JScholarship is an open repository of works about JHU, scholarship authored by JHU researchers, and Digital Collections of the Sheridan Libraries and Museums.
Communities in JScholarship
Select a community to browse its collections.
- Center for Africana Studies
- The mission of the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) is to replace misrepresentation of prisons and imprisoned people with first-person witness by those living in legalized confinement.
- Friedheim Library
- Computer Science
- Genetics and Public Policy Center
- Dept. of History
- Content shared at the annual Hopkins Libraries Staff Assemblies.
- JHU Press
- Johns Hopkins Open Access Articles
- Digital content considered to be part of our general collections
- Institute for Policy Studies
- Population Center
- The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is based in Washington, D.C. with campuses in Bologna, Italy and Nanjing, China. The school is devoted to the study of international relations, diplomacy, national security, economics, and public policy.
- The Johns Hopkins School of Education explores the frontiers of knowledge to understand how individual, communal, behavioral, and neurological aspects of human development interact to impact learning. And we are passionate about sharing our findings: with educators, with leaders, with communities, with students.
- Sheridan Libraries Special Collections
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)
- The mission of the Welch Medical Library is to provide the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and its affiliates with information services that advance research, teaching, and patient care.
Recent Submissions
PORT RISK ASSESSMENT
(2025-03) Saboe, Christopher M.
Since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland by the open ocean 984-foot container ship, Dali, Maryland and United States experienced a major disruption in commercial trade, commercial and personal traffic, and most importantly a lack of incident preparedness. This is not the first time a vessel has damaged or destroyed key infrastructure. But this devastating experience reinvigorated research about crucial infrastructure protection, risk assessment, and critical contingency planning in the path of major shipping ports. This research this will provide insight for indications, warning, and risk analysis to prepare the United States for further incidents such as the one most recently experienced.
DEVELOPMENT OF A 3D SIMULATION TOOL LEVERAGING GENETIC ALGORITHMS FOR NEURAL NETWORK OPTIMIZATION IN AUTOMATED DRIVING SYSTEMS: AN APPLICATION FOR SCENARIO ANALYSIS
(Johns Hopkins University, 2025-03-19) Davis, Darold; Strawser, Larry D; Lim, In-Kyu
As vehicular automation progresses, designing and validating reliable yet proficient automated driving systems (ADS) remains a challenging imperative, as the current state relies on live driving scenarios and datasets. This research centers on advancing ADS capabilities by proposing a simulation framework and software tool for machine learning consisting of a genetic algorithm (GA) with selection methods and artificial neural network (ANN) architectures all configurable via a user interface (UI), which guides the training and optimization of ANNs, allowing ADS policies to learn and evolve rather than relying on existing datasets.
The Unity game engine provides the development environment for crafting the UI to configure driving agents, and for selecting from three different 3D simulation scenario environments of Pasadena, San Diego, and Tampa that are constructed from OpenStreetMap data. The research experiments aim to enhance ADS performance through simulation-based evaluation which aligns with the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) technical activities, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) vision for safety to accelerate the safe integration of autonomous vehicles into the transportation system.
Simulation experiments using different GA and ANN configurations were conducted in each of the 3D scenario environments. Analysis of the simulation results revealed several significant patterns of evolutionary performance of ADS agents across different parameter configurations, yielding varying levels of optimization success across generations in the simulations.
Beyond the Numbers: Statistical Significance and Student Outcomes in the Vision for Baltimore RCT
(2021) Neitzel, Amanda J.; Collins, Megan E.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Education and Wilmer Eye Institute studied the academic impact of providing glasses to students who had failed an initial vision screening, completed an eye exam, and received eyeglasses through the Vision for Baltimore program in a study published in JAMA Ophthalmology. The researchers measured the impact using two standardized assessments – i-Ready and PARCC – at both one and two years. While no impact was seen on PARCC, a positive impact was seen on i-Ready reading assessments. This explainer discusses the significance of these findings.
Efficacy Study of Filo in Jefferson County Schools
(2025-02-03) Michael A. Cook, PhD; Steven M. Ross, PhD; Al Passarella, MPA
This quasi-experimental study evaluated the impact of the Filo tutoring program on math, ELA, and science achievement among Grades K-8 students in Jefferson County (AL) Schools (JCS). Using a student-level matched comparison design (N=1,089 treatment, 2,163 comparison), the study examined student performance on ACAP and i-Ready assessments. Results indicated directionally positive impacts on ACAP math, ELA, and science scores, with statistically significant gains in ACAP math observed for male and Black students—a notable outcome given the historical achievement gaps within the district. Although no significant effects emerged for i-Ready scores, a positive association was found between the number of Filo tutoring sessions and ACAP ELA performance.
Filo in Jefferson County Schools: Student Interview Summary Report
(2024-09-09) Michael Cook, PhD; Steven M. Ross, PhD; Al Passarella, MS
This qualitative study explored student experiences with the Filo Tutor program among "high users" in Grades 3-8 within Jefferson County (AL) Schools (JCS). Interviews with five participants (Grades 4-8) revealed that students valued Filo for its accessibility, personalized instruction, and immediate, adaptive support from live tutors, leading to improved math understanding and increased academic confidence. Although some variability in tutor explanations was observed, students strongly recommended Filo, emphasizing its engaging teaching methods and responsive human interactions. Findings suggest enhancing tutor communication clarity and instructional consistency to further strengthen student learning experiences.
“Do you feel you’re being seen?” Black women undergraduates’ experiences with mentorship.
