Digital Commons Network^™

Who Owns The Heat? Property Rights In Geothermal Energy, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

Landowners can have ownership claims to oil, gas, water, and other tangible natural resources located in their subsoil. But can they also claim rights to the thermal energy found below their land? With 50,000 times more heat energy within the top 10,000 meters (around 33,000 feet) of the Earth’s surface than contained in all of the world’s oil and natural gas resources combined, geothermal energy is a tremendously promising, clean, and renewable energy resource. Yet, ambiguities in property rights related to the development and ownership of geothermal energy resources raise questions about who is entitled to benefit from that potential. …

Managing The Cost Of Services For People With Disabilities: International Approach. Part Ii: Ohio, United States, Dana Pugh, Jaroslaw Richard Romaniuk

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction: Four years of managing a housing network for people with disabilities prompted a rethinking of the financial management of the services offered. Clients with different needs require diverse professional staff for their home care. Emergency situations require that professionals offering assistance maintain the highest level of education possible. Financial resources often limit the quality of care for people with disabilities. Method: This paper is based on a literature search and on professional experience (Dana Pugh) in the management of a housing program for people with disabilities in Cleveland, Ohio (USA). Findings: In Poland, people with disabilities usually live with …

Soft Robotic Brittle Star Shows The Influence Of Mass Distribution On Underwater Walking, Zach J. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

Most walking organisms tend to have relatively light limbs and heavy bodies in order to facilitate rapid limb motion. However, the limbs of brittle stars (Class Ophiuroidea) are primarily comprised of dense skeletal elements, with potentially much higher mass and density compared to the body disk. To date, little is understood about how the relatively unique distribution of mass in these animals influences their locomotion. In this work, we use a brittle star inspired soft robot and computational modeling to examine how the distribution of mass and density in brittle stars affects their movement. The soft robot is fully untethered, …

Thermodynamic Water Activity Explains The Unusual Electrochemical Stability Of Aqueous Deep Eutectic Solvents, Desiree Mae Prado, Aaron Niño Gonzaga, Clemens Burda

Faculty Scholarship

The presence of water in nonaqueous deep eutectic solvent (DES) electrolytes has been debated in recent years, with efforts ranging from its complete removal to willful addition. It was shown that controlled amounts of water can be beneficial, as it not only enhances the physicochemical properties of these electrolytes but also has no significant detrimental effects on their electrochemical stability. Despite these advantages, there is still limited understanding of how water interacts with DES systems at the molecular level. This study examines the water activity in ethylene glycol and glycerol, as well as their binary mixtures with choline chloride to …

How Engineering Students Learn And Are Impacted By Empathy Training: A Multi-Year Study Of An Empathy Program Focused On Disability And Technology, Eric Schearer

Faculty Scholarship

Measurable results of efforts to teach empathy to engineering students are sparse and somewhat mixed. This study’s objectives are (O1) to understand how empathy training affects students’ professional development relative to other educational experiences, (O2) to track empathy changes due to training over multiple years, and (O3) to understand how and what students learn in empathy training environments.

Behavior Of Rio Sao Francisco Piranhas In Response To Changes In Space And Density, Ronald G. Oldfield, Josie E. Thal, Kristen E. Lukas

Faculty Scholarship

Previous observations of Rio Sao Francisco piranhas (Pygocentrus piraya) at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo revealed frequent aggressive interactions, which were associated with the injury and death of some individuals. Fishes are known to increase aggressive behavior when available space is limited. We compared the behavior of the piranhas longitudinally across three different space/density conditions: (1) in a group held in a small aquarium before the death of one individual, (2) in the same group after the death of one individual, (3) and in one individual of the group after it was later moved into a larger, multispecies aquarium. In the smaller …

Distributed Tikhonov Regularization For Ill-Posed Inverse Problems From A Bayesian Perspective, D. Calvetti, E. Somersalo

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, we exploit the similarities between Tikhonov regularization and Bayesian hierarchical models to propose a regularization scheme that acts like a distributed Tikhonov regularization where the amount of regularization varies from component to component, and a computationally efficient numerical scheme that is suitable for large-scale problems. In the standard formulation, Tikhonov regularization compensates for the inherent ill-conditioning of linear inverse problems by augmenting the data fidelity term measuring the mismatch between the data and the model output with a scaled penalty functional. The selection of the scaling of the penalty functional is the core problem in Tikhonov regularization. …

