Digital Commons Network^™

Picc-Pal: A Support Band For Independent Picc Line Use, Kylie Luker

Honors Theses

This project presents the design and evaluation of PICC-PAL, a wearable assistive device intended to improve independence and usability for patients managing peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC lines) at home. Current at-home PICC line management often requires help due to the fine motor skills needed to connect and secure tubing. This increases reliance on caregivers and introduces potential risks such as infection and dislodgement. Through stakeholder analysis, prior art evaluation, and iterative prototyping, a device was developed to stabilize the PICC line lumen and enable one-handed connection of medical tubing. Throughout the project, multiple design concepts were explored, with the …

Mapping The Void In Electric Vehicle (Ev) Adoption Research: Uncovering Lack Of Socio-Economic Study In The Global South, Satvik Pandey, Rahul Tiwari, Rajat Soni

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are considered an effective contemporary alternative to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles. Research in the domain of EV is being conducted globally across a variety of fields; among them, our study explored research on consumer adoption. Going through the bibliometric analysis of the data taken from the Scopus database, what came to our attention is the minimal amount of work that is done on understanding consumers of EVs. From the literature, we found that consumer preferences are shaped through the influence of several parameters related to EVs, and this influence varies according to the consumer’s socio-economic and …

Key Issues For Speed Safety Cameras: Results From A Semi-Structured Interview Of Agencies In The United States, Sophia Semensky, Miguel Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Speed safety cameras (SSCs) are a recognized countermeasure for targeting speeding-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities. SSCs have been introduced in various cities and are steadily expanding in use both in the U.S. and internationally. The extensive literature review of domestic and international documents and research papers reveals that the U.S. has been comparatively slow to adopt SSCs, with some other countries implementing these systems more extensively and earlier. Many local agencies are eager to learn SSC best practices and implementation lessons within the U.S. context. In this research, key issues related to SSC implementation are explored through semi-structured interviews with …

Applications Of Suas Thermal Imaging And Lidar At Letort Spring Garden Preserve: An Independent Study, Kelsey Wardell

Harrisburg University Other Works

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Energy Storage Technologies With Hydro Energy System Design For Off-Grid Electricity, Daniel H. Ngoma, Banet L. Masenga

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Many renewable energy sources such hydropower—particularly small-scale run-of-river and micro-hydro—offers reliable, low-cost generation. However, their inherent intermittency (due to seasonal flow variations) and inability to instantly match demand necessitate integrated energy storage to ensure a stable, continuous power supply. This review synthesizes contemporary energy storage technologies in the context of their integration with off-grid hydro energy system design.

The study examine a spectrum of storage solutions, evaluating their technical characteristics, costs, and suitability for hybrid hydro applications. Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS), while highly efficient and large-scale, is often geographically constrained and capital-intensive for small off-grid projects. Battery Energy Storage Systems …

Complex Systems Mapping Of Fiscal Growth Dynamics At Strategic Maritime Chokepoints Using Time-Series Slopes, Rahul Balamurugan, Preethi Nanjundan, Avichal Sharma

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

This study examines how maritime and trading states allocate public resources between defence, health, and economic growth around three strategic chokepoints the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Suez Canal. The analysis extends the classic “guns versus butter” framing by treating defence and health spending as co-evolving components of an interconnected fiscal-growth system. Using World Development Indicators data (1999-2024), trend slopes are estimated for military spending (% of GDP), healthcare spending (% of GDP), and GDP growth (annual %). Two derived indicators are computed, a defence-to-health slope ratio (military slope/health slope) and a fiscal-balance proxy (health slope …

Guardrail Height Safety Requirements Given Recent Crash History And Evolution Of Vehicle Design, Delaney Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Roadside barriers such as guardrails are fundamental to roadway safety, providing a critical last line of defense in preventing vehicles from leaving the roadway and impacting potential hazards. As vehicles are ever changing, it is necessary for guardrail design to adapt in response. Many contemporary vehicles such as sport utility vehicles and light trucks have higher centers of gravity than previous years, while electric vehicles have increased weight. Having sufficient guardrail height is essential to ensure proper engagement with vehicles to prevent loss of containment during impact.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of current Florida …

