Digital Commons Network^™

Sociolinguistics Of Saudi Vision 2030: Paradigm Shift Through English Faculty’S Perspectives Of Translanguaging At A Saudi University., Naif Masrahi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Many educational systems around the world insist on applying an English Only Policy (EOP) when teaching the English language at universities without addressing their contextual needs. In Saudi Arabia, this problem leads to reduced satisfaction among faculty regarding students’ English level (Alharbi & Alqefari, 2022; Alkhairy, 2013; Alqahtani, 2020; Alsaawi, 2019; Alshammari, 2022; Altale & Alta’ani, 2019; Alzahrani, 2019; Elyas & Picard, 2010). However, the new educational transformation promised by Saudi Vision 2030 (2016) supports the Arabic language as a mother tongue for Saudis, English as an important language, and the teaching of critical thinking to respond to current global …

Indigenous Student Responses Of Resiliency To Adversity, Aaron Billie

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The purpose of this study was to analyze the responses of Indigenous students as they experience situations that are adversarial and precarious. One of the goals of this study was to empower voices of Indigenous students in providing an avenue to share their genuine stories of resilience. I served as both researcher and mentor as I applied a Navajo framework to the analysis of the data known as Nitl‘iz Saad bee Hozho Iina Sila (NSBHIS), or beautiful lifeways exist within the language of precious elements. The four areas of this framework held up the salient outcomes from the research which …

Unm Hslic Organizational Chart 2023, Sally Bowler-Hill

HSLIC Organizational Charts

No abstract provided.

Myeloid Fth1 Deficiency Protects Mice From Colitis And Colitis-Associated Colorectal Cancer Via Reducing Dmt1-Imported Iron And Stat3 Activation, Zhaoli Liu, Mariella Arcos, David R. Martin, Xiang Xue

Pathology Research and Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Myeloid cells are critical for iron and immune homeostasis. Ferritin heavy chain (FTH1) is essential for intracellular iron storage. Myeloid FTH1 is important in the pathogenesis of many inflammatory diseases. However, the role of myeloid FTH1 in colitis and colitis-associated cancer has not been determined.

METHODS: Myeloid FTH1 deficient and wild-type mice were treated with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) or azoxymethane (AOM)-DSS to compare their susceptibility to acute colitis or colitis-associated cancer.

RESULTS: Myeloid FTH1-deficient mice fed with a high-iron diet were less susceptible to DSS-induced acute colitis than wild type mice. Mechanistic studies showed that myeloid FTH1 deficiency …

Performance Evaluation Of E-Ticketing Technologies On Asphalt Paving Projects In New Mexico, Gena C. Robertson

Civil Engineering ETDs

The collection and processing of paper tickets for construction material delivery is an inefficient and antiquated practice that exposes inspectors on highway paving projects to substantial safety risks. An alternative to the collection of paper tickets is e-Ticketing, which uses web-based systems to deliver similar information. This research documented a current paper ticketing process and compared it to an e-Ticketing process that was implemented on several pilot projects. Data were obtained using stakeholder meetings, personnel interviews, and surveys. When compared to a paper ticketing system, e-Ticketing was shown to have fewer opportunities for error, require fewer decision points, and provide …

Development Of The Navigator: A Lagrangian Smart Sensing System To Characterize Aquatic Ecosystems., Aashish Sanjay Khandelwal

Civil Engineering ETDs

Most freshwater aquatic studies rely on Eulerian monitoring, i.e., water quality and quantity are monitored using grab samples or semi-continuous sensors deployed at fixed cross-sections. While Eulerian monitoring is practical, it provides a limited understanding of spatial and temporal heterogeneity and their effects on environmental processes. This dissertation summarizes the design and application of The Navigator, an alternative Lagrangian monitoring system that offers cost-effective solutions for in-situ, real-time data collection in lotic and lentic freshwater ecosystems such as streams, rivers, ponds, and reservoirs. The Navigator features a suite of methods – an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) with GPS and LTE …

