Digital Commons Network^™

Explainable Deep Learning For Medical Imaging Classification, Megan Courtman

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Machine learning is increasingly being applied to medical imaging tasks. However, the "black box'' nature of techniques such as deep learning has inhibited the interpretability and trustworthiness of these methods, and therefore their clinical utility. In recent years, explainability methods have been developed to allow better interrogation of these approaches.This thesis presents the novel application of explainable deep learning to several medical imaging tasks, to investigate its potential in patient safety and research. It presents the novel application of explainable deep learning to the detection of aneurysm clips in CT brains for MRI safety. It also presents the novel application …

Explainability And Understandability Of Artificial Neural Networks, Jan Stodt

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have achieved significant success in fields likehealthcare, but their "black box" nature challenges transparency and user trust.Existing Explainable AI (XAI) methods aim to interpret ANN decisions, yet manyare not understandable to non-AI-experts, emphasizing the need for approachesthat prioritize both accuracy and usability, especially in high-stakes environments.This thesis investigates the reliability and usability of selected existing XAI meth-ods, evaluating how effectively they convey meaningful explanations to users withAI varying expertise. Assessments of methods like LIME, GradCAM, and Fast-CAM identify key limitations, such as inconsistent visual saliency maps and a lackof user-centred design. These findings underpin the need …

Co-Producing Ethics Guidelines Together With People With Learning Disabilities, Mary Bottomley, Jodie Bradley, Lisa Clark, Bryan Collis, Bojana Daw Srdanovic, Victoria Farnsworth, Annie Ferguson, Dan Goodley, Andrew Fox, Nikita K. Hayden, Charlotte Lawthom, Rebecca Lawthom, Claudia Magwood, Robert Mclean, Ian Middleton, Alison Owen, Matty Prothero, Simon Rice, Simon Richards, Katherine Runswick-Cole, Kelly Scargill, Rohit Shankar, Toni Ann Wood

Peninsula Medical School

Background: We are a research team of clinical, academic and advocacy-based researchers with and without learning disabilities, working on the Humanising Healthcare (for people with learning disabilities) project. The project is dedicated to finding and sharing healthcare practices that enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities. As part of our ethics applications to access National Health Service study sites for fieldwork, we worked together to write guiding principles for co-producing research ethics with researchers with learning disabilities. In this paper, we introduce these Participatory Ethics Good Practice Guidelines and reflect on our collaboration. Methods: We reflect on developing the …

Tiny Houses (Revisited): Geography Of Tiny House Villages For The Homeless In The United States, Yetimoni Kpeebi

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The increasing adoption of tiny house villages as a solution to homelessness in the United States (US) underscores the need for comprehensive tracking and documentation of their locations, physical attributes, and social characteristics. This is vital to assess their effectiveness, providing advocates and policymakers with the information needed to optimize outcomes, and ensure these initiatives truly benefit the homeless population. While initial efforts were made in 2019 to establish a database for these villages (Evans, 2020), this study represents an improvement by presenting an updated database that reflects the growing popularity of tiny house villages for the homeless. Building upon …

Reclaiming Fantasy: The Female Protagonist In Works Of Visual Art, Literature And Film, Siobhán O'Connor

Theses

‘Reclaiming Fantasy: The Female Protagonist in Works of Visual Art, Literature and Film’ charts representations of the female protagonist through the media in which the archetype is most prominent. From fairy tales to the slasher film, the female protagonist’s representation has been consistent with narratives that pertain to patriarchal constructions of gender. This is particularly true of genres that work on a level of ‘suspension of disbelief’, such as fantasy. This thesis presents findings on the reclamation of the female protagonist by female voices using a multidisciplinary approach, combining feminist theory, literary criticism, and visual art studies. From the 17th …

New Business Models For Technology Innovation In Healthcare: A Value Network Perspective, Aira Patrice Ong

Plymouth Business School Theses

Business models (BMs) play an important role in facilitating the delivery and integration of technological innovations within the healthcare sector, catering the needs of healthtech entrepreneurs, managers, healthcare providers, researchers and policy makers. However, despite the BM’s significance, existing conceptualisations of BM do not adequately guide in designing them taking into account the complexities of the healthcare environment. This demands a dynamic approach in designing BM, considering the healthcare value chain stakeholders’ thoughts, values, prejudices, views, feelings and perspectives. With the exploratory nature and lack of research in this area, the overall aim of the study is to design an …

