Digital Commons Network^™

Field-Like- And Self-Spin-Orbit Torques In Magnetic Multilayer Films, Kyle Jeffrey Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spin-orbit torques (SOTs) have been realized as an energy efficient mechanism to manipulate and drive magnetization dynamics in magnetic multilayer films. Their damping-like and field-like components provide distinct pathways for controlling the magnetization, enabling switching, sustaining magneto-oscillations, and driving domain-wall motion with potential applications in nonvolatile memory, spin-based logic, and microwave signal generation. However, the accurate quantification and interpretation of these torques remains complicated by experimental sensitivity, the co-symmetry of the Oersted field and the effective field due to the field-like torque, and assumptions regarding the material layers from which the torques originate. The body of work set forth in …

A Longitudinal Study Of Achilles Tendon Adaptation In Ncaa Division I Female Gymnasts: Associations With Menstrual Status, Birth Control Use, Pain, Limb Dominance, And Training Exposure, Mattie Jane Hyde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study evaluated Achilles tendon (AT) thickness in 22 NCAA Division I (DI) female gymnasts across three consecutive seasons in relation to menstruation, birth control use, pain, limb dominance, training week, and year of collegiate competition. Weekly ultrasound and athlete survey data were analyzed using mixed-effects models for absolute AT thickness and change in thickness from baseline measurements. Associations were primarily characterized by interactions rather than uniform effects of individual predictors. A Pain × Limb Dominance × Week × Year interaction was associated with both thickness outcomes across season-specific and combined analyses, with relationship directions varying by limb, season …

Percolation-Induced Thermo-Rheological Transitions In Biobased Graphene Nanoplatelet Nanofluids, Abiodun A. Saka, Tobechukwu K. Abor, Anthony C. Okafor, Monday U. Okoronkwo

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Biobased lubricants with thermally responsive rheology are increasingly needed for high-efficiency mechanical systems. Graphene nanoplatelet (GnP) nanofluids in vegetable oils are promising candidates, yet their percolation-driven thermo-rheological transitions remain insufficiently understood. In particular, the coupled concentration–temperature landscape controlling network-mediated flow transitions has not previously been established. Here, surfactant-free GnP nanofluids were prepared in high-oleic soybean oil (HOSO) at concentrations of 0.025–2.15% v/v (ϕ), and their rheological response was mapped between 25°C and 80 °C under steady-shear and oscillatory conditions. Below the percolation threshold (ɸ ≤ 0.1% v/v), the nanofluids exhibit near-Newtonian behavior, moderate reversible viscosity enhancement, and classical Arrhenius-type temperature …

Developing Field And Spaceflight Microscopy, Nikki Johnston

Dissertations and Theses

Designing for spaceflight favors the reduction of unnecessary features and cost-cutting, whether thisbe computation, hardware, or procedure. Resources are spent toward fortification and mission success over convenience. Such design goals paired with the relatively smaller budgets of academia lead us to do as much as we can in-house and use open-source as much as we can without compromising mission success. We also believe that thoroughly testing technology in extreme environments on earth is necessary for the success of a flight instrument. We focus on microscopy for life detection. I have spent my time here learning methods of hand-building microscopes to …

The Self-Aware Room: A Framework For Operational Self-Awareness In Evolvable Blended Environments, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

The Self-Aware Room (SAR) is a room-scale research environment developed within the larger Balanced Blended Space and Blended Reality Performance System research trajectory. Rather than treating the room as a conventional “smart” environment composed of fixed automation technologies, SAR approaches it as an evolvable blended environment made from physical, virtual, conceptual, sensory, computational, and performative relationships. Its defining feature is not any particular sensor, model, or output device, but the set of transformations through which physical activity becomes structured observation, bounded representation, interpreted state, governed decision, and mediated response.