Neuropeptide-Dependent Spike Time Precision And Plasticity In Circadian Output Neurons, Bryan Chong, Vipin Kumar, Dieu Linh Nguyen, Makenzie A. Hopkins, Faith S. Ferry, Lucia K. Spera, Elizabeth M. Paul, Anelise N. Hutson, Masashi Tabuchi

Faculty Scholarship

Circadian rhythms influence various physiological and behavioral processes such as sleep–wake cycles, hormone secretion, and metabolism. In Drosophila, an important set of circadian output neurons is called pars intercerebralis (PI) neurons, which receive input from specific clock neurons called DN1. These DN1 neurons can further be subdivided into functionally and anatomically distinctive anterior (DN1a) and posterior (DN1p) clusters. The neuropeptide diuretic hormones 31 (Dh31) and 44 (Dh44) are the insect neuropeptides known to activate PI neurons to control activity rhythms. However, the neurophysiological basis of how Dh31 and Dh44 affect circadian clock neural coding mechanisms underlying sleep in Drosophila is …

Flapping Dynamics And Wing Flexibility Enhance Odor Detection In Blue Bottle Flies, Naeem Haider, Zhipeng Lou, Chengyu Li

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most ancient and evolutionarily conserved behaviors in the animal kingdom involves utilizing wind-borne odor plumes to track essential elements such as food, mates, and predators. Insects, particularly flies, demonstrate a remarkable proficiency in this behavior, efficiently processing complex odor information encompassing concentrations, direction, and speed through their olfactory system, thereby facilitating effective odor-guided navigation. Recent years have witnessed substantial research explaining the impact of wing flexibility and kinematics on the aerodynamics and flow field physics governing the flight of insects. However, the relationship between the flow field and olfactory functions remains largely unexplored, presenting an attractive frontier …

Global Aging & Geriatric Experiments In Bipolar Disorder (Gage-Bd): Building A Global Consortium Benefiting People With Bipolar Disorder In Later Life, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose of Review: Findings from the Global Aging & Geriatric Experiments in Bipolar Disorder (GAGE-BD) project, including sociodemographic and clinical information from older age bipolar disorder (OABD) and healthy participants around the globe (approximately N = 5000) were reviewed. Data was collected in multiple waves to create a large integrated dataset. Recent Findings: BD does not seem to fade with age. BD subtype and early/late onset did not show significant differences in daily functioning. Physical comorbidities were more frequent in OABD compared with controls. Women with OABD had an earlier age at onset and more psychiatric hospitalizations. Summary: GAGE-BD is …

Petition For Initial Hearing En Banc, United States V. Michael Norwood, Becca Steinberg, Brian Wolfman, Regina Wong, Madeline H. Meth, Sara Brizio, Elizabeth Brownstein, Shreya Sarin

Faculty Scholarship

This appeal involves a question of exceptional importance because it implicates binding circuit precedent that directly conflicts with the United States Sentencing Commission’s exercise of statutorily delegated authority. Congress expressly charged the Commission with promulgating policy statements and guidelines establishing, among other things, a framework governing compassionate release of federal prisoners. 28 U.S.C. § 994(a), (t). So, when Congress provided that district courts could consider a sentence reduction if warranted by “extraordinary and compelling reasons,” 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A), Congress did not define that phrase. Instead, it directed the Commission to do so. 28 U.S.C. § 994(t).

The Commission did …

Reclaiming Abortion As A Moral—And Religious—Decision, Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

Elizabeth Sepper, Free Exercise of Abortion, 49 BYU L. Rev. 177 (2023).

