Digital Commons Network^™

Delivering Healthcare To The Underserved, Edward Booty

Asian Management Insights

Non-profits, governments, and businesses need to come together and use a data-driven approach to improve local basic healthcare access.

Towards Llm-Based Fact Verification On News Claims With A Hierarchical Step-By-Step Prompting Method, Xuan Zhang, Wei Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While large pre-trained language models (LLMs) have shown their impressive capabilities in various NLP tasks, they are still underexplored in the misinformation domain. In this paper, we examine LLMs with in-context learning (ICL) for news claim verification, and find that only with 4-shot demonstration examples, the performance of several prompting methods can be comparable with previous supervised models. To further boost performance, we introduce a Hierarchical Step-by-Step (HiSS) prompting method which directs LLMs to separate a claim into several subclaims and then verify each of them via multiple questionsanswering steps progressively. Experiment results on two public misinformation datasets show that …

Digital Twins Of The Living Knee: From Measurements To Model, Thor Erik Andreassen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modern medicine has dramatically improved the lives of many. In orthopaedics, robotic surgery has given clinicians superior accuracy when performing interventions over conventional methods. Nevertheless, while these and many other methods are available to ensure treatments are performed successfully, far fewer methods exist to predict the proper treatment option for a given person. Clinicians are forced to categorize individuals, choosing the best treatment on “average.” However, many individuals differ significantly from the “average” person, for which many of these treatments are designed. Going forward, a method of testing, evaluating, and predicting different treatment options' short- and long-term effects on an …

Biochemical Charactrization Of A Fructosyltransferase Enzyme From A Halophilic Archaeon, Haloarcula Marismotui, For Biotechnological Applications, Ahlam Khalifa Al Ameri

Theses

Fructosyltransferase enzymes are involved in the production of fructans, which are polymers of fructose and naturally present in many foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, and cereals. Fructans with short chain lengths are called Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which are small dietary fibers having low caloric values and are known as “prebiotics”. Fructans have a broad range of applications in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and chemical industries. They have unique physiochemical properties and functionalities depending on the source of enzyme used for their production. The present study aimed at the utilization of a recently discovered unique fructosyltransferase enzyme from an extremely halophilic microorganism, …

Fluid-Based Wearable Sensors: A Turning Point In Personalized Healthcare, Berfi̇n Vural, İnci̇ Uludağ, Bahar İnce, Canan Özyurt, Funda Öztürk, Mustafa Kemal Sezgi̇ntürk

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Nowadays, it has become very popular to develop wearable devices that can monitor biomarkers to analyze the health status of the human body more comprehensively and accurately. Wearable sensors, specially designed for home care services, show great promise with their ease of use, especially during pandemic periods. Scientists have conducted many innovative studies on new wearable sensors that can noninvasively and simultaneously monitor biochemical indicators in body fluids for disease prediction, diagnosis, and management. Using noninvasive electrochemical sensors, biomarkers can be detected in tears, saliva, perspiration, and skin interstitial fluid (ISF). In this review, biofluids used for noninvasive wearable sensor …

12th International Conference On Business, Technology And Innovation 2023, University For Business And Technology - Ubt

UBT International Conference

Welcome to IC – UBT 2023

UBT Annual International Conference is the 12th international interdisciplinary peer reviewed conference which publishes works of the scientists as well as practitioners in the area where UBT is active in Education, Research and Development. The UBT aims to implement an integrated strategy to establish itself as an internationally competitive, research-intensive university, committed to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of a world-class education to the most talented students from all background. The main perspective of the conference is to connect the scientists and practitioners from different disciplines in the same place and make …

Phytochemical Constituents Of Cissus Oliveri Growing In Pwani Region, Tanzania, Fadhili S. Estomini, Stephen I. Nnungu, Amelia S. Buriyo

Tanzania Journal of Science

Cissus oliveri (Engl.) Gilg ex Engl. is among the plant species of the family Vitaceae widely used in traditional medicine for management of different ailments. This study aimed at assessing the phytochemicals of C. oliveri parts in order to provide scientific validation for its use as a therapeutic agent. Qualitative analysis of water and ethanolic extracts was conducted by using standard methods and the results revealed that all the parts possess alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols and tannins. Similarly, glycosides and saponins were only present in leaf and root. Quantitative analysis performed by gravimetric and spectrophotometric methods showed that all parts contain …

