"Math Is Like A Rollercoaster": Exploring Math Similes And Metaphors, Carmen M. Latterell, Janelle L. Wilson

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this article we explore the metaphors and similes that pre-service elementary teachers use to describe mathematics. Employing qualitative content analysis, we separately coded the metaphors and similes into conceptual categories and analyzed themes that emerged. This grounded theory approach led to the creation of seven categories of metaphors and similes and three overarching themes. Math was viewed as a journey, a puzzle, a personal experience, a creative process, an algorithm, infinite, and an embodied process. Pre-service elementary teachers viewed mathematics as a process that takes effort. Overall, mathematics is a positive experience for them. In addition, mathematics involves fitting …

Cultivating Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Hearts, Critical Consciousness, And Professional Praxis Through Book Study, Mary Raygoza, Missy D. Cosby, Sheila Orr, Barbara King, Justin T. Burris, Siddhi Soni

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

At a time when executive orders and state legislation are attempting to ban practices promoting equity, belonging, and social justice from education, specifically STEM education, in the United States, mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) remain committed to humanizing mathematics teaching and learning practices and seek opportunities to learn how to adhere to their convictions while preparing mathematics teachers for the classroom. This paper offers reflections and considerations for how the authors engaged interested MTEs to shift or strengthen their individual and collective professional praxis through a book study. Specifically, we examine the design (the what) and process (the how) of a …

Piracy, Terrorism, And The Law: Differential Equations In Hostage Situations, Gabriel Hallevy

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Pirates have taken the crew of an American ship hostage. They promise to release the hostages only if another pirate who is held in an American prison for commission of piracy crimes against American citizens, is released. Should the U.S. government enter into negotiations with them? Should they send armed forces and risk the hostages? Should they release the prisoner immediately and unconditionally? The article models and analyzes possible policies regarding sensitive situations involving hostages and other related risks using differential equations. The solutions are surprisingly simple, but not necessarily intuitive. Our analysis aims to demonstrate how powerful mathematics is …

Front Matter

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Phytochemical Analysis And Safety Assessment Of Watercress Nasturtium Officinale: Antioxidant Capacity, Heavy Metal Profiling, And Toxicity Using Brine Shrimp Model, Qurrota A’Yunin, Chamini Kasun Hemachandra, Muhaimin Rifa’I, Yoga Dwi Jatmiko, Maftuch Maftuch, Rizky Fadilla Agustin Rangkuti, Cucun Herlina, Zulfa Mahdiatur Rasyida, Moh Dliyauddin

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Medicinal plants have attracted growing attention as sources of natural bioactive compounds for sustainable aquaculture and health. This study evaluated the phytochemical composition, antioxidant activity, heavy metal profile, and acute toxicity of watercress (Nasturtium officinale W.T. Aiton) methanol extract using maceration, qualitative and quantitative (TPC, TFC, antioxidant DPPH) phytochemical assay, XRF, and BSLA. Phytochemical screening of plant extracts showed the existence of flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, tannins, triterpenoids, and saponins, but not steroidal. The TPC and TFC were 20.6 mg GAE/g and 10.8 mg QE/g, respectively. The extract displayed significant antioxidant activity (IC₅₀ = 64.78 µg/mL in DPPH assay). …

Transformative Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation Policy Analysis In Medan City, Citra Tatius, Mega Anggraeni, Wiwandari Handayani, Rukuh Setiadi

Cities and Urban Development Journal

Background: Climate change is not only a global challenge but also a strategic issue of development in Indonesia. The Medan City Government has implemented various mitigation and adaptation efforts, yet it continues to produce greenhouse gas emissions and is exposed to climate change impacts. A transformative approach in mitigation and adaptation is needed to enable systemic change to comprehensively address climate change from its root causes.

Aims: This paper aims to elaborate on the extent to which mitigation and adaptation policies in Medan City can fulfill the principles of transformative climate actions.

