Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling And Performance Evaluation Of Machine Learning For Historical And Future Land Use And Land Cover Dynamics In Chattogram District, Bangladesh, Mst Sanjida Alam

Student Publications [Scholarly]

Introduction – Land use and land cover (LULC) change is rapidly redrawing the environmental landscape of coastal Bangladesh. Methods – This study integrates Landsat-based classification, machine learning-based approaches, and Markov Chain simulation to assess historical and future LULC dynamics in Chattogram District. Results – Random Forest classification achieved overall accuracies of 95.96%, 90.45%, and 94.25% for 2006, 2015, and 2025, respectively. Results reveal substantial cropland expansion (+32, 375 ha) and continued growth of built-up land, accompanied by declines in vegetation, waterbodies, and bare land. Random Forest demonstrated strong predictive performance, achieving an out-of-bag (OOB) accuracy of 92.63% and a skill …

School-Based Antecedent Interventions Derived From Structural Analyses: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Georgia M. Gaertner

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Disruptive behaviors in the classroom setting present immediate challenges for both students and teachers and are associated with a host of negative, long-term outcomes. Antecedent interventions are a group of behavior management strategies that can be used to target disruptive behaviors before they occur. This study consisted of a systematic review and meta-analysis of school-based antecedent interventions that were derived from a structural analysis. The results indicated that structural analytic research on school-based antecedent interventions has been conducted with students across diverse educational settings and with students with a variety of disabilities and conditions. Elementary school students and male students …

Nanostructured Cathode Catalysts For Aem Electrolysis: From Catalyst Design To Degradation And Hydrogen Dynamics, Yamini Kumaran

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) presents a promising pathway toward cost-effective and sustainable hydrogen production by integrating the chemical robustness of alkaline systems with the compact, zero-gap design of proton exchange membrane electrolyzers. However, the widespread implementation of AEMWE is limited by the availability of highly active and durable platinum-group-metal (PGM)-free catalysts and by an incomplete understanding of their degradation behavior under realistic operating conditions.

This dissertation focuses on the development, characterization, and mechanistic investigation of nanostructured MoNi₄–MoO₂-based electrodes for efficient and stable hydrogen generation under alkaline and membrane-integrated environments. MoNi₄–MoO₂ nanorods …

After The Aid Boom: Government Responses To The Global Health Agenda And Political Commitment In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Sana Abdelkarim

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

How do governments respond to the global health agenda? Does external health assistance translate to sustained domestic political commitment in low- and middle-income countries? Over the past three decades, development assistance for health has expanded, accompanied by international agreements emphasizing country ownership, alignment, and domestic resource mobilization. Yet domestic fiscal commitment to health remains uneven across countries. These questions have become more pressing as the global aid landscape enters a period of contraction, with a significant decline in development assistance, including health financing, raising concerns about the sustainability of health systems that have become reliant on external support.  This raises …

Associations Between Neighborhood Physical And Social Stressors During Sensitive Developmental Periods And Substance Use In Early Adulthood, Abigail M. Ulofoshio

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Background

Substance use is a major public health problem. Neighborhood disadvantage and related stressors have been linked to increased substance use in adolescence and early adulthood, although findings are mixed. No studies have explored whether the timing or accumulation of neighborhood stressors in childhood and adolescence impact substance use in early adulthood. This study aims to investigate to what extent physical and social neighborhood stress during sensitive developmental periods influence substance use dependency and illicit substance use in early adulthood.

Methods

We analyzed an imputed sample (n = 7,494) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a …

Addressing Mental Health In College Athletics: Developing A Mindfulness-Centered Curricular Intervention For Student-Athletes And Coaches, Douglas W. Lampman

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Rising rates of mental health concerns among collegiate student-athletes have intensified calls for a more holistic approach to athlete development and well-being.  While student-athletes regularly interact with coaches and educators, few curricular interventions explicitly address mental and emotional wellness in the athletic context.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the development, implementation, and perceived impact of a mindfulness-centered approach and curriculum.  This curriculum is designed explicitly for collegiate student-athletes and coaches.  Grounded in mindfulness-based pedagogy, the curriculum addressed stress management, emotion regulation, interpersonal relationships, performance anxiety, and personal growth.