Developing A Multi-Band Gnss Remote Sensing Station To Measure Precipitable Water Vapor For Flash Flood Nowcasting, Madison Gleydura

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Flash flood nowcasting in Central and Southern Appalachia is particularly challenging due to steep terrain, narrow valleys, highly localized rainfall patterns, and limited measurement coverage. Traditional remote sensing methods, such as Doppler radar and microwave radiometry, suffer from reduced resolution at long range and signal blockage by mountains. GNSS-meteorology offers an established alternative for measuring precipitable water vapor and is currently integrated into several numerical weather models. Recent research demonstrates that commercial-grade GNSS receivers can produce tropospheric products comparable to those from geodetic-grade equipment. The gaps in mountain coverage can be addressed by developing a low-cost, self-contained embedded system that …

An Ultrafine-Resolution Numerical Investigation Of The Influence Of Terrain On Tornado Behavior, Jiamin Dang, Jana Houser, Leigh Orf, Peng Yue, Guirong Yan

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates the effects of idealized and realistic terrain on tornado characteristics and behavior. It uses a novel simulation approach, nesting a high-fidelity, ultrafine-resolution, tornado-scale, engineering large-eddy simulation (LES) within a Cloud Model 1 (CM1) simulation of a tornadic supercell. We analyze the effects of terrain on the tornado's central pressure, horizontal and vertical velocities, vortex shape, and path. Seven idealized terrain configurations are used including 1) a control run with flat ground, 2) and 3) an idealized hill with steep and gradual slopes having the height of 25.4 m, 4) and 5) an idealized escarpment with steep and …

From Our Stories, To Our Streets (Osos), Jennifer Lopez

Student Publications

Youth traffic safety persists as a critical planning challenge and public health concern in New Mexico, where pedestrian fatality rates consistently rank among the highest in the United States (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NTSA, Governors Highway Safety Association, GHSA, 2023; Baca, 2025). Students (children), due to their daily interactions with roadways, whether when they walk, bike, ride transit, or drive/get driven to and from school, are among the most vulnerable groups within the transportation system (Ferenchak, N. Wesley, M., 2017. For many students in Albuquerque, the commute to or from school is one of the most dangerous parts of …

Spatiotemporal Variations And Their Influencing Factors For Vegetation Net Primary Productivity In The Shendong Coal Base, Yang Fei, Cui Kuankuan, Zhang Chengye, Li Jun, Dong Qiulin

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective The Shendong coal base, located within the arid and semi-arid regions in western China, is identified as the region with the most pronounced contradiction between coal resource development and ecological conservation in the country. Analyzing the spatiotemporal variations in the ecosystem and their influencing factors at the base scale provides a necessary foundation for green mine construction while also offering critical support for regional sustainable development.Methods In this study, the vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) was selected as an indicator for the ecological evaluation of mining areas. By integrating data on terrain, weather and climate, socio-economy, and human …

Arid: Agglomerative Regionalization Via Information Divergence, A Novel Clustering Algorithm For Geo-Spatial Data, Joshua David Sills

Dissertations and Theses

Regionalization is a clustering problem that seeks to partition geospatial data into geographically contiguous regions while remaining internally homogeneous in their attributes. It has been successfully applied towards the development of urban planning, natural resource discovery, and ecological analysis. Existing popular approaches optimize homogeneity using Euclidean or variance-based criteria, which ignore distributional differences such as variance shifts, multimodality, and higher-order dependence. This thesis introduces ARID (Agglomerative Regionalization via Information Divergence), a spatially constrained agglomerative clustering framework that replaces distance-based merging with an information-theoretic, Ward-like criterion that utilizes the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. ARID constructs a neighborhood graph from coordinate space and …

What Holds High-Speed Rail Back: Lessons From Global Systems And California’S Experience, Deepak K. Sharma, Rajnish Lekhi, Scott Parr

