Electronic Transport In Twisted Bilayer Tungsten Diselenides, Walid Zaher

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates density waves (DWs) in twisted bilayer tungsten diselenide (tWSe₂) using a mean field approximation, with a focus on electron-electron interactions, and the system’s free energy at zero temperature. For the mean field approximation, the study initially employed same-spin nesting vectors, which were found insufficient to induce DWs formation. In contrast, when opposite-spin nesting vectors were used, DWs emerged, indicating that these vectors can support DWs formation. The plots were produced under perfect nesting conditions, where van Hove singularities (VHS) occur. At zero temperature, perfect nesting provides a complete picture of the upper limit of DWs formation, as …

Irrigation Efficiency In Green Wall Systems Utilizing Iot: Developing And Testing A Method To Optimize Water Use For Green Walls, Yomna Zaghloul

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the application of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based automated irrigation system for green walls in Cairo, Egypt, assessing its impact on water conservation, energy consumption, and plant health across a three-month experimental period. The research compared a sensor-controlled drip irrigation system utilizing the ESP8266 microcontroller and real-time environmental monitoring against conventional timer-based irrigation methods. Water usage data revealed that the IoT system consistently achieved substantial savings—averaging nearly 60% less water consumption than the control group—without compromising overall plant vitality. Energy efficiency was also improved, with automated cycles reducing pump operating time by more than 50%. Plant growth …

A Virtual-Reality-Based Dental Simulator For Endodontics With Automated Formative Feedback, Yousef Salah Abo El Ela

Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in virtual reality (VR) and haptic technology are transforming the landscape of medical and dental education, offering new avenues for safe, immersive, and repeatable training experiences. Within dentistry, endodontics presents unique challenges for preclinical education due to anatomical complexity, limited access to extracted teeth, ethical concerns, and the shortcomings of conventional plastic models. Despite endodontics specific plastic teeth being available, they fall short of replicating the hardness of real extracted teeth, are relatively costly compared to generic plastic teeth, and are ultimately a disposable item which makes them inadequate as a sustainable long-term solution. Extracted teeth do a much …

Towards Decarbonizing Concrete Industry In Egypt: Material Alternatives, And Economic Viability, Reem Gamal

Theses and Dissertations

The construction industry remains one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, with cement and steel production accounting for approximately 15% of total emissions. As global infrastructure demands continue to rise, there is an increasing need for practical tools that support low-carbon construction practices in line with international climate commitments. This research presents the development and testing of a mathematical, adaptable decision support system designed to assess both the environmental and financial impacts of material selection in concrete production. Focusing on life cycle stages A1 to A3, raw material extraction, transportation, and manufacturing, the decision support system enables …

A Computational Study Of The Chemomechanics Of Paracetamol Polymorphs: Towards Improving Drug Tabletability, Karim Nader Samra

Theses and Dissertations

The mechanical properties of pharmaceutical crystals are of great importance in tablet manufacturing. Also, knowing the mechanical properties of different polymorphs of the same crystal can reduce the overall production cost. In this study, computational work was done via performing density functional theory calculations on 3 paracetamol crystal polymorphs Form I, II, and III. Understanding the chemical bonding helps in predicting the key elastic properties for different crystallographic directions. In Form II, lattice vector C is dominated with the intermolecular hydrogen bond OH…O giving it the stiffest Young Modulus and the least Poisson’s ratio. Then comes the A-Axis which contains …

Digital Payment Adoption And Firm Performance In Egypt: An Empirical Study From The Digital Transformation Era In Mena, Alhussein M. Mowafi

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between digital payment adoption and firm-level innovation and revenue performance in Egypt, using microdata from the Survey of Enterprise Digitization published by the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Digital transformation, specifically payments, has accelerated across emerging economies, yet empirical evidence on its firm-level impacts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remains limited. The study is framed through the Technology-Environment-Organization (TOE) framework and is highly incorporated with the Solow Growth Model through indirect technological growth inputs in the Solow residual. To address this gap, the study employs probit and ordered logit models to examine whether …

Investigating The Risk Factors Affecting The Control Of Diabetes And Hypertension In The Refugees Living In Egypt, Noura Seada

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) account for 74% of global deaths, with high prevalence of Diabetes and Hypertension worldwide. Egypt hosts over 1 million registered refugees and asylum seekers, often lacking inclusion in social protection or insurance schemes. This study aimed to assess the factors affecting the control of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and Hypertension (HTN) among Syrian and Sudanese refugees in Egypt, focusing on healthcare access, sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle, and health behaviours.

Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design using a self-administered questionnaire and BMI measurement. Data were collected from 246 refugees diagnosed with type T2D and/or HTN in the …

The Role Of Reflexivity In Collecting And Selecting Leds In A Phenomenological Study, Pilar Folgueiras, Valeria De Ormaechea, Amanda Aliende Da Matta

The Qualitative Report

This article addresses the methodological tension between description and interpretation in a phenomenological study on young women's political participation. The researchers explore how this tension influenced decisions about data collection and selection in applied hermeneutic phenomenology. A reflexive, meta-analytic approach is employed to examine research materials—epistemological diaries, team discussions, working documents, and researchers’ accounts—tracing how empirical material was produced and selected. Four distinct stages in the data collection process are identified and reveal how interpretative dilemmas emerged in the formulation of interview scripts, data gathering strategies, and narrative selection. The findings indicated that participants’ descriptions already contain a first level …

Negotiating Tradition And Modernity: An Ethnographic Study Of Leadership And Collaboration In Acehnese Islamic Higher Education, Basri Basri, Mujiburrahman Mujiburrahman, Mohammad Nasir, Muhammad Nazar

The Qualitative Report

This ethnographic study explored the relationship between State University Institutes (SUIs) and Ulama Dayah (Islamic scholars) as mutual co-existing beneficiaries in an Islamic educational organization in Aceh, Indonesia. While the relationship is characterized by a shared commitment to Islamic education, tensions simmer regarding leadership styles and the balance between tradition and modernity. This study is guided by the following research questions: (a) How do SUI leaders in Aceh perceive and manage the inherent tensions between upholding Islamic values and adapting to contemporary demands? (b) How do these leaders reconcile the potentially competing expectations of religious and secular stakeholders? (c) How …

Eugenics And The Carceral State: Progressive-Era Reform & The Creation Of The Modern Criminal Justice System, Laura I. Appleman

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ai-Driven Stratified Modeling For Early Liver Disease Detection: A Comparative Study Of Ensemble And Conventional Machine Learning Classifiers, Ghadeer Murtadha Ali, Ali Aqeel Hadi, Mustafa Abdulkareem Abbas, Abdullah Alkarar Mohammad, Ahmed Fadhil Abdulhussein

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

Background: Early prediction of liver disease remains challenging in routine clinical diagnostics due to the multifactorial nature of hepatic dysfunction and the limited discriminative capacity of conventional laboratory-only assessments.

Objective: This study aims to develop and rigorously evaluate a robust machine learning framework for binary liver disease classification, emphasizing predictive stability, diagnostic balance (sensitivity–specificity), and statistical reproducibility across repeated experiments.

Methodology: A structured dataset of 1,700 records with 11 features representing demographic, behavioral, genetic, and clinical determinants was used to train and compare five supervised models: CatBoost, AdaBoost, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Decision Tree. Performance was assessed …

Rethinking The Mindfulness And Mindlessness In Media Evocation Of Human-Machine Communication: A Case Study On The In-Car Robot “Nomi”, Bing Wang, Longxiang Luo, Weizi Liu

Human-Machine Communication

The commonly used Media Equation framework in human-machine communication research exhibits limitations when explaining human-machine relationships in the AI era, giving rise to the Media Evocation paradigm. Based on the Media Evocation framework, this study employs in-depth interviews to investigate whether interactions between humans and the in-car robot Nomi are mindful or mindless, while also examining whether these interactions prompt reflections on the machine’s ontology. The findings indicate that most participants perceive Nomi as a human-like actor and interact with it mindfully. Highquality social cues, such as voice and facial expressions, can trigger mindful anthropomorphic responses in human-machine interaction, eliciting …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 12

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 12.

