Digital Commons Network^™

South Africa's Inclusive Six-Dimensional Generative Ai Readiness Framework, Keegan Steyn, Ojelanki Ngwenyama, Sibongiseni Tunzelana

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is transforming governance, knowledge systems, and economic activity, but current preparedness measures pay little attention to the socio-technical, institutional, and postcolonial contexts that shape country trajectories. To address this gap, the study employs a design science methodology to create the National Generative AI Readiness Assessment Framework (N-GAIRF), a six-dimensional diagnostic tool theoretically based on Sen's capability approach to development and incorporating Institutional Theory, Socio-Technical Systems Theory, National Innovation Systems Theory, and Postcolonial Information Systems critique. An example application to South Africa, compared to Zimbabwe and an indicative Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reference …

Secondary Water Saturation Of The Rock Mass And Quality Of Rocks In Active Mine Areas Bordering The Flooded Workings Of Closed Mines, Mirosława Bukowska

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The goal of this paper was to inspect the influence of capillary water saturation on the specific strain energy of sedimentary rocks. The relationships between the determined specific strain energies in an air-dried state and in a state of capillary water saturation for detrital rock were exponential, with a strong correlation among the variables. For silt, the relationships were described by a second-degree polynomial function, and the correlation was medium or weak. The relationships for kinetic and dissipated energy were described with a linear function. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated a strong correlation among the variables for detrital rock and a …

65th Annual Rocky Mountain Conference On Magnetic Resonance

Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance

Conference program, abstracts, and information about the 65th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance. Held in the Snowbird Resort and Conference Center, Snowbird, Utah, August 2-6, 2026.

Rockin’ Rover On The Rainbow Road, Michael Kolta, Lawrence Burgee, Ying Yuan

Transformations

This paper presents a progressive series of age-appropriate lesson plans for grades K-12 that all use the same interdisciplinary activity to educate students about Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) simultaneously. Technology from Texas Instruments (TI) was employed including a TI Nspire graphing calculator that can run Python programs, a TI Innovator Hub, and a TI Rover. The TI Rover is a small, robotic car that has sensors and is controlled by the calculator via the Hub hardware interface. A Python program was developed that uses the color sensor in the Rover to detect the color on colored paper …

Spatiotemporal Analyses Of The Biological Condition Gradient (Bcg) For Florida’S Coral Reef, Maya Becker

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

A conceptual model known as the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) was originally constructed for biological assessments and has recently been adopted for use on Florida’s coral reef after repeated anthropogenic stressors have been linked to declines within the state of the reef. Anthropogenic pressures have reduced water quality, exacerbating coral disease and associated mortality disrupting ecosystem services and biological function throughout Florida’s coral reefs (FCR). The intention of the BCG model is to assess biological condition against increasing levels of anthropogenic stress and to identify biological attributes and measurable increments of change from long term monitoring data. Differences in spatial …

Process From Noise: Erosion Threshold Variability And The Morphology Of Gravel-Bed Rivers, Robert Paul Kostynick

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Rivers are remarkably consistent as their geometry, width, depth, and slope change systematically downstream in response to differences in fluid discharge and sediment transport throughout a channel. Rivers move both water and sediment through terrains that depend on these downstream geometric adjustments influencing water quality, ecology, infrastructure, channel morphology, and landscape evolution at increasing timescales respectively. Rivers thus influence all aspects of life and define our spatial landscapes that shape boundaries, whether physical, politically, or socially. Nevertheless, a river is dynamic and does not adhere to human-defined boundaries, making it vital that we understand how these features change over time …

A Granularity-Centered Taxonomy Of Personalized Federated Learning, Ei Ei Nyein Chan, Sergei Chuprov, Pretom Roy Ovi, Kamrul Hasan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Personalized Federated Learning (PFL) has emerged as a key approach to address performance degradation in FL systems under heterogeneous client data. While existing surveys typically categorize PFL methods based on optimization strategies or system-level mechanisms, they often overlook a fundamental question: where is personalization embedded within the model architecture? In this survey, we bridge this knowledge gap and introduce a granularity-centered taxonomy that organizes PFL approaches according to the structural depth of personalization, ranging from head-layer and layer-wise adaptation to model-wise and parameter-wise customization. This novel perspective helps practitioners select appropriate personalization strategies based on model architecture, data heterogeneity, and …

