The Impact Of Language On The Academic Experience Of Multilingual Students, Daniela Duran Aguilar

2026 Undergraduate Research Showcase

Multilingual students are an important part of higher education in the United States, and that is why their academic experiences matter. In 2022, 33% of students in U.S. universities had first-, second-, or third-generation immigrant backgrounds (Feldblum et al., 2024, p. 14), and 4% of students were international students (“Higher Ed Immigration Portal,” 2024). Research has investigated the perspectives of multilingual students through interviews (e.g., Dykema, 2024; Tavares, 2023). This study contributes to this body of research by asking multilingual students from Boise State to describe the benefits, challenges, and support they experience in college. A qualitative approach was used …

Words That Work: Healthcare Providers’ Acceptability Of Aba Terminology, Marisa A. Hurlock

Thesis Projects

Effective collaboration between behavior analysts and healthcare providers depends on a shared understanding. This study explored how healthcare professionals perceive technical versus plain-language ABA terminology. Healthcare providers (n = 44) rated 10 common ABA terms and their plain-language counterparts across clarity, acceptability, comfort, and likelihood of use. In addition, participants completed a paired-choice procedure in which they selected their preferred terminology for each term pair. Plain-language terminology was generally rated more favorably across all four dimensions and was preferred by approximately 70.6% of respondents. However, this pattern was not consistent across all terms, as several technical terms (e.g., negative …

Unf Student Research Symposium Conference Program Spring 2026, Office Of Undergraduate Research, Graduate School, Digital Humanities Institute, Hicks Honors College

UNF Student Research Symposium

Formerly known as SOARS, ARISE and U-GLIDE, the Student Research Symposium is a multi-disciplinary conference series at the University of North Florida (UNF) in which undergraduate and graduate students showcase their research projects during the fall, spring and summer semesters. Research at UNF includes inquiry and investigation in all forms. Communication of knowledge produced through student research can be presented in poster format or as an oral presentation at the Student Research Symposium in a welcoming environment. This is an excellent opportunity for students to refine their presentation skills through interaction with peers and faculty as they explain their projects, …

Neutrosophic Sets And Systems, Vol. 98, 2026, Florentin Smarandache, Muhammad Abdel-Baset, Maikel Leyva-Vázquez

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

This edition of “Neutrosophic Sets and Systems” presents a diverse collection of studies that contribute to the theoretical development and practical application of neutrosophic, fuzzy, hypersoft, and generalized algebraic systems in complex decision-making and information analysis environments. The published works explore innovative mathematical structures, including generalized neutrosophic topological spaces, neutrosophic algebraic systems, hypersoft and dual hesitant frameworks, multi-valued and n-fold algebraic models, and advanced decision-making methodologies designed to address indeterminacy, inconsistency, vagueness, and multidimensional uncertainty. Several contributions introduce new classes of neutrosophic closed sets, contra continuous mappings, and generalized algebraic operators, extending existing theories in topology, algebra, and set theory. …

Communities And Languages In Contact: The Future Of Náhuatl In México, Maxwell Von Gunten

2026 Undergraduate Research Showcase

My project’s intended topic and goal is to conduct a research project based on multilingualism—more specifically the use of the indigenous language Nahuatl in central Mexico within the communities and the education system. I plan to read linguistic research about this indigenous language, historical documents, and use the internet to find real life examples of people using Nauhuatl in a natural setting. I think this research project ties seamlessly into the content of Spanish 498, wherein, the course focuses on multilingualism in our world and more specifically that of Spanish and how it is influenced by other languages. This research …

Linguistic Dual Hesitant Hypersoft Set And Their Application With Decision Making In Medical Diagnosis And Treatment, B. Sathiyapriya, V. Pankajam

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

This study presents Linguistic Dual Hesitant Hypersoft Set (LDHHS) for Analysing Medical Diagnose. In LDHHS, linguistic terms are combined with Dual Hesitant logic to handle uncertainty and vagueness in Decision-Making. The Hypersoft Set extend traditional soft sets by handling multi-attributes and interdependent parameters in Decision-Making. In the context of LDHHS can be used to categorize and assess different aspects of Aggregation and using Decision-Making in Medical Diagnose. In this study the development of this framework, its application and its potential impact using a Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) case study to illustrate its effectiveness.

