Digital Commons Network^™

Applications Of Quantum Computing In Clinical Care, Stevan C Fairburn, Lara Jehi, Brenton T Bicknell, Beckley G Wilkes, Bharat Panuganti

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: This review examines quantum computing (QC) applications in clinical care, emphasizing advancements directly impacting patient outcomes. QC holds transformative potential in medicine, particularly through enhancing diagnostic accuracy, optimizing treatment plans, and enabling real-time decision-making.

METHODS: A systematic analysis of 35 studies published between 2015 and 2024 was conducted. The studies were evaluated for their contributions to diagnostic, therapeutic, and decision-support improvements in clinical care enabled by quantum computing technologies.

RESULTS: The analysis revealed QC's promise in improving diagnostic accuracy in medical imaging, optimizing treatments in oncology, and enhancing real-time clinical decision-making. QC-driven algorithms demonstrated potential to enhance diagnostic accuracy …

Adapting Data Science Competencies By Role And Purpose: Voice Ai, David A Dorr, Andrea Krussel, Rachel Hauck, Christie Jackson, Abhijeet Dalal, Steven Bedrick, Philip R O Payne, Bridge2ai-Voice Consortium;, William Hersh

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Competencies help define the skills and knowledge needed by learners. Often broad, educators integrate competencies to provide a framework for curricula or professional standards. For data science, the rate of change in the field, role variations, and specificity in key applications can be challenging. Our objective was to adapt general data science competencies for different learner roles in an emerging area: the clinical utility of Voice, Language, and Speech-based Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML). Using a persona-inductive approach, we adapted competencies to support learners from varying professional and educational backgrounds and implemented these adaptations in a multi-institutional summer school. Results from …

Working With Physical And Virtual Manipulatives: A Systematic Review Of Affordance And Cognitive Engagement Manifested Through Implementation, Seokmin Kang, Chun-Hao Chang, Sungyeun Kim

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

Virtual tools are rapidly supplementing physical tools in classrooms. Although extensive research has compared the benefits of using virtual and physical manipulatives, few studies have systematically explored the learning benefits of using a physical and a virtual tool. As the major learning goal in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is to help students better understand scientific and mathematical concepts and processes, this study reviewed empirical studies comparing learning performance between working with physical and virtual manipulatives published between 2000 and 2022 in Education and Psychology journals. The results revealed inconsistent patterns in learning comparison across studies even with …

Teacher Stress, Well-Being, And Adaptation To Innovation, Amanda Leanore Pelloth

Theses and Dissertations

Teachers face many sources of stress; however, a consistent source is prompted by the need to cope with change as districts adapt to shifting paradigms. This study intended to fill Rogers’ (2003) KAP gap and the failure of innovations by infusing the study of well-being and emotion into the narrative by incorporating the transactional relationship between technostress and implementation efforts into the technochange process. The study investigated teachers’ cognitive appraisals of technochange (primary appraisal) and their adaptational coping processes (secondary appraisal) to understand how implementation impacts teachers’ well-being and their adaptive processes. A parallel convergent mixed methods approach with an …

Exploring The Perceptions And Experiences Of School Building Leaders At Public Charter Schools And The Impact They Have On The Provision Of Physical Education In Charter School Settings, Nathaniel Bouie Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenology study aimed to explore the perceptions of school principals regarding physical education (PE) and its impact on school programming. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten school principals in an urban charter school district in the United States. The interviews were transcribed, and data were analyzed using the phenomenological approach under the lens of teacher socialization.

The findings of the study revealed that physical education was perceived as an inferior subject compared to core subjects such as mathematics, science, and language arts. School leaders viewed PE as less important than other subjects and often reduced its instructional time …

R&D Efficiency Of Drug Development At Universities, John Aylworth

Theses and Dissertations

Research and development (R&D) efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry is a measure of the relative value of new and novel products cast against the costs required to make them. For six decades, the R&D efficiency of large pharmaceutical companies has declined to critical levels. Most recently, nearly half of the companies studied were experiencing negative R&D efficiency, or products whose costs to bring to market outweigh the value they offer both commercially as well as to the health and well-being of society (Schuhmacher et al., 2023). One of the most prominent consequences of the inefficiencies plaguing the drug development industry …

Analyzing Students’ Long-Term Motivational And Emotional Effects On Achievement Performance Within And Across Diverse Socioeconomic Backgrounds, Hyejin Kim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how students’ motivational and emotional factors influence their future educational and professional achievements within and across diverse socioeconomic status (SES) groups. This study leverages a quantitative longitudinal study methodology employing a publicly available sample of 16,197 U.S. students from 10th grade through age 26. The theoretical model of this study is grounded in the situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT; Eccles & Wigfield, 2024) and generalized control-value theory (CVT; Pekrun, 2024), encompassing five latent constructs: expectancies for academic success, subjective task values, assurance about academic success, assurance about career success, and SES-related achievement performance. To investigate the relationships between …

