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LEADERSHIP POST COVID-19: EXPLORING THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS AND SUPPORT THROUGH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Get PDFThis qualitative study aimed to gather knowledge from the lived experiences of public school administrators before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions focused on the support and training received, experiences at school sites and online, and the lessons learned during this time. The literature review focused on issues that school administrators dealt with during this time. Challenges were varied, and solutions and information provided from the review indicated the need for communication, support, and planning. The theoretical framework was Activity Theory and Cultural Historical Activity Theory, which focused on the premise that an activity may be shared and taken on by people in charge or motivated by a common goal, possibly a solution to a problem. The methodology utilized was phenomenology; bracketing is used to help validate data. In Vivo Coding was used to determine the themes of the data. Eight administrators from three districts in Southern California were interviewed through Zoom. Participants were male and female, and their ethnicities were White, Hispanic, African American, and mixed race. Key takeaways were the need for communication and collaboration among all stakeholders, resiliency, flexibility, adaptability, contingency plans, and the need to address the mental health of all stakeholders. Implications of this study emphasized the importance of establishing positive relationships between all stakeholders by creating frequent communication and collaboration. Districts should provide appropriate training and support for school administrators and leaders, setting them up for success. Finally, there is a need for contingency plans and after-action reports whenever an extraordinary situation arises
Enhancing Sarcasm Detection with Contextual Factors for Improved Model Robustness Based on BMLRF
Get PDFDetecting sarcasm in text remains a critical yet challenging task in natural language processing (NLP). Despite significant advances through deep learning, particularly the use of transformer-based architecture like BERT, sarcasm detection models still face challenges in achieving high accuracy. A major limitation lies in their insufficient incorporation of contextual awareness, including conversational history, social inter- actions, emotional cues, and cultural factors. To address this, this paper proposes the BERT with Meta-Feature Logistic Regression Fusion (BMLRF) model, which in- tegrates sentence-level embeddings from a pre-trained transformer with meta-features capturing social, emotional, and cultural contexts. The model also leverages multi-turn dialogue history and social interaction embeddings to enhance contextual understanding. This fusion approach aims to improve sarcasm detection robustness across domains such as social media and political discourse, emphasizing the critical role of emotion, social dynamics, and cultural context in sarcastic communication.
Keywords: Natural Language Processing (NLP), BMLRF model, BERT, Multi-turn dialogue, Meta-features
Definition of the 3D Position and Motion Status of the Moving Heart based on 2D Projections
No full textThis thesis presents a novel application of deep learning to the estimation of pulmonary vein coordinates using X-ray image pairs from a FORBILD Thorax phantom derived motion dataset. A Siamese neural network was developed to predict the 3D coordinates of one pulmonary vein at a time, specifically the Right Superior Pulmonary Vein (RSPV), Left Superior Pulmonary Vein (LSPV), Left Inferior Pulmonary Vein (LIPV), or Right Inferior Pulmonary Vein (RIPV), based on two-dimensional projection images.
The input data consisted of over 1.6 million grayscale X-ray image pairs across 1331 virtual patients, each annotated with ground truth 3D coordinates. To manage memory constraints, the dataset was partitioned, and model training was conducted iteratively in batches. Testing was performed on a held-out group of 121 patients, with accuracy evaluated by measuring the Euclidean distance between predicted and true coordinates.
Among the trained models, the best-performing one achieved a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 2.49 cm in predicting 3D vein coordinates, which, while currently not clinically sufficient, indicates the network’s potential. The limited performance is possibly due to the short training duration (10 epochs) and overfitting. Significant improvements may be possible with extended training over hundreds of epochs. These findings demonstrate the viability of the Siamese network architecture for anatomical localization tasks in 3D medical imaging and provide a baseline for further refinement
THE IMPACT OF EYEWEAR ON EARLY AND MID-LATENCY ERP COMPONENTS OF FACE PROCESSING
No full textFacial recognition plays an important role in human survival and social communication. It relies on fast and efficient visual processing in the brain, as reflected by the P100 and N170 event-related potential (ERP) components. These ERPs are early and mid-latency stamps of facial recognition that reflect visual detection and structural processing of faces. Previous studies have shown that the N170 is sensitive to disruptions in facial configuration, such as inversion or partial face obscuration caused by masks. The present study, however, examines a common yet overlooked visual addition that may influence the N170: eyewear. Specifically, this study investigates how regular glasses and sunglasses affect ERP responses during facial recognition. Participants viewed 180 AI-generated facial stimuli, balanced by sex and race, and selected the gender of each stimulus across three eyewear conditions: no glasses, regular glasses, and sunglasses. Results revealed that eyewear significantly modulated ERP amplitudes. The sunglasses elicited the largest amplitude, followed by regular glasses, and the no glasses condition showed the smallest amplitude. Overall, these findings suggest that even visual additions, like eyewear, can increase neural processing resources during face recognition, indicating the brain is allocating additional cognitive resources when key facial features are visually obstructed
PARKINSON’S DISEASE AND PROCESSING SPEED THEORY DOES PROCESSING SPEED MEDIATE HIGHER-ORDER COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING?
