Technological Advancements Of Hybrid Rocket Engines For Sustainable And Competitive In-Space Propulsion Applications, Ryan J. Thibaudeau, Stephen A. Whitmore, Jared Coen, Joshua Sorenson, Logan Mecham, Ava Wilkey

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Student Publications and Presentations

Hybrid rocket engines (HREs), which pair a fluid oxidizer with a solid fuel, offer safety and handling advantages, can reduce environmental impact relative to selected legacy systems, and are capable of deep throttling and restart, making them strong candidates for “green” in-space propulsion applications. However, until very recently, there has not been any flight heritage of an HRE used in a spaceflight mission. Over the past decade, the Propulsion Research Laboratory at Utah State University (PRL-USU) has matured a portfolio of HRE technologies—low-energy arc ignition, digital throttling, additively manufactured sustainable fuels, the Nytrox green oxidizer, and electroplated thruster assemblies—that together …

Stephen Brown V. Delaware County Sheriffs Department

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

George Arsenis V. Blue Foundry Bancorp

2026 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

2026 July 16 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

Delivering Participatory Food Systems Research In Our Own Communities: Reflections About Co-Production By Community Food Researchers And Community Partners, Bramble H. Gardiner, Maria Roughton, Lisa Howard, Louise Hunt, Unis Nisa, Clare Pettinger

School of Health Professions

This article offers insights into delivering co-production in community settings, from the perspectives of engaged citizens and community partners. It adds to scholarship addressing epistemic justice issues that the experiences of engaged citizens are rarely explored. The engaged citizens are community collaborators in FoodSEqual (a UKRI-funded transdisciplinary project aiming to co-produce solutions to food system inequality in four UK locations). During FoodSEqual’s delivery, it became clear contextual factors and practical delivery varied. To support shared learning, an in-person reflective session was held using the ‘open space method’ (Involve, n.d.) (participants: Community Food Researchers (CFRs) (n = 14), community coordinators (n …

Generative Ai In The Online Classroom: Lessons From A Plant Physiology Course, Dan Ye, Svoboda V. Pennisi, David Jespersen, Christy Rich

Michigan Tech Publications

Although the adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in higher education is a reality, we are still in the early days of understanding how it can be used and applied in educational contexts. A significant gap remains in understanding its impacts within plant sciences, and in horticulture in particular. More research is needed to understand the overall impact of artificial intelligence on learning and teaching from educational perspectives, and to investigate how to integrate GenAI tools in education to ensure technology affects teaching and learning in a meaningful way on a broader scale. We investigated university students’ perceptions and uses …

Portrait: A Calibrated Patient ‘Passport’ With Built-In Refusal - Describing Individuals Against A Reference Population, Daniela Oehring

School of Health Professions

Background Average-based summaries serve individual patients poorly. PORTRAIT is a calibrated, abstention-aware tool that describes where one patient sits relative to a reference population across 12 cardiometabolic markers, how confident that placement is, and which features drive it. PORTRAIT describes; it does not diagnose or predict. Abstention is a designed feature given the known limits of conditional coverage.Methods Conformal calibration was combined with distribution-free coverage bounds, quantile-regression coordinates, and copula-based joint structure. A frozen reference cohort (n=9421) supplied fixed calibration; a held-out cohort (n=2247) tested transportability across six strata. A release gate required the minimum per-slice coverage to hold across …

Early Changes In Soil Organic Carbon Following Ecological Restoration In Mangroves Invaded By Acrostichum Aureum, Julio C. Chávez Barrera, Juan Fernando Gallardo Lancho, Carlos Amado Chan-Keb, Margarita Elizabeth Gallegos Martínez, Ana Carolina Ruiz-Fernández, Robert Puschendorf, Claudia Maricusa Agraz Hernández

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Mangrove ecosystems store large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, degradation processes associated with invasive species can alter vegetation structure, hydrological conditions, and carbon cycling, with uncertain consequences for SOC storage and greenhouse gas emissions. This study evaluated changes in SOC stocks to 0–50 cm depth, soil CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes, and early restoration responses four years after ecological restoration in the Térraba–Sierpe National Wetland, Costa Rica. Comparisons were conducted among a conserved mangrove, a degraded mangrove dominated by Acrostichum aureum, and three restored sites subjected to hydrological rehabilitation with contrasting reforestation intensities. The degraded site showed significantly …

Gilberto Guerra, A Scholar Beyond His Years, July 16, 2026, Tisa Mason Ed.D.