Exploring Adaptive University President Narratives To Generate Growth And Sustainability, Ryan Charles Weber

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods study explores how university presidents leverage adaptive leadership principles and learning organization frameworks to generate institutional growth and sustainability in higher education. Through analysis of presidential narratives, the research examines the intersection of Heifetz et al.’s (2009) adaptive leadership theory and Senge’s (2006) five disciplines of learning organizations, revealing patterns in leadership communication that drive change. The study analyzed narratives from eight university presidents who demonstrated success through their institutions’ minimum 30% endowment growth over five years. Using thematic analysis and frequency counts, the research identified 198 references to learning organization disciplines, 90 adaptive leadership phases, and 100 …

Navigating Leadership As A Black Woman In The United States Space Industry: An Exploration, Rogena Thurber

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored the ontological perspectives and leadership experiences of Black women in the U.S. space industry, employing an intersectionality conceptual framework. The research aimed to understand how Black women navigated their paths to leadership at the intersection of gender and race within Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in the U.S. Space Industry (USSI).

Following a pilot phase to refine the research approach, eight one-hour, one-on-one interviews were conducted with Black women leaders from seven major USSI organizations in Southern California (LibGuides, n.d.). The study probed participants' leadership approaches, educational backgrounds, access to opportunities, and professional development experiences.

Emotional Intelligence …

Best Practices For Supporting Homeless Youth Achieve Academic Success, Abeni Elizabeth Carr

Theses and Dissertations

California has amassed a vast and growing population of homeless people. There exists a need to discuss the more significant generational impact that homelessness presents for students in secondary schools and to develop strategic planning to dismantle cyclical homelessness. Currently, there is an alarming trend in the number of youths who are experiencing homelessness. While much research in the past observed families experiencing housing instability, there are also burgeoning patterns of youth who are enrolled in high school, yet are becoming homeless due to running away from home. Both nationally and in California, youth are running away from their families …

Critical Success Factors For U.S. Fintech Startups In The Post-Covid-19 Era: Applying The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Framework, Wen Hua

Theses and Dissertations

The extradentary surge of financial technology (fintech) enterprises has fundamentally transformed contemporary financial markets, yet extant scholarly literature exhibits a notable absence of a unified and theoretically grounded framework for explicating fintech startups’ success (Hamza et al., 2025). This dissertation addresses this theoretical lacuna by synthesizing an integrative entrepreneurial ecosystem framework to illustrate the critical success factors (CSFs) that catalyze fintech venture performance (Conley, 2014). Drawing upon established theoretical foundations, this research employs a multi-method research design, and develops a comprehensive framework for fintech startup companies’ success. The methodological approach commenced with a systematic meta-analysis of theoretical paradigms, establishing a …

Purpose-Driven Curriculum For 9th-12th Grades For Adulthood Careers & Life Gratification, Destiny Krystle Chioma Nnadozie

Theses and Dissertations

A purpose-driven or purpose-based curriculum is not the standard required for high schools in the United States. Students in grades 9th-12th are educated based on a curriculum that covers mathematics, English, science, and social studies (De Roux & Riehl, 2022; Xiao et al., 2018). The unique individual purpose of each student, realized while in high school, is not considered a priority, leaving students to enter their adult careers lacking true career fulfillment due to this misalignment (Baroudi et al., 2017; S. Lyons et al., 2015; H. Wu, 2024).  Using a qualitative systematic review research design, this study aimed to explore …

The Influence Of Fictional Storytelling On The Student Experience In A Gamified Classroom, Arrash Jaffarzadeh

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory case study evaluated how the use of gamification and game-based learning (GBL) with the added element of storytelling affected engagement and attitudes of children ages 9 to 13 as they participated in quests to complete their learning objectives.  Archived artifacts of a computer technology class in a northern California private school using the Applied Computer Technology Education (ACTE) framework taught to grade 4-8 provided the data for the study.  Each quest was comprised of a fictional story that tied to the lesson. These stories involved the three archetypes of the warrior (herald), healer (ally), and mage (trickster) on …

Understanding The Mentorship Experiences Of Underrepresented Minority Stem Leaders, Elias Saade

Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing need to diversify the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce to better address complex societal challenges and drive innovation. However, persistent disparities limit the retention and advancement of underrepresented minorities (URMs) as leaders in STEM. Mentorship has emerged as a promising practice to address these challenges, yet a gap in the literature remains regarding the impact mentorship had on URM STEM leaders’ personal and professional development. This study responds to that gap by exploring the lived experiences of URM STEM leaders and their perceptions of how mentorship shaped their career development, psychosocial growth, and identity …

Adhd Black Girl Magic: A Narrative Inquiry Of The Lives Of Black Women With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder In Doctoral Programs, Talisha Tolliver-Haithcox