This paper develops the conceptual and methodological foundations of SAR as …

Electrochemical Determination Of Terbutaline Using A Sno2 Nanoparticle-Modified Carbon Paste Electrode, Rauf Gulamov, Şenol Alpat, Si̇bel Kilinç Alpat

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Terbutaline hemisulfate (THS), a selective beta-2 agonist, is preferred as a bronchodilator for the treatment of asthma and bronchitis, as well as a tocolytic agent to delay labor in acute situations during premature birth. The use of beta-2 agonists above a certain dose is considered doping in sports competitions. Therefore, it is important that they be determined with high sensitivity and selectivity within a short analysis time. In this study, a SnO2 nanoparticle-modified carbon paste electrode was developed for the determination of THS. Cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry were employed as electrochemical methods. The operating conditions of the developed …

Sensitive Electrochemical Sensor For Simultaneous Determination Of Epinephrine And Norepinephrine By Sio2np@Mwcnt-Cooh Nanoparticle-Modified Spces​, Merve Yilmaz Çilçar, Meli̇ke Bi̇lgi̇ Kamaç, Ayşenur Yilmaz Kabaca, Şahi̇n Toparli, Faruk Terzi̇oğlu, Emi̇r Ateş

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Epinephrine (EP) and norepinephrine (NEP), both neurotransmitters, are two important biomolecules that play critical roles in the body, from the central nervous system to metabolic processes. They are also important biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and monitoring. In this study, a novel, fast, practical, and high-performance electrochemical sensor based on a SiO2NP@MWCNT-COOH nanocomposite was developed for the simultaneous determination of EP and NEP. The nanocomposite was modified onto the surface of screen-printed electrodes (SPCEs) and its characterization was performed (SEM-EDX, XRD, FTIR, CV, DPV, and EIS). The individual and simultaneous determinations of EP and NEP were performed using square-wave voltammetry, yielding …

Chitosan Microparticle-Based Antibacterial Nasal Barrier Formulation And In Vivo Evaluations, Güli̇z Ak, Ayça Erek, Tuğba Karakayali, Şadi̇ye Çeti̇n, Şenay Şanlier

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Microorganisms remain a major cause of infectious diseases, emphasizing the need for alternative and complementary antimicrobial strategies. In this context, plant-derived materials have attracted increasing attention for their antimicrobial and protective properties. Chitosan, a biocompatible and cationic biopolymer, has emerged as an effective carrier system for encapsulating such plant-derived components. In this study, chitosan microparticles were prepared through ionic gelation followed by spray drying and loaded with thyme oil and olive leaf extract. The resulting microparticles exhibited an average size of approximately 1.8 μm and a total phenolic content of 23 mg GAE/g. These microparticles were incorporated into a glycerin–starch …

Humanity’S Grandeur In The Balance: Theological Reflections On Magnifica Humanitas, William L. Portier

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

A Message From The Managing Editor, Carissa Bayack

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

A message from the 2025-2026 Managing Editor of the Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal, Carissa Bayack.

Machine Learning Applications To Physical Processes, William Charles

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates how machine learning techniques can solve computationally challenging problems across diverse areas of physics, from high-energy astrophysics to condensed matter systems, accelerating traditional computation. My first contribution addresses the computational expense of Monte Carlo calculations for radiative processes in relativistic plasmas. I develop a neural network sampling method that enables fast sampling from an arbitrary probability density, and demonstrate the method on inverse Compton scattering, achieving a speedup of up to an order of magnitude beyond standard methods. My second contribution addresses the structure and radiation of neutron star magnetospheres. I use physics-informed neural networks to model …

X-Ray Emission From V1674 Her (Nova Her 2021) And Characterization Of Cebr3 Detectors For Gamma-Ray Spectrometry, Tekeba Olbemo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Novae are thermonuclear explosions on the surface of the white dwarf in a close binary system. They are multi-wavelength transients emitting across the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma-rays. This thesis primarily focuses on the X-ray emission from one particular nova, V1674 Her. V1674 Her (Nova Her 2021) is known for its ultra-fast decline time of ��2 ∼ 1 day. This under normal circumstances implies massive white dwarf potentially approaching the Chandrasekhar limit. We test this for V1674 Her by measuring its mass via X-ray spectroscopy method. The method calculates X-ray emission from physically motivated model of post-shock accretion column …

Project Minerva, Lena Wang, Gannon English, Ethan Yemm, Gabrielle Guirguis, Jose Murphy

