Digital Commons Network^™

High-Fidelity Machine Learning Techniques For Driver Drowsiness Detection, Yasser Ismail, Ebenezer Essel, Abeer Abdelhamid, Mahmoud Darwich, Fahmi Khalifa, Fred Lacy

Faculty Publications

It is devastating that daily, there is an ample number of car crashes that cause damage to automobiles, onboard passengers get injured, and others tend to lose their lives. Road crashes are fast rising across the globe and have drawn many road safety commissions and concerned individuals to discuss ways to reduce this menacing situation drastically. With the introduction of artificial intelligence and technological advancement, the government and state commissions have beckoned on the various universities and research institutions to develop methods to curb the rise of automobile crashes. Some causes of these crashes include drunk driving and drowsiness, the …

Finite Element Modeling And Analysis Of Rc Shear Walls With Cutting-Out Openings, Islam M. Saad, Mohamed Emara, Ayman El-Zohairy, Sherif El-Beshlawy

Faculty Publications

In recent decades, reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls have been one of the best structural solutions to resist lateral load in high-rise buildings. Shear wall openings are essential for preparations and architectural requirements, which weaken the wall, reducing bearing capacity, energy absorption, and stiffness while also causing stress concentrations. This paper presents a comprehensive finite element (FE) investigation of the behavior and performance of RC shear walls with openings and subjected to lateral loads. The study aims to evaluate the influence of various parameters, such as opening location, size, wall aspect ratio, axial load, and concrete strength, which affect the …

Beyond Covid: Towards A Transdisciplinary Synthesis For Understanding Responses And Developing Pandemic Preparedness In Alaska, Taylor P. Van Doren, Ryan A. Brown, Guangqing Chi, Patricia Cochran, Katie Cueva, Laura Eichelberger, Ruby Fried, Stacey Fritz, Micah B. Hahn, Ron Heintz, Davin Holen, Andrey N. Petrov

Faculty Publications

Pandemics are regularly occurring events, and there are foundational principles of pandemic preparation upon which communities, regions, states, and nations may draw upon for elevated preparedness against an inevitable future infectious disease threat. Many disciplines within the social sciences can provide crucial insight and transdisciplinary thinking for the development of preparedness measures. In 2023, the National Science Foundation funded a conference of circumpolar researchers and Indigenous partners to reflect on COVID-19-related research. In this article, we synthesise our diverse social science perspectives to: (1) identify potential areas of future pandemic-related research in Alaska, and (2) pose new research questions that …

Prevailing Issues And Actions In Urban Best Practices Across Latin America And The Caribbean, Fabio Capra-Ribeiro

Faculty Publications

This research examines urban best practices (BPs) across Latin America and the Caribbean to illuminate the prevalent issues and actions associated with these locally implemented initiatives. An analysis of 45 BPs from the UN-Habitat repository was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods, organized into three phases. The first phase focused on collecting data such as BP sources, countries of origin, and years of implementation. The second phase identified common problems and actions within the BPs. The third phase involved a cross-sectional analysis to identify significant patterns and trends. The study found that many BPs originated from the Dubai International …

Returnees’ Perspectives Of The Adverse Impact Of Forced Displacement On Children, Itunu O. Ilesanmi, Jasmine D. Haynes, Florence O. Ogundimu

Faculty Publications

Conflict-related forced displacement, characterized by the experiences of witnessing violent acts, bombing, torture, separation, and the execution of family members, can severely and negatively impact a child’s social determinants of health (SDOH). These experiences are both direct and indirect forms of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and urgent attention is needed to understand the impact of forced displacement on children, who are a vulnerable group, and to develop interventions for all systems that influence the child. This phenomenological qualitative study involved in-depth interviews based on the experiences of returnees (n = 20), who are parents of children who experienced forced displacement. …

Neurosymbolic Cognitive Methods For Enhancing Foundation Model-Based Reasoning, Kaushik Roy, Siyu Wu, Alessandro Oltramari

Faculty Publications

Foundation models have emerged as powerful tools, exhibiting extraordinary performance across various tasks, such as language processing, visual recognition, code generation, and human-centered engagement. However, recent studies have highlighted their limitations when grounded, abstract, and generalized reasoning capabilities are required. Complex tasks often involve multiple hierarchical reasoning steps, which are typical features of human thinking processes. In fact, in this chapter we claim that cognitively-inspired computational models, such as the so-called Common Model of Cognition, are key to enable complex reasoning within foundation model-based artificial intelligence (AI) systems. We investigate neurosymbolic approaches for mapping AI system components to those of …