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report examines benefits and challenges of integrating California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) with other rail systems and reviews California legislation impacting HSR’s contracting and financing alternatives. The research compares CHSR with high-speed rail systems around the world to identify similarities and differences in costs, speeds, ridership, and operating conditions. It also reviews Japan’s Land Readjustment Act as a model for value capture and land assembly and explores international experiences on rail integration, along with U.S. cases from the East Coast and Los Angeles. A review of California’s transportation legislation highlights how laws for highways and bridges differ from those for …

Impact Of Urban Roadway Work Zones On Road Users And Other Stakeholders, Lyndsey Renee Harris

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Graduate Student Reports

As urban populations continue to rise at an unprecedented rate, the need for highly maintained infrastructure in cities -- buildings, utilities, and transportation networks -- has become increasingly critical. An urban work zone refers to a designated area within a city where roadway construction, maintenance, or rehabilitation activities are taking place. These zones are typically characterized by high traffic volumes, complex roadway networks, and proximity to residential, institutional, and commercial land uses. Urban work zones often involve lane closures, detours, reduced speed limits, and temporary traffic control measures to ensure safety for road workers and road users. Due to the …

Designing Risk-Aware Mixed-Mode Evacuation Strategies For Tsunamis: Insights From İstanbul, Vedat Bayram, Doruk Ergez, Ada Arikanoğlu

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

​Tsunamis pose severe and time-critical risks to densely populated coastal cities, where limited warning times and infrastructure constraints demand carefully coordinated evacuation strategies. This study develops an integrated, risk-aware optimization framework that jointly considers vertical and horizontal sheltering options together with mixed pedestrian-vehicular evacuation dynamics. The proposed mixed-integer second-order cone programming (MISOCP) model simultaneously determines vertical shelter location, evacuee assignment, road-use designation for pedestrians and vehicles, and route selection under congestion, capacity, and budget constraints. Vehicle travel times incorporate congestion effects through a convex flow-dependent function, while pedestrian routing ensures convergent and conflict free evacuation paths. A risk-minimization objective accounts …

Quantifying And Integrating Community Hardship Into Two-Stage Stochastic Grid Reliability Optimization With Battery Storage, Fredrica Arthur

LSU Master's Theses

Traditional reliability planning for conventional distribution systems is largely utility-oriented, with a focus on collective system performance metrics like Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS), where implicitly all unserved energy is considered of equal weight in terms of post-outage economic hardship. Yet, it is well understood that extended outage durations cause an uneven level of hardship to socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. This thesis proposes a community-informed reliability planning framework where the hardship caused by outages is explicitly considered in the battery energy storage system (BESS) location and sizing problem. First, a hardship-weighted Energy Not Supplied (WENS) measure is proposed, where income, education, …

Redesigning Online Graduate Orientation To Foster Academic Resilience And Prevent Underperformance, Stella Michael-Makri, David E. Rodriguez

Journal of Academic Underperformance

Graduate students in fully online programs often begin their academic journey without adequate preparation for the emotional, structural, and cultural challenges of graduate-level work. For students who are first-generation, racially marginalized, international, or returning to education after time away, this lack of scaffolding can lead to early disengagement, underperformance, or attrition. Orientation, often treated as a checklist of logistical tasks, represents a missed opportunity for meaningful academic intervention. This manuscript proposes a five-module conceptual model for online graduate orientation designed to proactively support online graduate students in the domains of emotional regulation and academic identity, time management and executive functioning, …

Scheduling As An Organizational Capability, Felix Delmonte

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study synthesizes evidence on schedule governance as an organizational capability integrating Lean practices, BIM, Digital Twin, and AI to convert scheduling into continuous, data driven decision making that links front line observations to executive risk appetite and funding choices, showing how 4D/5D BIM, clash detection, automated material takeoff, and IoT enabled twins shorten planning horizons, reduce design errors by up to 80%, improve timeline adherence by 20%–30%, and, when AI is applied, further cut delays by about 18% and procurement costs by approximately $2.5 million; a four layer Integrated Lean–Digital Framework is proposed to align strategic intent, collaborative digital …

Hybrid Cnn–Gru-Based Demand–Supply Forecasting To Enhance Sustainability In Renewable-Integrated Smart Grids, Süleyman Emre Eyimaya, Necmi Altin