The Α-Discounting (Α-Dmcdm) As An Extension Of Ahp, Topsis, Vikor, Promethee, And Weighted Sum, Florentin Smarandache

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the α-Discounting Multi-Criteria Decision Making (α-D MCDM) method, an extension of the classical Multi-Criteria Decision Making framework designed to address inconsistencies and complex preference structures in decision analysis. Traditional methods such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and related MCDM techniques perform effectively when decision makers provide consistent pairwise comparisons; however, real-world decision problems frequently involve inconsistent, n-wise, interval-valued, or non-linear preference relations that exceed the capabilities of classical approaches. The proposed α-D MCDM method introduces a global discounting parameter α, which transforms inconsistent systems of preference equations into solvable algebraic models while …

Learning The Notes: Developing Absolute Pitch, Emma Joyce

Student Publications and Presentations

Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify or name a musical pitch without the aid of a reference tone. Although the concept has been known for centuries, the processes of its development remain unclear. Researchers have proposed a variety of explanations, yet despite advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, there is still no agreement on whether AP results from natural ability or learned experience. By understanding neurological and developmental research, reviewing existing literature, analyzing case studies, and evaluating current theories, this paper aims to identify gaps in previous research and suggests a new approach for developing AP in young …

Genetic Algorithms With Psychological Tension Analysis For Music (Gaptam), Andrew Bowman

Theses

This work investigates a structurally grounded approach to algorithmic music composition using a stochastic Context Free Grammar (CFG) evolved through a genetic algorithm. While existing systems such as live-coding environments, DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), and statistical models generate musical material, they typically lack explicit hierarchical organization, despite evidence that listeners perceive music sequentially and structurally. In this framework, derivation trees generated from an CFG serve as compositional candidates, which are evolved using subtree-based crossover and mutation. Fitness evaluation combines prior melodic heuristics with tension-based insights from music cognition research, introducing musically informed structure into the evolutionary process. A genetic system …

Investigating The Synergistic Effects Of Mental And Physical Exhaustion On Learning And Attention In Emergency First Responders: An Eye-Tracking Study, Kayla Page

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Exhaustion is known to impair cognitive functioning and performance, yet its effects on learning during video-based instruction among first responders and military service members remain underexplored. This study examined how mental, physical, and combined exhaustion independently influence learning outcomes and visual attention in a physically active sample drawn from military, public safety, and emergency service roles. Visual attention was measured utilizing eye tracking, focusing on fixation duration (FD) and fixation rate (FR). Participants completed instructional tasks under each exhaustion condition, allowing comparison of learning and gaze behavior across fatigue states. Results indicated that mental and physical exhaustion were associated …

The Politics Of Human Rights: The Quest For Dignity In The 21st Century, Martina Caretta

International Journal of Human Rights Education

Human rights are often presented as universal moral principles, yet their protection remains deeply uneven across political, social, and institutional contexts. This raises important questions: are human rights truly universal, or have they become utopian in practice? At their core, human rights can be understood as the minimum conditions required for a dignified human life. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, following the atrocities of World War II, the international community has expressed a shared commitment to a world free from hunger, violence, and oppression, and grounded in access to healthcare, education, and …

Mayan Language Pods: Language Preservation As A Human Right With Indigenous Latinx Mothers And Their Children, Johanna Estrella, Rosa M. Jiménez

International Journal of Human Rights Education

Public schools are facing a new diaspora of immigrant students entering their schools—Indigenous Latinx youth. There is considerable literature on immigrant communities and immigrant students, particularly the Latinx origin youth who are overwhelmingly classified as “English Learners.” Much less attention has been paid to Indigenous immigrant youths’ educational and lived experiences. In response, indigenous families are seeking alternative ways to preserve their language and culture. This qualitative study documents a planned non-formal language preservation project with Mam Indigenous mothers and their children. Using Human Rights in Education (HRE) and Linguistic Rights frameworks, we analyze the Mam Language project as a …

