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How Relational Instruction And Caring Learning Environments Relate To Mathematics Self-Concept: A Multilevel Investigation Of The High School Longitudinal Study Of Data, Sandra J. Miles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The purpose of this research is to look for ways mathematics teachers can increase their students' mathematics self-concept (i.e., achievement, confidence, and interest). Many students avoid taking upper-level mathematics classes or pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). However, the need for STEM professionals in the workforce will increase in future years and there is a projected shortage of students who will be trained to fill the demand. This research proposes that mathematics teachers can actively work to improve their students' self-concept by providing a caring and emotionally supportive learning environment as well as providing instruction that builds …

Intriguing Properties Of Data Attribution On Diffusion Models, Xiaosen Zheng, Tianyu Pang, Chao Du, Jing Jiang, Min Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Data attribution seeks to trace model outputs back to training data. With the recent development of diffusion models, data attribution has become a desired module to properly assign valuations for high-quality or copyrighted training samples, ensuring that data contributors are fairly compensated or credited. Several theoretically motivated methods have been proposed to implement data attribution, in an effort to improve the trade-off between computational scalability and effectiveness. In this work, we conduct extensive experiments and ablation studies on attributing diffusion models, specifically focusing on DDPMs trained on CIFAR-10 and CelebA, as well as a Stable Diffusion model LoRA-finetuned on ArtBench. …

Saltwater And Dirt: Using Magical Spaces For Queer Re-Worlding, Ramana Dienes-Browning

Postgraduate

This research project is a work of autotheory situated under the umbrella of Queer Theory. The work encompasses a theoretical component and a short performance art film and the two should be viewed as part of the whole. The creative practice has been used as a device to speak to the theory and bring it to life. The theory has informed, and homogenised with, the making of the art film. Through the course of this creative research project I found my way to a queer becoming through the comingling of magical phenomena, composting (Haraway, 2016, p.97) and hydrofeminism (Neimanis, 2012). …

Disrupting Negative Representations Of Queerness In Genre Cinema, Mark Gambino

Postgraduate

The stigmatisation of queer identities is a constant in cinematic history, especially so in horrorgenre movies. A transgressive and confronting medium, horror cinema presents numerous opportunities to align queer identities with cultural symbols of degeneracy; perpetuating associations that contribute to negative cultural attitudes towards queerness. While public discourse on such topics has advanced to entertain ideas of equity and authenticity in these representations, negative values and attitudes are yet evident in contemporary cultural texts. Therein lay an opportunity to examine how these attitudes and values are perpetuated through history by deconstructing how societal attitudes inform the creation of a text …

A Little Loud And A Little Alone: A Phenomenology Of Leadership Identity Construction Among Women In Higher Education Technology, Amy Barry

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This qualitative study is an exploration of how women in higher education information technology (IT) positions navigate constructing their leadership identities. This includes the messy, personal, internal identity work that occurs prior to claiming their leadership identities on the public stage, followed by an examination of what the experience of attempting to claim and negotiate a leadership identity is like in the social context of their organizations. This educational and sociological study employs an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach with a series of three interviews per participant that allowed the researcher to deeply explore the personal identity experiences of participants. Findings …

Understanding Peer Interactions In Undergraduate Engineering Education, Jack C. Elliott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Whether they occur inside or outside the classroom, social interactions between undergraduate students play a key role in student success. As a result, engineering education researchers have sought to understand why students interact with certain peers, and which types of interactions relate to positive student outcomes. While existing studies show promising results for formal group assignments, most have been conducted in a single undergraduate course. Because important student interactions occur outside and inside courses, more research is needed to fully understand (a) why students choose to, or not to, interact with other students, and (b) how these interactions relate to …

Eco-Anxiety Effects College Students, Alexa Edmundson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A survey was conducted on the UNL student population to evaluate whether college students, 18-25 year olds who are currently attending an accredited post-secondary school, are experiencing eco-anxiety and if eco-anxiety affects their pro-environmental behaviors. Climate change is taking a toll not only physically on us but also mentally. The mental health of people, especially college students, is not often studied in relation to climate change, but if we are to understand how to create change in this issue then we need to be looking at the whole picture. The hypothesis is that if college students are experiencing eco-anxiety, then …