Faculty Publications

The rapid integration of renewable energy sources in smart grids has introduced significant uncertainty in both power generation and consumption patterns, posing challenges to environmental, economic, and operational sustainability. Accurate short-term forecasting of energy demand and supply is essential for achieving optimal scheduling, grid stability, and resilient operation in renewable-integrated power systems. This study proposes a hybrid deep learning framework combining Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) for intelligent joint demand–supply forecasting in smart grids. The model was developed and implemented in MATLAB using real-world datasets comprising electricity consumption, photovoltaic (PV) generation, temperature, and irradiance variables. Comparative …

Feedback In Digital Game-Based Learning: A Taxonomy And The Design And Empirical Evaluation Of A Feedback System In A Mathematics Serious Game, André Almo

Dissertations

Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) is an active, student-centred pedagogical approach in which feedback plays a central role by informing learners’ actions, guiding decision-making and shaping motivation and engagement. Despite its importance, feedback in serious games is often described inconsistently and insufficiently in research, limiting comparability across studies and the accumulation of design knowledge, particularly for children. This thesis addresses these gaps through two complementary contributions: the development of a taxonomy for feedback design in digital serious games and the empirical evaluation of a taxonomy-informed feedback system in a mathematics game for primary school students. First, this work introduces the Taxonomy …

Globalizing The Engineering Job Market: Optimizing Engineering Career Expos To Serve International Students, Hailey A. Hesseltine

Journal of Global Education and Research

As the United States hosts approximately one million international students annually, it becomes imperative that on-campus resources are tailored to meet the needs of this diverse student population. One on-campus resource that is crucial to student success is career services, especially considering the aspirations of many international students to secure employment post-graduation. To address this, this study aimed to understand the satisfaction levels of international engineering students with an engineering career expo in Hawaiʻi. Utilizing a combination of surveys and interviews using a neo-racism framework, international students shared their experiences from the career expo through discussion and assessment. Information given …

Analysis Of Construction Trends On California’S Central Coast, Erik G. Asplund

Construction Management

The California Central Coast experiences sustained housing demand and infrastructure pressure, yet it lacks the visible concentration of construction firms found in larger markets. This study examines why construction activity in the region appears limited despite a strong demand. Using a qualitative, interview-based approach, four construction companies who operate across Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties were interviewed to identify recurring themes related to labor, environmental regulation, housing feasibility, technology adoption, and future outlooks. The study concludes that structural constraints rather than lack of opportunity limit the scalability of construction on the Central Coast.

Factors Impacting Wildland-Urban Interface (Wui) Fires: A Systematic Literature Review, Albert Jimenez

Construction Management

Fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) pose a significant danger to communities. The WUI refers to the space where development meets vegetation. Significant research has been conducted into wildfire and WUI vulnerability across the world to help combat vulnerability. These include the identification of factors of vulnerability to create indices that quantify vulnerability, and address scope gaps and inconsistencies within literature. However, existing research seems to be fragmented in finding the WUI vulnerability factors and often it focuses on wildfires and not WUI fires. The objective of this systematic literature review is to synthesize wildfire vulnerability factors identified in the …

Immigration-Related Workforce Instability And Its Impact On Residential Construction Operations In California, Ana Castro

Construction Management

Labor availability has become a major challenge for California’s residential construction industry, especially as immigration policies change and its workforce becomes more unstable. Most past research looks at overall labor statistics and industry trends, but not at how these issues affect construction projects day to day. This qualitative case study looks at how immigration policy and labor conditions affect the daily operations of a residential construction company in California. The research is based on six semi-structured interviews conducted with five superintendents and one executive leader. The results show that immigration-related labor challenges differ by location within California. Participants commonly described …

Controlling Of Monopile Seismic Response Using Concrete Skirt, M. Mancy, T. Sorour, M. Abdel-Motaal