Methods: Data collection for climate profiles and mitigation …

Psychological Needs And Ai Delegation Across Four Social Domains - A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of 35 Nations, Magnus Liebherr, Ala Yankouskaya, Mohamed Basel Almourad, Justin Thomas, Guandong Xu, Raian Ali

All Works

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly assume roles with social, educational, and emotional significance, understanding the psychological drivers behind individuals' readiness to delegate such roles to AI is crucial. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) predicts individuals' readiness to delegate socially significant roles to AI across four domains (education, healthcare, mental health, and companionship) and 35 nations. Using data from over 35,000 participants in the 2023 Global Digital Wellbeing Survey, we applied Bayesian multilevel multivariate modelling to assess both global and culture-specific motivational associations. Results revealed that …

Systematic Review Of The Institutionalization Of Service Learning In Higher Education, Wilmer Hernan Cruz Gutierrez

ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

An increasing number of universities are integrating service-learning (SL) to fulfill their social mission. However, sustainable institutionalization of SL remains a persistent challenge. This study identifies and analyzes the factors, actors, and strategies that drive and inhibit SL institutionalization in higher education. Using the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a systematic literature review analyzed 52 documents from seven academic databases (including WoS, Scopus, and ERIC). The findings were grouped into three sections: cultural (integration into institutional values/missions), process (articulation within teaching, research, and outreach), and structural dimensions (dedicated support entities). The results obtained reveal a reciprocal relationship where cultural alignment enables processual …

Foundations Of Neutrosophic N-Semirings Theory And Structural Properties, Raja Muhammad Hashim, Muhammad Gulistan, Muhammad Shahzad

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

In this paper the concept of neutrosophic n-semirings (S∪ I, ∗ ₁, ∗ _2, ∗ ₃,..., ∗ _n, ∗ _n+1) has been introduced. The substructure of n-semirings (S∪ I, ∗ ₁, ∗ _2, ∗ ₃,..., ∗ _n, ∗ _n+1) has been defined and some useful results have been proved. Moreover, in order to familiarize the readers with these concepts some worthy examples have been coined. The left, right and two sided ideals of neutrosophic n-semirings have been paid a special heed. Finally we have turned our discussion towards the compatible and congruence …

Evaluating Generative Ai-Based User Interfaces Using An Integrated Neutrosophic Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Framework, Nada Mohamed, Alshaimaa A. Tantawy

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

User Interface (UI) design can be seen as an essential aspect of human-computer interaction (HCI) and makes communication easier between people and technology. In today's digital economy, interface quality has become one of the most important business concerns, since it has a direct impact on customer satisfaction and retention while affecting revenue. Although creating user-centered and accessible interfaces is crucial, doing so is a difficult and time-consuming process, which leads to burnout for many usability professionals. Although conventional artificial intelligence (AI) was utilized for design assessment and automation, the arrival of generative AI technology has created new possibilities for automated …

Enhanced Transdermal Immunization Via Solid-In-Oil Nanodispersions Incorporating Dendritic Cell-Targeting Peptide, Md Samiul Islam, Md. Shahin Ekka Sarker, Yoshirou Kawaguchi, Rie Wakabayashi, Noriho Kamiya, Muhammad Moniruzzaman, Masahiro Goto

Publications and Research

Transdermal immunization represents a promising needle-free alternative to conventional vaccination. However, efficient antigen delivery and robust immune activation remain major challenges. In this study, a solid-in-oil (S/O) nanodispersion system comprising a dendritic cell-targeting peptide (HR8), ovalbumin (OVA), and an adjuvant was developed for transdermal immunization. The HR8 peptide along with OVA was successfully incorporated into an S/O nanodispersion with an optimal hydrodynamic diameter of particles (< 200 nm) and exhibited stable physical properties for up to 90 days. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrated enhanced antigen delivery with insignificant skin irritation in C57BL/6N mice. Moreover, in vivo transdermal immunization studies demonstrated that the addition of the HR8 peptide enhanced OVA-specific IgG responses (~1.5-fold). Notably, the HR8 peptide also promoted an approximately 2.5-fold increase in IgG2c levels, suggesting a shift toward a more T helper type 1-biased immune response, as reflected by an increased IgG2c/IgG1 ratio. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the incorporation of HR8 peptide into an S/O nanodispersion enables efficient transdermal antigen delivery and improved immunogenicity, highlighting its potential as a simple, non-invasive, and patient-friendly immunization strategy.