Using a multi-tiered qualitative design, data were collected …

Multifunctional And Adaptive: Tracking How Fibroblasts Respond To Tissue Injury And Facilitate Tissue Remodeling, Joey R. Tavarez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Fibrosis is characterized by an accumulation of proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM) that results in altered tissue architecture and reduced organ function. In the salivary glands, fibrosis leads to loss of saliva, dysbiosis of the oral microbiome, an increase in oral infections, difficulty in digestion of food and an overall reduction in the quality of life. Understanding the progression of fibrosis and how it affects human health is a crucial step for designing effective therapeutics. Understanding fibroblast function is integral to advancing the field due to the many roles they play in maintaining the ECM. To perform preliminary analysis, …

Moderators Of Subjective Distress And State Body Image During Open And Blind Weighing, Danielle E. Peters

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Objective: Body image disturbances are central to eating disorder (ED) pathology and are often addressed through exposure-based methods, such as open weighing. Open weighing is recommended in evidence-based ED treatments, but many clinicians and patients prefer blind weighing. It may be that pre-treatment patient characteristics may influence how distressed they feel by open and blind weighing. As such, the present study aimed to 1) compare how open and blind weighing impact subjective distress and state body image, and 2) examine whether self-weighing tendencies, body avoidance, body checking, body checking-related beliefs, intolerance of uncertainty, and ED psychopathology moderate the relationship between …

Discord Is Still A Chord: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Discourse Networks, Brokerage, And The Fiscal Consequences Of Fracking Policy In The Delaware River Basin, In Hae Noh

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Beneath the policy debates of many environmental controversies lies a dynamic network of actors making claims, forming coalitions, and contesting policy discourses. Drawing on theories of discourse coalitions, discourse networks, network brokerage, and public finance, and using the Delaware River Basin hydraulic fracturing debate as a case study, this dissertation examines how discourse coalitions evolve, how discourse brokers shape coalition dynamics, and whether resulting policy decisions produce meaningful fiscal consequences. The first paper investigates how discourse coalitions shifted across three periods of the Delaware River Basin fracking debate, using a mix of methods integrating discourse network analysis, computational text analysis, …

Advancing Data Extraction Workflows For Single-Case Design Meta-Analysis Using Large Language Models, Yaosheng Lou

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) are a form of longitudinal research that is particularly valuable for studying marginalized and underrepresented populations. Meta-analysis plays an essential role in synthesizing evidence across studies and enhancing the generalizability of findings. However, as interest in SCEDs grows and the evidence base expands, conducting meta-analyses has become increasingly labor-intensive and time-consuming. This dissertation addresses these challenges by examining the applicability of large language models (LLMs) for data extraction and meta-analytic dataset compilation in the context of SCED meta-analysis. Because LLM performance is influenced by model selection, prompt design, and the specific materials being extracted, this dissertation …

Key Processes Involved In The Vortex Alignment Of Sheared Tropical Cyclones, Luis O. Hernandez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are challenging to forecast when under vertical wind shear (VWS). VWS tilts a TC’s vortex, creating asymmetries in its structure that impedes intensification. Although work has been done to conceptualize and understand how TCs evolve under shear and how they axisymmetrize and intensify, vortex alignment remains a complex and unresolved topic. The goal of this study is to assess what physical processes are important to tilt reduction and how these processes evolve in weak TCs. Using the Hurricane Analysis Forecast System Model-B (HAFS-B) 2.1, a case study on two storms, Hurricane Earl (2022) and Hurricane Lee (2023) …

Drivers Of Extreme Streamflow During A Snowmelt-Enhanced Heavy Rainfall And Atmospheric River Event In The Catskill Mountains Of New York, Christopher A. Gilberti

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This study uses atmospheric reanalysis, precipitation and snow water equivalent (SWE) analyses, mesonet observations, and streamflow records to examine the impact of an atmospheric river storm that produced heavy rainfall and snowpack ablation across the Catskill Mountains of New York on 24–25 December 2020. Earlier in December, an antecedent storm produced SWE values in the Catskills above the 90^th percentile for that point in the season. The atmospheric river event followed with strong southerly warm-air advection ahead of an anomalously deep trough, temperatures and dewpoints that exceeded 10°C, and heavy orographically enhanced rainfall and rapid snowmelt. Sensible heat fluxes …

