Digital Commons Network^™

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Final Bpsou Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Belle Of Butte (Bres No. 8 & Ur-39) Remedial Action Work Plan (Rawp) Request For Change Ir- 2024-Ra-01, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Rings Of Power: Controlling Sod Mimic Activity By The Addition Of Pyridine Rings Within The Pyridinophane Scaffold, Katherine J. Smith, Timothy M. Schwartz, David M. Freire, Cameron Bowers, Sarah K. Dunn, Jackson F. Bonnell, Magy A. Mekhail, Giridhar Akkaraju, Kayla N. Green

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Superoxide dismutase enzymes are a major defense against superoxide, which is a potent reactive oxygen species. Misregulation of reactive oxygen species and subsequent neuronal damage are etiological hallmarks of neurodegenerative disease. Macrocyclic small molecules have offered inroads toward functional SOD1 mimics. Herein, we report a series of five tetra-aza macrocyclic ^RPy₂N₂ ligands, varied by 4-position substitution of the pyridine ring with both electron-donating (R = OMe) and withdrawing groups (R = Cl, I, and CF₃) to offer the first comparison to well-studied ^RPyN₃ congeners and other mimics in the literature. New ligands …

Does A Name Make A Difference? Teaching Random Selection In The Classroom, Venessa Singhroy, Rommel Robertson, Kostas Stroumbakis

Numeracy

In Statistics education, it is crucial to emphasize the foundational significance of random selection, which underpins statistical methodologies and ensures unbiased representation of populations in samples. However, students often struggle to grasp the concept’s complexities, leading to challenges in applying random selection methods effectively. This paper examines the gap between students’ theoretical understanding of randomness and their practical application of this concept. Using an Explanatory Sequential Design, this study presents an instructional activity aimed at teaching the concept of randomness in the selection process and proposes modifications to enhance student comprehension. The activity, implemented in undergraduate Statistics and Psychology courses, …

D101n: A Unique And Ill-Understood Familial Als-Related Sod1 Mutant, Analisa Lott

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, with 90% of documented cases considered sporadic and about 10% showing a hereditary link; such cases are deemed as familial ALS (fALS). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), a copper-zinc binding enzyme that protects cells from damaging free radicals, has been linked to fALS with certain toxic gain of function mutations, such as the D101N mutant. The human SOD1 D101N mutant has been shown to be associated with rapidly progressing neurodegeneration yet is less prone to aggregation than similar mutants, but its deviation from wild-type (WT) SOD1 remains misunderstood.

Objective: Although the D101N …

A Latent Class Assessment Of Healthcare Access Factors And Disparities In Breast Cancer Care Timeliness, Matthew Dunn, Didong Li, Marc Emerson, Caroline Thompson, Hazel Nichols, Sarah Van Alsten, Mya Roberson, Stephanie Wheeler, Lisa Carey, Terry Hyslop, Jennifer Elston Lafata, Melissa Troester

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Delays in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment lead to worse survival and quality of life. Racial disparities in care timeliness have been reported, but few studies have examined access at multiple points along the care continuum (diagnosis, treatment initiation, treatment duration, and genomic testing).

METHODS AND FINDINGS: The Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS) Phase 3 is a population-based, case-only cohort (n = 2,998, 50% black) of patients with invasive breast cancer diagnoses (2008 to 2013). We used latent class analysis (LCA) to group participants based on patterns of factors within 3 separate domains: socioeconomic status ("SES"), "care barriers," and …

Screensafefuture: A Parent-Empathetic And Pragmatic Mhealth Application For Toddlers' Brain Development Addressing Screen-Addiction Challenges, Nafisa Anjum, Md. Mehedi Hasan, Syeda Umme Salma, Liang Zhao, Maria Valero, Nazmus Sakib

Faculty Articles

The surging incidents of infants and toddlers screen addiction in the United States are becoming a pressing concern, given its compound impact on cognitive, mental, and physical growth. To address this era's critical child health and development problem, in this paper an innovative mHealth application—ScreenSafeFuture—is proposed. ScreenSafeFuture provides practical solutions that seamlessly fit into parents' busy lifestyles, acknowledging the effectiveness and convenience of smartphones as a healthcare tool. The solution includes essential features designed to enhance the experience between parents and their children under 3 years old encompassing an alternative activity advocator for a personalized parent-offspring scenario, screen time tracking …

Alphafold2-Based Characterization Of Apo And Holo Protein Structures And Conformational Ensembles Using Randomized Alanine Sequence Scanning Adaptation: Capturing Shared Signature Dynamics And Ligand-Induced Conformational Changes, Nishank Raisinghani, Vedant Parikh, Brandon Foley, Gennady M. Verkhivker

