Digital Commons Network^™

Arab American Well-Being And Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Rawan H. Atari-Khan, Katrina S. Rbeiz, Lawrence H. Gerstein

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Americans experience various forms of racial–ethnic trauma in the United States, including historical and intergenerational trauma (IGT). The population has been migrating to the United States since the 1800s, and the number of migrants has risen in recent decades due to war, persecution, and family reunification. As a result, the children of these migrants may be exposed to IGT, with research suggesting that descendants of individuals who have experienced trauma are more susceptible to poor mental health outcomes. Using semistructured interviews, alongside the art of storytelling and empowerment through critical consciousness, this study investigated …

Discrimination And Adverse Birth Outcomes Among Latina Women: The Protective Role Of Social Support., Sabrina R. Liu, Kimberly D'Anna-Hernandez, Curt A. Sandman, Elysia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Interpersonal discrimination has been associated with adverse birth outcomes among Black populations, but few studies have examined the impact of discrimination among Latinx/Hispanic populations in the United States, especially in conjunction with resources that could be protective. The present study examined (a) if exposure to discrimination is associated with adverse birth outcomes for Latina/Hispanic women and (b) if prenatal social support buffers these links. Method: In two independent prospective studies of Latina/Hispanic women in Southern California (N = 84 and N = 102), the relation between maternal experience of discrimination and birth outcomes (length of gestation and birth weight) …

Teacher Special Education Certification And Self-Efficacy To Address Students With Disabilities' Needs In An Inclusive Nonpublic School Setting, Chelsea Christy

Theses & Dissertations

In New York State, the inclusion of students with disabilities (SWD) in nonpublic schools is governed by individual institutional policies, as state legislation does not require standardized training or certification for nonpublic school educators (New York Education Law § 3204.2, n.d.). This mixed-methods study investigates how teachers’ special education (SPED) certification status and demographic characteristics influence their attitudes toward inclusion and self-efficacy in supporting SWD in urban nonpublic school settings. Findings reveal that SPEDcertified teachers consistently reported more positive attitudes toward inclusion and greater selfefficacy in areas such as instructional differentiation, classroom behavior management, and curricular adaptation compared to their …

Isolated, Accommodated, Or Elevated? English Language Development Teachers In Professional Learning Communities, Kristina Robertson

Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the experiences of ten elementary English Language Development (ELD) teachers in interdisciplinary Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) across the Twin Cities metro area. Although PLC teamwork improves student academic outcomes through collaboration and collective efficacy, ELD teachers often faced challenges integrating their language expertise into these structures, limiting their ability to address English Learner (EL) academic achievement and language growth. Guided by DuFour’s six elements of effective PLCs and Wenger’s Communities of Practice (CoP) theory, the study analyzed data from ten semi-structured interviews, teacher-submitted artifacts, and district guidance documents. Data were coded and thematically analyzed to explore …

Empowering Educators: Culturally Responsive Teaching And Teacher Self-Efficacy For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jamie Margaret Capriola

Theses & Dissertations

The evolving education landscape calls for teachers to adapt their instruction to reflect students’ backgrounds and cultures. educators are expected to foster inclusive learning environments while equipping students with the critical thinking skills necessary to challenge social injustices – a practice known as culturally responsive teaching (CRT). While scholars have explored teachers’ self-efficacy in implementing CRT, limited research exists on how special education teachers, particularly those working with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), perceive their CRT self-efficacy (CRTSE) and professional preparation. This sequential mixed methods study examined the CRTSE levels of special education teachers working with students with autism. …

Can Llms Replace Manual Annotation Of Software Engineering Artifacts?, Toufique Ahmed, Premkumar Devanbu, Christoph Treude, Michael Pradel

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Experimental evaluations of software engineering innovations, e.g., tools and processes, often include human-subject studies as a component of a multi-pronged strategy to obtain greater generalizability of the findings. However, human-subject studies in our field are challenging, due to the cost and difficulty of finding and employing suitable subjects, ideally, professional programmers with varying degrees of experience. Meanwhile, large language models (LLMs) have recently started to demonstrate human-level performance in several areas. This paper explores the possibility of substituting costly human subjects with much cheaper LLM queries in evaluations of code and code-related artifacts. We study this idea by applying six …

