Digital Commons Network^™

Revisiting Ulam Stability For Boundary Value Problems, Martin Bohner, Snezhana Hristova, Agnieszka B. Malinowska, Ewa Girejko

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The main goal of this paper is to apply Ulam stability theory to boundary value problems for dynamic equations, while addressing several common misconceptions found in the existing literature. We identify the key issues that arise when applying Ulam stability to such problems and propose three distinct approaches to overcome them. To enhance clarity and accessibility, we begin with nonlinear ordinary differential equations and subsequently extend the analysis to nonlinear dynamic equations on time scales. Since a time scale is defined as any nonempty closed subset of the real numbers, our results are applicable to dynamic equations on continuous, discrete, …

Reduced Mediators Released By Cyanobacteria During Exoelectrogenesis Detected Using Differential Pulse Voltammetry, Laura T. Wey, Monica Brachi, Yagut Allahverdiyeva, Shelley D. Minteer

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Cyanobacteria generate electrical current through exoelectrogenesis (extracellular electron transfer) downstream of photosynthesis, yet the identity of the endogenous redox mediator(s) responsible remains unresolved. Here, we apply differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) to detect and characterise redox-active species released by Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under illumination. To enable sensitive detection, we developed an electrolyte intermediate between BG11 (Blue-Green-11) growth medium and MOPS (3-(N-morpholino)propanesulfonic acid) buffer that minimises background electrochemical interference while maintaining short-term cellular functionality. DPV revealed multiple light-enhanced oxidation peaks (0.1–0.65 V vs. saturated calomel electrode (SCE)) that were not resolvable using cyclic voltammetry, providing evidence that cyanobacteria release reduced compounds …

Long Range Battery-Free Wireless Power Transfer Testbed For Underground Mines Iot And Lpwan Devices, Anabi Hilary Kelechi, Samuel Frimpong, Sanjay Madria

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Underground mines are susceptible to occasional roof falls and cave-ins, temporarily destroying the existing wireless communications and telemetry infrastructure. During this temporary outage, intermittent provision of electrical energy wirelessly to the already deployed low-power wireless area networks (LPWAN) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices assumes a fundamental requirement. In this article, we propose and design a long-range far-field radio frequency (RF) wireless power transfer (WPT) testbed to power LPWAN and IoT devices at 35 m in an underground mines facility. Class AB external power amplifier (PA) was introduced to achieve a long-distance RF WPT, in the 880 MHz band. Thus, …

The Missouri Miner, November 10, 2016

The Missouri Miner Newspaper

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Gallium And Germanium Recovery From Industrial Solid Residues, Ernest V. Oteng, Marthias Silwamba, Lana Alagha, Alex Luyima

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The global demand for critical elements such as gallium (Ga) and germanium (Ge), and the shift toward circular mining has accelerated the development of new extraction and recovery processing these metals from industrial solid residues. This transition is driven by a substantial surge in demand for advanced technologies and the depletion of primary ore. Consequently, industrial solid residues, particularly zinc processing residues, smelter slags, flue dusts, and coal fly ash, are emerging as viable alternative sources. These residues incorporate Ga and Ge through isomorphic substitution in phases such as ferrites, silicates, and glassy aluminosilicates, and are enriched by industrial processes, …

Prototyping Pinhole Collimators For Imaging Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Narrie Loftus, Ashish Avachat, Joseph T. Graham, Ryan Fronk, Jordan Fox, Rachel Shaffer, Seth Kilby

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Collimator design and fabrication is a costly and time-consuming process that does not lend itself to simplified testing. This manuscript presents an approach for the rapid prototyping of sub-millimeter pinhole collimators for nuclear fuel applications using low-melting-point, high-mass-density materials. Multiple collimators were fabricated to test collimator parameters and properties, including acceptance angle, aperture diameter, and magnification. The fabricated collimators were paired with a position-sensitive CdZnTe detector to determine the detector response convolved with the collimator. Preliminary analysis using these collimators showed that they were effective in collimating multi-energy gamma laboratory sources. Radiography was performed to confirm magnification and determine coarse …

Online Multidimensional Multiple Choice Knapsack Path Planner For Uavs, Manisha Wadhwa, Neelima Gupta, Sanjay Madria

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rapid proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in safety–critical and time-sensitive applications such as disaster management, battlefield reconnaissance, urban surveillance and infrastructure inspection demands online path planning strategies. A fundamental requirement in such missions is generating flight paths that pass through some pre-specified waypoints while servicing dynamically requested spatio-temporal task points arriving randomly such as capturing aerial imagery. Existing UAV path planning approaches, including A* and its variants, meta-heuristic algorithms, and dynamic programming, find the shortest distance path from source to destination, but they are predominantly offline and assume complete prior environmental knowledge, thus, incur significantly higher computational cost …

