Digital Commons Network^™

Categorial Declinations & Democracy, Brenner M. Fissell

Faculty Publications

The most contentious action taken by reform prosecutors has been the issuance of categorical declination policies. Opponents decry this as bureaucratic nullification of democratically enacted offenses, while the prosecutors themselves counter that they are responding to the will of their local electorate. Democracy claims, it appears, have taken center stage in this debate, and they are deployed by both sides. How should we think about democracy and categorical declinations? The most comprehensive scholarly work on this subject is a 2021 article by Professor Kerrel Murray. In this essay, I hope to continue the work begun by Murray, offering additional insights …

I Do, And I Will: Effectual Religiosity May Strengthen The Triad Chord Of Commitment For Women Of Faith, Tamara M. Chamberlain, Loren Marks, David C. Dollahite, Ashley Lebaron-Black, Elizabeth Kay Madsen, Christina N. Cooper

Faculty Publications

Although religiosity is commonly linked to marital satisfaction in sociological research, few studies have examined how it strengthens marital commitment among women of faith. This study explored the perspectives of religious, heterosexual married women using interviews in the United States from 196 highly religious couples with successful marriages. Three core themes emerged: (1) personal commitment—including the decision to marry, religious beliefs and practices, and the need for effort and sacrifice; (2) moral commitment—highlighting sexual relations before marriage, promises made before God, family, and friends, and views on fidelity and divorce; and (3) structural commitment— emphasizing the role of a religious …

Youth Comorbidity Patterns And Research Domain Criteria (Rdoc)-Informed Factors: A Scoping Review Of Person-Centered Psychopathology Research, June Yung Kim, Wenxing Wei, Liat R. Johnson, Sarah Balser, Anne Marie Gruber

Faculty Publications

Purpose: High rates of comorbid psychopathology have driven a growing body of person-centered research to understand the grouping structure of youth comorbidity by identifying meaningful comorbidity patterns and validating them with neurobehavioral factors. The National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) offers an etiological framework for systematically identifying constructs organized around major functioning domains. This scoping review study mapped person-centered comorbidity studies and synthesized the RDoC-informed factors of comorbidity patterns. Materials and

Methods: We followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. Five databases (e.g. PubMed and CINAHL) were searched. Twenty-five peer-reviewed studies examining comorbidity patterns in youth up to …

Surprisingly Robust Photochemistry In Subarctic Particles During Winter: Evidence From Photooxidants, Laura M. D. Heinlein, Junwei He, Michael Oluwatoyin Sunday, Fangzhou Guo, James Campbell, Allison Moon, Sukriti Kapur, Ting Fang, Kasey Edwards, Meeta Cesler-Maloney, Alyssa J. Burns, Jack E. Dibb, William Simpson, Manabu Shiraiwa, Becky Alexander, Jingqiu Mao, James H. Flynn Iii, Jochen Stutz, Cort Anastasio

Faculty Publications

Subarctic cities notoriously experience severe winter pollution episodes with fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations above 35 µg m−3, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 24 h standard. While winter sources of primary particles in Fairbanks, Alaska, have been studied, the chemistry driving secondary particle formation is elusive. Biomass burning is a major source of wintertime primary particles, making the PM2.5 rich in light-absorbing brown carbon (BrC). When BrC absorbs sunlight, it produces photooxidants – reactive species potentially important for secondary sulfate and secondary organic aerosol formation – yet photooxidant measurements in high-latitude PM2.5 remain scarce. During the winter of 2022 Alaskan …

Peggy Clinger, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

Catherine Peggy Clinger (January 11, 1949 – August 9, 1975) was an American singer, voice actress and composer.

Ruth Gatrell, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

Ruth Josephine Barton was born on December 23, 1921, in Farmington, Utah. Her parents were Lloyd and Edna (Cottrell) Barton. When the Bartons married, Edna already had a five-year-old daughter, Helen, from a previous marriage. Ruth was the first of two children born to Edna’s second marriage. The family was living in Mount Pleasant, Utah, but returned to the home of Edna’s father, Edward Cottrell, for the birth of the baby. She was named Ruth for the biblical heroine, and Josephine because she shared a birthday with the prophet Joseph Smith. A younger sister, Laura Jean, joined the family in …

N. Lorenzo Mitchell, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

Nephi Lorenzo Mitchell (May 4, 1889 – November 9, 1968) was a pianist, organist, music teacher and composer, whose life and work took place in three countries: England, Canada and the United States. Mitchell was named the Aaronic Priesthood Music Director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1945, and was the director of the McCune School of Music and Art from 1950-1957. He served on the General Music Committee of the Church from 1938-1968.

