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Item 1985 Former U.S. Representative Bella Abzug Visit(University of Bridgeport, 1985)Item 1985 Stephen Sondheim Visit at Mertens Festival(University of Bridgeport, 1985-02-21)Item Utilizing IntellaNest Technology for the study of collective behavior in ants(2023-03-24)Ants are an ideal model with which to answer questions about collective behavior, due to their size and relative ease of rearing them in a laboratory environment. However, accurately capturing fine-scale data about individual and group interactions presents a number of challenges. Behavioral data are often collected through human observations, recorded manually, and then transposed to digital databases, introducing the opportunity for observer bias and transcription errors. Many research teams must also create custom enclosures for each experiment, and video or photo data must be high resolution to sufficiently record social interactions. Limited resources, time, and funding can lead to shortened study periods or can limit the scope of these studies. Our goal was to develop a low-cost, all-in-one setup for behavioral observations, integrating a physical enclosure that meets the environmental requirements of the given species with temperature and humidity sensors, cameras, a cloud environment and an Al detection and tracking software package. Our design allows for continuous monitoring of the colony's physical environment as well as accurate recording of individuals' behavioral data. We hope our work can support the field of collective behavior by increasing opportunities to collect fine-scale data of social interactions in insect colonies, allowing for new questions to be asked and to expand our understanding of the evolution of social behavior.Item Optic Disc Localization Using Omnidirectional Search Algorithm(2023-03-24)Fundus images are retinal images that display many features of the human eye, such as the optic disc, blood vessels, retina, fovea, and macula. The optic disc is a circular elevation on the retina where sensory fibers and retinal vessels pass through the eyeball, it is also the origin of the retinal blood vessels. The observation of fundus images, specifically the optic disc, is crucial in recognizing and diagnosing diseases like diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, optic nerve atrophy, etc. The study of specific pathologies and abnormalities on the optic disc is critical for professionals to provide proper treatment before any conditions worsen. Using image processing techniques, the proposed method uses deformable models to localize and segment the optic disc.Item A Mixed-Methods Study of Pre-service Educators’ Development of Teacher Self-Efficacy & Teaching Readiness: Do Educator Preparation Program Types Matter?(2026-05-08)Alternate Route to Certification Programs (ARC) have been growing in the United States since the 1980s due to the ongoing teacher shortages nationwide. Alternative certification programs typically consist of a shorter duration of content taught and the absence of student-teacher practicums. In essence, teacher candidates enrolled in an ARC program can become full-time teachers after as little as a few weeks of pre-service training (Kee, 2012). In comparison, traditional educator preparation programs (TPP) include the combination of undergraduate or graduate prerequisite courses and one to two years of training prior to receiving certification and entering a classroom as a full-time teacher. The vastly different training requirements of the two types of programs could have implications for teachers' readiness to enter a classroom and overall teacher self-efficacy. The purpose of this convergent mixed-methods study was to compare pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy, content knowledge, and perceptions of their teacher preparation program’s contributions to overall readiness to teach and development of instructional teaching practices of pre-service educators who completed an accelerated ARC or an TPP. Through administering the Likert-type Teacher Sense of Self-Efficacy (TSES) rating scale and an open-ended questionnaire, the researcher sought to understand and compare a traditional master's level university TPP and ARC program pre-service educators' self-reported teacher self-efficacy levels, content knowledge, and perceptions of program’s influence in their development of readiness to teach. Results found no statistically significant difference between ARC or TPP pre-service teachers. The pre-service teacher groups also believed that their programs positively influenced their readiness to teach and overall teaching practices.