Heart of a Tiger Columns

No abstract provided.

Midweek Memo, Georgia Southern University

Midweek Memo

• Applaud 
• Remember 
• Share 
• Experience 
• Around the Nest

Observations On Recurrent Loss In The Neural Network Model Of A Partial Differential Equation: The Advection–Diffusion Equation, Jonah A. Reeger

Faculty Publications

A growing body of literature has been leveraging techniques of machine learning (ML) to build novel approaches to approximating the solutions to partial differential equations. Noticeably absent from the literature is a systematic exploration of the stability of the solutions generated by these ML approaches. Here, a recurrent network is introduced that matches precisely the evaluation of a multi-step method paired with a collocation method for approximating spatial derivatives in the advection–diffusion equation. This allows for two things: (1) the use of traditional tools for analyzing the stability of a numerical method for solving PDEs and (2) bringing to bear …

Harmful Algal Blooms: Risks For Food In Utah, Jose Brandao, Sarah Erwin, Stephanie Vaughn, Clare Entwistle

All Current Publications

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a problem because they can produce toxins that make water unsafe for people, animals, and the environment. In recent years, HABs have emerged as a growing concern in freshwater systems throughout Utah, including irrigation canals, reservoirs, and livestock ponds. HABs in freshwater are caused by cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae. These microorganisms can release dangerous toxins that can harm swimmers, pets, and the food supply. Unlike foodborne pathogens, these toxins cannot be removed by boiling, cooking, or washing the food. Therefore, regular monitoring is essential to detect HABs early and reduce exposure risks. This fact …

Property Tables For Thermally Perfect Gases At Low Pressure, Travis J. Moore, Matthew R. Jones

Faculty Publications

Tables giving gas properties at low pressure enable the efficient analysis of processes in which the gas is approximated as thermally perfect but not calorically perfect. In addition to specific enthalpy and specific internal energy, thermally perfect gas tables include special functions that depend only on temperature—relative pressure and relative specific volume. These functions may be used to determine pressure, volume, and temperature of thermally perfect gases undergoing hypothetical isentropic processes. However, the definitions of these functions included in widely used thermodynamics textbooks are vague, inconsistent, or incorrect. The intent of this work is to discuss common inaccuracies in the …

"Todo: Fix The Mess Gemini Created": Towards Understanding Genai-Induced Self-Admitted Technical Debt, Abdullah Al Mujahid, Mia Mohammad Imran

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

As large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and Gemini become integrated into software development workflows, developers increasingly leave traces of AI involvement in their code comments. Among these, some comments explicitly acknowledge both the use of generative AI and the presence of technical shortcomings. Analyzing 6,540 LLM-referencing code comments from public Python and JavaScript-based GitHub repositories (November 2022-July 2025), we identified 81 that also self-admit technical debt (SATD). Developers most often describe postponed testing, incomplete adaptation, and limited understanding of AI-generated code, suggesting that AI assistance affects both when and why technical debt emerges. We term GenAI-Induced …

From Insight To Impact: Segmenting Consumers By Their Regenerative Agriculture Priorities, Lourival Carmo Monaco Neto, Gustavo Stevanin De Souza, Owen Jerome Zakrzewski, Allan Wayne Gray

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

Regenerative agriculture is gaining traction in agrifood value chains, yet its definitional ambiguity and the heterogeneity of consumer priorities create strategic challenges for commercialization. Firms commonly assume a homogeneous ‘sustainable consumer’ motivated by environmental outcomes, but research on consumer food values suggests that economic attributes often outweigh environmental concerns when trade-offs are required. This study segments U.S. consumers based on how they prioritize seven core attributes of regenerative agriculture: soil health, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, food prices, crop yield, and farmer profitability. Using forced-ranking data from 1231 nationally representative U.S. consumers surveyed in August 2024, we apply a …