Weather-Related Road Condition Detection Using Co-Developed Machine Learning Methods, Carly Sutter

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Transportation agencies make critical operational decisions during hazardous weather events, including assessment of road conditions and resource allocation. In this study, machine learning models are developed to provide additional support for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) by automatically classifying road conditions across the state. Convolutional neural networks and random forests are trained on NYSDOT roadside camera images and weather data to predict road surface conditions. This task draws critically on a labeled dataset of 22,000 camera images containing six road surface conditions (severe snow, snow, wet, dry, poor visibility, and obstructed) generated from an iterative hand-labeling process …

High-Tcr Multivalence Vanadium Oxide Thin-Films From Deposition Parameter Control To Microbolometer Applications, Latika Susheel M. Chaudhary

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This thesis details the development of multivalence-nanostructured vanadium oxide (VOₓ) thin films for uncooled microbolometer applications, with a systematic optimization of magnetron-sputtering parameters. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), resistivity, and optical response of VOₓ thin-film sensing layers are controlled by valence composition, grain growth, and surface morphology. The primary goal was to achieve a high TCR with low resistivity to improve thermal detector performance.

Multivalent VOₓ thin films were deposited on silicon, SiO₂, and glass substrates using DC magnetron sputtering. Three key parameters were systematically varied: Ar:O₂ ratio (18:2 to 15:5), deposition time (60–120 minutes), and DC power (300W …

Gender Inequality In Afghanistan's Public Schools: Provincial Disparities Amid Historical And Political Change, 2002-2021, Enayatullah Nasir

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines the persistence and spatial concentration of gender-based educational inequality in Afghanistan's public school system from 2002 to 2021–– a period spanning post-2001 reconstruction, the expansion of the Republic era, and the reversal under the second Taliban regime. Despite substantial international investment and two decades of repeated commitments to gender parity, access to and progression through public schooling remained profoundly uneven across the country’s thirty-four provinces. The Gender Parity Index values differ sharply between provinces, and those with the lowest overall enrollment tend to exhibit the widest gender gaps. Existing scholarship has concentrated on the national level, obscuring …

Regulation Of Private Higher Education In Mexico: How Non-Elite Institutions Navigate Authorization, Edson Eduardo Navarro Meza

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Low quality, excessive commercialization, fraud, profit in disguise, and predatory dynamics remain the most pressing regulatory challenges in the context of private higher education in Mexico. These problems have been largely attributed to the ineffectiveness of authorization mechanisms, which have repeatedly become the focus of controversy and criticism from social, academic, and media sectors regarding their role in shaping the development of the sector. Some observers blame the government for its inaction in the face of rapid institutional proliferation, as well as for maintaining authorization procedures that have proven to be ineffective gatekeepers of sectoral expansion. Others place responsibility on …

Hepatitis C Among Persons Who Inject Drugs In New York State: Progress Towards Elimination, Meredith A. Barranco

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the leading causes of liver disease in the United States (US) and worldwide. In the United States today, HCV is transmitted primarily through injection drug use (IDU) and therefore disproportionately impacts persons who inject drugs (PWID), a population with a range of complex social and health needs. HCV is not vaccine-preventable but can be cured in over 90% of cases with an 8–12-week course of daily direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medication. Since approval of curative medications in 2014, various jurisdictions have developed plans to eliminate HCV. In 2021, the New York State …

The Effects Of Vitamin K On Neuronal Ferroptosis, Chelsey P. Eighmey

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Dementia is a crippling illness affecting millions worldwide causing significant public health burdens with long-term care. The lack of treatment options results in many years of suffering for affected individuals and their loved ones who often become primary caretakers. Decades of study have focused on treating dementia with little-to-no success, so an emphasis is needed on attempting to prevent disease progression altogether. This research explored vitamin K as a potential strategy for prevention of dementia onset or progression through the mechanism of suppressing ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is a type of cell death suggested to contribute to the hallmark traits of Alzheimer’s …

