with highlighted key points. …

Clonality And Epidemiological Studies Of E. Coli Strain Collected From Abu Dhabi Emirate Using Ngs And Bioinformatic Tools, Ahmed Abdelrahman Mohamed

Theses

In the current landscape, where antibiotic resistance in bacteria is steadily rising, the role of bacterial genomics has assumed increasing significance. Therefore, it is necessary for microbiologists to acquire proficiency in the utilization of these methods and tools to harness their potential in gaining valuable insights into bacterial genomes. This can facilitate the development of innovative strategies for managing and treating bacterial infections. Here we present the power of the whole-genome sequencing technology in characterization of multidrug resistant Escherichia coli isolates. Fourteen Escherichia coli isolates were selected for this study. Following the standard microbiological techniques to confirm the sample identification, …

Relationship Between Parents’ Feeding Styles, Nutrition Practices And Risk Of Obesity Among 3-5 Years Old Children In The United Arab Emirates, Reem Mohamed Alkarbi

Theses

Previous studies suggest that parental feeding practices shape preschool eating and physical activity habits, ultimately influencing children's weight status. Despite the high obesity rate in UAE youth, preschoolers’ nutrition habits and their links to parental feeding styles are explored. This study aims to describe parental feeding styles: Emotional (E), Instrumental (I), Prompting and Encouragement (PE), Control Over Eating (COE)), and their associations with nutrition practices, socio-demographic factors, and obesity in UAE preschoolers. Using an online questionnaire, a cross-sectional study surveyed Emirati families with 3-5-year-old children. Data was analyzed using SPSS v.29. 70 preschool Emirati children living in Abu Dhabi participated. …

Technology-Enhanced Mathematics Teaching And Learning: Teachers’ Perspectives On Digital And Generative Ai–Enabled Tool Integration Through A Tpack Lens In Abu Dhabi Schools, Abdalrahman A. Adlouni

Theses

Digital learning is an active approach to education in daily life, and it has been implemented in all the schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Many strategies, such as platforms, online educational websites, and other applications, were used by teachers to support blended learning and assist students in achieving their goals and accomplishing what is required from their curriculum. The main objective of this study is to examine teachers’ perceptions toward teaching mathematics using digital learning tools in Cycle 2 and Cycle 3. Data was collected from (n=114) mathematics teachers in Abu Dhabi City, UAE, during the spring semester …

Effects Of A Taekwondo-Inspired Intervention Program On Children With Adhd, Zubaida Fares Shraim

Dissertations

Exercise and physical activity are beneficial for individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a Taekwondo-inspired intervention program on children with ADHD in the UAE context. The research utilized a mixed methods/quasi-experimental design approach, consisting of two phases. Within the first phase, a promising intensive intervention for children with ADHD has been implemented for five weeks, four sessions weekly. The sample of the first phase consisted of four children aged 8-10 years diagnosed with ADHD. Three assessment instruments were used to collect data in phase one and explore …

Predictive Capacity Of Immune-Related Adverse Events And Cytokine Profiling In Neoadjuvant Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Trials For Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Angela Alnemri, Sruti Tekumalla, Annie Moroco, Ioannis Vathiotis, Madalina Tuluc, Stacey Gargano, Tingting Zhan, David Cognetti, Joseph Curry, Athanassios Argiris, Alban Linnenbach, Andrew South, Larry Harshyne, Jennifer Johnson, Adam Luginbuhl

Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVES: Certain low-level immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have been associated with survival benefits in patients with various solid tumors on immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We aimed to investigate the association between irAEs and response to neoadjuvant ICIs in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and to identify differences in circulating cytokine levels based on irAE status.

METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study including three neoadjuvant clinical trials from July 2017 to January 2022: NCT03238365 (nivolumab ± tadalafil), NCT03854032 (nivolumab ± BMS986205), NCT03618654 (durvalumab ± metformin). The presence and type of irAEs, pathologic treatment response, and survival …

Imitating Cost-Constrained Behaviors In Reinforcement Learning, Qian Shao, Pradeep Varakantham, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Complex planning and scheduling problems have long been solved using various optimization or heuristic approaches. In recent years, imitation learning that aims to learn from expert demonstrations has been proposed as a viable alternative to solving these problems. Generally speaking, imitation learning is designed to learn either the reward (or preference) model or directly the behavioral policy by observing the behavior of an expert. Existing work in imitation learning and inverse reinforcement learning has focused on imitation primarily in unconstrained settings (e.g., no limit on fuel consumed by the vehicle). However, in many real-world domains, the behavior of an expert …

