Digital Commons Network^™

Mems 411: Adjustable Desk, Catryn Cattoor, Natalia Pilpil, Jamie Burgasser, Adam Wong

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Design and create a desk for a special education classroom of kindergarteners to third graders. The desk needs slanting capabilities, wheel chair accessibility, raising/lower capabilities, distraction prevention capabilities, and light board capabilities. These capabilities need to be configurable for students with different needs. This desk also needs to be very durable, safe, and mobile. The main motivation for this project is the desire to provide the teacher and her students with a single, cost-effective product that is safe, easy to use, and meets their desired needs.

Mems 411: Group V Ball Bearing Sorter, Matthew Hernandez, Sean Huffert, Ethan Delair

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

After a semester of hard work, Team V is proud to unveil its finished prototype for the 2024-2025 ASME Student Design Competition. The theme of this challenge was "Assembly Line Sorting and Packaging." The goal of this challenge was to make a device able to satisfy the criteria of sorting between six different bearings of different sizing and material properties, and meeting spatial and time limitations. This device needed to be fast, accurate, compact, and able to sort in bulk. Team V feels like we have met most of these requirements with our final design prototype. For this project, a …

Mems 411: Rc Plane Mount For Cfd Validation, Jake Schwartz, Margot Jay, Ian Torres, Sam Ehrman

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Washington University in St. Louis’ Design/Build/Fly team (WashU DBF) participates in an annual international competition with over 100 teams where they create a Remote Control (RC) plane that can perform various missions. One of the difficulties in developing a plane each year is testing the forces on the plane. Currently, Ansys and XFLR5 are used to create computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for the plane. CFD modeling simulates air flow over the plane’s wings to analyze how to optimize the aircraft’s aerodynamics. While this is a useful strategy to predict the plane’s theoretical performance, WashU DBF Technical President, Eleni Kambouris, …

Mems 411: Mini Syringe Pump, Rachel Foulk, Braxton Hart, Camilo Hernandez

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

In many research and medical settings, small amounts of liquids are dispensed using syringes. Very often, syringe pumps like those shown in the left image, are used to control the amount (i.e., flow rate) of dispensed/collected fluid. There are single- or multi-style syringe pumps; the one shown is single-style; multi-style have 2-8 parallel syringes that are all pushed/pulled at the same flow rate. However, these syringe
pumps are bulky and heavy, making them impractical for many experimental setups. Commercial alternatives include very expensive syringe pumps with remote dispensers. Furthermore, it is often necessary to have two syringe pumps operate in …

Intouch Week Of December 9, 2024, New York Medical College

InTouch

• NYMC Donors Make an Impact This Giving Tuesday
• Medical Students Inspire Youth During Black Men in White Coats Summit
• 29th Annual MSRF Set for December 13
• GSBMS Celebrates Friendsgiving
• NYMC Alumni/Student Fall Mixer Builds Connections and Professional Insights
• Human Milk for Extreme Preemies: A Kosher Option
• Artificial Intelligence Can Revolutionize Acute Stroke Care
• Design the Next NYMC T-Shirt
• NYMC and TU Hosts “Ninety Minutes: The Medical Magazine of the Web”
• In The Community: GSA 5K Raises Awareness for Food Insecurity, Fundraising Continues
• Faculty Spotlight: From Pupil to Professor: Alumni Lighting the Way at NYMC

Reflecting Faith In The Heartland: A Study Of The Architecture Of Mainline Protestant Christian Churches In Kalamazoo County, Mi., Ian Russel

Honors Theses

The Midwest is a region with fuzzy borders and an equally confusing place in the American imagination. Is it the last refuge of a more wholesome, innocent America filled with white picket fences or a drab, suffocating post-industrial landscape? Despite largely dominating how the region is depicted in popular culture, neither of these representations is entirely accurate. One possible step towards developing a more accurate understanding of the Midwest is examining the churches that dot its towns and cities. Many of these churches belong to mainline Protestant Christian denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), …

An Exploration Of Russian "Plea Bargaining": Americanization And Administratization Theses, Nathaniel Brewer

Honors Theses

This Project attempts to answer the question: Why did Russia adopt a legal practice that is seemingly inconsistent with its inquisitorial legal history? The Project examines this question through two theses posited by Máximo Langer and applying them to the Russian Federation’s Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”) Chapter 40. Chapter 40 of the CCP creates the Special Trial Procedure (“STP”), a summary proceeding allowing the defendant to agree to the charges they face in exchange for a reduced sentence. In inquisitorial legal systems, this sort of proceeding is not meant to occur because they are meant to be predicated on …

