Digital Commons Network^™

Using Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks To Estimate Fleet-Wide Photovoltaic Performance Degradation Patterns, Yangxin Fan, Raymond Wieser, Xuanji Yu, Yinghui Wu, Laura S. Bruckman, Roger H. French

Faculty Scholarship

Accurate estimation of photovoltaic (PV) system performance is crucial for determining its feasibility as a power generation technology and financial asset. PV-based energy solutions offer a viable alternative to traditional energy resources due to their superior Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). A significant challenge in assessing the LCOE of PV systems lies in understanding the Performance Loss Rate (PLR) for large fleets of PV systems. Estimating the PLR of PV systems becomes increasingly important in the rapidly growing PV industry. Precise PLR estimation benefits PV users by providing real-time monitoring of PV module performance, while explainable PLR estimation assists PV …

Using Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks To Estimate Fleet-Wide Photovoltaic Performance Degradation Patterns, Yangxin Fan, Raymond Wieser, Xuanji Yu, Yinghui Wu, Laura S. Bruckman, Roger H. French

Faculty Scholarship

Accurate estimation of photovoltaic (PV) system performance is crucial for determining its feasibility as a power generation technology and financial asset. PV-based energy solutions offer a viable alternative to traditional energy resources due to their superior Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). A significant challenge in assessing the LCOE of PV systems lies in understanding the Performance Loss Rate (PLR) for large fleets of PV systems. Estimating the PLR of PV systems becomes increasingly important in the rapidly growing PV industry. Precise PLR estimation benefits PV users by providing real-time monitoring of PV module performance, while explainable PLR estimation assists PV …

Definitions Of Recovery And Reintegration Across The First Year: A Qualitative Study Of Perspectives Of Persons With Spinal Cord Injury And Caregivers, Kim D. Anderson, Anne M. Bryden, Brian Gran, Susan W. Hinze

Faculty Scholarship

Study Design: Longitudinal, qualitative cohort study. Objectives: To understand how people with newly acquired spinal cord injury (PWS) and their support person (SP) define recovery and successful community reintegration (CR) across the first 12 months post-injury (mpi) and their satisfaction with the rate of recovery and reintegration experienced. Setting: Academic and Veterans hospitals in Midwest USA. Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in two cohorts of PWS and SP during the initial inpatient rehabilitation stay, at 6 mpi, and at 12 mpi. Recordings were transcribed; four authors independently undertook line-by-line coding. The team discussed codes to reach consensus and synthesize …

Nurse Practitioners In Critical Care Transport, David M. Kaniecki, Robert L. Grabowski, David Holloway

Faculty Scholarship

The inclusion of nurse practitioners (NPs) in critical care transport teams has the potential to enhance patient care and improve team operations. NPs can manage complex clinical situations during transport and excel in various roles such as leadership, education, mentoring, research, quality improvement, and clinical expertise. As we navigate the evolving landscape of critical care transport, it is crucial to explore the potential benefits offered by NPs. Their distinct skills and experiences effectively position them to improve patient outcomes, enhance team performance, and contribute to health care's financial sustainability. This article discusses the role of NPs in critical care transport, …

Point-Of-Care Diagnostic Test For Beta-Thalassemia, Ran An, Umut A. Gurkan

Faculty Scholarship

Hemoglobin (Hb) disorders are among the most common monogenic diseases affecting nearly 7% of the world population. Among various Hb disorders, approximately 1.5% of the world population carries β-thalassemia (β-Thal), affecting 40,000 newborns every year. Early screening and a timely diagnosis are essential for β-thalassemia patients for the prevention and management of later clinical complications. However, in Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, where β-thalassemia is most prevalent, the diagnosis and screening for β-thalassemia are still challenging due to the cost and logistical burden of laboratory diagnostic tests. Here, we present Gazelle, which is a paper-based microchip …

Enhancing Workplace Neuro Health And Productivity: The Synergy Of Wearable Technology With Biophilic And Oxygenation Strategies, Piper Hutson, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

In the contemporary workplace, where a staggering 62% of employees reported experiencing burnout in 2023 according to a Medium article, the integration of wearable technology with biophilic and oxygenation strategies emerges as a vital Neurohemal initiative. This approach is particularly relevant for supporting neurodivergent individuals, as well as those recovering from stroke and long-COVID, in the context of return-to-office mandates. The article underscores the significance of research on increased hydrostatic pressure in circulation, particularly its impact on spinal and spinal cord blood flow during water immersion. This insight lays the groundwork for innovations like non-wet water massage devices, which could …