In 1973, before the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, two members of a group of clergy committed to helping women receive abortion care stated: “every woman must possess the freedom, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, to follow her religious conscience in the determination of whether she will or will not bear a child.”1 Religious supporters of abortion access also cited the Establishment Clause: states were adopting, in a religiously diverse nation, a religious view about when life begins and how to value fetal and maternal life. …

Error-Based Dynamic Velocity Range Of Piv Processing Algorithms, Gauresh Raj Jassal, Bryan E. Schmidt

Faculty Scholarship

The ability of PIV processing algorithms to accurately determine velocity vectors across the range of motion present in PIV images is characterized by the algorithm’s dynamic velocity range (DVR). Conventionally, the DVR of PIV is defined using the ratio between the maximum and minimum resolvable particle displacements, with the minimum based on the uncertainty in the location of a single particle in the optical system. In this work, it is demonstrated that this definition is inadequate in practice, as it ignores many factors which affect the accuracy of an algorithm when determining small displacements, and the error in vectors with …

Plasmonic Enhancement Of Photothermal Conversion Efficiency In Gold-Nanoparticle Hydrogels, Mai S. Rashwan, Abed M. Al-Sheikh, Harihara Baskaran, Clemens Burda

Faculty Scholarship

This study investigates the photothermal properties of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) dispersed in agarose gel, examining various sizes and concentrations, particularly within a low-concentration range (0.2–2.5 nM). Heat transfer measurements are conducted on Au NP hydrogels using laser-light induced heating, revealing a size- and concentration-dependent temperature increase compared to the plain agarose gel matrix. Experimental data, combined with finite-element analysis, demonstrate that photothermal energy conversion efficiencies are dependent on NP size and concentration, while the thermal conductivity (TC) of all Au NP hydrogels remains constant and independent of these parameters within the tested concentration range. UV-visible spectroscopy indicates that …

The Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation. Ii. Stellar Mass Models, Francis Duey, Stacy Mcgaugh

Faculty Scholarship

We present new color-ϒ* (mass-to-light ratio) models to convert Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer W1 fluxes into stellar masses. We outline a range of possible star formation histories and chemical evolution scenarios to explore the confidence limits of stellar population models on the value of ϒ*. We conclude that the greatest uncertainties (around 0.1 dex in ϒ*) occur for the bluest galaxies with the strongest variation in recent star formation. For high-mass galaxies, the greatest uncertainty arises from the proper treatment of bulge-disk separation in which to apply different ϒ* relations appropriate for those differing underlying stellar populations. We compare our …

The Virtual Wunderkammer: Integrating Neuroinclusive Design And Ai-Augmented Technologies For Immersive Museum Experiences, Piper Hutson, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The Virtual Wunderkammer represents an innovative paradigm in museum exhibition design, integrating neuroinclusive principles with artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented technologies to foster immersive and cognitively accessible visitor experiences. Historically, the Wunderkammer, or "cabinet of curiosities," served as a precursor to modern museums, offering eclectic collections that stimulated intellectual curiosity and sensory engagement. The contemporary reimagining of this concept utilizes emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), haptic feedback, and olfactory-enhanced digital environments to create personalized, adaptive museum experiences. This study explores the critical intersection of neuroaesthetics, cognitive science, and AI-driven interactivity in digital exhibitions, emphasizing their potential to …

Climate Change Litigation In New York, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Numerous lawsuits have been brought in the federal and state courts in New York concerning climate change. Some were under two important state statutes on the subject – the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 (CLCPA)and New York Climate Superfund Act of 2024. Others are brought under various common law, consumer protection, securities, and other theories. This column describes the most important of these cases.

Legislating For The Future, Jonathan S. Gould, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

Public policy must address threats that will manifest in the future. Legislation enacted today affects the severity of tomorrow’s harms arising from biotechnology, climate change, and artificial intelligence. This Essay focuses on Congress’s capacity to confront future threats. It uses a detailed case study of financial crises to show the limits and possibilities of legislation to prevent future catastrophes. By paying insufficient attention to Congress, the existing literature does not recognize the full nature and extent of the institutional challenges in regulating systemic risk. Fully recognizing those challenges reveals important design insights for future-risk legislation.

We first examine Congress as …

Public Funds, Public Functions, Private Actors: The Cognitive Dissonance Of Us Health Law, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter begins with the evolution of American medicine from a “sovereign” self-regulating profession focused on direct patient service to a large industry that serves the social sector but that, because of its professional heritage, receives extensive public subsidies without equivalent public accountability. Next, the chapter identifies regulatory dynamics in American health care governance that structurally discourage movement from the prevailing, if dissonant, private law framework to one explicitly grounded in public law. The chapter concludes by highlighting the challenges and opportunities inherent in a private law approach to what is intuitively a public law domain.