Eco-Anxiety Effects College Students, Alexa Edmundson

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A survey was conducted on the UNL student population to evaluate whether college students, 18-25 year olds who are currently attending an accredited post-secondary school, are experiencing eco-anxiety and if eco-anxiety affects their pro-environmental behaviors. Climate change is taking a toll not only physically on us but also mentally. The mental health of people, especially college students, is not often studied in relation to climate change, but if we are to understand how to create change in this issue then we need to be looking at the whole picture. The hypothesis is that if college students are experiencing eco-anxiety, then …

Emergence: Social Movements, Law Enforcement, And Defending The Sanctity Of Life, Diana Elizabeth Aroche

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the aftermath of national social movements advocating for police reforms and accountability, with San Francisco emerging as a pivotal city at the forefront of criminal justice and policing transformations. Rebuilding community trust and implementing substantive police reforms aimed at preserving lives has proven to be a formidable challenge. The convergence of interests among all stakeholders, driven by a shared commitment to dismantling institutional racism and implementing reforms that fostered trust with communities of color and law enforcement, played a pivotal role.

A significant aspect of this reform process has been the development of social movement convergence, where …

Plug-And-Play Policy Planner For Large Language Model Powered Dialogue Agents, Yang Deng, Wenxuan Zhang, Wai Lam, See-Kiong Ng, Tat-Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Proactive dialogues serve as a practical yet challenging dialogue problem in the era of large language models (LLMs), where the dialogue policy planning is the key to improving the proactivity of LLMs. Most existing studies enable the dialogue policy planning of LLMs using various prompting schemes or iteratively enhance this capability in handling the given case with verbal AI feedback. However, these approaches are either bounded by the policy planning capability of the frozen LLMs or hard to be transferred to new cases. In this work, we introduce a new dialogue policy planning paradigm to strategize LLMs for proactive dialogue …

Investigating The Experiences Of Evangelical Couples Coping With Painful Intercourse During Early Marriage, Arielle L. Leonard Hodges

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Women who internalize evangelical purity messages face heightened risk for persistent pain or difficulty with penile-vaginal intercourse. Drawing on research in communication, psychology, and sexual medicine, the aim of this multilevel qualitative study is to increase understanding of how evangelical couples communicatively cope with painful intercourse and the memorable messages they believe contribute to their experiences of coping. This study involved conducting qualitative interviews with 20 evangelical married couples (40 total spouses) who currently or recently experienced a wife’s persistent pain during (attempted) penile-vaginal intercourse and 16 female clinicians (pelvic floor physical therapists and mental health professionals) who regularly work …

An Examination Of Missing Person Social Media Engagement Through Data Mining And Experimentation: An Application Of The Crisis And Emergency Risk Communication Model, Cailin M. Kuchenbecker

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), approximately 600,000 individuals are reported missing each year in the United States (2022). When missing person cases do not meet alert (e.g., AMBER) criteria, law enforcement often utilize social media to crowdsource information to ultimately return the missing home. Therefore, guided by the crisis and emergency risk communication model (CERC; Reynolds & Seeger, 2005) and its recently clarified propositions (Miller et al., 2021), the purpose of this dissertation was to (a) identify strategies law enforcement use to crowdsource missing person information and (b) experimentally test message characteristics that facilitate prosocial sharing of …

Experiences Of Latine Lgbtq+ High School Students In California, Michael Gorse

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Throughout history, Latine LGBTQ+ students have experienced discrimination, bullying, a lack of safety, and a lack of support in United States schools. In the unique political and social climate of California, the Latine LGBTQ+ student population have encountered a variety of supports (e.g., FAIR Act), successes (e.g., increased graduation rates), and challenges (e.g., Proposition 227, tracking) to their existence in schools. The limited prior research on Latine LGBTQ+ students has demonstrated that Latine LGBTQ+ students in positive school climates earn higher grades, attend school regularly, experience positive mental health outcomes, and feel a sense of connectedness to their schools. However, …

Becoming And Thriving As An Efl Instructor: Exploring Key Factors Contributing To Positive Identity Construction, Weiyi Xia

Education (PhD) Dissertations

This mixed methods study delved into the identity construction of English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors in private universities in China through a sequential two-stage exploration. The first stage adopted a 34-item EFL teacher identity questionnaire. Ninety valid responses were collected and subjected to correlation analysis using SPSS. Due to nonnormality in the data, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman’s rho tests were employed to derive referential outcomes. Data analysis revealed teaching experience and overseas experience were not influencing factors, whereas professional title was important in identity construction. Quantitative data provided references to participants’ recruitment and question design in the second stage …