Digraphicsoft Sets And Bidigraphicsoft Sets: Directed And Bidirected Extensions Of Graphicsoft Modeling, Takaaki Fujita, Ajoy Kanti Das, Suman Das, Sankar Prasad Mondal, Volkan Duran, Mithun Datta

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Uncertainty has been modeled through a wide variety of mathematical frameworks, including fuzzy sets, neutrosophic sets, rough sets, and plithogenic sets. Among these approaches, soft sets offer a parameterized representation of uncertain information and have inspired numerous extensions, such as multisoft sets, double-framed soft sets, hypersoft sets, SuperHyperSoft sets, TreeSoft sets, ForestSoft sets, IndetermSoft sets, and IndetermHyperSoft sets.
This paper focuses on GraphicSoft Sets, which extend the classical soft-set framework by assigning a subset of the universe to each subgraph of an attribute graph. In this way, relationships among attributes are incorporated directly into the parameterized model. Building on …

Neutrosophic Time-Truncated Acceptance Sampling Plans Based On The Exponentiated Weibull Distribution For Reliability Applications, Divya P.R., Preethi John

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Classical acceptance sampling plans require precisely specified parameter values, an assumption routinely violated by measurement uncertainty and gauge imprecision in practice. This article develops Neutrosophic Time-Truncated Acceptance Sampling Plans (N-TTASP) for the Exponentiated Weibull (EW) distribution by representing the scale parameter as a neutrosophic interval. The neutrosophic sample size n_N ∈ [n_L, n_U] and acceptance number c_N ∈ [c_L, c_U] are obtained by minimizing n_U subject to dual producer and consumer risk constraints on the neutrosophic Operating Characteristic interval. A new indeterminacy ratio η is introduced as a …

Where Do Ai Coding Agents Fail? An Empirical Study Of Failed Agentic Pull Requests In Github, Ramtin Ehsani, Sakshi Pathak, Shriya Rawal, Abdullah Al Mujahid, Mia Mohammad Imran, Preetha Chatterjee

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

AI coding agents are now submitting pull requests (PRs) to software projects, acting not just as assistants but as autonomous contributors. As these agentic contributions are rapidly increasing across real repositories, little is known about how they behave in practice and why many of them fail to be merged. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale study of 33k agent-authored PRs made by five coding agents across GitHub. (RQ1) We first quantitatively characterize merged and not-merged PRs along four broad dimensions: 1) merge outcomes across task types, 2) code changes, 3) CI build results, and 4) review dynamics. We observe …

A Community Planning Approach To Green Infrastructure And Hazard Mitigation, Kara Salazar, Daniel Walker, Carrie Mckillip

Journal of Extension

As communities seek to increase their resilience to climate change and natural hazards, integrating mitigation and adaptation solutions into local planning has become essential. Purdue Extension, the University of Illinois Extension, and Illinois–Indiana Sea Grant developed a program, funded by the Extension Disaster Education Network, which supports community-based updates to hazard mitigation and resilience planning, with an emphasis on green infrastructure. This paper highlights the lessons we learned after implementing the program in Hancock County, Illinois, and LaPorte, Indiana, and the toolkit we created, which provides engagement and education techniques, planning processes, and other resources to Extension professionals working in …

Public Responses About Air Quality In The World’S Ten Most Populous Countries, Noah Lim, Alessandro Del Ponte, Lina Ang, Wei Jie Seow

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding how people view and react to outdoor air quality is crucial to effectively managing and responding to air pollution, which is a major threat to global public health. Using a quota sample of 10,618 respondents from 1,372 localities across the world’s ten most populous countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States), we assessed the association between exposure to fine particulate matter with diameter ≤ 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and people’s knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, practices, and concern about air quality. Overall, we find an inverse association between air pollution exposure and knowledge about air …

Vision Transformers And Convolutional Neural Networks For Land Use Scene Classification, Arun D. Kulkarni

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Land use scene classification (LUSC) from remote sensing imagery plays a critical role in environmental monitoring, urban planning, and sustainable resource management. In recent years, deep learning methods have significantly advanced the state-of-the-art, with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) dominating the field because of their strong ability to capture local spatial features. However, the emergence of Vision Transformers (ViTs) has introduced a new paradigm that models long-range dependencies through self attention mechanisms, potentially enabling improved global context understanding. This study presents a comparative assessment of Vision Transformers and CNN-based architectures for remote sensing land use scene classification. Representative CNN models, such …

The Study Of Hydrophobic Biomolecules With Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry And Atomic Force Microscopy, Brandy L. Perkins