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Proteins often exist in multiple conformational states, influenced by the binding of ligands or substrates. The study of these states, particularly the apo (unbound) and holo (ligand-bound) forms, is crucial for understanding protein function, dynamics, and interactions. In the current study, we use AlphaFold2, which combines randomized alanine sequence masking with shallow multiple sequence alignment subsampling to expand the conformational diversity of the predicted structural ensembles and capture conformational changes between apo and holo protein forms. Using several well-established datasets of structurally diverse apo-holo protein pairs, the proposed approach enables robust predictions of apo and holo structures and conformational ensembles, …

Comparing Metabolism And Hypoxia Tolerance Of Native And Non-Native Florida Freshwater Fishes In Climate Change Scenarios, Benjamin A. Share

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

As climate change brings rising water temperatures and lower dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations to freshwater bodies, it has become increasingly important to understand how this will affect ecosystems with established non-native or invasive species. Fishes of the family Cichlidae are the most pervasive non-native fishes in the Everglades and may increase their range further north under a changing climate. To better understand potential invasibility and competition with native fishes, the metabolism and hypoxia tolerance of non-native Blue Tilapia Oreochromis aureus was compared to native Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus when acclimated across a range of seasonal and projected temperatures. Intermittent-flow respirometry was …

The Impact Of Student Engagement Activities On Future Climate Change Adaptation: The Case Of Student Simulation Models, Bassel Mostafa Elkalaf

Future Journal of Social Science

This paper explores the critical role of student engagement in addressing the growing challenges of climate change, with a focus on the Model United Nations (MUN) as a case study. As climate-related security threats increase globally, educational platforms that prepare youth for effective leadership in climate politics are more essential than ever. MUN, a widely practiced student activity simulating global policy-making, provides a valuable opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the interconnectedness between climate change, peace, and security. By participating in MUN simulations, students engage in debates, develop innovative solutions, and practice diplomatic skills, all while exploring the …

Case Study On Seney National Wildlife Refuge: How The Upper Peninsula Led Wildlife Conservation In The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century, Holly A. Galligan

HS 390 Primary Research Papers

The research presented in this paper will weave together the story of how the Upper Peninsula became a crucial hub for wildlife conservation in the first half of the twentieth century. Seeking to answer the question of how and why this occurred, as well as why it is distinct from the social movement of the 1960s, the research is based on public awareness, photographic research developments, and the concept of the national system for conservation. Hunting played the main role in the motivations for this movement therefore, it is also heavily discussed throughout. The previous research on this subject emerged …

Reaction Of A Chiral Platinum Triamine Compound With Key Amino Acid And Guanine Analog, Onu Emmanuel Chukwu

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Platinum compounds can exhibit cytotoxic activity through reaction with DNA; however, interaction with proteins and DNA bases, especially with methionine residues and Guanine analogs, is another common biological reaction. Our lab has synthesized Chloro[2-(4-Methyl-1,4- diazepan-1-yl) ethanamine]platinum(II) chloride ([Pt(L)Cl]Cl), which has a tridentate binding mode for the amine ligand. This study focused on the reaction of the chiral platinum triamine with key amino acids (methionine and 2-hydroxybutyric acid) and guanine analogs under different pH and temperature conditions. The mass spectrometry of N-AcMet Interaction with [Pt(L)Cl]+ showed a m/z of 542 and 579 for reactions at pH 4. The m/z of 542 …

(R2100) Optimality Conditions Of A Topsis Optimization Model And Its Application On Interval-Valued Data, Sudipta Roy, Sandip Chatterjee

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is widely used in the field of multi-criteria decision analysis. Despite its popularity and widespread application, little attention has been given to the mathematical foundation that underlies the TOPSIS algorithm. The existing literature on this subject is far from comprehensive, leaving many aspects of the algorithm unexplored. This paper aims to address this gap in the literature by delving into the optimization problem associated with TOPSIS. Unlike traditional interval analysis theory, which only covers a limited scope, our approach extends to a broader range of scenarios and offers …

(R2111) Effect Of Stenotic-Aneurysmal Arterial Regime On Unsteady Magnetohydrodynamic Non-Newtonian Blood Flow With Heat Radiation, Babatunde A. Joseph, Dada M. Sunday, Bello A.J. Funsho, Akeem B. Disu, Alamu-Awoniran F., Danas James Y.

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

The study aims to investigate the effect of magneto-hydrodynamic on a non-Newtonian unsteady blood flow with internal heat energy in the presence of blood ironic properties characterized by stenosis. The formulated mathematical equations resulted in differential forms and were solved analytically by Differential Transform Method. The obtained solutions were displayed by graphs showing different flow physiognomies like blood velocity, temperature profile, Nusselt number, wall shear stress and stream function.

