Digital Commons Network^™

A Decade Of Earth-Centered Scholarship And Activism, Elizabeth Allison

CIIS Faculty Publications

Origin stories reveal the myriad causes that converge to birth a new initiative. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, this essay looks back to document the context and intellectual lineage out of which the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) emerged in 2013, and suggests some possibilities for the future of transdisciplinary education and the fields of religion and ecology (e.g. Tucker and Grim 2001), religion and nature (e.g. B. Taylor 2010), and spiritual ecology (e.g. Sponsel 2012) more broadly.

Designing Self-Management For And With Persons Living With Dementia Osullivan, Dympna, Dympna O'Sullivan, Michael Wilson, Damon Berry, Orla Moran, Siobhan O,Neill, Ciaran Nugent, Jonathan Turner, Julie Doyle

Articles

Promoting high quality of life for persons living with dementia has emerged as a central goal in global public health agendas. The emphasis has shifted from extending life to actively enhancing overall well-being by postponing or preventing additional disability. This represents a departure from traditional medical perspectives on dementia to a more socially-oriented approach, placing a strong focus on wellbeing.

In parallel, the concept of self-management for people with living dementia has emerged, where this is a person-centred approach in which the individual is empowered and has ownership over the management of their life and condition. Practice recommendations for person-centered …

Doing Personal Laps: Llm-Augmented Dialogue Construction For Personalized Multi-Session Conversational Search, Hideaki Joko, Shubham Chatterjee, Andrew Ramsay, Arjen P. De Vries, Jeff Dalton, Faegheh Hasibi

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The future of conversational agents will provide users with personalized information responses. However, a significant challenge in developing models is the lack of large-scale dialogue datasets that span multiple sessions and reflect real-world user preferences. Previous approaches rely on experts in a wizard-of-oz setup that is difficult to scale, particularly for personalized tasks. Our method, LAPS, addresses this by using large language models (LLMs) to guide a single human worker in generating personalized dialogues. This method has proven to speed up the creation process and improve quality. LAPS can collect large-scale, human-written, multi-session, and multi-domain conversations, including extracting user preferences. …

Parent-Child Interaction And Developing Resilience In Young Children, Seungok Yum

Theses and Dissertations

Early childhood is an especially important period to develop resilience due to social, academic, and emotional benefits for later development. Previous studies pointed out the importance of parent-child interactions, by showing that parental warmth and support can enhance resilience in children by increasing children’s self-esteem and self-regulation. In contrast, hostile parent-child interactions were revealed as risk factors to hinder developing resilience by increasing children’s internalizing symptoms and behavioral difficulties. This study included 85 young children aged 4 to 5 years and 85 parents recruited from the community. Parents completed the Parent Behavior Inventory (PBI) to provide details about two parent-child …

Exploring Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ After Student-Teaching Content Knowledge And Teaching Knowledge Of Fraction Operations, Elizabeth Salgado

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With the changes in Common Core State Standards, it was essential to explore how elementary pre-service teachers’ sense of fractions is developing and their thoughts about how to teach fractions. A gap in practice exists because it is unknown how pre-service elementary teachers, after student-teaching, perceive their level of in-practice knowledge in (a) knowledge of content and (b) knowledge of pedagogy in fraction operations. The three research questions centered on content knowledge, pedagogy knowledge, and knowledge of students, and the study was guided by the concepts of Lee Shulman’s categories of teacher knowledge. The purpose of this study was to …

Adaptive Screen Capture Video Analysis, Ugesh Egala

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis presents a system for analyzing student activities during class sessions to gain insights into the learning process. A dataset consisting of 14 screen recordings, with 2 videos labeled across two stages, was used for training, validation, and testing. The methodology employs adaptive sampling, initially at 10 frames per minute to identify active regions, followed by detailed analysis at 1 frame per second using OCR to detect typing activities through character changes. The results demonstrate over a 50% reduction in computational load while maintaining high accuracy in detecting student engagement. A total of 26 hours of screen capture videos …

Trec Ikat 2023: A Test Collection For Evaluating Conversational And Interactive Knowledge Assistants, Mohammad Aliannejadi, Zahra Abbasiantaeb, Shubham Chatterjee, Jeffrey Dalton, Leif Azzopardi

