Digital Commons Network^™

Sustainability In The Age Of Innovation: Negative Impacts Of Jobsite Construction Technologies, Niveditha Kuppula, Sagata Bhawani Dr.

CIB Conferences

The construction industry is undergoing transformation driven by the rapid advancement and adoption of emerging technologies to reshape the traditional design and construction processes. Building information modelling (BIM), internet of things (IoTs), robotics and process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML), 3D-printing or additive manufacturing (AM), Exoskeletons and Wearable devices, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) promise increased visualization, productivity, efficiency, safety, and accuracy; they also introduces sustainability challenges. This study used the PRISMA method to conduct a systematic review guided by two questions. First: What are the prevalent technologies currently being used on construction jobsites, and how …

Unpacking Impediments To Digital Transitioning In The Built Environment: An Institutional Analysis Approach, Adetayo Olugbenga Onososen Dr, Musonda Innocent Prof

CIB Conferences

In the rapidly evolving landscape of global development, the digital transition within the built environment holds significant promise for enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and innovation. However, this transition presents unique challenges, particularly in the context of developing countries. This study undertakes a comprehensive examination of the impediments to digital transitioning in the built environment of developing nations, employing an institutional analysis approach to uncover underlying factors shaping these challenges. These barriers can range from regulatory frameworks and governance structures to cultural norms and economic constraints. Understanding these complexities is crucial for designing tailored strategies that address the specific needs and contexts …

Construction Company Insolvencies: State-Of-The-Art Review, Dennis Jayan, Niluka Domingo Dr, Ravindu Kahandawa, Suzanne Wilkinson, Priya Vishnu, Inoka Withana Gamage

CIB Conferences

The surging tendency of insolvencies has emerged as a contemporary issue in the global construction industry. Moreover, these insolvencies have led to project failures, financial losses, and reputational damage within the construction industry. Despite the severity of the issue, there is a lack of research dedicated to introducing practical solutions to mitigate insolvencies. Accordingly, this research aims to pioneer a research direction to find practical and real-world methods to reduce insolvencies. To achieve this, the research combined a bibliometric analysis with a systematic literature review to map current research trends and systematically categorize insolvency factors into themes. Findings reveal that …

Preservice Teachers As Active Decision-Makers In The Learning Process, Katrena Leininger

The Reading Professor

One goal of a teacher education program is to facilitate the opportunity for preservice teachers to become adaptive and responsive to students' needs. Thus, teacher education programs include field-based clinical experiences. The purpose of this article is to describe a qualitative study of 94 preservice teachers' perspectives about their participation in an interactive field experience model, designed by the researcher/instructor, where they were the active decision-makers in the learning process of a young child. Social constructivist theories that situate learning as embedded in sociocultural environments framed this study and the interactive field experience model. Participants' video and written reflections along …

Engaging Children With Learning Difficulties In A Book Club, Jan Lacina

The Reading Professor

This article examines the implementation of a before-school book club at a university laboratory school serving children with learning difficulties. The study highlights the role of intentional book selection and discussion in fostering empathy and a love of reading among diverse learners, particularly within special education contexts.

Shifting The Discourse: How Asset-Based Literacy Practices Unlock Multilingual Learners' Potential, Robert A. Griffin

The Reading Professor

As multilingual learners (MLs) grow in number, educators must shift from deficit-based literacy instruction to asset-based approaches that leverage students' home languages, cultures, and identities. This article explores three research-backed strategies, culturally responsive texts, digital storytelling, and community-integrated literacy projects, that empower MLs and enhance engagement, motivation, and literacy development. Grounded in real-world classroom applications and empirical research, the discussion provides practical solutions for integrating these strategies, addressing common challenges, and fostering an inclusive learning environment. The author, an experienced teacher educator, shares anecdotes on how his students implement these strategies in their diverse classroom settings to maximize ML success. …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Pandemic Learning Losses Among English Language Learners: Effects Of Language Proficiencies And Language Modalities, Audrey Figueroa Murphy, Bruce Torff

The Reading Professor

Practicing teachers (n=95) completed a survey in correlational research conducted to determine the extent to which, and the ways in which, they reported learning losses among English Language Learners stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Two candidate factors were examined: language proficiencies (L1 and L2) and language modalities (listening, speaking, reading, writing). Students weak in both languages showed the largest losses, and students strong in both, the smallest. Low L-2 students suffered larger losses than high-L2 students regardless of L1 proficiency. In speaking skills, when L2 is weak, low-L1 students had larger losses than high-L1 students. Teachers reported no significant differences …

Table Of Contents

The Reading Professor

No abstract provided.

