Digital Commons Network^™

The Paradoxes Of Mental Health Disclosure In The Workplace: What Employee Voices Reveal About Courage And Organizational Culture, Steve G. Winkel D.B.A.

Annual DBA Scholars Conference

The lived experience of mental health disclosure is deeply paradoxical. Drawing on thematic analysis of qualitative data from 572 U.S. employees with diagnosed mental health conditions — 282 of whom disclosed to a manager or HR professional — this paper presents three central paradoxes: (1) disclosure normalizes experience but does not neutralize vulnerability; (2) the same conversation produces both safety and stigma; and (3) disclosure requires courage, revealing the inadequacy of existing organizational norms. A constructivist grounded theory approach guided the inquiry. Theoretical implications for stigma management theory (Goffman, 1963) and psychological safety research (Edmondson, 1999) and practical implications for …

Ai Across The Curriculum: Early Insights From Unr Students And Faculty, Elisabeth Linn, Elena S. Azadbakht, Rosalind Bucy

AI in the Classroom: A Virtual Summit

In July 2025, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) joined librarians, educators, and administrators across 15-20 institutions to participate in an Ithaka S+R AI cohort. Ithaka S+R has worked with academic libraries, teaching and learning centers, and college administrators across more than 60 institutions, leading cohorts focused on teaching and learning with AI, integrating AI literacy into the curriculum, and more. This third cohort focused on defining, implementing, and scaling AI literacy initiatives across higher education. Through interviews with faculty and students, cohorts investigate needs surrounding AI literacy specific to their campus. This presentation will describe the preliminary results of …

Attention-Enhanced Multimodal Fusion Of Elevation And Aerial Imagery For Sinkhole Segmentation, Junfeng Zhu, Desireé Cunningham, Nathan Jacobs

Sinkhole Conference 2026

Image segmentation, the task of assigning a class label to each pixel in an image, has been widely applied in remote sensing to identify surficial geological and hydrological features from data sources such as multispectral satellite imagery, aerial photography, and digital elevation models. UNet is among the most widely adopted convolutional neural network architectures for segmentation, owing to its encoder–decoder structure and skip connections that enable precise spatial localization. UNet has been applied to detect sinkholes using lidar-derived high-resolution digital elevation data; however, existing models still fall short of the accuracy of manual sinkhole mapping. In this study, we aim …

Statewide Sinkhole Susceptibility Mapping In Florida Using Explainable Geoai, Osama M. Altarawneh, Weiwei Zhan, Clint Kromhout

Sinkhole Conference 2026

Sinkholes cause persistent damage to infrastructure, property, and groundwater resources across Florida. Statewide sinkhole hazard mitigation has been constrained by incomplete inventories and the absence of a high-resolution susceptibility map. This study presents a statewide sinkhole susceptibility assessment using an explainable GeoAI framework that integrates the citizen-reported Subsidence Incident Reports (SIR) database and a geologist-confirmed collapse-type sinkhole inventory from the Florida Geological Survey (FGS). Random Forest (RF) is used as the primary learner with ten geologic, hydrologic, topographic, and anthropogenic predictors. The influence of negative-sample buffer geometry on model behavior is evaluated across five annular buffer conditions (100-1000 m through …

Mapping Sinkholes And Closed Depressions In The Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone: Comparison Of Lidar-Based Semi-Automated Detection Methods And Field Validation, Enzo Franceschi Genesi, Horia G. Olariu, Bradford Wilcox

Sinkhole Conference 2026

Sinkholes and closed depressions play a critical role in karst hydrology by facilitating rapid recharge to aquifer systems (Ford & Williams, 2007; White, 1988), yet their spatial distribution is often poorly quantified in large recharge zones, and the automated methods used to detect them vary widely in approach and reliability. This study compares three LiDAR-based automated detection methods to determine their relative performance for mapping sinkholes and closed depressions within the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, using a 0.5-meter resolution bare-earth Digital Elevation Model derived from high-density airborne LiDAR point cloud data (12.66 points/m²) obtained from OpenTopography. The three methods evaluated …

Karst At A Potential Construction Site Adjacent To The Delaware River Near The Glacial Terminus, New Jersey, Usa, Ira D. Sasowsky

