Digital Commons Network^™

Writing From Our Lives: From Reading Like Writers To Personal Narrative Writing, Julianna Kershen, Sarah Relja, David Mackowski, Grace Rhodes

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article describes the design and use of writing opportunities for preservice teacher candidates enrolled in English Language Arts education coursework. Based in the practice-based teacher education principle that preparatory coursework include implementation activities, we describe how preservice candidates engaged in the study of writer’s craft through immersion in mentor texts through close reading, annotation, and free response writing. This article highlights the benefits of such opportunities for preservice teacher-writers, as they (re)see themselves as active writers and reflect on their personal writing histories. Three preservice candidates share their writing as a means of celebrating their own beliefs and experiences …

From Prompts To Invitations: Rethinking The Genre Of The Writing Assignment Sheet, Amber Jensen, Annika Peacock

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, a university-based teacher educator and a first-year middle school ELA teacher examine how their experiences in the writing methods course (as teacher and student) unsettled and expanded their thinking about assignment sheets and about themselves as teacher-writers. The course prompted questions about how ELA teachers might craft assignments that modeled rhetorically-relevant writing while also eliciting rhetorically-relevant writing from student-writers. The authors describe the genre inquiry they conducted that led to developing a heuristic for writing prompts as invitations that they have used to guide their own assignment sheet creation. Finally, they reflect briefly on how reframing this …

From Corrector To Reader: Pre-Service Teachers’ Writing Values And Feedback, Amanda Brewer

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study investigates the written feedback practices of secondary English Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to understand how their values regarding "good" writing influence their comments on student work. Through analysis of feedback on 10th-grade writing samples and value-sorting surveys, the study examines their feedback tendencies and the links with their values. Findings indicate a significant shift over the semester from a directive, deficit-based "corrector" stance to a facilitative, asset-based "reader" stance. The data suggests that when PSTs lack specific metalinguistic language, they default to generic advice or mechanical correction. However, when instructed to align their feedback with their core writing values, …

Building A Foundation: Preservice Teachers' Exploration Of Writing Studies - Special Issue, Ellen Shelton

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines the Concept Exploration Essay assignment in a writing studies course that encourages PSTs to explore and question writing theories as they connect to their own experiences and understandings. The focus of the course is to develop an understanding of the self as a writer and as a future writing teacher through practical application of composition theory. Students are invited into the Burkean Parlor and enter the conversation as scholars. The students explore, question, and trouble complex writing theories in a dialogic classroom. PSTs leave the course empowered with the knowledge they can allow their future students the …

Introduction: Echoes, Effects, And Resonance: Examining The Writing Methods Course, Elizabeth Thackeray Nelson, Erinn Bentley, Jonathan E. Bush

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

A Multidimensional Conceptual Framework For Supportive Outdoor Environments In Healthcare Settings, Mona Ali, Dalia A. Beheiry, Rowaida Kamel, Hammam Serageldin

HBRC Journal

The integration of supportive outdoor environments (SOEs) in healthcare settings has gained increasing attention for their potential to enhance patient recovery, support staff well-being, and contribute to holistic therapeutic outcomes. This scoping review examines design recommendations for inclusive outdoor environments in healthcare settings that impact user health and experience. Guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) framework for scoping reviews, a comprehensive search was conducted across five databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, JSTOR, Sage), yielding 697 records. Following screening and applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 articles were selected for analysis. This scoping review identified consistent evidence linking outdoor …

Monetising Personal Data In Corporate Insolvency: A Legal Conflict Between The Ibc And The Dpdp Act, Yuvraj Singh, Akash Kumar Sahu

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The increasing reliance of modern businesses on personal data has created novel legal challenges when data-intensive companies enter insolvency. Under Indian law, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 seeks to maximise the value of a corporate debtor’s assets for the benefit of creditors, while the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 as operationalised through the DPDP Rules, 2025, protects personal data through a rigorous consent-based framework grounded in the constitutional right to privacy recognised in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v Union of India (2017). This paper examines whether personal data can be treated as an insolvency asset, and whether it …

Gig Workers' Identity Construction In Pakistan's Platform Economy, Zubair Ahmed Pirzada, Shoukat Ali Mahar, Muhammad Haneef Gambhir

