Digital Commons Network^™

Expanding Traditional Literacy Frameworks: A Multiliteracies Approach In Elementary Classrooms, Caroline Cuenca

Doctoral Dissertations

Teaching literacy in elementary schools can provide students with a rich, meaningful, and engaging learning experience. Furthermore, cultivating a culturally responsive approach to teaching and learning can promote feelings of acceptance and belonging in young children (Comber, 2018). However, elementary educators are feeling increased pressure to emphasize literacy instruction with a sole focus on foundational literacy skills, standardized curriculum, and accountability measures (Unadkat & Ochoa, 2026). Unfortunately, these instructional practices often limit students' opportunities to engage in creative, collaborative, multimodal, and meaningful learning (Unadkat & Cuenca, 2025). This mixed-methods study examined how a critical multiliteracies curriculum was implemented in a …

Wegmans School Of Health And Nutrition’S Culinary Kitchen Cart Manual Development, Neena Bhala

Theses

To facilitate the initiation of culinary medicine at RIT, a manual to guide the use of a mobile kitchen cart was developed and evaluated. This manual was developed to support faculty, staff, and students’ use of a Mobile Kitchen Cart to be able to support culinary medicine and nutrition education activities. The Manual was directed to RIT faculty, staff, and students who have experience with the cart or intend to have future use with the cart. A qualitative evaluation study was conducted with ten participants including RIT faculty (n=2), students (n=4), and staff (n=4). Feedback on the manual was obtained …

Software Vulnerability Recidivism In Open-Source Projects, Brandon Keller

Theses

Software vulnerabilities present a major threat to businesses and individuals alike and it is therefore critical that a culture exists among software engineers to encourage the discovery and patching of security flaws. Vulnerability counts are a common way of evaluating a project’s security. However, this metric can run counter to building a developer culture of fault recognition if more vulnerabilities is always seen as a bad thing. While these counts can present a rough idea of a project’s history with security, they provide no insight into how the development team improves and learns as a result of a vulnerability. A …

Toward Reliable Computational Social Science: Inconsistency-Aware Methods For Human Annotation And Ai Inference, Sujan Dutta

Theses

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly common in computational social science, \textit{inconsistency} has emerged as a key challenge. AI models often contradict themselves when given equivalent inputs, disagree with other models on the same data, and diverge from human judgments in seemingly opaque ways. Human annotators exhibit their own inconsistencies, both within individuals and across groups shaped by differing values and identities. Rather than treating these inconsistencies simply as noise, this dissertation argues that they contain meaningful signals that can be leveraged to improve learning efficiency, strengthen evaluation, and increase the reliability of large-scale social measurement. To study this phenomenon, …

Advanced Artificial Intelligence Vs Simpler Models For 1-Year Death Prediction Among Patients Receiving Hemodialysis, Karthikeyan K, Jennifer E Flythe, Patrick H Pun, Wolfgang C Winkelmayer, David Carlson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: We evaluated the data requirement for modern AI tools to outperform simpler models in predicting short-term mortality in over 500 000 patients with hemodialysis-dependent kidney failure.

Materials and methods: We compared logistic regression, boosting, and transformers using increasingly complex feature sets (from last-visit data to full trajectories). Performance was measured using the area under the ROC curve (AUC-ROC) and the Precision-Recall curve (AUC-PR) across training data sizes ranging from 500 to 490 197 samples.

Results: Using features with temporal information is beneficial across all models. On the full dataset, Transformers (AUC-ROC = 0.8568) and boosting (AUC-ROC = 0.8598) perform …

Verdict Format On Trial: Experimental Tests Of The Criminal Law’S Orthodoxy, Avani Mehta Sood

Vanderbilt Law Review

For centuries, American criminal courts have overwhelmingly favored “general” verdicts over “special” verdicts, without giving the latter a fair trial. A general verdict requires criminal jurors to deliver only an ultimate judgment of “guilty” or “not guilty” on a charged offense. In contrast, a special verdict would require jurors to answer a sequence of questions about whether each legal element of the charged offense has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt before they deliver a final judgment. The criminal law’s conventional wisdom holds that special verdicts will disadvantage defendants by constraining jurors’ latitude to temper or nullify the law, thereby …

