Digital Commons Network^™

Incorporating Increased Road User Costs Into Pavement Management Modeling: A Case Study Of Two-Lane Rural Highways, Khaled A. Abaza, Mohamed S. Yamany

Faculty Publications

The impact of increased road user costs on optimal pavement rehabilitation plans has been investigated using a simplified pavement management model. The increased road user costs include elevated vehicle operating costs (VOCs) due to work-zone lane closures and traveling on severely deteriorated pavements. A model is proposed for estimating the VOC for work-zone lane closures on two-lane rural highways, considering both stopping and idling costs. Another model for approximating the increased VOC associated with driving on poor/bad pavements is suggested as a function of the relevant VOC rate and a proportionality factor. Sample results are presented for a two-lane rural …

Toward A Private Law Of Intimates' Obligations, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Faculty Publications

When former cohabitants ask courts to distribute property at the end of a nonmarital relationship, they usually lose—even when the partners were as economically intertwined as spouses. Family law scholars have traditionally criticized these cases in terms of longstanding gendered ideas about family relationships. This Article proposes a complementary account at the intersection of feminist and private law theory: that the law of voluntary obligations is not adequately developed to protect intimates’ cooperation. Although marital status law aims to safeguard thick cooperation between spouses and contract law captures a range of more market-based cooperation, for historically contingent reasons, little doctrine …

Religious Bias In Llms Is Significantly Understudied, Sheryl Carty, Nancy Fulda, Walter Reade

Faculty Publications

In the earlier years of development of LLMs, it was relatively easy to prompt an LLM to respond with toxic or biased statements about religion. Subsequent improvements in frontier models addressed many of the issues of bias and toxicity in general, including against religion. At the same time, the adoption and usage of these models has grown exponentially. Small and implicit biases, therefore, have a magnified overall impact. In this paper, we (1) briefly review previous efforts to measure religious bias in LLMs, (2) show, by reviewing over 12,000 papers dealing with bias in LLMs, that religious bias has been …

Regulating Manipulative Design Is Not Preempted By Cda 230 Or The First Amendment, Brett Frischmann, Peter Ormerod

Faculty Publications

For over two decades, there has been a heated debate among legal scholars, activists, judges, and others about the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. A persistent theme in those debates has been hyperbolic claims about the necessity of immunity from state laws for digital tech platforms and fearmongering that anything less than maximum immunity will destroy the Internet.

This Article argues that states retain considerable discretion to regulate digital platforms’ design and engineering decisions. We argue that manipulation, engineered behavior, and even habituation and normalization of engineered behavior by digital platforms are content-agnostic harms attributable to …

Recommendations For Conducting Ethical Network Research, Francisca Ortiz Ruiz, Paola Tubaro, José Luis Molina, Jennifer Watling Neal, Raffaele Vacca, Jana Diesner, Jimi Adams, Michelle Birkett, Jenny Godley, Juniper Lovato, Michael Schönhuth, Laura Teves, Michael Zimmer

Faculty Publications

Ethical considerations in social network studies are grounded in the general principles of human subjects’ research, including avoidance of harm, promotion of justice, equitable distribution of burdens and benefits, respect for human dignity, and protection of confidentiality. To help navigate these challenges, this article presents recommendations for conducting ethical network research, developed by a multi-disciplinary and multi-national working group. The article is divided in three main sections where there are certain recommendations identified for each one of them: data collections, use, and availability. Discovering how others addressed and solved problems can be a way for all of us to improve …

An Abundant Lack Of Introspection, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

In this review Jonathan Adler critiques Abundance authors Klein and Thompson's analysis of how regulation is holding back progress in decarbonization, America's housing supply crisis, and innovation. While agreeing with the authors' assessment that regulation policy is hampering efforts in these areas, Adler objects to the book's proposals for improving regulatory bottlenecks, arguing the authors of Abundance refuse to acknowledge the role of market institutions in creating abundant supply or to admit the fault in their assumption that the failures of centralized government decision making can be repaired while maintaining centralized government decision making.

