Digital Commons Network^™

Deep Learning-Based Geomorphic Feature Identification In Dredge Pit Marine Environment, Wenqiang Zhang, Xiaobing Chen, Xiangwei Zhou, Jianhua Chen, Jianguo Yuan, Taibiao Zhao, Kehui Xu

Faculty Publications

Deep learning methods paired with sidescan sonar (SSS) are commonly used in underwater search-and-rescue operations for drowning victims, wrecks, and airplanes. However, these techniques are primarily used to detect mine-like objects and are rarely applied to identifying features in dynamic dredge pit environments. In this study, we present a Sandy Point dredge pit (SPDP) dataset, in which high-resolution SSS data were collected from the west flank of the Mississippi bird-foot delta on the Louisiana inner shelf. This dataset contains a total of 385 SSS images. We then introduce a new Effective Geomorphology Classification model (EGC). Through ablation studies, we analyze …

Computational Models As Tools For Supporting Responsive Teaching, Hillary Swanson, Luettamae Lawrence, Jared Arnell, Bonni Jones, Bruce Sherin, Uri Wilensky

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

It is widely agreed that science instruction should help students build new knowledge on the foundation of their prior knowledge. Responsive teaching refers to a family of teaching strategies that pursue and build on student ideas. We introduce a particular approach to responsive teaching and examine how it can be supported by the use of computational models. We analyze an 8^th grade science teacher's facilitation of a class discussion near the end of a lesson on sound. We present a moment-by-moment characterization of her responsive teaching moves, highlighting the ways she used a computational model to help students articulate …

Parent And Community Involvement In Schools, Katie Freking

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan at Carlisle Elementary focuses on enhancing parent and community involvement through structured strategies and collaborative efforts. Despite the existing engagement frameworks, the school recognizes the need for more effective integration of caregivers and local stakeholders in educational processes. The plan proposes forming committees, increasing communication, providing inclusive training sessions, and fostering an environment that respects diverse backgrounds. Utilizing the Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS) and Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI), the project aims to systematically improve family and community participation. Initial data suggest areas such as household communication and caregiver training need significant enhancement. The anticipated implementation …

Multisensory System For Probing Scattering Media, Muralidhar Madabhushi Balaji

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

There are numerous problems in the physical sciences wherein the scattering of light fundamentally limits our ability to perceive and reason about objects within the visual field. Examples include navigation in foggy weather, detecting hidden contraband/explosives, detecting diseased regions in agricultural produce, and detecting tumors within tissue. In all these scenarios, the scrambling of light paths due to scattering reduces the ability to locate embedded objects and identify their spatial or spectral features.

Existing approaches address the challenge by augmenting optical sensing modalities with complementary techniques that do not rely on optical phenomenology, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or …

Exploring Aspiring K-12 School Leaders' Understanding Of Culturally Responsive School Leadership, Muhammad S. Uddin, Thurman Bridges

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This qualitative document analysis study analyzed 13 aspiring school leaders’ assignments to explore their understanding of Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL). A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze their papers, and five themes emerged. These were (1) leading by example, (2) showing care and support, (3) enhancing teachers’ capacity, (4) ensuring culturally responsive curriculum and instruction, and (5) building teacher-student relationships. The findings of this study showed that aspiring school leaders need more research-based strategies to lead their future schools using CRSL approaches. This study suggested that leadership preparation programs implement praxis-based learning and simulation to prepare future school …

Leading With Hope: A Grounded Theory Exploration Of Trauma Informed Leadership For School Principals, Christopher Bottoms, Robert J. Lynch, Shawn Ricks, Julie Hasson

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Before the age of 18, 60% of U.S. youth are estimated to have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), with 1 in 6 experiencing four or more ACEs. This study sought to uncover the ways in which school principals understand and enacted ways to support students that have experienced trauma. Using grounded theory methods (n=15), we explored how school principals utilize trauma-informed leadership as a means to support students. The impact of this study may help in the revision of how school principals are evaluated, professional development for school principals, and the academic preparation for school administration candidates.

Leading Participatory Action Research For Teacher Agency, Kimberly Hellerich

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Participatory Action Research (PAR) can benefit teachers and students. Based on student-led PAR projects utilized within the author's secondary classroom, student researchers provided instructional strategy recommendations based on student researchers' analysis of peers' survey responses. Yet without a transformative leadership approach, allowing for teacher agency and empowerment, PAR projects will not be successfully implemented. The author describes a set of teacher and leader dispositions that are expected to allow PAR projects to be successful.

