Digital Commons Network^™

Ai And Ml-Based Risk Assessment Of Chemicals: Predicting Carcinogenic Risk From Chemical-Induced Genomic Instability, Ajay Vikram Singh, Preeti Bhardwaj, Peter Laux, Prachi Pradeep, Madleen Busse, Andreas Luch, Akihiko Hirose, Christopher J. Osgood, Michael W. Stacey

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Chemical risk assessment plays a pivotal role in safeguarding public health and environmental safety by evaluating the potential hazards and risks associated with chemical exposures. In recent years, the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and omics technologies has revolutionized the field of chemical risk assessment, offering new insights into toxicity mechanisms, predictive modeling, and risk management strategies. This perspective review explores the synergistic potential of AI/ML and omics in deciphering clastogen-induced genomic instability for carcinogenic risk prediction. We provide an overview of key findings, challenges, and opportunities in integrating AI/ML and omics technologies for chemical risk assessment, …

Abalones At Risk: A Global Red List Assessment Of Haliotis In A Changing Climate, Howard Peters, Gina M. Ralph, Laura Rogers-Bennett

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

There is increasing awareness that marine invertebrates such as abalones are at risk from the combined stressors of fishing and climate change. Abalones are an important marine fishery resource and of cultural importance to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. A highly priced marine delicacy, they are inherently vulnerable: individuals are slow-growing and long-lived and successful reproduction requires dense assemblages. However, their global conservation status is poorly understood. Using IUCN Red List methodology, we assessed the extinction risk to all 54 species of abalone (genus Haliotis). Of the 21 fished commercially for human consumption either now and/or in the past, 15 …

Effect Of Concrete Mix Design Factors On Static Yield Stress Changes Due To Vibration, Ahmed Abd El Fattah, Dimitri Feys, Kyle Riding, Syed Imran

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Digital fabrication of concrete structures has gained substantial research traction over the last decade, enabling efficient material use and adding more architectural freedom. Current research focuses on chemical and mineral admixtures, as well as manipulating the cement hydration reaction to control the yield stress evolution with time in the cement paste. Instead of providing yield stress through the concrete fluid properties, a high yield stress can be provided by interparticle friction from the use of high aggregate volumes and large nominal maximum aggregate size, with flow enhanced for material extrusion by vibration. Granular physics was applied to concrete mixture design …

Scshm Benchmark Study On Bridge In-Service Structural Monitoring, Maria Pina Limongelli, Doug Thomson, Sreenivas Alampalli, Aftab Mufti, Thomas Schumacher, Luca Martinelli, Othmane Lasri, Harry Shenton, Genda Chen, Mohammad Noori, Farnaz Raeisi, Ahmed Silik, Ji Dang, Ray Hoemsen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The mission of the Society of Civil Structural Health Monitoring (SCSHM, previously known as ISHMII) is to advance the understanding and application of structural monitoring methodologies for the management of civil infrastructure systems. To enable comparative and contrasting studies of various monitoring issues and technologies, the SCSHM Committee on Data-Enhanced Infrastructures Management (DEIMC) identified the need for benchmark problems in the areas of bridge and building structural monitoring. This article reports and briefly discusses the first benchmark study on in-service structural monitoring of bridges that was developed in collaboration with the University of Manitoba, and presents the structure details, study …

Studying Contribution Of Associated Stakeholders In Risk Control Of Modularized Construction Under Different Project Delivery Methods: A Graph-Restricted Cooperative Games Approach, Mohamad Abdul Nabi, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Modularization is associated with various project benefits including cost savings, schedule reduction, improved quality, among others. However, successful implementation of modular projects requires early collaboration and proactive management of various associated risks. Both project communication structures and early engagement of all project stakeholders have a great impact on risk mitigation efficiency in modular construction. The goal of this paper is to study the stakeholders' contribution in risk control of modular construction projects under different delivery methods. To this end, the authors followed a multistep methodology including (1) literature analysis to assign 17 modular risks among the various project stakeholders; (2) …

System Dynamics Modeling For Investigating The Retention Of Skilled Labor In The Construction Market, Tamima Elbashbishy, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Limited skilled labor has been one of the greatest challenges facing the construction industry, especially after COVID. In 2019, around 80% of contractors in the US reported problems in hiring enough skilled workers. Labor retention has been one of the major contributors to skilled labor shortages in construction. The goal of this paper is to study the impact of key construction industry characteristics and economic conditions on skilled labor shortages. This goal is achieved by simulating the flow of skilled workers throughout the construction industry. To this end, a system dynamics (SD) model was developed to represent skilled labor and …