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Conversational information seeking has evolved rapidly in the last few years with the development of Large Language Models (LLMs), providing the basis for interpreting and responding in a naturalistic manner to user requests. The extended TREC Interactive Knowledge Assistance Track (iKAT) collection aims to enable researchers to test and evaluate their Conversational Search Agent (CSA). The collection contains a set of 36 personalized dialogues over 20 different topics each coupled with a Personal Text Knowledge Base (PTKB) that defines the bespoke user personas. A total of 344 turns with approximately 26,000 passages are provided as assessments on relevance, as well …

Bio-Inspired Robotic Framework For Spatiotemporal Analyses In Environmental Monitoring Applications, Maliha Kabir

Electrical Engineering Theses

Frequent fluctuations in the environment's temperature and climate significantly impact our crop fields. Floods and droughts occur in different places in different seasons, which is very unusual and affects the crops' health and productivity. During these calamities, they are also not able to monitor their crop fields. However, if it is possible by providing farmers with information about their fields' conditions like temperature, pressure, and soil moisture, we can help them assess environmental conditions for specific areas. This data can also aid farmers in determining the appropriate amounts of fertilizers and pesticides to apply to their crops and which crops …

Seed Mix Performance With Environmental Stressors And Invasion: Implications For Wetland Restoration, Maddie Houde, Karin Kettenring

Browse all Datasets

Seed-based revegetation is increasingly pursued in wetland restoration, but seed and seedling mortality is high and can be further limited by environmental stressors, like hydrology and salinity. The interactive effects of hydrology and salinity on native plants, especially in the presence of invasive plants, are less clear. In greenhouse and mesocosm experiments, we tested different hydrologic and salinity conditions on the growth of native seed mixes and Phragmites australis, a widespread wetland invader in North America. The greenhouse experiment tested two mixes (forb mix, graminoid mix), while mixes in the mesocosm experiment combined forbs and graminoids chosen for broad …

Structural Factors Of An Electron As The Spinning Tetrahedral Structure Composed Of Fractional Charges, Polievkt Perov

College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Works

Abstract

As suggested in our papers [1,2], the elementary particles of the 1^st generation such as an electron, quarks, and neutral particles, are all spinning composite structures made of basic elementary particles of fractional charges +- e/3. The tetrahedral structure of an electron was suggested as one of the possible composite structures of that particle. The structure consists of one positive and four negative charges of magnitude e/3, with one positive and one negative charge located on the axis of rotation and three negative charges revolving about the axis. In this paper, the form factors such as the angles …

Gnss And Insar Observations Of Vertical Motion In The Valles Caldera, Nm, Savannah Chase Devine

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

The Valles caldera is a rhyolitic “supervolcano” formed 1.231 Ma. An understanding of whether Valles caldera is currently deforming is needed to inform volcanic hazard estimates for northern New Mexico and will allow for a better understanding of the hazards presented by other rhyolitic caldera systems. Here, we present an InSAR time series of the Valles Caldera using 37 interferograms, spanning 2014 to 2022, which show a small but consistent signal of broad pattern subsidence/yr. We also present GNSS observations from a survey conducted in October 2022 and compare the results to surveys in 2002 and 2003 to estimate the …

Improving Reading Outcomes Through Blended Learning, Jennifer Rasberry

Education Theses and Dissertations

This paper was framed and studied using Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice. Using a framework grounded in improvement science allows the research practitioner to participate in Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles. Iterative mini-experiments known as the "Plan-Do-Study-Act" (PDSA) cycle allow educators to discuss potential changes, put them into action, evaluate the outcomes, and then make a final decision on how to proceed (e.g., whether to adopt, modify, or scrap the change entirely). Bryk et al., (2017) state that PDSA cycles during research educators learn quickly and affordably which treatments work and, afterward, how to integrate them to achieve excellent …