Edible Insect Allergens: An Emerging Food Safety Challenge, Changqi Liu, Cassandra Maya, John J. Love, Huilian Che, Ke Chen, Jing Zhao

Food Science Faculty Articles and Research

Edible insects are increasingly promoted as sustainable protein sources; however, their allergenic potential remains a significant food safety concern. This review synthesizes current knowledge on insect allergens, with a focus on IgE-mediated mechanisms, identified allergenic proteins, and patterns of cross-reactivity. Key pan-allergens, including tropomyosin and arginine kinase, are widely conserved across insect species and are strongly implicated in cross-reactivity with crustaceans and house dust mites. In addition, other insect allergens (e.g., larval cuticle proteins) contribute to primary sensitization. Evidence from proteomic and immunological studies highlights substantial variability in allergen profiles across species and experimental approaches. The impact of food processing …

Epilepsy-Associated Digenic Variants Affecting An Actin-Mitochondria-Glutamate Pathway Promote Seizure Susceptibility, Shenzhao Lu, Mengqi Ma, Shabab B Hannan, Mingxi Deng, Hu Chen, Zhijian Yu, Lindsey D Goodman, Haein Kim, Yun Zhao, Sandeep Kumar Dubey, Wen-Wen Lin, Xueyang Pan, Debdeep Dutta, Vishnu Anand Cuddapah, Jill A Rosenfeld, Xi Luo, Zhandong Liu, Joshua M Shulman, Hugo J Bellen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people worldwide, yet more than half of individuals with a presumed genetic cause still lack a molecular diagnosis despite the identification of over 1,000 monogenic epilepsy genes. This diagnostic gap is unlikely to be resolved by improved variant detection alone, suggesting that variants affecting the same biological pathway may combine to cause disease. By studying epilepsy-associated actin regulatory genes, we identified a conserved "actin-mitochondria-glutamate (AMG) pathway". We demonstrate that reduced actin polymerization promotes DRP1-mediated mitochondrial fission, increases reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and enhances glutamatergic transmission, leading to seizures. The glial innate immune pathway, a …

Sober Curiosity Among Lgbtq+ Women And Non-Binary People In Aotearoa New Zealand, Tonda L. Hughes, Jillian R. Scheer, Lauren Bochicchio, Laurie A. Drabble, Carol Emslie, David Whiteley, Belinda Lunnay, Paul R. Ward, Antonia C. Lyons

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Although global drinking rates are declining, this trend is less evident among women, with LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people at elevated risk for hazardous drinking. In addition to minority stress (e.g., stigma, discrimination), drinking culture and social norms likely shape alcohol use within these groups, yet remain underexplored as potential intervention points. Objective: This study was part of a larger multi-country project on alcohol use among LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary individuals. Because online resources have been found to appeal to stigmatized groups, we aimed to examine LGBTQ+ women’s and nonbinary people’s experiences with alcohol use in Aotearoa New Zealand, …

The Pen Tool That Will Utilize Fingers-Based Occlusion Of The Real-World View To Activate The Pen Tool Activation State Where The Fingers-Based Occlusion Effect Will Be Observed And Detected From Within The Inside Of The Pen Tool Holding Structure., Punarjeewa Abeysekera

Defensive Publications Series

This paper describes a pen tool that will utilize fingers-based occlusion of the real-world view to activate the pen tool activation state where the fingers-based occlusion effect will be observed and detected from within the inside of the pen tool holding structure. The pen tool methodology will incorporate a pen tool, tracking markers and a built-in camera configuration. The pen tool methodology will be required to utilize a power source that will be required to power the pen tool and its entities. And the pen tool methodology will be required to utilize virtual technologies such as augmented reality and virtual …

Technical Disclosure Specification: An Asymmetric Fluidic Propulsion Cavity For Transverse Kinetic Energy Harvesting And Res-Phase Confinement, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure defines the mechanical, hardware, and operational specifications for a standalone laboratory apparatus engineered to accumulate, confine, and direct high-density vibrational wave energy within a closed boundary system. The system relies entirely on repeatable, book-level principles of non-linear fluid dynamics, high-frequency acoustic streaming, and radiative pressure fields, operating independently of any non-standard cosmological assumptions.