Microwave Spectrum And Iodine Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling Constants Of Difluorodiiodomethane, Cf2i2, Michael J. Carrillo, Michael J. Tubergen, Garry S. Grubbs, S. A. Cooke, Stewart E. Novick

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

The high-resolution rotational spectrum of difluoro diiodomethane is reported for the first time. A molecular-beam broadband Fourier transform microwave spectrometer recorded the spectrum over the frequency range of 5.9–18.1 GHz. The rotational constants, centrifugal distortion constants, nuclear quadrupole coupling constants, and nuclear spin-rotation constants for the two equivalent iodine nuclei were determined from fitting 1378 hyperfine transitions of 163 rotational transitions: A = 2743.79691(18)MHz, B = 587.83103(5) MHz, C = 528.72470(5) MHz, χaa = −1213.287(6) MHz, χbb – χcc = −885.210(5) MHz, and χab = 1437.721(5) MHz. 31 dipole-forbidden/quadrupole-allowed transitions, arising from the large nuclear quadrupole coupling effect of iodine, …

Ph-Compensated Hydrogen Peroxide Quantification Using A Dual-Modal Fiber-Optic Probe, Homayoon Soleimani Dinani, Bohong Zhang, Maryam Karimi, Rex E. Gerald, Shelley D. Minteer, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We report a dual-modal fiber-optic probe that integrates electrochemical quantification of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) with co-localized fluorescent pH sensing for pH-indexed interpretation of the H₂O₂ response. H₂O₂ is a reactive oxygen species involved in oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular signaling, and local pH modulates both its production and electrochemical response. Many electrochemical H₂O₂ sensors exhibit pH-dependent sensitivity, creating ambiguity unless pH is measured and used for compensation, which is difficult in small, heterogeneous, or rapidly changing microenvironments. A three-electrode configuration—working (WE), counter (CE), and Ag/AgCl pseudo-reference (pRE) electrodes—is fabricated directly on the cylindrical surface of a 710-µm-diameter optical fiber using …

Nontarget Analysis Of The Volatile And Semivolatile Chemical Profile Of Wildland Firefighter Gear: Insight Into Occupational Exposure And Health Implications, Patrica Ivy Agorsor, Husam Kafeenah, Margaret D. Taiwo, Robin M. Verble, Michael O. Eze

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Prescribed fire releases a complex mixture of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds to the environment. Firefighters are directly exposed to these hazardous mixtures through occupational activities. This study investigated the volatile and semivolatile chemical contamination profile of firefighter protective gear and the effectiveness of laundering as a decontamination strategy. Our results revealed that firefighter gear accumulated a broad spectrum of combustion-derived contaminants, predominantly composed of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and derivatives, phenolic compounds, and aromatic hydrocarbons. Representative compounds identified included toluene, biphenyl, naphthalene, 1-methynaphthalene, 2-methylnaphthalene, acenaphthene, phenol, alkylated phenols, and chlorinated phenols. Quantitative analysis revealed representative combustion-derived compounds at concentrations (mean …

A Unified Sensitivity Kernel For Coherent Wave Tomography In Radar, Seismic, Ultrasound And Optical Imaging, Alexey Yamilov

Research Data

Overview:

Six figures of the manuscript that report numerical simulations, main-text Fig. 5 and Supplementary Figs. S3 to S7, each as a PDF together with the plotted data in one CSV file per figure. The simulations are described in the Methods and in Supplementary Note S10 of the manuscript (arXiv:2609.31583). They were computed with MESTI in two dimensions and with the modified Born series in three, on the Mill and Hellbender clusters. The README describes the files and the layout of the CSV files.

Simultaneous Analysis Of Phytohormones And Lipid Peroxidation Products In Plant Seeds By Lc-Ms/Ms After Molecular Weight Cutoff Filtration, Sargun Kaur, Honglan Shi, Obed Patty, Paul Ki-Souk Nam

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Investigation of the phytohormone and lipid peroxidation product levels in plant seeds can provide an insight into their germination potential and vigor. Simultaneous analysis of these diverse classes of compounds presents a significant challenge for a sample preparation method tailored to accommodate their distinct chemical properties. In this study, an analytical method consisting of simple extraction, molecular weight cutoff filtration, and subsequent liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis was developed for accurate quantification of 11 phytohormones including 2 auxins, 4 cytokinins, 2 gibberellins, abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and jasmonic acid in plant seeds. Additionally, the new method was used for …