Pkt-Sin: A Secure Communication Protocol For Space Information Networks With Periodic K-Time Anonymous Authentication, Yang Yang, Wenyi Xue, Jianfei Sun, Guomin Yang, Yingjiu Li, Hwee Hwa Pang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Space Information Network (SIN) enables universal Internet connectivity for any object, even in remote and extreme environments where deploying a cellular network is difficult. Access authentication is crucial for ensuring user access control in SIN and preventing unauthorized entities from gaining access to network services. However, due to the complex communication environment in SIN, including exposed links and higher signal delay, designing a secure and efficient authentication scheme presents a significant challenge. In this paper, we propose a secure communication protocol for SIN with periodic k-time anonymous authentication (named PkT-SIN) that allows satellite users to anonymously authenticate to ground stations …

Sgsh : Stimulate Large Language Models With Skeleton Heuristics For Knowledge Base Question Generation, Shasha Guo, Lizi Liao, Jing Zhang, Yanling Wang, Cuiping Li, Hong Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Knowledge base question generation (KBQG) aims to generate natural language questions from a set of triplet facts extracted from KB. Existing methods have significantly boosted the performance of KBQG via pre-trained language models (PLMs) thanks to the richly endowed semantic knowledge. With the advance of pre-training techniques, large language models (LLMs) (e.g., GPT-3.5) undoubtedly possess much more semantic knowledge. Therefore, how to effectively organize and exploit the abundant knowledge for KBQG becomes the focus of our study. In this work, we propose SGSH — a simple and effective framework to Stimulate GPT-3.5 with Skeleton Heuristics to enhance KBQG. The framework …

Generalized Graph Prompt: Toward A Unification Of Pre-Training And Downstream Tasks On Graphs, Xingtong Yu, Zhenghao Liu, Yuan Fang, Et Al.

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Graphs can model complex relationships between objects, enabling a myriad of Web applications such as online page/article classification and social recommendation. While graph neural networks (GNNs) have emerged as a powerful tool for graph representation learning, in an end-to-end supervised setting, their performance heavily relies on a large amount of task-specific supervision. To reduce labeling requirement, the 'pre-train, fine-tune' and 'pre-train, prompt' paradigms have become increasingly common. In particular, prompting is a popular alternative to fine-tuning in natural language processing, which is designed to narrow the gap between pre-training and downstream objectives in a task-specific manner. However, existing study of …

D3still : Decoupled Differential Distillation For Asymmetric Image Retrieval, Yi Xie, Yihong Lin, Wenjie Cai, Xuemiao Xu, Huaidong Zhang, Yong Du, Shengfeng He

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Existing methods for asymmetric image retrieval employ a rigid pairwise similarity constraint between the query network and the larger gallery network. However, these oneto-one constraint approaches often fail to maintain retrieval order consistency, especially when the query network has limited representational capacity. To overcome this problem, we introduce the Decoupled Differential Distillation (D3still) framework. This framework shifts from absolute one-to-one supervision to optimizing the relational differences in pairwise similarities produced by the query and gallery networks, thereby preserving a consistent retrieval order across both networks. Our method involves computing a pairwise similarity differential matrix within the gallery domain, which is …

The Whole Is Better Than The Sum : Using Aggregated Demonstrations In In-Context Learning For Sequential Recommendation, Wang Lei, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large language models (LLMs) have shown excellent performance on various NLP tasks. To use LLMs as strong sequential recommenders, we explore the in-context learning approach to sequential recommendation. We investigate the effects of instruction format, task consistency, demonstration selection, and number of demonstrations. As increasing the number of demonstrations in ICL does not improve accuracy despite using a long prompt, we propose a novel method called LLMSRec-Syn that incorporates multiple demonstration users into one aggregated demonstration. Our experiments on three recommendation datasets show that LLMSRec-Syn outperforms state-of-the-art LLM-based sequential recommendation methods. In some cases, LLMSRec-Syn can perform on par with …

Factors Affecting Online Consumers' Cultural Presence And Cultural Immersion Experiences In Live Streaming Shopping, Lifu Li, Kyeong Kang, Yafei Feng, Anqi Zhao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper conducts research on the interaction between ethnic minority group (EMG) live streamers and online consumers, aiming to present how EMG live streamers’ appearance and interaction factors affect online consumers’ cultural experience during live streaming shopping. Based on the social presence theory and the immersion theory, this paper explores how EMG live streamers impact online consumers’ cultural experience, and it designs personal EMG knowledge as a moderating variable under specific social and cultural backgrounds. Through analysing 325 online questionnaires based on the partial least squares path modelling and variance-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the study results support that both …

