Digital Commons Network^™

Walking On Sunshine: Walkable Cities Affect On The Health And Well-Being Of A Population, Carter J. Barnett

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A simple definition of a city is an organizational unit that consists of a dense population within a specific area. This unit can carry a variety of goods and services, complete with housing, businesses, places of leisure and community. A city provides residents with all three of the aspects to live, work, and play within a set distance. How people get around this area is a vital question considering the large number of people in a relatively small zone. For many metropolitan areas a personal car is how movement between city spaces is carried out, however this can cause air …

From Data To Decisions: Safeguarding Athletes In The Age Of Ai, Nathan Elmer

SLU Law Journal Online

Artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics are transforming professional sports by enhancing player performance, injury prevention, and scouting. However, the rapid adoption of AI raises significant concerns about data privacy, ownership, and decision-making biases that affect athletes. While collective bargaining agreements in major sports leagues provide some protections, they fail to address the complexities of AI-driven data collection and processing. The United States should adopt a regulatory framework similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to safeguard athletes’ personal data. Implementing explicit consent requirements, addressing power imbalances, and ensuring transparency in AI decision-making would protect athletes while …

What Are You Drinking? Microplastics, Hannah Aduroja, Dori Do, Sofia Latorre, Emily Yang

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Spring Expo Poster Presentation

• Physical & Applied Sciences

‬ ‭ Spiritual Geographies And Living Ritual:‬ ‭ Misali Island’S Caves In Swahili Religious Life In Zanzibar, Everett Gordon

Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management

Caves along the East African Swahili coast are more than geological formations—they are spiritual landscapes where the boundaries between visible and invisible worlds collapse. This paper explores the ritual and religious significance of three caves on Misali Island, a small coral rag island off the coast of Pemba in the Zanzibar Archipelago. Drawing on vegetation surveys and three weeks of ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews with local fishermen, waganga (healers), and marine rangers, this study investigates how these caves serve as sites of prayer, healing, and spirit veneration. It argues that the practices performed within and around these caves exemplify the …

Baobab Beach Profile: Erosion Of North-Northeast Misali Island, Elizabeth Waterfall

Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management

This study investigates the patterns and drivers of coastal erosion on Misali Island,located off the coast of Pemba Island in the Zanzibar Archipelago. Fieldwork was conducted over a 28-day period, focusing on four beachfront locations along Baobab Beach. Measurements included strike and dip, beach crest-to-toe distance (m), beach step height (cm), sand composition and sand color, velocity, coral composition, and a rate of sediment accumulated per day. These data, combined with qualitative observations, reveal spatial variability in sediment deposition and erosion severity across the island’s coastline. Results suggest that reduced coral cover and increased exposure to wave energy are contributing …

Agricultural Innovation To Climate Change In Northwest Pemba Island, Margaret Horn

Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management

This study investigates how climate change is reshaping agriculture and food security on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, a region historically known as “The Green Island” for its rich biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Through semi-structured interviews with 11 local farmers and extended participant observation at the farm of government official Amour Juma Mohammed, the research reveals that increasingly erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, and prolonged droughts are disrupting traditional planting cycles and reducing crop yields. Farmers report the near disappearance of the vuli rainy season and increasingly severe weather during masika, leading to both water scarcity and crop damage. In response, many have …

Building Bridges Of Knowledge, Cuny Innovative Teaching Academy (Cita)

Open Educational Resources

Building Bridge of Knowledge (BBK) is a CUNY-wide faculty fellowship project, aiming to help students use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools ethically, responsibly, and effectively. Funded by Lumina Foundation in 2024-25, the project was executed by the CUNY Innovative Teaching Academy (CITA) of the Office of Faculty Affairs at CUNY Central Office, with 25 Faculty Fellows in five disciplinary areas (Education, Health, Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM) chosen from across CUNY’s senior and community colleges. Each disciplinary cohort was led by a CUNY faculty member with expertise in the use of AI. The final materials, described and linked in this …

Towards Testing, Detecting, And Debloating Insecure Components In Android Applications, Zicheng Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The Android ecosystem’s openness and extensibility have fueled its dominance in the mobile market, but they also broaden the attack surface of applications by introducing insecure or redundant methods. Vulnerabilities arise from various sources, including insecure API usage, code cloning, and feature bloat, especially from unneeded components introduced during development. To address these challenges, this dissertation presents a systematic, three-phase pipeline that transitions seamlessly from vulnerability discovery to clone-based detection and, ultimately, to dynamic mitigation through runtime debloating. Each phase builds upon the insights and limitations of the previous, collectively forming a practical approach to improving Android app security.