Sinkhole Conference 2026

The state of New Jersey is not known for extensive karst landscapes, but there are over 100 caves listed in a survey of those features. Numerous sinkholes have also been identified, though no comprehensive database yet exists. Occasional news stories have reported damaging collapses, many of which seem infrastructure related, in several counties. This paper reports on the conditions at a proposed major construction site in a glaciated limestone terrane, Warren County. The area is underlain by the Allentown Dolomite and the Beekmantown Group carbonates (Cambrian/Ordovician age), and covered with a variable layer of glaciofluvial sediments. The area is of …

Production Variability In The Edwards Aquifer, South-Central Texas, Usa, Jennifer Raye (Adkins) Schudrowitz, Linda K. Bevis

Sinkhole Conference 2026

The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) serves more than two million people and is among the largest water utilities in the United States. Much of SAWS’s supply is sourced from the Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone) Aquifer (Edwards BFZA), a major sole‑source karst aquifer in south‑central Texas. The aquifer exhibits pronounced spatial heterogeneity in well performance due to its karstic nature, structurally complex setting, and variable depositional facies. Recent severe drought and pumping restrictions have emphasized the need to understand where within the aquifer to drill and how inter‑station performance differs under stress. This study evaluates production variability across SAWS pump‑station …

A Field-Inspired Investigation Of Conduit Network Impacts On Spring Flow In Karst Aquifers, Jennifer Huang, Jannes Kordilla, Marco Dentz, John Barry, Christian Langevin, Peter Kang

Sinkhole Conference 2026

Effective management of karst aquifers necessitates accurate characterization of flow and transport. However, modeling these highly heterogeneous systems is challenging due to the complex partitioning of recharge between bedrock and the embedded conduit network. The properties of conduit networks impact flow and transport, but there has not been a systematic, quantitative study of how conduit network structure and geometry impact spring hydrographs in naturalistic field conditions. In this field-inspired modeling study, we attempt to identify key geometric and structural properties of conduit networks that control flow in karst aquifers and use these insights to constrain our understanding of a nitrate …

Social Determinants Of Health: Beliefs About Healthcare As A Right Or A Privilege, Dianne Mcadams-Jones

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Nursing education nationwide has integrated Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) into curricula to prepare future healthcare providers to address inequities and improve outcomes. While understanding SDoH is essential for equitable care, nurses’ own beliefs—shaped by personal experiences and environments—can influence practice behaviors and perpetuate disparities (Egede, Walker & Williams, 2024). This qualitative descriptive pilot study explored perceptions of healthcare as a right or privilege, examining how personal beliefs intersect with SDoH and bad science which ultimately impact healthcare outcomes (Bandura, 1971). Using an unstructured survey distributed via email, 110 responses were received, with 64 healthcare professionals and first responders included …

Older Population-Based Resilience: An Evolutionary Analysis Via Complex Adaptive Systems, Po-Chung Feng

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Purpose: To clarify the concept of older population-base resilience to support nursing research, public health planning, and healthy aging strategies.

Background: Older population-based resilience is an important concept for facilitating the adaptation of aging populations to multifaceted adversity networks. While extensive studies has examined resilience among older adults across diverse systems, hierarchical levels, and dimensional perspectives, the conceptual discourse has focused mainly on the individual level. A comprehensive articulation of population-level resilience attributes has been notably absent from the literature. Consequently, establishing a precise conceptualization of Older Population-Based Resilience constitutes an imperative scholarly endeavor.

Methods: A systematic literature search was …

2026 18th Annual Student Center For Science Engagement Research Symposium, Student Center For Science Engagement

Student Center for Science Engagement Research Symposium

Student presentations in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, & Psychology

Explore It - A Speculative Approach Investigating The Material Intelligence Of Casein For Future Textile Materials, Malene Pilgaard Harsaae, Ronni Anthony Johannesen, Anne Louise Bang, Tine Hort, Hanne Thaarup Mølbak, Katrin Meinert Maagaard

Textile Intersections Conference Series

In the fashion and textile industries, materials are a prerequisite for the making of products. Extraction and processing of these materials have a huge negative impact on the environment and in addition they spark ethical and social considerations. This paper presents a project where cultural heritage and material knowledge is employed to explore if history and tradition can contribute to intelligently develop novel and flexible casein materials for the future with less damaging impact on the environment. Constituted by speculative design and a material-first perspective, the paper introduces a case of material exploration with casein, which is a milk protein. …