HBRC Journal

Bridges are considered one of the major infrastructure projects that pose many challenges for design and construction. This is because they require highly efficient structural systems that last for many years, require minimal maintenance, and provide a short construction period. Monopiles are the most common foundation system concept in wind turbines, but they have also proven to be an economically sound foundation solution in bridge foundation systems (as seen in monorails, railway bridges, bridges extensions and ramps) owing to their simple design, easy construction, low manufacturing costs, and minimal excavation work. However, the durability of bridges resting on monopiles …

Simulating Cyber-Resilience: The Strategic Role Of The Locked Shields Exercise In Enhancing International Cyber Preparedness, Christopher A. Ramezan, Ludwig Christian Schaupp, Elizabeth A. Vitullo, William J. Walker

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

As cyberthreats to critical infrastructure remain prevalent, national response mechanisms must evolve beyond the technical domain to incorporate legal, communicative, strategic, and cross-sector coordination. This work explores Locked Shields, an annual exercise conducted by NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, as a pedagogical and conceptual framework for simulating whole-of-government responses to cyber incidents. Unlike traditional cyber exercises, Locked Shields engages legal advisors, media strategists, and civil-military roles in realistic, scenario-driven simulations that portray the political and operational conditions of a real international-scale cyber crisis. We detail the exercise architecture, contrast with other cyber exercises, and assess its pedagogical and …

The Impact Of Integrating Social Benefit Requirements For Urban Green Infrastructure And Place Identity Attributes To Enhance The Sense Of Place - Case Study Of Central Park, Madinaty, New Cairo City, Egypt, Ibrahim Magdi Mohammed, Rehab Abdelfatah Abdel Aziz Mahmoud

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This research develops an integrated model that links the social benefit requirements of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) with the non-physical attributes of Place Identity (PI) to enhance the Sense of Place (SOP) in contemporary urban environments. The need for this integration arises from limitations in current planning frameworks, which often prioritize ecological performance while overlooking cultural, perceptual, and behavioral dimensions that shape user attachment and belonging. The study adopts an inductive and synthesis-based approach to identify key UGI indicators across environmental, social, economic, and spatial dimensions, alongside PI attributes related to places’ legibility, uniqueness, publicness and territoriality, place’s identification. To …

Proposed Modifications To The Egyptian Concrete Code Based On A Comprehensive Sustainability Assessment Of Portland Cement Alternatives For Climate Change Mitigation, Yasmin Elhakim

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a major challenge facing planet earth today. This phenomenon is foreseen to continue to represent a major concern for decades to come. The construction industry is one of the most polluting sectors worldwide and is considered one of the top greenhouse gas emitters. Egypt, in particular, is one of the most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change. The construction sector plays a major role in Egypt’s economy, contributing significantly to the national GDP, yet it also represents one of the country’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. However, the Egyptian Concrete Code does not enforce the …

Resilience By Design: A Multi-Metric Assessment Of Urban Vulnerability Across Human-Centric, Built, And Climatic Environment Dimensions, Karim Abdelhady

Theses and Dissertations

Urban resilience and sustainability have emerged as fundamental imperatives in contemporary urban planning, as cities face mounting pressures from climate change, population growth, and increasing socio-economic disparities. Resilient urban systems are not only those that withstand shocks, but also those that ensure the long-term well-being, equity, and functionality of their environments. As such, advancing the capacity to systematically evaluate resilience across spatial and temporal scales is critical to informing adaptive, forward-looking planning strategies. Despite a growing body of research on urban resilience, prevailing approaches remain limited in scope and resolution. Many studies tend to examine resilience through isolated lenses—focusing either …

The Effect Of The Socioeconomic Variety In Greater Cairo On Transport Mode Choices, Rafik Yanni

Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, Egypt has experienced a noticeable upgrade in its infrastructure investment, implementing a lot of transport projects, especially in the Greater Cairo region. In a city with over 20 million residents, variations lie in socioeconomic elements like income, age, gender, and neighborhood, which shape people’s choice of mobility modes based on their culture and lifestyle. The questions then become: whom are these new projects targeting? What are the barriers to using these services? And is there any willingness to change commuting habits if conditions changed? This thesis investigates how the socioeconomic variety in Greater Cairo metropolitan region …