Vanja Y. Watkins, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

Vanja Louise Yorgason was born on September 22, 1938 in Ogden, Utah, the daughter of R. Milton and Norma Johns Yorgason. Vanja grew up in a musical home. Her father was a violinist, and her mother a pianist and an organist. Vanja and her four brothers learned to “sing four-part hymns in tune unaccompanied.”1 Their parents felt that music was an important part of their children’s education, and made the necessary sacrifices to provide music lessons.

Robert W. Mcmullin, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

Robert Wesley McMullin (April 29, 1921 – January 3, 1995) was a Canadian composer, conductor, instrumentalist and music director. While he was born into a Mormon family in Utah, he was a proud Canadian: in a 1965 interview with Canadian Composer, he said: “The brain drain to the United States is a bad thing. It reduces our chances of arriving at a distinctive Canadian art form.” He composed works for orchestra, band, and piano, but the bulk of his compositions were for radio or television programming. Later in his career, he scored several films.

Feasibility Evaluation Of Secure Offline Large Language Models With Retrieval-Augmented Generation For Cpu-Only Inference, Erick Tyndall, Torrey J. Wagner, Colleen Gayheart, Alexandre Some, Brent T. Langhals

Faculty Publications

Recent advances in large language models and retrieval-augmented generation, a method that enhances language models by integrating retrieved external documents, have created opportunities to deploy AI in secure, offline environments. This study explores the feasibility of using locally hosted, open-weight large language models with integrated retrieval-augmented generation capabilities on CPU-only hardware for tasks such as question answering and summarization. The evaluation reflects typical constraints in environments like government offices, where internet access and GPU acceleration may be restricted. Four models were tested using LocalGPT, a privacy-focused retrieval-augmented generation framework, on two consumer-grade systems: a laptop and a workstation. A technical …

The Complexity Of Promoting Physical Activity In English State Primary Schools: An In-Depth Qualitative Analysis Of The Role Of Social Context, Robert Walker, Danielle House, Alice Porter, Ruth Salway, Simona Kent-Saisch, Michael Beets Ph.D., David Revalds Lubans, Frank De Vocht, Russell Jago

Faculty Publications

Background

Primary schools present an opportunity to equitably promote physical activity. To date, school-based interventions have had limited success. Contextual differences between schools could be a key factor that contributes to this lack of impact. However, the elements that constitute a school’s social context (i.e. the organisational, political, cultural, and sociodemographic characteristics) and how they might impact on primary school physical activity are unclear. The aims of this study were to conduct an in-depth qualitative analysis of state primary school social context related to physical activity and, using this analysis, provide recommendations for policy and practice.

Methods

We conducted one-to-one …

Decreasing Foraminiferal Flux In Response To Ongoing Climate Change In The Santa Barbara Basin, California, Emily Harvard, Katherine Cherry, Claudia R. Benitez-Nelson, Eric Tappa, Catherine V. Davis

Faculty Publications

The rapid response of foraminiferal assemblages to changing climate makes their shells an invaluable geological record of the past. However, the time frame over which foraminifera respond to climatic signals and the specific drivers influencing assemblage composition and abundance remain obscure. We focus on the impact of ongoing, anthropogenic climate change on planktic foraminifera in the California Current ecosystem, which would appear as a nearly instantaneous event in the sediment record. The Santa Barbara Basin sediment trap, located off the coast of California, USA since 1993, provides a record of more than 30 years of particulate and foraminiferal flux in …

Impact Of Retrieval Augmented Generation And Large Language Model Complexity On Undergraduate Exams Created And Taken By Ai Agents, Erick S. Tyndall, Colleen Gayheart, Alexandre Some, Joseph Genz, Torrey J. Wagner, Brent T. Langhals