Analysis Of Bankruptcy Prediction Of Shipping Industry - Machine Learning Approach, Minsu Kwon

Plymouth Business School Theses

The Korean shipping industry's vulnerability to economic crises, such as the 2016 bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping, highlights the need for robust bankruptcy prediction methods, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This research aims to identify key risk factors for predicting bankruptcy in shipping companies from Korean industry by leveraging financial, non-financial, and economic data through advanced machine learning models, including Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. A comprehensive literature review and interviews with industry practitioners were conducted to refine the variables used in the models. These models predict bankruptcy across 1, 3, and 5-year horizons, …

Preschool Classroom Behavior In Context: Development And Validation Of The Spanish Form Of The Adjustment Scales For Preschool Intervention (Aspi), Rebecca Jane Bulotsky-Shearer, Paul A. Mcdermott, Jenna Futterer, Michael Lopez, Mileidis Gort

Archives of Assessment Psychology

The purpose of the study was to validate the context scale scores for the Spanish language form of the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI) for use by early childhood teachers from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in a diverse sample of preschool children from low-income families (N = 4,077) revealed two dimensions of context scales of behavioral adjustment: Problems in Preschool Classroom Contexts Requiring Disciplined Behavior and Problems in Contexts Requiring Engaged Behavior. ASPI dimension scores across Spanish and English language forms were horizontally equated through item response theory (IRT). Criterion-related validity using multilevel models was established …

My Identi T: Improving Mental Health Outcomes Through Group Support In Pre-Treatment Transgender Teens, Jill Day

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Transgender youth (TGY) are at an increased risk for depression, anxiety, and suicidality; delaying transition can worsen this. Nationally, gender programs have waitlists beyond a year. In conservative states, providers are fewer in number, and legislation may prohibit services. Thus, gender programs rely on mental health and primary care providers to assist youth who express a strong desire to be a gender other than that assigned at birth, and who endure protracted wait times to start treatment. This DNP project developed and implemented an evidence-based, gender-affirming peer support group to improve patient experience and mental health outcomes by providing information …

Establishing An Infrastructure For Nursing Innovation In A Large Urban Magnet®Hospital, Gregory Parsons Eichelzer

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Problem and Context: Despite nursing's potential to contribute valuable solutions to healthcare challenges, dedicated nursing innovation development programs are scarce. This scarcity, compounded by a lack of nursing leadership competencies in fostering innovation, inhibits nurses' ability to translate innovative ideas into clinical practice effectively.

Intervention: This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project addressed this gap by establishing a structure, process, and technology access based on industry-standard for nursing innovation in the inpatient setting.

Aims and Methods: The project aimed to establish a structure, process, and technology access based on industry-standard for nursing innovation in the inpatient setting, to implement and …

Retaining New Graduate Nurses: Creating A Model Inpatient Transition To Practice Program In A Large Healthcare System, Amanda Jane Richards

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Abstract

Retaining New Graduate Nurses: Creating a Model Inpatient Education to Practice Program in a Large Healthcare SystemPurpose: The purpose of this study is to address the persistent challenge of high turnover rates among New Graduate Nurses (NGNs) by implementing and evaluating a Dedicated Education Unit (DEU) model in a large hospital. The DEU aims to provide intensive support and training to NGNs during their transition to clinical practice, with a focus on improving retention rates and enhancing patient care quality. Background: New Graduate Nurse turnover rates have reached alarming levels, impacting healthcare organizations' stability and patient outcomes. Traditional postgraduate …

Moral Distress: The Importance Of Support For Black And Brown Nurses After Encountering Racism From Patients And Peers In The Acute Care Setting, Marsha Sinanan

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Purpose: This DNP project developed and implemented an online training program to support Black and Brown nurses’ post-racism encounters in the acute care inpatient setting. Background: Nationally, it is estimated that 25% of nurses experience mistreatment by patients each year, but many fail to report these episodes (Campbell, 2016). The retention of Black and Brown nurses is essential, as cultural congruence or shared experiences among patients and members of their healthcare team can, be an important bridge for promoting safety and the best clinical outcomes (Moceri, 2014). Methods: Approximately 400 RNs were invited to participate in a 15-minute online training …