2023 Celebration Of Scholarship, Creativity, And Engagement, Todd Bruns, Diane Highland

Programs

Annually, Eastern Illinois University honors faculty achievements in the areas of research, creativity, and engagement. This year, the list of faculty accomplishments is again truly impressive, reflective of an engaged faculty committed to excellence and the ongoing pursuit and creation of knowledge. A number of these accomplishments occurred in collaboration with our students, who serve as co-authors, research assistants and partners in bringing these activities to fruition. Indeed, in some cases these professional ambitions transpired over the course of many years, and are a testament to persistence and tenacity--ensuring that these works extend to a broader community of scholars that …

Statistical And Machine Learning Approaches To Describe Factors Affecting Preweaning Mortality Of Piglets, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Gary A. Rohrer, Sudhendu R. Sharma, Vamsi Manthena, Yeyin Shi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

High preweaning mortality (PWM) rates for piglets are a significant concern for the worldwide pork industries, causing economic loss and well-being issues. This study focused on identifying the factors affecting PWM, overlays, and predicting PWM using historical production data with statistical and machine learning models. Data were collected from 1,982 litters from the United States Meat Animal Research Center, Nebraska, over the years 2016 to 2021. Sows were housed in a farrowing building with three rooms, each with 20 farrowing crates, and taken care of by well-trained animal caretakers. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the various sow, …

Characterization Of Environmental Levels Of Pesticide Residues In Household Air And Dust Samples Near A Bioenergy Plant Using Treated Seed As Feedstock, Jabeen Taiba, Eleanor G. Rogan, Daniel D. Snow, Chandran Achutan, Muhammad Zahid

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

Exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides is associated with adverse human health outcomes. There is environmental contamination in Saunders County, Nebraska, due to the accumulation of fungicides and insecticides from a now-closed ethanol plant using seed corn as stock. A pilot study quantified environmental contamination in nearby houses from residual pesticides by measuring dust and air (indoor/outdoor) concentrations of neonicotinoids and fungicides at the study site (households within two miles of the plant) and control towns (20–30 miles away). Air (SASS^® 2300 Wetted-Wall Air Sampler) and surface dust (GHOST wipes with 4 × 4-inch template) samples were collected from eleven study …

Wics Conference 2023: Moving Beyond The Ordinary, Daren Redfearn, Daran Rudnick

Water and Integrated Cropping Systems Conferences

The theme of this year’s WICS Conference is Moving Beyond the Ordinary with the goal of addressing Team Science. Our vision is to provide opportunities and connection points among IANR faculty to leverage their individual knowledge, skills, abilities, and passions. A tendency for land grant institutions is often to deliver information biased from a single, primary discipline and perspective. This is known as comfort zone mega bias and has been defined as “the tendency to drag a problem into our comfort zone and solve the problem that we know how to solve, rather than solving the problem that needs to …

Entanglements Of Teenage Food Security Within High School Pantries In Pinellas County, Florida, Karen T. Díaz Serrano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity has the ability to shape an individual’s or a family’s everyday life and take emotional, psychological, and physical tolls. Among adolescents, not having access to nutritious food could lead to physical effects during growth and development. Moreover, the stress and anxiety of not knowing where their next meal is coming from and the social stigma associated with being food insecure can have negative effects on mental health. A recent solution to these issues is locating food pantries in high schools. Purpose: This exploratory study examined how high school students in Pinellas County, Florida perceive the use of a …

Nutritional Challenges Of Substituting Farmed Animals For Wild Fish In Human Diets, Sebastian A. Heilpern, Rafael M. Almeida, Kathryn J. Fiorella, Alexander S. Flecker, Demetra Williams, Peter B. Mcintyre

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Wild fisheries provide billions of people with a key source of multiple essential nutrients. As fisheries plateau or decline, nourishing more people will partially rely on shifting consumption to farmed animals. The environmental implications of transitions among animal-sourced foods have been scrutinized, but their nutritional substitutability remains unclear. We compared concentrations of six essential dietary nutrients across >5000 species of wild fishes, aquaculture, poultry and livestock species, representing >65% of animals consumed globally. Wild fishes are both more nutrient-dense and variable than farmed animals; achieving recommended intake of all nutrients with farmed species could require consuming almost four times more …

Enhancing Rice Leaf Disease Classification: A Customized Convolutional Neural Network Approach, Ammar Kamal Abasi, Sharif Naser Makhadmeh, Osama Ahmad Alomari, Mohammad Tubishat, Husam Jasim Mohammed

All Works

In modern agriculture, correctly identifying rice leaf diseases is crucial for maintaining crop health and promoting sustainable food production. This study presents a detailed methodology to enhance the accuracy of rice leaf disease classification. We achieve this by employing a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model specifically designed for rice leaf images. The proposed method achieved an accuracy of 0.914 during the final epoch, demonstrating highly competitive performance compared to other models, with low loss and minimal overfitting. A comparison was conducted with Transfer Learning Inception-v3 and Transfer Learning EfficientNet-B2 models, and the proposed method showed superior accuracy and performance. With …