Common Ground Newsletter Fall 2026, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

Common Ground

- Q&A Experiences

- Shaping the next generation

- Chi Epsilon earns four awards

- Summer Camps

- Design Team Results

Toxicity Ahead: Forecasting Conversational Derailment On Github, Mia Mohammad Imran, Robert Zita, Rahat Rizvi Rahman, Preetha Chatterjee, Kostadin Damevski

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Toxic interactions in Open Source Software (OSS) communities reduce contributor engagement and threaten project sustainability. Preventing such toxicity before it emerges requires a clear understanding of how harmful conversations unfold. However, most proactive moderation strategies are manual, requiring significant time and effort from community maintainers. To support more scalable approaches, we curate a dataset of 159 derailed toxic threads and 207 non-toxic threads from GitHub discussions. Our analysis reveals that toxicity can be forecast by tension triggers, sentiment shifts, and specific conversational patterns.We present a novel Large Language Model (LLM)-based framework for predicting conversational derailment on GitHub using a two-step …

On-Shell Compression And Reconstruction (Oscar) Of Monochromatic Wave Fields In Weakly Scattering Media, Pablo Jara, Alexey Yamilov

Research Data

Overview

This deposit contains one realization of each of the two simulation platforms of Ref. [1], a two-dimensional (2D) scalar field and a three-dimensional (3D) vector-field component, together with two self-contained Python scripts that perform On-Shell Compression and Reconstruction (OSCAR) on them. Each script Fourier-transforms the stored field, measures the shell radius from the spectrum, retains only the Fourier components inside the shell of full width α/ℓs around it for α = 1, 3, 5, 8, 12, reconstructs the field by the inverse transform, and plots the reconstructed intensities, panels (a)–(e), next to the original field, panel (f), on a …

Learning-Based Entanglement Generation For Quantum Routing, Tasdiqul Islam, Rasman Mubtasim Swargo, Md Arifuzzaman

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Entanglement generation in long-distance quantum networks is challenging because resources are limited and entanglement swapping is probabilistic. To maximize the rate of successful requests, existing quantum routing algorithms often rely on computationally expensive methods such as Integer Linear Programming (ILP) to determine which links to entangle and use for end-To-end entanglement generation. However, these approaches fail to meet the latency requirements of real-world quantum networks. In this study, we propose a Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based model that determines which links to entangle in each time slot, replacing the slow ILP-based link-selection phase used in prior algorithms. The proposed Deep Q-learning model …

Individualized Bayesian Inference Identifies Novel Genetic Variants For Parkinson's Disease, Jin Ren, Yasaman J. Soofi, Md Asad Rahman, Qing Lu, Jinling Liu

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with a significant genetic component. While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been instrumental in identifying genetic variants associated with PD, the reliance on large sample sizes and population-level analyses may overlook variants with lower minor allele frequencies or individual-specific relevance. Individualized Bayesian Inference (IBI) offers a promising method to complement GWAS by identifying and prioritizing candidate genetic markers at both the individual and patients-like-me subgroup levels. This study evaluates the application of IBI to PD genetics, using GWAS as a baseline for comparison. We analyzed genetic data from the Fox Insight online …

Metrological Characterization Of Pavement Friction Measurements For High-Friction Surface Treatments: Si Traceability, Uncertainty Evaluation, And Adhesion–Hysteresis Separation Via Water–Soap Bpt Protocol, Alireza Roshan, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laboratory friction measurements are central to material screening for High-Friction Surface Treatments (HFST), yet metrological aspects including a proposed metrological traceability framework or uncertainty, and reproducibility are consistently underreported. This study applies a metrology-aligned framework to British Pendulum Tester (BPT) measurements performed in three states: dry, wet (water), and water–soap to assess operational adhesion and hysteresis components, document traceability to the International System of Units (SI), and report GUM-style uncertainty with covariance for the adhesion difference. Measurements were obtained for calcined bauxite (CB) and rhyolite (Rhy) in HFST and Coarse gradations across seven polishing protocols (baseline; LAA-1000/2000; MDA-105/180; PSV-10 h/20 …

Optimization Of Bonding Behavior Of Crumb Rubber-Modified (Crm) Asphalt For Sustainable High-Friction Surface Treatment (Hfst) Applications, Abdallah Aboelela, Magdy Abdelrahman