Seeing Anxiety: Ecological Video Ethnography And Simulation To Understand Anxiety And Decision-Making In Dental Care, Mona Nasser, Hannah Drayson, Sally Hanks, Nicholas Peres, Michael Punt

Peninsula Dental School

BACKGROUND: Dental anxiety is a widespread barrier to care, often contributing to appointment avoidance, treatment disruption, and emotional strain for both patients and clinicians. While extensively studied as a psychological trait, less attention has been paid to how anxiety manifests situationally and relationally, through non-verbal, affective, and spatial cues within clinical encounters. Moreover, in certain contexts, such affective signals can intersect with decision-making processes, shaping how patients interpret, engage with, or withdraw from clinical choices.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how anxiety manifests within the micro-choreography of dental encounters, develop a taxonomy of 'anxious tells', and assess the utility of ecological video …

Can The 2025 Nobel Prizes In Physics And Economics Inspire A “Quantum” Turn In Tourism Research?, Waqas Ali

Plymouth Business School

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Market Transparency Through Co-Creation Of Csr And Sustainability Ratings Between Firms, Rating Agencies And Customers, Christopher Agyapong Siaw

Plymouth Business School

No abstract provided.

The Career Choices Of Final Year Nursing Students In The United Kingdom: A Qualitative Study., Kevin Hambridge, Frazer Underwood, Gosia Bettache, Matt Carey, Halil Kaya, Lisa Burrows, Rachel Tims, Christian Brailsford

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the career choices of final year under-graduate nursing students in the United Kingdom. Background: Worldwide there is a decreasing number of nurses and in the United Kingdom there is a decreasing amount of nursing students. There is sparce evidence relating to the career's choices of nursing students and reasons for those choices. Obtaining a deeper comprehension of these choices may aid healthcare employers, in partnership with universities, to design the future nursing workforce. Design: A qualitative design was used. Methods: Twenty-one final year under-graduate nursing students from across a range of …

An Evidence Review Of Technology Enabled Social Care In The Uk: Report For Cornwall Health Determinants Research Collaboration, Sheena Asthana, Michael Loizou, Marius Varga, Oliver Beer, Rory Baxter, Kieran Green

School of Nursing and Midwifery

The Urgent Need for a Shift from Crisis Intervention to Prevention. As highlighted by the Chief Medical Officer, demographic ageing—particularly acute in coastal areas like Cornwall—necessitates a fundamental shift in care models to allow individuals to live as independently as possible. Currently, the potential of digital technologies to support this aim is not being realised. To maintain wellbeing and reduce demand on statutory services, the system must pivot from reactive crisis management to a greater focus on prevention. While technology can play a pivotal role, it will only succeed if integrated into interoperable, data-driven systems that facilitate early intervention and …

Who Seeks Help? Characteristics Of Doctors Accessing Mental Health Support In England: 4-Year National Review, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundMental health difficulties affect the well-being of doctors and compromise the delivery of healthcare. However, large-scale data on doctors’ mental health needs are limited.AimsDescribe patterns of self-referrals for mental health support among doctors in England and explore associations with demographic factors, speciality, neurodevelopmental and mental health indicators.MethodObservational study using data from doctors who self-referred for mental health difficulties to a national service in England over a 4-year period. Logistic regression was used to explore associations between speciality and mental health indicators.ResultsOf the 16 815 doctors who self-referred during the study period, 80% were under the age of 49 and 70.6% …

The Effectiveness Of Digital Therapeutics Intervention In Oral Anticoagulation Management: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Jiayue Guo, Lili You, Lu Liu, Xitong Jiao, Debasish Kar, Jitendra Jonnagaddala

Peninsula Medical School

Objective: To summarize the key intervention characteristics and evaluate the effectivenessand safety of digital therapeutics (DTx) in patients receiving oral anticoagulation, witheffectiveness evaluated using time in therapeutic range (TTR), thromboembolic events (TEE),and mortality, and safety evaluated based on bleeding events.Patients and Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the CochraneLibrary from inception to June 20, 2025, and identified ten randomized controlled trialsinvolving 7,237 patients. The criteria required studies to assess software-based DTxsupporting anticoagulation management and report effectiveness or safety outcomes. Studyquality was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development,and Evaluation (GRADE) framework, and random-effects models were applied.Results: …