Business Review

The rapid expansion of Pakistan’s platform economy has introduced digitally mediated labor arrangements that fundamentally restructure occupational identities and the meanings workers attach to their work. Based on constructivist grounded theory, this study delves into the process of gig workers' self-negotiated and self-built occupational identities in the gig economy in the city of Karachi in Pakistan. Through in-depth interviews with 43 platform workers in Karachi (25 ride-sharing drivers and 18 food delivery riders), the analysis produced the Adaptive Identity Construction Framework, theorizing identity construction as a simultaneous process across temporal, algorithmic, and sociocultural dimensions. Four types of identity were formed: …

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Framework For Enhancing Risk Management In The Architectural Design Process In Egypt, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman, Nadia Mohamed Algheetany, Fatma Othman Alamoudy

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The construction industry is crucial for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, it faces significant risks during the Architectural Design Process (ADP) that affect project quality, cost, schedule, and sustainability. Due to its limitations, traditional risk management (RM) is often inadequate for addressing these challenges. This study aims to develop a novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven framework to enhance RM practices in Egyptian Architectural Design Firms (ADFs) through proactive RM and improved data-driven decision making. A mixed methods research approach was adopted to achieve the research objectives. A comprehensive literature review examined RM, ADP, and AI applications …

Examining Curriculum Alignment: Utah Core Mathematics Standards And The Mathematics Vision Project/Open Up Resources, Jennifer Suzanne Young

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the alignment between the Utah Core Mathematics Standards (UCMS) and the Mathematics Vision Project/Open Up Resources (MVPOUR) curriculum for Secondary Mathematics I, II, and III, as well as the proportion of Utah secondary students potentially exposed to that alignment through district-level curriculum approval. Using a qualitative comparative case study design, UCMS were systematically compared to MVPOUR topic foci to identify horizontal alignment (standards addressed within the intended course), vertical alignment (standards addressed across courses), combined horizontal and vertical alignment, or lack of alignment. Alignment data were recorded using a spreadsheet-based content analysis and independently coded to support …

System Design And Validation Of Radio Astronomy Phased Arrays, Rebecca Shiu Haymore

Theses and Dissertations

Modern radio astronomy instruments require a wide field of view and high sensitivity. To this effect, BYU and Cornell University have developed the Advanced L-band Phased Array Camera for Astronomy (ALPACA), a fully cryogenic 69 dual-pol dipole array that produces 80 beams on the sky with 305 MHz instantaneous bandwidth centered on 1500 MHz. Integration testing has demonstrated proper beamforming and calibration, and ALPACA has been commissioned as an all-sky monitor to search for bright transients. Commissioning testing for ALPACA measured an element system noise temperature of 24 K and a beamformed system noise temperature of 17 K, making ALPACA …

Stop Blaming My Users: Illumination Of The Technocentric Mythos Bias, Ervin H. Frenzel, Richard Lightcap

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

 Abstract -This conceptual essay addresses the need for systemic and systematic transdisciplinary analytical techniques within cybersecurity and technical security. This conceptual essay is contingent upon recognition that cybersecurity is not simply technical in nature, it does not need an adversary, and more importantly it is based upon systems engineering and systems thinking.  The essay contributes a socio-technical attribution chain and field-specific ontology/taxonomy which distinguish user-triggered events from root causes, latent conditions, technical debt, validation failures, governance failures, and attribution bias before assigning responsibility to end users. It systematically defines an ontology inclusive of developer technical debt, organizational debt arising from …

Dnp Final Report: Improving Rehospitalization Rates And Caregiver Quality Of Life In Outpatient Hospice, Carrie M. Judd

DNP Final Reports

Background: Hospital readmissions among home hospice patients disrupt continuity of care, increase healthcare costs, and may compromise end-of-life preferences.

Purpose: This quality improvement project evaluated the feasibility of implementing a telehealth communication intervention in an outpatient hospice organization. Project aims were to reduce Type I live hospice discharges by at least 2.5% and improve caregiver quality of life (QOL).