Chimes: December 9, 2024, Calvin University

Chimes

“That’s not true inclusion:” For disabled students, full campus accessibility remains elusive by Sarah Sparling

Umm al-Jimal archaeological site added to UNESCO World Heritage by Grace Buller and Elisabeth Stevens

2025 January Series sees restructure and big names by Graham Kort

Changes to dining hall hours, staffing benefits leave students broadly dissatisfied by Maya Oeverman

Making worship more accessible: A Q&A with Eleanor Plutz about ASL chapel interpretation by Anna Caruso

“The Holy Spirit Made Me Dance” by Natasha Jayaputra

Goose Grubbing And Warming Suppress Summer Net Ecosystem Co2 Uptake Differentially Across High-Arctic Tundra Habitats, Matteo Petit Bon, Karen H. Beard, Kari Anne Bråthen, Hanna Lee, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Environmental changes, such as climate warming and higher herbivory pressure, are altering the carbon balance of Arctic ecosystems; yet, how these drivers modify the carbon balance among different habitats remains uncertain. This hampers our ability to predict changes in the carbon sink strength of tundra ecosystems. We investigated how spring goose grubbing and summer warming—two key environmental-change drivers in the Arctic—alter CO₂ fluxes in three tundra habitats varying in soil moisture and plant-community composition. In a full-factorial experiment in high-Arctic Svalbard, we simulated grubbing and warming over two years and determined summer net ecosystem exchange (NEE) alongside its components: …

Development Of A Rapid Method For Pfas Detection And Quantitation In Human Hair, Justin M. Allen

Student Theses

In recent years, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as a critical focus in environmental and public health research due to their persistent nature and widespread use in products ranging from non-stick cookware to firefighting foams. These "forever chemicals" resist degradation, posing significant ecological and human health risks. While extensive studies have explored PFAS in environmental matrices, research into their presence in human hair remains limited, with only a handful of studies addressing this biomarker's potential. This thesis aims to develop a robust analytical method for detecting PFAS in human hair, leveraging its unique properties to provide a long-term …

Family Ties: How Families Of Origin And Procreation Influence Women’S Migration And Integration, Becca Goldrup

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women's migration is an increasingly important focus of interest in understanding the family-level factors shaping individual and family-level migration decisions. Utilizing interviews with 30 immigrant women residing in Utah who migrated to the US at three different ages (childhood, young adulthood, and later adulthood), I ask: “How do familial relationships impact the immigration experience for women in the US, and how does this vary by age at migration?” I find that family significantly shapes women's migration decisions and experiences post-migration for women of all ages, but this influence has subtle differences based on their age at migration. Women who migrated …

Money Laundering Transactions Chronology Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence, Marwan Alawadhi

Theses

Money laundering is one of the most significant threats for the financial systems of the world, as it promotes other crimes and destabilizes the economy. This thesis presents an enhanced analysis of AI and ML on financial transaction data for the identification of patterns that relate to money laundering. It uses techniques like the Isolation Forest for the identification of outliers and clustering techniques like K-means and DBSCAN for identification of unusual transaction patterns across the four high risk countries that include United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Italy. The preprocessed dataset included different types of transactions like cross-border transactions, …

Appropriateness Of Ambulatory Antibiotic Prescribing In South Carolina, 2012–2017, Pamela Bailey, Majdi N. Al-Hasan, Julie Royer, Max Habicht, Julie Ann Justo, P. Brandon Bookstaver Pharm.D., Sharon Weissman, Hana R. Winders

Faculty Publications

This population-based cohort study examines the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing in South Carolina via aggregated pharmacy claims data matched with diagnosis codes from medical claims. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing decreased from 30.2% in 2012 to 22.6% in 2017 (P < 0.001) and was more common in adults >40 years old.

Inference For Regression With Variables Generated By Ai Or Machine Learning, Laura Battaglia, Timothy Christensen, Stephen Hansen, Szymon Sacher

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

It has become common practice for researchers to use AI-powered information retrieval algorithms or other machine learning methods to estimate variables of economic interest, then use these estimates as covariates in a regression model. We show both theoretically and empirically that naively treating AI- and ML-generated variables as “data” leads to biased estimates and invalid inference. We propose two methods to correct bias and perform valid inference: (i) an explicit bias correction with bias-corrected confidence intervals, and (ii) joint maximum likelihood estimation of the regression model and the variables of interest. Through several applications, we demonstrate that the common approach …