Rosetta-Xai: An Automated Evaluation And Explainability Framework For Code Translation Models, Vishnu S. Pendyala, Neha Bais Thakur

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper presents Rosetta-XAI, a comprehensive software framework for evaluating and explaining Large Language Model (LLM) behavior in cross-language code conversion tasks. The system implements a four-stage automated pipeline: (1) code generation by LLMs accessed through the Ollama API inference service, (2) regex-based extraction of code blocks from markdown responses, (3) language-specific syntax and compilation validation with temporary artifact management, and (4) execution with timeout protections and CSV-based checkpoint recovery. The framework supports evaluation of 15 specialized code LLMs (1.3B–34B parameters), including DeepSeek Coder, Code Llama, CodeGemma, and Granite Code across 17 Rosetta Code programming tasks, generating 42 bidirectional conversion …

Novel Variants Identified In Families With Snx27 -Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder, Aiding In Characterizing Its Genotypic And Phenotypic Spectrum, Tayyaba Shan, Abrar Hussain, Anushree Acharya, Mulazim Hussain, Yumei Li, Hafiz Muhammad Jafar Hussain, Kiran Afshan, Suzanne M Leal, Rui Chen, Asif Mir, Isabelle Schrauwen, Sabika Firasat

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background:

Sorting Nexin 27 (SNX27), a key regulator of synaptic receptor trafficking and endosomal recycling, has been implicated in maintaining synaptic homeostasis and cognitive function. To date, variants in SNX27 have been reported in a small number of patients across three publications with severe neurodevelopmental phenotypes. However, the genetic and functional landscape of SNX27-related disorders remains poorly understood, and further evidence is needed to confirm its association with disease and to better delineate the associated phenotype.

Methods and Results:

Two unrelated Pakistani families with a total of five affected individuals segregating a neurodevelopmental disorder were investigated via exome …

Teacher Readiness And Attitudes Toward Digital Technology In Mathematics Classrooms, Nor Anis Amierah Mhd Pizor, Zarith Sofiah Othman

Malaysian Journal of Computing (MJoC)

This study explores how digital technology is integrated into mathematics education, focusing on the views of secondary school mathematics teachers and using a quantitative research method through a survey. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed to examine the factors influencing technology adoption, identify its barriers, and suggest strategies for enhancement. The novelty of this study lies in its development of an integrated perspective that simultaneously examines teachers’ readiness, experiential background, and attitudes alongside systemic constraints such as training, resource availability, and institutional support within the context of mathematics education. However, challenges such as inadequate training, limited resources, and lack …

A Conceptual Framework For Robust Few-Shot Learning: Integrating Unbalanced Optimal Transport And Self-Supervised Transformer Representations, Hayati Abd Rahman, Pang Yun

Malaysian Journal of Computing (MJoC)

Few-shot learning (FSL) aims to enable deep models to generalise from extremely limited labelled data, yet unstable metric matching, distribution imbalances, and weak structural representations in low-data regimes often constrain its performance. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that unifies metric-based similarity learning, Unbalanced Optimal Transport (UOT) via Unbalanced Sinkhorn Distance (USD), and self-supervised Transformer representations to conceptually address the theoretical and structural limitations of existing FSL approaches. The framework theoretically unifies distribution-aware USD matching, SSL-enhanced ViT/Swin feature representations, and metric-based inference within a coherent pipeline. This work aims to provide a theoretical foundation and research roadmap for future empirical …

The Effectiveness Of A Story-Based Counseling Program In Enhancing Spiritual Intelligence Skills Among First-Grade Students In The Sultanate Of Oman, Maryam Said Sulaiman Ai Siyabi, Amina Benkouider Samad, Sherif Al-Saudi