Methods: Zoom for Healthcare® video visits and three-way telephone communication supplemented standard nurse practitioner hospice visits during a three-month implementation period. Type I live discharge rates were compared with the organization's baseline quality metrics. Caregiver QOL was measured pre- and post-intervention …

Biographex: Multi-Level Explainability In Graph Neural Networks For Trustworthy Biomedical Ai, Muhammad Talha Sajid, Ahmad Kamran Malik, Nafees Qamar, Hasnian Abudullah, Aleem Ahmad

Biological and Biomedical Sciences Department Faculty Journal Articles

In biomedical research and clinical practices, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are playing an increasingly important role and have been applied to the problems of disease pathway detection, gene–disease relation prediction, etc. They show great potential for biomedical predictions; however, there are interpretability issues when used on complex datasets like gene expression data. Current explainability methods such as GNNExplainer are designed to explain individual instances, not the whole network. The absence of transparency hinders trust and limits the clinical/biomedical implementation of GNNs. Additionally, more interpretable models like GNN-SubNet and XGDAG do not fulfill the expectation of a clear picture for the …

Ai-Guided Psychodrama Materials For Psychiatric Nursing: Feasibility Of Ai-Validated Synthetic Cases, Yen-Chung Ho, Chien Mei Sung

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Psychodrama is widely used in psychiatric–mental health nursing to help learners recognize and reorganize dysfunctional family-of-origin or role patterns, but faculty still lack standardized, reproducible, and ethically safe scripts (Giacomucci, 2021; Beauvais, Özbas, & Wheeler, 2019; Çataldas, Atkan, & Eminoğlu, 2024). Recent work on AI in nursing education and on privacy-preserving synthetic data suggests that high-fidelity, non–patient-derived materials can be generated if outputs are quality-checked (Lifshits & Rosenberg, 2024; Cucci, 2025; Qian et al., 2024; Mendes, Barbar, & Refaie, 2025).

Purpose: To test the feasibility of an AI workflow that generates a synthetic psychodrama case, converts it into multimodal …

Adopting Cultural-Language Translation Technologies To Advance Equitable Older Adult Care, Abdolreza Akbarian, Rosanra Yoon, Mabel Ho, Vess Stamenova, Leinic Chung-Lee, Rui Hou, Josephine Pui-Hing Wong, Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai, Anoushka Anoushka, Andrew Marciniak

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Purpose: In this study, we aim to advance equitable access to culture-language-concordant care for older immigrants in long-term care (LTC) and homecare settings by examining current evidence and engaging interest holders in critical dialogue.

Background: Older immigrants with limited English/French proficiency experience language and cultural barriers that compromise safety, person-centred care, and social inclusion. Language translation technologies offer potential solutions, yet their acceptability, feasibility, and equity implications in elder care remain unclear.

Methods: Using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and Joanna Briggs Institute’s Population-Concept-Context approach, we conducted a scoping review of empirical studies (2005–2024) on cultural-language translation apps and devices used …

Peptoid-Peptide Hybrid For Selective Targeting And Elimination Of Breast Cancer Stem Cells, Evan Chen

Chemistry Theses

Breast cancer remains one of the deadliest diseases in the world and poses a great threat due to its resistance to common chemotherapeutics. Recent studies propose the theory of cancer stem cells, a subpopulation of self-renewing progenitors as the root cause of therapy resistance. The presence of cancer stem cells explains the occurrence of tumor relapses as they would continue to self-renew after initial treatment. Due to this challenge, development of a novel therapeutic to target and eliminate cancer stem cells is a promising strategy for increasing survival rate in breast cancer patients. Previous studies have discovered a synthetic peptoid, …

Micro-Computed Tomography Analysis Of Fibroblast Growth Factor-2 Activity-Induced Healing Of Dentocraniofacial Bones In Rodent Models: A Systematic Review, Fadhlil Ua. Rahman, Azhari Azhari, Lusi Epsilawati, Ria N. Firman, Barunawaty Yunus, Irfan Sugianto, Muliaty Yunus

Journal of Dentomaxillofacial Science

Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) on dentocraniofacial bone healing in rodent models using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT).

Materials and Methods: A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. A literature search was conducted using the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Online Library databases. This review included in vivo rodent studies that examined increased FGF-2 activity in craniofacial bones using micro-CT. Methodological quality and risk of bias were assessed using the ARRIVE 2.0 guidelines and the Systematic Review Center for Laboratory Animal Experimentation tool.