Faculty Publications

The capabilities of large language models (LLMs) have advanced to the point where entire textbooks can be queried using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), enabling AI to integrate external, up-to-date information into its responses. This study evaluates the ability of two OpenAI models, GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4 Turbo, to create and answer exam questions based on an undergraduate textbook. 14 exams were created with four true-false, four multiple-choice, and two short-answer questions derived from an open-source Pacific Studies textbook. Model performance was evaluated with and without access to the source material using text-similarity metrics such as ROUGE-1, cosine similarity, and word embeddings. …

Investigation Of A Stable And Saturated Reference Electrode Using Metal Chlorides And Oxides In Eutectic Licl-Kcl Molten Salts, Carlos Mejia, Devin Rappleye

Faculty Publications

Stable and reproducible reference electrodes (REs) are essential for electrochemical systems operating in high-temperature molten salts, where consistent control of potential is required. This study uses three different solutes to investigate the development and evaluation of REs in eutectic LiCl-KCl at 773 K. The solutes tested were NiCl2, AgCl, and NiO, each prepared at multiple concentrations to assess stability, reproducibility, and saturation. Electrochemical stability was measured over three days using chronopotentiometry (CP), followed by open circuit potential (OCP), with cyclic voltammetry (CV) also integrated to monitor changes in electrochemical behavior over time. The CP-OCP approach established a Li+/Li redox potential, …

Tort Liability For Failure To Age Gate: A Promising Regulatory Response To Digital Public Health Hazards, Matthew B. Lawrence, Brett Frischmann, Avi Sholkoff

Faculty Publications

Tort liability for failure to “age gate” is a promising legal response to the public health hazards of AI, social media, sports gambling, and other digital spaces. Tort liability for failure to “age gate” hinges liability for harms to minors on an app’s failure to take reasonable steps to prevent minors from gaining access or otherwise to apply appropriate governance rules, such as privacy-protective default settings or ensuring genuine parental consent. While no one legal response is a panacea, tort liability for failure to age gate carries several distinctive advantages that make it a particularly promising option at this stage …

Menopause-Related Changes In Sleep And The Associations With Cardiometabolic Health: A Narrative Review, Joshua R. Sparks, Xuewen Wang Ph.D., Faha

Faculty Publications

This narrative review examines the complex relationship between sleep changes during the menopausal transition and cardiometabolic risks. The most common complaint about sleep is increased awakenings during sleep. Other complaints include having trouble falling asleep, waking up too early, insufficient and non-restorative sleep, and overall poor quality. Sleep determined using objective methods also indicates that greater awakenings after sleep onset are associated with the period of menopausal transition. Polysomnography recordings suggest physiological hyperarousal during sleep. Changes in other sleep metrics, such as sleep latency and sleep duration, are less consistent, and some studies suggest they may not worsen during the …

Working Group Report: Developing A Playbook Of Equitable Grading Practices, Stephen H. Edwards, David L. Largent, Ben Schafer, Debarati Basu, Amy Csizmar Dalal, Dan Garcia, Brian Harrington, Kevin Lin, Dan S. Myers, Christian Roberson, Giulia Toti, Brett Wortzman

Faculty Publications

Traditional points-based grading can have negative impacts. As a result, many educators are experimenting with alternative grading practices that are more equitable for students. However, educators often face challenges in implementing equitable grading practices due to a lack of clear, practical descriptions of techniques and the fact that not all techniques are universally applicable. This working group addresses this problem using a three-pronged strategy: conducting a systematic literature review to gather documented techniques, compiling ''recipes'' or concrete descriptions of these techniques, and publishing them in an open-source, online ''playbook'' of equitable grading practices as a community resource for educators. This …

Editorial: Disclosure In Sexual And Reproductive Health, Pooja Chitneni, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Simon M. Manga, Janet M. Turan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“I Feel Like A Lot Of Times Women Are The Ones Who Are Problem-Solving For All The People That They Know”: The Gendered Impacts Of The Pandemic On Women In Alaska, Marya Rozanova-Smith, Andrey N. Petrov

Faculty Publications

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery in urban communities in the Arctic have been substantial, but their gendered aspects remain largely unknown. The goal of this study was to enhance the understanding of the gender-based impact on women in the urban areas of Alaska by exploring strengths and constraints to resilience in the social and economic domains of gender equality during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on grounded theory methodology, this study is based on 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The study methodology utilized a conceptual framework that integrated deficit-based and strength-based analytical perspectives. …