Active Play Among Young Children (0-4 Years) With Disabilities: A Scoping Review, Alessia M. Capone, Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos, Louise De Lannoy, Suzanne Deliscar, Leah G. Taylor, Patricia Tucker, Leigh M. Vanderloo, Maeghan E. James

International Symposium of Adapted Physical Activity and International Symposium on Physical Activity and Visual Impairment and Deafblindness

Introduction. Active play is often the primary form of physical activity (PA) in early childhood, typically involving child-led, unstructured activities. Active play has been used as a method of assessment and promotion of physical activity in the early years. This review aims to investigate the quality of participation in active play for children with disabilities aged 0-4 in current literature, to provide insight to strategies of inclusion. Methods. The paper adhered to Joanna Briggs Institute best practice guidance and reporting items for scoping reviews. A search of Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, Embase, and SportDiscus was conducted in May 2024, using 91search …

Research Proposal: Complex Relationship Of Religious Community, Psychological Health, And Socioeconomic Status Of Spanish Speaking Residents Ages 18-50 In Lynchburg, Va, Faith Park

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Previous research has shown a clear quantitative correlation between socioeconomic status and religious gatherings as well as psychological health and religious gatherings. However, there have been few studies on the interconnectedness of mental health, socioeconomic stability, and religious identity and gathering. Research thus has not addressed the personal implications and the benefits of individual perspectives that can be offered through a qualitative methodology. Thus, this research proposes an ethnographic methodology which may provide insights that do not limit the subjectivity of mental health, religious experiences, and socioeconomic struggles.Through an integration of psychology, anthropology, and sociology, the proposed research hopes to …

Mr. Hyde And His Representation Of Alcoholism, Jacob S. Capes

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

This essay explores The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson through the lens of addiction psychology, drawing parallels between Dr. Jekyll’s descent into madness and the stages of alcoholism as defined by the DSM-5. By interpreting Jekyll’s relationship with his transformative elixir as a metaphor for alcohol abuse, the analysis traces his progression through early experimentation, growing dependency, and eventual loss of control, aligning with the three clinical stages of alcohol use disorder. The essay further examines how intelligence and genetic predisposition—two key risk factors for addiction—contribute to Jekyll’s vulnerability, incorporating both modern scientific …

The Effects Of Study Abroad Programs On Second Language Acquisition (Sla), Isabel Odewald

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

As study abroad programs have increased annually by 10%, numerous researchers have examined how participation in study abroad programs have affected second language acquisition (SLA) in students (Isabelli-Garcia, et. al, 2018). Reviewing previous literature evaluating the relationship between study abroad programs and undergraduate students overall academic achievement, personal growth, and career preparation, it has been found that study abroad programs impact students academically, emotionally, and cognitively. Specifically focusing on factors such as the duration of study abroad programs, personality of students, students’ motivations, and engagement with peers abroad, the current literature review provides explanations of relevant SLA theoretical frameworks and …

Crayfish Microhabitats Provide A Close Association With Benthic Microbiomes To Support Cleaning Symbionts., Kyle J. Harris, John Hoverson, Matthew Becker, Matthew M. Cooke Mr

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Stream ecosystems promote variable microhabitats along a longitudinal gradient. These microhabitats support dynamic biotic assemblages. One such microhabitat in freshwater streams involves the external surface of crayfish. We investigated the microbiome of crayfish exoskeletons and the surrounding environment (water and substrate) in association with the presence and abundance of crayfish cleaning ectosymbionts (branchiobdellidans). These ectosymbionts actively consume the biofilm on crayfish as they live and reproduce in association with crayfish microhabitats. Sequenced microbes of the environment and crayfish were compared for dominant taxa. While the sample types (water, substrate, and crayfish) had significantly different microbiomes, there was not a significant …

