Digital Commons Network^™

Hate And Offensive Content Identification In Indo-Aryan Languages Using Transformer-Based Models, Olumide Ebenezer Ojo, Olaronke Oluwayemisi Adebanji, Hiram Calvo, Alexander Gelbukh, Anna Feldman, Grigori Sidorov

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Open exchange of hate speech, insults, derogatory remarks, and obscenities on social media platforms can undermine objective discourse and facilitate radicalization by spreading propaganda and exposing people to danger. People who have been targeted by these offensive and hateful content often experience physiological effects as a result. In this work, we present our models for detecting hate speech and offensive content in two Indo-Aryan languages submitted to HASOC 2023. Although Gujarati and Sinhala are considered low-resource languages, our models demonstrated commendable accuracy in detecting hate speech after fine-tuning them with language-specific hate speech datasets. Our experiments employed and fine-tuned two …

Legend At Araieval Shared Task: Persuasion Technique Detection Using A Language-Agnostic Text Representation Model, Olumide E. Ojo, Olaronke O. Adebanji, Hiram Calvo, Damian O. Dieke, Olumuyiwa E. Ojo, Seye E. Akinsanya, Tolulope O. Abiola, Anna Feldman

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this paper, we share our best performing submission to the Arabic AI Tasks Evaluation Challenge (ArAIEval) at ArabicNLP 2023. Our focus was on Task 1, which involves identifying persuasion techniques in excerpts from tweets and news articles. The persuasion technique in Arabic texts was detected using a training loop with XLM-RoBERTa, a language-agnostic text representation model. This approach proved to be potent, leveraging fine-tuning of a multilingual language model. In our evaluation of the test set, we achieved a micro F1 score of 0.64 for subtask A of the competition.

Nollysenti: Leveraging Transfer Learning And Machine Translation For Nigerian Movie Sentiment Classification, Iyanuoluwa Shode, David Ifeoluwa Adelani, Jing Peng, Anna Feldman

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Africa has over 2000 indigenous languages but they are under-represented in NLP research due to lack of datasets. In recent years, there have been progress in developing labelled corpora for African languages. However, they are often available in a single domain and may not generalize to other domains. In this paper, we focus on the task of sentiment classification for cross-domain adaptation. We create a new dataset, NollySenti-based on the Nollywood movie reviews for five languages widely spoken in Nigeria (English, Hausa, Igbo, Nigerian-Pidgin, and Yorùbá). We provide an extensive empirical evaluation using classical machine learning methods and pre-trained language …

“Like A Whole Thing”: Dialogic Sensemaking In One Sixth Grade Classroom, Catherine Bienkowski

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This qualitative study used a constructivist approach to better understand how students in one sixth grade classroom participate in dialogic discussions while making sense of texts. Participants in the study attended a suburban, public, high-performing middle school in Pennsylvania. Drawing on Sociocultural Learning Theory and Transactional Reading Theory, the researcher observed one English Language Arts class. Nine students participated in five reading events over a period of two months. Data collection, informed by linguistic ethnographic methods, included audio recordings, transcriptions of reading events, fieldnotes, and transcriptions of one on one and small group interviews. In Vivo coding of the interview …

Liberatory Language Instruction: A Dusselian Self-Study, Renee Burgos

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This is a qualitative self-study conducted in the tradition of practitioner inquiry that examines the pedagogics of an English language development (ELD) classroom. Different from pedagogy, pedagogics is the face-to-face encounter of Sameness and Otherness in systems or institutions characterized by power imbalances, as theorized by Argentinian liberatory philosopher, Enrique Dussel. More specifically, liberatory pedagogics, as conceptualized by Dussel in the arena of education, is characterized by an analectic between teacher and student in which, from a position outside of the dominant paradigm, the dynamic of Sameness and Otherness is observed, evaluated, and reimagined so as not to reproduce sameness …

Reading Proficiency As A Public Policy Agenda Indicator: The Importance Of Reading Ability On The Educational Outcomes Of Students And The Collateral Effects To Society, Mark Jaronczyk

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This study explores reading proficiency as a public policy agenda indicator and hypothesizes that reading achievement scores among phonics-based, Reading First, literacy curriculum participants will significantly increase when a neuroscience-based intervention model is integrated into the instructional program. Using a deductive approach, English Language Arts (ELA) achievement percentages from 31 school districts in Maine were analyzed and compared to the Maine state average across 3 groups: All students, Economically Disadvantaged students, and Students with Disabilities. Secondary data was obtained from the Every Student Succeeds Acts (ESSA) Dashboard available on the Maine state government website. One-sample case t-test …