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Binder bonding strength (BBS) is critical to aggregate retention and friction performance in high-friction surface treatment (HFST). Although epoxy resin is traditionally used, asphalt-based binders offer a sustainable alternative; however, their bonding behavior and influence on polishing performance remain insufficiently understood. This study investigated the evolution and optimization of BBS in crumb rubber-modified (CRM) asphalt for rhyolite-based HFSTs. BBS was measured under dry and wet-conditioned states for two CR contents (10% and 15%), two CR types (cryogenic and ambient), two interaction temperatures (170 and 200 °C), and interaction times from 10 to 240 min. HFST performance was assessed using the …

Borders And Bids: Assessing How Competition In Transportation Projects Is Shaped By The Presence Of Out-Of-State Contractors, Mariam Elazhary, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Competitive bidding in transportation construction is vital for securing better value for money and higher-quality proposals. Prior research has attempted to encourage more competition by proposing novel delivery methods, contractual incentives, or alternative bidder profiles. However, one viable bidder profile, which has received limited attention in the literature, is to encourage cross-border participation to expand the pool of qualified firms and thereby increase competition. While, in theory, this may improve economic efficiency, the inclusion of more out-of-state contractors (OSCs) is not costless. The goal of this paper is to assess whether participation by OSCs is associated with strengthening competition in …

Editorial For The Special Issue “Advances And Applications Of Polymer Gels For Subsurface Energy And Storage”, Baojun Bai, Jingyang Pu

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Polymer gels are essential functional materials for subsurface energy operations, playing a critical role in conformance control, fluid diversion, hydraulic fracturing, and leakage mitigation. As reservoirs become increasingly complex and the demand for sustainable energy grows, continued innovation in gel technologies is crucial. This editorial introduces a Special Issue titled "Advances and Applications of Polymer Gels for Subsurface Energy and Storage," which compiles seven original research articles exploring recent developments in gel synthesis, characterization, and applications. The featured studies highlight the versatility of polymer gels, including nanoparticle-reinforced composites, foam–gel hybrids, recrosslinkable preformed particle gels, and advanced fracturing fluids. The contributions …

The Role Of Mxene In The Process Of Sintering Hpcs To Ceramic, Jianyu Dai, Congjie Wei, Jeremy Watts, Chenglin Wu

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work presents a detailed investigation of the pyrolysis and sintering processes of hydridopolycarbosilane (HPCS) polymers, focusing on the formation of β-silicon carbide (β-SiC) and the influence of Ti₃C₂–Ox in this process. Due to the computational limitations of density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics methods with appropriate potentials are necessary for simulating large-scale systems, however, the available potentials are limited when the modeling process evolves relatively more element types or complex chemical-mechanical processes are studied. In this work, a machine learning based MACE (Multi-body ACE) model is adopted and trained to accurately capture the polymer's transformation …

Benchmarking Zero-Shot Open-Vocabulary And Fine-Tuned Object Detectors For Underground Mine Personnel Detection, Ellen Essien, Samuel Frimpong

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reliable personnel detection is critical for the safe deployment of autonomous haulage systems in underground mining, where challenging environmental conditions demand robust real-time perception. Existing research has focused primarily on fine-tuned convolutional detectors, while systematic comparisons with zero-shot vision-language models remain limited. This study presents a cross-paradigm benchmark comparing four zero-shot vision-language models (YOLO-World, Grounding DINO, OWL-ViT, and OWLv2) with four fine-tuned YOLO detectors (YOLOv8s, YOLOv9s, YOLO11s, and YOLO26s) using 31,396 real-world underground coal mine images. Detection performance was evaluated using precision, recall, F1-score, average precision, inference speed, and condition- and target scale-specific recall. The experimental results show that the …

Automated Haulage Trucks: Impact On Workplace Safety And Efficiency In Surface Mining Systems, Samuel Frimpong, Mabel Obosu

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The mining industry continues to face significant safety challenges, particularly with powered haulage equipment (PHE). PHE incidents account for a substantial percentage of mining-related fatalities, often resulting from vehicle collisions, equipment rollovers, operator errors, and blind-spot hazards. Despite the industry's efforts to improve safety protocols, fatal accidents involving haulage trucks remain persistent. The mining industry has increasingly adopted automation to enhance operational efficiency and improve safety, particularly in surface mines where haulage truck accidents remain a critical concern. Automation has significantly reduced human exposure to hazardous tasks by removing operators from dangerous environments, thereby mitigating risks associated with human error …

Geometric And Operational Design Principles For Autonomous Haulage Systems In Open-Pit Mining: A Systematic Review, Justina Senam Lotsu, Samuel Frimpong, Muhammad Azeem Raza

