Digital Commons Network^™

The Librarian Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale, Maoria J. Kirker, David X. Lemmons

Communications in Information Literacy

Teaching self-efficacy is a critical factor in instructional success. Little research has been conducted on how academic librarians perceive their own teaching abilities. This study introduces and validates the Librarian Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale, a tool designed to measure self-efficacy beliefs among academic librarians engaged in information literacy instruction. By adapting established self-efficacy scales to the library instruction context, this study examines key factors influencing librarian teaching self-efficacy, including instructional strategies, lesson planning, and collaboration with faculty. Collective self-efficacy, which is perceptions of colleagues’ teaching confidence, is also examined. Statistical analysis indicates a reliable and valid scale which may benefit …

Information Literacy In The Artificial Intelligence Era: A Proposed Framework, Radwan Ali, Matthew L. Wilson

Communications in Information Literacy

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems and applications have become ubiquitous across daily life. While AI offers numerous positive opportunities, it also presents numerous challenges. Information literacy (IL) advocates are concerned about the risks that accompany AI systems. Given the universal reach of AI with its potential pitfalls and perils, researchers and practitioners from various fields and disciplines should inform the dialogue on AI’s development and application. A critical aspect of this dialogue comes in the form of information literacy. Our paper aims to answer the question “How can information literacy guide users in navigating and shaping artificial intelligence technologies?” by establishing …

Expanderizing Higher-Order Random Walks, Vedat Levi Alev, Shravas Rao

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We study a variant of the down-up (also known as the Glauber dynamics) and up-down walks over an 𝑛-partite simplicial complex, which we call expanderized higher-order random walks—where the sequence of updated coordinates corresponds to the sequence of vertices visited by a random walk over an auxiliary expander graph 𝐻. When 𝐻 is the clique with self-loops on [𝑛], this random walk reduces to the usual down-up walk, and when 𝐻 is the directed cycle on [𝑛], this random walk reduces to the well-known systematic scan Glauber dynamics. We show that whenever the usual higher-order random walks satisfy a log-Sobolev …

"Oxygen Is Not For The Dead": Critical And Radical Social Work In Palestine, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Stephanie Wahab, Abeer Musleh

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Palestinian poet and novelist Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on October 20, 2023, at the age of 32, taught us that “Oxygen is not for the dead.” Hiba Abu Nada’s (2017) poem, entitled “Our Loneliness,”1 recognizes survivance (Vizenor, 2010)—that is, the active sense of presence and presencing as an endeavor of creating the future (Simpson, 2017)—and asserts Palestinian embodied connections (Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2024) to land/life (Khoury, 2019 [2016]):

Favorability Mapping For Hydrothermal Power Resource Assessments Of The Great Basin, Usa, Stanley P. Mordensky, Erick R. Burns, John Lipor, Jacob Deangelo

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• • The new approach to predict hydrothermal resource favorability for the U.S. Great Basin is a synthesis of modern data-driven machine learning improvements from the last several years and predicts 85 % of power-producing systems with operating power plants in the most favorable 10 % of the total area with over half of the power-producing systems (10 of the 19 exposed power-producing systems and 5 of the 9 hidden power-producing systems) in the 99th percentile.
• • The new hydrothermal favorability map predicts both hidden and exposed power-producing hydrothermal systems equally well.
• • The new hydrothermal favorability map preferentially predicts …

Jhtdb-Wind: A Web-Accessible Large-Eddy Simulation Database Of A Wind Farm With Virtual Sensor Querying, Xiaowei Zhu, Shuolin Xiao, Ghanesh Narasimhan, Luia A. Martinez-Tossas, Michael Schnaubelt, Gerard Lemson, Hanxun Yao, Alexander S. Szalay, Dennice F. Gayme, Charles Meneveau

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper introduces JHTDB-wind (https://turbulence.idies.jhu.edu/datasets/windfarms), a publicly accessible database containing large-eddy simulation (LES) data from wind farms. Building on the framework of the Johns Hopkins Turbulence Database (JHTDB), which hosts direct numerical and some large-eddy simulation datasets of canonical turbulent flows, JHTDB-wind stores the full space-time (4D) history of the flow and provides users the ability to access and query the data via a web-based virtual sensor interface. The initial dataset comprises LES results from a large wind farm with 6 X 10 turbines, modeled using a filtered actuator line method, under conventionally neutral atmospheric conditions. This data comprises one …