This abstract has been constructed from …

The Hope College Department Of Biology: The First 50+ Years, Christopher C. Barney

Faculty Publications

The Hope College Department of Biology was founded in 1899 with the appointment of the first Professor of Biology at Hope, Samuel Mast. During the first 50+ years of the Biology Department, there were eight total faculty members in the department, including Frances Koeman, the first female faculty member in the natural sciences. Four faculty members, Mast, Frank Patterson, Oscar Thompson, and Teunis Vergeer were primarily responsible for developing the department’s curriculum and programs, with Mast and Vergeer also carrying out published research. The department was housed primarily in Van Raalte Hall and the Science Building (now Lubbers Hall) for …

A Survey Of Open Educational Resources Appropriate For Constructing And Teaching An Upper-Level, Undergraduate Course In The History Of Music Prior To 1800 For Music Majors, Jamie Weaver

Faculty Publications

Many open education resources are available for the study of music history. Yet, the majority ofsources I discovered are intended for students who are not music majors or who are at thebeginning of their historical study. The purpose of my study of open educational resources is tolocate and evaluate resources that would facilitate the creation and instruction of the first-semester survey course of an undergraduate survey in music history for music majors, the focusof which is the study of music before 1800. What follows is a broad, preliminary survey ofsources that could be used, mixed, reworked, or adapted to fulfill …

Can The Epa Withdraw The Endangerment Finding?, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

The Trump administration has made repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases the centerpiece of its environmental deregulation agenda. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the US, and more,” proclaimed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin when announcing the agency’s plan to reconsider the finding in March 2025. Since then, the agency has followed through, pushing endangerment finding repeal ahead of other, more traditional, deregulatory efforts. While politically popular with parts of President …

Relationships Between Shared Group Properties: Theory, Measurement, Estimation, And Adjustment, Mark A. Maltarich, Paul D. Biese, Nichelle C. Carpenter

Faculty Publications

Teams researchers, meta-analysts, and others often study relationships between group-level constructs measured by aggregating individual-level variables, but it is well-known that group-mean correlations are influenced by individual-level relationships. We review multilevel issues and current practices in estimating and adjusting group-mean associations. We give special attention to comparisons across levels of analysis, and to adjustments for estimating population parameters. A Monte Carlo simulation study indicates that the two most commonly used adjustments in meta-analysis are ineffective in estimating population-based effect sizes. They frequently overestimate true relationships, sometimes severely. Indeed, simulations show that common adjustments move estimates away from population values in …

Upper Mora River Corridor Plan. Path To Social And Economic Recovery. A Working Paper, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

The Working Paper outlines a plan for the Upper Mora River Corridor as a path to the social and economic recovery of the watershed and its communities in the Mora Valley of New Mexico in the aftermath of the year 2022 wildfires. The first section of the plan includes an historical overview of the traditional gristmills of northern New Mexico and places where a few of them are preserved and still standing. The next section goes into detail as to the early commercial mills situated along the upper Mora River Corridor with a focus on the four remaining mills: the …

#Metoo Vs. Anti-Dei, Nicole Porter

Faculty Publications

Nine years ago, the entire country was talking about the #MeToo movement, which can be credited with the unseating of hundreds of powerful men and changing the way we talk about and address sexual harassment in the workplace. In 2026, continued progress of the #MeToo movement might be threatened by a new movement-the Trump Administration's attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. This article discusses the ways in which the #MeToo movement conflicts with the anti-DEI movement. Specifically, it addresses how employers will respond to pressure to dismantle DEI programs, offices, and training, and how those responses will affect …

Description Of Leptuca Capillosa Sp. Nov., A New Fiddler Crab Species (Crustacea, Decapoda, Ocypodidae) From The Continental Coast Of Ecuador, Carl Thurman, Mariana Capparelli

Faculty Publications

A new species of fiddler crab, Leptuca capillosa sp. nov., is described based on two preserved specimens from the U.S. National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian) as the holotype and paratype. In addition, specimens (N = 46) collected at eight locations along the Pacific cost of Ecuador were used for an anatomical description and a biometric study. Biometric relationships among major anatomical features are described by linear-regression algorithms with coefficients of correlation and determination. From a previously published DNA analysis of the new species, L. capillosa sp. nov. is related to other Leptuca species in the Gelasiminae subfamily of …