Textile As Ecological Index: Casting Domestic Food Waste Into Wearable Biomaterial Media Through A Domestic Biodesign Framework, Valerie Chua

Textile Intersections Conference Series

This paper introduces a domestic biodesign framework for transforming household food waste into wearable biomaterial textiles that function as ecological communication media. Through a practice-based case study, the MILES apron, it demonstrates how dehydrated kitchen residues embedded in an agar-based composite textile can materialise dietary and ecological patterns through sensory properties such as texture, colour variation, and material stratification. The paper contributes three advances. First, it proposes a six-stage design scaffold for domestic-scale biomaterial fabrication that integrates communicative intent, waste-stream analysis, material testing, and biosafety into a replicable process. Second, it develops the concept of biological constitution as a design …

Designing With Evolutive Colors: A Proof Of Concept For Bio-Based Dye Integration In Textile Design Digital Workflow, Clarisse Barbot, Camille Fuzier, Bertrand Loïc, De Visscher Emile, Panayotis Mavros

Textile Intersections Conference Series

Current industrial textile production relies on petrochemical dyes. This dependence has led to growing interest in bio-based alternatives, although their adoption remains constrained by technical and cultural factors. In particular, bio-based dyes do not meet typical industrial standards for stability, diversity of colour choices, and reproducibility. Textiles dyed with bio-based colourants tend to exhibit colour changes under light exposure. Current design software systems were built with the conventional expectation of stability of petrochemical dyes in mind, making them ill-adapted to bio-based dye behaviour and thus hampering their industrial adoption. To address this gap, we propose the prototype of a novel …

Warpform: An Accessible Loom Add-On For Weaving Non-Rectangular Textile-Forms, Savanne Klop, Manuel Carazo, Milou Voorwinden, Holly Mcquillan

Textile Intersections Conference Series

Textile-form Weaving, in which the fabric and form are created simultaneously on the loom, can support zero-waste, on-demand production of textile-based products. However, textile researchers and designers are limited in their ability to explore the full potential of Textile-form Weaving because most looms do not allow for all variables to be manipulated. In this paper, we present WarpForm, an accessible add-on for a standard hand-operated loom that opens up new possibilities for weavers. Specifically, through enabling the variable consumption of individual warp threads, WarpForm allows weavers to create 3D and non-rectangular forms directly on the loom. Through a description of …

Material Impasse: Decentering Intentionality Through Uncertainty In Textile Craft, Ruxandra Lupu

Textile Intersections Conference Series

Recent developments in textiles — including hybrid practices and new material innovations — point to the emergence of new ways of doing, sensing and reflecting through textiles. However, the tools used to investigate these remain anchored in conventions, failing to align with new ways of working reflected by theoretical movements like new materialism. This paper challenges existing methodologies for investigating textile making through the concept of uncertainty. It asks how we can engage more deeply with textiles beyond pre-established frameworks by pushing the affordances of methodological thinking. Drawing on a two-day ethnographic study with textile designer Melissanthi Spei, the paper …

Towards Textile Templating In Mycofabrication: Knitted Structures As Substrate And Scaffold, Romy Kaiser, Elise Elsacker, Martyn Robertson, Ben Bridgens, Jane Scott

Textile Intersections Conference Series

This study investigates the potential of knitted textiles as both substrate and three-dimensional scaffold for mycofabrication, contributing to the development of textile templating approaches in biofabrication. While textiles are commonly used as reinforcement in mycelium-based composites, their role as active, designable interfaces for growth remains underexplored. Two experimental approaches using Ganoderma lucidum were conducted: seeding-based inoculation and liquid-state fermentation. The first evaluated fibre substrates (namely acrylic, wool, cotton, and linen) on mycelial colonisation. Cellulosic fibres, particularly cotton and linen, supported more integrated and extensive growth, while wool enabled limited surface expansion and acrylic showed minimal colonisation. Overall, low biomass shows …