Results: A total of 5 studies …

Investigating Learning In Immersive Virtual Reality, Andrew Negrette

Master's Theses

Students often struggle with learning challenging subjects throughout their education. This also tends to lead to lower enjoyment and science self-efficacy for learning. Some subjects may be better represented in 3-dimensional spaces utilizing immersive virtual reality (IVR). Recently, IVR headsets have become more accessible and affordable and therefore are in wider use. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences in science selfefficacy, enjoyment, presence and knowledge retention exist between IVR and controls on an ocean acidification lesson. I predicted that participants taking the lesson in IVR would score higher compared to a laptop on all measures, due …

Moral: Multimodal Reasoning For Autonomous Language Models With Sensor-Grounded Spatial Bev Rendering, Ambarish Govindarajulu Kaliamurthi

Master's Theses

Autonomous-driving vision-language models describe scenes fluently but reason poorly about metric, safety-critical spatial relationships because they do not read sensor geometry in a grounded way. This thesis presents MoRAL (Multimodal Reasoning for Autonomous Language Models), a two-stage fine-tuning pipeline that teaches a compact 2-billion-parameter VLM to decode a physics-encoded Bird’s Eye View (BEV) representation – LiDAR distance as color, object class as cluster shape, radar Doppler velocity as directional wedges – and then trains it to reason over that representation for driving decisions. Stage 2 then fine-tunes on 57,696 teacher-generated chain-of-thought examples across eight question types, using Cosmos-Reason2-8B as teacher …

The Relationship Between Foliations Of The Plane, Kaplan Diagrams, And Non-Hausdorff 1-Manifolds, Monique Justine Howe

Master's Theses

In this paper we seek to explain the relationship between foliations of the plane, Kaplan diagrams, and simply connected non-Hausdorff 1-manifolds with countable basis that are orientable with an ordering on branch points. We will walk the reader through the definitions of all of these objects, and provide examples with a focus on the motivating example of the Reeb foliation. This paper will describe and define the known bijection from the set of foliations of the plane, F, to the set of Kaplan diagrams, K, its inverse, and the one-to-one map from F to the set of simply connected non-Hausdorff …

Rewriting The Calculus 3 Workshop At San José State University, Moorea Lippert

Master's Theses

Calculus 3 at San José State University is a very important course for any student pursuing a STEM degree. However, the course is very challenging, so the university offers a supplemental workshop course for Calculus 3 students. Unfortunately, this workshop has not aligned with modern research in math education. This thesis documents efforts to recreate the workshop to better align with this modern research.

Monoids With K-Strictly Local Geodesic Languages, William M. Hong

Master's Theses

A paper by Gilman, Hermiller, Holt and Rees (2011) prove that a group G finitely generated by X is virtually free if and only if the language of geodesics words in G over X is k-strictly local if and only if the word problem is context-free. If M is a monoid finitely generated by X, we define Γu(M,X) to be the underlying, undirected graph of Γ(M,X). We prove that if the language of geodesics in Γu(M,X) based at the identity is k-strictly local, then the monoid and semi-group word problems are context-free.

Teachers' Perspectives: Literacy Recommendations For Newcomers With Limited Language Proficiency, Rachel Edmunds

Theses and Dissertations

Although multilingual literacy instruction has expanded in recent years, less is known about how teachers can support newcomers with limited language proficiency in Grades 4-6. This gap is significant as many teachers report feeling underprepared to meet the needs of their multilingual learners, especially those with limited language proficiency. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the literacy practices and strategies that teachers found effective when working with students who are multilingual newcomers with limited language proficiency (NLLPs) in Spanish and English in Grades 4-6 along with their implementation experiences. Drawing from Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, this qualitative study …

Looking Inwards, Turning Away: A Review Of Rehan Abeyratne’S ‘Courts And Lgbtq+ Rights In An Age Of Judicial Retrenchment’, Jwalika Balaji

Socio-Legal Review

This review engages with Rehan Abeyratne's book Courts and LGBTQ+ Rights in an Age of Judicial Retrenchment, which examines judicial responses to LGBTQ+ claims over the past two decades across three jurisdictions — the United States, India, and Hong Kong. Abeyratne argues that the apex courts in these countries have grown more inward-looking and have enabled the rise of illiberal and authoritarian forces; however, LGBTQ+ rights have emerged as an exceptional site where these courts continue to extend minimal remedies and adopt a tone of empathy, positioning themselves as the last bastion of liberal constitutionalism. Focusing on recent developments …

Fermat's Last Theorem Over Quadratic Number Fields, Richie Tay

Master's Theses

Fermat’s Last Theorem states that the equation xn + yn = zn has no nontrivial integer solutions for n ≥ 3. While the rational case is completely solved, the situation over quadratic number fields is not as straightforward. For some exponents nontrivial solutions exist, while for others they do not. This thesis studies Fermat-type equations over quadratic number fields, combining classical methods with more modern techniques from the theory of elliptic curves. The thesis first reviews the rational cases n = 2, n = 3, n = 4, then develops the necessary background on quadratic number fields, including rings of …

Math 141 Calculus I (Queens College), Anisha Clarke

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus provides the outline for a calculus one course using OpenStax Calculus Volume I and no graphing calculator.

