Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating Different Soil Health Parameters For Edge-Of-Field Water Quality, Dipesh Giri, Siddhartho Shekhar Paul, Yichao Rui, Molly Meyers

Symposium of Digital Agriculture

Soil health indicators are increasingly used to guide conservation practice outcomes, but their vertical distribution and relationship to nutrient losses in surface runoff remain understudied. Since 2016, we have conducted multi-depth soil health assessments across agricultural fields in the Great Lakes Basin transitioning to conservation practices such as cover cropping and no-till. Our goal was to identify soil metrics that are predictive of edge-of-field (EOF) water quality outcomes. We assessed 21 biological, chemical, and physical soil indicators at 0–5 cm and 5–15 cm depths, calculating stratification ratios (SR = 0–5 cm ÷ 5–15 cm) for 57 site-years. Nine indicators met …

Advancing Soil Health Management Through Spatially Optimized Soil Sampling, Nelson O. Otieno, Keith Cherkauer, Shalamar Armstrong, Siddhartho S. Paul

Symposium of Digital Agriculture

Accurately monitoring soil health across farms requires sampling designs that capture spatial heterogeneity without excessive cost. Our systematic review of digital soil mapping approaches screened 181 articles and retained 31 for detailed analysis. Most studies either did not optimize sampling spatially or did not report doing so. Four designs dominated: simple random sampling (SRS), stratified random sampling (StRS), spatial coverage sampling (SCS), and conditioned Latin Hypercube Sampling (cLHS). Only 7% of papers explicitly evaluated spatial representativeness before modeling, typically using Bhattacharyya distance (BD) and Kullback–Leibler divergence (KLD).

We validated insights from the review with two case studies using grid soil …

Site-Specific Mechanical Weed Management For Specialty Crops Through Ai-Driven Robotics, Sandesh Poudel, Sunoj Shajahan

Symposium of Digital Agriculture

Weed management is one of the most urgent and unresolved challenges in specialty crops in most regions in the United States. For crops like horseradish, which are largely cultivated in Illinois and Wisconsin, the weed issue is magnified because of the crop’s long growing season and sensitivity to chemical applications. Farmers in these states are responsible for more than 80% of the US horseradish market. However, for the current weed control practice, they rely on expensive manual labor, which is in short supply, or repeated application of unlabeled herbicides that degrade soil and lead to a herbicide-resistant weed population. Therefore, …

Generalizing Yield Prediction And Evaluating The Common Factors Influencing The Models, Xiaoyu Zhang, Sunoj Shajahan

Symposium of Digital Agriculture

This study combines Sentinel-2 satellite images with yield monitoring data from fields to evaluate yield predictions from spatial, temporal, and modeling dimensions. Combining the Matern-Kriging method, vegetation index and machine learning models, four key aspects were studied: the influence of spatial resolution on ground truth interpolation, the influence of spatial proximity of training fields, single year and multi-year prediction performance, as well as the influence of spatial smoothing for yield map. Random forest is used as the main predictive model. The results show that a smaller Kriging grid size retains more spatial details, while larger grid leads to detail loss. …

A Simple Approach To Delineating Field Boundaries Using Satellite Imagery, Seth T. Van Hoveln

Symposium of Digital Agriculture

Accurate delineation of agricultural field boundaries is crucial for farm management, research, and policy development. However, publicly available boundary datasets are often limited in accuracy, very expensive, or use deep learning architectures that require extensive annotated data that are not available, limiting access. This project presents a simple, image-processing-based method for delineating field boundaries using openly available satellite images. Our method manipulates the images using a variety of image processing techniques and is able to generate an accurate boundary for a selected field. By providing a simple and accessible solution, this approach has the potential to transform boundary delineation practices, …

The Political Construction Of Anti-Transgender Policy: A Critical Policy Analysis Of North Carolina State Legislators' Discursive Strategies, David Osworth, Morgan Edlin