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Project Minerva is a multidisciplinary engineering initiative at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) dedicated to the design, integration, and deployment of high-altitude balloon (HAB) systems for stratospheric research and aerospace hardware validation. The project challenges student researchers to engineer flight-ready payloads capable of maintaining structural and electronic integrity in extreme temperatures and low-pressure environments in the stratosphere. Typically utilizing 600g latex balloons filled with helium, Project Minerva missions aim to achieve altitudes exceeding 22,000 meters to facilitate vertical atmospheric profiling of variables such as CO₂ concentration, humidity, temperature, and pressure. Beyond its technical objectives, the project serves as a professional training …

Developing An Object Level Understanding Of Sine And Cosine As Ratios And A Coherent Trigonometry, Jeffrey Peter Nair

Theses and Dissertations

Solving right-triangle problems as well as integrating right-triangle and circular trigonometry into a coherent understanding are documented challenges for students. Prior research has deeply investigated students constructing ratio meanings for sine and cosine using a circle-first approach, which then can be extended to right triangles. Also, past work has separately documented distinct meanings that are useful for sine and cosine, in addition to the ratio meaning, including as lengths in a unit circle and coordinate points. This study took these existing ideas and put them together into one possible developmental progression, based on APOS theory, where students can learn length, …

Synthetic Strategies For Bioactive Peptides: From Aggregation Inhibitors To The Total Synthesis Of Tunicyclin C, Stephanie Graciela Garcia Morin

Theses and Dissertations

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), a brain protein called "tau" abnormally clumps and forms neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), causing damage to brain cells. Ac-PHF6-NH2 is a hexapeptide segment of tau protein that plays a dominant role in tau aggregation and is used as a model to design tau protein aggregation inhibitors. In this research we synthesized four dehydroamino acid (□AA) containing PHF6 analogues with △Abu (derived from L-threonine) and △Val (derived from □-OH-Valine) at position 2 or 3 via dehydrations or azlactone ring-openings as key reactions. We evaluated their proteolytic resistance, ability to inhibit aggregation of PHF6, and impact on the morphology …

Measuring Proteostasis Changes In Apolipoprotein E Mouse Models Using Quantitative And Kinetic Proteomic Methods, Ariel E.A. Denos

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurological disorder associated with brain mass loss and cognitive decline. It affects millions of elderly people and is currently uncurable. Since 1906, when the disease was first described, researchers have uncovered many components of AD pathology. However, it is now evident that curing Alzheimer's Disease will require intervention before the pathological onset of amyloid beta plaque deposition, tau neurofibrillary tangles, and associated neuronal loss. Studying AD from the perspective of early intervention requires special attention to small changes that may disrupt the normal processing of cells. Cells undergo a natural cycle of creation and destruction …

Multi-Band Extinction Modeling In Early-Type Galaxies With Circumnuclear Disks, Nonnie Bash

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we present a spatially resolved, multi-band dust-attenuation method for correcting the stellar luminosity models used in dynamical supermassive black hole (BH) mass measurements. If uncorrected, dust extinction effects may dominate over other systematic uncertainties when determining the BH mass ($M_\mathrm{BH}$). We expand on a simple dust-attenuation method that treats the circumnuclear disk as a thin dust layer embedded in the galaxy midplane. Using a Multi-Gaussian Expansion, we create a three-dimensional stellar luminosity model to calculate the fractions of stellar light originating in front of and behind the disk along each line of sight. We infer the pixel-by-pixel …

Temperature And Hydrologic Context Influence Methane Variability In A Low-Salinity Marsh, Zoie Brauser

Dissertations and Theses

Coastal wetlands are biogeochemical hotspots that capture and transform carbon and nutrients. Wetland restoration is increasingly used as a climate mitigation strategy because of wetlands' capacity to sequester large amounts of carbon. However, low-salinity tidal marshes exhibit high variability in methane (CH₄) emissions, which could partially offset carbon sequestration under certain conditions. Understanding the drivers of CH₄ variability is crucial for restoration and conservation work. This project uses an observational research approach to assess the relationships between environmental factors and carbon dioxide (CO₂) and CH₄ soil gas fluxes in a restored low-salinity tidal marsh …

Set-Valued Conjugate Calculus And Duality In Optimization And Machine Learning Via Generalized Relative Interiors, Gary Lee Sandine

Dissertations and Theses

Convex analysis, optimization, and duality theory are broadly applicable to a multitude of real-world problems. Theoretical frameworks ensuring strong duality and optimality are fundamentally tied to convex separation under qualification conditions frequently involving topological or relative interiors. These can be empty in convex sets that appear naturally in infinite-dimensional models, yet guarantees of optimality and strong duality are often attainable. This dissertation presents frameworks for applying convex separation via generalized relative interiors to develop generalized calculus rules as well as conditions for strong duality and optimality for infinite-dimensional constrained convex optimization problems.