Automating Selective Area Electron Diffraction Phase Identification Using Machine Learning, Nathaniel Tomczak, Jennifer Carter

Faculty Scholarship

Selective area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns can provide valuable insight into the structure of a material. However, the manual identification of collected patterns can be a significant bottleneck in the overall phase classification workflow. In this work, we utilize the recent advances in computer vision and machine learning (ML) to automate the indexing of SAED patterns. The performance of six different ML algorithms is demonstrated using metallic plutonium-zirconium alloys. The most successful approach trained a neural network (NN) to make a classification of the phase and zone axis, and then utilized a second NN to synthesize multiple independent predictions of …

The Wages Of Crying Roe: Some Realism About Dobbs V. Jackson Women’S Health Organization, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Supreme Court’s reasoning in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationcannot be taken seriously. The Court’s stated rationale for rejecting continued protection of the abortion right—that abortion is not deeply rooted in nineteenth century history and tradition—applies with equal force to other substantive due process rights that the DobbsCourt repeatedly insisted were not under threat even without considering stare decisis, including contraception, sexual intimacy between consenting adults, and same-sex marriage. One should add inter-racial marriage and protection from involuntary sterilization to that list. Rather than applying its draconian version of the “history and tradition” test in a …

The Physical-Emotional Distinction In Tort, Philip Petrov

Faculty Scholarship

Several legal scholars have recently argued that U.S. tort law’s physical-emotional distinction commits tort to the objectionable position of mind-body dualism, but they have not considered the distinction’s role as an aid to judicial cognition and decision-making. Drawing primarily on the law of negligent infliction of emotional distress, this essay argues that tort’s physical-emotional distinction is not a relic of mind-body dualism but a heuristic that judges have used to structure and simplify the difficult but unavoidable task of drawing lines between legally cognizable and non-cognizable harm. The analysis has at least three normative implications: (1) users of tort’s physical-emotional …

Corpus Linguistics And The Original Public Meaning Of The Sixteenth Amendment, Thomas R. Lee, Lawrence B. Solum, James C. Phillips, Jesse A. Egbert

Faculty Scholarship

Moore v. United States raises the question whether unrealized gains, such as an increase in property value or a stock portfolio, constitute “incomes, from whatever source derived” under the original meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment. Moore is widely viewed as the most important tax case to reach the United States Supreme Court in decades. It is also an opportunity for the Court to refine its theory and method of finding original meaning.

We focus here on the original public meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment—the ordinary, common meaning attributed to its text by the general public in 1913. So far, the …

Fostering Empathetic Career Development Through Non-Violent Communication Principles, Aysegul Keskin Zeren

Faculty Scholarship

Career services professionals can embody compassion and essential dialogue skills by embracing Nonviolent Communication (NVC) principles. This framework can aid career services professionals in serving as powerful role models for students entering the job market. Students will feel empowered to navigate the professional world with increased emotional intelligence. Influential leaders like Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, recognized the significance of NVC. When he became the CEO of Microsoft in 2014, Nadella decided to use the NVC framework to change the company culture (Abadi, 2018).

Sports Participation By Athletes With Cardiovascular Disease, Matthew W. Martinez, Michael J. Ackerman, George J. Annas, Aaron L. Baggish, Sharlene M. Day, Kimberly G. Harmon, Jonathan H. Kim, Benjamin D. Levine, Margot Putukian, Rachel Lampert

Faculty Scholarship

Millions of young people participate in competitive sports, with well-documented physical and psychological benefits.1 Athletes may be diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD) during evaluation of symptoms, routine preparticipation screening, or clinically indicated family screening. When this occurs, decisions about return-to-play (RTP) are difficult, especially in circumstances when risk may exist or be unknown. Historically, expert consensus documents such as the Bethesda Conference Proceedings,2 provided a “yes/no” approach to RTP after a diagnosis of a CVD such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or long QT syndrome (LQTS). These recommendations were made with a paucity of data, and were predicated on a zero-risk …

The Case For Scientific Jury Experiments, Bernard Chao, Christopher Robertson, David Yokum

Faculty Scholarship

For decades, litigators have relied on focus groups. While this approach can help identify issues for further exploration, attorneys often use focus groups to shape trial strategy or even predict outcomes. But focus groups are ill-suited for these applications because they suffer from three basic weaknesses: 1) they cannot explore unconscious decision-making; 2) they use too few mock jurors to provide reliable answers, and 3) they can become echo chambers that only surface a subset of the issues that an actual jury will consider.