Vaccination For Patients With Immunosuppression And Altered Immunity: A Workgroup Report From The Aaaai Adverse Reactions To Drugs, Biologics, And Vaccines Committee And The Autoimmunity And Altered Immune Response Committee, Sam Pope Phd, Jd

Faculty Publications

Abstract

Vaccination, a fundamental strategy for infectious disease prevention, presents unique challenges in individuals with altered immunity. These populations include individuals with inborn errors of immunity, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, solid organ transplants, hematopoietic stem cell transplants, biologic and immunosuppressive therapies, and pregnancy. Despite concerns regarding variable vaccine responses, altered efficacy, and safety profiles, these groups remain under-represented in clinical trials. This review synthesizes current evidence on immunization outcomes in medically complex populations, highlighting strengths and limitations in existing research. We describe how altered immunity affects vaccine responses, summarize data on adverse reactions, and examine the influence of biologic therapies …

Comparative Analysis Of Task Scheduling In Multi-Tier Fog-Cloud Computing: From Classical Approaches To Greedy Multi-Objective Optimization, Zafril Rizal M. Azmi, Najmul Haque, Saydul Akbar Murad

Faculty Publications

Fog computing extends cloud services to the network edge, enabling low-latency processing for time-sensitive applications. However, scheduling complexity significantly increases due to heterogeneous resources, dynamic workloads, and strict Quality-of-Service (QoS) constraints. Although numerous scheduling techniques have been proposed, existing studies often assess only a narrow subset of algorithms or rely on offline metaheuristics unsuitable for real-time environments. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative evaluation of twelve scheduling algorithms, including five classical, one heuristic, and six metaheuristic-inspired approaches, within a realistic 20-node multi-tier fog-cloud topology. Across 1,365 experiments spanning seven utilization levels, we analyze each algorithm’s deadline adherence, load distribution, and …

Atomistic Simulations Of Crystallographic Anisotropy And Defects In Shock Loading, Benjamin P. Helman, Andre Archer, Logan Nagy, Samuel C. Wagers, Douglas E. Spearot, Adib J. Samin

Faculty Publications

The impact of crystallographic orientation, select grain boundaries, and vacancies on the shock response of aluminum was investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. Shock loading in the [001], [011], and [111] directions was explored, revealing anisotropic behavior in shock speed, generated dislocation density, and melting. The Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) in the [100], [110], and [111] directions were calculated as 18.7 GPa, 17.8 GPa, and 22.5 GPa, respectively. These results were found to be an order of magnitude larger than the uniaxial compressive yield strengths computed at high strain rate using an affine loading scheme. Metastable melting in the [011] and …

Navigating The Cocoon: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Mothers’ Experiences Of Seeking Diagnosis And Services For Children With Disabilities In Insular Rural American Samoa, Elizabeth Cutrer, Ocean K. Akau, Lorena Seu, Isabel Medina Hull, G. E. Kawika Allen, Ofa H. Kanuch, Cameron W. H. Hee, Melia Fonoimoana Garrett

Faculty Publications

This study examines how mothers raising children with disabilities in American Samoa experience the processes of seeking diagnosis, navigating special education, and advocating for services within an insular rural context. American Samoa, an unincorporated U.S. territory located 2600 miles from Hawaiʻi with a population under 50,000, represents a case of what we term insular rurality—a condition in which the structural disadvantages of rurality are intensified by oceanic isolation, territorial governance, and colonial history. Data were collected through three focus groups with fifteen mothers whose children hold a range of disability diagnoses, with a card sort activity at the outset of …

Generation Of Khz-Rate Complex-Structured Liquid Targets For Relativistic Laser–Plasma Interactions, Michael L. Dexter, Stephen J. Hageman, Gregory Ngirmang, Kyle D. Frische, Joseph Snyder, John T. Morrison, Enam A. Chowdury, Anil K. Patnaik

Faculty Publications

With the rise of high repetition rate ultra-intense laser systems, there is a need for solid density targets to study relativistic laser–plasma interactions that can operate at the same repetition rate. Flowing liquid targets are attractive because they are self-replenished, debris free, cost effective and easy to use. Liquid targets have been used for high-repetition rate (up to kHz rate) generation of electrons, protons, x rays, and neutrons by our group and elsewhere. In this Letter, we demonstrate a kHz-rate generation of a variety of dynamically shaped complex-structured targets from the interaction of a 10¹⁶ W/cm² focused laser …