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) can be used to obtain localization and chemical information of hydrophobic biomolecules on tissue samples.  A technique has been developed to modify a standard MALDI matrix that improves the selectivity for hydrophobic biomolecules on the tissue sample. The modification involves the use of a Group of Uniform Materials Based on Organic Salts (GUMBOS). GUMBOS are ionic liquids (IL) that are bulky organic ions with a counter ion that can be changed for tuning.  They are more stable than traditional matrices under vacuum.  Unlike traditional IL’s, the GUMBOS melting point ranges …

Sources Of Energy Production In Mountain West States, 2026, Kahlen Coss, Yash Kalla, Kian Parikh, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data on electricity generation and energy sources in March 2026 for five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Each state's share of total U.S. electricity production and its generation by source (coal, hydroelectricity, natural gas, nuclear, solar, and wind) are included. The Choose Energy report, "Electricity Generation by State," includes data on all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Governance, Culture, And Law: The Expanding Scope Of Environmental Science And Sustainable Development Research, Ahyaudin Sodri, Herdis Herdiansyah

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Environmental science emerged as a discipline based on physical measurements, such as soil pollutant levels (Ailijiang et al., 2022), ecological restoration (Yue et al., 2026), city surface temperature (Shafizadeh-Moghadam et al., 2025), and microbial density in air samples (Hayleeyesus & Manaye, 2014). However, its objects of study increasingly extend beyond the confines of the laboratory. Questions that were once sufficiently answered with measurement data now require answers through draft laws, Constitutional Court decisions, financial reports of mining companies, and even traditional ritual discourses governing community access to forests. In other words, environmental …

Attention-Based Ensemble Deep Learning Model For Arabic And English Fake News Classification, Ameer Alhaq Alshamery

Journal of Intelligent Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity

It is difficult to classify articles as fake news since one article may consist of true facts with only some statements being fake. Moreover, classification becomes complicated for the Arabic language owing to its morphology and several ways of spelling, as well as the lack of well-classified and marked data sets. This paper presents an Ensemble Deep Learning Model (EDLM) used for Arabic and English fake news classification. The EDLM consists of CNN, Bi-LSTM with attention, and Bi-GRU with attention networks. Each of them produces one probability of the article, which is then summed up to a final probability via …

Bridging The Gap In Science Research: Preparing Students For College- Level Research In The Sciences, Victoria Helwig, Yaoguang Li

UConn Library Presentations

Many first-year students enter college unprepared to fully engage with scientific literature and academic library resources. Drawing on experiences from academic librarians working with STEM students, this session explores common gaps in science research skills, including navigating databases, identifying scholarly sources, and understanding the structure of scientific literature. Participants will be introduced to practical strategies and classroom-ready activities to better prepare students for college-level research. Discussion questions: What science research skills do students struggle with most when entering college? How can high school instruction better support these skills? Where can librarians and educators collaborate to support student success?

A Mathematical Decision-Making Framework For Athlete Development In A Collegiate Taekwondo Community: Prioritizing Coaching Interventions Using Statistical Analysis And The Analytic Hierarchy Process, King Harold A. Recto, Hazel Jade L. Antonio, Jhyrald Anthony P. Dalida

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

Athlete development within collegiate sports communities requires informed decisions regarding the prioritization of coaching interventions and allocation of developmental resources. However, such decisions are frequently guided by experience and intuition, limiting opportunities for systematic and evidence-based decision-making. This study develops a mathematical decision-making framework for athlete development by integrating statistical analysis and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) within a collegiate taekwondo community. Data were collected from 25 collegiate taekwondo athletes who satisfied established eligibility criteria, including participation in University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) competitions during the previous three seasons. Athletes evaluated coaching practices across five dimensions: Training and …

Environmental Dna For Endangered Freshwater Mussel Monitoring: A Review On Global Synthesis Of Edna Methods, Challenges, And Innovative Strategies, Mizanur Rahman, Md. Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) are among the most endangered aquatic species worldwide, making effective monitoring vital for their conservation. Traditional surveys are laborious, time-consuming, and often miss rare or low-density populations. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a highly sensitive, non-invasive approach for freshwater mussel detection and monitoring; however, uncertainties in ecological interpretation continue to limit its broader application in freshwater biodiversity monitoring. We conducted a systematic review of 49 peer-reviewed studies, identified through an extensive literature search, to assess temporal research trends, methodological advancements, ecological contexts, and regulatory readiness of freshwater mussel eDNA monitoring. Findings show that freshwater mussel eDNA research …