Flow Control Tactics For Photovoltaic Modules: Coherent Structure And Heat Shedding Amplification, Sarah Elizabeth Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Solar photovoltaic systems have become the fastest growing renewable technology in the last several years. However, large-scale systems are at the mercy of their external environments, where extreme heating and wind-flung debris impact their efficiency and useable life. The work in this dissertation presents studies aimed to both understand and mitigate for these effects by identifying the underlying physics which govern them. Exploring flow control as a tactic to combat environmental heating, collective work discusses the role of turbulent fluid dynamics within large-scale systems as pertains to convective heat transfer, turbulent structure formation, and particle-laden environments. Wind tunnel experiments on …

Effect Of Pore Structure On Void Formation In Lotus Type Porous Cu/Solder Joints, Jin-Kwan Lee, Keun-Soo Kim, Jae-Ho Shin, Seung-Min Cho, Sung Yi, Sang-Wook Kim, Soong-Keun Hyun

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Void formation in solder joints is a critical reliability challenge in high-power electronics, as it degrades thermal dissipation and mechanical integrity. This study investigates a novel structural approach to mitigate this issue. The influence of an uni-directional porous structure in lotus-type porous Cu (Louts Cu) on void formation in solder joints was investigated. All pores in lotus Cu were infiltrated with SAC305 (Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu) solder paste. Then reflow soldering was performed under three different atmospheric conditions: air, nitrogen, and vacuum. The microstructure and void fraction were characterized. The shear strength was evaluated. The shear strength of Louts Cu joint was slightly …

Field Canals Improvement Projects Duration Prediction: A Comparative Analysis Of Machine Learning Models, Hania Ghouse, Ukaegbu Chinonso Ishmael, Edgar Dario Obando-Paredes, Hashem Shafik Shakir, Ali Al-Bayaty

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are several essential elements in project construction management to be studied appropriately, and priority to these elements, such as cost and duration, is predominantly interesting to be investigated. In this research, the duration of field canal improvement projects (DFCIP) was predicted using two relatively new machine learning (ML) models - the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline (MARS) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM). The targeted DFCIP was calculated using other dependent parameters, such as the length of the pipe, years of construction, the geographical zone of the network, the supplied area with water, and finally the actual cost of the field …

Future Vision And Action Recommendations, Sondoss Elsawah, Melissa Haeffner, Anthony Jakeman

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Let us imagine a future world where water management is more fully integrated and supported by the science of sociohydrology and related metadisciplines. This is a vision for the future where the social, cultural, environmental, and economic values of water are explicitly considered through the lens of the science–water policy interface. The ultimate value of research will be measured by how much it supports improvements in water resources and hazards management and, in particular, completes and enriches the science–water policy interface.

Interfacial Gap Prediction In Laser Welding Of Pure Copper Overlap Joints Using Multiple Sensors., Hyeonhee Kim, Cheolhee Kim, Minjung Kang

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, a novel approach was proposed for predicting the interfacial gap in copper overlap joints by using deep learning and multi-sensor fusion. In this method, an image sensor, a spectrometer, and optical sensors tomography (OCT) sensors were used to develop and validate deep learning models under various gap conditions. The results revealed that the variation in melt pool dimensions, changes in keyhole behavior, intensity variations at specific wavelengths, and keyhole depth derived from the OCT data could be used to accurately predict the interfacial gap. Among the proposed models, a binary gap classification model achieved the highest accuracy …

Culture Clash: New Majority Students At Psu, David Peterson Del Mar, Alejandra Vazquez

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

At the heart of this open access book are nearly 100 interviews that the authors conducted with New Majority Portland State University undergraduates, especially first-generation students from immigrant families. These young adults have a lot to say about the practical and emotional challenges of balancing their warm cultures and extensive family obligations with college and classroom experiences that are often intimidating and impersonal. The book includes suggestions from the students and some of the faculty and staff they praised for how Portland State might become a place where many more feel at home and fulfill their dreams.