Digitize And Discard: A Campaign For Sustainable Av Stewardship, Cory L. Nimer, Ben Harry, Abby Beazer, Miya Jensen, Michael F. Gates

Faculty Publications

Archives and libraries face growing preservation challenges from aging audiovisual collections due to carrier degradation and playback equipment obsolescence. As the media becomes more difficult to access, its archival value decreases, leading to questions about its ongoing storage. One proposed solution has been to digitize and discard the original media, preserving the recordings as digital masters with derivative files for public access. The suggestion to reformat audiovisual materials raises questions for cultural heritage professionals, and each stakeholder group may have its own concerns. Yet as media capture and digital preservation technology improve, to maintain our program’s sustainability, we have begun …

Institutional Influences And The Governance And Administration Of The Programa Produtor De Água Payment For Ecosystem Services Program In Brazil, Thomas G. Safford

Faculty Publications

Payment-for-Ecosystem-Services (PES) has been promoted as an innovative approach to environmental governance capable of simultaneously advancing conservation and sustainable development objectives. While studies commonly assess the ecological and economic performance of PES schemes, less attention has been given to their organizational and administrative effectiveness. This study examines these governance dimensions of one of Latin America’s most prominent PES initiatives—the Water Producer Program (WPP) in Brazil. Drawing on a meta-synthesis of 125 publications, the analysis investigates how regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutional forces shaped WPP implementation. Guided by neo-institutional theory and institutional bricolage, findings show that WPP governance operated through hybrid …

Analysis And Machine Learning Adaptation Of A Cognitive Model For Human Memory, Trevor Cross, Aihua W. Wood

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we use the Duolingo SLAM dataset to analyze several cognitive models of second language acquisition and develop new approaches for enhanced performance. In particular, we consider the Predictive Performance Equation and some of its underlying power laws. Leveraging insights from machine learning, we develop simple one-feature models as building blocks for combined models that match or in certain cases outperform the existing models at much reduced computational cost. In addition, a neural network with one fully connected hidden layer is constructed that outperforms all other models on sufficiently large datasets.

Boiling Flow Estimation For Aero-Optic Phase Screen Generation, Jeffrey W. Utley, Gregery T. Buzzard, Charles A. Bouman, Matthew R. Kemnetz

Faculty Publications

Aero-optic effects due to turbulence can reduce the effectiveness of transmitting light waves to a distant target. Methods to compensate for turbulence typically rely on realistic turbulence data, which can be generated by i) experiment, ii) high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD), iii) low-fidelity CFD, and iv) autoregressive methods. However, each of these methods has significant drawbacks, including monetary and/or computational expense, limited quantity, inaccurate statistics, and overall complexity. By contrast, the boiling flow algorithm is a simple, computationally efficient model that can generate atmospheric phase screen data with only a handful of parameters. However, boiling flow has not been widely …

Active Learning Of Constraint Boundaries Using Expected Magnitude Of Incorrectness And Neural Networks, Atticus Beachy, Ramana V. Grandhi

Faculty Publications

This research proposes an acquisition function for constraint boundary identification, with applications to hypersonic air vehicles. Hypersonic vehicles endure extreme thermal loads caused by aerodynamic heating, resulting in a strong coupling between structural performance and aerothermodynamics. However, modeling coupled system behaviors requires simultaneous consideration of both aerodynamic and structural design variables, increasing the dimensionality of the design trade space and the difficulty of accurately modeling the constraints. Several active learning schemes have been proposed to accelerate identification of the composite feasible region that satisfies all constraints. Some of these require integrating the surrogate model over the entire design space with …

Main-Chain Ion-Pair Polybenzimidazole Membranes Enabling Reduced-Temperature Ht-Pemfc Operation (Down To 120°C), Brian C. Benicewicz, Huina Lin

Faculty Publications

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are promising for clean and efficient energy conversion across diverse applications. High-temperature PEM fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs) using phosphoric acid (PA)-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) can operate up to 200°C, but at lower temperatures, water-induced PA loss often leads to performance degradation and reduced durability. In this work, we present a new class of main-chain ion-pair PBI membranes by integrating the imidazolium-biphosphate ion-pair units directly into the PBI backbone. This design results in membranes with high acid content, stronger acid-polymer interactions and stabilized acid retention. In single-cell tests, the Im+-PBI15-3 wt.% exhibits peak power densities of 0.79 …