Shattering The Glass Ceiling: A Grounded Theory Exploration Of Barriers And Facilitators To Women Leaders’ Career Advancement Within Private Universities In China, Xiuying Han

Education (PhD) Dissertations

The underrepresentation of female leaders across various career sectors, especially within higher education institutions (HEIs), has been an ongoing challenge worldwide. Moreover, little has been probed into women’s leadership development within the context of private HEIs in China. This study addresses the gap in academic research by applying a constructivist grounded theory to explore the experiences of women leaders in Chinese private universities. Through interviewing 26 mid- and senior-level women leaders, this study investigates the barriers and facilitators experienced by women leaders in their leadership development journeys within private HEIs in China. The study indicates these women leaders have overcome …

Investigating Factors Influencing Chinese Private College Students’ Engagement In Emergency Online Learning, Limei Cao

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Online learning has witnessed a rapid growth following its widespread adoption across global higher education throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although online learning was intended to maintain continuity of education during the public health emergency, the issue of student engagement in emergency online learning (EOL) has risen to prominence. Given the close association between student engagement and academic outcomes, investigating factors influencing student engagement in EOL is crucial for informing effective educational policies and interventions that support student success. In the absence of a comprehensive theoretical model for understanding student engagement in the unique context of EOL, this study proposed …

Comparative Analysis Of Sensory Attributes, Acceptance, And Evoked-Emotions Between Gluten-Free And Gluten-Containing Cookie Products, Shaelyn Frauenhoffer

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The demand for gluten-free products has increased over the past few decades as more people have been diagnosed with gluten-related dietary restrictions. Although there has been much research into certain gluten-free food products, there remains a gap in understanding the sensory attribute differences between traditional and gluten-free cookies. The aim of this study was to determine differences in sensory attributes and consumer acceptance of gluten-free versus gluten-containing chocolate chip cookies. Twelve chocolate chips across 11 brands were used in this study with 7 being gluten-free and 5 containing gluten. Eighty-nine participants were involved in the two-day study, with six cookies …

Evidence, W. Randall Bassett

Mercer Law Review

In its 2023 term, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit focused heavily on the role and admissibility of expert testimony under Rules 702–704 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. For example, in two opinions, the court considered the role of an expert’s qualifications and experience in supporting the admissibility of the expert’s opinions. In another case, they analyzed the scope of an expert’s ability to opine on an ultimate issue in a criminal case. The court also considered the role of lay witness opinion testimony compared to that of a retained expert and the admissibility of …

Protocols For Enhancing The Role And Value Of Spiritual Care Resources In The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Garrett Harper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the assessment of innovative practices in police chaplaincy. The purpose of the project intervention is to develop protocols that can guide police chaplains through an assessment process. The intervention relies on practical theology as exemplified through the ministry of chaplaincy. This ministry comprises police chaplains offering spiritual comfort to persons encountering critical incidents involving violence, accident, or other trauma-intensive events and situations. Adoption of innovations can allow police chaplains to be more effective in fulfilling many outward-focused tasks such as delivery of death notifications. I conclude that: (1) police chaplaincy is amenable to use of protocols to …

Cctfv2: Modeling Cyber Competitions, Basheer Qolomany, Tristan J. Calay, Liaquat Hossain, Aos Mulahuwaish, Jacques Bou Abdo

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Cyber competitions are usually team activities, where team performance not only depends on the members’ abilities but also on team collaboration. This seems intuitive, especially given that team formation is a well-studied discipline in competitive sports and project management, but unfortunately, team performance and team formation strategies are rarely studied in the context of cybersecurity and cyber competitions. Since cyber competitions are becoming more prevalent and organized, this gap becomes an opportunity to formalize the study of team performance in the context of cyber competitions. This work follows a cross-validating two-approach methodology. The first is the computational modeling of cyber …

Examining The Effects Of Menstrual Cycle Phase And Hormonal Contraceptive Use On Women's Sleep, Charles Ethan Coombs

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women overrepresent men for sub-optimal sleep, a consequence of hormone fluctuation in the menstrual cycle affecting sleep regulatory pathways. While research has examined the prevalence of sub-optimal sleep through cycle phases, little research has examined how hormonal contraceptives (HC’s) could similarly affect women’s sleep, while also neglecting to utilize subjective sleep measures. In this study, we examine subjective sleep quality among naturally cycling (NC) women, women using different HC types, and between active and inactive phase pill users by subjecting 463 women to a subjective sleep battery. We hypothesized that HC users would report more sub-optimal sleep than NC women. …