Coarse-Gridded Simulation Of The Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation With Machine Learning, Benjamin F. Akers, Kristina O. F. Williams

Faculty Publications

A numerical method for evolving the nonlinear Schrödinger equation on a coarse spatial grid is developed. This trains a neural network to generate the optimal stencil weights to discretize the second derivative of solutions to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The neural network is embedded in a symmetric matrix to control the scheme’s eigenvalues, ensuring stability. The machine-learned method can outperform both its parent finite difference method and a Fourier spectral method. The trained scheme has the same asymptotic operation cost as its parent finite difference method after training. Unlike traditional methods, the performance depends on how close the initial data …

Adr In The Ongoing Experiment Of American Law, Carli N. Conklin

Faculty Publications

To engage in the development of American law— past or present—is to engage in a great and ongoing experiment. It is an exercise of the imagination. And one place where American law has been most imaginative is in the field of alternative dispute resolution. It is an area of law that, in its creativity and emphasis on the person as a whole, is particularly well-suited to respond to the guiding question of our constitutional democracy: how might we live well together?

Far From Their Origins: A Transcriptomic Investigation On How 2,4-Di-Tert-Butyl-6-(5-Chloro-2h-Benzotriazol-2-Yl) Phenol Affects Rainbow Trout Alevins, Andreas N.M. Eriksson, Justin Dubiel, Alper James Alcaraz, Jon A. Doering, Steve Wiseman

Faculty Publications

Benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers (BUVSs) are a group of widely used chemicals added to a variety of consumer (e.g., plastics) and industrial (e.g., metal coating) goods. Although detected globally as an environmentally persistent pollutant, BUVSs have received relatively little toxicological attention and only recently have been acknowledged to affect development and the endocrine system in vivo. In our previous study, altered behavior, indicative of potential neurotoxicity, was observed among rainbow trout alevins (day 14 posthatching) that were microinjected as embryos with a single environmentally relevant dose of 2,4-di-tert-butyl–6-(5-chloro-2H-benzotriazol-2-yl) phenol (UV-327). In the present follow-up study, we performed whole-transcriptome profiling (RNA sequencing) …

Discarded Vehicle Tires And Their Association With Mosquito Vector Abundance Across Socioenvironmental Gradients In New Orleans, La, Rebeca De Jesús Crespo, Alexandros Pavlakis, Jennifer Breaux, Claudia Riegel

Faculty Publications

Discarded vehicle tires serve as habitat for mosquito vectors. In New Orleans, Louisiana, discarded tires are an increasingly important public concern, especially considering that the city is home to many medically important mosquito species. Discarded tires are known to be associated with mosquito abundance, but how their presence interacts with other socioenvironmental gradients to influence mosquito ecology is poorly understood. Here, we ask whether discarded tire distribution could be explained by social factors, particularly median income, home vacancy and human population density, and whether these factors interact with urban heat islands (UHI) to drive mosquito vector assemblages. We surveyed tire …

On The Injectivity Of The Shifted Funk–Radon Transform And Related Harmonic Analysis, Boris Rubin

Faculty Publications

Necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for injectivity of the shifted Funk–Radon transform associated with k-dimensional totally geodesic submanifolds of the unit sphere Sⁿ in ℝⁿ⁺¹. This result generalizes the well known statement for the spherical means on Sⁿ and is formulated in terms of zeros of Jacobi polynomials. The relevant harmonic analysis is developed, including a new concept of induced Stiefel (or Grassmannian) harmonics, the Funk–Hecke type theorems, addition formula, and multipliers. Some perspectives and conjectures are discussed.