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a story-based counseling program in developing spiritual intelligence skills among first-grade students in the Sultanate of Oman. The researchers adopted a quasi-experimental approach and applied tools including a spiritual intelligence scale and a specially designed counseling program to achieve the study’s objectives. The study sample consisted of 48 male and female students from Ibra Basic Education School, randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (22 students) who received the counseling program consisting of 12 sessions over six weeks, and a control group (26 students) who did not receive any intervention. The …

Digital Citizenship Among Middle School Students In Oman: A Study Considering Various Variables, Suad Saleh Al Wahaibi, Khalfan Zahran Al-Hijji, Raja Maznah Raja Husain

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

This study examined the level of digital citizenship (DC) among grade 10 students in Oman with respect to gender, internet usage duration, and exposure to online threats. A total of 1,022 students participated during the 2022/2023 academic year. The study employed a questionnaire constructed on Ribble’s (2015) Respect, Educate, and Protect (REP) model and applied a random cluster sampling technique. Results revealed that students’ DC level was moderate overall. No statistically significant difference was found between male and female students, while there were significant differences in DC scores in terms of facing online threats and in terms of internet usage …

Automating Evaluation Of Llm-Generated Responses To Patient Questions About Rare Diseases, Min Zhao, Inez Y Oh, Aditi Gupta, Sally Cohen-Cutler, Kathryn M Harmoney, Albert M Lai, Bryan A Sisk

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVES: Patients with rare diseases often struggle to find accurate medical information, and large language model (LLM)-based chatbots may help meet this need. However, evaluating LLM-generated free-text answers typically requires physician review, which is time-consuming and difficult to scale. This study compared traditional natural language processing (NLP) metrics to emerging LLM-based evaluation approaches for assessing answer quality in the context of Complex Lymphatic Anomalies (CLAs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compiled 25 common patients' questions about CLAs and generated 175 responses to these questions from seven LLMs. Three expert physicians scored these responses for accuracy. We compared these physician-assigned scores with …

Artificial Intelligence And Chatgpt In Libraries: A Bibliometric Analysis Of Social Science Research (2022–2026), Shrikant W. Ramteke, Yogesh B. Daphal

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose

This paper will map the world of research on artificial intelligence and chatbots in libraries systematically by analysing the trends in publications, intellectual organization, pattern of collaboration, and the way the Social Science literature has evolved with the theme of artificial intelligence and chatbots published between 2022 and 2026.

Design/methodology/approach

We have conducted a thorough bibliometric search where we have considered 7,660 peer-reviewed journal articles found in Scopus database. The collection was compiled according to the PRISMA requirements, and later, both performance-based metrics and science mapping techniques were applied.The whole process of visualisation and analysis was carried out through …

Academic Libraries As A Platform For Indigenous And Agricultural Knowledge Sharing In Rural Communities: A Conceptual And Review-Based Approach, Jenifer Yesmin Laskar, Pradip Kumar Singha

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Agriculture and traditional knowledge are the roots of rural economy, particularly in biologically sensitive areas with diverse cultures. Preserving traditional knowledge in terms of local farming practices is an activity that is generally associated with cultural practices in these areas. The potentiality of academic libraries in terms of bridging roles for dissemination, curation, and sharing of Indigenous knowledge as well as Agriculture knowledge in the respective areas remains largely overlooked. It is an attempt to explore, indicate, and address through the theoretical approaches based upon an understanding of library science concepts, Indigenous studies, community development, sustainability studies, the roles of …

Price Endings Of Online And Offline Retailers: Round And Just-Below Pricing, Kwanho Suk, Gaeun Kim, Dongwon Lee, Xuanting Jin

Asia Marketing Journal

This study investigates and compares price-ending strategies employed by online and offline retailers. Analyzing 210,456 prices from retailers in US, South Korea, and China reveals significant differences in price-ending between online and offline retail formats. Online retailers exhibit a lower propensity to utilize round prices (e.g., ending in 0) and just-below prices (e.g., ending in 9) than offline retailers. This research discusses potential explanations for these observed discrepancies, focusing on the distinct price-setting environments and consumer purchasing behaviors of online and offline retail.