Modeling Formation Of Turbulent Sporadic-E Clouds Using Realistic Wind Data, Aaron M. Schinder, Kenneth S. Obenberger, Jorge L. Chau, Juan M. Urco, Matthias Clahsen, Benjamin F. Akers, Daniel J. Emmons

Faculty Publications

A high resolution two-dimensional multi-fluid model of sporadic-E layers was developed and driven with physically realistic mesosphere, lower thermosphere (MLT) winds measured over Albuquerque, New Mexico. The realistic E-region winds are produced by the HYdrodynamic Point-wise Environment Reconstructor (HYPER) model that ingests meteor derived wind observations from a Spread-spectrum Interferometric Multistatic meteor radar Observing Network (SIMONe) system combined with the Navier-Stokes equations to provide high resolution three-dimensional wind fields over time. Sporadic-E dynamics are simulated using both realistic winds from HYPER as well as idealized hyperbolic tangent windshears to compare and contrast. Overall, the model shows greater inhomogeneity and irregularity …

From Commissioning To Precision Data-Taking: Resolving Operational Challenges In The Nab Detector Systems, L. J. Broussard, H. Acharya, R. Alarcon, S. Baeßler, M. Benoit, K. Borah, C. L. Britton, E. Brown, J. Choi, S. Clymer, C. Crawford, N. Ericson, L. Fabris, N. Fomin, J. Fry, R. Godri, F. M. Gonzalez, A. Hagemeier, J. Hamblen, S. Hollander, A. Jezghani, K. Leung, N. Macsai, M. Makela, D. Mathews, P. L. Mcgaughey, A. Mendelsohn, J. Mirabal, P. E. Mueller, A. Nelsen, S. I. Penttilä, D. Počanić, J. C. Ramsey, K. Reed, L. Richburg, A. Saunders, W. Schreyer, A. Shelby, A. R. Young

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Our understanding of the weak mixing of quarks, described by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix, currently presents an anomaly. Thanks to major strides in both theory and experiment, improved precision in determinations of the first row of matrix elements has revealed disagreement with the expectation of unitarity. The Nab experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source is designed to precisely extract the first matrix element Vud and shed light on experimental tensions within the neutron beta decay dataset. Nab’s asymmetric spectrometer allows coincident reconstruction of the decay proton and electron energies, which will be used to determine the electron-neutrino correlation coefficient, and …

Assessing The Impact Dynamics Of Less Lethal Ammunition, Steven Bermejo

Student Theses

Less-lethal ammunition is widely used by law enforcement as an alternative to lethal force during crowd control, on-street confrontations, and other situations requiring force. Although these projectiles are intended to reduce risk of fatal injury, serious injuries and fatalities have been reported, highlighting the need to better understand the factors that influence their impact behavior. This study evaluated the impact dynamics of four types of 12-gauge less-lethal ammunition, including rubber buckshot, single rubber ball, double rubber ball, and Byrna kinetic projectile, using kinetic energy calculations derived from projectile mass and velocity measurements. In addition, Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared …

Real Bullets, Plastic Guns: Evaluating The Strength Of 3-D Printed Gun Parts, Maria Latenia Mayol

Student Theses

Privately made firearms (PMFs), often referred to as “ghost guns,” are firearms manufactured or assembled by individuals rather than federally licensed manufacturers. Although the terms are frequently used interchangeably, “ghost gun” more specifically describes an unserialized firearm, whereas PMFs include a broader range of firearms produced through nontraditional manufacturing methods. PMFs may be entirely 3-D printed, assembled from partially completed firearm kits, or constructed by integrating additively manufactured components with commercially manufactured firearm parts. The increasing accessibility of additive manufacturing and widespread dissemination of computer-aided design files have raised concerns about concealment, regulation, and forensic evasion, particularly when factory-manufactured components …