(2025-01-12) Ekpo, E. U., Ekpo, E. C., Toney, A., Silverstein, M. W., & Fix, R. L
Organizing millions of documents using LLMs: The case of the UCSF-JHU Opioid Industry Documents Archive
(2025-02-20) Wingenroth, Brian; Hawkins, Kevin S.; Leigh, Richard N.
Introduction. The UCSF-JHU Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA) is a growing collection of millions of documents. The metadata necessary to differentiate these documents, as supplied, is often lacking. Both the scale and the rapid growth of the corpus preclude correction by human metadata experts. Methods. We have applied open-source AI models and multi-modal LLMs for classifying documents and images, PDF image extraction, and image captioning. Recent expansions feature LLM-powered generation and correction of descriptive metadata - including document titles, authors, and dates - along with named entity extraction to increase access through metadata and knowledge graphs. All techniques involve expert, human-in-the-loop, review. Preliminary results. Document classification has achieved 80% accuracy in testing. DocLayout-YOLO was selected for superior accuracy and scalability of document layout analysis. On image classification tasks, our zero-shot approach achieved 58% expert agreement. Rather than pursuing fine-tuning or complex prompting strategies, we have opted for expert supervision of AI-generated metadata to ensure quality. Conclusion. This work demonstrates the strengths of combining LLMs with expert review to address the challenges of metadata creation at scale. There is a significant opportunity to contribute to specialized benchmark datasets that evaluate model performance on fundamental cataloging and metadata tasks.
Solving a Stochastic Dynamical System with the Lattice Boltzmann Method
(Johns Hopkins University, 2024-07-19) Nance, John; Davis, Cleon; Fry, Bob; Lawton, John
This thesis explores several numerical approaches to determining the state probability densities of a stochastic dynamical system, including an approach called the Lattice Boltzmann Method that is seldom used in this application. The stochastic differential equations describing a two-state stochastic dynamical system are rewritten into the Fokker-Planck equation that describes the time evolution of the state probability densities as a partial differential equation. The Fokker-Planck equation takes the same form as the advection-diffusion equation, which describes the evolution of densities of physical concentration, and can be solved using the Lattice Boltzmann Method. We have identified an extant Multiple Relaxation Time variant of the Lattice Boltzmann Method that shows promise to be used in the instances where a stochastic system contains states that do not have stochastic state derivatives.
Four stochastic systems are posed and integrated from initial conditions using four different approaches that include two Lattice Boltzmann Method variants, a Monte Carlo approach, and an analytical solution. The resulting probability density solutions from the possible methods are compared and the Lattice Boltzmann Method is shown to have practically low and continuous errors.
IMPROVING EMPLOYEE RETENTION: CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL HIRING PROCESSES
(Johns Hopkins University, 2025-02-17) Winters, Lillian; Wu, Frances
The growing rate of voluntary employee turnover is having devastating effects on organizational success. By using relevant organizational models and theories, this paper is an extensive literature review supplemented with secondary data analysis of qualitative textual data. Its purpose is to identify the causes of voluntary employee turnover and evaluate recommended methods for employee retention. Across all literature and data, the main themes that support employee retention are possessing a positive organizational culture, providing comprehensive training and professional growth opportunities, and promoting a healthy work-life balance. This information was reframed and placed into a usable plan focusing on a structural change to organizational hiring processes to improve employee retention. This plan includes screening for applicants who are naturally less inclined towards turnover, assessing which applicants are the best organizational fit based on organizational culture and personal attitude, and providing a comprehensive onboarding process that includes training and outlining career growth opportunities.
The Dynamics of Collective Action And Political Settlements: A Comparative Study of Somaliland and Somalia
(Johns Hopkins University, 2025-02-17) Hussein, Jamal; Levy, Brian; Ukata, Patrick; Ferguson, William D; Kocher, Matthew
This study examines the dynamics of collective action and political settlements in Somaliland and Somalia, emphasizing their divergent trajectories in state-building, peace-building, and governance during the critical period from 1991 to 2001. Despite their shared historical and cultural heritage, Somaliland and Somalia took vastly different paths following the collapse of Somalia's central government in 1991. Employing a process-tracing comparative framework, the research investigates how elite coalitions, traditional governance structures, external actors, and grassroots initiatives shaped political settlements in these contexts.
Somaliland, which had voluntarily united with Somalia in 1960 after gaining independence from the United Kingdom, reclaimed its sovereignty in 1991 in response to decades of marginalization and conflict. While southern Somalia descended into prolonged chaos, Somaliland achieved notable stability through the integration of traditional clan-based systems with modern governance mechanisms. Its localized, inclusive approach to peace-building fostered internal cohesion and sustainability. Conversely, Somalia’s political settlements, heavily influenced by external actors, often excluded local stakeholders, undermining collective action and sustainable governance.
The research also explores the roles of regional and international actors in shaping political outcomes, analyzing how Somaliland capitalized on its autonomy to establish effective governance, while Somalia’s reliance on externally driven models exacerbated internal divisions. Drawing on theories of collective action, political settlements, the politics of rents, and development gambling, this study unpacks the interplay of governance structures, elite power dynamics, economic incentives, and security challenges in these contexts.
The findings highlight Somaliland’s success in building cohesive local governance structures, which contributed to its relative stability, and contrast this with Somalia’s fragmented approach, which hindered progress. By comparing these cases, the research offers critical insights into the factors that enable or impede peace-building and state-building in fragile settings. It underscores the importance of fostering inclusive political settlements that prioritize local agency, respect indigenous governance traditions, and align with the socio-political dynamics of post-conflict societies. Ultimately, the study contributes to broader debates on sustainable pathways for governance and development in Africa and other conflict-affected regions.