Internal Public Relations Influence On Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Integrating Social Identity Perspectives In Organizational Contexts, Daewook Kim

Asia Marketing Journal

This study examined how internal public relations encourages employees to participate in organizational citizenship behaviors. Using a national survey of employees (N = 339), we tested a conceptual model that proposed linkages among dialogic internal communication, organizational social capital, communal relationships, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The results suggest dialogic internal communication can enhance organizational social capital and encourage internal publics to participate in organizational citizenship behaviors. Additionally, organizational social capital mediated the effects of dialogic internal communication on communal relationships and organizational citizenship behaviors. The findings highlight a critical connection between public relations and social identity perspectives within organizational …

Does Ai-Driven Empathy Work In Healthcare Marketing? The Impact Of Cognitive And Affective Empathy In Chatbots And The Moderating Role Of Illness Type, Jee Won Kim, Yeonsoo Kim, Jino Chung

Asia Marketing Journal

Recognizing the growing potential of AI-generated chatbots in healthcare and healthcare marketing, this study investigates how different types of chatbot-expressed empathy influence user responses in stigmatized versus non-stigmatized health contexts. Perceived authenticity is introduced as a key mediator. Drawing on Mind Perception Theory, a 3 (empathy: none, cognitive, affective) × 2 (illness type: stigmatized, non-stigmatized) online experiment was conducted. The findings show that affective empathy reduced perceived authenticity, which subsequently decreased user satisfaction, perceived understanding, reuse intention, and follow intention. These indirect effects varied by illness type: in stigmatized contexts, non-empathetic communication was viewed most favorably, whereas in non-stigmatized contexts, …

Reimagining Instructional Planning: Balancing Real-Life Experiences With Ai Instantaneity, Shaanii-Grace Robinson-Ritzdorf

Essays in Education

Instructional planning challenges teachers to balance creativity, time, and application of real-life experiences. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers rapid lesson ideas, personalized resources, and adaptive tools, yet uncritical use risks generic, disengaging instruction. This essay was based on the background study that examined elementary teachers’ integration of real-life experiences in science and math lessons in northwestern New Mexico through lesson plans, professional development materials, and interviews. Results revealed teacher-centered, procedural approaches with limited connection to students’ lived experiences, while personally designed lessons allowed greater flexibility for meaningful examples. Thoughtfully guided AI can bridge this gap, supporting scenario-based learning, differentiation, and student …

Temporalities Of Translation In Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Rumi Coller-Takahashi

Living in Languages

Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1974 novel, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia features two fictional worlds, Urras and Anarres, with distinct political structures and languages. Anarres is created by the revolutionaries who departed capitalistic Urras to create a new anarchist community, and its language was invented so as to have no word for “property” or “class.” However, the artificial distinction in the languages do not hold up the binary of possession and non-possession in these worlds, as the word “possession” permeates interpersonal relationships even on Anarres. To replace the binary approach of the revolution, the novel proposes an alternative mode of …

Translation As Divination: Translating Naomi Sím’S Emerald Orchid Love Letter, Will Buckingham

Living in Languages

Naomi Sím’s Taiwanese (Tâi-gí) language short story, "Emerald Orchid Love Letter" (Chhùi-Lân ê Chêng-Phoe 翠蘭ê情批) engages deeply with the questions of politics, language and religion in contemporary Taiwan. The plot of the story pivots around the central question of what language the gods speak. In the story, the narrator—caught between Taiwanese, Mandarin and English languages—finds a strange growth on her inside lip. The cure turns out to involve the sea goddess Má-chó͘, and a renewed commitment on the part of the narrator to the Taiwanese language. In this paper, I read the process of translating Sím’s story from Taiwanese to …

Feather And Freedom: A Fabled Land In The Mind, Yuan Tao

Living in Languages

Set in the deceptively tranquil Honest Town, “The Feather of Sister Zandan” is narrated from the perspective of Zaan, a younger brother, revealing his complicated feelings toward his sister. Written in a fable-like style infused with magical realism, the story explores the tension between restraint and longing, culminating in an abrupt and poignant ending that evokes the emotional sting of an O. Henry-style twist. The short story won the Gemini Prize for Short Fiction of China in 2021. According to the award citation, Lan Du’s writing demonstrates emotional depth, dazzling imagination, and striking narrative tension. Her storytelling defies conventional …

Introduction, Rumi Coller-Takahashi

Living in Languages

No abstract provided.