Bovine Neutrophil Migration, Cd11a/Cd18 Expression, And Cytokine Response To Co-Culture With Mammary Gland Endothelial Cells And Epithelial Cells, David J. Mcclenahan

Faculty Publications

Movement of leukocytes from the circulatory system into a site of inflammation is a highly complex process. The migration of neutrophils into the lumen of the mammary gland during mastitis is no exception. There is information about the involvement of bacterial-produced products during this process, but less is known regarding the role of host products. Two bovine cell lines, a primary mammary gland endothelial cell line and an immortalized bovine mammary gland epithelial cell line (Mac-T), along with freshly isolated bovine neutrophils, were used to study this further. The cell lines were grown on inserts and in wells of tissue-culture …

Pinch: Pipeline-Informed Noise Characterization In Ligo’S Third Observing Run, Zach Yarbrough, Andre Guimaraes, Prathamesh Joshi, Gabriela González, Andrew Valentini

Faculty Publications

We present a method to identify and categorize gravitational wave candidate triggers identified by matched filtering gravitational wave searches (pipelines) caused by transient noise (glitches) in gravitational wave detectors using support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. Our approach involves training SVM models on pipeline triggers which occur outside periods of excess noise to distinguish between triggers caused by random noise and those induced by glitches. This method is applied independently to the triggers produced by the GstLAL search pipeline on data from the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory Hanford and Livingston observatories during the second half of the O3 observing run. The …

Exploring Different Metal-Oxide Cathode Materials For Structural Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Dip-Coating, David Petrushenko, Thomas Burns, Paul Ziehl, Ralph E. White, Paul T. Coman

Faculty Publications

In this study, a selection of active materials were coated onto commercially available intermediate modulus carbon fibers to form and analyze the performance of novel composite cathodes for structural power composites. Various slurries containing polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), active material powders, 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and carbon black (CB) were used to coat carbon fiber tows by immersion. Four active materials—lithium cobalt oxide (LCO), lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC), and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA)—were individually tested to assess their electrochemical reversibility. The cells were prepared with a polymer separator and liquid electrolytes and assembled in 2025-coin …

Little Cigar And Cigarillo Graphic Health Warnings And Quitting Behaviors A Randomized Clinical Trial, Adam O. Goldstein, Kristen L. Jarman, Leah M. Ranney, Jennifer Cornacchione Ross, Sarah D. Kowitt, Chineme Enyioha, Sonia A. Clark, Paschal Sheeran, James F. Thrasher Ph.D., Ma, Ms, Desmond Jenson, Nadja A. Vielot

Faculty Publications

IMPORTANCE Although little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs) are common combustible tobacco products, the effects of LCC warning labels on behavioral outcomes remain untested.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of LCC graphic health warnings (GHWs) on promoting LCC quitting intentions and behaviors.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This randomized clinical trial included 1029 adult LCC users from a Qualtrics online panel who were randomized to (1) LCC GHWs (n = 339), (2) existing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) text-only warnings (n = 346), or (3) no stimulus control (n = 344). Participants accessed messages via email from May 1 to August …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Equivalence Of Red Clover When Inter-Seeded Into Corn, Hannah R. Francis, Ting Fung Ma, Rodrigo Werle, Chelsea H. Zegler, Daniel H. Smith, Douglas J. Soldat, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Matthew D. Ruark

Faculty Publications

Inter-seeding red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) provides an alternative method toincorporate cover crops into continuous corn (Zea mays L.) in the Upper US Midwest. Red clover is a leguminous cover crop that can grow in low-radiation environments and is winter hardy. Systems with red clover have demonstrated improved corn yield and a fertilizer N equivalence but understanding these effects with inter-seeding war-rants further investigation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of inter-seeding red clover on (i) plant-available N during and after red clover decomposition, (ii) optimum N rates for corn, and (iii) corn yields. The …

Nitrogen Fertilizer Equivalence Of Red Clover When Inter-Seeded Into Corn, Hannah R. Francis, Ting Fung Ma, Rodrigo Werle, Chelsea H. Zegler, Daniel H. Smith, Douglas J. Soldat, Erika Marin-Spiotta, Matthew D. Ruark