Graph-Assisted Offline-Online Deep Reinforcement Learning For Dynamic Workflow Scheduling, Yifan Yang, Gang Chen, Hui Ma, Cong Zhang, Zhiguang Cao, Mengjie Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dynamic workflow scheduling (DWS) in cloud computing presents substantial challenges due to heterogeneous machine configurations, unpredictable workflow arrivals/patterns, and constantly evolving environments. However, existing research often assumes homogeneous setups and static conditions, limiting flexibility and adaptability in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we propose a novel Graph assisted Offline-Online Deep Reinforcement Learning (GOODRL) approach to building an effective and efficient scheduling agent for DWS. Our approach features three key innovations: (1) a task-specific graph representation and a Graph Attention Actor Network that enable the agent to dynamically assign focused tasks to heterogeneous machines while explicitly considering the future impact of …

Rethinking Light Decoder-Based Solvers For Vehicle Routing Problems, Ziwei Huang, Jianan Zhou, Zhiguang Cao, Yixin Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Light decoder-based solvers have gained popularity for solving vehicle routing problems (VRPs) due to their efficiency and ease of integration with reinforcement learning algorithms. However, they often struggle with generalization to larger problem instances or different VRP variants. This paper revisits light decoder-based approaches, analyzing the implications of their reliance on static embeddings and the inherent challenges that arise. Specifically, we demonstrate that in the light decoder paradigm, the encoder is implicitly tasked with capturing information for all potential decision scenarios during solution construction within a single set of embeddings, resulting in high information density. Furthermore, our empirical analysis reveals …

Node-Time Conditional Prompt Learning In Dynamic Graphs, Xingtong Yu, Zhenghao Liu, Xinming Zhang, Yuan Fang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dynamic graphs capture evolving interactions between entities, such as in social networks, online learning platforms, and crowdsourcing projects. For dynamic graph modeling, dynamic graph neural networks (DGNNs) have emerged as a mainstream technique. However, they are generally pre-trained on the link prediction task, leaving a significant gap from the objectives of downstream tasks such as node classification. To bridge the gap, prompt-based learning has gained traction on graphs, but most existing efforts focus on static graphs and neglect the evolution of dynamic graphs. In this paper, we propose DYGPROMPT, a novel pre-training and prompt learning framework for dynamic graph modeling. …

Comadice: Offline Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning With Stationary Distribution Shift Regularization, The Viet Bui, Tien Mai, Hong Thanh Nguyen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Offline reinforcement learning (RL) has garnered significant attention for its ability to learn effective policies from pre-collected datasets without the need for further environmental interactions. While promising results have been demonstrated in single-agent settings, offline multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) presents additional challenges due to the large joint state-action space and the complexity of multi-agent behaviors. A key issue in offline RL is the distributional shift, which arises when the target policy being optimized deviates from the behavior policy that generated the data. This problem is exacerbated in MARL due to the interdependence between agents' local policies and the expansive joint …

Bootstrapping Language Models With Dpo Implicit Rewards, Changyu Chen, Zichen Liu, Chao Du, Tianyu Pang, Qian Liu, Arunesh Sinha, Pradeep Varakantham, Min Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Human alignment in large language models (LLMs) is an active area of research. A recent groundbreaking work, direct preference optimization (DPO), has greatly simplified the process from past work in reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) by bypassing the reward learning stage in RLHF. DPO, after training, provides an implicit reward model. In this work, we make a novel observation that this implicit reward model can by itself be used in a bootstrapping fashion to further align the LLM. Our approach is to use the rewards from a current LLM model to construct a preference dataset, which is then used …

Digital Transformation And The Future Of Work: Closing The Digital Skills Gap, Siu Loon Hoe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The purpose of this article is to discuss the near future digital technology landscape and propose several specific in-demand digital skills for organizations and individuals in the next few years. This article reviews some recent publications from representative inter-governmental, governmental, non-governmental, and commercial organizations on the rise of digital technologies and corresponding growth in digital jobs. Within this context, several specific in-demand skills are proposed by the author who has written a book on the topic of digital transformation. Rapid advancements in digital technologies continue to shape organizational practices and the future of work. To take advantage of emerging digital …