College Football Free Agency: The Transactional Nature Of Big-Time College Football Recruiting, Chris Corr, Branden Johnson, Amanda L. Paule-Koba

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

This study explored how the transfer portal has transformed college football recruiting by disrupting traditional relationship-based practices and accelerating the shift toward a transactional performance-driven model. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, and capital, the research examines how recruiting coordinators navigate evolving pressures around talent acquisition, NIL compensation, and compressed recruiting timelines. Findings from comprehensive interviews with five Power-4 recruiting personnel reveal that relationships are increasingly leveraged for short-term gain. The findings of this study indicate the transfer portal has created an opaque high-stakes marketplace where trust is limited, valuation is speculative, and institutional pedigree/resources heavily influence opportunities. The …

We Hold These Truths: A Declaration-Based Approach To Overhauling International Political Institutions And Establishing Fundamental Rights For The Eradication And Prevention Of Sexual Minority Genocide In African Nations, Juan-Pablo Gonzalez

Helms School of Government Spring Public Policy Conference

No abstract provided.

Connectivity And Tourism Flow In Small Island Developing States, Edmir Luciano Dos Santos Ferreira, João Paulo Madeira

International Journal of Islands Research

Tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) faces unique sustainability challenges, with connectivity emerging as a critical factor. These nations, often situated in remote locations, encounter significant accessibility constraints and limited infrastructure, which restrict tourist flows and adversely affect economic development. The primary aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between connectivity and tourism flows in SIDS, exploring how connectivity, proxied by geographical and cultural-political distance, influences tourism in these regions. Furthermore, the study seeks to determine whether belonging to different SIDS regions or exhibiting varying levels of development helps destinations attract greater tourist flows, by examining several …

Lowering Of The Lowered: The ‘Spectacular’ Construction Of ‘Humiliation’ In The Indian Prevention Of Atrocities Act 1989, Ashna Singh

National Law School of India Review

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is the only law in India that explicitly recognises caste-based insults or hate speech as an offence. In doing so, it captures the distinctive harm of such speech as humiliation. This article focuses on Section 3(1)(r) of the Act and argues that this recognition is significantly qualified by the “public view” requirement. Drawing on socio-political scholarship on humiliation, I show that judicial interpretation of this requirement has produced an extra-legislative condition of spectacularity. Courts tend to read caste-based humiliation through the paradigm of visible, overt, and collective atrocity, …

The Role Of Emotional Dysregulation In Anorexia, Grace Larson

Psychology Student Publications

An examination of the role of emotional dysregulation in the development and maintenance of Anorexia Nervosa. Discusses the overlapping factors including emotional awareness and regulation, social threat attention biases, perfectionistic personality traits, and childhood trauma.

Purdue Early Childhood Competency Tool (Pecct): A Competency-Based Evaluation Tool For Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Education, Anne Gritt, Christi Masters

Purdue University Preschool Language Program

The Purdue Early Childhood Competency Tool (PECCT) was developed by speech-language pathology clinical faculty to support competency-based clinical education (supervision) and evaluation of graduate students during clinical practicum experiences with infants and young children from birth to age six. Grounded in the standards established by the Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CFCC), the PECCT aligns core professional competencies with skills specific to early childhood clinical practice. The tool is intended for clinical educators to evaluate student clinicians. Graduate students can also use the PECCT as a guide for self-reflection as they develop their clinical skills.

Annual Faculty Research Symposium 2026, Oakwood University

Proceedings

No abstract provided.