Efficacy And Safety Of Olezarsen In Dyslipidemia: A Systematic Review And Dose-Response Meta-Analysis Of Randomized Controlled Trials, Christopher D. Tristan, Risalina Myrtha, Matthew A. Wijayanto, Erlangga M. Kynaya, Muhammad F. Hamka, Nathania E. Sudiono, Muhammad A. Rusyidi, Muhana F. Ilyas

Journal of the Saudi Heart Association

Olezarsen emerged as a novel promising Apo-C3 inhibitor for dyslipidemia. However, its dose-response relationship remains uncertain. This review aims to evaluate the lipid-lowering effect of olezarsen, safety measures, and dose-response effects to determine the optimal dose. A systematic search was conducted across Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and CENTRAL on January 2, 2025. Randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing olezarsen with placebo in dyslipidemia was included. The Rob 2.0 tool was implemented to assess quality. R-studio and STATA were used to conduct statistical analysis. From a total of 194 documents at initial search, four RCTs involving 361 patients were included in the present …

Aristotle, Women, And Greek Tragedy, Edith Hall

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

A paradox lies at the heart of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s analyses of the best type of hero in a tragedy as outlined in his Poetics, his account of women as less able to deliberate than men in his Politics Book 1, and the actual moral stature of women in the surviving tragedies. This illustrated lecture examines the tensions between his remarks about male-female relationships in his ethical and political works and his admiration for Greek tragedy, with special reference to Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, Sophocles’s Antigone, and Euripides’s Medea.

دور المدرسة في تعزيز الهوية الوطنية لدى الطلبة, Mohammad Jamal Alazzeh

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى التعرف على دور المدرسة في تعزيز الهوية الوطنية لدى الطلبة من وجهة نظر معلمي مدارس مديرية تربية لواء القويسمة. ولتحقيق هذا الهدف تم استخدام المنهج الوصفي. وقد تكون مجتمع الدراسة من جميع معلمي ومعلمات مدارس مديرية تربية لواء القويسمة في الأردن، في حين تم اختيار عينة عشوائية منهم بلغ قوامها 903 معلماً ومعلمة تم توزيع استبانة الدراسة عليهم خلال الفصل الأول من العام الدراسي 2022/2023. وقد توصلت الدراسة إلى أن دور المدرسة في تعزيز الهوية الوطنية لدى الطلبة من وجهة نظر معلمي مدارس مديرية تربية لواء القويسمة في الأردن قد جاء بدرجة مرتفعة بشكلٍ عام، كما …

الحرب الروسية الأوكرانية وتداعياتها على الأمن الغذائي العربي "2024-2022", Amani Haitham Irshed Al-Shdifat, Abed Alftah Al-Rshdan

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

هدفت الدراسة التعرف على أثر الحرب الروسية الأوكرانية على الأمن الغذائي العربي. وانطلقت الدراسة من فرضية رئيسة مفادها "أثرت الأزمة الروسية الأوكرانية بشكل سلبي على الأمن الغذائي العربي"، ولتحقيق أهداف الدراسة تم الاعتماد على المنهج الوصفي التحليلي والمنهج التاريخي، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى عدد من النتائج، أهمها: أن كلاً من روسيا وأوكرانيا تمثلان أهمية كبيرة في الأسواق العالمية للغذاء، وقد أثرت الحرب ما بين الدولتين على الدول العربية كونها المستورد الصافي للغذاء من هاتين الدولتين، وتواجه الدول العربية نتيجة للحرب ارتفاعاً في الأسعار العالمية للغذاء (القمح) بسبب ارتفاع تكاليف الشحن والنقل والمحروقات واضطراب سلاسل الإمداد، وانخفاض توريد الحبوب وزيوت الطعام من …

Empowering Tanzanian Education: Personalized And Accessible Test Preparation, Brian Wiebe, Shiv Jhalani

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Only 20% of students performed well enough on their secondary exams to continue their A-level studies. This challenge exists due to a lack of resources, classroom overcrowding, and absenteeism of the instructors. The project focuses on improving the pass rate for these national exams; we have built an intelligent quiz generating platform that helps Tanzanian students prepare more effectively for exams by meeting user needs including active recall, answer explanations, increasing difficulty, and filtered studying. Students can select the subject, form level, topic, and the difficulty level, and the platform provides different types of questions, including true/false, multiple choice, and …

Immigrant Population In The Mountain West, 2023, Maisoon Faris, Yiselle Olivas Ruiz, Kian Parikh, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet presents data on the economic, workforce, and educational contributions of immigrants in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The American Immigration Council (AIC) 2025 report, “Map the Impact,” provides information on state-level measures of immigrant population, labor force participation, and economic contributions.