Diversification By Dispersal Out Of The Andes Revealed By A Newly Discovered Hummingbird Clade, The ‘True Brilliants’, Marialejandra Castro-Farías

Biology ETDs

We identified a novel clade with striking biogeographic implications. Unsampled genera, Hylonympha and Sternoclyta, were found to be close to the genus Heliodoxa within the Brilliants. Heliodoxa tend to occur in lower montane habitats, such as the tropical, upper tropical, and subtropical elevational zones of the Andes and the Neotropics. Analysis of geographic and elevational zones showed that genus Heliodoxa and related genera diversified by out-of-Andes dispersal to mountain ranges of Central America, coastal Venezuela, the Pantepui, and southeastern Brazil, since the mid-Miocene. Within the Brilliants, reductions in elevation preceded these geographic expansions. Secondary colonization of the lowlands from …

An Investigation Of Freshwater Turtle Ecology Using Stable Isotopes, Jonathan Duran

Biology ETDs

In 2022 I investigated niche partitioning among native and invasive freshwater turtles across three sites in the Middle Rio Grande using bulk stable isotope analysis. I found high degrees of niche partitioning at sites in which Red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta) have yet to establish. However, at sites in which red-eared sliders are now the most abundant species they overlapped greatly in isotopic niche with all native turtles, in particular the painted turtle (Chrysemys picta). Using these same techniques, I then examined the trophic interactions between red-eared sliders and their acanthocephalan parasites. My results suggest that acanthocephalans …

Post-Fire Plant Community Response In Subalpine Mixed Conifer Forest, Sasha Escamilla

Biology ETDs

Increased wildfire activity may lead to significant shifts in vegetation dynamics in high elevation mixed conifer forests. These changes raise concerns about the resilience of forests following wildfire, prompting the need for a deeper understanding of post-fire plant community response. We analyzed up to 11 years of post-fire vegetation data from Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico to determine how burned vegetation sites were recovering following high severity wildfire, and whether or not plant communities were transitioning to montane grassland. We found burned understory herbaceous communities were not transitioning into distinctive montane grasslands and were instead recovering to …

Thermoregulation In Nocturnal Volant Endotherms Occupying Hot Deserts, William A. Talbot

Biology ETDs

The study of thermoregulation is of growing concern in this era of rapid climate change. Earlier studies such as those pioneered by Scholander and Bartholomew directed focus toward the study of endotherm survival in conditions of cold weather adversity. As techniques evolved in the measurement of parameters quantifying thermoregulation, metabolism and energy allocation, the standardization procedures has increased the comparability of data from diverse taxa. We can now search historical records and current research for explanations to the changes in the distribution, migration, extirpation or survival of animal and plant populations through time. It is increasingly common to observe dramatic …

Resolving The Paradox Of Polyploidy: Underexplored Facets Of Polyploid Plants, Benjamin P. Gerstner

Biology ETDs

Polyploidy, or whole genome duplication, is a common phenomenon in plants, but the establishment and persistence of mixed-ploidy populations remains a paradox. This dissertation explores factors that contribute to the persistence and establishment of mixed-ploidy populations in nature. The first chapter investigates the role of unreduced gametes in neopolyploid establishment and finds that variability in their formation rate can have a significant impact on polyploid establishment and persistence. The second chapter searches for evidence of soil microbes exhibiting ploidy-specificity, a pre-condition for microbe-mediated niche differentiation, a possible stabilizing mechanism contributing to ploidy coexistence. Finally, the third chapter tests for microbe-mediated …

Synthetic Biology Enabled Modification Of Bone Cells And Impact On Bone Mineral Resorption, Dulce C. Hayes

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Development of a cell culture based bone model can contribute to biomedical research by producing a reproducible model system that mimics a bone remodeling disorder and reduces the use of animals in research studies. Synthetic biology was used to engineer osteoblast cell lines to alter a key protein in the RANKL pathway in efforts to control the bone remodeling process. Osteoblast cell lines, K7M2 and MC3T3-E1 Subclone 4 were engineered to express osteoprotegerin (OPG) and inhibit OPG expression, respectively. The upregulation of OPG expression was confirmed with Real Time PCR and Quantikine® Immunoassay. To identify the functionality of the engineered …