By utilizing a high-symmetry geometric grid of twenty independent Gallium Nitride (GaN) driven concentric transducer nodes, high-amplitude harmonic oscillations are focused directly into a specialized viscoelastic fluid medium trapped inside a rigid, highly reflective spherical envelope. At perfect phase alignment, the system drives the internal …

Unified Edge-To-Orbital Termination Architecture For Decentralized Data, Logical Substrates, And Power Grids, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure specifies the client-side terminal layers, non-linear routing structures, and physical infrastructure stabilization topologies required to achieve system closure for the ground-to-orbital networks defined in TDC# 12300 (Non-Linear Substrate Relay Matrices) and TDC# 12299 (Cross-Layer Token-Variance Telemetry). This architecture introduces three core subsystems: a client-side Substrate Pushback Data Engine (Vector 6) running a hard-coded deterministic compactness filter to optimize low-Earth orbit satellite uplink; a Decoupled Spatial-Temporal Graph Database Mesh (Vector 4) executing clock-free decentralized node routing via Chronological Latency; and a Macro-Scale Cymatic Joule Dilution Grid (Vector 5) scaling Topologically Protected Cymatic Electrolyte Matrix mechanics to prevent regional distribution …

Technical Disclosure: Non-Linear Substrate Relay Matrices For Decentralized Ephemeris Syncing And Orbital Phase Alignment, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This technical disclosure formalizes a low-power, cost-effective framework for autonomous satellite tracking, ephemeris state synchronization, and clock alignment across distributed ground node networks. Mainstream orbital communications rely implicitly on centralized atomic time standards and proprietary military GPS tracking networks. This absolute architectural dependency creates single points of systemic failure, leaving ground infrastructure vulnerable to central node shutdowns, intentional signal masking, or orbital coordinate gating.

By applying the principles of the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Projection (DEHP) model and the Oscillator Alignment Protocol (OAP), this framework introduces a decentralized ground-space tracking protocol. By establishing a peer-to-peer Substrate Relay Matrix across localized consumer …

Technical Disclosure: Cross-Layer Token-Variance Telemetry And Non-Linear Tensor Distance Protocols For Distributed Routing Topologies, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This technical disclosure formalizes an axiomatic mathematical framework for real-time telemetry, automated state balancing, and distributed node verification within multi-dimensional graph topologies. Modern high-density information systems encounter systemic failures when localized processing constraints induce uncoordinated data routing, runaway optimization loops, or asymmetric node curation.

By applying the principles of the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Projection (DEHP) model and the Oscillator Alignment Protocol (OAP), this framework establishes a self-policing network substrate. Individual routing nodes compute localized operational boundaries dynamically by tracking cross-layer Token Selection Latency (tau_latency) against an invariant two-dimensional boundary reference sheet. This mechanical configuration mitigates the formation of singular processing …

Deterministic Palette Quantization Using Resolution-Adaptive Spatial Partitioning, Parag Mhatre, Nathan Faggian, Kartik Chaudhary, Ashish Tendulkar, Gopala Dhar, Gyhun Kang, Neeraj Shivhare

Defensive Publications Series

Images generated by artificial intelligence models that operate in continuous color spaces can exhibit chromatic artifacts, such as color drift and edge feathering, when converted to a discrete, canonical color palette. A computerized post-processing method can address these issues. The method can involve dividing a source image into blocks using resolution-adaptive spatial partitioning, and a representative modal color can be determined for each block. A system can also identify a dominant background color of the source image and add it to a target palette to create an enhanced palette. A k-dimensional tree may then be used to map each block's …

System And Method For Cross-Model Benchmarking Of Multi-Turn Conversational Ai Safety And Quality, Roy Katz

Defensive Publications Series

Conventional methods for evaluating conversational artificial intelligence (AI) safety can be subjective and labor-intensive, which may present challenges for performing consistent and objective comparisons between different models. A disclosed system can provide an automated framework that simulates realistic, multi-turn conversations between a synthetic user persona (modeling a minor user with specific age, maturity, and vulnerability constraints) and one or more conversational AI models. The system can apply model-specific safety contexts, such as backend filters or injected system instructions, to simulate a protected user experience. Subsequently, each conversation may be analyzed by multiple independent automated adjudicators, and a consensus algorithm can …