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

In recent year anti-LGBTQ policy has been cropping up at the state level across the United States. While these policies have been described as unprecedented, they signal a period of retrenchment for the rights of queer and transgender individuals in the United States. This critical policy analysis of North Carolina state legislation that is decidedly homophobic and transgender examines the discursive tactics of policy actors (i.e. North Carolina Legislators) as they argue these policies during legislative sessions. Through our analysis of legislators’ commentary during House of Representative sessions we identified discursive formations that were considered allied with the LGBTQ community …

Wayward Joy In Queer Femme-Inist Educational Research, Sarah Stapleton, Lindsay Cavanaugh, Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article draws on our experiences with “Femme Educational Futurities,” a dream-mapping (Author 2, 2023), critical arts-based, participatory-informed project about softness in K–12 schools, to explore the boundaries of queer, femme-inist research. We trace how our attempts to enact research softly (Schwartz, 2020) led us towards wayward joy (Hartman, 2019): a messy affective terrain marked by connection, vulnerability, shame, and hope. For each author, we identify what Applebaum (1995) calls a “stop” moment and explore within each instance the convergence of softness, radical love (hooks, 2000) and tender failure (Halberstam, 2011), and discuss what joy means to us as a …

“It Has Made Me Stronger”: The Strengths Of Trans And Nonbinary Teachers, Heather K. Mcentarfer, Matthew D. Rice

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This study draws from two data sets collected from interviews with trans and nonbinary (TGNB) teachers. It highlights the strengths related to gender identity and gender history that the teachers bring to schools and classrooms, as identified by the teachers and the researchers. Strengths identified included multiple ways of supporting LGBTQ+ students (especially TGNB students), connecting with all students, greater self-awareness, and seeing beyond “boxes.” The study adapts Pennell’s (2016a, 2016b) queer cultural capital, introducing and exploring TGNB cultural capital.

Myths And Magical Thinking: American Civil Religion, The Establishment Clause, And “Codified Irrationality” In Anti-Crt Measures, Kyle Reinhard

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

In Part I, I preview some of the overlapping tensions in U.S. public schooling created by the occasionally competing mandates of education federalism and democratic theory; describe the current state of the law with respect to the constitutionality of state and local governments seeking to inculcate (allegedly) prosocial community values in curriculum; and consider how battles over the meaning of “patriotism” through the decades show that ideology and religion often blend—and still, inevitably, make it—into the public square broadly nonetheless.

In Part II, I describe how religion is a useful tool, both descriptively and as a constitutional jurisprudential framework, …

Polysaccharide From Schisandra Chinensis Alleviates Ulcerative Colitis By Improving Intestinal Microbiota Abundance And Inhibiting The Tlr4/P65/Iκbα Pathway In Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Mice, Caihong Wu, Yang Yang, Peng Liu, Bin Zhang, Hui Lu

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Schisandra chinensis polysaccharides (SCP) are isolated from Schisandra chinensis with a mean molecular weight of 32.401 kDa. Previous studies have demonstrated that Schisandra chinensis extract effectively prevented colitis and modulated gut microbiota in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced mice. In this study, 3% DSS was used to induce acute ulcerative colitis in mice, and then the SCP with different doses (50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg) and 5- aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA) were used to treat mice by oral gavage for one week. Here, we report for the first time that SCP presents outstanding protective effects on colon damage induced by DSS …

Computational Analysis And Atom Wise Statistics Of Protein-Carbohydrate Interactions, Ahmad Firoz

The Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Science

Carbohydrates typically show an inclination to bind aromatic residues. Since it is extremely difficult to discriminate between carbohydrate binding and non-binding residues, therefore, in this work, we attempted to identify patterns that may affect carbohydrate binding. To accomplish this, we examined the amino acid residues from the 5^th preceding to the 5^th residue following each carbohydrate binding and non-binding site. The neighborhood environment of diverse types of experimentally determined protein-carbohydrate complexes was surveyed. The results revealed a notable tendency for non-polar or hydrophobic and polar-charged amino acids on either side of the carbohydrate binding sites. We also compiled …