Exploring The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education: A Comparative Study On Grading Methods And The Technology Acceptance Model, Roberto Bello

AMTP Proceedings 2025

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT has transformed higher education, offering innovative solutions for personalized learning and grading. This study investigates students’ perceptions and acceptance of AI-assisted grading compared to traditional teaching assistant (TA) grading using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The research explores how grading methods and exam formats influence key TAM constructs such as perceived usefulness, ease of use, and behavioral intentions. Findings suggest that mixed exam formats (70% multiple-choice, 30% short-answer) yield the highest acceptance rates for AI-assisted grading, emphasizing the importance of balanced assessment structures. The study highlights the …

Out Of Many: The Study Of African American Diasporas On Social Media, Brianna M. Savage, Sindy Chapa

AMTP Proceedings 2025

This study uses a one-ad experimental design to test the effect of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) on Black Twitter, employing an online survey with a convenience sample. It examines cultural differences within Black African co-cultures, emphasizing how language variation influences consumer behavior in social media advertising. The findings indicate that Black consumers with positive attitudes toward advertisements featuring AAVE are more likely to engage with the content on Twitter and subsequently purchase the promoted brand. This supports attitude theory (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and social distinctiveness theory (Grier, 2001), demonstrating a significant correlation between ethnic resolution and purchasing behavior.

Institutional Cross-Ownership Of Peer Firms And Revelatory Price Efficiency, Young Jun Cho, Holly I. Yang, Yue Zhao

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We argue that cross-ownership increases the amount of private information in stock price, enhancing the ability of stock price to provide feedback to managers. Consistent with this argument, we find greater cross-ownership heightens a firm’s investment-q sensitivity. This effect is stronger for firms with a lower propensity for voluntary disclosure and for firms whose managers hold less private information. Furthermore, we find that cross-ownership is negatively associated with the sensitivity of a firm’s investment to its peers’ stock prices. Additionally, cross-ownership has a stronger impact on the investment-q sensitivity when measured among investors who trade more actively the …

Undergraduate Accounting Capstone: Enhancing Integration, Reflective Learning, And Workplace Transition For Future Professionals, Duan Ning, Magdeleine Lew, Clarence Goh, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines whether a university capstone course focused on accounting data and analytics equips undergraduate accounting students with the relevant professional and technological skills for future work. There is concern that the traditional accounting curriculum, which often emphasizes theoretical knowledge and technical skills, may not sufficiently prepare students for the complex, data-driven environment in the workplace. Therefore, our study is important because professional and technological skills are essential skills that students need to thrive in complex, data-driven environments, and our study provides insights into whether a capstone course can equip students with these skills. To examine these issues, we …

Decarbonising Digital Infrastructure And Urban Sustainability In The Case Of Data Centres, Felicia H. M. Liu, Karen P. Y. Lai, Bertrand Seah, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper critically assesses the complex interplay between urban transitions of digitisation and sustainability. Building on a mixed-method research design, we unpack the challenges of decarbonising digital infrastructure while attending to urban sustainability goals in a land- and water-scarce country facing significant physical climate risks. We identify transferrable lessons on the economic, technological, and environmental synergies and trade-offs behind data centre development and argue that stewarding the global data centre sector towards sustainability requires an ecosystem-wide approach. We identify implementation gaps across five key dimensions: technological innovation, policy and regulation, finance, infrastructure, and people. We find that the progress and …

Characterising Reproducibility Debt In Scientific Software: A Systematic Literature Review, Zara Hassan, Christoph Treude, Michael Norrish, Graham Williams, Alex Potanin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Context: In scientific software, the inability to reproduce results is often due to technical issues and challenges in recreating the full computational workflow from the original analysis. We conceptualise this problem as Reproducibility Debt (RpD). Much research has been performed to propose solutions to tackle these issues across various computational science disciplines. It is essential to identify and accumulate existing knowledge on reproducibility issues and state-of-the-art solutions so as to provide researchers and practitioners with information that enables further research activities and RpD management in practice. Objective: In the context of scientific software, we aim to characterise RpD by providing …