E-Resources Collection Development In Select Central University Libraries In Delhi, Suboohi (Surbhi) Siddiqui Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose –The present study aims to analyse the collection development/ access management of e-resources among the three Central Universities in Delhi. The study also analyses the allocation of budget to accessing as well as selection criteria for print and electronic resources.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The study is based on the research being done for the PhD work and required data is collected through the questionnaire, interview and observation among the three central universities viz. Jamia Millia Islamia, Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Delhi in Delhi.

Findings – The electronic documents are the dominant forms of present-day library procurement in …

Library Services And Facilities To University Students At Tertiary: An Evidence From Pakistan, Abdullah Jamil, Rustum Ali, Bilal Ahmad

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper intends to examine academic library services and facilities for university students at the tertiary level in Punjab. It has been observed that all educational institutions specifically higher education has an academic library to facilitate the students in terms of their academic activities and research-oriented tasks. This study has been conducted to measure the response of library patrons of two Public Sector Universities in Punjab, Pakistan. The unit of analysis has been based on the enrolled students of the University of Gujrat, Gujrat, and Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan. A sample of 16 students (8 students from …

Successful Equity, Diversity, And Inclusivity (Edi) Initiatives In Progressive Public Libraries And Their Communities, Jameson Paul Ghalioungui

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) initiatives in public libraries are noble and endless endeavors that take many forms of action. Obviously, no one community, nor library, is the same. Consequently, no one community and/or library-centered EDI journey is the same. However, interestingly, progressive Illinois (IL) state libraries have walked the same roads. Interestingly, these realizations have led to a shift in priority and strategic focus resulting in many of these libraries to take action by contracting consultants to conduct full-scale equity assessments. Conclusions from these kinds of equity assessments have helped to contextualize and legitimize EDI-focused strategic planning decisions and …

Circulation Policies And Practices In Academic Libraries: A Study Of Lagos Business School Library, Odomero Omohwovo, Ezinwanyi Madukoma Ph.D, Ifedapo Ojutawo

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

This study assessed the awareness and implementation of circulation policies and practices at the Lagos Business School library. The study used a survey research design and data was collected using a questionnaire. Purposive sampling was used to select 150 respondents for inclusion in the study. The study showed that the majority of respondents were aware of the circulation policy at the Lagos Business School library. As indicated by 86.0% of respondents, library orientations for users were the most common form of awareness, followed by library website pages. The results further revealed that there is a high degree of implementation …

Evolve Path Tracer: Early Detection Of Malicious Addresses In Cryptocurrency, Ling Cheng, Feida Zhu, Yong Wang, Ruicheng Liang, Huiwen Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the boom of cryptocurrency and its concomitant financial risk concerns, detecting fraudulent behaviors and associated malicious addresses has been drawing significant research effort. Most existing studies, however, rely on the full history features or full-fledged address transaction networks, both of which are unavailable in the problem of early malicious address detection and therefore failing them for the task. To detect fraudulent behaviors of malicious addresses in the early stage, we present Evolve Path Tracer, which consists of Evolve Path Encoder LSTM, Evolve Path Graph GCN, and Hierarchical Survival Predictor. Specifically, in addition to the general address features, we propose …

The Future Of Cryptocurrency And Blockchain Technology In Finance, Wanyi Wong, Alan @ Ali Madjelisi Megargel

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cryptocurrencies have been all the rage in recent years, with many being drawn to their appeal as speculative investment assets. Its proponents also champion the secure and decentralised nature of the technology it is based on, called the blockchain. Given the secure nature of blockchain technology, the idea of adopting cryptocurrencies as legal tender currency has also been mooted and experimented with – with the most famous example being the Central American nation of El Salvador’s bold move to adopting the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021. In theory, this would provide a solution to the high transaction …