The first major contribution is the introduction of …

Designing Process-Focused Feedback For College Writers Using Genai, Beata Blood, Maissane Aik, Zoey Zaldivar

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

As generative AI tools like ChatGPT become more common in higher education, writing instructors face the challenge of guiding students toward effective and ethical use, particularly in asynchronous environments where immediate feedback is limited. This presentation reports on an exploratory study that addresses this challenge by shifting attention from AI’s outputs to students’ moment-by-moment writing processes. Grounded in applied linguistics approaches to writing research and process-tracing methods, the project employed case studies with both expert and novice users of GenAI. Expert participants, including academics and industry professionals, completed writing tasks while integrating AI into their workflows. Their sessions were recorded …

Construction Of A Radio Jove Telescope For Low-Frequency Radio Astronomy Observations, Lola G. Torres, Elizabeth Loughry, Raaid Baloch, Benjamin Fisher, Gannon English, Poorvaja Panneerselvan, Andrew Wright, Braedyn Hodges

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Radio JOVE, a NASA-supported citizen science project, provides a framework for studying planetary magnetospheres and solar activity through radio observations. The primary goal of this project is to construct a Radio JOVE telescope system to enable undergraduate observation and analysis of low-frequency radio emissions from Jupiter and the Sun. The antenna system will be constructed considering real-world effects to ensure accurate signal detection. The resulting system will generate radio spectrograms that capture time-dependent signal intensity, identifying any Jovian radio bursts and solar radio emissions. These observations will be used to investigate plasma interactions, and space weather relations associated with both …

Application And Development Of Continuum Treatments In Photodetachment Of Anions, Pratichhya Adhikari

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to provide deeper insight into understanding the dynamics of the photodetached electrons and the nature of the parent species. The dissertation provides examples of quasi-bound states of the anion embedded in the continuum of states associated with the neutral species, and shows how they manifest in experimental data, deviating from expectations of direct detachment. This dissertation is primarily computational and applies and develops electronic-structure and continuum models, respectively, and a newly implemented physical dipole treatment of the photoelectron to account for these resonances and to interpret experimental photoelectron imaging data. The content of the dissertation is divided …

Modifying Lta Zeolites For Reversible Hydrogen Sulfide Capture And Elucidating The Structure Of The Incorporated Metal And Sulfur Ions, Adeyemi D. Ojaide

Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a highly toxic and corrosive gas that poses significant environmental and industrial challenges, particularly within the wastewater treatment and oil and gas sectors. H2S leakage is among the deadliest industrial hazards, highlighting the urgent need for the development of highly efficient, non-corrosive adsorbents. This dissertation provides an in-depth examination of the use of metal-zeolites for H2S capture. We carefully investigate the impact of multiple divalent and one monovalent transition metals on LTA zeolites to optimize H2S removal. While Linde Type A (LTA) zeolites offer a robust structural framework for gas separation, a comprehensive understanding of how …

A Graphical Approach To Isospectral Unfoldings, Dallin Seyfried

Theses and Dissertations

Isospectral reductions are mathematical techniques used to shrink a matrix, or a graph, into a smaller, dimensionally reduced form while preserving its spectrum. Simple graphs that share isospectral reductions also share quantum walk properties. As such we further develop the inverse process, isospectral unfoldings, to find graphs that share isospectral reductions. We first prove many conditions relating to isospectral reductions and unfoldings. Afterwards, we define two new unfolding processes: general unfolding which unfolds the graph one vertex at a time, and equitable partition unfolding which excels at larger graph unfolding. In particular, through equitable partition unfolding, we discover many graphs …

Understanding The Long-Term Patterns Of Change Of A Tidal Marsh In Mission Bay, San Diego, California, Carrie A. Shuster, Theresa Sinicrope Talley Ph.D., Drew Talley Ph.D., Zhi-Yong Yin Ph.D., Kellie Uyeda Ph.D.