Ai Humanizers, Pragmatists, Skeptics: A Cluster Analysis Of Normative Attitudes For Ai’S Capabilities And Roles, Kate K. Mays, Ekaterina Novozhilova

Human-Machine Communication

This study explores people’s attitudes about artificial intelligence’s (AI) capabilities through a normative lens. Drawing from literature on phenomenological, ontological, and heuristic judgments about machines, we aim to better understand what capabilities people think AI should be able to have and how that relates to enthusiasm about having AI take certain roles in their lives. Survey participants (N = 601) were grouped via two-step clustering based on their attitudes, revealing three clusters: AI humanizers, who expect empathy and social interaction from AI; AI pragmatists, who expect cognitive capabilities; and AI skeptics, who prefer AI with limited human-like traits and emphasize …

Explain. Write. Edit. Summarise: An Exploratory Study On Agency Negotiations In Student-Chatbot Conversations, Árni Már Einarsson Mr, Ekaterina Pashevich

Human-Machine Communication

LLM-based chatbots such as ChatGPT have given technologies that traditionally operated on the back end a user-friendly, conversational interface. Their rapid adoption among students has prompted universities worldwide to issue guidelines and re-examine existing practices. Supplementing prior research based on discourse analysis and self-reported measures (e.g., surveys and interviews), we propose an approach for analyzing naturally occurring student–chatbot interactions, rooted in conversation analysis of chats (n = 503) donated by eight current Danish university students. The analysis identifies conversational patterns across three main types of activities and examines how agency is negotiated across the structural dimensions of signification, domination, and …

Two Years To Madness: A 30-Month Journal Of Human–Machine Communication And Second-Hand Reality, Andrew Prahl

Human-Machine Communication

Drawing on a 30-month analytic-autoethnography of the first author’s journal as an earlyaccess OpenAI user, this study examines how sustained communication with generative AI affects everyday lived experience and identity. Inductive content analysis of 166 entries by independent coders is followed by theory-driven coding with the extended-mind and sensemaking frameworks. Three interlocking themes emerge. Enabled and Degraded captures the tension between new capabilities and efficiency versus creeping skill atrophy. Scary New World charts rising anxiety as productivity gains erode competitive and relational distinctiveness. The findings also show a growing, pervasive doubt about the human authorship of texts, images, and other …

The Material Condition: A Practice Theory-Oriented Infrastructural Turn To The Ethics Of Human-Ai Communication, Anne Mollen, Sigrid Kannengießer

Human-Machine Communication

This paper calls for an infrastructural turn in human–AI communication, centered on the materiality of generative AI. We argue that a nuanced understanding of ethical implications of generative AI necessitates examining the socio-technical infrastructures that constitute these systems. These infrastructures encompass not only technological artifacts but also human actors (developers, users, data subjects, etc.) and their practices as well as social contexts in designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining AI. Therefore, we propose to adopt a practice theory approach, to analyze how ethical concerns materialize within these infrastructures. This perspective reveals how infrastructures are contested spaces in global production chains, highlighting …

The Epistemic Power Of Human-Machine Communication, Katrin Etzrodt, Autumn P. Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

This editorial introduces Volume 12 of Human–Machine Communication by positioning communicative machines as epistemic provocateurs that unsettle inherited distinctions among agency, meaning, and relation. Rather than treating these disruptions as anomalies to be resolved, the editorial argues that Human–Machine Communication (HMC) is distinctively equipped to register, analyze, and sustain such epistemological tensions. Drawing on philosophical traditions from Aristotle to Marx and Heidegger, the authors show how contemporary communicative machines simultaneously strain multiple historical settlements that once stabilized human–machine boundaries. The volume frames HMC as a “seismograph” for and as a “practice of” epistemological change, tracing how agency and meaning are …

Whole Earth Machines: Human-Machine Communication For A Green Transition, Klaus Bruhn Jensen

Human-Machine Communication

The climate crisis of the 21st century represents an existential risk to humanity and biodiversity, posing essential questions of how communication may serve to coordinate mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. One recent response has been massive investments by governments and corporations in systems providing feedback on the state of Earth— Whole Earth Machines (WEMs). For human-machine communication (HMC) studies, WEMs invite sustained engagement with communication infrastructures as a key constituent of research agendas, beyond the interface encounters at the center of many HMC studies to date. The article presents a conceptualization and operationalization of WEMs as critical infrastructures …