Making Fun Of The Leader Of The Free World: South Park And Its Critique Of Donald Trump, Kenneth H. Mcmillen

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

South Park is one of the cornerstones of American television. It also is a show that doesn’t shy away from controversy or social commentary. In its runtime it has taken aim at celebrities, world leaders, movements, and entire groups of people. The latest of its targets is President Donald Trump, who has been one of the central subjects of the shows two 2025 seasons. To examine how these episodes manage to critique trump so thoroughly without alienating his supporters, I ask the following research question: How does South Park use parody to make critiques about Donald Trump’s ego?  I …

The Impact Of Social Emotional Learning Interventions On Students, Kaiya J. Nelson

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has become increasingly prevalent in schools, with 83% of schools nationwide implementing SEL curricula or programs as of 2024, compared to 46% in 2018. In Minnesota, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework identifies five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making—as foundational to student development. SEL supports students in managing emotions, building relationships, and making responsible choices, while fostering a positive and inclusive school climate. Despite growing adoption, challenges such as limited instructional time, the need for culturally responsive practices, adequate mental health staffing, and strong family …

Language Style Matching (Lsm) And Group Cohesion: Exploring Mechanisms Behind Psychological Wellbeing In Interpersonal Psychotherapy For College Students (Ipt-Cs), Bradley Orzada, Kirby Knapp, Ellie Malone, Colleen Conley

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) has been found to be effective for improving the anxiety and depression symptoms of college students, but little is known about the therapeutic mechanisms behind IPT nor for whom IPT does not work. Language style matching (LSM), given its associations with interpersonal relationships and psychological wellbeing, may further inform IPT mechanisms and serve as a tool to predict intervention outcomes. Using data from an IPT group for college students, the present study explored how participant LSM relates to anxiety, depression, and group cohesion. Group psychotherapy transcripts of participants (N = 9) were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and …

Resilience In Nursing Education: A Literature Review Examining The Experiences Of Ukrainian Nursing Students In The United States, Katherine Ferrell, Rachel Joseph

Wisdom & Compassion: The LUSON Journal

The purpose of this literature review is to examine the experiences of international students who originate from war-torn areas, who live in the United States (US). Drawing from peer-reviewed sources, the review examines the academic, psychological, and social challenges these students face, including trauma, cultural adjustment, and gaps in institutional support. It highlights the resilience and coping strategies employed by students, as well as the role of universities in fostering inclusive environments. The review also identifies critical gaps in current research, particularly regarding long-term mental health outcomes and culturally responsive support services. This paper aims to synthesize existing literature on …

The Erosion Of The Imago Dei: A Qualitative Study Of Religious Identity Maintenance Among Affluent Professionals In Secularized Environments, Shawn Hall

Liberty University Research Week

While sociological research has extensively documented the decline of religious affiliation (the "rise of the Nones"), fewer studies examine the erosion of theological anthropology, the fundamental beliefs about the nature of the self among religious adherents who remain active within faith communities. Drawing on twenty years of qualitative participant observation in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, this study investigates how affluent Christians maintain or fail to maintain a "Bipartite" (Soul-Body) worldview while embedded in highly secularized, technocratic professional environments. Utilizing a reflexive ethnographic design and NVivo-supported thematic analysis, the research identifies a phenomenon of "Ontological Dissonance," where adherents profess orthodox …

From Viðkenning To Valarindi: The Enigma Of Goldberry And The River-Woman, Derek Simon

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

THIS IS A TWO-PART ARTICLE. IN ORDER TO READ OR DOWNLOAD THE OTHER PART, FOLLOW THE LINK AT THE END OF THIS ABSTRACT.