Toward A Comparative Framework For Studies Of Altitudinal Migration, David Vander Pluym, Nicholas A. Mason

Faculty Publications

The study and importance of altitudinal migration has attracted increasing interest among zoologists. Altitudinal migrants are taxonomically widespread and move across altitudinal gradients as partial or complete migrants, subjecting them to a wide array of environments and ecological interactions. Here, we present a brief synthesis of recent developments in the field and suggest future directions toward a more taxonomically inclusive comparative framework for the study of altitudinal migration. Our framework centers on a working definition of altitudinal migration that hinges on its biological relevance, which is scale-dependent and related to fitness outcomes. We discuss linguistic nuances of altitudinal movements and …

First-Order Comprehensive Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology For Neural Ordinary Differential Equations: Mathematical Framework And Illustrative Application To The Nordheim–Fuchs Reactor Safety Model, Dan Gabriel Cacuci

Faculty Publications

This work introduces the mathematical framework of the novel “First-Order Comprehensive Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology for Neural Ordinary Differential Equations” (1st-CASAM-NODE) which yields exact expressions for the first-order sensitivities of NODE decoder responses to the NODE parameters, including encoder initial conditions, while enabling the most efficient computation of these sensitivities. The application of the 1st-CASAM-NODE is illustrated by using the Nordheim–Fuchs reactor dynamics/safety phenomenological model, which is representative of physical systems that would be modeled by NODE while admitting exact analytical solutions for all quantities of interest (hidden states, decoder outputs, sensitivities with respect to all parameters and initial conditions, …

Continuing Education For Directors Of Public Companies, Jennifer O'Hare

Faculty Publications

Directors of public companies are responsible for overseeing complex organizations in a rapidly changing business environment, but they are not required to engage in continuing education. This creates a danger that directors will not have the knowledge they need to meet the significant demands of overseeing public companies. To address this, public companies should adopt mandatory continuing education policies for their boards, and the Securities and Exchange Commission should require public companies to disclose basic information about their continuing education programs in their proxy statements.

This is the first scholarly article to address the issue of mandatory continuing education for …

Exploring Forgiveness Through Theologically Informed Education: Lessons From Judaism, Yitzhak Ben Yair, Sarel Ohayon, Natti Ronel, Suzanne Freedman

Faculty Publications

Education serves as the primary line of defense against crime and other psychological difficulties. Children exposed to adversity and emotional challenges may be susceptible to various risks, potentially leading to criminal activities. Forgiveness has been demonstrated as a healing influence in the lives of individuals who have experienced hurt and accumulated negative emotions due to life events. Understanding forgiveness from a young age, in both theory and practice, may facilitate improved relationships and psychological well-being. This article underscores the significance of forgiveness education, advocating for a culturally and theologically sensitive approach. In this article we will offer an example of …

The Politics Of Heritage And Indigeneity In Assam: Hindutva’S Regional Expression, Tahmina Rahman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Performance Of Gfrp-Confined Rubberized Engineered Cementitious Composite Columns, Mahmoud T. Nawar, Mohamed Selim, Mahmoud Zaglal, Ayman El-Zohairy

Faculty Publications

In coastal regions, the deterioration of structures and bridges due to environmental conditions and corrosion is a significant concern. To combat these issues, the use of corrosion-resistant materials like fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) materials, engineered cementitious composites (ECCs), and rubberized ECCs (RECC) shows promise as normal concrete (NC) alternatives by providing increased ductility and energy absorption properties. The effectiveness of confining concrete columns using GFRP tubes with ECC/RECC was assessed in this research by evaluating their performance through compression and push-out tests. The study explored key parameters such as GFRP tube thickness and the presence of shear connectors along the tube …

Experimental And Fe Investigations Of Backfill Cover On Large-Diameter Grp Pipes, Abdulmuttalib I. Said, Yahya Jabbar Hussein, Mohammed Hazim Mohammed, Abbas A. Allawi

Faculty Publications

This paper presents experimental investigations on buried Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) pipes with a diameter of 1400 mm. The tested pipes were buried in dense, gravelly sand and subjected to traffic loads to study the effects of backfill cover on pipe deflection. The experimental program included tests on three GRP pipes with backfill covers of 100 cm, 75 cm, and 50 cm. The maximum traffic loads applied to the pipe–soil system corresponded to Iraqi Truck Type 3 (AASHTO Htype). Vertical deflections of the pipes were monitored during the application of these loads. The experimental results showed that, as the backfill …

Why Are There So Many Definitions Of Eutrophication?, Alexandrine Pannard, Philippe Souchu, Christian Chauvin, Monique Delabuis, Chantal Gascuel-Odoux, Erik Jeppesen, Morgane Le Moal, Alain Ménesguen, Gilles Pinay, Nancy N. Rabalais, Yves Souchon, Elisabeth M. Gross