Negotiating Musical Practices In Chilean Prisons During Pinochet’S Dictatorship (1973-1990), Nuria Bonet

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Music played many roles in detention centres during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990), as political prisoners played, listened to, wrote, and taught music. Testimonies of survivors describe a variety of musical practices which reflect the political and social realities of their incarceration. While authorities used music to torture and degrade political prisoners, music was also a tool for communication, community-building, catharsis, and entertainment. Who was allowed to play, hear, and choose music in these spaces – and why - is a complex question which reveals narratives of resistance and oppression, while questioning ideas of musical taste in relation to …

The Case For Compulsory Dna Testing At Birth To Confirm Paternity: Ethical, Legal, And Social Considerations, Michael Mncedisi Willie

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

Compulsory paternity testing at birth has sparked significant legal, ethical, and social debate due to its potential impact on family dynamics, child well-being, and parental responsibility. This review explores the ethical, legal, and societal implications of such testing, using Bioecological Systems Theory and Rawls' Theory of Justice to frame the discussion. This review evaluates the benefits and challenges of mandatory DNA testing at birth, particularly in reducing paternity fraud, ensuring fairness in child support allocation, and enhancing socio-economic outcomes, especially in low-income households. This qualitative review draws on multidisciplinary literature from family law, genetic counseling, social policy, and fathers' rights …

Exploring The Very Early Cosmological History With Dark Matter And Primordial Black Holes, Phuc Duc Loc Ngo

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

We explore the possibilities of nonstandard early cosmological histories and their potential roles to explain DM. We study how particle DM is produced with scenarios of early matter domination (EMD), how primordial black holes (PBHs), which could also be a DM candidate in certain mass ranges, are formed with enhanced curvature perturbation or FOPT and the corresponding gravitational wave (GW) signals, how PBHs could increase their mass by accretion during EMD and the corresponding GW signals.

Exploring Students’ Word Stress In Speaking: Does Ethnicity Matter?, Kardi Nurhadi, Diyenti Rusdin, Indah Werdiningsih, Nunung Suryati

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

In recent years, many studies have examined the impact of word stress on speaking, but few have looked into how multiethnic students handle word stress in pronunciation. This gap is particularly noticeable in Indonesia, where the rich diversity of ethnicities and local dialects presents both unique challenges and opportunities for English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. This study aims to fill that gap by examining how the ethnic backgrounds of Indonesian students from Sulawesi influence their word stress. Twelve students (6 males, 6 females, aged 19–21) from four different ethnic groups were recruited as participants. Data were gathered through interviews, read-aloud recordings, lecturer …

Fostering Vocabulary Enhancement Through Quizizz: A Perspective On Digital Gamification, Joseph Decena Dayag

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

As interactive gamified platforms increasingly shape the current academic landscape, this perspective paper critically examines Quizizz’s contribution to English language learners’ vocabulary development. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis, it analyzes how game elements—such as immediate feedback, point-based competition, and accessible design—satisfy learners' psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, enhancing intrinsic motivation and reducing anxiety. Synthesizing insights from recent empirical studies and pedagogical practice, the paper demonstrates that Quizizz promotes both learner engagement and vocabulary retention. It also identifies gaps in the literature regarding cognitive depth, emotional engagement, and the sustainability of vocabulary gains. The discussion …

Second-Language Selves, Predictors, And L2 Learning Experience: An Explanatory Mixed-Method Study Of Chinese Stem Students' English Learning Motivation, Zhiqing Lin, Yue Zhang

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Drawing upon the model of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), this explanatory mixed-method study examined STEM students’ future L2 selves as guiding their motivated experiences. It first proposed a validated structural equation model of 480 participants’ future L2 selves through a large-scale survey. The SEM model highlights the predictive power of attitudes, anxiety, family, and ethnocentrism towards Ideal and Ought-to L2 selves. The model also investigates the moderating effect of gender and first language on the predictive relationship. Then, the study explored the motivational trajectories of five selected survey respondents and how they negotiated their L2 selves across time. …