Colour Without Extraction: Towards Ethical Pigments, Tonya Meyrick, Jacinta Kay

Textile Intersections Conference Series

This paper investigates how recycled textile waste, reconstituted as particulate pigment, reshapes understandings of material intelligence in textile design, proposing a specifically chromatic account. Through iterative dyeing trials on cellulose substrates conducted within the Perpetual Pigments research initiative, the study examines what occurs when colour is treated as an active participant rather than a controllable output. Drawing on new materialist theory and circular economy frameworks, the paper argues that waste-derived pigments introduce relational dynamics that challenge industrial assumptions of chromatic stability and control. Despite growing interest in bio-colour, recycled pigment systems remain underexamined within design research. This paper responds to …

Beyond Softness: Examining How Vocabulary Marginalises The Material Narrative Of Native British Wool, Zoë Fletcher, Nicci James

Textile Intersections Conference Series

Softness has become the dominant metric through which wool is evaluated in knitwear design. This paper argues that such language privileges fibres associated with Merino and marginalises native British and regional wools with distinct breed-specific qualities. Drawing on practice-based research, material experiments with native British wool yarns, and literature on wool fibre and supply chains, we examine how existing terminology fails to support design engagement with these materials. In response, we propose a five-part framework, Place, People, Process, Properties and Practice, to support a more nuanced wool literacy. Developing richer vocabulary for native British wool is not simply a matter …

Developing An Industrial Microbial Colour System Through Textile Printing, Ruth Lloyd, Alice Taylor, James Ajioka, Carole Collet

Textile Intersections Conference Series

Emerging microbial colourants offer potential for more sustainable textile coloration, yet their integration into design and industrial production remains limited by the absence of systems that support their use. While existing biotechnology research has focused on colourant production and environmental performance, less attention has been given to how these materials can be applied within textile workflows. This paper demonstrates how microbial colour can be integrated into textile design through the development of reproducible protocols and a structured colour system. Drawing on practice-led doctoral research conducted in collaboration with the biotechnology company Colorifix, textile printing is used as a method to …

Evolutive Textiles Design With The Variability Of Natural Dyes: A Color-Driven Approach Of Textile Design, Lou Ramage, Camille Fuzier

Textile Intersections Conference Series

In a context of over-standardized color production and stability-based evaluations of dyes, this article proposes a way to embrace and implement natural dyes’ temporal variabilities in evolutive textiles design and discusses how taking these into account modifies textile design practices. As a designer and a material scientist working with a dyer craftswoman, we present an adaptation of color characterisation methods and a chromo-chronological database, and how these tools result in a proof of concept of a tufted piece with pattern apparition, paving the way for a color-driven textile design.

Textile Commons Of Care: Intergenerational Mending And Temporalities, Sam Bennett, Gabriele Ferri

Textile Intersections Conference Series

Visible mending is increasingly recognized as both a functional and creative craft practice and a form of material intelligence, where knowledge emerges through tactile engagement. This paper adds an additional layer that visible mending in community, where the act of mending is also visible, functions as a materially grounded practice of ongoing care through which knowledge and learning are distributed across people, textiles, and time. Drawing on a multi‑sited qualitative study, including a nine‑month global mending cohort, a visible mending workshop, and interviews with experienced menders, the paper examines how care aesthetics helps clarify the social and epistemic dimensions of …

Threading The Line: Switchboard Labor, Bodily Knowledge, And The Textile Traditions Of Telephone Operating, Yuhanxiao Ma

Textile Intersections Conference Series

This paper positions telephone switchboard operating as a textile tradition in the full disciplinary sense: a practice organized around embodied skill, the transmission of bodily knowledge through community, and the production of relational connection as material output. Drawing on feminist labor history, textile theory, and Daniela Rosner’s framework of critical fabulation, it argues that the systematic erasure of switchboard labor by electromechanical automation constitutes a form of textile loss: one structurally identical to the suppression of feminized craft work in computing history. The paper then presents the design logic of This Is Vera, Hold Please, a performance installation in development …

The Picaso Trial: Studying Aya Chronic Illness Self-Management Using A Noncategorical Approach, Sharron L. Docherty, Gary Maslow, Mclean Pollock, Susan Silva, Erin Denio, Lakaya Craig, Remi Misiewicz