Patient And Practitioner Workshops For An Intellectual Disabilities And Epilepsy Neuropsychiatric Genetic Research Database Register: Ethical Dilemmas For Study Design, Rohit Shankar, Jon Allard, Dannielle Bilkey, Brendan Mclean, Pamela Bowman, Chloe Staples, Lance Watkins, Anna Simpson, Elizabeth Boardman, Sarah Mitchell, Sarah Lennard

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundThere is a need for more research studies focussed on People with ID (PwID) and Epilepsy and for the design of these studies to be shaped by this complex and vulnerable population and those who care for and support them.AimsTo develop understanding as to how a future NHS genetic research database register for PwID and Epilepsy should be conducted in a way which is inclusive, suitable and appropriate for them, their carers and the NHS settings where the research would be undertaken.MethodsThree workshops were completed with 17 formal participants: (1) PwID and Epilepsy (n2); (2) carers of PwID and Epilepsy …

Prevalence And Determinants Of Diabetes-Related Psychological Distress In A Tertiary Care Setting In Tamil Nadu: India: Cross-Sectional Study, Rohit Shankar, Samuel Tromans

Peninsula Medical School

BackgroundDiabetes distress, whereby people with diabetes experience distressing psychological symptoms associated with living with their condition, is an emerging problem in India. Diabetes distress leads to self-care deficits, suboptimal glycaemic control (which can lead to increasing risks of complications) and impaired quality of life.AimsTo determine the burden of diabetes distress and its associated factors in an Indian tertiary care centre in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, covering a population of 1.25 million.MethodThis prospective observational study involved a structured questionnaire covering demographic and clinical details, which was given to patients. The Diabetes Distress Scale 17 (DDS-17) was used to assess diabetes distress …

Involving Parents In Prevention: A Case Example Of Research And Intervention Development To Improve Financial Well-Being Support, Nick Axford, Gisella Hanley, Rebecca Summers, Kristin Liabo, Amy Bond, Eleanor Bryant, Georgia Smith, Rachel Silcock, Vashti Berry

Peninsula Medical School

The adverse effects on parent and child outcomes of poverty and stressors associated with low income are well established. With notable exceptions, however, the potential role of frontline services in improving family financial well-being is underexplored. This article outlines how patient and public involvement (PPI) was initiated early on in research on financial well-being support (FWbS). It illustrates how research can build on and integrate what parents say about services and how to research them. The involvement work was undertaken in one city in part to inform the adaptation of an income maximisation service to be delivered in local children’s …

Measuring Outcomes In Evaluations Of Interventions To Prevent Youth Crime And Violence: Challenges And Potential Solutions, Sajid Humayun, Finlay Green, Helen Downham, Nick Axford

Peninsula Medical School

There is a clear imperative to prevent youth crime and violence owing to the significant social and economic costs for individuals involved and wider society. A considerable evidence base for ‘what works’ in this space exists but gaps remain. To address these, it is necessary to evaluate intervention effectiveness. The aim of this article is to explore challenges and potential solutions regarding outcome measurement in such evaluations. To do this we draw on the literature and our experience as evaluators. We argue that outcome selection should be informed by a robust theory of change, and that normally this will mean …

Small-Molecule Therapies Targeting Tumor-Associated Macrophages In Glioma: Mechanisms And Potential, Hua Wang, Heng Luo, Haijian Zhong, Amy Ockleton, Feng Jiang, Renhui Yi, Shaochun Yang, Ming Li

Peninsula Medical School

Glioblastoma, a highly prevalent and aggressive primary brain tumor, is marked by poor prognosis due to the blood-brain barrier and chemoresistance, which limit conventional pharmacotherapy. Recent research has pivoted toward targeting the tumor microenvironment, where tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) drive gliomagenesis and malignant progression through immunosuppressive signaling. Small-molecule agents targeting TAMs have emerged as promising therapeutics, capable of reprogramming macrophage polarization, modulating immune cell dynamics, and suppressing glioma growth. This review explores the mechanistic roles of TAMs in glioma and evaluates how small-molecule compounds exert antitumor effects via TAM modulation. These insights lay a foundation for developing next-generation TAM-targeted therapies, offering …