From Centrality To Sustainability: How Connected Boards Shape Waste Management Outcomes, Irfan Haider Shakri, Anh Tuan Nguyen, Fnu Pratima

Faculty Publications

The escalating climate crisis has elevated waste management from an operational concern to a critical issue of corporate governance. However, the role of board connectedness in shaping firms' waste practices remains largely unexplored. Drawing on resource dependency and social capital theories, this study examines how board network centrality influences waste management practices. Employing pooled OLS on 4948 firm- year observations from US- listed firms during 2004–2023, we find that higher board connectedness leads to a significant reduction in waste generation. Economically, a one standard deviation increase in DEGREE centrality is associated with a 3.4% decrease in total waste generation. Our …

Assessing Planetiq Gnss-Ro Ionospheric Electron Density And Tecusing Ground-Based Ionosondes And Cosmic-2, Mohammed Alheyf, Mohamed S. Yamany, Ibrahim F. Ahmed

Faculty Publications

Radio occultation (RO) has become a key technique for monitoring the ionosphere by deriving electron density (Ne) profiles and total electron content (TEC) from GNSS signals. This study assesses the newly deployed PlanetiQ GNOMES constellation by validating its ionospheric Ne profiles and profile-based TEC against collocated measurements from ionosondes and the COSMIC-2 mission under both quiet and disturbed geomagnetic conditions. Data matching for the statistical validation uses conservative spatial thresholds of less than 1◦ in latitude and longitude and temporal limits of 30 min for ionosondes and 1 hfor COSMIC-2, supported by a dedicated sensitivity analysis, whereas storm-time case studies …

Don't Self-Opt Out Of Career Opportunities: Proceed With Confidence, Valerie Mendoza

Faculty Publications

While reflecting on your career in the past, have you ever stepped back from an opportunity that you wanted because you doubted yourself? In the workplace, confidence often gets mistaken for competence, and that means talented employees can be overlooked simply because they hesitate. The truth is that confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a skill you can build. This session will get you started on building that skill.

We’ll explore practical strategies to strengthen your confidence starting today. We’ll also break down the key differences between how confident individuals act compared to those who aren’t, so you can …

Using Ai To Add Tables Of Contents To Cataloging Records, Marissa Bischoff, Lance Hansen

Faculty Publications

A table of contents and summary are important metadata that improve the discoverability and description of our materials. They are optionally included in catalog records, though, because transcribing these by hand is time intensive.

We sought the most efficient way to scan and AI format the table of contents pages for inclusion in the 505 field of catalog records.  We explored different AI software, iterative prompting and the time-effectiveness of the process, in comparison to hand-typed metadata fields.

Dodosolsollalasol: Theme And Variations, Myrna J. Layton

Faculty Publications

The 2020 Korean Drama DoDoSolSolLaLaSol takes its name from, and makes substantial use of, the tune otherwise known as “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman,” the French Folk Song whose tune Mozart used in his twelve variations, and in English as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

The text of “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman,” focuses on the relationship between parent and child, which is one of the thematic applications of the music in the Korean drama. However, the French children’s song’s tune is taken from an earlier French song intended for adults, “La Confidence Naïve,” which is about a romantic relationship. This is another …

Matching Two Long Interferometric Pathlengths Using Low Temporal Coherence Light For Finding Hong–Ou–Mandel Dip, Keith A. Wyman, Noah S. Everett, Anil K. Patnaik

Faculty Publications

Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) dip from a biphoton source in a two-photon interferometer provides a myriad of quantum tools for quantum communication and sensing. But the stringent requirements for spatial coherence between the photon pair makes it prohibitively difficult to observe high-fidelity HOM dip in long-distance free-space implementations, e.g., for the photon pairs involved in quantum communication need to match the two path lengths within a few 10 s of micron because of the short coherence width of the two-photon wave-packet. While many techniques for the pathlength balancing of two interferometric arms have been studied and applied extensively, such balancing is further …