Get PDFParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder resulting in both motor and cognitive deficits. Salthouse (1990) proposed the Information Processing Speed (IPS) Theory that a reduced cognitive processing speed is a significant factor that accounts for the negative relationship between age-related variance and cognition. Parkinson’s is an idiopathic disorder, meaning that the cause is unknown, with most patients being 60 years and older. If the IPS theory suggests that an increased age affects the slowing of IPS, which then impairs cognition, PD, a disorder involving older adults, should also follow this pattern. However, no studies have assessed the IPS theory in groups affected by Parkinson’s disease and whether cognitive degradation follows a similar trend.
In this study, we evaluated whether information processing speed mediates five higher-order cognitive domains: attention, pragmatic language, visual-spatial ability, learning, and memory. We also identified the conditions under which the effect occurs by using primary diagnosis (Parkinson’s Disease vs. Healthy Control) as a moderated variable.
The results supported the Salthouse Processing Speed theory; older Parkinson’s Disease affected individuals showed a slower processing speed significantly impairing visuospatial and animal fluency ability. Additionally, compared to healthy control groups, the Parkinson’s disease-affected groups were more strongly influenced by processing speed in visuospatial, verbal learning, and global cognition ability. These results can aid in processing speed-dependent cognitive functioning and improve treatments for these speed-dependent cognitive areas
THE OUTCOMES OF SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AT A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT A PROPOSED PILOT STUDY
Get PDFIn this proposed project we intend to explore and identify empirical evidence-based research on outcomes of school-based mental health provided by a Southern California school district. This study will highlight evidence-based research on the growing concern for school-based mental health. A relevant extraction tool that can be utilized for further research, and a study design to explore existing literature regarding programs and student participation to gauge outcomes.
School-based mental health supports mental well-being and promotes positive protective factors. These include social and cultural connections, resilience, coping strategies, problem-solving abilities, positive development, and a supportive school environment where students feel safe. The shortage of school-based mental health programs results in school-aged children having inadequate access to these essential services. This paper will explore the outcomes of relevant studies and identify the gaps in the literature for future researchers to build upon
EAST ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET HISTORY AT THE OUTBACK NUNATAKS USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND COSMOGENIC DATING
Get PDFThis study investigates the history of ice sheet surface elevation at the Outback Nunataks in East Antarctica using exposure age dating and geomorphic mapping. We identified glacial landforms at Roberts Butte, Miller Butte, and Frontier Mountain, in the Outback Nunatak range, using 2023 Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) and 2022 Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA). We collected bedrock and glacial erratic samples for cosmogenic nuclide analysis from Roberts Butte and Miller Butte during the 2023-24 United States Antarctic Program field season. Analysis of glacial erratics reflect inherited cosmogenic nuclide concentrations, resulting in apparent exposure ages between 359 and 42 ka. Apparent bedrock exposure ages indicate that the ice sheet has not completely overridden Roberts Butte in at least 5.3 Ma. Modeling of bedrock nuclide concentrations from lower elevation sites at Roberts Butte indicate at least four cycles of exposure for 50 to 100 ka and burial for 1 Ma. Our results suggest the ice sheet has not thickened more than 215 m over the last five million years
PREDICTORS OF MATH IDENTITY IN U.S. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
No full textThis study explored factors related to high school students’ sense of math identity. Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 was used which is a nationally representative dataset from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES). The sample is representative of U.S. high schoolers who began ninth grade in 2009. Multiple regression analysis was performed and factors relating to students’ prior mathematics coursework and attitudes about mathematics were found to predict students’ mathematics identity.
Keywords. Mathematics, identity, high school student