Generalization Through Diversity: Improving Unsupervised Environment Design, Wenjun Li, Pradeep Varakantham, Dexun Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Agent decision making using Reinforcement Learning (RL) heavily relies on either a model or simulator of the environment (e.g., moving in an 8x8 maze with three rooms, playing Chess on an 8x8 board). Due to this dependence, small changes in the environment (e.g., positions of obstacles in the maze, size of the board) can severely affect the effectiveness of the policy learned by the agent. To that end, existing work has proposed training RL agents on an adaptive curriculum of environments (generated automatically) to improve performance on out-of-distribution (OOD) test scenarios. Specifically, existing research has employed the potential for the …

Context-Aware Event Forecasting Via Graph Disentanglement, Yunshan Ma, Chenchen Ye, Zijian Wu, Xiang Wang, Yixin Cao, Tat-Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Event forecasting has been a demanding and challenging task throughout the entire human history. It plays a pivotal role in crisis alarming and disaster prevention in various aspects of the whole society. The task of event forecasting aims to model the relational and temporal patterns based on historical events and makes forecasting to what will happen in the future. Most existing studies on event forecasting formulate it as a problem of link prediction on temporal event graphs. However, such pure structured formulation suffers from two main limitations: 1) most events fall into general and high-level types in the event ontology, …

Vehicle Routing Problem With Parcel Locker And Public Transportation: Goods Delivery Using Mass-Rapid-Transit System, Pham K.M. Nguyen, Vincent F. Yu, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The logistics industry is experiencing significant transformations with the emergence of modern technologies, well-established civil infrastructure, and mixed transportation methods. These changes are driven by the increase in mobility, sustainability, and eco-friendliness of logistics processes. As a result, recent works have focused on incorporating mixed fleets and omnichannel systems to the original vehicle routing problem which boosts the delivery system's efficiency, effectiveness, reliability, and customer satisfaction while reducing operational costs simultaneously. We augment the existing studies by proposing a new mathematical model that combines common mass rapid transit systems and delivery fleets to solve the traditional vehicle routing problem with …

Numgpt: Improving Numeracy Ability Of Generative Pre-Trained Models, Zhihua Jin, Xin Jiang, Xiangbo Wang, Qun Liu, Yong Wang, Xiaozhe Ren, Huamin Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Existing generative pre-trained language models (e.g., GPT) focus on modeling the language structure and semantics of general texts. However, those models do not consider the numerical properties of numbers and cannot perform robustly on numerical reasoning tasks (e.g., math word problems and measurement estimation). In this paper, we propose NumGPT, a generative pre-trained model that explicitly models the numerical properties of numbers in texts. Specifically, it leverages a prototype-based numeral embedding to encode the mantissa of the number and an individual embedding to encode the exponent of the number. A numeral-aware loss function is designed to integrate numerals into the …

A Certificateless Designated Verifier Sanitizable Signature, Yonghua Zhan, Bixia Yi, Yang Yang, Renjie He, Rui Shi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sanitizable Signature is a digital signature variant that enables modification operations, allowing sanitizers to alter the signed data in a regulated manner without requiring any interaction with the original signer. It is widely used in scenarios such as healthcare data privacy protection, social networks, secure routing, etc. In existing sanitizable signature schemes, anyone can verify the validity and authenticity of the sanitized message, which results in costly certificate management overhead or complicated key escrow problems. To address these challenges, a designated verifier certificateless sanitizable signature scheme is proposed. This scheme introduces the concept of a designated verifier into sanitizable signatures, …

Assessing Mindfulness As A Moderator Between Trait Worry And Working Memory Capacity Performance In Undergraduates, William Farmer

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Mindfulness and worry have some antithetical qualities, yet mixed or non-significant findings suggest that practicing mindfulness alone will not disrupt worry. Working memory capacity (WMC) has been implicated in the relationship between worry and mindfulness, with some research showing that the combined practice of mindfulness and WMC test exercises had the greatest impact on reducing worry. The present study sought to test the relationship between worry, trait mindfulness, behavioral mindfulness as assessed by a Mindfulness Activities Questionnaire (MAQ) created by the researcher, and both the verbal and visuospatial domains of WMC. Worry was shown to be negatively associated with mindfulness. …