From Reluctance To Resilience: The Link Between Attitude And Growth Mindset In Calculus Students, Olivia Valente, Kathryn E. Pedings-Behling, Amy N. Langville

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Many postsecondary students enter general education mathematics courses with negative attitudes, shaping their willingness to engage with the content. This study explores the relationship between students’ attitudes towards mathematics and their growth mindset, revealing effective strategies to enhance learning experiences, particularly for students who are reluctant learners. The research investigates two questions: (1) How do students’ Attitude Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) scores and Growth Mindset Scale (GMS) scores relate? and (2) Do gender or course modality affect this relationship? This study addresses a gap in literature by examining how enjoyment, motivation, self-confidence, and perceived value connect with growth mindset. The …

Closing The Awareness–Behavior Gap: A Role-Based Phishing Training Framework For Higher Education, Ranylene O. Olaybal, Ryan A. Olaybal

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Phishing remains one of the most persistent cybersecurity threats facing higher education institutions, where diverse user populations and highly connected digital environments increase exposure to social engineering attacks. Although cybersecurity awareness initiatives are widely implemented, high awareness does not always translate into secure behavior. This study examined phishing awareness, phishing-related practices, phishing susceptibility, and phishing experiences among college students, teaching faculty, and administrative staff in a private higher education institution in the Philippines. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, data were collected from 553 respondents through a validated survey instrument and analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey's honestly …

Ground To Roof Snow Load Ratio (Gr) Data Release, Brennan Bean, Cooper Nelson, Jesse Wheeler, Scout Jarman, Salam Adil Al-Rubaye, Marc Maguire

Browse all Datasets

This data release provides historical ground-to-roof snow load ratio (GR) datasets used for snow load research and model development. The release includes original referenced datasets, cleaned country specific datasets, and a master dataset that combines Canadian and United States datasets into a standardized format for research and engineering applications.

Single Fluorogens And Orientation-Localization Microscopy For Quantifying Chemical And Biomolecular Dynamics At The Nanoscale, Yiyang Chen, Yuanxin Qiu, Matthew D. Lew

Electrical & Systems Engineering Publications and Presentations

Many chemical systems look uniform only because ensemble measurements average over their most interesting molecules. Electron-transfer rates vary across electrode surfaces; lipid membranes contain nanodomains with distinct packing and fluidity; peptide aggregates exhibit local polymorphism; and biomolecular condensates contain transient networks of interactions that are blurred in ensemble images. A central challenge in chemical imaging is not simply to see smaller structures, but to measure chemical variables such as polarity, redox potential, and molecular confinement at the single-molecule level. In this Account, we describe how fluorogens, molecules whose brightness, blinking, spectral shifts, orientation, rotational mobility, and motion are directly shaped …

Dynamics Of Microscale Droplets In Respiratory Airways, Md Shamser Ali Javed

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

We investigate trajectories of microscale evaporating droplets in a stagnation point flow near a wall of a respiratory airway. The configuration is motivated by the problem of advection and deposition of microscale droplets of respiratory fluids in human airways during transmission of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and COVID-19. Laminar boundary layer equations are solved to describe the air flow while the equations of motion of the droplet include contributions from gravity, aerodynamic drag, and Saffman force. Evaporation is accounted for at both the droplet surface and the wall of the respiratory airway and is shown to delay droplet deposition …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Final 2024 Unreclaimed Sites Sampling: Ur-46 Site Evaluation Summary Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Toroidal Plasmonic Nanodimers For Enhanced Near-Infrared Emission In Heterostructured Inp Quantum Dots, Arda Gülücü, Emre Ozan Polat

Turkish Journal of Physics

Near-infrared (NIR) emitters operating in the 650--900 nm spectral range are highly attractive for imaging and sensing in turbid media. However, cadmium-free InP-based quantum dots (QDs) often exhibit limited brightness owing to nonradiative recombination pathways and inefficient photon outcoupling. In particular, heterostructured InP QDs may possess band alignments that induce partial spatial separation of charge carriers, thereby reducing the electron-hole wavefunction overlap. This characteristic modifies the intrinsic recombination dynamics and increases the sensitivity of their emission to the surrounding photonic environment. Here, we investigate silver toroidal plasmonic nanoantenna dimers (Ag TPNDs) using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations as a geometry-tunable platform …