Migrant Advocates' Perceptions Of School-Based Collaboration, Michael Young

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Migrant farmworker students are a marginalized group with unique needs. Federal law provides funding for Migrant Farmworker Advocates who support the educational and material needs of migrant farmworker students and their families in public schools. This exploratory study examines the question, how do migrant advocates collaborate with other professionals to support their students with graduation and transitioning to post-secondary opportunities? The study analyzes this unexplored professional relationship between migrant advocates and high school personnel and how they work together to serve migrant students. Data were collected through semi-structured single subject interviews from seven current or former Title I funded Migrant …

Spatial And Temporal Nesting Pattern Of Sea Turtles In Alas Purwo National Park, And Itsimplications For Conservation Management Practices, Nia Kurniawan, Novita Kusuma Wardani, Noviyani Utami, Muhammad Asyraf Rijalullah, Miftah Farid Assiddiqy, Awang Gitayana, Hartono Hartono, Muhammad Fathoni, Andreas Bandang Hardian

Turkish Journal of Zoology

As a sea turtle conservation area, Alas Purwo National Park (APNP) shows different patterns in the four species of turtles thathave nesting records, such as an increase in Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), stability in Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas), anda decline in Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). During the survey, which lastedfrom January to July 2023, we discovered that each type of sea turtle preferred nesting sites at specific hypothetical stations, except forthe L. olivacea, which nested at all hypothetical stations along Pancur-Cungur Coast. We also discovered that it is highly encouragedto continue relocations that have …

Spatial Pattern Of Tropical Cyclone In South Indonesia During 1990-2023, Agus Salim Nur, Adi Wibowo, Supriatna Supriatna Department Of Geography, Faculty Of Mathematics And Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Stefanus Binoto Tampubolon

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Tropical cyclones are one of the most destructive weather phenomena because they pose three main dangers: heavy rainfall, strong winds, and storm surge. The occurrence of tropical cyclones is expected to increase both in terms of intensity and geographical spread due to climate change. Indonesia, located around the equator with a low Coriolis force, was previously considered safe from tropical cyclones. This study aims to examine the spatial pattern of tropical cyclones in the southern part of Indonesia during the period from 1990 to 2023 to understand the extent to which tropical cyclones can occur near the equator. The analysis …

The Iep Team: Team Members’ Perspectives Of The Decision-Making Process, Peggy A. Duffie

Special Education ETDs

The Individualized Education Program (IEP) remains a pivotal document for ensuring educational equity for students with disabilities in public education (Bateman, 2017). This qualitative interview study investigated how an IEP team supporting a student with extensive support needs navigated the decision-making process during annual IEP development. Through in-depth interviews with six out of eight team members, I explored IEP team members’ perceptions of their and others’ responsibilities and contributions to the development of an annual IEP. Qualitative coding revealed four key decision-making themes: Unspoken norms, privileging professional knowledge, avoiding conflict and responding to disagreements, and identifying your place at the …

Controlling Adversarial Pheromone-Based Infections Via Quarantine Strategies In Foraging Robot Swarms, Ryan Luna, Qi Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Virtual pheromone trails that facilitate efficient and adaptable coordination among foraging robot swarms are vulnerable to threats that exploit stigmergic communication. This study investigates the impact of a fake resource attack on the performance of a pheromone-based foraging algorithm and demonstrates the effectiveness of a “quarantine strategy” in mitigating the attack. The study simulates the fake resources and examines the swarm's behavior as robots are attracted to these fake resource locations. To prevent access to fake resources, circular quarantine regions are deployed, and a distance-based merging algorithm is implemented to reduce storage require-ments. The experiments are conducted with varying numbers …

The Growth Of Ethanol In Brazil: Sugarcane, Corn, And A Few Other Things, Fabio Mattos

Cornhusker Economics

Although we can expect more ethanol produced from corn in the coming years, it is unclear whether it will keep expanding at the same pace as in recent years or how much it will contribute to total ethanol production.

One point to keep an eye on is the typical dynamics of markets. If supply and demand conditions and price movements make corn-ethanol more profitable, ethanol plants in Brazil will keep increasing their production. If it makes more economic sense to produce corn-ethanol (as it happened recently), they will use more corn to produce ethanol.