Learning How To Practice Takes Practice, Micah Killion, Robert Duke

John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works

Effective music learning depends on effective music practice. Although time spent with teachers is an important component of young musicians’ development, time spent alone practicing is perhaps even more consequential. Researchers and teachers have offered many prescriptions about effective music practice, yet observations of young musicians’ actual practice reveal that their behavior in the practice room is often quite unlike what teachers envision. The most important aspects of effective practice are the thinking, perceiving, and decision-making that serve to organize how musicians spend their time. We discuss how to help students focus their attention in ways that lead to the …

Investigation Of Different Pretreatment Methods On Macroalgal Biomass For Efficient Biohydrogen Production Via Dark Fermentation, Abeer Dhafer S. Alqahtani, Bassam O. Aljohny, Arulazhagan Pugazhendi

The Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Science

Traditional fossil fuel sources cannot meet increasing energy demand and lead to rising health and global warming concerns. Biohydrogen is a promising alternative to fossil fuels in the zero-carbon economy of the future. The third generation of biofuel that microorganisms produce is biohydrogen. Dark fermentation is gaining attention, which needs little energy and has a higher production rate than other techniques. The biomass of macroalgae has excellent potential as a substrate through dark fermentation. Macroalgae, also known as seaweed, is a highly abundant, fast-growing, and renewable resource that can be sustainably harvested. Macroalgae with significant carbohydrate and no lignin content …

Physics 2425 Lecture Slides Volume 1, Chapter 14: Fluid Mechanics, Raji Kannampuzha Ph.D.

Physics

This page provides lecture slides for Calculus-based University Physics I (PHYS 2425). Chapters covered in the course are based on OpenStax Physics Volume I and Volume II from Rice University. These materials were created as part of Collin College’s CARES OER Development Grant in 2022. Materials were peer-reviewed by Collin faculty and administrators as part of the grant process.

This work, "University Physics I Lecture Slides," is adapted from "University Physics Volume 1" and “University Physics Volume 2” by William Moebs, Samuel J. Ling, Jeff Sanny, et al., used under CC BY 4.0.

Autism Spectrum Disorder In The Music Classroom: An Undergraduate Curriculum, Hannah Warren

Masters Theses

The purpose of this applied research curriculum project is to prepare preservice music teachers to teach music to students with autism. It is vital to provide preservice music teachers with experience and knowledge about teaching music to students on the autism spectrum to better serve this population in schools. The setting of this study was college undergraduate music programs. The sample included 30 in-service K-12 music teachers. Qualitative questionnaires and quantitative surveys were collected via Google Forms. Quantitative data was analyzed for means of central tendency including mean, median, and mode. Quantitative data was displayed using Pearson product-moment correlation graph …

A Pooled Sample Study Of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Wait Time Among A Pregnant Population In New York, Stanley Nkemjika, Gulshan Begum, Bolaji Yoade, Vaibhav Vyas, Henry Onyeaka, Olubusola Olatunji, Olaniyi Olayinka, Ayana Jordan

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Faculty Papers

Background and Aim: Opioid use disorder (OUD) during pregnancy has become a major public health issue, with its prevalence rising significantly in recent years. The incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) has also surged, from 1.5 cases per 1000 hospital births in 1999 to 6.0 cases per 1000 in 2013. This study aims to identify and analyze the concerns faced by pregnant people in accessing OUD treatment on time, specifically focusing on New York. Methods: The pooled sample of 225,275 individuals represents pregnant patients with OUD who received treatment at substance use disorder (SUD) facilities across New York State between …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) In Urban Stormwater Runoff: Insights From A Roadside Rain Garden, Hadeer Saleh, Dibyendu Sarkar, Zhiming Zhang, Michel Boufadel, Rupali Datta

Michigan Tech Publications

Urban stormwater runoff is increasingly recognized as a critical but underexplored pathway for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to enter aquatic environments. This work investigated the occurrence and behavior of 40 PFAS compounds in stormwater runoff entering a roadside rain garden in Secaucus, New Jersey, during six storm events between August 2023 and July 2024. Total PFAS concentrations (Σ40 PFAS) ranged from 1437 to 1615 ng/L, with perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS, 239–303 ng/L) and perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA, 115–137 ng/L) consistently emerging as dominant species. Perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs) together accounted for over 70% of the total PFAS mass. …

Issue 474 October 16-30, 2025, The Local Voice

The Local Voice

Featured Articles: "Sarahfest Celebrates a Decade of Art, Music and Community."; "Rebel Hoops Returns to the Oxford Square. Annual Tip-Off Event is Monday, October 20."; "Locals Speak Out Against Location of Proposed Asphalt Plant."; "The View From The Balcony: Down Home Jesus Answers Your Questions."