Vocation As Story, Story As Vocation, Ben Brazil

Quaker Religious Thought

On a frigid December morning in Indiana, a man named Dave Jetmore discovered that his daughter’s pet goat had died. Not wanting to upset his little girl—much less broach the topic of death—Jetmore planned to tell his daughter that “Billy” had simply gone to live somewhere pleasant. Inventing that story was the easy part; the harder part was hiding the body. First, Jetmore tried to bury the goat, but the ground had frozen hard as rock. Next, he had his son fling the body from the pickup to a snowbank, which failed to conceal anything. Time was growing short. And …

Lunch And Learn - Intercultural Communication For Deaf, Deafblind And Hard Of Hearing, Stephanie Horvath

Office of Equity and Inclusion Lunch and Learn Sessions

No abstract provided.

Multisensory Experiences In Archaeological Landscapes—Sound, Vision, And Movement In Gis And Virtual Reality, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristy Primeau, David E. Witt, Graham Goodwin

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeologists are employing a variety of digital tools to develop new methodological frameworks that combine computational and experiential approaches which is leading to new multisensory research. In this article, we explore vision, sound, and movement at the ancient Maya city of Copan from a multisensory and multiscalar perspective bridging concepts and approaches from different archaeological paradigms. Our methods and interpretations employ theory-inspired variables from proxemics and semiotics to develop a methodological framework that combines computation with sensory perception. Using GIS, 3D, and acoustic tools we create multisensory experiences in VR with spatial sound using an immersive headset (Oculus Rift) and …

“Our Constitution . . . Should Be Read By Intelligent And Patriotic Men”: A Statistical Analysis Of Constitutional Rhetoric, William D. Blake

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Unusual Case Assignment In Pronouns, Olivia Ziemelis

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Interpretation And Ovidian Myth In Alexander’S Bridge And O Pioneers!, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

This essay describes interpretive strategies widely applied to Ovidian mythic materials during the period of Cather’s early career, especially those operative in Alexander’s Bridge and O Pioneers! The article assumes that widely held conventional interpretations of myths, in this case Ovidian myths, in a specific time and area are part of their semantic content, or iconology, and are tools Cather used in communicating with her audience. The essay then looks at a passage in the 1912 Alexander’s Bridge and two disputed passages in the 1913 O Pioneers! along with extended Bacchic themes in the latter novel that employ conventional Ovidian …

Reflections On The Victorian(Ist) Impulse To Totalize Africa, Adrian S. Wisnicki

Department of English: Faculty Publications

IN this essay, I offer some reflections on how Victorianists might understand nineteenth- and early twentieth-century discursive practices for mapping Africa. In doing this, I respond to what Sukanya Banerjee, our panel organizer, asked us to do in determining the focus for our essays—namely, that we direct “attention to topics in Victorian studies that [we] feel might otherwise be overlooked or viewed differently.” In what follows I introduce and problematize a series of Victorian-era maps or, more specifically, problematize what such maps represent conceptually, then offer some alternate means by which Victorianists might critically engage with cultural and social reality …

A Phenomenological Study Of Inclusive And Equitable Teaching Practices Among Faculty At A Research-Intensive Institution, Adeola Christianah Ogunade

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The increasing enrollment of diverse students in the US higher education institutions has given rise to discussions on how to meet the academic needs of minority students. Non-faculty members have implemented programs and initiatives that indirectly improve minority students' educational outcomes. Less explored is the role of faculty in ensuring that minority students thrive academically. This phenomenological qualitative study explores the general orientation of faculty toward inclusive and equitable teaching (IET). Specifically, it looked at how faculty define and experience IET, factors that motivated their use of IET, and barriers to implementing IET in higher education. Eight faculty from different …

A Really Good Example Helps Learning About An Abstract Concept, Ava Funkhouser, Elena Nicoladis

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

University students are often asked to learn abstract concepts. Abstract concepts are hard to learn. Giving specific examples can help learning abstract concepts. These examples might limit understanding to the similarities between the abstract domain and particular examples. The primary purpose of this study was to test whether exposure to multiple examples would lead to better learning than exposure to a single example. Secondarily, we were interested in whether there was any particularly effective example. Introductory psychology students were invited to learn about the abstract concept of semiotics, through either 1) three of five distinct examples or 2) a single …