Supply and demand conditions for ethanol, …

The Relationship Between Investment Strategy, Investment Return, And Investment Performance, Issa Lamine Fofana

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Investment managers are concerned with investment strategy decisions, as they are one of the key predictors of successful investment management. Grounded in prospect theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational research study was to examine the relationship between investment strategy, investment returns, and investment performance. The population consisted of 120 cases collected from Morningstar’s mutual fund database. The results of the multiple linear regression were significant, F(5, 119) = 36.598, p <.001, R2=.616. In the final model, two predictors were significant: total 5-year returns (ß = 0.034, p < .001) and large-cap investment strategy (ß = -0.357, p = .026) were significant predictors of investment performance. A key recommendation is for investment managers to determine the risk level they are willing to accept when building a portfolio. The implications for positive social change include boosting investment returns and performance, hence improving the investment industry's stability, which may result in the expansion of local economies.

Ar Improves Understanding Of Germination Materials For Intellectual Disability Students In Special School 5th Grade, Hendriano Meggy, Imas Diana Aprilia

Journal of ICSAR

This study aims to explore the use of AR technology to enhance the understanding of students with mild intellectual disabilities in the topic of germination processes in 5th Grade Special School Nusak Jagoi Babang. The research adopts an experimental method with a One Group Pretest-Posttest Design model. The research sample consists of 7 students from 5th Grade Special School. The study begins by conducting a pretest on the subjects before implementing the treatment, which involves the use of AR technology. After the subjects receive the treatment, a posttest is conducted to measure their learning improvement. The results of the study …

Effect Of Audio Tactile Vocabulary (Atv) Media On Reading Difficulties Of Children With Specific Learning Disorder In Inclusive Elementary School, Ni Made Marlin Minarsih, I Ketut Mahendra

Journal of ICSAR

This research aims to know the effect of Audio Tactile Vocabulary (ATV) media on vocabulary reading ability in children with reading difficulties and with specific learning disorders in inclusive elementary schools—research using a quasi-experimental with quantitative approach. The design is One Group Pretest-Posttest Design—data collection techniques based on interviews, observation, and performance assessment. Data analysis used descriptive statistics. The test results show that the scope of substitution has decreased from 21 wrong vocabulary words to 8 vocabulary words in the scope of omission, and there has been a decrease from 47 wrong vocabulary words to 15 vocabulary words. In the …

Competencies Elements For Vocational Teachers Of Learners With Special Educational Needs: A Systematic Literature Review Analysis, Mohd Farizan Bin Mohd Saad @ Zakaria, Chia Jong Huey, Nornazira Binti Suhairom, Muhammad Sukri Bin Saud, Salmalina Binti Salleh

Journal of ICSAR

A nationally aligned education is expected to help impaired pupils attain their full potential. In recent years, there has been an increase in global awareness and recognition of vocational education and training for disabled learners. This includes regulatory changes in special needs education, creating specific curriculum curricula for fast-paced businesses, incorporating technology into lessons, constructing new vocational special needs education facilities, and reorganizing existing facilities to match current demands. These vocational education programs necessitate the creation of new vocational special needs education teaching positions. Teachers contribute to the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2012-2025 goal and vision by developing talent in special …

Kinetic Sand Media To Improve Pre-Writing In Children With Spastic Type Of Cerebral Palsy, Mega Iswari, Setia Budi, Gaby Arnes, Iga Setia Utami, Retno Triswandari, Apriani Wulandari

Journal of ICSAR

This study is based on the problems found in SLB 1 Padang Panjang. There is a child with spastic type of cerebral palsy (CP) had low pre-writing ability, this was indicated by the child's difficulty in moving his muscles, so that the child experienced difficulties in the academic field in his writing ability. The purpose of this study is to improve children's pre-writing skills by using kinetic sand for spastic types of cerebral palsy. The method used is single subject research (SSR) with an ABA design. The test uses a pre-writing ability test, which is to assign children to make …

Designing Assessment Instruments For Mild Intellectual Disability Students On Gardening Product Marketing, Teti Ratnawulan, Fajar Indra Septiana, Hendri Abdul Qohar, Ranti Novianti, Ani Nurdiani