Theses and Dissertations

Black women with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in doctoral programs have not been a topic of interest. Instead, the emphasis of ADHD research has been on children and adolescents, with studies involving higher education focused on undergraduate students, which has left a significant gap in the literature. This study uses narrative inquiry to explore the lived experiences of Black women with ADHD navigating doctoral programs to fill that gap in research and improve the lives of these Black women. Utilizing disability theory, a blend of disability theory and critical race theory called DisCrit, and Black feminist theory, this research examines how …

Student Success, Suicide Rates: A Correlational Study Of Pressures On, And Expectations For High School Students In The United States, Matthew Baham

Theses and Dissertations

Suicide among high school students has become a growing health crisis, with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation increasing at an alarming rate. The purpose of this quantitative research is to explore the correlation between high school graduation requirements, pressures associated with college applications, and rising suicide rates among high school aged students in grades 9 through 12. With the increase in academic demands, standardized tests, extracurricular activities and a competitive college admissions process, has created an enormously high-pressure environment in high school education. These stressors are shown to have an intense impact on high school …

Ai: A Path Forward In Education - Teachers’ Insights On Implementation, Challenges, And Future Innovations, Mercedes Cordoba Meeks

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a global phenomenon permeating the fabric of society and transforming the course of culture and commerce (Kishor et al., 2023; Moore, 2024). A review of the extant literature indicates that while many industries have seen significant innovations due to the infusion of AI, the field of education has witnessed a technological evolution inspired by AI-based tools and strategies (Bessen, 2018; W. M. Lim et al., 2023). Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) has a history that parallels the development of AI. AIED has shown steady growth and influence in educational programs around the world, with the growth …

Generative Ai's Impact On Student's Motivation And Well-Being In Online Graduate Programs: A Phenomenological Study Through Self-Determination Theory, Sohee Linda Lee

Theses and Dissertations

While higher education has increasingly embraced emerging technologies, limited research explores how adult learners at the graduate level navigate AI-driven feedback, content generation, and learning supports, particularly within online programs that require self-regulation and advanced academic rigor. To address this gap, this qualitative, phenomenological study examined how graduate students enrolled in online degree programs experience and interpret the use of generative AI (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, in their coursework. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study focused on how the use of GenAI tools may influence students’ perceptions on autonomy (volition and choice in tasks), competence (confidence in academic …

Exploring Perceptions Of College Completion Obstacles Among First-Year Students With Disabilities, James Roshone Evans

Theses and Dissertations

Students with special needs encounter significant challenges that affect their development, social mobility, and ability to achieve personal and professional goals. Despite efforts to improve post-secondary education outcomes, enrollment rates among students with learning disabilities remain below average. This study examined the experiences of first-year college students with mild to moderate cognitive impairments to gain a deeper understanding of the barriers to degree completion. It examines mandatory education, California's special education laws, social support systems, and the theoretical frameworks of Tinto's theory on retention, Wahlberg's theory of academic achievement, and Astin’s scholarly roles theory. Interviews with 25 students with disabilities …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of School Spending And Academic Proficiency In A U.S. Charter High School, Jacques-Michel Endené

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the much-debated issues of school spending effectiveness, or lack thereof, set in a representational charter high school on the West Coast of the United States. The study employs a phenomenological approach, with a qualitative data analysis to examine the processes and outcomes of school spending policies and programs.

The research initially embarks on an exploration of the historical context surrounding the controversies born from a congressional policy initiative that ignited the firestorm, to understand the unfolding of this national debate. Examining diverse school leaders’ first-hand observers’ take, race-sensitive Academic Gap inklings, socioeconomic-based disparities, and comprehensive review processes, …

Socially Responsible Ai In The Gpt Era, Yussuf A. Aleem

SMU Law Review

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) showcase its rapid evolution and promise, with the potential to profoundly transform decision-making, self-expression, and even the practice of law. However, AI also presents formidable challenges, including the further entrenchment of societal inequalities, widespread labor disruption, and existential threats to humanity. Modern AI systems show early signs of general intelligence, enabling them to perform a wide range of tasks beyond those of chatbots in both virtual and physical environments. Despite industry assurances of responsible AI development, these technologies are easily exploited and often exhibit troubling behaviors that even their creators struggle to understand.

This …

Ready Or Not: How Congressional Dysfunction And Loper Bright Enterprises V. Raimondo Will Shift U.S. Regulation Of Emerging Technologies To The Federal Bench, Michelle Benedetto Neitz

SMU Law Review

This Article is the first in legal academic literature to consider how the power shift generated by Congressional dysfunction and the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo will affect emerging technology law. Power is moving toward the judicial branch of government— and away from the legislative and executive branches. As a result, federal courts will now take a leading role in the evolution of emerging technology law in the United States.