First-Principles Theory Of Five-And Six-Phonon Scattering, Yi Xia

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

igher-order phonon scatterings beyond fourth order remain largely unexplored despite their potential importance in strongly anharmonic materials at elevated temperatures. We develop a theoretical formalism for first-principles calculation of five- and six-phonon scatterings using Green’s function techniques based on a diagrammatic formalism, and systematically investigate multi-phonon interactions in Si, MgO, and BaO from room temperature to near melting points. Our calculations reveal dramatically different material-dependent behaviors: while five- and six-phonon processes remain negligible in Si even at high temperatures, they become increasingly important in MgO near its melting point (3100 K) and in BaO at intermediate temperatures (1200 K). Most …

Framework And Methodology For Risk-Based Bridge And Tunnel Asset Management: Risk-Based Asset Ranking And Corridor Prioritization, David Y. Yang, Arash Khosravifar, Diane Moug, Avinash Unnikrishnan

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report presents the results of Phase II of the project, "Framework and Methodology for Risk-based Bridge and Tunnel Asset Management". The research was carried out at Portland State University in collaboration with engineers and officials at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Using the framework and methodology developed in Phase I of the project, the primary goal of Phase II is to showcase the practical application in risk-based asset management. In particular, the report includes the following two case studies: Case Study I — Weighted hazard scenarios for seismic risk assessment of Oregon Highway …

Building Oregon's Statewide Multimodal Transportation Inventory With Ai And Interagency Collaboration, Ben Stabler, Theresa Conley

PSU Transportation Seminars

ODOT and 48+ local agencies are collaborating on the development of a multimodal data set for transportation planning within metropolitan areas. Revisions to Oregon's Transportation Planning Rules (TPR) set in motion the need for more multimodal data and analysis in local plans. The multimodal data inventory includes vehicle and freight facilities, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, transit facilities, and other relevant data such as key destinations and crashes. Starting from the local agency GIS systems and supplemented with real world use of AI for developing bicycle and pedestrian facilities, the team is defining and constructing a shared statewide multimodal data set. …

Wind Farm Dynamics Over A Diurnal Cycle: Analysis Of A Comprehensive Large-Eddy Simulation, Web-Services Accessible Dataset, Shuolin Xiao, Xiaowei Zhu, Ghanesh Narasimhan, Dennice F. Gayme, Charles Meneveau

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The atmospheric boundary layer undergoes significant changes throughout a diurnal cycle, affecting wind turbine performance and wakes in wind farms. Wind farm large-eddy simulations (LES) under such conditions provide rich datasets to study the underlying dynamics and identify important trends. Here, we describe a comprehensive open dataset generated using LES of an eight-turbine wind farm consisting of four rows of two turbines. To avoid specifying either prescribed surface temperature or heat flux, a local one-dimensional soil heat conduction model is used with time-periodic solar surface heating, coupled to LES. After several days of low-resolution LES, an approximately time-periodic behavior is …

Reducing Motor Vehicle – Bicycle Conflicts At Controlled Intersections, Jason C. Anderson, Sirisha Kothuri

PSU Transportation Seminars

One of the most common locations for fatal motor vehicle-bicyclist crashes is at intersections, which inherently have a large number of turning conflicts. Reducing these conflicts is a key objective in improving intersection safety across all modes. Of particular concern for bicyclists’ safety at intersections are the conflicts between straight-through bicyclists and motor vehicle right-turns and opposing left-turns. The objective of this research was to develop guidance and tools for transportation practitioners to use to reduce turning conflicts between motor vehicles and bicycles at controlled intersections and improve the safety and comfort of intersections for bicyclists.

Model-Based Assessment Of Ocean Monitoring Temporal And Spatial Resolution Requirements For Acoustic Operations, William K. Stevens, Martin Siderius

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding present and future ocean conditions is essential for the effective planning and execution of a wide range of naval and commercial acoustic operations. The four-dimensional structure of temperature and salinity}from the ocean surface to the seabed}is a critical factor influencing acoustic transmission properties. Modern numerical ocean modeling systems consist of three primary components: ocean observations, a numerical forecasting model, and a data assimilation system. Of the tens of millions of global ocean observations assimilated daily, the majority derive from satellite-based surface measurements. In stark contrast, subsurface water column measurements number only in the thousands per day. This disparity highlights …

The Realities Of Roadkill: Challenges And Opportunities For Wildlife Transportation Mitigation, Rachel Wheat