Global Pathways: Suwon, South Korea - Semester Abroad Program Proposal, Amanda D. Ledger

Capstone Collection

This capstone proposes the Global Pathways: Suwon program, a semester-long study abroad initiative developed in partnership between Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and Kyonggi University (KGU) in Suwon, South Korea. The program responds to current limitations in study abroad, particularly the prevalence of short-term tourism-oriented experiences and curricula that prioritizes Western perspectives. A needs assessment consisting of student interviews, surveys, and professional consultation demonstrated strong interest in programs that combine language learning, cultural immersion, and career development. Findings also highlighted the importance of financial accessibility, reciprocal host partnerships, and ongoing advising support. Drawing on Freire’s critical pedagogy and Vygotsky’s sociocultural …

Still Scribbling: Reflections On The Grub Street Project At Twenty Years, Allison Muri

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This article reflects on twenty years of the Grub Street Project, assessing its sustainability and the design principles and editorial practices that have supported its continuity and coherence from 2005 to 2025.

A Review Of Deborah Weiss's Women And Madness In The Early Romantic Novel: Injured Minds, Ruined Lives, Jennifer L. Nault Ms

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Women and Madness in the Early Romantic Novel by Jennifer Nault.

Teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters’S “On Being Brought From Africa To America” For The First Time In An Online Undergraduate Women’S Literature Course, Shazia Khan

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

As one of Phillis Wheatley Peters’ most famous poems, “On Being Brought from Africa to America” is often introduced to undergraduates; however, it is also an often-misunderstood text by undergraduate and graduate students alike when they first read it. Students often believe that Wheatley Peters is happy about her condition as an enslaved person in America and out of Africa. But upon deeper analysis of her word choice, use of punctuation, and biblical references, a reader can see her unique voice as an enslaved person criticizing slavery through sarcasm. Such responses can discourage instructors from teaching the poem, especially in …

On Being Brought From Gambia Or Ghana To Colonial Boston: Teaching Phillis Wheatley And Place, D. Quentin Miller

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

In this pedagogical article, I describe my classroom practice in which the context of place becomes supremely important when introducing Wheatley’s work to students. With the help of experiential learning in the form of a walking tour of Wheatley's Boston and some maps, I call attention to spatiality as a crucial context for framing the poet’s most persistent concerns. The article contains images that can be useful to instructors who do not have the benefit of teaching Wheatley in Boston.

"Upgrading" Market Legitimation: Revisiting Habermas's 'Technology As Ideology' In Neoliberal Times, Eran Fisher

Fast Capitalism

This paper revisits Habermas’s notion of ‘technology as ideology’ in the context of contemporary political culture. It argues that the methodological and substantive contours of Habermas’s framework are still valid today. However, the role that technology plays as ideology has changed dramatically in the context of contemporary capitalism. No longer does it provide a legitimation for the political administration of the economy in the context of the Social Democratic state; instead, it legitimizes a new, neoliberal regime, whereby political intervention in the workings of the market is highly prohibited. This argument is substantiated with an empirical analysis of contemporary discourse …

Cruising On The Left: Notes On A Genealogy Of "Left" Communication Research In The United States, Hanno Hardt

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Herpes For The Information Age: Plagiarism And The Infection Of Universities, Tara Brabazon

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Online Democratic Deliberation In A Time Of Information Abundance, Craig Bellamy

Fast Capitalism

The intensified use of the Internet by civil society groups and governments for political purposes has left many questions unexplained—especially in terms of the Internet’s effects upon deliberative democratic processes. The Internet was first imagined as a means to revitalize deliberative processes. However, poor design and lack of usability research meant that many ambitions went largely unrealized. With a new wave of Internet technologies, ‘deliberative design’ has become even more important to stem what many claim is a trend towards political fragmentation and disaggregation. In a time of ‘information abundance’ mounting political communication online may also undermine collectivist, deliberative democratic …

William Leiss, Hera, And The Fate Of Science, Hans Kellner

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.

Fast Spectacle: Reflections On Hurricane Katrina And The Contradictions Of Spectacle, Kevin Gotham

Fast Capitalism

No abstract provided.