Newsletter, December 2024, Cedar Oaks Guild

Cedar Oaks Guild Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Staff Education On Type 2 Diabetes Management, Ngozi Nwasuruba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Summary The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project involved a staff education program resulting from an identified practice gap. The nursing staff lacked the knowledge and skills necessary about Type 2 diabetes to teach their patients self-care management of their condition. The setting was an outpatient family practice clinic in Houston, Texas. The facility director reported that the clinic patients were experiencing unstable and high blood sugar due to their lack of knowledge about diabetes self-care management. The nurses were not knowledgeable enough about diabetes care to teach the patients. The practice-focused question was whether staff education could increase nurses’ …

Special Education Teachers' Perceptions Regarding Inadequate Transition Planning Services For Students With Severe Intellectual Disabilities, Jennifer Garcia Villanueva

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed in this study was that students with severe intellectual disabilities (SwSID) enrolled in life skills settings are not receiving adequate transition planning services at local rural public schools in a southwestern state. The purpose of this study was to investigate special education teachers’ (SET) perceptions about transition services for SwSID and explore SETs’ suggestions about how to improve delivery of transition planning services. The conceptual framework for this study was Schlossberg’s transition model. For this basic qualitative design, 12 semistructured interviews with SET of SwSID were conducted. Data analysis was conducted using open coding, axial …

Deputy Sheriffs’ Experience With Inmate Suicide, Tiffany Buco

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Deputy sheriffs working in correctional facilities are responsible for enforcing rules and regulations of the facility, supervising inmates, ensuring security, and preventing inmates from escaping. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of deputy sheriffs experiencing an inmate’s death by suicide. The sample for this study consisted of six deputy sheriffs who had been a deputy sheriff for at least 3 years and experienced an inmate suicide. The theoretical foundation applied to this study is the personal construct theory because it requires constructs that are used to make sense of people’s experiences, in this …

National Parks For Future Generations?: The Covid-19 Pandemic’S Impacts On National Parks And Tourism, Colin Cummings '25

Student Research

This paper explores the complex relationship between tourism and the environment in U.S. National Parks, with a focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how increased visitation affects wildlife, the spread of invasive species, and the overall health of natural ecosystems. The author argues for a shift in public perception of national parks, emphasizing education, community engagement, and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of nature to ensure the preservation of these areas for future generations. The paper also discusses the role of park rangers and historical interpretations of wildlife and the environment, as well as the …

Personal Legacies Of The American Empire: Witnessing The Rise Of A Western Power In The Philippines, Christian S. Condo Gilkes '25

Student Research

This historical study examines the Philippine-American War through the personal experiences of four individuals: David Fagen, a Black-American soldier who joined the Filipino resistance; Datu Ali, a Moro chieftain; George W. Suriley, an American soldier; and Apolinario Mabini, an advisor to Aguinaldo and a Filipino revolutionary. The paper explores the complex motivations, beliefs, and perspectives of individuals on both sides of the conflict, shedding light on the human cost of American imperialism and the diverse reactions to the United States' expansion into the Philippines. It further examines the racial and social dynamics within the U.S. military and the experiences of …

Disobedient Daughters, Disobedient Wives: How Women Pushed Against Restrictive Norms In Early Modern Japan, Drew Mcclellan '25

Student Research

This essay examines the shifting roles and restrictions placed on Japanese women from the Classical period through the Edo period, focusing on how women both conformed to and resisted societal expectations. It uses primary sources like the Onna Daigaku ( Greater Learning for Women) and Tadano Makuzu's Solitary Thoughts to highlight the tension between prescribed ideals of feminine virtue and the lived experiences of women, particularly during times of peace and war. The essay also discusses the ways women found and wielded power through family structures, their education, and participation in warfare, as well as how they challenged restrictive norms …

"Real Men Don't Draft Women": How Housewives Turned America Right, Ella Mcwalter '25

Student Research

This paper analyzes the grassroots conservative movement of the 1970s in America, focusing on the significant, yet often overlooked, contributions of women in the fight against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It explores how women utilized media, community outreach, and rhetoric to mobilize support for traditional family values and opposition to the ERA, drawing connections to earlier female-led movements like the Women of the Ku Klux Klan and anti-communism. The paper details strategies such as door-to-door campaigning, the use of pamphlets, community "coffees", and the influence of church groups, and emphasizes the lasting impact of these methods on contemporary American …

Analyzing Social And Cultural Expectations For Women In The 20th Century Through The May Day Festival At Depauw University, Megan Mcclaren '25