Bilingualism: Bringing World Language To The Youth, Kyle Villella

Modern Languages, Philosophy and Classics Theses

This research thesis focuses on world language education in the United States, more specifically, in the state of Rhode Island. In a changing world, learning a second language is key to creating more culturally competent citizens of the world. This thesis pushes for world language education in elementary schools, particularly in first grade. The first section of the thesis focuses on the reasoning behind beginning this education and how a child’s brain is more capable of second language learning This thesis then looks into how this style of education can be successful and the best pedagogical approaches. It analyzes how …

Educational Policies For Spanish Speakers In The United States, Allenby Lyson Iii

Modern Languages, Philosophy and Classics Theses

Schools across the United States implemented educational policies to help students succeed. These policies are often implemented at the state level allowing differences between each state. Considering the increasing presence of Spanish speakers in the United States, many of these policies are put in place to help Spanish speaking students as well as other native speaking children. These policies, and by extent programs, have changed over time, both helping and in some cases harming students. Analyzing these policies improves our understanding of what is most beneficial for students.

Generic Interpretations Of Possessive Recursion In English-Speaking Children, Tyler Poisson, Jill De Villiers, Hirsto Kyuchukov, Bea Weinand, Lilly Young, Sofia Morales, Laisha Aniceto

Philosophy: Faculty Publications

Two-part s-possessives such as the dad’s kid’s bike admit at least two distinct interpretations: the dad has a kid who has a bike, or the dad has a bike that is made for kids. We propose that the former interpretation derives from recursively embedding DP-possessives, whereas the latter derives from representing kid’s bike asa generic NP-possessive. Accordingly, in the right context, two-part s-possessives are fully ambiguous for adults between ‘recursive’ and ‘generic’ readings. These readings can be disambiguated syntactically. Consider the difference in meaning when we insert a relative clause and extract the constituent kid’s bike—the kid’s bike that is …

Predicting Precedent: A Psycholinguistic Artificial Intelligence In The Supreme Court, Kimo Gandall, Chris Haley, Juliana Chhouk, Logan Knight, Alex Wang, Bella Demarco

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

Since the proliferation of analytic methodologies and ‘big data’ in the 1980s, there have been multiple studies claiming to offer consistent predictions for Supreme Court behavior. Political scientists focus on analyzing the ideology of judges, with prediction accuracy as high as 70%. Institutionalists, such as Kaufmann (2019), seek to make predictions on verdicts based on a thorough, qualitative analysis of rules and structures, with predictive accuracy as high as 75%. We argue that a psycholinguistic model utilizing machine learning (SCOTUS_AI) can best predict Court outcomes. Extracting sentiment features from parsed briefs through the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), our …

Genetic Capitalism: The Anthropological Evolution Of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, Mehin Suleiman

Hispanic Studies Honors Papers

This thesis titled "Genetic Capitalism: The Anthropological Evolution of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria" explores the evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genotypes in bacteria and its impact on our destruction of a once symbiotic relationship with bacterial species. By taking an anthropological approach, I investigate how material relations, social institutions, cultural meanings, and political relations within and beyond the microcosm of bacteria have led to mass bacterial resistance. In the course of my research, I examine the cultures of bacterial cultures and their interactions, as well as the language of bacteria and their social intelligence, in order to anthropomorphize bacterial species that …

Midwest Governors’ Rhetoric During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Diego Sanchez

Lawrence University Honors Projects

There has been an explosion of research measuring governments' COVID-19 response both in the U.S. and globally. The response from the U.S. federal government to the COVID-19 pandemic was not consistent. Therefore, state governors had a variety of responses. Publicly available cell phone movement data was used to explore governors' impact on citizens' adherence to stay-at-home orders. This data was used to assess the impact of governors' press conferences, controlling for COVID-19 case count, partisanship, median income, and other factors. There were 13 Midwest states observed over 13 months from February 1, 2020, to February 26, 2021. The results of …

Multimodal Emotion Analysis With Focused Attention, Siddhi Kiran Bajracharya

Dissertations and Theses

Emotion analysis, a subset of sentiment analysis, involves the study of a wide array of emotional indicators. In contrast to sentiment analysis, which restricts its focus to positive and negative sentiments, emotion analysis extends beyond these limitations to a diverse spectrum of emotional cues. Contemporary trends in emotion analysis lean toward multimodal approaches that leverage audiovisual and text modalities. However, implementing multimodal strategies introduces its own set of challenges, marked by a rise in model complexity and an expansion of parameters, thereby creating a need for a larger volume of data. This thesis responds to this challenge by proposing a …

Critical Latino Studies: Combatting The (Mis)Education Of Latino Students In U.S. Public Schools, Heidi Kern

