Digital Commons Network^™

Neural Symphony Of Flow Experience: Evidence For High-Dimensional Metastable Dynamics, Abdelrahman B. M. Eldaly, Kris Zhangguang Kang, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Leanne Lai-Hang Chan, Keng Siau, Xiao Fan Liu, Richard Huskey, Langtao Chen, Tejaswini Yelamanchili, Rene Weber

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Flow, an optimal experience characterized by deep immersion and engagement in an activity, has been extensively studied in behavioral research. However, its neural dynamic mechanism remains poorly understood. In a within-subject video gaming experiment, we captured neural activity underlying flow, boredom, and anxiety using a 64-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) system. Compared to boredom and anxiety, flow exhibits the highest global functional connectivity, metastability, and dimensionality of dynamic functional connectivity patterns, suggesting that flow is a highly adaptable process that is supported by high-dimensional neural dynamics. Unlike previous studies that focused on identifying static or localized brain activity, we examine the neural …

September 2026 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Insect Monitoring Without Pitfalls: Seven Steps For Robust Insect Sensing Systems, Jamie Alison, Luca Pegoraro, Jarrett Blair, Yuval Cohen, Birgen Haest, Jacob Idec, Jacob Kamminga, Jenna Lawson, Meng Li, Leandro Aparecido Do Nascimento, Charlotte L. Outhwaite, Benjamin Rutschmann, Maximilian Sittinger, Mariana Abarca, Et Al

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

1. Data shortages fuel controversy about an ongoing insect biodiversity crisis. Insects are immensely diverse and functionally critical for ecosystems, yet data on their trends remain patchy and biased. Sensors, ranging from camera traps and acoustic recorders to weather radar stations, are set to transform data collection in entomol- ogy. Meanwhile, AI models that extract biological information from sensors are improving at a startling rate.

2. Realising the potential of automated monitoring means progressing from proof- of-concept studies to scalable insect sensing systems. However, stakeholders face severe operational challenges when adopting a growing suite of sensors, models and protocols for …

Bayesian Network: An Explainable Artificial Intelligence (Xai) Approach To Human Performance Modelling For Control Room Operations, Houda Briwa

Theses

Alarm systems in process industry control rooms routinely exceed the performance targets set by standards such as EEMUA 191, placing operators under conditions where reliable performance is most difficult to achieve. Predicting how operators respond under such conditions is central to risk management, yet current Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) methods depend on expert judgement that is rarely tested against operational evidence, assume independence among factors known to interact, and do not explicitly represent the cognitive processes through which performance emerges. In Resilience Engineering terms, these methods encode Work-as-Imagined with limited means to assess how far expectations hold when work is …

Stochastic Control Of Inventory And Scheduling Decisions In An Open Network Of Repairables, Erhun Özkan

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

We study maintenance operations for capital goods with repairable components. Because the downtime of a capital good is costly, the maintenance provider keeps an inventory of spare parts to quickly replace broken parts of the capital goods. After the replacement, the broken part is added to the repair facility’s repair queue. Upon a part breakdown, if there is no spare part in the inventory, then the maintenance provider has two options: (i) it can backorder the spare part demand, (ii) it can execute an emergency repair, which is done immediately and quickly, and is followed by a quick installation of …

A Full-Scale Watertight Workflow Numerical Study For A Triangular Fin And Tube Heat Exchanger, Hamdi̇ Selçuk Çeli̇k, Bahadir Doğan, Lati̇fe Berri̇n Erbay

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this study, the thermo-hydraulic characteristics of an air-cooled triangular finned tube heat exchanger were analyzed numerically. The full-scale heat exchanger was modeled using Ansys Fluent watertight workflow, considering water as the primer fluid to precisely investigate the effects of geometrical factors. The effects of fin height, fin width, and fin spacing of the triangular fins on the performance of the heat exchanger were examined using k-ω turbulence model. A basic finned-tube heat exchanger model, which was manufactured as a monolithic structure without tube-fin contact resistance by milling from aluminum 5083 material, was tested in an air tunnel to verify …

Market Orientation And Strategic Performance In Global Firms: A Sequential Mediation Model Of Innovation And Supply Chain Resilience, Meisam Karami

Journal of Global Business Insights

This study examines how market orientation is associated with strategic performance in globally operating firms through the sequential mediating roles of innovation and supply chain resilience. Drawing on the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the research proposes a capability-sequencing framework in which market orientation reflects a sensing capability, innovation represents a seizing capability, and supply chain resilience embodies a reconfiguring capability that stabilizes value creation under environmental disruption. Using cross-sectional survey data from 356 manufacturing and service firms engaged in international activities, partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that …

Technological Appropriation As A Strategic Policy In Smes: Building Anticipatory Capabilities For Digital Transformation, Hernán Cornejo