Optimal Real-Time Review Standards: Implications For Law Enforcement And Competitive Games, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

Real-time review systems are frequently used in various sports to monitor the decisions of referees and correct their mistakes. Interventions through these systems cause delays in games, which are perceived as being costly. This makes it optimal for these review systems to interfere with the decisions of the referee less frequently than would minimize the costs of decision errors, which I formalize through an analysis of the VAR system in football. This analysis also reveals that optimal review standards ought to be laxer when an important event (e.g., a goal) occurs between the position in which the potential error took …

Examination Of Protective Factors That Promote Prosocial Skill Development Among Children Exposed To Intimate Partner Violence, Megan R. Holmes, Anna E. Bender, Kristen A. Berg, Kylie E. Evans, Amy Korsch-Williams, Adam T. Perzynski

Faculty Scholarship

This retrospective cohort study examined prosocial skills development in child welfare-involved children, how intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure explained heterogeneity in children's trajectories of prosocial skill development, and the degree to which protective factors across children's ecologies promoted prosocial skill development. Data were from 1,678 children from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being I, collected between 1999 and 2007. Cohort-sequential growth mixture models were estimated to identify patterns of prosocial skill development between the ages of 3 to 10 years. Four diverse pathways were identified, including two groups that started high (high subtle-decreasing; high decreasing-to-increasing) and two groups …

Development Of A Self-Management Tool For Individuals With Seizure Clusters: Trial Design And Methodological Report, Molly Mcvoy, Eytan Hirsch, Luisa Londono, Kari Colón-Zimmermann, Jin Seok Cho, Evelyn K. Shih, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Despite advances in anti-seizure medications (ASMs) for people with epilepsy (PWE), adverse outcomes, negative health events (NHEs), and breakthrough seizures remain common. Rescue medication (RM) can better manage repetitive seizures, but barriers to RM use persist. Self-management for PWE and a history of NHEs (SMART) is an evidence-based epilepsy self-management program aimed at reducing barriers and maximizing facilitators to self-care in high-risk PWE. Methods: This 2-phase, ongoing clinical trial adapts SMART to integrate RM support for PWE with repetitive seizures. Phase 1, now completed, used input from an advisory board (AB) of PWE, caregivers, and clinicians to adapt the …

Human-Ai Collaboration In Writing: A Multidimensional Framework For Creative And Intellectual Authorship, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

The integration of AI technologies into the writing process has significantly altered traditional notions of authorship, creativity, and intellectual labor. Historically, writing was seen as a human-driven cognitive and creative exercise, but with the rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, the line between human and AI contributions has become increasingly ambiguous. This paper addresses the limitations of the current sliding scale model, which views AI involvement as ranging from “none” to “complete”. In its place, we propose a new multidimensional framework that more accurately reflects the complexity of human-AI collaboration in writing. The model includes axes …

Postnatal Progressive Craniosynostosis: An Unusual Case Presentation Leading To Cascade Diagnosis For Multiple Generations, Jessica T. Ogawa, Maura Guyler, Krystal L. Tomei, Howard D. Wang

Faculty Scholarship

NM_000141.5: FGFR2 c.1032G>A is a pathogenic variant that causes Crouzon syndrome through activation of a new donor splice site. This clinical report highlights the intrafamilial variability that can exist with this specific variant. The proband is a 4-year-old boy who initially presented with concern for seizures. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed pancraniosynostosis and Chiari 1 malformation. Papilledema on fundoscopic exam and copper beaten appearance of the skull on imaging both suggested the presence of elevated intracranial pressure. Genetic testing identified c.1032G>A (p.Ala344=) in FGFR2. Familial testing and genetic evaluation confirmed the same pathogenic variant in the …

Prevalence Of Social Determinants Of Health Risk Factors Among And Their Impact On Viral Suppression, Consistent Visits, And No-Show Rates Among Persons With Hiv Who Identify As Hispanic, Mary Cowden, Ana Clavijo, Pragnya Iyengar, Ann Avery