In …

“Synchronized Parenting Is Like Mixing Oil And Water”: Reimagining Parental Control For Co-Parenting In The Divorced Households, Prakriti Dumaru, Audrey Flood, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Student Research

Children from divorced households are granted access to devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets), helping them to maintain meaningful contact with both parents. However, regulating their device usage across two households presents unique co-parenting challenges, which are little studied in the existing literature on parental mediation. As we begin to address this gap, we used low-fidelity prototype designs, guided by the principles of fostering open communication and instilling self-regulation. We evaluated those designs (presented in the form of storyboards) through semi-structured interviews with 23 divorced parents, whose children are active Internet users and aged 13 years or below. Based on our analysis, …

Streamlining Wildlife Regulation, Robert L. Fischman

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

A recent burst of revisions in the bedrock regulations governing projects that may adversely affect wildlife represents a generational shift in policy. Streamlining federal decision -making drove much of this reform. Streamlining offers a path to address climate change without abandoning a longstanding commitment to wildlife conservation. The conservation community recognizes the need to build new infrastructure to reduce the rate of climate change through air emissions. The most urgent priority is decarbonizing the electrical ~rid through renewable energy generation and a better transmission network. Adaptation to the "new abnormal" of climate-driven environmental disruption demands federal approvals for a host …

Lead Telecommunications Cables: A Call For Concern?, Zachary Young

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

From the late 1800s until the 1950s, telecommunication companies across the United States utilized lead casing to protect their telecommunication lines. As technology developed and different types of plastic coatings were created, telecommunication companies phased out the use of lead cables. However, the lead cables remain in the air and buried in the ground, even continuing to provide telephone service for some. The failure to remove these cables, most of which are not in use anymore, has generated a slew of issues for the modem-day telecommunication companies that have inherited these cables from their predecessors. As the protective casing decays, …

Cogprog: Utilizing Large Language Models To Forecast In-The-Moment Health Assessment, Gina Sprint, Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, Raven Weaver, Lisa Wiese, Diane Cook

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

Forecasting future health status is beneficial for understanding health patterns and providing anticipatory support for cognitive and physical health difficulties. In recent years, generative Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise as forecasters. Though not traditionally considered strong candidates for numeric tasks, LLMs demonstrate emerging abilities to address various forecasting problems. They also provide the ability to incorporate unstructured information and explain their reasoning process. In this article, we explore whether LLMs can effectively forecast future self-reported health state. To do this, we utilized in-the-moment assessments of mental sharpness, fatigue, and stress from multiple studies, utilizing daily responses (N = …

Enhancing Metacognitive Competencies Through Human-Centered Ai: The Role Of Custom-Trained Intelligent Agents In Workforce Upskilling, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This editorial examines the integration of human-computer intelligent interaction (HCII), specifically through human-centered artificial intelligence (AI) and custom-trained intelligent agents, to foster metacognitive competencies critical for workforce upskilling. With 59% of the workforce projected to require substantial upskilling by 2030, developing personalized AI models tailored to individual cognitive and learning profiles presents an innovative pathway. These custom-trained agents leverage human-computer interaction (HCI) technologies and machine learning methodologies to enhance understanding of one’s own learning processes-metacognition-thus empowering individuals to optimize their future learning and adaptability. This approach not only enhances the individual’s ability to engage effectively with complex tasks in the …

Leaf It To The Ai: Visualizing Foliage With Machine Learning, Chelsy Tinacba, George Sikazwe, Michael Frye

Posters - 2025

This project sets out to create a tool to help aid in the research and monitoring of the threatened prickly cacti [Fig. 1]. due to an invasive species of insect growing to be a threat. This website displays current and predictive locations of foliage within a region.

To get the data of the predictive location, an additional program was developed that uses a machine learning model to provide coordinates of potential areas where more plants may be. The computer program provides a visualization of potential patterns for the foliage in the database. The machine learning model combs through the data …

Nothing Is Off Limits, But Not Everything Is Done Right: Exploring Ineffability, Alejandro Maciel

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Games are capable of addressing absolutely anything. No topic is too big, too controversial, or too emotional. but not everything is done well; the problem isn't the subject, it's always the delivery. When the developers approach heavy topics without care, they risk doing harm. bwhen they do their research and consult communities and write with purpose, the result can be transformative. Representation, when handled with attention, isn't political correctness; it's simply good storytelling. it's how games become more than entertainment. They become tools for empathy, education, and more valuable connections

Toward A Global Roadmap: An Analysis Of National Strategies Toward Digital Education Improvements Across Southeast Asia And Southern Africa, Z Alexandra Anderson

Computer Science Undergraduate Theses

The rapid global expansion of digital technologies has created significant opportunities to transform education systems, foster innovation, and reduce inequalities. However, access to and benefits from these technologies remain unevenly distributed, shaped by differences in infrastructure, human capital, governance structures, and economic development. This thesis investigates how systemic approaches to digital education in Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe can inform a more inclusive and adaptive global roadmap for digital transformation in education.