Journal of Global Business Insights

Abstract: Technological appropriation has become a critical strategic issue for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) undergoing digital transformation. While many SMEs adopt digital tools to address immediate operational needs, fewer succeed in embedding them into organizational routines, strategic decision-making, and long-term adaptation. This study examines technological appropriation as a key mechanism through which SMEs convert digital adoption into strategic organizational capability. Drawing on the literature on technological appropriation, dynamic capabilities, and strategic foresight, the paper proposes and empirically tests an integrated model. A mixed-methods design was employed, combining a survey of 198 SMEs from Argentina, Chile, and Colombia with 15 …

Inflation-Differential Rule Versus (De Facto Soft-Peg) Discretion: Exchange-Rate Management Approach In Developing Economies, Behnam Ebrahimi, Mohammad Vaez Barzani Dr.

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

Many developing and emerging economies officially report a managed floating exchange-rate regime tailored with a fundamental exchange rate management approach, while in practice operating a de facto soft peg, characterized by discretionary, near-constant exchange-rate depreciation aimed at dampening inflation expectations. This discretionary approach—often justified as a pragmatic response to inflationary pressure—produces a hybrid regime that lacks the transparency and credibility emphasized in IMF policy guidance. This study evaluates whether substituting Discretionary Soft-Peg Exchange Rate Management approach with an Inflation-Differential Rule of Exchange Rate Management approach, which links exchange-rate adjustments to the inflation differential between domestic and rest of the world, …

Fuse Annual Report 2026, Franklin University Library

FUSE Annual Report

Learn about FUSE's performance during the August, 2025 - July, 2026 Academic Year in the Franklin University Library's annual report.

Aligning Tenure With Institutional Values: Supporting And Rewarding Engaged Scholarship In College Tenure Policies, Sian Bareket, Alexander R. Barron, Abigail O’Meara, Charavee Basnet Chettri

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

Scholars have described the current era as a polycrisis, with climate change overlapping and interacting with other social justice and environmental challenges. While the expertise and capacity housed in academia has tremendous potential to help society face these threats, scholars and others have long critiqued academia as too isolated from the practical problems of society and front-line communities. While engaged scholarship (ES) connects academia and real-world problems, tenure policies are usually designed to primarily reward “traditional” scholarship focused on journal articles and academic books. This study sought to investigate the contrast between higher education institutions’ publicly shared values aligned with …

Scientific Uncertainty As Political Aggression: A Manifesto For Those Who Value Science And Want To Save It From State And Corporate Control, Stephen Demeo

Publications and Research

A manifesto is an opportunity to publicly express strongly held beliefs about a topic that is personally important to an author. It is analytical as it is creative. “Scientific Uncertainty as Political Aggression” is a manifesto that intersects science and politics. It urges those interested in science to examine two different but related topics: scientific uncertainty in measurement—what it is, how it is determined, why it’s important— and the magnification of uncertainty through legal and linguistic tactics used by right-wing politicians and politically supported corporations.

For some time now, the Republican Establishment has cast excessive doubt on scientific findings through …

State Of The Fisheries: Status Reports Of The Fisheries And Aquatic Resources Of Western Australia 2024/25, Stephen J. Newman, Ainslie Denham, Lebo Selemela, Jenny Moore

Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

The Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of Western Australia (SRFAR) provides an annual update on the state of the fish stocks and other aquatic resources of Western Australia (WA). These reports outline the most recent assessments of the cumulative risk status for each of the aquatic resources (assets) within WA’s six bioregions using an Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) approach. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Dveelopment’s (DPIRD) risk based EBFM framework is the WA Government’s basis for management of all of WA’s aquatic resources.

Assets examined in each bioregion include the meso-scale ecosystems and aquatic …

Ultrafast Spectroscopy Of Organic Materials In Strong Light–Matter Interaction And Terahertz Optics, Kamyar Rashidi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ultrafast spectroscopy is a powerful tool for investigating phenomena that occur on extremely short timescales and for probing ultrabroadband spectral responses enabled by its ultrashort laser pulses. These capabilities are essential for advancing both the fundamental understanding of light–matter interactions and the development of next-generation optoelectronic technologies. The first part of this thesis investigates the ultrafast dynamics of organic exciton–polaritons and their application to controlling molecular excited-state processes using momentum-resolved pump–probe spectroscopy. A major challenge in these systems is the dark-state problem, where photoexcitation predominantly populates long-lived excitonic reservoir states that obscure the in trinsic dynamics of the hybrid light–matter …

Bank Soundness Index For Indonesia: The Generalized Dynamic Principal Component Analysis Approach, Yusita Octina Budiyanti, Nasrudin Nasrudin