Faculty Scholarship

The current study examines the association between language preference, social determinants of health (SDOH) risk factors, viral load, and HIV care outcomes among individuals of Hispanic ethnicity in the United States. More than half (54%) of all participants reported having two or more unmet needs. Hispanic individuals were more likely to be at risk in 2 or more domains than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Food insecurity was the most common risk factor reported and when present, 51% of patients also reported financial resource strain. Surprisingly, when language preference was analyzed, English-preferring Hispanic patients were at higher risk of financial resource strain, …

Scalability Of A Graph Neural Network In Accurate Prediction Of Frictional Contact Networks In Suspensions, Armin Aminimajd, Joao Maia, Abhinendra Singh

Faculty Scholarship

Dense suspensions often exhibit shear thickening, characterized by a dramatic increase in viscosity under large external forcing. This behavior has recently been linked to the formation of a system-spanning frictional contact network (FCN), which contributes to increased resistance during deformation. However, identifying these frictional contacts poses experimental challenges and is computationally expensive. This study introduces a graph neural network (GNN) model designed to accurately predict FCNs by two dimensional simulations of dense shear thickening suspensions. The results demonstrate the robustness and scalability of the GNN model across various stress levels (s), packing fractions (f), system sizes, particle size ratios (D), …

Super-Resolution Imaging Reveals Resistance To Mass Transfer In Functionalized Stationary Phases, Ricardo Monge Neria, Muhammad Zeeshan, Aman Kapoor, Tae Kyong John Kim, Nichole Hoven, Jeffrey Pigott, Burcu Gurkan, Christine Duval, Lydia Kisley

Faculty Scholarship

Chemical separations are costly in terms of energy, time, and money. Separation methods are optimized with inefficient trial-and-error approaches that lack insight into the molecular dynamics that lead to the success or failure of a separation and, hence, ways to improve the process. We perform super-resolution imaging of fluorescent analytes in five different commercial liquid chromatography materials. Unexpectedly, we observe that chemical functionalization can block more than 50% of the material’s porous interior, rendering it inaccessible to small-molecule analytes. Only in situ imaging unveils the inaccessibility when compared to the industry-accepted ex situ characterization methods. Selectively removing some of the …

Super-Resolution Imaging Reveals Resistance To Mass Transfer In Functionalized Stationary Phases, Ricardo Monge Neria, Muhammad Zeeshan, Aman Kapoor, Tae Kyong John Kim, Nichole Hoven, Jeffrey S. Pigott, Burcu Gurkan, Christine E. Duval, Lydia Kisley

Faculty Scholarship

Chemical separations are costly in terms of energy, time, and money. Separation methods are optimized with inefficient trial-and-error approaches that lack insight into the molecular dynamics that lead to the success or failure of a separation and, hence, ways to improve the process. We perform super-resolution imaging of fluorescent analytes in five different commercial liquid chromatography materials. Unexpectedly, we observe that chemical functionalization can block more than 50% of the material’s porous interior, rendering it inaccessible to small-molecule analytes. Only in situ imaging unveils the inaccessibility when compared to the industry-accepted ex situ characterization methods. Selectively removing some of the …

Towards More Sustainable Oceans: A Review Of The Pressing Challenges Posed By Marine Plastic Litter, Peter Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Marine littering is a global challenge and a significant threat to a sustainable planet, requiring comprehensive and effective mechanisms to address it in a comprehensive manner. This study reports on a bibliometric analysis that has identified the extent to which the topic has been explored in the international literature, by focusing on geographical scope, the emphasis on (micro)plastic litter and on policy measures. Additionally, as a complement to the assessment of the recent literature on marine plastic litter, this study reviews some case studies, identifying some trends on how to cope with this problem. The findings underscore the imperative for …

Novel Biomarkers Of Fetal And Neonatal Environmental Exposure, Effect And Susceptibility, Cynthia F. Bearer

Faculty Scholarship

Abstract: Rapid advancements in science and technology have allowed medical providers to treat wider ranges of diseases with safer and more effective therapies than ever before. One of the areas of health that has been consistently understudied, however, is one that affects us all: environmental health or the effects that the chemicals we are exposed to every day have on our acute and chronic health. This effect can be exacerbated during and shortly after pregnancy, as an individual exposure is often shared by both the mother and the fetus/neonate. The diagnosis and monitoring of chemical exposure can be quite challenging, …