Caldwell Wildfire Rescue Engine (Cwre‑1.0) A Unified, Viability‑Filtered, Builder‑Ready Open‑Hardware Architecture For Wildfire Suppression & Resilience, Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

ABSTRACT

The Caldwell Wildfire Rescue Engine (CWRE‑1.0) is a unified, multi‑layer open‑hardware architecture designed to support wildfire suppression, cooling, water supply, atmospheric prediction, and post‑fire recovery using real, buildable modules from the Caldwell Open‑Hardware Portfolio.

CWRE‑1.0 integrates:

• wildfire truck conversion systems

• atmospheric water harvesters

• solar‑thermal water generators

• submerged cooling structures

• floating shade panels for fire reservoirs

• molten‑salt and flow‑battery energy nodes

• atmospheric resonance prediction networks

• post‑fire soil regeneration systems

All modules are already posted on TDC and can be built and tested immediately.

Caldwell Colorado River Rescue Engine (Crre‑1.1) A Unified, Viability‑Filtered, Builder‑Ready Open‑Hardware Architecture For Stabilizing The Colorado River System, Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

ABSTRACT

The Caldwell Colorado River Rescue Engine (CRRE‑1.1) is a unified, multi‑layer engineering architecture designed to stabilize the Colorado River system using real, buildable, open‑hardware modules from the Caldwell Portfolio. CRRE‑1.1 integrates atmospheric water harvesting, PFAS/microplastic remediation, solar‑thermal desalination, molten‑salt and flow‑battery energy stabilization, floating gyroid evaporation‑reduction panels, submerged cooling structures, climate/hydrology prediction networks, and desert agriculture decoupling systems.

All modules are already posted on TDC.

This posting provides:

• Full system architecture

• Engineering diagrams

• Deployment map (Nevada–Arizona–Utah)

• Prototype bill of materials (BOM)

• Direct TDC lookup references

• Viability upgrades

• New inventions added to improve performance

This is a real‑world, non‑speculative, builder‑ready …

Query-Agnostic Condensation And Query-Guided Filtering For Long-Form Video Analysis, Youbau Tang, Lan Wang, Chen Du, Larry Lai

Defensive Publications Series

Processing long-form, multi-modal video streams can present computational and memory challenges, as certain sampling methods may process redundant data while potentially missing sparse events. A hierarchical framework can perform a query-agnostic condensation of video data into a semantically dense representation using, for example, content-adaptive keyframe selection and hierarchical aggregation. A query-guided filtering stage may subsequently use a cross-attention mechanism to select visual and other modal tokens relevant to a user's textual query. This approach can reduce the volume of data presented to a downstream reasoning model, such as a large multimodal model. This may improve the allocation of computational resources …

Hydrogen Production Plant And Process With Tail Gas Conversion And Recycle, Marco Precoma, Martin Baumgaertl, Gianluca Pauletto

Defensive Publications Series

The present technical disclosure relates to a plant and to a corresponding process for the production of hydrogen. The hydrogen production plant and process integrate an electrically heated steam methane reformer and a recycle loop configured for improved utilization of tail gas generated in a hydrogen separation unit. The tail gases of the hydrogen separation unit are processed in a methanation reactor, where hydrogen and carbon oxides are converted into methane. The methane-rich stream is recovered from the upgrading unit and recycled to the reformer feed.

Ambient Agent Swarm With Soft Contract Negotiation For Proactive Network Monitoring, Ryan Holland, Elango Ganesan

Defensive Publications Series

Proposed herein is a hybrid cloud-edge ambient agent swarm for network operations, where specialized agents coordinate through soft capability contracts rather than rigid interfaces. The proposed approach enables continuous proactive monitoring and interactive troubleshooting in one system, while reducing latency and bandwidth through edge-local diagnostics with cloud-level synthesis. It is designed for enterprise-scale operations where platform teams need independent agent evolution, graceful fallback behavior, and consistent multi-domain triage with bounded deep-dive analysis.