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

In Indonesia, the Bank Soundness Index (BSI) serves as an early warning instrument for assessing the stability of Conventional Commercial Banks (CCBs) and Islamic Commercial Banks (ICBs). This study develops the BSI employing the Generalized Dynamic Principal Component Analysis (GDPCA) methodology and incorporates the fundamental indicators from the Financial Soundness Indicators released by the IMF. The BSI for CCBs is formulated using three primary components, with the Operating Expense to Operating Income ratio assigned the greatest weight. Likewise, the BSI for ICBs is constituted by three primary components, with the Liquid Asset ratio carrying the greatest weight. The developed BSI …

Restoring Linguistic Grounding In Vla Models Via Train-Free Attention Recalibration, Ninghao Zhang, Bin Zhu, Shijie Zhou, Jingjing Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models enable robots to perform manipulation tasks directly from natural language instructions and are increasingly viewed as a foundation for generalist robotic policies. However, their reliability under Out-Of-Distribution (OOD) instructions remains underexplored. In this paper, we reveal a critical failure mode in which VLA policies continue executing visually plausible actions even when the language instruction contradicts the scene. We refer to this phenomenon as linguistic blindness, where VLA policies prioritize visual priors over instruction semantics during action generation. To systematically analyze this issue, we introduce ICBench, a diagnostic benchmark constructed from the LIBERO dataset that probes language–action coupling …

Facevalue: Exploring Real-Time Self-View Overlays To Prompt Meaning-Oriented Self-Awareness In Remote Meetings, Gun Woo (Warren) Park, Anthony Tang, Fanny Chevalier

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In remote video meetings, visual non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions or head movements, are seen continuously but often only partially. This increases ambiguity compared to in-person settings and can cause misinterpretation or misalignment between intended and perceived meaning. Motivated by communication theories, we designed FaceValue, a technology probe that augments the self-view with private, real-time overlays. These overlays are subtle, suggestive prompts intended to help attendees reflect on how their cues might be interpreted by others. To invite personal interpretation, FaceValue avoids behavioral labeling and instead aims to support meaning-oriented self-awareness: recognizing when visible cues may unintentionally (mis)communicate intent. …

From Green Presence To Perceived Greenery: Everyday Mobility And Perceptual Availability In Singapore, Ziheng Zeng, Sonny Rosenthal, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban greenery may be abundant in transit-oriented cities, yet green presence does not necessarily become perceptually available to people moving through it. This paper distinguishes green supply, perceived greenery, and green experience, and examines the step at which greenery enters awareness during travel. The study combined 21 days of ecological momentary assessment from 68 participants in Singapore, yielding 6,794 in-trip moments, and 25 route-reconstruction interviews. A satellite normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) provided a top-down baseline of green supply, and a street-level green view index (GVI) from Google Street View (GSV), matched to 5,824 moments, provided a co-located eye-level baseline. …

Towards More Inclusive Ai Systems In Cities, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in urban infrastructures and governance, shaping how people, spaces, and futures are classified, prioritised, and managed. Yet, most AI systems are developed within a narrow set of linguistic and geopolitical contexts and exported globally, embedding particular epistemic assumptions into diverse urban environments. Even where formal inclusion metrics are met, such asymmetries can render certain populations and realities less legible within algorithmic systems. Prevailing approaches in digital inclusion—centred on fairness metrics, representation, or access—presume technologies as politically inert and bounded. Yet, the adaptive and probabilistic behaviour of contemporary AI disrupts this premise, challenging the idea …

Reinterpreting The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Dispute In The Nile Basin Through The Game Theories Of Attrition And Bargaining, Olileanya Amuche Ezugwu, Felix C. Chidozie, Adeola A. Adebajo

Journal of Strategic Security

Why have more than a decade of negotiations, mediation efforts, and diplomatic interventions failed to produce a binding agreement on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)? This article examines the hydro-politics of the Nile Basin through the lens of game theory, focusing on how bargaining behavior, strategic persistence, and competing perceptions of gains and losses shape state interactions. Drawing on the game of attrition and the bargaining game, the study analyzes the evolving strategies of Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan in the context of dam construction, filling, and operation. Rather than viewing the dispute solely as a contest over water allocation, …

Revised Draft Final Annual Operations And Maintenance (O&M) Report: Butte Treatment Lagoon (Btl) System – 2025, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Final 2023 Unreclaimed Sites Sampling: Ur-42 Site Evaluation Summary Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Monthly Progress Report Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Consent Decree Partial Remedial Design/Remedial Action And Operation And Maintenance - September 2026, Atlantic Richfield Company