An Agent-Based Cellular Automaton Simulation Model To Study Worker Safety Behavior On Construction Sites: The Impacts Of Different Social Influence Rules, Rayan H. Assaad, Mohamad Abdul Nabi, Ghiwa Assaf, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The unsafe behavior of the construction workforce is one of the leading causes of accidents in the construction industry. It has been shown that construction laborers perceive the safety behavior of their co-workers and adjust their personal safety attitudes accordingly. Thus, there has been an increasing attention to studying the impacts of the social influence and norms on the safety behavior of construction workers. While existing studies examined the factors that influence the safety behavior of the construction workforce, there is little-to-no research that specifically focused on modeling the role of social influence on the safety behavior of the workers. …

A Fuzzy Model And Decision-Support Tool For Assessing And Predicting The Probability Of Bankruptcy Of Construction Companies, Rayan H. Assaad, Ghiwa Assaf, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Construction firms face considerable risks that might lead to business bankruptcy. Failed construction companies leave behind unfinished projects, which leads to huge losses to project owners. While previous studies were conducted to understand the factors that contribute to the bankruptcy of construction organizations, little to no research was performed to quantitatively assess the risk of construction business bankruptcy. Hence, this paper addresses this knowledge gap by developing a fuzzy model for predicting the probability of business bankruptcy of construction companies. First, the following six failure warning signs were considered: financial management system, borrowed credit, estimating and job-cost reporting, project management, …

Predicting Construction Costs Under Uncertain Market Conditions: Probabilistic Forecasting Using Autoregressive Recurrent Networks Based On Deepar, Ghiwa Assaf, Rayan H. Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway, Mohamad Abdul Nabi

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Projects Often Experience Cost Overruns Due To Market Uncertainty And Price Escalations. Traditional Cost Estimation Methods That Rely On Point Estimation Are Incapable Of Providing Prediction Intervals As Well As Probabilistic Assessment. Thus, There Is Need For An Innovative Approach To Predict The Changes And Uncertainties In Construction Material Costs. This Paper Proposes A Novel Stochastic Model To Estimate Construction Material Costs By Applying Probabilistic Forecasting Using Autoregressive Recurrent Networks. First, Price Data Was Collected For Four Different Construction Materials. Second, Data Was Divided Into A Training Set (Pre-COVID-19) And A Testing Test (Post-COVID-19). Third, The State-Of-The-Art DeepAR Algorithm Was …

Analyzing The Impact Of Db Versus Dbb On Cost Performance In Airport Development: A Data-Driven Approach, Ramy Khalef, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Construction Of Airport Projects Can Be Complex And Costly Due To The Many Stakeholders Involved And Associated Strict Timelines. Traditional Delivery Methods, Such As Design-Bid-Build (DBB), Employed In Airport Projects Often Result In Major Cost Overruns Due To Multiple Facets. Design-Build (DB) Is A Construction Method That Combines Design And Construction Under A Single Entity, And It Has The Potential To Improve Cost Performance. None Have Evaluated DB From A Cost Perspective In The Airport Sector. This Research Fills This Gap. First, The Data Is Collected And Assessed For Validity. Second, Risk Ratings For Cost Performance Are Computed. Finally, …

An Accurate-Pricing Estimate Game-Theoretic Model For Determining Price Escalations In Construction Projects During Economic Uncertainties, Yasser Jezzini, Rayan H. Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway, Mohamad Abdul Nabi

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Economic Market Uncertainties, Such As Those Experienced During The COVID-19 Pandemic, Can Make Determining Accurate Prices Estimate For Construction Materials A Challenging Task. While Previous Research Focused On The Contractual Aspect Of This Issue By Studying Price Escalation Clauses, There Is Still A Gap In The Literature When It Comes To Proposing An Accurate Pricing Model. Thus, This Study Develops An Accurate Pricing-Estimate Game-Theoretical Model That Can Efficiently And Competitively Account For Escalations In Construction Materials Prices During Uncertain Market Conditions. First, Data On Past Producer Price Indexes (PPIs) Of Different Construction Materials Were Collected. Second, The Percentage Changes In …

North Haverhill Fair 4-H Exhibit Hall Information Packet - 2024, Extension

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Height Adjustable Kitchen Work And Dining Surface, Jay Van Voorhis , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Run-Of-River Device For Hydropower From The Crum Creek, Paula Suder , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

With the onset of climate change from excess carbon emissions, renewable energy sources, especially in the form of hydropower, can offer comparatively low-emission alternatives to conventionally used fossil fuels that may lessen the environmental effects of energy generation. Although most hydroelectric facilities utilize dams to store water and channel flow, diversion facilities, also called “run-of-river” facilities, operate utilizing a portion of the natural flow and eliminate the need for dams and their associated construction and environmental concerns. To design and construct a small scale run-of-river device, an iterative design process was implemented over two prototypes, including spiral axial hydropower turbine …

Perceptions Of Benefits From Middle School Agricultural Education Programs, Michael Hunter