Helping Frontline Workers In Texas-A Framework For Resource Development, Karima Lalani, Meredith O'Neal, Simone Lee Joannou, Bhanumathi Gopal, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders …

Teacher Candidates’ Conceptions And Practices Of Computational Thinking For Equity, Heather F. Clark, Symone A. Gyles, Imelda Nava-Landeros

Journal of Computer Science Integration

This study documents novice science and math teachers’ developing pedagogical approaches to integrating computational thinking (CT) and data into their courses to support educational equity and social justice. The 10 novice teacher candidates (TCs) studied were part of an urban teacher residency program that empowered them with an asset-based pedagogy we describe as “CT for Equity.” Drawing on coursework and interviews as data, we asked three questions: What are teachers’ conceptions of CT? What are their CT instructional practices? And how did their students respond to those practices? To explore conceptions of CT, we used Kafai et al.’s (2020) articulation …

Introduction To Leadership For Complex Problems And The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Rian Satterwhite, Kate Sheridan, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"Alarming headlines referencing catastrophe and our perilous proximity to a tipping point from which we cannot return create a common refrain when it comes to climate change: the time to act is now—or has already passed—and if we do not reorient ourselves and our relationship to the world immediately, we are doomed. The urgency of the climate crisis is real, and with it comes a need to reckon with the deeply rooted systems and structures that have created this and other interdependent complex global challenges. However, our demise is not a foregone conclusion. Despite the doomsday headlines so common to …

Widespread Dominance Of Methane Ebullition Over Diffusion In Freshwater Aquaculture Ponds, Renske J. E. Vroom, Sarian Kosten, Rafael M. Almeida, Raquel Mendonça, Ive S. Muzitano, Icaro Barbosa, Jonas Nasário, Ernandes S. Oliveira Junior, Alexander S. Flecker, Nathan Barros

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

An ever-increasing demand for protein-rich food sources combined with dwindling wild fish stocks has caused the aquaculture sector to boom in the last two decades. Although fishponds are potentially strong emitters of the greenhouse gas methane (CH₄), little is known about the magnitude, pathways, and drivers of these emissions. We measured diffusive CH₄ emissions at the margin and in the center of 52 freshwater fishponds in Brazil. In a subset of ponds (n = 31) we additionally quantified ebullitive CH₄ fluxes and sampled water and sediment for biogeochemical analyses. Sediments (n = 20) were …

Enhancing Exploration-Exploitation In Harmony Search For Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging Band Selection (E3hs), Mohammed Abdulmajeed Moharram, Divya Meena Sundaram

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Hyperspectral imaging has emerged as a prominent area of research in the field of remote sensing science. However, hyperspectral images (HSIs) pose a notable challenge due to the presence of numerous irrelevant and redundant spectral bands exhibiting high correlation. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the classification performance for HSI processing by selecting the most relevant discriminative spectral bands. To this end, this paper introduces a metaheuristic search method called enhancing exploration-exploitation in harmony search (E3HS). The standard harmony search suffers from many weaknesses, such as premature convergence and falling easily into the local optimum. Consequently, E3HS was proposed to …

Broadband Equity, Access, And Deployment In Nevada, Brad Wimmer

Policy Briefs and Reports

The $45.45 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program’s primary objective is to extend broadband service to all unserved and underserved locations in the U.S. and its territories. Several industry studies predict that the BEAD program can meet its goal of providing universal access to broadband service if eligible entities execute their grant programs well. My review of the BEAD program indicates that policy makers can enhance the likelihood of program success by designing competitive grant programs that give applicants the incentive to undercut the subsidies proposed by their rivals and provide applicants the flexibility to design networks that …

Application Of Blockchain Technology In Aquaculture Management, Yu-Jen Pan, Hsin-Pei Shieh

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In recent years, food safety has become a growing concern in Taiwanese society. To ensure efficient management of the supply chain within the L Aquatic Products company, it is imperative to employ reliable technical support in establishing an effective traceability management system. The traceability of products can provide managers with valuable insight into the intricacies of the supply chain. By establishing a dependable food traceability system, brand trust can be strengthened, and consumers can inquire about the movement of aquatic products within the supply chain. Blockchain technology offers features such as traceability, accountability, transparency, reliability, trust, privacy, and security, making …

Optimal Agricultural Land Use: An Efficient Neutrosophic Linear Programming Method, Maissam Jdid, Florentin Smarandache