Genetic Associations With Pulmonary Embolism Among Those With A Deep Vein Thrombosis: The International Network Against Venous Thrombosis Consortium, Susana Lozano-Esparza, Gabrielle E Shakt, Jennifer A Brody, Angel Martinez-Perez, Matthew P Conomos, Marine Germain, Katharine R Clapham, Maris Teder-Laving, Astrid Van Hylckama Vlieg, Anni Kauko, Florian Thibord, Ohanna C L Bezerra, Girish N Nadkarni, Gaëlle Munsch, Therese Haugdahl Nøst, Ellen L Goode, Yuekai Ji, Daniel I Chasman, Alexander P Reiner, Constance Turman, Kerri L Wiggins, Colleen M Sitlani, Juan Carlos Souto, Pamela L Lutsey, Tiffany Bellomo, Estonian Biobank, Million Veteran Program, Ruifang Li-Gao, Aleksi Kristian Winstén, Ming-Huei Chen, Ron Do, Lénaick Gourhant, Kristian Hveem, Sebastian M Armasu, Noémie Saut, Nathan Pankratz, Franco Giulianini, Jeffrey Haessler, Mingyang Song, Robert Olaso, Eric Boerwinkle, Daniel Dochtermann, Jose Manuel Soria, Stephen S Rich, David Smadja, Satoshi Koyama, Frits R Rosendaal, Teemu Niiranen, France Gagnon, Ha My T Vy, Neil Zakai, Catherine Lemarie, Anne Heidi Skogholt, Jean-François Deleuze, James S Pankow, Paul M Ridker, Yuxi Liu, Kenneth M Rice, Saiju Pyarajan, Mary Cushman, Jospeh Emmerich, Bruce M Psaty, Pradeep Natarajan, Andrew D Johnson, Marc A Rodger, Pierre Suchon, Francis Couturaud, Pierre-Emmanuel Morange, Weihong Tang, Charles Kooperberg, Christopher Kabrhel, Maria Sabater-Lleal, David-Alexandre Trégouët, Alisa S Wolberg, Scott M Damrauer, Nicholas L Smith

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) includes deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), the latter of which often originates from DVT and can be fatal.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify causal genetic factors that alter risk of PE among those with a presumed DVT.

Methods: Using a case-only design of VTE, we conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in the International Network Against Venous Thrombosis Consortium. Among participants diagnosed with VTE, each study identified those who had a clinically reported PE, with or without a clinically reported DVT; those remaining had isolated DVT. Logistic regression …

Mountains And Mythology: Folklore In The Alps, Arya Karki

Honors Projects

From nature spirits to secret doorways, an air of mystery and magic surrounds the mountains of Austria. All over the world, mountain ranges inspire rich folklore, each set of tales unique to its respective culture. The purpose of this Honors Project is to answer the question: how does mountain-inspired folklore mirror cultural values and fears? A comparative analysis between Austrian Alpine and American Appalachian folktales is conducted in order to isolate the variables that cause folklore to differ region-to-region. Through research consisting of primary-source folklore anthologies, secondary texts on mountain theory, and direct observation from a study abroad experience, this …

Most Praise Maine As Place To Live But Many Find It Unaffordable, Prefer Lower Cost Of Living & Taxes Elsewhere 7/27/2026, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Nearly three-quarters of Maine residents rate the state as a very good or good place to live with Republicans and Northern Mainers more downbeat. Only a quarter of Mainers describe the state as affordable. Three in ten say they are likely to move out of Maine within the next five years, including half of Republicans, with lower housing costs, cost of living, and taxes frequently sought after, along with a different political or social environment. If they were to leave the state, Mainers are most likely to say they would move to New Hampshire or Massachusetts.