Journal of ICSAR

The study focuses on understanding the challenges, capabilities, and requirements of students with mild intellectual disabilities in marketing skills related to vegetable gardening. It aims to create a suitable learning assessment tool for these students. The researcher observed that teachers lacked a specific assessment instrument for evaluating the marketing of garden products. Consequently, a teacher improvised a self-made assessment. The research methodology employed a descriptive approach within a qualitative framework. Data collection methods included observation, interviews, documentation analysis, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and validation. Validation involved multiple stakeholders: a class teacher, a vice head of curriculum, a vocational teacher, and …

A Comparative Analysis Of Shap, Lime, Anchors, And Dice For Interpreting A Dense Neural Network In Credit Card Fraud Detection, Bujar Raufi, Ciaran Finnegan, Luca Longo

Conference papers

Financial institutions heavily rely on advanced Machine Learning algorithms to screen transactions. However, they face increasing pressure from regulators and the public to ensure AI accountability and transparency, particularly in credit card fraud detection. While ML technology has effectively detected fraudulent activity, the opacity of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) can make it challenging to explain decisions. This has prompted a recent push for more explainable fraud prevention tools. Although vendors claim to improve detection rates, integrating explanation data is still early. Data scientists recognize the potential of Explainable AI (XAI) techniques in fraud prevention, but comparative research on their effectiveness …

Development And Operationalizing Of The Learning Experience Design Process To Create Integrated Stem Interventions, Vanessa Begat

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Globally, the demand for people prepared to enter Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers is increasing. To help fill this demand, many formal and informal STEM educational interventions have been implemented in the K-12 domain. However, due to the lack of a clearly defined framework for documenting the nature and scope of the intervention (National Research Council, 2014), the interventions vary greatly in their success, sustainability, and replicability. This research is grounded in Educational Design Research and uses the principle of Learning Experience Design (LXD) to develop a framework for thoughtfully designing and documenting a STEM intervention. This framework …

Synoptic Drivers Of Extreme Precipitation In The Upper Yuba Watershed Of California, Emma Nichole Russell

Dissertations and Theses

The United States state of California is vulnerable to both droughts and extreme precipitation events due to the timing and processes of precipitation in the region. California's annual precipitation is dependent on a few strong storms and in addition to its Mediterranean climate, leads to great variability in precipitation both within and across years. While efforts to reduce the impacts of extreme precipitation events have been implemented, forecasting for these events remains a challenge in regions with complex terrain and dynamic meteorological drivers. In order to improve forecasting and preparedness for such events, it is important to understand the range …

Artificial Intelligence Modeling Of Alzheimer's Disease And Environmental Science, Mohamed Abu Sheha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A data-driven statistical model operates as a mathematical illustration of a tangible issuefaced in reality, enabling the creation of predictions or decisions based on data. The process of utilizing probability and statistical principles in statistical models is essential for deriving meaningful conclusions from the data. The research conducted in this dissertation utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) models to integrate findings across health and environmental sci- ence.

The first research study in this dissertation, Alzheimer’s disease is a mental health issue and a brain aging dilemma that makes it difficult for older people to complete daily tasks without assistance. The physician uses …

A Medievalist Myth-Making Crisis: Tolkien's Tychonic Cosmology, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

During and after writing The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien became embroiled in a self-motivated crisis in world-building, endeavoring to ‘modernize’ his mythological cosmology to more accurately reflect the Earth as it exists as a planet orbiting the Sun in space. While Tolkien was ultimately never able to complete a ‘Copernican Revolution’ in his Secondary World, his efforts continued over twenty years through numerous drafts posthumously published in Morgoth’s Ring and The Nature of Middle-earth. This paper applies a particular vignette from our real-world cosmological crises – revisions of Tycho Brahe’s hybrid geo-heliocentric model by Jesuit astronomers …

Data Requirements For Whole-Farm Economic Analysis Of Grazing Alternatives, R O. Burton Jr

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to better communications among the agronomists, animal scientists, and agricultural economists on interdisciplinary teams, that wish to provide useful information to forage producers. This is accomplished by discussing major issues and data requirements for whole-farm economic analysis.