Trait Mindfulness Is Associated With Enhanced Daily Affectivity And Cognition Independent Of Daily Stressors Exposure: Insights From Large-Scale Daily Diary Studies In The Us And Singapore, Yi Jing Chua, Andree Hartanto, Nadyanna M. Majeed

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Trait mindfulness has been linked to various adaptive outcomes, including attenuated affective and cognitive responses to laboratory-induced stress. However, the role of trait mindfulness as a resilience factor against daily stressors exposures is less established. Across 2 studies, multilevel analysis was used to examine the relationships between trait mindfulness and daily affect and cognition, as well as affective and cognitive reactivity to and recovery from everyday stressor exposure. Trait mindfulness was significantly associated with higher daily positive affect in both studies, lower negative affect and cognitive failure, and lower cognitive reactivity to daily stressor exposure in Study 2. However, trait …

Registered Replication Report: Study 3 From Trafimow And Hughes (2012), Sean C. Rife, Et Al

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Terror-management theory (TMT) proposes that when people are made aware of their own death, they are more likely to endorse cultural values. TMT is a staple of social psychology, featured prominently in textbooks and the subject of much research. The implications associated with TMT are significant because its advocates claim it can partially explain cultural conflicts, intergroup antagonisms, and even war. However, considerable ambiguity regarding effect size exists, and no preregistered replication of death-thought-accessibility findings exists. Moreover, there is debate regarding the role of time delay between the manipulation of mortality salience and assessment of key measures. We present results …

Ageing In Place: The Key To Receiving A Superaged Society, Paulin Tay Straughan, Yi Wen (Chen Yiwen) Tan, Qi Ting, Zidane Tiew, Zeyu Zheng, Rachel Wen Yi Ngu, Wei Tin Hiah

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Ageing in place is the ability to remain in one’s community, where living conditions foster a sense of attachment that enhances holistic well-being. To facilitate this, both the built and social environments within which the home is nested must be conducive to successful ageing. This paper deconstructs the merits of ageing in place, specifically how attachment to the lived environment contributes to holistic well-being. We analysed data from 6020 participants in the Singapore Life Panel® using path models, where we examined three dimensions of ageing in place: place identity, continuity, and social inclusion. Five path analyses show that two dimensions …

Constructive Trusts In Malaysia: A Methodological Reappraisal, Hang Wu Tang, Ying Khai Liew

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In recent times, Malaysian courts have resorted to a ritual incantation of unconscionability and the notion of a remedial constructive trust to justify a declaration of a constructive trust. This methodology is unhelpful for approaching constructive trusts and has led the law to develop in an unprincipled and unpredictable fashion. Our central thesis is that the key Malaysian decisions could have been decided on the basis of pre-existing legal principles upon which English and Commonwealth courts have declared a constructive trust. We argue that future courts ought to realign their methodology with the orthodox tradition of incremental development of the …

The Digitalization Of Insolvency Proceedings, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Despite the international divergences existing in the design of insolvency law, there is a common feature of insolvency proceedings that, to a greater or lesser extent, is somehow universal: insolvency proceedings are generally costly and lengthy processes. For that reason, it is not surprising that a significant body of the literature on insolvency law deals with different mechanisms to make insolvency proceedings more efficient. This article examines how technology can contribute to that goal. To that end, it starts by reviewing how countries are deploying, or can deploy, technology in different aspects and stages of insolvency proceedings and how such …

What Is A Digital Twin Anyway? Deriving The Definition For The Built Environment From Over 15,000 Scientific Publications, Abdelrahman Mahmoud, Edgardo Macatulad, Binyu Lei, Matias Quintana, Clayton Miller, Filip Biljecki