Theses

Coastal marshes are among California’s most productive ecosystems and the most impacted, having been extensively modified by dredging, filling, and urban development. This thesis investigates over a century of change for a marsh in Northern Mission Bay, San Diego, California using ecological and spatial analyses.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the environmental history and current land use of the Northern Mission Bay marsh, tracing changes from pre-contact Indigenous stewardship through colonial and modern urban development. It also introduces a restoration plant palette derived from historical and contemporary species occurrences, ecological functions, and documented cultural uses. By integrating ethnobotanical knowledge …

Measuring The Tokenization Premium: A Cost Audit For Underserved Language Communities, Avijit Roy, Proma Roy, Hrishitva Patel

Publications and Research

Large language models are increasingly deployed as general-purpose educational and technical assistance systems, but their basic infrastructure does not treat languages equally. One underexamined source of disparity is tokenization: semantically equivalent content can require substantially different token counts across languages, affecting API cost, latency, and usable context length before a model is even invoked. We introduce the Tokenization Equity Audit (TEA), a reproducible benchmark for measuring tokenization premiums in technical tutoring content. TEA evaluates three widely used tokenizers, GPT-4o’s o200k base, Qwen2.5-7B, and Mistral-7B, on a 120-item Python debugging corpus translated from English into Bengali, Hindi, Arabic, Tamil, and Yoruba. …

Enabling Asl Digital Communication Under Poor Internet Access, Swann Thantsin

Student Theses

Video conferencing degrades asymmetrically. When bandwidth falls, a hearing caller loses picture quality and keeps the conversation; a deaf and hard of hearing signer, whose language is carried entirely in the visual modality, loses the conversation. This thesis asks whether signed video reduced to the rates at which commercial platforms fail can be reconstructed at the receiver well enough to keep signing legible. A twostage reduction pipeline crops to the signer and transmits the face and hands at higher fidelity than their surroundings, achieving a reduction of approximately 99%; reconstruction uses a recurrent bottleneck mixer architecture, trained both conventionally and …

Learning, Abstraction, And Creative Search For Interactive Agents, Jonathan Demke

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence systems are increasingly deployed as autonomous agents that interact directly with complex environments. Ensuring these agents remain reliable, adaptable, and useful presents an ongoing practical challenge. This dissertation studies agent-environment interactions through a progressive lens, examining behavior from foundational training stability and abstraction discovery to adaptation in unpredictable settings and open-ended creative search. The investigation begins by analyzing how hyperparameter settings affect early-stage Deep Q-Network performance, yielding practical guidelines for debugging reinforcement learning implementations. To address the challenge of long-horizon planning, the discovery of temporally extended options is formalized as the Minimum Shortcut Problem, demonstrating how agents can …

Development Of Minimalist Trifunctional Building Blocks For Chemical Biology Probe Synthesis, Luke E. Bohrer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 generated expectations that genomic information would accelerate the discovery of new protein drug targets and FDA-approved therapies. However, many small-molecule drug candidates continue to fail in clinical trials, and much of the human proteome remains undercharacterized in terms of structure, function, and disease relevance. Chemical tools are therefore essential for defining protein function, mapping protein interactions, and identifying disease-associated molecular mechanisms. Among these tools, small-molecule chemical probes provide a powerful strategy for connecting biological activity with target identification, functional analysis, and the development of effective therapies.

This dissertation describes the development …

A Coupled Reaction-Diffusion Model Of Promoting And Suppressing Interactions Among Cancer Hallmarks In Endometrial Cancer, Jeddy Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

Spatial transcriptomics enables the scoring of Cancer Hallmarks at a high resolution across a tissue biopsy, yet current analyses of these data remain largely descriptive, treating each spot as a static, independent observation. This thesis develops a coupled system of advection-diffusion-reaction partial differential equations to model the hallmark landscape as the steady-state solution of an underlying spatial process, and casts the recovery of its physical parameters as a PDE-constrained inverse problem. The framework is implemented in FEniCSx on tissue-specific finite element meshes derived from two endometrial cancer biopsies provided by the Huntsman Cancer Institute, with subdomains, boundary interfaces, and an …