Adopting a mixed-methods design, this study combines a comparative quantitative analysis of the CISCO Digital Readiness Index (DRI) with a qualitative content analysis of national …

Causal Models For Realistic Cognitive Reinforcement, Vivek Dhingra, Brandon Bazile, Andrew Forney

Computer Science Undergraduate Theses

Modeling complex hierarchical decision systems can be used for predicting the effects of policy changes before their enactment, such as understanding how new laws might influence students within an educational system. However, understanding the effects of policies on individuals versus populations requires a structured assertion of the system’s causal dynamics. As such, we propose a novel reinforcement learning framework that integrates causal modeling to optimize decision-making in multi-agent environments, like schools. The causal model captures relationships between these levels, providing agents with a structured understanding of how their actions propagate through the system. Compared to traditional reinforcement learning methods, our …

How The Biotic And Abiotic Factors In The Belle Forest Cave And Arboretum Soil Dictates Tree Species Prevalence, Amya A. Bingham

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A plethora of factors in the soil impact a plant’s health, including the presence of different biotic and abiotic factors. These include things like temperature, elevation, pH, microbial respiration and the presence of water, clay, loam, silt, sand, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Different soils will have varying amounts of these, which may dictate what is able to grow in them, and therefore also the surrounding area. This research project explores how the aforementioned biotic and abiotic factors affect the soil at the Belle Forest Cave and Arboretum. Three samples will be taken from four spots along a transect at this …

Investigating Mercury Contamination In Urban Fish: Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy And Histological Analysis For Environmental And Human Health, Indy L. Cockrill, Ross Andrew

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Mercury contamination in aquatic ecosystems is a pressing environmental and public health concern, particularly in urban areas where industrial runoff and wastewater contribute to heavy metal accumulation. This study investigates mercury presence in fish from Richland Creek in Nashville, TN, by analyzing histological changes in liver and muscle tissues. Mercury bioaccumulates in aquatic food chains, potentially leading to physiological damage in fish and posing health risks to humans who consume contaminated seafood. While prior research has established mercury’s toxic effects, there is a need for localized studies assessing its presence in urban waterways. The hope is to find histological abnormalities …

Innovative Soil Classification Approach For Achieving Global Biodiversity Framework Utilizing Integrated Data Fusion Of Emit And Multispectral Satellite Observations: Case Study Of Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Royal Reserve, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Hesham Morgan, Ali Elgendy, Surendra Maharjan, Wenzhao Li, Tamer Ismail, Yehya Kh. Shehadeh, Ahmed Elgharib, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Dughairi, Ali El Muburak, Khaled Allam Harhash, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Soil classification is essential for sustainable land management, ecological conservation, and combating desertification, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. This study integrates hyperspectral data from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and multispectral imagery from Sentinel-2 to achieve accurate soil classification for the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Royal Reserve (ITBA) in Saudi Arabia. Using advanced Machine Learning (ML) techniques, including Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), the study highlights the power of data fusion in addressing the limitations of standalone remote sensing methods. The integration of hyperspectral and multispectral data combines the spectral richness of hyperspectral imaging with the spatial …

Experimental Evaluation Of Friedel’S Salt For Chloride Removal In Road Salt-Impacted Stormwater And Lakes, Marwan Alhinaai

Masters Theses

Road salt (e.g., NaCl) application in cold-temperature regions has increased Cl- concentrations in freshwater. Removing Cl- from water is challenging because it’s highly soluble. This paper is the first to demonstrate and characterize the removal of Cl- from stormwater by Friedel’s salt (Ca4Al2(OH)12Cl2(H2O)4) precipitation (FSP), achieved by adding calcium oxide (CaO) and sodium aluminate (NaAlO2). Laboratory tests were done on Cl- removal with FSP using a range of Ca/Al/Cl ratios in deionized (DI) water and in stormwater samples impacted by road salt. Even the lowest doses resulted in significant removal of Cl- with maximum removal rates for comparable Ca/Al/Cl ratios …

Graduate School Blog - April 2025 Volume 1, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The April 2025 UofM Graduate School Blog highlights a month full of events, stories, and celebrations, beginning with Dr. Deborah Tollefsen’s personal graduate school journey, shared during the “Is Graduate School Right for Me?” virtual workshop an inspiring narrative of resilience, mentorship, and finding purpose through education. This edition also spotlights Graduate Student Appreciation Week, featuring a robust lineup of events such as a virtual town hall, resume and job market workshop, student social and awards ceremony, study session, and social dinners all designed to support, celebrate, and connect the UofM graduate student community. With opportunities to hear from …