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

What Makes An Analogy Effective For Students’ Learning Of Mathematics? Conceptualising Analogy Effectiveness For Teaching Mathematics, Vesife Hatisaru, Steven Richardson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Analogies are commonly used in mathematics teaching as a means to promote understanding of new potentially abstract concepts, by linking them to well-understood contexts. Despite strong intuition that analogies are helpful in supporting students’ learning of mathematics, there is a lack of agreement on how to objectively judge the utility or conceptual affordances of these analogies. In this paper, we aim to conceptualise how to assess the effectiveness of an analogy by employing Gentner’s structure-mapping theory to analogies and explore two teacher-made analogies (the ‘child-mother’ and the ‘machine’) for learning the formal definition of a function as illustrative examples. By …

Allochthonous Particulate Organic Carbon In Blue Carbon Ecosystems: Implications For Accounting, Stability, And Policy, Anirban Akhand, Inés Mazarrasa, Stacey M. Trevathan-Tackett, K. M.G. Mostofa, Abhra Chanda, Hongbin Liu, Hiroshi Sakugawa, Si Liang Li, Cong Qiang Liu, Catherine E. Lovelock, Paul Lavery, Hilary Kennedy, Peter I. Macreadie

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) store a significant amount of organic carbon (OC) in their soils, including OC sequestered by other ecosystems and transported into these ecosystems, referred to as allochthonous OC. This study reviews the state-of-the-art knowledge on the abundance and sources (including still unexplored ones) of allochthonous particulate organic carbon (POC) and reviews the ways allochthonous POC is managed under the current blue carbon policy frameworks for carbon benefits accounting in blue carbon restoration and conservation projects. Based on a review of 102 studies, we find that 56 ± 25% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) deposits in BCEs …

A Framework For Automated Quantity Extraction From .Ifc Models And Normalized Bid Comparison, Asmaa Mohamed Farouk

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate bid comparison remains a major challenge in construction tendering due to

differences in Bill of Quantities formats, item naming conventions, and pricing methods across

contractor submissions. These variations require time-consuming manual work and often lead to

subjective decisions. This research presents a computational framework that uses Building

Information Modeling through the .ifc file format, combined with text analysis techniques for

automated bid normalization.

The developed system uses a dual-component approach. Phase 1 extracts quantities from .ifc

model files using 3D geometric calculations, automated element classification. Phase 2 uses text

mining with a domain-specific dictionary of construction terms to interpret …

Quaternionic Analogues Of Zagier’S Sums Of Binary Quadratic Forms, Ajmain A. Yamin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Let K be the real numbers R, complex numbers C or quaternions H. Let O ⊂ K be a full rank discrete Euclidean subring of K. We investigate certain functions F_{k,Δ,O} : K → R indexed by positive integers k, Δ with k odd. When K = R or C, these functions recover Zagier’s sums of binary quadratic forms and Karabulut’s sums of binary Hermitian forms respectively. When K = H, the F_{k,Δ,O} functions are new quaternionic analogues of Zagier's sums whose definition involves sums of binary Hamiltonian forms as defined by Parkkonen-Paulin.

We prove that for fixed "weight" k …

Modeling Large Language Model Cognition, Eleni Angelou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project builds three core directions in a philosophy of cognitive science for large language models (LLMs): 1) interpreting LLM behavior, 2) analyzing the system in terms of Marr’s three levels, and 3) mapping the correspondence between behavioral outputs and the internals of the system. It consists of the following three chapters accordingly:

Dennettian Stances and Large Language Models

The aim of this chapter is to argue that there are convincing grounds for applying Dennett’s framework of stances to LLMs against worries that doing so produces “counterfeit people”. After introducing the intentional and design stances, I take sycophancy as a …

Cavity Optomechanics Via Mechanically Induced Coupling Of Optical Modes, Satyam S. Jha

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis introduces a transverse, symmetry-breaking mode of optomechanical coupling that departs from the conventional dispersive and dissipative interactions, taking its motivating platform from whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators, where a mechanical displacement lifts the near-degeneracy of azimuthal mode pairs and couples them. After reviewing the standard optomechanical model and the sideband-cooling phenomenology it underlies, we derive the Hamiltonian for the transverse-coupling system and first study its Hamiltonian dynamics, without drive or dissipation. Recast in terms of Schwinger pseudospin operators, the model exhibits a Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcation separating stable and unstable dynamical regimes. In the stable regime, the mechanical nonlinearity permits controlled …

Applications Of Entanglement In Quantum Information, Nada Ali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Entanglement is the resource that most sharply distinguishes quantum information processing from its classical counterpart, and this thesis examines it from two complementary directions: how it can be detected and quantified, and how it, together with the broader machinery of quantum correlations, interference, and measurement, can be put to use. We first study two simple, measurable conditions that detect bipartite entanglement, and show that the extent to which either is violated yields a lower bound on the negativity of a state. The bound is established for two qubits, extended to systems of arbitrary finite dimension, and sharpened when partial knowledge …