Type I Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Randomised Controlled Trial To Address Intergenerational Impact Of War Trauma And Resilience Among Second-Generation Refugee Children In The Usa: Resettled Refugee Families For Healing (Rrf4h) Study Protocol, Nhial T Tutlam, Tewodros W Liyew, Theresa S Betancourt, Byron J Powell, Shenyang Guo, Mary Mckay, Fred M Ssewamala

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Children from refugee families resettled in the USA face higher risks of serious mental health challenges compared with their native-born peers. Research shows that refugee youth in high-income countries frequently suffer from trauma-associated disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety. The high prevalence of trauma-associated mental health problems among these youth may be attributed to their own trauma exposure, especially if born in conflict zones, and post-resettlement challenges like poverty, acculturation difficulties, racism and discrimination. However, they may also suffer from the effects of intergenerational trauma, where parental war trauma impacts them. This study aims to …

Spectator 2025-10-16, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Design Of A Snp Panel For Highly Accurate Paternity Identification In Eşme Sheep, Onur Yilmaz, İbrahi̇m Cemal, Orhan Karaca, Cengi̇z Elmaci, Nezi̇h Ata

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

SNP paternity testing panels offer high-resolution capabilities for determining livestock paternity, thereby enhancing the reliability of genetic verification and ensuring pedigree record accuracy. In this study, we aimed to develop a SNP-based paternity test panel utilizing a 50K SNP chip for paternity testing and pedigree verification in the Eşme sheep breed. Additionally, the study sought to validate the paternity test panel. Based on data from 26 rams and 524 lambs of the Eşme sheep breed, the results indicated that the 50K SNP chip used demonstrated a very high genotyping rate, with the majority of its 53,738 SNPs exhibiting significant polymorphism. …

Optimizing Conditions For Bacillus Subtilis Ectopic Gene Expression And Delivery Via Seed Treatment, Abeer Alnasrawi, Jiamel Li, Payal Sanadhya, J. Alejandro Rojas, Fiona L. Goggins

Entomology and Plant Pathology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bacillus subtilis is applied as a biofertilizer, biocontrol agent, and probiotic in agriculture, and is also used for industrial synthesis of proteins and peptides. These applications can be combined by using B. subtilis to synthesize plant health-promoting peptides in culture or to deliver them to roots via seed treatments. To facilitate the use of B. subtilis as a cell factory, we tested different media, temperatures, and growth phases to optimize ectopic expression of a Plant Elicitor Peptide from soybean (GmPEP3) that enhances seedling growth. Our results indicate that temperature, culture media, and growth phase have interactive effects, and that 30 …

System Barriers To Brokering School-Based Versus Community-Based Therapeutic Services From The Perceptions Of School Social Workers In Georgia, Jessica Ochei-Gilliam

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Barriers to brokering therapeutic services cause challenges for school social workers to address their students’ mental health needs, especially in Georgia, where students’ mental health needs are high. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore school social workers’ perceptions of the system barriers related to brokering these services. The research questions explored school social workers’ perceptions of brokering on-site versus community-based therapeutic services in the state of Georgia. In addition, this study inquired about the system barriers that school social workers face when brokering these services. This study was grounded in the ecological systems theory, which argues that …

Montana Kaimin, October 16, 2025, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Strange And Weird Tales: H.P. Lovecraft And Horror In American History, Serafin Hector Matthews