Faculty Publications

Inter-seeding red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) provides an alternative method to incorporate cover crops into continuous corn (Zea mays L.) in the Upper US Midwest. Red clover is a leguminous cover crop that can grow in low-radiation environments and is winter hardy. Systems with red clover have demonstrated improved corn yield and a fertilizer N equivalence but understanding these effects with inter-seeding warrants further investigation. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of inter-seeding red clover on (i) plant-available N during and after red clover decomposition, (ii) optimum N rates for corn, and (iii) corn …

An Evidence-Based Intervention To Increase Trypanosoma Cruzi, A Neglected Parasitic Infection, Diagnosis In Rural And Moderate-Size-City Us Clinics, M K. Lynn, Hunter M. Boehme, Jeffrey Hall, Patrick Kent, Alain H. Litwin, Quang H. Pham, Melissa Nolan Ph.D., Mph, Prisma Chagas Team

Faculty Publications

Background

Chagas disease is a chronic, insidious parasitic infection (Trypanosoma cruzi) that slowly develops to irreversible organomegaly over several decades. The disease is traditionally acquired in endemic Latin American countries during childhood; < 1% of foreign-born adult residents in the United States have been diagnosed or treated with this potentially fatal disease. Low physician knowledge is a primary factor leading to misdiagnosis.

Methods

Starting in April 2022, a 4-part T cruzi clinical education intervention began, which included (i) 2 grand rounds presentations to >100 internal medicine providers; (ii) implementation of a “clinical Chagas champions program” incorporating 14 key clinical staff at varying departments and administrative levels educated on their specific role related to T cruzi screening, diagnosis confirmation, clinical management, and medical billing; ( …

Exploring The Association Between Smartphone-Based Place Visitation Data And Neighborhood-Level Coronary Heart Disease In The United States, Temitope Akinboyewa, Zhenlong Li, Huan Ning, M. Naser Lessani, Louisa M. Holmes, Shan Qiao Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, affecting over 20.5 million adults. Previous studies link health behaviors – such as dietary behavior, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption – to CHD risk. These studies typically use surveys and interviews, which, despite their benefits, are resource-intensive and limited by small sample sizes. Using large-scale national level anonymized smartphone-based location data, our study examines whether health behaviors that are proxy measured by place visitation are associated with CHD prevalence across US census tracts. This study utilized data from multiple sources, including demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, …

Ocean And Coastal Acidification Monitoring Priorities For The Northeast Us And Eastern Canada, Christopher Hunt, Austin Pugh, Jake Kritzer, Samantha Siedlecki, Kumiko Azetsu-Scott, Parker Gassett, Diane Lavoie, Adam Pimenta, Amy Trice, Elizabeth Turner

Faculty Publications

The Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification Monitoring Prioritization Plan 2024 calls for Coastal Acidification Networks to identify the ocean and coastal acidification (OCA) monitoring needs most important for their regions. The Northeast Coastal Acidification Network (NECAN) organized a webinar series to study regional needs, which culminated with a workshop in November 2023. This workshop led to the identification of six priority new Monitoring Needs in addition to the maintenance of current monitoring efforts:

• Improve spatial and temporal scale of monitoring co-located OCA variables and biological measurements to better resolve variability of acidification dynamics in concert with biological processes …

A Meta-Analysis Of Historic Drinking Water Emergency Events Reported In News Articles, Victor Yu, Haiying Wang, Weiwei Mo

Faculty Publications

This study seeks to investigate historical drinking water contamination events that reported by news media to find the key determinants of their outcomes, including the duration and economic cost, and to quantitatively describe the characteristics of past contamination events. ProQuest Global Newsstream and Regional Business News were used to identify an initial list of events and supplemented by additional search on specific information including the response actions, economic cost, and more. These events were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression modeling. Smaller community water systems were found to be more frequently impacted by contamination events. Use restrictions, except …

Expanding Functionalities Of Immune Receptors Through Simultaneous Transfer Of Sensor And Helper Nlrs, Dongjiao Wang, Qibin Wu, Daowen Wang, Youxiong Que, Zheng Qing Fu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.