Blacktail Creek Pdier, Hgl

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Equilibration Of Alluvial River Channel Geometry To Unsteady Boundary Conditions, Christian Erikson

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The morphology of an alluvial river is the culmination of dynamic processes interacting across scales. When the boundary conditions of a fluvial system are modified, feedback effects among these processes reshape the channel by altering the flow of water and sediment. Environmental stressors, therefore, have the potential to propagate signals of change from watershed to grain scale features in a river channel. I trace the influence of modern climate change across these scales by first quantifying changes in the generation of surface runoff and sediment supply at watershed scales. I then identify how the subsequent changes in hydrological and sedimentological …

Deep Learning For Fine-Grained Digital Histopathology Image Analysis, Joseph Dipalma

Computer Science Technical Reports

As digital pathology becomes increasingly popular, it is critical to develop machine learning solutions to utilize this data. While other image modalities have seen exponential increases in methodology availability, the same has not been true for histopathology images. This is likely in part because histopathology whole slide images possess unique characteristics that prevent simply applying existing methods as-is.

In this thesis, we identify and propose solutions to 3 open problems with histopathology images: 1. large raw image size (up to 150,000×150,000 pixels in size), 2. low class-positivity (low ratio of positive to negative patches), and 3. limited image availability with …

The Climate Whisperers, Cale Jaffe

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Environmental groups and their allies have seen two of the bedrock statutes of modern environmental law (the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act) eroded through recent decisions from the Supreme Court. At the same time, political polarization around climate policy- the gap between Republicans and Democrats on whether worsening global warming merits a response- is wider than it has ever been.

Despite these dispiriting headwinds, there are some encouraging counterpoints of recent climate progress in politically conservative communities. The heart of this essay is simply sharing these stories so we can learn from them. I label the advocates who succeeded …

Drawing Lines In The Sand: Armed Conflict, Climate Damage And Setbacks To Climate Action, Beatrice L. Hamilton

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Armed conflicts have a significant and detrimental effect on the climate system, with considerable implications for efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and the civilian population. Yet the environmental provisions under the law of armed conflict (LOAC), drafted some half a century ago, struggle to adequately address these concerns. This article assesses the capacity of LOAC to address conflict-driven climate damage and its cascading impacts by characterizing these harms as environmental damage and as injury to civilians. The analysis highlights opportunities for broadening LOA C's scope and offers recommendations to enhance its capacity to address climate damage and …

The Modern-Day Discovery Doctrine: Reforming Property Law's "Productive Use" Doctrine For The Age Of Climate Change, Shanthi M. Chackalackal

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

When European settlers first colonized the Americas, claiming Native land as their own, they largely believed their actions to be justified. To Europeans, property rights over land emanated from putting one's labor into that land, "improving" it by removing it from a state of nature. Absent such ''productive use," land had not been claimed and was therefore ripe for the taking. Yet while Native Americans had labored significantly and fundamentally shaped the land around them, European settlers deemed the Americas to be in a state of nature. Such attitudes towards Native American labor and property rights reveal a strikingly limited …

Research On Quantitative Evaluation Of Artificial Intelligence Policy Texts In The Yangtze River Delta Region, Ying Zhou, Danjie Yang, Mei Jiang, Xiaochun Zhao

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]The quantitative evaluation of existing effective artificial intelligence (AI) policies aims to provide reference for government department to formulate scientific and reasonable AI policies and promote the development of AI. [Method/process]Taking 10 AI policies in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2015 to 2024 as the research samples, the text mining method is used to construct the evaluation index system of AI policies in the Yangtze River Delta region, and conduct quantitative evaluation by combining the PMC index model. [Result/conclusion]The study found that from a macro policy text perspective, the average PMC index of the 10 AI policy samples in …

Enhancing Remote Sensing Imagery Temporal Resolution Using Starfm Data Fusion Approach For Improved Land Surface Monitoring, Ahmadreza Pourghodrat

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High-resolution remote sensing imagery plays a critical role in various domains, such as farm-level agricultural operations, environmental monitoring, and natural resource management. However, data with high spatial resolution typically have low temporal resolution, and those with high temporal resolution often lack spatial detail. For example, Landsat 8 and 9 satellites deliver high spatial resolution images with a 30-meter pixel size but suffer from low temporal resolution, with a 16-day revisit cycle. In contrast, satellites like MODIS and VIIRS provide daily images but with a much coarser spatial resolution (375 meters or more), reducing spatial details. Additionally, there is a lack …