The results indicated that velocity profile increases as magnetic field, Darcy number and aneurysmal artery rise, while it decreases as heat radiation, Reynold number, and Casson parameter speedup. The temperature profile …

Curbing Environmental Degradation To Balance Sustainable Development: Evidence From China, Muneza Kagzi, Vishal Dagar, Nadia Doytch, Deepika Krishnan, Manisha Raj

Ateneo School of Government Publications

To achieve the goals of sustainable development, it is crucial to check the balance of increased level of international trade along with financial development, foreign direct investment (FDI), energy consumption, and institutional advancement with the quality of the environment. This study focuses on how these variables have caused environmental degradation in China. To achieve Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), i.e. to increase the nation's resilience to natural disasters and hazards related to climate change, to promote climate action and safeguard life as part of sustainable development, this involves the analysis of time-series data sets from 1975 to …

Ethics And Environmental Impact Of Video Games, Anushka Chokshi

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

As video games grow in popularity, concerns regarding their ethical and environmental implications are brought up. While once, topics like their impact on child development or harm to Earth might have been considered minor or irrelevant, these concerns are now voiced in numerous articles across the internet, amplifying the urgency to develop games in an ethical context before matters are blown out of proportion. For the purposes of exploring both past and present views, this work draws from older and newer sources surrounding many topics on the idea of game development in the video game industry. Essentially, video game development …

Explainable Ai In Medical Imaging: An Interdisciplinary Translational Approach, Caitlyn Chavez

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Advances in computer vision and image processing have made a clear impact on many fields, from healthcare diagnostics to autonomous driving. However, as these models become more complex, understanding their decision-making processes has grown increasingly challenging, making explainable AI (XAI) a crucial component of modern AI systems. The focus of this work is to integrate these new technologies alongside foundational methods of image processing to create tools that can be used by domain experts who are not programmers. Prior to delving into the projects which investigate these concepts, the methodologies, background, and the overall frameworks are discussed. In the first …

Safeguarding Virtual Healthcare: A Novel Attacker-Centric Model For Data Security And Privacy, Suvineetha Herath, Haywood Gelman, John Hastings, Yong Wang

Research & Publications

The rapid growth of remote healthcare delivery has introduced significant security and privacy risks to protected health information (PHI). Analysis of a comprehensive healthcare security breach dataset covering 2009-2023 reveals their significant prevalence and impact. This study investigates the root causes of such security incidents and introduces the Attacker-Centric Approach (ACA), a novel threat model tailored to protect PHI. ACA addresses limitations in existing threat models and regulatory frameworks by adopting a holistic attacker-focused perspective, examining threats from the viewpoint of cyber adversaries, their motivations, tactics, and potential attack vectors. Leveraging established risk management frameworks, ACA provides a multi-layered approach …

Everyone Brings Something To The Table: A Culturally Sustaining Analysis Of Teacher Candidates’ Mixed Reality Teaching Simulations, Erin Scott

Faculty Publications

Discussions of HBCU students’ content knowledge have centered around developing high impact, asset-based approaches to learning (Williams et al, 2022). So, HBCU teacher preparation providers (TPPs) can also focus efforts on culturally sustaining approaches to developing candidates’ content knowledge and researching how high impact practices, like teaching simulations, can help prepare candidates for classrooms. This exploratory case study uses critical cases (n=2); findings suggest candidates have a developing understanding of content, which forms a solid basis for increasing their knowledge. MRTSs are addressed as a potential high impact, culturally sustaining practice for building candidates’ content knowledge. Further, HBCU TPPs can …

Land Cover Effects On Stream Water Chemistry In The Upper Saline River Watershed, Brandy Everett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Non-point source (NPS) pollutants and the conversion of natural areas to anthropogenic uses are one of the most critical stressors on water quality. The Upper Saline River Watershed has seen an increase in anthropogenic land cover over the last two decades, leading it to be previously identified as a 319 NPS priority watershed in Arkansas. This study used publicly available data to assess the magnitude and trends of total nutrients (TN and TP) at both the watershed and site level scale. Results suggest a decrease of 2.6%/yr in TN concentrations and 1.5%/yr in TP concentrations at the watershed scale. While …

Enhancing Water Sustainability In North Africa: Literature Review And Synthesis Of Current Knowledge Gaps In Sudan, Osman M. A. Adam