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Author Howard Phillips (H.P.) Lovecraft (1890-1937) of Rhode Island was a transformative figure in American fiction. Hailed by one modern writer as “the twentieth-century horror story’s dark and baroque prince,” Lovecraft wrote over sixty-five works of fiction representing—alongside Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, and David H. Keller—“the golden age of weird fiction.” Lovecraft, however, enjoyed only modest commercial success during his lifetime, writing for amateur journals and pulp magazines such as The Vagrant, Amazing Stories, and Weird Tales. Most of his stories, then, were not published in hardcover or paperback form until after his death, including what many literary critics …

Bacterial Identification, Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (Ast), And Epstein-Barr Virus (Ebv) Testing To Increase Organ Transplantation Within A Western Regional Community, Vedarrius D. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Clinical transplantation demands have increased immensely in recent years and, along with increasing supply shortages, many barriers to successful organ donation arise from a lack of dedicated testing to rule out microbial or bloodborne infections. There are currently minimal, federal regulatory requirements for transplantation specimen testing. The purpose of this study is to explore how to increase the viability and success of transplantations in the Western regions of the United States using kidney, pancreas, and kidney/pancreas transplant data from University Medical Center Southern Nevada (UMCSN) transplant center. UMCSN transplant center and Donor Services Laboratory (DSL) in Las Vegas perform bacterial …

Equal Survival For Black Americans With Multiple Myeloma When Appropriately Matched To White Americans, David E Mery, Guido Tricot, Samer Al Hadidi, Yihao Zhan, Cody Ashby, Clyde Bailey, Eric R Siegel, Daisy V Alapat, Hongwei Xu, Sandra Mattox, Caroline Schinke, Maurizio Zangari, Sharmilan Thanendrarajan, Qing Yi, Robert Z Orlowski, Frits Van Rhee, John D Shaughnessy, Fenghuang Zhan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

A Pooled Sample Study Of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Wait Time Among A Pregnant Population In New York, Stanley Nkemjika, Gulshan Begum, Bolaji Yoade, Vaibhav Vyas, Henry Onyeaka, Olubusola Olatunji, Olaniyi Olayinka, Ayana Jordan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background and Aim: Opioid use disorder (OUD) during pregnancy has become a major public health issue, with its prevalence rising significantly in recent years. The incidence of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) has also surged, from 1.5 cases per 1000 hospital births in 1999 to 6.0 cases per 1000 in 2013. This study aims to identify and analyze the concerns faced by pregnant people in accessing OUD treatment on time, specifically focusing on New York.

Methods: The pooled sample of 225,275 individuals represents pregnant patients with OUD who received treatment at substance use disorder (SUD) facilities across New York State between …

Impact Of Trauma-Informed Care On The Restorative Justice Ecosystem, Amy Kight

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Created and titled as the ARTIC Project (Activating Restoration through Trauma-Informed Courts), this research addresses the gap between industrial/structural realities and relationship/nurturing realities within Substance Use Disorder (SUD) recovery and restorative justice paradigms. Grounded in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), the project emphasized that sustainable behavioral change requires balancing connection with correction (KPICD, 2022). Through a biblical lens, the researcher posits complete healing only comes from our Heavenly Father and occurs on an individual level. With this in mind, TBRI research affirms that organizations do not change people - people change people (KPICD, 2022). This intentional relationship between God, Creation, Others, …

Pilot Study: Integrating The Epic Stroke Narrator Into Inpatient Code Stroke Protocols To Improve Symptom Onset Identification And Reduce Intervention Times, Stacy L. Carter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In-hospital strokes are often underrecognized, leading to treatment delays and poorer outcomes compared to community-onset strokes. This scholarly project evaluated whether integrating the Epic Stroke Narrator into inpatient code stroke protocols could improve documentation of last known well time (LKWT) and reduce time to intervention. A 6-week quasi-experimental pilot study guided by the Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice and Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory was conducted on a neuroscience telemetry step-down unit at a comprehensive stroke center in Richmond, Virginia. Education on the Stroke Narrator was provided to bedside nurses and was followed by implementation and evaluation of narrator use …