Preparing Teachers For The Rise Of Challenging Behaviors, Abbie Chesling

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Previous research indicates the increase of challenging behaviors observed and how those behaviors impact the classroom. Findings from the research show the lifelong effects of adverse childhood experiences, trauma manifestations, and educational impacts. Other studies acknowledged educators and their experiences with negative behaviors in the classroom. Those same studies recognized a lack of teacher readiness to manage challenging behaviors in the classroom. A school improvement plan was designed to provide all school staff with targeted professional development to help mitigate challenging behaviors and the lasting impact in the school setting.

Effective Classroom Instruction For Ell Students, Kyle Johnson

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research shows that English Language Learners (ELL) consistently perform worse than their peers on standardized exams. Studies have also shown that teachers are not prepared to teach English language learners effectively. This school improvement plan was created with the goal of improving the performance of struggling students. Through increasing teacher efficacy, students will succeed more. This plan includes a professional development strategy, opportunities for peer learning, and coaching for teachers.

Teaching Practices To Prevent And Support Challenging Behaviors In Early Childhood Classrooms, Abigail Koster

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

search is finding that challenging behaviors are occurring in classrooms more and more. Challenging behaviors are one of the main reasons that teachers are leaving the profession along with large workloads, and lack of administration and community support. Research shows that teachers need to have a strong classroom management plan and high consistence expectations to diminish challenging behaviors from occurring in the classroom. With research in mind, a school improvement plan was created to provide professional development for teachers in the fall to support them in creating strong classroom management plans for the following school year. Teachers will using the …

Adopting Trauma-Invested Practices, Strategies, And Interventions, Tara F.K. Lynn

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

The aim of this school improvement plan is to implement professional development by raising trauma awareness, developing a trauma-invested lens, and implementing trauma-invested practices, strategies, and interventions across all elementary school environments. Existing literature emphasizes the prevalence of trauma among children and its adverse effects on their well-being and academic performance. National, State of Iowa, and Iowa County, Iowa data indicates a rise in traumatic childhood experiences, proving the need for increased professional development. Many educators and administrators do not understand the effects of trauma on the emotional well-being, brain growth, and learning of students with trauma and how to …

Research And Benefits Of The Outdoor Learning Lab: A School Improvement Project, Crystal A. Berkenes

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan (SIP) is a comprehensive review of research, action plan and steps to provide evidence-based strategies for implementing an effective Outdoor Learning Lab (OLL) at North High School (NHS). The literature review will detail foundational research, which has demonstrated students’ academic and social-emotional gains in a science-based outdoor learning or garden-based education setting. The goal is to increase student conscientiousness in the self-contained earth science classroom during the 2024-2025 school year.

Implementing Restorative Practices To Reduce Suspension Rate, Haley Spohr

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Data from schools around America have shown that suspension rates have increased, resulting in lower student outcomes. Studies have revealed that using restorative practices as an alternative to discipline can have a positive effect on student success, relationships at school, and school culture/climate. A school improvement plan was created to decrease the use of exclusionary discipline by embedding whole-school restorative practices. This comprehensive plan is designed to provide staff members with a skill set to keep students in the building more and to teach students accountability, respect, and empathy.

Strengthening Parental Involvement, Danielle M. Castaneda

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Parental involvement has been empirically shown to improve assessment growth over the years throughout a teacher’s career. Research has revealed foundational pillars, Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model and Epstein’s six types of parental involvement, that are used to encourage parents to understand the importance of parental involvement. Barriers to consistency have been identified as having differing attitudes based on culture and climate, discrepancies in school leadership related to policies and programs, effective communication among teachers and parents, and advocation in early childhood parental involvement. Three components are linked to implementing an operational plan that addresses and overcomes these barriers. This school improvement …

Implementing Pbis With Fidelity, Emily Distler

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports is a data-driven framework aimed at improving student behavior, school climate and academic performance, but its successful implementation requires staff buy-in and consistent application despite its potential. This school improvement plan aims to implement PBIS with fidelity, address student behavior and staff buy-in barriers and ensure consistent applications for a positive school climate and improved student outcomes. The implementation strategy involves staff training, continuous professional development and regular data collection and analysis. Training will focus on PBIS principles, emphasizing its benefits for students and the school environment. Continuous professional development will incorporate feedback and adapt …

Students Speak: A Qualitative Examination Of The Intersection Of Identity And Sexual Violence In A University Setting, Danika M. Charles