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

As agriculture education continues to evolve across the state of Georgia and the country, leaders need to understand the dynamic vision and the importance of this industry. Utilizing P-20 education initiatives and new concepts, leaders can implement agriculture education in more schools to increase diversity and provide students with opportunities to participate in the three-component model of agriculture education. This research aimed to explore the perceived benefits that high school principals, CTAE directors, and agriculture teachers have on middle school agriculture education programs. This research was confined to the Georgia FFA North Region. Findings indicated no significant evidence that middle …

Sky Track-Aviation Data And Pipeline Analysis, Dinesh Valleru

All Capstone Projects

CT The aviation industry generates a significant amount of data from various sources, such as flight operations, passenger information, and logistics. Effectively analyzing this data is crucial for improving operational efficiency, making accurate forecasts, and supporting data-driven decision-making. This project focuses on designing and implementing an end-to-end data engineering pipeline using Azure cloud services, enabling efficient data processing, transformation, and analysis, with insights delivered through Power BI. The solution aims to address the growing need for aviation data analysis by creating a scalable and automated ETL pipeline that can integrate data from multiple sources. The motivation behind this project stems …

Truth Bounties: A Market Solution To Fake News, Yonathan A. Arbel, Michael D. Gilbert

Articles

False information poses a threat to individuals, groups, and society. Many people struggle to judge the veracity of the information around them, whether that information travels through newspapers, talk radio, TV, or social media. Concerned with the spread of misinformation and harmful falsehoods, much of the policy, popular, and scholarly conversation today revolves around proposals to expand the regulation of individuals, platforms, and the media. While more regulation may seem inevitable, it faces constitutional and political hurdles. Furthermore, regulation can have undesirable side effects and be ripe for abuse by powerful actors, public and private.

This Article presents an alternative …

Bias-Aware Gaze Uniformity Assessment In Group Images, Omkar Kulkarni

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Today, more than 5 billion photos are captured every day, with smartphones generating over 94\% of these images. However, despite advancements in technology, achieving aesthetically pleasing group photos remains challenging, especially when it comes to aligning the direction of everyone’s gaze. While current methods focus on facial features, they often fail to ensure consistent gaze direction. The introduction of the iPhone's Live mode, which captures a 1.5-second video snippet along with still images, complicates the selection of the best key photo due to its subjective nature and a lack of publicly available data, especially during the pandemic.

To address these …

Tarantula Toxin Transcripts And Toxin Structure Prediction By Alphafold, Christine Vega, Rebekkah Sepulveda, Ying Jia

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Tarantula venom predominantly comprises peptides and small proteins (venom toxins). To explore this further, we generated a combined gland cDNA library from five different tarantula species. Subsequently we randomly sequenced 752 clones, which led to the identification of sixteen distinct toxin groups, including one novel group. Each group consists of a minimum of three identical sequences. A comprehensive analysis of these toxin groups was carried out, and we simulated the 3D structures of certain predicted toxins. These transcripts can be used to the production of venom toxins through recombinant techniques, offering promising applications in various biomedical applications.

The Implications Of Section 230 For Black Communities, Spencer Overton, Catherine Powell

Faculty Scholarship

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act generally immunizes online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, and Uber from liability for third-party user content (for example, posts, comments, and videos) and for moderation of that content. This Article addresses an important issue overlooked by both defenders and critics of Section 230: the implications of the law and proposed reforms for Black communities in particular. By relieving tech platforms of most legal liability for third-party content, Section 230 helps facilitate Black social activism, entrepreneurship, and artistic creativity. Section 230 also relieves platforms of most legal liability for content moderation, which boosts …

Feasibility Assessment Of A Novel Isolation Care Tent In Uganda During The 2022, M. Jana Broadhurst, Rodgers R. Ayebare, David Brett-Major, Sean M. Carroll, Jacob Lacore, Alexander D. Laskey, James V. Lawler, Patricia Lord, Ruben M. Vazquez, Peter Waitt, Mohammed Lamorde

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

This case study describes a feasibility assessment of a novel isolation care tent used in health facilities in Uganda during the 2022 Sudan ebolavirus outbreak. The Isolation System for Treatment and Agile Response to High-Risk Infections Model 1B (ISTARI 1B) is a single-occupancy, portable, negative-pressure isolation tent designed for the safe delivery of standard care to patients with a communicable disease, including Ebola disease (Sudan). At the request of the Uganda Ministry of Health, the Makerere University Infectious Diseases Institute and University of Nebraska Medical Center partnered to evaluate 7 health facilities across 4 districts in Uganda for infrastructure, case …

Tunable Superior Sound Absorber Design With Nested Hexagonal Trac, Fatma Nafaa Gaafer