A Semantic Data Management Framework For Uncertainty Quantification In Synchrotron Diffraction Pattern Analysis, Ayorinde E. Olatunde, Ozan Dernek, Erika I. Barcelos, Roger H. French, Anirban Mondal

Student Scholarship

Advancements in technology have enabled scientists and engineers in the synchrotron science domain to generate high-dimensional data. To conduct a machine learning study on these data, an analyst undergoes multiple analytical stages, including dimensionality reduction, predictive modelling, and uncertainty quantification (UQ).

To ensure reproducibility in science, it is necessary to document the semantic relationships among the stages of the analysis to enable provenance, interoperability, and knowledge reuse. In this work, we present a Semantic Data Management (SDM) framework rooted in FAIR principles that provides ontologies for UQ workflows. We illustrate the application of UQ ontology in synchrotron diffraction pattern analyses …

Revised Draft Final Butte Mine Waste Repository Operation And Maintenance (O&M) Plan, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Final Bpsou Unreclaimed Sites: Ur-46 Remedial Action Work Plan (Rawp), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Observational Constraints On The Structure-Induced Dark Energy Model, Ali̇ Kazim Çamlibel

Turkish Journal of Physics

A new phenomenological dark energy model, originally associated with large-scale structure formation and proposed as a solution to the fine-tuning and coincidence problems related to the cosmological constant, was analyzed within the framework of General Relativity in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime and its model parameters were estimated using cosmic chronometers and recent DESI data. It turns out that the proposed model can serve as an alternative evolving dark energy model with a novel equation of state function. Given the form of this phenomenological energy density ansatz, which rises with the nonlinear structure growth in the universe and declines as cosmic voids …

Design And Fabrication Of Petri Dish Optimized For High-Frequency Acoustic Microscopy Using 3d Printing, Tuna Pesen, Beyza Ceren Eren, Arda İnanç, Bora Akgün

Turkish Journal of Physics

High-frequency imaging in acoustic microscopy requires the use of Petri dishes with thin and acoustically transparent bottoms to minimize signal attenuation and distortion. Commercially available options suitable for this purpose are often expensive or limited in compatibility with custom setups. Here, we present a cost-effective and easily customizable alternative developed in our laboratory, consisting of a 3D-printed frame combined with commercially available stretch film. The stretch film serves as an ultrathin (8 µm thickness) base that supports efficient high-frequency acoustic transmission, enabling clear and reliable imaging. Beyond acoustic microscopy, the adaptable design is also compatible with other modalities such as …

Ai And The Music Industry: Its Current Status And A Speculative Projection Of Its Evolutionary Trajectory, Rhett D. Morris, Clayton Rosati, Stefan Fritsch

Honors Projects

Music serves as one of society's biggest cultural outlets, allowing millions to share in what used to be a uniquely human form of expression. The commodification of music has built a huge industry full of companies and platforms that have used technology and property laws to shape music's relationship with the public. This study aims to look into the future to see how AI and its implementation could affect the structure of the music industry. To look into the future, this piece establishes two of the most pressing kinds of AI technology for the music industry and looks to contextualize …

From Homogeneous To Heterogeneous Adaptive Bounded-Confidence Opinion Dynamics On Networks, Sally Hafez, Fatma R. Farag, Amira S. N. Tawadros

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Adaptive bounded-confidence models (ABCMs) elucidate the coevolution of agent states and network structure via local interactions and rewiring mechanisms. Traditional formulations assume uniform interaction parameters, leading to distinct regime shifts encompassing fragmentation, polarization, and consensus. A symmetric heterogeneous extension of the adaptive bounded-confidence model is introduced, in which interaction parameters vary according to whether agents belong to the same or different groups. The model retains the original update and rewiring protocols but integrates within-group and between-group confidence bounds alongside tolerance thresholds. Initially, the classic homogeneous model is replicated to establish a reference point. Subsequently, the heterogeneous extension is assessed under …