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence remains a public health concern in the United States. Much of the research has focused on gender-binary individuals, despite the heightened vulnerability of Black, transgender, and nonbinary (BTN) individuals due to societal stigma and discrimination. Campus climate surveys have been recommended by the Obama Administration to address sexual violence, though they often underrepresent BTN students, failing to capture their unique experiences. This study aims to bridge this gap by focusing on the intersection of gender and racial identities, using an intersectional stigma framework to explore the prevalence and impact of sexual violence on BTN students and advocate for …

Online Teaching And Learning At Chinese Universities During Covid-19: Insiders’ Perspectives, Youliang Zhang, Yidan Zhu, Tongjie Chen, Tongfei Ma

Journal of Global Education and Research

During attempts to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic in China, higher education programs shifted their traditional educational models to online models. This paper aimed to explore how Chinese universities organized online teaching and learning during the pandemic. It investigated the factors affecting the implementation of online teaching and provided policy recommendations for improving the quality of education in the post-pandemic period. The primary data for this study came from in-depth interviews with nine students and five teaching and administrative staff at eight major universities in mainland China. Literature was obtained in both English and Chinese from January 2020 to …

Cognitive Technologies, Tom Davenport

Asian Management Insights

AI and the revolution of work.

Professor Tom Davenport, the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, speaks about how companies can integrate generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into their operations while ensuring workforce adaptation and skills development.

Effective Elementary School Leadership: Does Teacher Perception Of Leadership Effectiveness Matter To The Academic Performance Of Elementary School Students?, Goldy Brown Iii, Tina Salzman

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This study investigated one research question regarding the potential school leaders have in increasing student outcomes in low socio economic elementary schools. Based on teacher perception, are certain aspects of effective leadership more vital to the success of low socio economic elementary schools than others? The findings show that a school leader’s ability to build a productive school climate may have a more exigent connection to student outcomes in low-socioeconomic elementary schools than in elementary schools with a majority of affluent students.

Development Of An Algorithm To Identify And Calculate The Amount Of File Slack On An Image Of A Given Drive, Nicholas Flynn

Honors Theses

As society increasingly relies on technology, the rates of cyber crime have been increasing at exponential rates. Cyber criminals are also discovering new ways to hide evidence of their crimes. This study develops a forensic analysis algorithm to evaluate the amount of file slack on an image of a drive. Slack space, leftover drive space on a disk sector after a file has been written, can be exploited to hide data. The algorithm aims to detect and calculate this slack space to help direct forensic investigations. The algorithm was evaluated on a population dataset of 100,000 files with random data …

Poly(Thioether) Thermosets With Gated Photodegradation, Surabhi Jha

Dissertations

Photodegradable polymer networks are attractive due to the precise spatiotemporal control and large-area applicability of light. Chemical linkages that enable these polymer networks to be photo-responsive, also hinder their applicability in ambient light. Photostable and photodegradable networks have recently been reported to overcome this challenge by combining other stimuli with light for degradation. We report the design of a network that responds to a simultaneous, dual stimulus for photodegradation. We design poly(thioether acetal) networks with benzylidene acetal moieties that are known to undergo β-scission in the presence of free thiols. By blocking these free thiols with a thermally labile protecting …

Crosssections, Summer 2024, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Physics.

CrossSections

Contents:

A Message from the Department Head, Dr. Paul Shand --- 01
New Secretary --- 02
Homecoming Picnic --- 03
Visits to the Department --- 04
Awards Banquet --- 05
Begeman Lecture --- 05
Physics Competition --- 06
Holiday Colloquium --- 06
Tim Kidd Lecture --- 07
Faculty Profile - Larry Escalada --- 07
Student Profile - Ashley Harrington --- 08
Student Research - Haley Harms --- 10
Physics Scholarships and Awards --- 12
Teacher Education Transformation --- 13
Alumni Profile - Justin Bohnet --- 14
Alumni News - Corey Cooling --- 15
Alumni News - John Bolte --- 16 …

Collective Victim Beliefs In The Aftermath Of Historical Trauma And Their Effects On Psychological Well-Being: Initial Findings Among The Polish Diaspora In The United States, Magdalena Skrodzka, Johanna Ray Vollhardt

Psychology

Historical trauma impacts the affected groups long after traumatic events. In response to such experiences, people may make sense of this history through collective victimisation beliefs that compare their ingroup's experiences to outgroups' experiences. Additionally, they may perceive these collective experiences as central to their self and group identity, or distance themselves from them. However, it is not yet well understood how distinct beliefs about historical trauma are linked to psychological well-being. The present study examined this question among the Polish diaspora in the United States (N = 280). Mediation analyses showed a negative indirect effect of exclusive victim beliefs …