Reorganization Of Dopamine Circuitry In The Anterior Corpus Callosum Between Early Adolescence And Adulthood In The Mouse, Megan Caldwell, Josue Criollo Mendoza, Xin Yan Zhu Jiang, Colin Alarcon, Vanessa Ayo-Jibunoh, Shelby Louis, Daniel Maronna, Rania Darwish, Jaquelyn Tomaio, Susana Mingote, Leora Yetnikoff

Advanced Science Research Center

The maturation of forebrain dopamine circuitry occurs over multiple developmental periods, extending from early postnatal life until adulthood, with the precise timing of maturation defined by the target region. We recently demonstrated in the adult mouse brain that axon terminals arising from midbrain dopamine neurons innervate the anterior corpus callosum and that oligodendrocyte lineage cells in this white matter tract express dopamine receptor transcripts. Whether corpus callosal dopamine circuitry undergoes maturational changes between early adolescence and adulthood is unknown but may be relevant to understanding the dramatic micro- and macro-anatomical changes that occur in the corpus callosum of multiple species …

Data Mining Utilizing Various Leveled Clustering Procedures On The Position Of Workers In A Data Innovation Firm, Hussein Alkattan, Noor Razzaq Abbas, Oluwaseun A. Adelaja, Mostafa Abotaleb, Guma Ali

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

The reason of this paper is to clarify dynamic clustering, the divisive and agglomerative dynamic clustering techniques. It fundamentally centers on the concept of the divisive different leveled shapes as well known as the top-down approach by creating a workflow appear, dendrograms, clustered data table which accumulated the clusters based the chosen property, and appear the isolated between each cluster with the assistance of an data mining device called Python. The DIANA dynamic approach utilized data tests of the list of laborers in a Data Advancement firm to induce clusters from the position column inside the data test table. In …

Growing South Dakota (Winter 2024), College Of Agriculture, Food And Environmental Sciences

Growing South Dakota (Publication of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences)

[Page] 3 Continuing a Leadership Journey
/="/">[Page] 5 CAFES Leadership Team Grows
/="/">[Page] 7 Award-Winning Faculty & Staff
/="/">[Page] 9 New Endowment Holders Recognized
/="/">[Page] 10 Inaugural Precision Livestock Field School Offered at SDSU Cottonwood Field Station
/="/">[Page] 11 SDSU Celebrates Professional Program in Veterinary Medicine Students [Page] 13 Clay Carlson, SDSU Meat Science Graduate Student Approaches School and Life with Winning Mindset
/="/">[Page] 15 SDSU Alumni has been selected as the Head Coach of the South Dakota State University Livestock Judging Team
/="/">[Page] 16 Livestock Units Promote Hands-On Learning & Premier Research …

Staying Focused On A Moving Target: Coping With Change, North Shetter Dds

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Amid rapid changes in dentistry, this commentary addresses strategies to manage stress and maintain professional balance. Drawing parallels to Moore's Law in technology, the author emphasizes the need for a balanced life, integrating work, play, love, and worship. The concept, rooted in the Pankey Philosophy, aligns with principles from Stephen Covey's Seven Habits. Core skills, including patient relationships, foundational dental practices, periodontal health, occlusion, and perpetual learning, are deemed essential. The article underscores the importance of personal dental health and advocates for study clubs to share, learn, and mentor, fostering a positive professional environment amid evolving technologies and information overload.