Fortunately, recent technical advances in crowdsourcing and insights into human decision-making have opened the door to …

Abortion Politics And The Rise Of Movement Jurists, Robert L. Tsai, Mary Ziegler

Faculty Scholarship

This Article employs the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and litigation in its wake as the jumping off point to reconsider the connections between judges, the Constitution, and social movements. That movements influence constitutional law, and that judicial pronouncements in turn are reshaped by politics, is well-established. But, while these accounts of legal change depend upon judges to embrace movement ideas, less has been written about the conditions under which judicial entrenchment can be expected to take place. There may, in fact, be different types of judicial dispositions towards external political phenomena.

In this Article, …

Major Questions About Presidentialism: Untangling The “Chain Of Dependence” Across Administrative Law, Jodi L. Short, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

A contradiction about the role of the president has emerged between the Roberts Court’s Article II jurisprudence and its Major Questions Doctrine jurisprudence. In its appointment and removal decisions, the Roberts Court claims that the president is the “most democratic and politically accountable official in Government” because the president is “directly accountable to the people through regular elections,” an audacious new interpretation of Article II; and it argues that tight presidential control of agency officials lends democratic legitimacy to the administrative state. We identify these twin arguments about the “directly accountable president” and the “chain of dependence” as the foundation …

A Conversation On The Carceral Home, Ngozi Okidegbe, Kate Weisburd, Emmett Sanders, James Kilgore

Faculty Scholarship

On February 8, 2024, scholars Ngozi Okidegbe, Kate Weisburd, Emmett Sanders, and James Kilgore met virtually at the Boston University School of Law to hold a conversation on Professor Weisburd’s article, The Carceral Home, 103 B.U. L. Rev. 1879 (2023).

Time To Blood Pressure Control And Predictors Among Patients Receiving Integrated Treatment For Hypertension And Hiv Based On An Adapted Who Hearts Implementation Strategy At A Large Urban Hiv Clinic In Uganda, Willington Amutuhaire, Lewis S. Musoke, George A. Yendewa, Lewis S. Musoke, George A. Yendewa

Faculty Scholarship

In this cohort study, we determined time to blood pressure (BP) control and its predictors among hypertensive PLHIV enrolled in integrated hypertension-HIV care based on the World Health Organization (WHO) HEARTS strategy at Mulago Immunosuppression Clinic in Uganda. From August 2019 to March 2020, we enrolled hypertensive PLHIV aged ≥18 years and initiated Amlodipine 5 mg mono-therapy for BP (140–159)/(90–99) mmHg or Amlodipine 5 mg/Valsartan 80 mg duo-therapy for BP ≥ 160/90 mmHg. Patients were followed with a treatment escalation plan until BP control, defined as BP < 140/90 mmHg. We used Cox proportional hazards models to identify predictors of time to BP control. Of 877 PLHIV enrolled (mean age 50.4 years, 62.1% female), 30% received mono-therapy and 70% received duo-therapy. In the monotherapy group, 66%, 88% and 96% attained BP control in the first, second and third months, respectively. For patients on duo-therapy, 56%, 83%, 88% and 90% achieved BP control in the first, second, third, and fourth months, respectively. In adjusted Cox proportional hazard analysis, higher systolic BP (aHR 0.995, 95% CI 0.989-0.999) and baseline ART tenofovir/lamivudine/efavirenz (aHR 0.764, 95% CI 0.637–0.917) were associated with longer time to BP control, while being on ART for >10 years was associated with a shorter time to BP control (aHR 1.456, …

The Administrative State, Financial Regulation, And The Case For Commissions, Kathryn Judge, Dan Awrey

Faculty Scholarship

Administrative law is under attack, with the Supreme Court reviving, expanding, and creating doctrines that limit the authority and autonomy wielded by regulatory agencies. This anti-administrative turn is particularly alarming for financial regulation, which already faces enormous challenges stemming from the dynamism of modern finance, its growing complexity, and fundamental contestability. Yet that does not mean that defending the current regime is the optimal response. The complexity and dynamism of modern finance also undercut the efficacy of established administrative procedures. And the panoply of financial regulators with unclear and overlapping jurisdictional bounds only adds to the challenge. Both these procedural …

Yes, Trump’S Pacs Really Can Pay His Legal Fees, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

Campaign finance data released at the end of January 2024 revealed that Save America, a political action committee founded and controlled by former President Donald Trump, spent more than US$50 million in 2023 on legal fees resulting from Trump’s multiple criminal and civil cases.

OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit tracking campaign funds, found that other Trump-aligned organizations also paid a combined $10 million in additional legal fees for Trump in 2023.

Though I have spent much of my career as a scholar of campaign finance law, I’m not certain whether that use of campaign donations is legal under federal election law. …

Applicable Law And The Civil And Common Law Divide, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

In examining the relevance of civil law and common law synergies in international arbitration, we often dwell on aspects of arbitral practice and procedure. This should occasion no surprise. Our attention turns to arbitral practice and procedure, for that is what we do, as arbitrator and counsel, and on a daily basis. Leaving aside investor-State arbitration, in which substantive public international law looms large, international arbitration is very much a procedural endeavor.

But it should not be forgotten that the differences between the civil law and the common law manifest themselves not only, and not even primarily, in practice and …

The Crusade For The Holy Grail Of Competitive Balance, Mislav Mataija, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

The specificity of sport is a concept acknowledged on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US it is linked to a (limited) exception from antitrust laws. In Europe, the application of the rules on free movement of persons, services, and workers, as well as antitrust, has left some room for it. But whereas the US has gone full steam ahead to regulate competitive balance, Europe has not. In this contribution, inspired by the work of Steve Weatherill and others, we ask the question whether the observed differentiated approach is justified because of the nature of competition on the two …

Selective Neural Inhibition Via Photobiomodulation Alleviates Behavioral Hypersensitivity Associated With Small Sensory Fiber Activation, Andrew Buzza, Kalista Tapas, Junqi Zhuo, Stephen J. Lewis, Michael W. Jenkins, Michael Moffitt

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: Photobiomodulation at higher irradiances has great potential as a pain-alleviating method that selectively inhibits small diameter nerve fibers and corresponding sensory experiences, such as nociception and heat sensation. The longevity and magnitude of these effects as a function of laser irradiation parameters at the nerve was explored. Methods: In a rodent chronic pain model (spared nerve injury—SNI), light was applied directly at the sural nerve with four delivery schemes: two irradiance levels (7.64 and 2.55 W/cm2) for two durations each, corresponding to either 4.8 or 14.4 J total energy, and the effect on sensory hypersensitivities was evaluated. Results: At …

Bacterial Contamination Of Platelet Products, Michael R. Jacobs `, Bowen Zhou, Robert W. Maitta

Faculty Scholarship

Transfusion of bacterially contaminated platelets, although rare, is still a major cause of mortality and morbidity despite the introduction of many methods to limit this over the past 20 years. The methods used include improved donor skin disinfection, diversion of the first part of donations, use of apheresis platelet units rather than whole-blood derived pools, primary and secondary testing by culture or rapid test, and use of pathogen reduction. Primary culture has been in use the US since 2004, using culture 24 h after collection of volumes of 4–8 mL from apheresis collections and whole-blood derived pools inoculated into aerobic …

Discord In Concordance Cosmology And Anomalously Massive Early Galaxies, Stacy S. Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Cosmological parameters are constrained by a wide variety of observations. We examine the concordance diagram for modern measurements of the Hubble constant, the shape parameter from the large-scale structure, the cluster baryon fraction, and the age of the universe, all from non-CMB data. There is good agreement for (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.). This concordance value is indistinguishable from the WMAP3 cosmology but is not consistent with that of Planck: there is a tension in (Formula presented.) as well as (Formula presented.). These tensions have emerged as progressively higher multipoles have been incorporated into CMB fits. This temporal evolution is …

“So, Do Not Fear”: Religion And The Prevalence, Persistence, And Severity Of Anxiety Disorders Among Black Americans, Ann W. Nguyen, Nichole Cobb, Kedong Ding