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with childhood-onset chronic conditions often struggle during the transition from pediatric to adult healthcare and from being a child living with a chronic condition to an adult who effectively manages their chronic condition. Despite shared developmental, psychosocial, and healthcare transition challenges, most research is condition-specific, limiting generalizability and overlooking shared self-management needs (1-3). The PiCASO study evaluated a peer coaching intervention to improve self-management and patient activation among AYA during this critical transition and demonstrated the feasibility and impact of a noncategorical approach.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in which 222 AYA …

High Data Rate Scalable N X 100g Transceiver For Cube/Small Sats For Cis-Lunar, Geo, And Data Center Applications, Christopher Krush, Alexandra Castle-Jones, Victoria Kennedy, Keith G. Petrillo, Mark Storm

Small Satellite Conference

Optical data transport in the cis-lunar regime is an enabling capability for sustained lunar exploration, space-based astronomy, and distributed sensing architectures. This paper presents the design, analysis, and experimental validation of a 100 Gb/s-class coherent optical communication transceiver that extends beyond LEO to GEO and cis-lunar applications. Target missions include lunar constellations, relays at Earth–Moon L1, and direct-to-Earth links, with relevance to NASA Artemis campaigns, enabling a future lunar infrastructure, and high-throughput science missions. This technology also supports future space data centers with the potential for Terabit optical links using WDM.

System-level performance requirements are derived from a parametric link …

Layer 3 Switching, Todd R. Zatorski

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

Design, Qualification, And Implementation Of Modular Spacecraft Radio Testing Enclosures For Small Satellite Missions, Dexter Stewart

Small Satellite Conference

As small satellite missions evolve, spacecraft platforms increasingly integrate radio-frequency (RF) antennas to support telemetry, command, and inter-satellite communication links that must be verified following full system integration. Recent changes in launch site safety policy, most notably SpaceX’s ban on over-the-air (OTA) testing, have created a critical gap in the ability to qualify spacecraft communication systems during testing at the launch site. This paper presents the design, qualification, and implementation of modular RF containment enclosures, known as ’antenna hats’, developed to enable safe, non-OTA testing of fully integrated small satellites. The antenna hats are self-contained enclosures that interface directly with …

Zerodur®: Comprehensive Data Enables The Reliability Of Evidence-Based Design, Dustin Ruth, Florian Gollier, Jesse Bonfeld, Dustin Ruth, Janina Krieg, Thomas Westerhoff, Tony Hull, Jacqueline Caraballo

Small Satellite Conference

ZERODUR® is a glass-ceramic formulated for high-performance optics under imperfect temperature control. Crystallites in a glass matrix balance expansion: crystals shrink while residual glass expands, preserving geometry at fine scale.

This yields the lowest passive thermal response of any optical material-enabling high-contrast, high-resolution, low-scatter imaging and minimal transmission leakage for SmallSat telescopes.

Semi-Autonomous Reconnaissance Satellite: A Laboratory Demonstration Of End-To-End On-Board Mission Autonomy, Eran Shtoyerman, Raphael Cohen, Rafi Cohen, Oshri Fatkiev, Guy Zaidman, Gal Pinchas, Doron Shterman

Small Satellite Conference

Real-time satellite responsiveness to user requests from the field remains largely unavailable in current space systems. Such capabilities are typically restricted to low-altitude airborne platforms, primarily due to limited satellite communication bandwidth, intermittent ground contact, and the reliance on ground-based mission planning. Enabling true responsiveness requires a paradigm shift toward highly autonomous satellites, in which target selection, task execution, and mission planning are performed on board.

For example, a user may request a satellite to perform the following task in real-time: detect a ceiling tanker ship in a specified area, estimate its velocity from video data, and autonomously track the …

Uncertainty Quantification And Platform Scattering For The Cimr Reflector Antenna, Tonny Rubaek, Pasquale Giuseppe Nicolaci, Cecilia Cappellin

Small Satellite Conference

The Copernicus Microwave Imaging Radiometer (CIMR) employs a 7.1 m conical scanning mesh reflector antenna rotating at 7.8 rpm that operates from L to Ka band. Demanding radiometric accuracies and sensitivities at few tenths of a Kelvin at high spatial resolution are targeted for the instrument. These require a high accuracy in the characterization and modelling of the antenna pattern over 4π, considering any nearby scattering structure, and/or any potential multipath due to the antenna installation on the S/C, as well as the quantification of the uncertainty on the beam efficiency (BE) arising (from possible in-orbit random variations in the …