Effect Of Sampling Bias On Global Estimates Of Ocean Carbon Export, Stephanie Henson, Kelsey Bisson, Matthew L. Hammond, Adrian Martin, Colleen B. Mouw, Andrew Yool

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Shipboard sampling of ocean biogeochemical properties is necessarily limited by logistical and practical constraints. As a result, the majority of observations are obtained for the spring/summer period and in regions relatively accessible from a major port. This limitation may bias the conceptual understanding we have of the spatial and seasonal variability in important components of the Earth system. Here we examine the influence of sampling bias on global estimates of carbon export flux by sub-sampling a biogeochemical model to simulate real, realistic and random sampling. We find that both the sparseness and the 'clumpy' character of shipboard flux observations generate …

Zürich Ii Statement On Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfass): Scientific And Regulatory Needs, Jamie C. Dewitt, Juliane Glüge, Ian T. Cousins, Gretta Goldenman, Dorte Herzke, Rainer Lohmann, Mark Miller, Carla A. Ng, Sharyle Patton, Xenia Trier, Lena Vierke, Zhanyun Wang, Sam Adu-Kumi, Simona Balan, Andreas M. Buser, Tony Fletcher, Line Småstuen Haug, Jun Huang, Sarit Kaserzon, Juliana Leonel, Ishmail Sheriff, Ya-Li Shi, Sara Valsecchi, Martin Scheringer

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of synthetic organic chemicals of global concern. A group of 36 scientists and regulators from 18 countries held a hybrid workshop in 2022 in Zürich, Switzerland. The workshop, a sequel to a previous Zürich workshop held in 2017, deliberated on progress in the last five years and discussed further needs for cooperative scientific research and regulatory action on PFASs. This review reflects discussion and insights gained during and after this workshop and summarizes key signs of progress in science and policy, ongoing critical issues to be addressed, and possible ways forward. Some …

Whale Baleen To Monitor Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Marine Environments, Matthew S. Savoca, Anna R. Robuck, Michaela A. Cashman, Mark G. Cantwell, Lindsay C. Agvent, David N. Wiley, Rachel Rice, Sean Todd, Nicole E. Hunter, Jooke Robbins, Jeremy A. Goldbogen, Rainer Lohmann

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) comprise >10 000 synthetic compounds that are globally distributed and highly persistent but remain challenging to monitor. Here we assess the utility of baleen─an accreting, keratinaceous tissue that baleen whales use for filter-feeding─to track PFAS dynamics in marine food webs. In six species investigated, PFAS were detected in all baleen tested (n = 18 plates, 220 samples, ∑₁₀PFAS range of 0.02–60.5 ng/g of dry weight), at levels higher than those of other tissue types besides liver. Three of the species in our data set had not been tested for PFAS contamination previously, …

Phytoplankton Thermal Trait Parameterization Alters Community Structure And Biogeochemical Processes In A Modeled Ocean, Stephanie I. Anderson, Clara Fronda, Andrew D. Barton, Sophie Clayton, Tatiana A. Rynearson, Stephanie Dutkiewicz

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Phytoplankton exhibit diverse physiological responses to temperature which influence their fitness in the environment and consequently alter their community structure. Here, we explored the sensitivity of phytoplankton community structure to thermal response parameterization in a modelled marine phytoplankton community. Using published empirical data, we evaluated the maximum thermal growth rates (μmax) and temperature coefficients (Q10; the rate at which growth scales with temperature) of six key Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFTs): coccolithophores, cyanobacteria, diatoms, diazotrophs, dinoflagellates, and green algae. Following three well-documented methods, PFTs were either assumed to have (1) the same μmax and the same Q10 (as in to Eppley, …

Can Informed Consent Solve Ai Bias?, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Reviews

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving increasingly rapidly into health care (as indeed into everything else). But it has problems there (as indeed everywhere else!). What’s to be done, in particular, about the deeply embedded biases along racial and other lines that permeate the whole world of health and, as such, are likely to be encoded in AI?

Khiara Bridges gives an answer that seems mild but carries roots of revolution. In Race in the Machine: Racial Disparities in Health and Medical AI, she argues that informed consent is a key lever to pull in fighting these racial disparities. But not …

Latina Voice In Dialogue With Literacy, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This study follows the literacy experiences of four Latina middle schoolers as they read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and compose home language narratives in their heritage voices. Both their vibrant ethnic cultures and other intersecting rays of identities are analyzed in the vein of their literate identities. Through analysis of their writing and speech, the girls present hybridized identities on the border between cultures and languages. Their position and identities in the social world of middle school are discussed and how transactions with literacy can dialogically influence those identities to enact critically conscious pedagogy.