Turkish Journal of Physics

We propose a design of a tunable superior absorber based on the resonance absorption in underwater acoustic metastructure with nested hexagonal tracks. The structure comprises 37 hexagonal-shaped cells formed by two models depending on the formula for hexagonal numbers. Model I is labyrinthine acoustic metastructure (LAM), and model II is labyrinthine acoustic metastructure with a coil-up channel (LAMC). The results of model II demonstrate the achievement of a highly efficient sound absorber, with a maximum value of 0.999, within the frequency range of 130 Hz by rotating the third aperture at an angle of 180°. The effect of dissipative loss …

Feminist Use, Amanda Levendowski

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 2015, Judge Pierre Leval wrote that copyright isn’t about authors, it’s about the rest of us. “While authors are undoubtedly important intended beneficiaries of copyright,” he explained, “the primary intended beneficiary is the public.” He would know—his scholarship has been transformative for how every jurist from the Supreme Court down approaches key copyright questions. But copyright often falls short of this aspiration by benefiting only a sliver of the public.

Copyright law grants exclusive rights to authors of qualifying works, such as books, which protects those works from unauthorized copying. The first copyright legislation, the Statute of Anne of …

Biomechanics, Strength, And Physical Function After Surgical Repair Of Rotational Ankle Fractures, Benjamin Brightwell

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Ankle Fractures account for approximately 9% of all lower extremity fractures and incidence continues to rise. Up to 53% of ankle fractures require surgical intervention. Impaired physical function is one of the most reported and observed lasting effects of surgically repaired ankle fractures. Additionally, limited physical capacity and function have been identified as the primary threats to health-related quality of life after surgical repair of ankle fractures. These impairments to physical capacity and functionality can last longer than 5 years after surgery. Since surgery typically successfully restores stability and congruency of the talocrural joint, these poor long-term outcomes are an …

Leveraging Information Forcing In Good Faith, Hillary A. Sale

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Leveraging Information Forcing in Good Faith, a chapter in Research Handbook on Law and Time, argues that the information-forcing-substance theory has a significant role to play both in how courts decide duty of good faith and oversight matters and in how active and engaged directors can add value in the boardroom. As explored in the chapter, by deploying the theory in corporate-law matters, the courts can reveal the information gaps between officers and directors and create pressure for better processes and discourse within the corporation. In turn, this can impact both the way in which fiduciaries interact with …

Building Services Engineering January/February 2024

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Climate-Related Shareholder Activism As Corporate Democracy: A Call To Reform “Acting In Concert” Rules, Dan W. Puchniak, Umakanth Varottil

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Climate change is an issue of global importance, which may turn out to be the issue of this century. Companies are at the core of both the problems and solutions for climate change. Given this reality, it is astounding that in virtually all jurisdictions in the world ‘acting in concert rules,’ which were designed decades ago to facilitate an efficient market for corporate control, effectively prevent shareholders who hold a majority of shares from democratically replacing boards of dirty companies. Our Article exposes this overlooked reality by undertaking the first in-depth comparative analysis of acting in concert rules with a …

Lithography-Free Highly Sensitive Detection Of Glucose Based On Colloidal Spheres, Habibe Durmaz

Turkish Journal of Physics

Diabetes has emerged as a global health crisis, with a substantial increase in prevalence and associated healthcare costs. The urgency for early diagnosis to prevent complications has fueled research into advanced biosensing technologies. Plasmonic sensors, leveraging localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), have gained prominence for their sensitivity. This study explores a metamaterial-based sensor platform comprising nanospheres fabricated through colloidal lithography. A comprehensive numerical and experimental analysis of the designed metamaterial-based perfect absorber is presented, focusing on the spectral response at the resonance frequency of 525 nm. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations reveal the field and charge distributions, enabling a systematic exploration …

Something For Every Kind Of Learner: Students’ Perceptions Of An Educational Recommender Study Tool, Cherie Noteboom, Alicia Mcnett

Research & Publications

The field of education has the potential to better facilitate student learning by employing educational recommender systems that adapt the learning process to the needs of individual learners. There is a lack of research that ties educational theory to the design and implementation of these systems. In this research, the design science methodology is employed to advocate for an educational recommender framework with a theoretical base in self-regulated learning. This paper focuses on the qualitative evaluation of this approach to gain insights on students’ perceptions of the resulting recommender when deployed to assist students when studying for an upcoming exam. …

Exploring Large Language Models For Ontology Learning, Olga Perera, Jun Liu

Research & Publications

Ontology Learning aims to facilitate automatic or semi-automatic ontology development based on machine learning techniques in context of big data. Recent evolution of technology has introduced Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of creating new data, extracting insights from the existing data, and generating coherent texts from various inputs. This ability supports analysis of text data, providing insights and annotations that reduce human effort. This study explores the emerging field of Generative AI, specifically, Large Language Models for ontology learning. We conducted a survey of the current state of Generative AI research with focus on applicability and efficacy for ontology development …