Faculty Scholarship

Background: There is a dearth of scholarship that explicates the effects of religious participation on anxiety disorders among Black Americans. A better understanding of the links between religious participation, a coping resource, and anxiety disorders among Black Americans remains essential, given Black Americans are less likely than their white counterparts to seek professional treatment for mental health problems, leading to greater unmet mental health needs. The aim of this study was to investigate whether religious participation is associated with the prevalence, persistence, and severity of anxiety disorders among Black adults. Methods: We used a national sample of Black adults (N …

Risk For Diagnosis Or Treatment Of Mood Or Anxiety Disorders In Adults After Sars-Cov-2 Infection, 2020–2022, Christina X. Wang, Rhea Kohli, Veronica R. Olaker, Pauline Terebuh, Rong Xu, David C. Kaelber, Pamela B. Davis

Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 is associated with increased risks for mood or anxiety disorders, but it remains uncertain how the association evolves over time or which patient groups are most affected. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a nationwide database of electronic health records to determine the risk of depressive or anxiety disorder diagnoses after SARS-CoV-2 infection by 3-month blocks from January 2020 to April 2022. The study population comprised 822,756 patients (51.8% female; mean age 42.8 years) with COVID-19 and 2,034,353 patients with other respiratory tract infections (RTIs) (53.5% female, mean age 30.6 years). First time diagnoses of depressive or anxiety …

Life In A Fishbowl: Space And Environmental Enrichment Affect Behaviour Of Betta Splendens, Ronald G. Oldfield, Emily K. Murphy

Faculty Scholarship

The public has expressed growing concern for the well-being of fishes, including popular pet species such as the Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens). In captivity, male Bettas behave aggressively, often causing injuries and death if housed together. As a result, they are typically isolated in small fishbowls, which has been widely criticised as cruel. To investigate the impact of keeping Bettas in these conditions, we recorded the behaviour of individual males in containers of different sizes that were either bare or enriched with gravel, large rocks, and live plants. When male Bettas were housed individually in small bowls (0.5 L) …

Beyond Collaborative Learning: A Comparison Of Small Groups In Face-To-Face And Online Settings, Xiaomei Song

Faculty Scholarship

Small group-based instructional approaches such as case-based learning (CBL) and team-based learning (TBL) are widely used in medical education to promote collaboration and team learning. During the pandemic, many medical schools shifted from face-to-face instruction to online settings. While CBL/TBL are intended to foster collaborative skills, it is unclear how its use evolves in an online setting and whether the online setting impacts students’ perceptions and behaviors in collaboration. This study examined how the change from in-person to online CBL/TBL impacted students’ collaboration. We used a mixed-methods sequential design, first collecting and analyzing retrospective cohort quantitative data with the Class …

Meaningful Research In A Non-Thesis Master's Program: Description Of Nutritionday In A Combined Ms/Di Program, Rosa K. Hand

Faculty Scholarship

The nutritionDay research initiative, sponsored by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) since 2006, is a global effort to describe nutrition risk and nutrition interventions in hospitals and nursing homes, with the goal that increased awareness of malnutrition will lead to improved patient care.1,2 The nutritionDay coordinating center provides standardized forms that investigators at participating hospitals use to collect data from both the health record and directly from the patient.1 NutritionDay has been a successful initiative, collecting and pooling data from almost 300,000 patients across 72 countries and leading to at least 40 publications.2,3 Participation in nutritionDay …

Nonlinear Ferroelectric Characteristics Of Barium Titanate Nanocrystals Determined Via A Polymer Nanocomposite Approach, Qiong Li, Elshad Allahyarov, Tianxiong Ju, Lei Zhu

Faculty Scholarship

The growing demand for high energy storage materials has garnered substantial attention towards lead-free ferroelectric nanocrystals (NCs), such as BaTiO3 (BTO), for next-generation multilayer ceramic capacitors. Notably, it remains challenging to accurately measure the dielectric constant and polarization-electric field (P-E) hysteresis loop for BTO NCs. Herein, we report on nonlinear ferroelectric characteristics of BTO NCs via a polymer nanocomposite approach. Specifically, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)/BTO nanocomposite films of 3-10 μm thickness, containing 380 nm tetragonal-phased and 60 nm cubic-phased BTO NCs with uniform particle dispersion, were prepared. Theoretical deconvolution of the broad experimental P-E loops of the PVP/BTO NC composite films …