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Masters Project Reports

This study delves into the critical role of groundwater in addressing global water challenges, with a focus on the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) in north Africa. Groundwater constitutes a source of potable water, irrigation, and industrial use, especially in arid regions where surface water is limited. We analyzed the status of water quantity, withdrawals, recharge, and geological characteristics in the NSAS, specifically in Sudan, Egypt, and Libya. Though the NSAS is largely an untapped resource, water withdrawals from the NSAS in Egypt, Sudan, and Libya are projected to increase substantially from 2000 to 2100 due to population growth, with …

Estimating Medium-Term Regional Monthly Economic Activity Reductions During The Covid-19 Pandemic Using Nighttime Light Data, Ma Flordeliza P. Del Castillo, Toshio Fujimi, Hirokazu Tatano

SOSE Affiliate: Manila Observatory

Economic impact estimates of the initial lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic showed a significant reduction in economic activities globally. However, the succeeding impacts and their spatiotemporal distribution within countries remain unknown. Studies showed that nighttime light data (NTL) has effectively revealed the spatiotemporal dimensions of the economic effects of COVID-19. Thus, this study used NTL data to determine the medium-term regional monthly economic impacts of the pandemic in the Philippines in terms of the Economic Activity Reduction (EAR) index. We generated a spatial error model, regressing pre-pandemic NTL on mean temperature, maximum rainfall, and built-up area. This model explained …

Kid Tech Balance: Providing Children Self-Management Tools As An Alternative To Parental Controls, Michael Scott Wendell

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Technology integration into the household is ever expanding and so is the need for children's safety when it comes to accessing this technology. Parental controls exist as a way for parents to be able to control and protect their children from possible hazards of technology use. However, many controls provide only the ability to help parents lock or restrict their children from using technology. This research seeks to identify and create a control solution that helps develop moderation habits in children instead of restrictions, thereby helping both parents and children. I developed a new control application through this research, aptly …

Automating Maritime Risk Data Collection And Identification Leveraging Large Language Models, Donghao Huang, Xiuju Fu, Xiaofeng Yin, Haibo Pen, Zhaoxia Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Maritime risk research is crucial yet challenging for improving safety, efficiency, and sustainability in maritime operations. This paper presents an innovative method for automating the collection and identification of risk data related to global maritime risks from news sources, addressing the limitations of traditional manual methods. To evaluate the proposed method, different learning-based models, including conventional machine learning approaches and advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 and LLaMA-3.1, are comprehensively studied for comparison. In addition, not only do we use popular evaluation metrics to assess the proposed method, but we also introduce a new evaluation metric, called the …

Tracking Natural Hazards: Bridging Rain-Triggered Lahar Research And Protective Action Decision Making In Wildland Fire Management, Ashley Bosa

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Understanding natural hazards is crucial for mitigating risks, protecting lives and property, and building resilience in communities. By enabling communities to prepare, respond effectively, and take protective action against disasters, the devastating impacts of natural hazards can be significantly reduced. However, transitioning from research to tangible community impact involves a multi-step process that bridges the gap between scientific knowledge and practical application. In this dissertation, I present two seismo-acoustic analyses of multiple rain-triggered lahar events at Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala, a granulometry study that attempts drone imagery analysis for lahar deposits, and a case-study review of the roles of …

Scholarships, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Periconceptional, Physical Activity, Environment, Nutrition And Diet (Prepared) Study, Aaliyah Devore

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Accessibility: Policy Innovations For Lower Limb Prosthetic Users, Hannah Huggans

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

About The Mcnair Scholars Program, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Using Machine Learning To Improve Confidence In Lung Cancer Diagnosis, Sandra Channeary Khoun

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Health professionals must diagnose correctly to avoid unnecessary costs in care and medicine. Different conditions, come with different treatments. Therefore, it is key to produce the right diagnoses promptly to help treat people appropriately and quickly. As lung cancer is the leading cancer type in the world, it is often diagnosed too late once symptoms appear which becomes difficult to treat at certain stages. In the race against time, recruiting the use of machine learning next to traditional methods of diagnosing will improve the confidence of professionals to predict specific conditions accurately and with speed. For our research, we will …

Assessing The Potential For Soil-Mediated Transmission Of Symbiotic Bacteria In The Leaffooted Bug (Leptoglossus Phyllopus), Armeen Nasir

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Recent evidence suggests insects might indirectly provide symbionts to their offspring by releasing them into the soil via feces. We investigated whether this is occurring in the Eastern leaf-footed bug, Leptoglosuss phyllopus. We hypothesized that if adults release viable symbiont cells into their environment, then nymphs will have a higher survival rate, develop faster, and be larger at adulthood when exposed to soil that has been in contact with adult insects for longer. To measure the rate and whether the bugs acquired Caballeronia from the soil, insect nymphs were exposed to soil that had been exposed to a lab colony …