Uncovering Multiscale Structure-Property Correlations Via Active Learning In Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Ganesh Narasimha, Deja Kong, Paras Regmi, Rongying Jin, Zheng Gai, Rama Vasudevan, Maxim Ziatdinov

Faculty Publications

Atomic arrangements and local sub-structures fundamentally influence emergent material functionalities. These structures are conventionally probed using spatially resolved studies and the property correlations are deciphered by a researcher based on sequential explorations, thereby limiting the efficiency and scope. Here we demonstrate a multi-scale Bayesian deep-learning based framework that automatically correlates material structure with its electronic properties using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements in real-time. Its predictions are used to autonomously direct exploration toward regions of the sample that optimize a given material property. This method is deployed on a low-temperature ultra-high vacuum STM to understand the structure-property relationship in a …

Christelle Onwu, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Abstract

Interviewer: Mark Naison, Stephanie Robinson-Ramirez, Jane Kani Edward

Interviewee: Christelle Onwu

Christelle Onwu’s profound work demonstrates the importance of advocacy and research in changing policies and improving community engagement. Through her experiences with helping children through social work, she realized that the way in which she could truly make change was through policy work and reworking the cultivation of systems to ensure the success of future generations. Christelle, originally from Cameroon, arrived in the U.S. at 17 and attended John Jay College, where she excelled academically and received multiple scholarships. Through her excellence, she has been recognized as one …

Redefining Gender Equality: A Senegalese Conversation With Islam, Seulgie Lim

All Faculty Scholarship

How do Muslim women balance their religious agency and political aspirations? Gender quotas have been used across the African continent to improve women's political visibility since the 1990s. Senegal's own experiment with gender equality in 2010 faced political barriers as well as religious ones. The author sheds light on how Muslim women activists in Senegal shaped women's place in their communities through the gender parity law. Based on multiple fieldwork visits from 2016 to 2018 and individual interviews with activists and scholars involved in the movement to make gender parity the law in Senegal, the author argues that while Islam …

Partial Least Squares Multimodal Analysis Of Brain Network Correlates Of Language Deficits In Aphasia, Sigfus Kristinsson Ph.D., Dirk B. Den Ouden, Chris Rorden, Roger Newman-Norlund, Lisa Johnson, Janina Wilmskoetter, Ezequiel Gleichgerrcht, Argye E. Hillis, Gregory Hickok, Julius Fridriksson Ph.D., Leonardo Bonilha

Faculty Publications

Lesion-symptom mapping techniques are essential to determine brain regions critical for language functions. However, high collinearity in neuroimaging and behavioural data remains a challenge for distinguishing neural substrates supporting multiple language domains (shared variance) and those subserving specific language functions (unique variance). Here, we employed a novel approach to multimodal lesion-symptom mapping using multivariate partial least squares regression to delineate the latent structure of lesion-behavioural mapping in aphasia and decompose the shared and unique neural determinants of language impairments. A total of 86 participants with chronic (>12-month post-stroke) aphasia after left hemisphere strokes were examined. Language impairment was assessed …

Implementation And Effectiveness Of A Nurse-Enabled, Shared-Care Follow-Up Model For Early Breast Cancer Survivors (The Ibis-Survivorship Study): Protocol For A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomised Trial, Raymond J. Chan, Fiona Crawford-Williams, Bogda Koczwara, G. Bruce Mann, Elizabeth Eakin, Jane Turner, Meinir Krishnasamy, Louisa G. Collins, Helen Skerman, Karla Hemming, Nicolas H. Hart, Jon Emery, Bethany Crowe, Kerry Patford, Jane Mahony, Caroline Kristunas, Gillian Blanchard, Laura Healey, Jasotha Sanmugarajah, Rhea Liang, Paul Craft, Amy Shorthouse, Ruth Mccaffery, Mary Azer, Patsy Yates

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide. Survivors often experience physical and psychological effects arising from breast cancer and its treatment, which can last months and years, adversely impacting quality of life. As the number of early breast cancer survivors increases, models of specialist-led follow-up care in hospital settings are not sustainable and evidence suggests that they may not meet survivors’ needs. Nurse-enabled, shared-care, follow-up models between cancer specialist and primary care teams have potential to address this need. Methods and analysis The proposed research is a multicentre, prospective, pragmatic, stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial designed to …