PSU Transportation Seminars

Transportation infrastructure is critical for our communities and economies, but the roadways we depend on for travel have significant negative impacts on wildlife populations. Roadkill is the most visible consequence, with tens of millions of animals injured or killed on Oregon’s roadways each year. Beyond direct mortality, transportation corridors fragment habitat and can alter wildlife behavior, creating barriers that disrupt wildlife movement and access to critical resources, contributing to population declines. Despite these challenges, opportunities exist for mitigation, including the use of wildlife crossing structures, autonomous animal detection systems, and smarter project siting. This talk will explore the multifaceted challenges …

Al-Driven Interfacial Gap Prediction In Overlapped Al/Cu Laser Weld Joint For Battery Applications, Hyeonhee Kim, Sanghoon Kang, Cheolhee Kim, Yong Hoon Jang, Minjung Kang

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The battery tab-to-busbar welding process forms the primary electrical path in battery packs and is directly linked to both performance and safety. Variations in jig alignment, material tolerance, and forming quality can cause small interfacial gaps that lead to weak welds. An artificial intelligence (AI)-driven method was proposed in this study for predicting interfacial gaps in aluminum-copper overlap joints by integrating deep learning with multi-sensor data. A charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, spectrometer, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) sensors were employed to develop and validate deep learning models under varying gap conditions. The results revealed that the variation in melt-pool dimensions, …

Coupling The Parflow Integrated Hydrology Model Within The Nasa Land Information System: A Case Study Over The Upper Colorado River Basin, P.Eyman Abbaszadeh, Fadji Zaouna Maina, Chen Yang, Dan Rosen, Sujay Kumar, Matthew Rodell, Reed Maxwell

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding, observing, and simulating Earth's water cycle is imperative for effective water resource management in the face of a changing climate. While NASA's Land Information System (LIS)/Noah-MP is widely used for land surface modeling, its ability to represent groundwater processes is limited. In contrast, the ParFlow hydrologic model explicitly simulates subsurface water movement. This study explores the effectiveness and usefulness of the newly coupled modeling framework, ParFlow-LIS/Noah-MP (PF-LIS/Noah-MP) over the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). The framework integrates the strengths of both models to provide a physically based representation of surface and subsurface processes and their interactions. Unlike standalone LIS/Noah-MP, …

Development And Validation Of A Composite Digital Balance Score For Spinocerebellar Ataxia: A Prospective Study., James Mcnames, Vrutangkumar V. Shah, Hannah L. Casey, Kristen L. Sowalsky, Mahmoud El-Gohary, Delaram Safarpour, Patricia Carlson-Kuhta, Jeremy D. Schmahmann, Liana S. Rosenthal, Susan Perlman, Multiple Additional Authors

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Clinical trials in spinocerebellar ataxia are currently limited by the large sample sizes required by available clinical endpoints. We aimed to devise a digital composite measure of standing and walking balance using wearable inertial sensors that would require smaller sample sizes. The new score is called the Score of Integrated Balance in Ataxia (SIBA).

Calving As A Source Of Acute And Persistent Kinetic Energy To Enhance Submarine Melting Of Tidewater Glaciers, M. F. Shaya, J. D. Nash, E. C. Pettit, J. M. Amundson, R. H. Jackson, D. A. Sutherland, Dylan Winters

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Calving icebergs at tidewater glaciers release large amounts of potential energy. This energy—in principle—could be a source for submarine melting, which scales with near‐terminus water temperature and velocity. Because near‐terminus currents are challenging to observe or predict, submarine melt remains a key uncertainty in projecting tidewater glacier retreat and sea level rise. Here, we study one submarine calving event at Xeitl Sít’ (LeConte Glacier), Alaska, to explore the effect of calving on ice melt, using a suite of autonomously deployed instruments beneath, around, and downstream of the calving iceberg. Our measurements captured flows exceeding 5 m/s and demonstrate how potential …

Incorporating The Influence Of Vehicle Mix On Crash Frequency And Severity, Shahrior Pervaz, Manmohan Joshi, Tanmoy Bhowmik, Dewan Ashraful Parvez, Kai Wang, John N. Ivan, Naveen Eluru

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The current approaches for crash frequency and severity prediction in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) do not employ vehicle mix information. In this research effort, we build advanced alternatives to HSM methods while incorporating vehicle mix information. Two model systems—(a) multivariate Poisson-lognormal model and (b) negative binomial-ordered probit fractional split model—are estimated by incorporating vehicle mix variables. The developed model systems can also capture the influence of observed and unobserved heterogeneity of different independent variables including vehicle mix variables. We estimate the models for three facility types including Urban Arterial 4-Lane Divided segments, Rural 3-Leg STOP-Controlled and Rural 4-Leg STOP-Controlled …