Building upon the previous examination of the eddic and skaldic contours of Goldberry’s River kenning names, this reading of Goldberry’s enigma focuses on the mythological referents of her kinship relations and their narrative consistency in the legendarium.  Tending to the intrinsic connection between “[t]he incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale” (Tolkien, On Fairy Stories, 41), I contend that the poetics of kenning diction sustain if not demand a reading of the River-woman references mythologically through …

Quantitative Stewardship Of The Great Commission: A Linear Programming Approach To Missionary Allocation In India, Isaiah Mellace

Liberty University Research Week

This project investigates how linear programming can be used as a decision-support tool to inform missionary allocation across unreached people groups in India. The central thesis is that quantitative optimization methods can help identify regions of greatest unmet need and minimize the number of resources required to complete the Great Commission. Prior work in operations research has demonstrated the effectiveness of linear programming for resource allocation problems in logistics, healthcare, and humanitarian aid; however, such methods have rarely been applied to missiological contexts. Using figures from Joshua Project’s South Asia data, a mixed-integer linear programming model was constructed with assumptions …

What Is Philosophy For? Reading Wittgenstein After Cavell, Maggie L. Zhang

2026 Claremont Colleges Library Undergraduate Research Award

This literature review examines two major strands of Cavellian scholarship on Wittgenstein, arguing that their relative separation has obscured the insights each offers the other. Cavell’s “therapeutic” reading of Wittgenstein understands his philosophical project not as a theory of language but as an activity aimed at dissolving the philosophical fantasy of such a theory. This approach has been taken up along two largely distinct lines of inquiry: one focused on the Tractatus and the debate between substantial and austere views of nonsense, and another centered on the Philosophical Investigations and its relation to ordinary language philosophy, particularly in light of …

The Role Of Ai In Judicial Translation: Ensuring Access To Justice In Vernacular Languages, With Special Reference To Marathi, Bhushan Raut

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper examines the role of artificial intelligence in judicial translation to enhance access to justice in India’s multilingual legal system, with a specific focus on Marathi. It situates judicial translation within the constitutional framework and Rule of Law theory, arguing that linguistic accessibility is essential to legal agency and fairness. Through doctrinal, empirical, and comparative analysis, the paper evaluates initiatives such as SUVAS, highlights gaps in vernacular availability of landmark judgements, and identifies challenges relating to accuracy, accountability, and legal semantics. It proposes a hybrid AI–human model and policy reforms to ensure reliable, scalable, and inclusive translation practices in …

“As Though You Could Never Sink”: Gender Euphoria Through Aquatic Embodiment In The Sun Also Rises, Devan Edwards

Honors Theses

Recent scholarship in disability studies and queer theory (2007-2024) reveals that Jake Barnes's war wound in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises functions as something more complex than tragic loss. This paper argues that Jake's swimming and fishing scenes constitute moments of gender euphoria, a term borrowed from contemporary transgender studies, enabled specifically by aquatic embodiment. In these scenes, water functions as the physical and symbolic medium through which Jake's war-wounded body transcends the performative demands of 1920s heteronormative masculinity. Building on Michael Anesko's provocative reading of Jake as "accidentally transgendered" (Literature and Medicine, 2015) and Martina Kübler's argument that impotence …

The Indiana Statesman, April 23, 2026, Indiana State University

Student Newspaper

Recipients announced for 2026 Faculty Awards; Dr. Melinda Roberts, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will be moving to California State University

Gratitude And The Second Language Writer: The Effects Of Gratitude Journaling In The English Language Writing Classroom, Lauren Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Gratitude journaling interventions have repeatedly been shown to enhance wellbeing when conducted in participants’ first language (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Sansone & Sansone, 2010), yet no studies to date have examined these practices in second language (L2) contexts. This mixed-methods quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of a six-week gratitude journaling intervention on adult L2 English writers enrolled in an intensive English program. Eleven writing classes (N = 183) were randomly assigned to either a gratitude journaling group or a neutral-events control group, with 123 participants completing all four stages of data collection. Trait gratitude and subjective wellbeing were measured pre-intervention, …

An Examination Of The Value Of Study Abroad When Learning A Foreign Language: A Study Of Differing Student Outcomes. To What Extent Does Studying Abroad Enhance A Language Learning Experience?, Julie Syler