Student Research

This paper analyzes the May Day festival at DePauw University as a lens through which to understand the social and cultural expectations for young women in the 20th century. By examining the festival's history, activities, and the roles of various student organizations, the study explores how broader historical events such as wars and economic changes, as well as societal ideals influenced the festival's evolution. The research is based on primary sources, including university archives and student-created pamphlets and photographs, in an effort to bring attention to a forgotten, yet important, part of DePauw University's history and the contributions of the …

Wage Against The Machine: How Women Took On Workplace Inequality, Kyah A. Rodkey '25

Student Research

This paper focuses on the life and work of Esther Peterson, a key figure in the fight for workplace equality, particularly for women. It explores her significant contributions to labor legislation, including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and her efforts to empower women in the workforce. The research traces Peterson’s career path through the historical context of women's labor participation from the 1940s through the 1960s, highlighting her impact on creating policies aimed at gender equality in the workplace and her lasting influence on generations of women striving for economic justice.

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 12.09.24, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

Faculty News and Briefs

• Lloyd Mayer was a guest on the Unreasonable Podcast episode "How Religious Organizations Game The IRS".
• A.J. Bellia has published "Constitutional federalism and the nature of the Union" (with Brad Clark) which explains the origins of U.S. federalism and responds to a recent symposium on his work in the Journal of Constitutional History and to other commentators.
• Rick Garnett was quoted in America Magazine about President Biden's pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.
• This week Sam Bray is presenting a sketch for a book on equity and change at the Judicial Administration / Judicial Process Roundtable …

Order On Impact Of Truck Inds. And Discovery Issues

Catholic Dioceses in Bankruptcy

No abstract provided.

Nature-Derived Flame Retardant For Cotton Fabrics With Green Coconut Shells, Tarikul Islam, Abdullah Al Rakib Shikder, Md Shahabul Hossen, Md Mazbah Uddin, Md Tanvir Hossain, M. Mahbubul Bashar

Michigan Tech Publications

This study presents an eco-friendly flame-retardant solution for cellulosic fabrics using green coconut shell (GCS) extract and phytic acid (PA). Cellulosic materials are highly flammable and release harmful gases during combustion. Conventional flame retardants may pose environmental and health risks while impacting the fabric quality. GCS extract is a rich source of tannins, phosphorus, silicates, metallic salts, and oxides and is explored as a novel flame retardant (FR) for cotton fabrics. Cotton samples were pretreated with PA and then with varying concentrations of GCS extract using a padding technique. Comprehensive characterization followed, including limiting oxygen index (LOI), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), …

Designing An Interactive System For Early Social Learning: Leveraging Emotion Recognition And Real-Time Feedback To Foster Early Childhood Emotional Mirroring And Social Skill Development, Yue Gu

Theses

For young children, traditional educational methods often rely too heavily on the caregiver's own time and energy as well as social attributes. There is currently no product on the market that mirrors emotions and provides real-time feedback on personality drawings that can simultaneously stimulate young children's recognition of facial emotions, understand and mimic expressions, and promote their social development. The purpose of this thesis is to design an interactive system to enhance early social learning in young children through emotion recognition and real-time feedback. The system utilizes a digital device's camera for emotion detection to detect children's facial expressions. It …

Greenmind: A Climate-Positive News Portal, Surabhi Singh

Theses

Greenmind is a website that promotes positive climate narratives for environmentally conscious individuals seeking hope and actionable solutions. It redefines how we approach climate change narratives by focusing on hope and progress. Unlike traditional media that often rely on fear to grab attention, Greenmind delivers stories showcasing actionable solutions and positive impacts already happening across the globe. Its core mission is to empower individuals to see themselves as agents of change, fostering collective action rather than promoting fear as a tactic for change. Greenmind’s approach to climate narratives is supported by research emphasizing the power of positive storytelling. Studies from …

Delirium Screening Practices For Older Adults In Emergency Departments Across United States: A Scoping Review, Azmat Sidhu, Joy K. Luzingu, Sheneil Agyemang, Arushi M. Chalke, Grace M. Leito, Joseph A. Molina, Zhao Chen, Deborah Jean Mcclelland, Nimit Agarwal, Leah Steckler, Angela Wu

Journal of Geriatric Emergency Medicine

Delirium is commonly missed among older patients in the Emergency Department (ED). Identifying and managing patients with delirium in ED is critical to help improve health outcomes and prevent falls and readmission. There are several validated delirium screening tools but their utilization for assessing delirium in emergency department settings are still under investigation. The overall purpose of this review was to summarize information on current screening practices for delirium among older adults (65 or older) in EDs across United States and to identify current gaps in knowledge and evidence to help inform future research and practice. A comprehensive literature search …