Faculty Publications

Because of the first observations in the 1900s of the oligotrophic and eutrophic states of lakes, researchers have been interested in the process that makes lakes become turbid because of high phytoplankton biomass. Definitions of eutrophication have multiplied and diversified since the mid-20th century, more than for any other ecological process. Reasons for the high number of definitions might be that the former ones did not sufficiently describe their causes and/or consequences. Global change is bringing eutrophication more into the spotlight than ever, highlighting the need to find consensus on a common definition, or at least to explain and clarify …

Key Uncertainties And Modeling Needs For Managing Living Marine Resources In The Future Arctic Ocean, Julia G. Mason, Andrea Bryndum-Buchholz, Juliano Palacios-Abrantes, Renuka Badhe, Isabella Morgante, Daniele Bianchi, Julia L. Blanchard, Jason D. Everett, Cheryl S. Harrison, Ryan F. Heneghan, Camilla Novaglio, Colleen M. Petrik

Faculty Publications

Emerging fishing activity due to melting ice and poleward species distribution shifts in the rapidly-warming Arctic Ocean challenges transboundary management and requires proactive governance. A 2021 moratorium on commercial fishing in the Arctic high seas provides a 16-year runway for improved scientific understanding. Given substantial knowledge gaps, characterizing areas of highest uncertainty is a key first step. Marine ecosystem model ensembles that project future fish distributions could inform management of future Arctic fisheries, but Arctic-specific variation has not yet been examined for global ensembles. We use the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Intercomparison Project ensemble driven by two Earth System Models …

The Important Role Of Attorneys In Promoting Parties' Self-Determination In Mediation, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This short article analyzes the meaning of self-determination, and it demonstrates that attorneys generally have much greater ability than mediators to promote parties’ self-determination. I argue that “self-determination” is an admirable but unattainable ideal.

Instead, attorneys and mediators should focus on promoting parties’ best possible decision-making under the circumstances. To optimally promote the quality of parties’ decision-making during mediation sessions, they must be well-prepared before mediation sessions. At that stage, attorneys are in the best position to counsel clients, when they have more time to carefully consider their situation and they are not under pressure to respond to the …

Effects Of Exercise Or Metformin On Myokine Concentrations In Patients With Breast And Colorectal Cancer: A Phase Ii Multi-Centre Factorial Randomized Trial, Justin C. Brown, Guillaume Spielmann, Shengping Yang, Stephanie L.E. Compton, Lee W. Jones, Melinda L. Irwin, Jennifer A. Ligibel, Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt

Faculty Publications

Background: Physical activity and metformin pharmacotherapy are associated with improved clinical outcomes in breast and colorectal cancer survivors. Myokines are cytokines secreted from skeletal muscle that may mediate these associations. Methods: This hypothesis-generating analysis used biospecimens collected from a multi-centre 2 × 2 factorial randomized design of 116 patients with stage I–III breast and colorectal cancer who were randomized to 12 weeks of (1) aerobic exercise (moderate intensity titrated to 220 min/week); (2) metformin (850 mg daily for 2 weeks and then titrated to 850 mg twice per day); (3) aerobic exercise and metformin; or (4) control. Fourteen myokines were …

Review Of Fourth-Order Predictive Modeling And Illustrative Application To A Nuclear Reactor Benchmark. I. Typical High-Order Sensitivity And Uncertainty Analysis, Dan Gabriel Cacuci, Ruixian Fang

Faculty Publications

This work (in two parts) will review the recently developed predictive modeling methodology called “4th-BERRU-PM” and its applicability to nuclear energy systems as exemplified by an illustrative application to the Polyethylene-Reflected Plutonium (acronym: PERP) OECD/NEA reactor physics benchmark. The acronym 4th-BERRU-PM designates the “Fourth-Order Best-Estimate Results with Reduced Uncertainties Predictive Modeling” methodology, which uses the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) principle to incorporate fourth-order experimental and computational information, including fourth (and higher) order sensitivities of computed model responses to model parameters, while yielding best-estimate results with reduced uncertainties for the first fourth-order moments (mean values, covariance, skewness, and kurtosis) of the optimally …

Storm Surge Modeling In The Ai Era: Using Lstm-Based Machine Learning For Enhancing Forecasting Accuracy, Stefanos Giaremis, Noujoud Nader, Clint Dawson, Carola Kaiser, Efstratios Nikidis, Hartmut Kaiser