The Cognitive Implications Of Literary Devices And Perspective-Taking On Reading Time, Amelia Ward

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The study of literary devices in the context of published fiction is unusual in psychology; however, some research has suggested that reading time may be influenced by cognitive challenges that come with the extra work that may be necessary to understand the meaning behind an author’s usage of literary devices (Miall & Kuiken, 1994; Egen et al., 2019). Jumping off of this suggestion, this present study aimed to answer the question of whether reading time is influenced by factors such as narrative perspective, the usage of literary devices, a person’s print exposure, and a person’s need for cognition, as well …

Functional Biases Toward Formidable Men In Legal Domains, Bridget O'Neil, Mitch Brown

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The recurring threat of physical aggression throughout human evolutionary history presented a selection pressure that favored perceptual acuity threatening people. One heuristic of threat is men's formidability, often indexed by upper body strength. Although functional, such responses could be mismatched with demands of the U.S. legal system. The demands of a fair legal system could be at odds with ancestrally informed motives that serve to mitigate harm, a bias that has previously been demonstrated to increase sentencing length based on features deemed aggressive. This study extends previous findings by focusing on men's upper body strength while assessing how specific motivations …

Behavioral Biases In Daily Fantasy Baseball: The Case Of The Hot Hand, Jeremy M. Losak, Andrew P. Weinbach, Rodney J. Paul

Sport Management - All Scholarship

Despite mixed evidence, sport participants and fans heavily believe in the existence of the hot hand. Prior literature examining NBA and NFL betting markets found betters were biased toward hot teams. Using a unique market and data set, this study identifies if the hot hand is prevalent in daily fantasy baseball contests, if there is a profitable hot hand selection strategy, and if consumers believe in its existence. Results show that while there is no evidence of a hot hand effect, and no evidence of a profitable hot hand strategy, consumers believe in and incorporate it in their lineup decisions.

Political Spam: Why It Sucks And How To Fix It, Alex Slawson

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

State V. Kelliher: Providing A Meaningful Opportunity For Juvenile Offenders In North Carolina, Amy R. Price

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Personal Green Spaces During The Pandemic - Perceptions Towards Urban Home Gardens During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Bengaluru, India, Varsha Bhaskaran, Charles Nilon

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in a short span of time to people’s life and living. Being in a lockdown, especially in urban areas, has led to changes in the way people perceive nature around them and within their homes. Research on this topic in the cities of the global south has been limited with even fewer studies in Indian cities. To begin to address this gap, in this exploratory study we interviewed 30 residents of Bengaluru, India to understand how they perceived the changes they experienced in their home gardens and in the nature around their …

The Impact Of One Night Of Sleep Restriction On Perception Of Subsequent Aerobic Exercise Performance, Erin G. Meier

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Introduction: Previous research has established that poor sleep quality negatively impacts aerobic exercise performance. A majority of that research has examined extreme sleep disruption like complete sleep deprivation or multiple nights of reduced sleep. Little research exists examining the effect of a singular night of sleep restriction (SR) on performance, and there is even less research on the associated perceptual feelings and outcomes from SR that may influence performance. Previous research from our laboratory has suggested that a single night of SR may impair performance, but did not account for sleep inertia or examine any perceptual factors. Therefore, the …

Foster Children Facing Communication Disorders, Ashlyn Carter

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The foster care system is alarmingly overpopulated, which leads to many foster children experiencing neglect of care in many issues they face, whether medical, speech, or mental conditions; which is unacceptable. These children already face so many trials and difficulties throughout life and deserve to receive care and treatment in these situations the same as any other child. The purpose of this research is to work to make sure children who are dealing with speech and communication disorders are having those issues recognized, being taken to treatment, and being given the opportunity to fix these things, thus helping to avoid …

How Engaged Are Infants And Toddlers While Picture Book Reading?, Zoe Lawless

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction: Literacy is a very important skill that begins to be acquired at birth. Most children start to develop pre-literacy skills by being read to by their parents or other adults around them. Being read aloud to can occur at many different ages and can start as early as infancy. As children grow, they interact and engage with books in different ways. This thesis aims to investigate the read-aloud behaviors of two different groups of young children, to reveal differences in engagement interactions among infants and young toddlers when being read picture books by their teacher.

Methods: The …