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to articulate the importance of learning a foreign language and examine the value of studying abroad when learning a foreign language, by conducting qualitative research on different study abroad experiences. There is an ongoing discussion of the importance of foreign language learning and whether or not it is a beneficial endeavor. This literature review explores the benefits of foreign language learning to demonstrate their impact and how they occur when studying abroad. Furthermore, this investigation examines how and why study abroad experiences promote language acquisition. The improvements in communication and understanding in a foreign …

Cross-Attention Mechanism For Medical Visual Question Answering, Nada Fadhil Mohammed, Israa H. Ali

Baghdad Science Journal

Visual Question Answering (VQA) is a machine learning task that aims to create systems capable of answering natural language questions based on given images. Medical VQA systems, a domain-specific application of VQA, assist in understanding clinically relevant information from medical images. These systems leverage deep neural techniques to generate accurate answers to questions, which can be closed-ended or open-ended. This paper proposes a Cross-Attention Mechanism-based Medical VQA system. The proposed Medical VQA system achieves good performance through the integration of three-key components, each addressing critical challenges in medical visual question answering: The biomedical domain-specific pretraining of BioBERT enables extracting powerful …

A Multi-Model Ensemble Framework For Assistive Image Captioning With Voice Interaction For The Visually Impaired Users, Alaa Noori Mazher, Ghadah K. Al-Khafaji

Baghdad Science Journal

Visual impairment greatly restricts an individual's ability for perception and interaction with the environment, making everyday activities challenging without the availability of appropriate assistive technologies. One major barrier is the inability to perceive visual scenes, which are essential for spatial awareness, wayfinding, and situational knowledge. This study aims to address this gap through the proposal of an intelligent assistive image captioning system specifically designed for visually impaired individuals. The system employs the best available computer vision and natural language processing techniques in generating context-oriented text captions for an image infused with interactive voice responses. Here, four models of Convolutional Neural …

Exploring Subject-Verb Agreement Challenges Among Third-Grade Portuguese Dual Language Immersion Students: A Mixed-Methods Study, Marisa Tobias

Theses and Dissertations

Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs are commonly recognized for supporting the development of oral proficiency; however, persistent challenges with grammatical accuracy, particularly subject-verb agreement, remain common among elementary-aged learners. This mixed-methods study focuses on third-grade students in a Portuguese DLI program and examines how they use present-tense verb forms in different classroom contexts. Drawing on classroom observations, instructional materials, and students’ oral and written production, the study analyzes the nature of the input learners receive and the types of errors that persist during oral communication. Findings indicate that students demonstrate greater accuracy during structured tasks, while difficulties with subject-verb agreement …

Family-Based Gwas Of Cognitive Endophenotypes Reveals Genetic Architecture Of Memory And Executive Function In Alzheimer’S Disease, Kesheng Wang, Xueying Yang, Gayenell Magwood, Chun Xu, R. Osvaldo Navia, Jean Neils-Strunjas, Xiaoming Li

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, is characterized by progressive memory and cognitive decline. Conventional genome-wide association studies (GWAS) comparing AD cases and controls may miss genetic influences that act along a continuum of cognitive function. Using data from 3007 participants in the National Institute on Aging Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Family Study (NIA-LOAD GWAS), we conducted a family-based GWAS of eight quantitative cognitive phenotypes encompassing episodic memory (Logical Memory IA and IIA), working memory (Digit Span Forward, Backward, and Ordering), and semantic fluency (Animal, Fruit and Vegetable, and Vegetable Fluency). Family-based association testing in PLINK v1.9 identified …

Llm For Clinical Named Entity Recognition: A Study On Rag With Pubmed And Umls, Apoorv Tripathi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The first step of biomedical NLP is recognizing clinical named entities, which consist of identifying and categorizing a variety of clinical entities such as diseases, symptoms, genetics, diagnostic tests, procedures, etc. from a body of unstructured clinical text. This study presents a PubMed and UMLS based Retrieval Augmented Generation framework which improves the performance of the Large Language Models to identify clinical entities by providing context. In particular, the framework consists of a two-stage pipeline, where candidate tokens are identified from initial LLM-based classification and refined with retrieved context from either PubMed or UMLS. The proposed framework is assessed across …