A Case Study On The Effectiveness Of Llms In Verification With Proof Assistants, Barış Bayazıt, Yao Li, Xujie Si

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Large language models (LLMs) can potentially help with verification using proof assistants by automating proofs. However, it is unclear how effective LLMs are in this task. In this paper, we perform a case study based on two mature Rocq projects: the hs-to-coq tool and Verdi. We evaluate the effectiveness of LLMs in generating proofs by both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Our study finds that: (1) external dependencies and context in the same source file can significantly help proof generation; (2) LLMs perform great on small proofs but can also generate large proofs; (3) LLMs perform differently on different verification projects; …

Detection Of Two Anomalies Behind The Eastern Face Of The Menkaure Pyramid Using A Combination Of Non-Destructive Testing Techniques, Khalid Helal, Polina Pugacheva, Hussien Allam, Mohamed Fath-Elbab, Mohamed Sholqamy, Olga Popovych, Simon Schmid, Benedikt Maier, Alejandro Ramirez, Johannes Rupfle, Thomas Schumacher, Multiple Additional Authors

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Menkaure Pyramid is the smallest of the three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau. Recently, the possibility of a second entrance to the Pyramid has been hypothesized by Van den Hoven [1], based on similarities between the polished granite blocks covering the Eastern face and the blocks around the main entrance on the Northern face. To test this hypothesis, measurement campaigns using three non-destructive techniques, Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), and Ultrasonic Testing (UST), were carried out on the Eastern face of Menkaure Pyramid. ERT data was obtained from measurements of four long parallel profiles using …

Recovery Of Daily Water Levels In The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, 1915–2023, Serena B. Lee, Steven Dykstra, Reyna Gomez‐Sanchez, Cole Wilkenson, Ricardo Estrada, Nick Mcguire, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This manuscript documents the data rescue, digitization, and quality assurance of archival daily maximum and minimum water levels at twenty-five sites within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The records encompass 1846 total unique years, where 915 years are newly digitized from the 1915–1985 era. The period of record for each gauge location varies from 40 to 109years (median=80 years). Quality assurance procedures and datum corrections were applied to both archival and digital records to generate a time series referenced to a common geocentric datum. Both riverine and coastal influences on mean sea level and great diurnal range are evident in the …

Freer Arrows And Why You Need Them In Haskell, Grant Vandomelen, Gan Shen, Lindsey Kupur, Yao Li

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Freer monads are a useful structure commonly used in various domains due to their expressiveness. However, a known issue with freer monads is that they are not amenable to static analysis. This paper explores freer arrows, a relatively expressive structure that is amenable to static analysis. We propose several variants of freer arrows. We conduct a case study on choreographic programming to demonstrate the usefulness of freer arrows in Haskell.

Beyond Opacity: Distributed Ledger Technology As A Catalyst For Carbon Credit Market Integrity, Stanton Heister, Felix Kin Peng Hui, David Ian Wilson, Yaakov Anker

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2015 Paris Agreement paved the way for the carbon trade economy, which has since evolved but has not attained a substantial magnitude. While carbon credit exchange is a critical mechanism for achieving global climate targets, it faces persistent challenges related to transparency, double-counting, and verification. This paper examines how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) can address these limitations by providing immutable transaction records, automated verification through digitally encoded smart contracts, and increased market efficiency. To assess DLT’s strategic potential for leveraging the carbon markets and, more explicitly, whether its implementation can reduce transaction costs and enhance market integrity, three alternative …

The Effect Of Mesoscale Frontal Waves On Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers And Their Associated Precipitation Over The Green River Watershed, Washington, Joseph Michael Riedl

Dissertations and Theses

In this study, the effect of mesoscale frontal waves (MFWs) on extreme precipitation (EP) in the Upper Green River Watershed (UGRW), Washington is investigated. 205 EP days (>95th percentile) are identified in the UGRW between the years 1980 and 2021. To characterize the range of large-scale meteorological conditions associated with EP days, the self-organizing map (SOM) approach is used to cluster daily integrated water vapor transport (IVT) on EP days. To further diagnose the meteorological drivers, composites of several other diagnostic fields are constructed for each SOM node and the preceding days. Together, these results illustrate common orientations of …