On Efficient Object-Detection Nas For Adas On Edge Devices, Diksha Gupta, Rhui Dih Lee, Laura Wynter

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Object detection is a crucial building block for Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). These systems require real-time accurate detection on resource-constrained edge devices. Deep learning models are emerging as popular techniques over traditional methods with superior performance. A hurdle in deploying these models is the inference time and computational cost of these models, in addition to training challenges for specialized tasks.We address this using supernet training-based neural architecture search (NAS) to obtain a variety of object detection models at a scale specific to the ADAS application. To this end, we consider a convolutional neural network-based object detection model. We produce …

Network-Based Representations And Dynamic Discrete Choice Models For Multiple Discrete Choice Analysis, Huy Hung Tran, Tien Mai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In many choice modeling applications, consumer demand is frequently characterized as multiple discrete, which means that consumer choose multiple items simultaneously. The analysis and prediction of consumer behavior in multiple discrete choice situations pose several challenges. In this paper, to address this, we propose a random utility maximization (RUM) based model that considers each subset of choice alternatives as a composite alternative, where individuals choose a subset according to the RUM framework. While this approach offers a natural and intuitive modeling approach for multiple-choice analysis, the large number of subsets of choices in the formulation makes its estimation and application …

Unmasking The Lurking: Malicious Behavior Detection For Iot Malware With Multi-Label Classification, Ruitao Feng, Sen Li, Sen Chen, Mengmeng Ge, Xuewei Li, Xiaohong Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Current methods for classifying IoT malware predominantly utilize binary and family classifications. However, these outcomes lack the detailed granularity to describe malicious behavior comprehensively. This limitation poses challenges for security analysts, failing to support further analysis and timely preventive actions. To achieve fine-grained malicious behavior identification in the lurking stage of IoT malware, we propose MaGraMal. This approach, leveraging masked graph representation, supplements traditional classification methodology, empowering analysts with critical insights for rapid responses. Through the empirical study, which took three person-months, we identify and summarize four fine-grained malicious behaviors during the lurking stage, constructing an annotated dataset. Our evaluation …

Inceptionnext: When Inception Meets Convnext, Weihao Yu, Pan Zhou, Shuicheng Yan, Xinchao Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Inspired by the long-range modeling ability of ViTs, large-kernel convolutions are widely studied and adopted recently to enlarge the receptive field and improve model performance, like the remarkable work ConvNeXt which employs 7×7 depthwise convolution. Although such depthwise operator only consumes a few FLOPs, it largely harms the model efficiency on powerful computing devices due to the high memory access costs. For example, ConvNeXtT has similar FLOPs with ResNet-50 but only achieves ∼ 60% throughputs when trained on A100 GPUs with full precision. Although reducing the kernel size of ConvNeXt can improve speed, it results in significant performance degradation, which …

Applicability And Challenges Of Indoor Localization Using One-Sided Round Trip Time Measurements, Quang Hai Truong, Xi Kai Justin Lam, Guru Anand Anish, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Radio Frequency fingerprinting, based on WiFi or cellular signals, has been a popular approach for localization. However, adoptions in real-world applications have confronted with challenges due to low accuracy, especially in crowded environments. The received signal strength (RSS) could be easily interfered by a large number of other devices or strictly depends on physical surrounding environments, which may cause localization errors of a few meters. On the other hand, the fine time measurement (FTM) round-trip time (RTT) has shown compelling improvement in indoor localization with ~1-2 meter accuracy in both 2D and 3D environments [13]. This method relies on the …

How Is Our Mobility Affected As We Age? Findings From A 934 Users Field Study Of Older Adults Conducted In An Urban Asian City, Yi Zhen Tan, Ngoc Doan Thu Tran, Sapphire Lin, Fang Zhao, Yee Sien Ng, Dong Ma, Jeonggil Ko, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we analyze the results of a large study involving 934 older adults living in an urban Asian city that collected their mobility patterns, in the form of logged GPS data, along with a multitude of demographic and health data. We show that mobility, in terms of average distance travelled per day, is greatly affected by age and by employment status. In addition, other factors such as type of day, household size, physical and financial conditions and the onset of retirement also play a significant role in determining the mobility of an individual. These results will have high …