Joseph H. Weston Collection, Arkansas State University - Jonesboro

Archival Collection Finding Aids

Joseph H. Weston was a controversial newspaper reporter, editor, and publisher who founded and ran the Sharp Citizen, a newspaper/tabloid from 1972 to 1978 which led to Weston being charged with criminal libel. This collection contains four volumes of the Sharp Citizen along with some material pertaining to Weston.

Front Matter

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Recycled And Manufactured Adsorptive Materials For Phosphate Removal From Municipal Wastewater, Deja Drummond, Shannon Brink, Natasha Bell

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

Elevated concentrations of phosphorus (P) and other nutrients common in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent have been shown to contribute to the proliferation of harmful algal blooms, which may lead to fish kills related to aquatic hypoxia. Increased understanding of the negative effects associated with elevated P concentrations have prompted more strict regulation of WWTP effluent in recent years. The use of low-cost and potentially regenerative adsorptive phosphate filters has the potential to decrease P concentrations in WWTP effluent released to natural waters. This research focuses on assessing the capacities of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), expanded slate, and expanded clay …

Residential Irrigation Restrictions And Water Conservation: A Review Of Studies From 1978 To 2022, Stephen Morkel, Mehdi Nemati

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

Urban water managers and policymakers have adopted demand management strategies to reduce water use and buffer against short-term water supply shortfalls. This article provides a systematic review of publications from 1978-2022 that examine the effectiveness of residential water use restrictions as the primary demand-side management tool. Our results indicate the significant overall effect of restrictions on reducing water consumption, with an average reduction of 12.3% from the 23 studies reviewed in this article. When evaluating effect strength by restriction type (mandatory versus voluntary), voluntary restrictions have a significantly lower effect than mandatory restrictions on water use. We also find an …

Cornerstone Journal Of Archaeological Sites Volume 13-Front Matter, Cornerstone Thirteen

Cornerstone: Journal of Archaeological Sites (حجر الزاوية)

Front Matter

مستوطنة عين صفورية خلال العصرين النحاسي والبرونزي القديم / A Large Settlement From The Early Chalcolithic Period And The Early Bronze Age At ‘En Ẓippori, Nimrod Getzov, Ianir Milevski

Cornerstone: Journal of Archaeological Sites (حجر الزاوية)

In 2011–2016, prolonged salvage excavations were conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority at the site of ‘En Ẓippori, in Lower Galilee, near Naḥal Ẓippori, on both sides of Road 79. The site extends to the south of the stream, on the edge of a small valley at the foot of Jebel el-‘Ayin (Giv‘at Rabi), south of the Roman city Sephoris and the modern settlement of Ẓippori. The site was established on steps of soft limestone (qirton) rock covered with a thin layer of hard limestone (nari) and sometimes, with brown soil. Previous excavations at the site exposed settlement …

Odd Fellows: The Intersection Of Arminianism And Calvinism In The Writings Of Desmond Ford And F.F. Bruce, Samuel Pagán De Jesus

Dissertations

The Topic

In the 1970s, the Seventh-day Adventist church’s theological struggles over righteousness by faith and perfectionism revealed that Adventists were confused about their Protestant identity and what it meant to have the assurance of salvation. That struggle is exemplified in Desmond Ford’s writings. His doctoral studies under evangelical scholar F. F. Bruce prompted the Historic Adventists to wonder whether Ford had abandoned the Arminian synergistic soteriology for Calvinism’s monergism.

The Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent Frederick F. Bruce’s Reformed views, theological assumptions, and commitments were shared by and reflected in Desmond Ford’s …

Participatory Video As A Capacity-Building Tool On Disaster Risk Reduction Management: The Case Of A Philippine Rurban Youth Group In Bay, Laguna, Trina Leah T. Mendoza, Benjamina Paula G. Flor

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

This study aimed to explore a youth-led participatory video (PV) process as a strategy for building the capacity of youth in disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) in a Philippine urban community. The study’s main research problem is: What constitutes a youth-led PV process? Specifically, it aimed to 1) describe a youth-led PV production process, 2) identify emergent characteristics of a youth-led PV process, and 3) examine features that explain how a PV process capacitates youth in DRRM. A series of DRRM and PV training workshops were conducted from January to March 2019 with a selected group of youth in Barangay …