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

The increase in the size of the problems facing humans, their overlap, the division of labor, the multiplicity of departments, as well as the diversity of products and commodities, led to the complexity of business and the emergence of many administrative and production problems. It was necessary to search for appropriate methods to confront these problems. The science of operations research, with its diverse methods, provided the optimal solutions. It addresses many problems and helps in making scientific and thoughtful decisions to carry out the work in the best way within the available capabilities. Operations research is one of the …

Water Current, Volume 55, No. 3, Fall 2023

Water Current Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Community Complexity Of A Pollination Network: Analysis Of Plant-Pollinator Interactions In The Eastern Ecuadorian Cloud Forest, Anisa López-Ruiz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Global declines in pollinators and temporal/spatial mismatches between plants and pollinators threaten the integrity of plant-pollinator networks. Ecological network analysis provides a powerful framework for understanding the dynamics of plant-pollinator networks and measures of community complexity that can help inform areas of priority in conservation. This study observed a plant-pollinator network in a secondary forest close to the Río Zuñac Reserve in the eastern Ecuadorian cloud forest to identify assemblages of plants and pollinators and evaluate measures of community complexity, including specialization and nestedness. Flowering plants were identified and observed along a 1.2 km transect, and floral visitors to these …

A Case Study Of Sustainable Development At The Penonomé Wind Farms, A Cdm Registered Project In Coclé, John Matuszewski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Penonomé wind projects fit into a long history of previous internationally financed development projects in Panama, including those from the Clean Development Mechanism. A moderate level of research has been conducted on other Clean Development Mechanism projects, but despite contributing to 5% of Panama’s energy needs and constituting the largest wind park in Central America, the Penonomé wind farms remain little researched. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with relevant people associated with the project or with relevant information to gain more information about the case study. Using the information processed from these reviews and information from publicly available resources, the …

Assessing The Performance Of Agricultural Systems In The Inland And Coastal Regions Of Northern Portugal Using Indicators: Establishing The Foundation Towards Better Agricultural Practices, Genevieve Gehlken

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study conducts a comprehensive evaluation of agricultural systems in the distinct coastal and inland regions of Northern Portugal. Employing key indicators, including soil erosion, nitrogen surplus, irrigation practices, Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and crop yield, the analysis reveals statistically significant disparities and unique challenges in each region. The coastal areas, marked by higher agricultural GDP, exhibit distinct economic dependencies on agriculture, while the inland regions face challenges related to water scarcity, soil erosion, and rural isolation. The looming threat of climate change adds complexity to these dynamics, further highlighting the need for region-specific, sustainable agricultural practices. In the …

The Truth Behind Avocado Expansion In The Algarve: A Synthesis Of Public, Environmental Associations, And Government Perspectives And Response, Mandy Ausman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Avocado expansion has exponentially increased in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in recent years. The surge in expansion has provoked contention and discrepancy in the media regarding how and if avocado production can persist in the water-scarce region due to worsening drought conditions related to climate change coupled with the fruit’s significant water footprint. This paper aims to synthesize the arguments and response of the public, environmental associations, and government agencies to the expansion of avocado production in the water- scarce region of the Algarve, highlight the region’s current challenges of avocado expansion and water management regulation, and analyze …

Analyzing Human - Nonhuman Primate Conflict Mitigation Techniques In Mto Wa Mbu, Northern Tanzania, Lily Adams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Human – non-human primate conflict is particularly crucial due to primates’ high capacity to live among human populations. The study to analyze Human - Nonhuman Primate Conflict Mitigation Techniques, was carried in November 2023 at Mto wa Mbu, Northern Tanzania. To analyze techniques currently being used to mitigate human – non-human primate conflict, this study collected data through semi-structured interviews. Over 87% (n=35) of respondents used multiple mitigation techniques simultaneously. 80% of respondents (n=32) reported using projectiles to ward off foraging primates, 75% of respondents (n=30) reported using loud noises (made either by the voice/body or by manipulating noisemakers), 67.5% …

Creating A Framework For An Effective Koala Recovery Center: A Case Study Of Friends Of The Koala, Nsw, Finley Scoular

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Koala populations in New South Wales, Queensland, and the Australian Capital District are currently faced with factors that threaten their survival. Within one decade, their status has shifted from stable to vulnerable to endangered. The cause of this is attributed to increased exposure to dog attacks, vehicle collisions, diseases, and habitat fragmentation and destruction. The koalas' status of endangered in these territories has illuminated the need for human intervention. This study focuses on the specific form of human intervention that involves the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of wild koalas. Due to the recent koala status change from vulnerable to endangered, …

The New Miracle “Meat”: The Future Food Industry’S Approach To Young Jackfruits, Minh Tran Ha

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.