Faculty Publications

Physics simulation results of natural processes usually do not fully capture the real world. This is caused for instance by limits in what physical processes are simulated and to what accuracy. In this work we propose and analyze the use of an LSTM-based deep learning network machine learning (ML) architecture for capturing and predicting the behavior of the systemic error for storm tide forecast models with respect to real-world water elevation observations from gauge stations during hurricane events. The overall goal of this work is to predict the systemic error of the physics model and use it to improve the …

The Duty To Diversify And The Logic Of Indexing, Richard A. Booth

Faculty Publications

Index funds, such as those that track the S&P 500, are popular with investors because they offer maximum diversification—and thus minimum risk—with management fees that are far lower than those charged by traditional, actively managed stock-picking mutual funds. As a result, investors have flocked to such funds, which have grown dramatically in size. But many observers find this trend alarming because they see index funds as a threat to both corporate governance and competition.

Most critics have focused on the passivity of index funds, which they see as a failure of fund managers to do their duty as stockholders to …

Navigating Challenges In Community-Based Research Aimed At Ending The Hiv Epidemic Among Black Womens., J. Richelle Joe, Shan-Estelle Brown, Andrea Dunn

Faculty Publications

Our interdisciplinary team initiated a community-based participatory research project aimed at dismantling the gendered racism faced by Black women in healthcare settings that makes them vulnerable to HIV and other health conditions. During the data collection phase of the project, we encountered multiple challenges with the recruitment and enrollment of Black women in the study as well as with an influx of fraudulent responses that slowed down the research process. In this article, we discuss our research methodology followed by details of the challenges we faced and the processes we used to navigate those challenges.

Tension–Compression Fatigue Of A Hybrid Polymer-Matrix/Ceramic-Matrix Composite At Elevated Temperature, Marina B. Ruggles-Wrenn, Joshua Schmidt

Faculty Publications

Fully reversed tension–compression fatigue of a hybrid material comprising polymer matrix composite (PMC) co-cured with a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) was investigated. The PMC portion had a polyimide matrix reinforced with 15 plies of carbon fibers woven in an eight-harness satin weave (8HSW). The CMC portion had three plies of a quartz-fiber 8HSW fabric in a zirconia-based ceramic matrix. The hybrid PMC/CMC was developed for use in aerospace thermal protection systems (TPS). Hence, the experimental setup aimed to simulate the TPS service environment—the CMC side was kept at 329 °C, whereas the PMC side was open to laboratory air. Compression …

The Role Of Biological Plasticity In Model-Based Translational Research, Jessica A. Bolker

Faculty Publications

Reports of low replicability and translatability of biomedical research have called the value of animal models into question. The problems are real, but abandoning animal research is not the solution. Rather, improving the translatability of model-based research requires attention to relevant differences between humans and models, and to attributes of the models themselves that are essential to both robust science and effective translation. One is biological plasticity, the responsiveness of individual organisms to complex and variable environments. Though under-represented in model systems (for both historical and practical reasons), plasticity is central to human biology. While there are good reasons to …

On The Asymptotics Of Cubic Fields Ordered By General Invariants, Arul Shankar, Frank Thorne

Faculty Publications

In this article, we introduce a class of invariants of cubic fields termed “generalized discriminants”. We then obtain asymptotics for the families of cubic fields ordered by these invariants. In addition, we determine which of these families satisfy the Malle–Bhargava heuristic.

The Radiative And Geometric Properties Of Melting First-Year Landfast Sea Ice In The Arctic, Nathan J. M. Laxague, Christopher J. Zappa, Andrew R. Mahoney, John Goodwin, Cyrus Harris, Robert E. Schaeffer, Roswell Schaeffer, Sarah Betcher, Donna D W Hauser, Carson R. Witte, Jessica M. Lindsay, Ajit Subramaniam, Kate E. Turner, Alex Whiting

Faculty Publications

In polar regions, sea ice is a crucial mediator of the interaction between Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Its formation and breakup is intimately connected with large-scale climatic processes, local weather patterns, and the use of sea ice in coastal Arctic regions by Indigenous people. In order to investigate the physical phenomena at the heart of this process, a set of targeted, intensive observations were made over spring sea ice melt and breakup in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. These observations were planned and executed through a collaborative effort in which an Indigenous Elder advisory council from Kotzebue and scientists participated in co-production …