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The concept of Digital Twins (DT) has attracted significant attention across various domains, particularly within the built environment. However, there is a sheer volume of definitions and the terminological consensus remains out of reach. The lack of a universally accepted definition leads to ambiguities in their conceptualization and implementation, and may cause miscommunication for both researchers and practitioners.We employed Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to systematically extract and analyze definitions of DTs from a corpus of more than 15,000 full-text articles spanning diverse disciplines. The study compares these findings with insights from an expert survey that included 52 experts. The …

The Insurgent Smart City: How A Social Movement Created An Alternative Imaginary Of The Smart City, Andrew Stokols

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban scholars have critiqued smart cities for their association with neoliberal governance, narrow focus on quantifiable aspects of urban systems, and failure to incorporate citizens’ needs or aspirations. The “smart city” remains a contested concept and as such is subject to reappropriation. Here, I analyze the case of an urban social movement, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong Anti-ELAB protests, as an alternative, “insurgent smart city.” Following from an earlier network analysis of Telegram channels used during the protests, I show how the communications system underpinning much of the protest action simultaneously enabled coordination while also remaining open to grassroots decision-making and …

Thibaudeau’S Paradox: A Revolutionary's Complicity In Napoleon’S Empire, Krystal C. Tan

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

This essay explores Antoine-Claire Thibaudeau, a revolutionary who opposed Napoleon's autocratic ambitions yet actively contributed to his empire. Through Thibaudeau's memoirs and other sources, it argues that his ideological resistance gave way to reluctant collaboration, driven by the futility of opposition. His story reveals the complexities of dissent and compliance within Napoleon’s rule, challenging the notion of uniform elite support for the empire.

Enhancing In-Car Interaction: Analyzing Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Drivers’ Usage, And Interaction With Voice-Controlled In-Car Infotainment System, Sanskriti Kumar

Theses

Voice Control Interface is a technology that allows users to use spoken language to interact with a system. The system is capable of speech recognition where the user can input a command, the system understands and executes the commands, and gives an output through text and/or speech. Voice Control Interfaces (VCIs) have become an ubiquitous technology, from public information kiosks to personal computer devices and intelligent virtual assistant devices. The technology is constantly evolving and improving with the intentions to make life easier, however, research has revealed unique challenges VCIs pose for Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) users due to reliance …

From Gamers To Professionals: A Case Study On The Role Of Esports In Developing Employability Skills, Anthony Mark Gray Jr.

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Workforce Skills have evolved to be critically needed and the ways of developing these workplace skills are evolving. This study explores the potential contributions of esports activities at colleges to the development of essential employability skills, including collaboration, communication, leadership, problem-solving, and teamwork, skills that are valued by human resources managers. Despite the growing popularity of esports and its potential to prepare students for the workforce, there is limited research connecting esports and even broader video games connected to the activities can influence skill development and career readiness. There is an increase in academic focus and identifying the knowledge skills, …

"What A Good Opr Looks Like": How Air Force Officers Learn To Write Performance Evaluations Without Formal Training, Joanna Kristen Dytuco Kohlhepp

English Theses & Dissertations

Every year, Air Force officers receive an Officer Performance Report (OPR) from their supervisory chain of commands. Air Force regulations state that officers should not write the content for their own reports; however, this is not what occurs in practice as “Ratees” usually compose their own evaluations. At the time of writing, the Air Force has not established a service-wide training or education program to teach officers how to compose these complex and career-altering documents, leaving Ratees to figure out how to navigate the genre’s unique conventions for themselves.

This dissertation examines what rhetorical knowledge Air Force officers must possess …

Jaded Poison, Taylore Huxford

English Theses & Dissertations

Jaded Poison is, at its heart, a modern fantasy love story novel that starts when two different worlds collide. It is a novel in which Evelyn Beaumont receives a bag from her best friend, Jordan. From that point, she soon discovers that the bag teleports things, which starts with her bank statements, to another world—a high fantasy world. The receiver is Valerie Aeris, the Princess of the Valaros kingdom. The two women begin exchanging letters and find solace in each other; Evelyn feels lonely and that her life has no direction, and Valerie feels suffocated in the high society culture …