Unfortunately, the federal judiciary is not prepared for this new era. Drawing from the information processing theory, this Article explains why federal judges will be deciding …

A Predator-Prey Population Model Of Multiple Species With Separated Competition Terms, Functional Differential Equations, Joon Hyuk Kang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Kelley’S Paradox And Strength Skewness In Research On Unconscious Mental Processes, Daryl Lee, Christopher Berry, David R. Shanks

School of Psychology

A widely adopted approach in research on unconscious perception and cognition involves contrasting behavioral or neural responses to stimuli that have been presented to participants (e.g., old items in a memory test) against those that have not (e.g., new items), and which participants do not discriminate in their conscious reports. We demonstrate that such contrasts do not license inferences about unconscious processing, for two reasons. One is Kelley’s Paradox, a statistical phenomenon caused by regression to the mean. In the inevitable presence of measurement error, true awareness of the contrasted stimuli is not equal. The second is a consequence, within …

Developing An Artificial Intelligence Framework For Identifying Fusion Blood-Based Biomarkers In Alzheimer's Disease, Ali H. Al-Nuaimi, Mohammed Kamal Nsaif, Shaymaa Al-Juboori

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is an irreversible neurological disorder, a major cause of disability among the elderly, with no effective therapeutic options currently available. It is an asymp-tomatic disease in the prodromal stages and begins many years before clinical appearances. Early diagnosis of AD allows patients to obtain appropriate healthcare assistance, accelerating the development of new medications. A biomarker that evaluates the alterations in the brain cells produced by AD in its preliminary periods might be significant for its early identification. Blood-based biomarkers (BBBMs) facilitate the early detection of AD. The BBBMs detection procedure is cost-efficient and minimally invasive. The aim …

Artificial Intelligence Powered System For Epilepsy Detection Using Eeg Biomarkers, Ali H. Al-Nuaimi, Shaymaa Al-Juboori

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

One of the most prevalent neurological disorders is epilepsy. Epileptic seizures can occurrepeatedly in people with the condition for no recognisable reason. The diagnostic methodsdependent on EEG are promising. EEG has uncovered the dynamic functioning of all brain areasthroughout time. Its low cost, non-invasiveness, and simply make it crucial for clinicalevaluations of brain function. Integrating multiple EEG biomarkers as a compound biomarkercould provide a high performance that may accelerate the diagnosis speeds. Artificial intelligencetechniques such as machine learning and deep learning provide a significant result in healthcareapplications. Logistic Regression (LR), Naive Bayes (NB), and Neural Network (NN) wereevaluated using a …

Speech-Aided Facial Video Super Resolution With Accurate Lip Motion And Enhanced Frequency Details, Shailza Sharma, Vivek Singh, Abhinav Dhall, Vinay Kumar

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Despite recent breakthroughs in face hallucination, video face hallucination remains a challenging task due to the issue of consistency across video frames. The temporal dimension in videos makes it difficult to learn facial motion and maintain color uniformity throughout the sequence. To address these challenges, we propose a novel audio-visual cross-modality support based video face hallucination network. The framework excels in learning fine spatiotemporal motion patterns by leveraging the correlation between movement of the facial structure and associated speech signal. Another significant challenge generic to face hallucination is blurriness around the key facial regions, such as mouth and lips. These …

A Generalized Coherence Framework For Quantifying Input Contributions In Multi-Input Systems With Correlated Or Uncorrelated Inputs, Nolan H. Howes, Matthew S. Allen, Dario Farina, Steven Knight Charles

Faculty Publications

In multi-input systems, it is often necessary to quantify the contribution of each input to an output. Such contribution analysis is frequently performed using coherence. However, when correlation is present between inputs, existing coherence measures do not accurately quantify the contribution of individual inputs, except in special cases. Here we propose an expanded coherence framework that enables contribution analysis in any multi-input system, regardless of input correlation. We bridged the gap by defining three new coherence measures: component, excluded, and isolated coherence. Component coherence is an intermediate measure that decomposes measured output power into components attributable to inputs directly vs …

Encouraging Self-Regulation In An Online University Course For Preservice Teachers: An Intervention Study, Karen T. Arnesen, Charles R. Graham, Heather Leary, Alison I. Mcmurry

Faculty Publications

Although self-regulation (SR) has long been seen as an important educational concept, we know little about how to foster it in higher education online student populations. This research addresses this need by introducing an SR intervention into a preservice teacher course. The 30 students who participated used an intervention consisting of weekly student goal setting and self-reflection. Using data collected from a self-regulation survey, weekly reflections, final exam reflections, and interviews, all but one student indicated that the process of setting a goal weekly and especially reflecting on their actions during the week increased their self-regulation abilities. More than half …

The Development Of A Rag-Based Artificial Intelligence Research Assistant (Aira), Hamid Vakilzadeh, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.