Establishment Of Protocols To Measure Near-Ir(Nir) Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers) Signals Of Nir Dye, Justin B. Ramsey

Forensic Science Master's Projects

Biomedical imaging techniques are crucial for early disease diagnostics, particularly for life-threatening conditions. However, traditional methods have inherent limitations, such as restricted spatial resolution and potential risks associated with repeated exposure to ionizing radiation. Near-infrared (NIR) surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) presents a promising alternative due to its minimal risks and potential for high-resolution biomedical imaging. A key challenge in NIR-SERS biomedical imaging is the development of biocompatible, nontoxic SERS substrates that can be safely introduced into the human body, targeting specific cells and tissues effectively.

NIR-SERS substrates typically consist of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) modified with biorecognition elements and reporter molecules, …

Nurturing Entrepreneurship And Growing Entrepreneurs, Sun Sun Lim, Abdullah Khurshid, Dexter Ye Kai Tan, Gabrielle Lay Khim Tan

Asian Management Insights

How Southeast Asia’s universities can pave the way.

Universities in Southeast Asia:

1. Can unlock the potential of changemakers in driving economic growth through entrepreneurship education.

2. Accelerate the growth of the ASEAN start-up ecosystem by facilitating technology commercialisation, leveraging regional networks for mentorship and funding, and fostering cross-border collaborations.

3. Have birthed at least five of Southeast Asia's unicorns and are set to lead the way in producing more.

The Creativity Conundrum, Andrew Heng

Asian Management Insights

1. My survey of Chinese and German workers shows that the impact of remote work on creativity varies by gender, culture, and age.

2. Chinese women, in particular, grapple with cultural and gender norms that hamper creativity in remote work settings.

3. Hybrid work models can provide flexibility without sacrificing talent or creativity.

Unlimbited Wellness©: Peer Support For Psychosocial Wellness In Limb-Different Families, Kara Fhon

OTD DEx Reports - College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

"Parents of children with upper limb difference (ULD) face many secondary conditions to their limb difference. Some secondary conditions include depression and anxiety, and these psychosocial aspects can alter self-image, body image and the ability to feel comfortable in society as a person with limb difference. There is nominal research on the psychosocial components for this population and limited resources and peer support networks available to them. Occupational therapists (OT) can provide tools for parents of children with ULD to support their mental health concerns. The unique lens of OTs can supply different resources to improve the quality of life …

Pulling The Tap: Examining Ergonomic Intervention On Bartenders Experiencing Occupational Deficits, Makayla Descault

OTD DEx Reports - College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

"Musculoskeletal disorders causing chronic pain has become a growing issue in the brewing industry and has caused workers to be prone to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and chronic pain. The explanation for this trend is due to engagement in repetitive motions such as lifting heavy or awkward objects, reaching, standing, bending, or twisting repetitively. Long term, these injuries can negatively impact occupational engagements outside of work. Current literature indicates that ergonomic educational programs can reduce musculoskeletal injuries for workers and be cost effective for small businesses. Data gathered from previous case studies related to breweries and ergonomic programs was used to …

Nutric: Enhancing Surgical Intensive Care Unit Patient Nutrition Consultations, Misty Armstrong

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Daily nutritional screenings in the critical care population can identify patients in need of nutritional modifications during hospital admission. Inadequate nutritional assessments of critically ill patients lead to poor outcomes. Daily nutritional assessments result in the early identification of patients at risk for nutritional compromise compared to weekly assessments.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to incorporate a daily nutritional assessment using the Nutrition Risk in the Critically Ill (NUTRIC) scores for patients in a surgical intensive care unit to identify patients in need of a referral to a registered dietician.

Methods: The method for this project used …

Improving Early Detection And Treatment Of Chlamydia By Implementing A Routine Chlamydia Screening And Testing In Females Between The Ages Of 18–24, Isabelle Vikumitsi

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Chlamydia Trachomatis is the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the United States. One in 20 sexually active females between the ages of 15 and 24 have chlamydia. Most people with the infection are asymptomatic and do not seek treatment. Chlamydial infections in women, especially if untreated, increase the risk of infertility and ectopic pregnancy, leading to higher medical costs.

Purpose: The project aimed to implement early screening for chlamydial infections in the young adult population to increase early detection of the disease.

Methods: A pre-post design was used for this project to compare chlamydia diagnosis rates …