Wavelet-Based Multiscale Analysis Of Cave Co₂ Concentration In Response To Short-Term High-Intensity Tourism Activities: Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity And Lag Characteristics, Mingda Cao, Wenwen Song, Yan Zhang, Jie Zhang, Zhiqiang Yao

International Journal of Speleology

High-intensity tourism activities can cause a significant increase in cave air CO₂ concentration, thereby affecting the cave micro-environment and secondary carbonate deposition. During the 2023 National Day Golden Week, high-frequency continuous monitoring of cave air CO₂ partial pressure (PCO_2(A)) and visitor numbers was conducted in Dawang Cave, Anhui Province. Wavelet transform and cross-correlation analyses were used to reveal the multi-scale response characteristics of CO₂ concentration to tourism activities. The results show that: (1) PCO_2(A) exhibited clear diurnal variations (higher during the day, lower at night) and decreased spatially with enhanced ventilation, controlled jointly by …

Improving Tensorsketch Using Complex Random Variables, Amit Sharma, Mohammad Azhar Khan, Rameshwar Pratap, Keegan Kang

Faculty Conference Papers and Presentations

TensorSketch by Pham and Pagh [2013], Kar and Karnick [2012] provides efficient sketching algorithms for highdimensional polynomial kernels $\vec{x}^{\otimes p} \in \R^{d^p}$. Kar and Karnick [2012] uses dense Johnson-Lindenstrauss (JL)-type projections with computational cost $O(pDd)$, whereas Pham and Pagh [2013] extends the sparse CountSketch [Charikar et al., 2024] algorithm, yielding a faster algorithm for high-dimensional sparse inputs with running time $O\left(p(\nnz{\vec{x}} + D \log D)\right)$. However, the variance of both estimators grows exponentially with the polynomial degree $p$, scaling as $3^{p}/D$, where $D$ denotes the sketch dimension. Recent work by Wacker et al. [2023] showed that using complex-valued distribution reduces …

Dbssnet: Dual-Branch Spectral-Spatial Network With Data-Driven And Knowledge-Guided Band Selection For Uav Hyperspectral Wheat Rust Detection, Subin Kim

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wheat rust is a serious plant disease that can reduce crop yield and quality. In practice, the disease is often noticed only after visible symptoms appear, when some damage may already be difficult to reverse. This thesis studies whether drone-based imaging can help detect wheat rust earlier and more reliably in field environments. 

Unlike an ordinary color photograph, a hyperspectral image records reflected light at many narrow wavelengths. These measurements can reveal useful information about plant condition, but they are also high dimensional, noisy, and difficult to analyze when only a limited number of labeled field samples are available. To …

Viability Assessment Of Bovine Embryos: A Public Dataset And Deep Learning Baselines, Erfan Khayyati

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Improving the success rates of cattle breeding is essential for sustainable agriculture, global food security, and high-quality livestock production. Currently, determining whether a lab-grown bovine embryo is healthy enough for a successful pregnancy requires highly trained experts to manually evaluate days of continuous time-lapse video footage. This process is not only incredibly time-consuming but also highly subjective; human reviewers often suffer from visual fatigue when tracking subtle, microscopic cellular changes over a seven-day period, leading to significant disagreement among even top experts on an embryo’s true potential. Furthermore, assessing bovine embryos is notoriously difficult due to their dark, lipid-dense cellular …

Causal Discovery In Photospheric Magnetic Field Time Series For Interpretable Solar Flare Prediction, Nathan W. Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Solar flares are capable of damaging many valuable resources, including satellites, power grids, and even human lives. Being able to predict solar flares can allow for proactive measures to be taken that can prevent that damage. Many new deep learning methods for predicting solar flares have shown promise in this task, but the decisions they make are harder to explain to humans. This makes understanding why these models make mistakes difficult, which in turn makes fixing and maintaining them more challenging. We test a recent deep learning method that helps discover relationships between different measurements of the Sun as they …