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rapid deployment of autonomous haulage systems (AHSs) in open-pit mining has significantly altered haul road geometric design requirements, as autonomous trucks operate under strict kinematic constraints related to turning radius, gradient, and braking performance. Since haulage accounts for 50–60% of total mining costs, optimizing haul road geometry is critical for improving operational efficiency, energy consumption, and safety. This study presents a systematic review of 50 highly relevant studies selected from 81 candidate publications published between 2003 and 2025 through structured database searches and citation chaining. The review synthesizes current developments in haul road layout optimization, turning radius accommodation, gradient …

Optimizing Ball‐Milled Composites For Fast Energy Release Under Shock Compression, Siva Valluri, Edward Dreizin, Dana Dlott

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microparticle additives containing both Al fuel and oxidizer, fabricated by arrested reactive milling (ARM), could potentially increase the power of energetic materials such as HMX because they contain premixed fuel and oxidizer. Optimizing shock reactivity requires exploring a vast parametric space encompassing composition, milling parameters that govern microstructural features such as intraparticle voids and fuel-oxidizer mixing, and the resulting inhomogeneous shock reactivity of individual particles. To present our approach, we used a model composition 8Al⋅3CuO, previously optimized for combustion. We milled powders and prescreened different prepared batches using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to rule out batches with significant pre-reaction. Then …

Percolation-Induced Thermo-Rheological Transitions In Biobased Graphene Nanoplatelet Nanofluids, Abiodun A. Saka, Tobechukwu K. Abor, Anthony C. Okafor, Monday U. Okoronkwo

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Biobased lubricants with thermally responsive rheology are increasingly needed for high-efficiency mechanical systems. Graphene nanoplatelet (GnP) nanofluids in vegetable oils are promising candidates, yet their percolation-driven thermo-rheological transitions remain insufficiently understood. In particular, the coupled concentration–temperature landscape controlling network-mediated flow transitions has not previously been established. Here, surfactant-free GnP nanofluids were prepared in high-oleic soybean oil (HOSO) at concentrations of 0.025–2.15% v/v (ϕ), and their rheological response was mapped between 25°C and 80 °C under steady-shear and oscillatory conditions. Below the percolation threshold (ɸ ≤ 0.1% v/v), the nanofluids exhibit near-Newtonian behavior, moderate reversible viscosity enhancement, and classical Arrhenius-type temperature …

Laplace Factor Models In High-Dimensional Data, Siqi Liu, Xuerong Meggie Wen, Akim Adekpedjou, Guangbao Guo

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laplace factor models (LFMs) provide a heavy-tailed alternative to Gaussian factor models by representing high-dimensional observations through a low-rank common component and Laplace-distributed idiosyncratic errors. This paper develops an assumption-consistent finite-sample analysis of matrix concentration, covariance estimation, and Monte Carlo integration under this model. We first formulate the model with explicit dimensional, independence, covariance, and identifiability conditions. Standard matrix Laplace-transform and matrix Bernstein inequalities are then recalled with their precise applicability conditions. Because untruncated Laplace variables are neither almost surely bounded nor strongly log-concave, these standard results cannot be applied directly in the forms commonly used for bounded or Gaussian-like …

A Stabilized Weighted Interior Penalty Method For Thermal Convection Model In Heterogeneous Porous Media, Yuanyuan Hou, Qianqian Ding, Xiaoming He, Yanping Lin

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this article, we propose and analyze a stabilized weighted interior penalty method for solving the thermal convection problems in heterogeneous porous media. We first transform the thermal convection model into the pressure primal form with homogeneous Neumann boundary condition and develop a symmetric weighted interior penalty method to handle the discontinuous Darcy number and automatically adjust the penalty coefficient corresponding to the varying permeability. Then we recover the velocity by a stabilized method and incorporate it into the energy equation to obtain the temperature. The stability and convergence rates of the numerical solutions are rigorously proved and verified by …

Field Calibration Of Flow Over Tilting Weirs In Canals, Joseph E. Pugh, Timothy K. Gates, S. Karan Venayagamoorthy, Caner Kutlu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Tilting weirs are widely used to regulate water levels in open channel irrigation systems and can also provide flow measurement capability that helps optimize irrigation efficiency and ensure equitable water distribution. This case study demonstrates adaptation of lab-based tilting weir ratings to field settings, where flow behavior is more complex. We compile and analyze an extensive data set derived from independent studies of five structures within three canal systems, featuring both lined and unlined channels with discharge ranging from 0.35 to 15 m3/s (12 to 530 ft3/s). Results indicate that lab-based rating equations can be calibrated to account for site-specific …