West Chester University Master’s Theses

In this thesis, I will explore the historical undervaluing and miseducation of Latino youth in U.S. public schools using a lens of decolonial theory to combat the systems of oppression that continue to affect our Latino youth today. First, I explain what experiences brought me to this concern and provide a clear theoretical framework to explain my philosophy of education. I also articulate key concepts from decolonial scholars and educational activists that inform my own work on the educational experiences of Latino students. In Chapter Three, I provide a historical review of how a public school system rooted in colonialism …

Trademark Tarnishmyths, Jake Linford, Justin Sevier, Allyson Willis

Scholarly Publications

Trademark law protects famous marks from dilution by tarnishment, defined by statute as use likely to "harm the reputation of the famous mark." Tarnishing uses are typically those that connect a mark with disreputable goods or topics, like sex or drugs. Mark owners worry that consumers will not purchase products connected with sexually explicit or drug-related materials, and courts often presume the same. If those associations likely cause consumers to withhold custom or dissipate goodwill consumers have invested in the mark, anti-tarnishment protection might be justified. But if that harm is more mythic than real, the law penalizing tarnishing use …

Chronotropics: Caribbean Women Writing Spacetime, Odile Ferly, Tegan Zimmerman

Language, Literature, and Culture

This book deconstructs androcentric approaches to spacetime inherited from western modernity through its theoretical frame of the chronotropics. It sheds light on the literary acts of archival disruption, radical remapping, and epistemic marronnage by twenty-first-century Caribbean women writers to restore a connection to spacetime, expanding it within and beyond the region. Arguing that the chronotropics points to a vocation for social justice and collective healing, this pan-Caribbean volume returns to auhthonous ontologies and epistemologies to propose a poetics and politics of the chronotropics that is anticolonial, gender inclusive, pluralistic, and non-anthropocentric.

Table of Contents:

1 Introduction: Chronotropics, co-authored by Odile …

The Effects Of Screen Time On Children, Jacqueline Valdepenas

Nursing | Senior Theses

With the development of technology continuing to grow at a fast-paced pace in society, children are now becoming exposed to such technology at a younger age. The introduction of smartphones and tablets, which is defined as screen time in this paper, are being introduced to children as young as 6 months of age. Instead of children playing with toys recommended for their age, they use screen time for their play needs and entertainment. Some parents use screen time as a distraction and/or relief for their own needs when the child is upset or they’re unable to tend to the child. …

Understanding Language Barriers And Its Implications On Patient Outcomes In The Urgent Care Situation, Nicolo Co

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

A common goal for healthcare is healthcare for all, through which can be achieved when communication between the client and healthcare team is established. There are millions of immigrants worldwide who are not granted the healthcare that they deserve simply because of a lack of understanding in a country’s dominant language.

Patients with a limited language proficiency in a new country can have difficulty in understanding the care that they receive, which leads them to toil with understanding their healthcare options, let alone establishing expectations. This issue also stretches onto the risks of patient safety, in which urgent needs …

University Of Southern Maine Commencement Program 2023, University Of Southern Maine

Commencement Programs

University of Southern Maine Commencement Program 2023

Sustaining At Scale: District Mathematics Specialists’ Adaptations To A Teacher Leadership Preparation Program, Michael Jarry-Shore, Victoria Delaney, Hilda Borko

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

A common approach to scaling up a professional development program is for the researchers who designed the program to prepare teacher leaders to facilitate it at their schools. When researchers eventually leave, however, teacher leaders may receive less support. To ensure that teacher leaders continue receiving support, researchers can prepare district mathematics specialists to assume responsibility for preparing the teacher leaders. Little is known, however, about district mathematics specialists’ role in sustaining, and potentially adapting, professional development programs. We examined district mathematics specialists’ facilitation of an adaptive teacher leadership preparation program. Program sessions were originally facilitated by researchers then by …

Investigating The Role Of Play In Children’S Socio-Emotional And Cognitive Development: A Study In Three Public Preprimary Schools In Temeke Municipality., Farida Idd

Master of Education

Whilst play has been initiated by various philosophers and psychologists in early childhood education, the researcher sought to investigate the role of play in children’s socio-emotional and cognitive development in selected public pre-primary schools in Temeke Municipality and found out that teachers encourage a different kind of play to stimulate children’s development. This was a qualitative research approach whereby the researcher employed a case study design to get in-depth details from participants’ insights, expressions, and feelings based on their natural setting concerning the role of play in children’s development, and multiple ways of data collection were considered. The findings from …