A Data-Driven Framework For Mitigating Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis: From Estimation To Risk-Adjusted Computer-Aided Diagnosis, William M. Brown Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) of cancer, standard cost metrics (false-positives and false-negatives) fundamentally fail to account for overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis is a critical scenario where a disease is correctly detected (true-positive) but is biologically indolent and would never have caused the patient harm or symptoms. While widely recognized in the medical community as a major healthcare crisis driving stressful and invasive overtreatment, overdiagnosis remains severely under-researched within computer science and engineering. This dissertation addresses this interdisciplinary gap by defining the three key computational challenges of overdiagnosis: (i) accurate estimation, (ii) harm quantification, and (iii) algorithmic mitigation. To overcome the estimation challenge, …

Nerve Constructions And Mapper, Alexander Bram Fritschi

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Mapper is a data visualization tool commonly used in topological data analysis to study large, often high-dimensional datasets. Mapper operates through the selection of a lens function, a clustering algorithm, and a cover. The Mapper graph is constructed using the nerve of the cover after the clustering algorithm is performed; it is therefore useful to study nerves to better understand Mapper. In this thesis, we will utilize the properties of nerves to find the minimal point set that produces a given graph. We will then extend this to Mapper to determine what Mapper graphs may be constructed over a given …

Interpretable Case-Control Inference Through Log-Linear General Location Models, Zacharia Stuart

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This dissertation analyzes one of the few publicly available NFL injury datasets to study field type and non-contact lower-limb injuries. Field type is studied jointly with other risk factors to understand how these factors interact to affect injury risk. The data were gathered through a case-control sampling scheme, which limits direct inference on absolute injury probabilities. While not the most common approach for case-control data, this dissertation models the retrospective distribution directly through Log-Linear General Location Models (Log-Linear GLOMs). Through a log-linear structure placed on a log-odds-ratio reparameterization, the model provides directly interpretable marginal and interaction contributions to injury log-odds …

Mining Legacy And Wildfires: Interfacial Reactions Affecting Metal Mobility, Eresay Alcantar-Velasquez

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

We identified water labile interfacial reactions between laboratory burned pinewood ash and mine waste solids that influence metal mobilization. The Upper Gallinas Creek Watershed in New Mexico is affected by wildfires and mining legacy. Pinewood and mine waste sediments were sampled from the area, and the pinewood was burned at 350°C to simulate medium burn intensity ignition. Rapid desorption and gradual dissolution of Mn and Fe was detected by ICP-MS as pH decreased over time. After reacting 18 MΩ ultra-pure water with a mixture of pinewood ash and mine waste sediments Fe (143%) and Mn (89.2%) concentrations increased over time. …

Gradients Of Abandonment, William Tatman

Geography ETDs

As urban-rural disparities drive depopulation in rural areas worldwide, local strategies emerge as pathways for resilience. Research on Ojika, a Japanese island that has lost 75% of its population since the 1960s, reveals an Abandonment Gradient: a nuanced pattern of disuse adapted to modern polycrises. Extending the concept of "lying fallow" to homes and infrastructure, this thesis focuses on abandonment practices that reflect complex realities of labor, capital, and climate uncertainty. Rather than viewing depopulating communities as passive victims of out-migration, this paper argues they are critical sites for generating crisis response. Communally crafted attitudes toward unused space and more-than-human …

Simulations Of Atmospheric Pressure Streamer Discharges: Mechanisms Of Streamer Propagation And Related Physics, Dejan Nikic

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Gas discharge simulations are performed with particular focus on photoionization process in a positive streamer discharge. The effects of this process are investigated by isolating the change in photoionization mean free path (MFP) and keeping the additional processes constant. Furthermore, comparison are made between various effects of simulation parameters, such as initial conditions, geometry extent, simula- tion particle count etc. All of these simulations are performed using a modern Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Particle-in-Cell (DSMC-PIC) code developed by Sandia Na- tional Laboratories. Large scale simulations including 1 cm and 5 cm electrode gaps are performed under standard atmospheric condition air. …