A Computational Approach For The Discovery And Characterization Of Oligonucleotide Aptamers For Protein Targets, Godfred Sabbih

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Aptamers are short polynucleotide chains that can bind with very high affinities to a broad range of chemical and biomolecular targets, including proteins, cells, viruses, microorganisms, toxins, and chemical compounds. They are analogous to antibodies with applications in therapeutic delivery, biosensors, and diagnostics, but possess the advantages of easy production and lower immunogenicity than antibodies. They are produced by the experimental method known as the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). SELEX is a powerful experimental method for selecting oligonucleotide aptamers for chemical or biomolecular targets of interest. The SELEX protocol has seen several modifications since its development …

A Computational Investigation Of Predicting Wind Tunnel Results For Selected Hypersonic Wing Test Structures, James Snuggs

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A CFD methodology for simulating various configurations of three selected wings in Purdue University’s Boeing Air Force Office of Scientific Research Mach 6 Quiet Tunnel (BAM6QT) is presented. The NASA-developed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, FUN3D, is used to calculate forces, moments, and temperature gradients. Wings with an attached elevon are also simulated, and the large wing with elevon case is used to study a moving elevon as well as static elevon deflections. A threshold frequency is found for the moving elevon where the moment imparted by the elevon increases with frequency. An attempt is made to detect unsteadiness around …

The Impact Of Focused Advising On Retention And Completion In The Community College Setting, Peter O'Brien

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe the impact of Focused Advising on retention and completion in the community college setting. This study examined one initiative known as Academic Foci or sometimes referred to as Guided Pathways as a viable tool for increasing the number of completers at an institution. The basis of the model was to place students into groups/foci of similar academic interests such as business, computer, or health sciences. With the aid of their advisor, the student made a move forward, and they will have made an informed decision about a chosen major. Once …

Secondary Teachers' Perceptions On Their Competency And Self-Efficacy Levels Associated With An Integrated Professional Development Approach To Teaching United States History, Darwin Anthony Galloway

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The study assessed a multifaceted professional development approach and its impact on teacher competency and self-efficacy. The professional development approach considered in this study reflected an integration of Content Immersion Mini-institutes, Public History Field Experiences, and Collaborative Pedagogical workshops offered to middle school and high school United States history teachers. The major focus of the study was scaled exit surveys and free response questions completed by teachers in six school districts in northeastern Tennessee, who were part of a Teaching American History Grant program sponsored by Tennessee’s First Frontier Consortium. These extant exit surveys were used to determine the relationship …

Integrating Human Psychology Into Car-Following Models For Accurate Response Prediction: A Realistic Approach, Faiza Khan

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Car-following models traditionally focus on vehicle kinematics or dynamics parameters without considering human psychology. However, recent research has attempted to incorporate psychology into car-following models. Despite these efforts, there are limitations in understanding the psychological triggers that influence individual drivers' responses. To address this gap, we propose a new car-following model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which incorporates a human element by utilizing concepts of psychology. To gather the data pertaining to human input a questionnaire was carefully developed utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior. Data collection and analysis were done through a survey using google forms. …

Towards Intelligent Runtime Framework For Distributed Heterogeneous Systems, Polykarpos Thomadakis

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Scientific applications strive for increased memory and computing performance, requiring massive amounts of data and time to produce results. Applications utilize large-scale, parallel computing platforms with advanced architectures to accommodate their needs. However, developing performance-portable applications for modern, heterogeneous platforms requires lots of effort and expertise in both the application and systems domains. This is more relevant for unstructured applications whose workflow is not statically predictable due to their heavily data-dependent nature. One possible solution for this problem is the introduction of an intelligent Domain-Specific Language (iDSL) that transparently helps to maintain correctness, hides the idiosyncrasies of lowlevel hardware, and …