Digital Commons Network^™

Visual Arts Teachers’ Perception Of Integrating Visual Arts To Help With Student Core Content Achievement, Amanda Munoz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was that local school districts in Texas do not offer a visual arts-integrated curriculum despite the known academic and social-emotional benefits for K–12 students. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of Texas K–12 visual arts teachers regarding arts integration to enhance core content learning. Grounded in Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory, the research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of arts integration and their recommendations for implementation. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 K–12 visual arts teachers in Texas who had at least 1 year of teaching experience. …

When Winning Got More Than Gold: Hope's Glory Days; How Hope College Built Its Physics Program, Mackenzie Niswonger, Ryan Mccreedy

Archives and Special Collections Quarterly

When Winning Got More Than Gold: Hope's Glory Days

Column: From the Director of Archives and Special Collections

How Hope College Built Its Physics Program

Artificial Intelligence Models For Automated And Semiautomated Analysis And Interpretation Of Clinical Electroencephalography, Sándor Beniczky, Birgit Frauscher, Fábio Nascimento, Shobi Sivathamboo, Catalina Rojas, Michael Sperling, Samden Lhatoo, Philippe Ryvlin, Levin Kuhlmann

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Electroencephalography is the most commonly used diagnostic tool for epilepsy. However, interpreting electroencephalograms (EEGs) requires expertise that is not widely available. Advances in digital technology and wearables have enabled large-scale EEG recording, generating vast amounts of data that cannot be managed through traditional visual interpretation by experts. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to augment human expertise and reduce workloads. The application of artificial neural networks in analysing clinical EEG recordings has led to major breakthroughs, bringing AI-based EEG interpretation closer to clinical implementation. In this Review, we summarise the most important research and development results in this field from …

Learning-Based Entanglement Generation For Quantum Routing, Tasdiqul Islam, Rasman Mubtasim Swargo, Md Arifuzzaman

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Entanglement generation in long-distance quantum networks is challenging because resources are limited and entanglement swapping is probabilistic. To maximize the rate of successful requests, existing quantum routing algorithms often rely on computationally expensive methods such as Integer Linear Programming (ILP) to determine which links to entangle and use for end-To-end entanglement generation. However, these approaches fail to meet the latency requirements of real-world quantum networks. In this study, we propose a Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based model that determines which links to entangle in each time slot, replacing the slow ILP-based link-selection phase used in prior algorithms. The proposed Deep Q-learning model …

Health-Related Quality-Of-Life Profiles In Adults With Tinnitus, Preeti Pandey, Hansapani Rodrigo, Megan Kruger, Eldré W. Beukes, De Wet Swanepoel, Anu Sharma, Gerhard Andersson, Vinaya Manchaiah

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Purpose: The study aimed to characterize the multidimensional burden of tinnitus on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using the EuroQol 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) moving beyond symptom severity alone.

Method: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using baseline data (N = 428, Mage = 54.9 years, 51.9% female) from several clinical trials examining the efficacy of internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for tinnitus. Data were collected using a series of online questionnaires including demographic, audiological, and clinical variables. HRQoL was assessed using the EQ-5D-5L profile dimensions.

Results: Participants primarily reported no problems with mobility (76.6%), …

Edge Computing-Enabled Secure Federated Learning For Anomaly Detection In Industrial Iot Sensor Streams, Wijdan Noaman Marzoog Al Mukhtar

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

The rise of the Industrial IoT (IIoT) will result in a surge of IIoT devices with high-velocity data streams requiring rapid, real-time analysis of these data streams to power predictive maintenance and assure cybersecurity. Centralized cloud-based approaches to anomaly detection are hindered by their inherent latency and privacy issues while independent or stand-alone approaches to edge-based anomaly detection do not have enough data to effectively detect anomalies. This paper presents a federated learning framework to collaboratively develop an anomaly detection model from multiple edge nodes, without sharing the raw sensor data, so that data sovereignty is preserved. Two major contributions …

Microwave Thermal Pre-Treatment To Improve Nickel Extraction From Lateritic Ore, Johana Borda, Daniel Sosa, Robinson Torres

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Two heat treatment processes for a nickeliferous laterite sample are presented, one by the conventional muffle route and the other by microwave. The heating was carried out in order to improve the dissolution of nickel in an acid medium. The study describes the changes observed in the mineral for the increase in temperature as a consequence of radiation in the microwave and in the muffle. The changes in the mineral crystalline phases were analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The leaching media consisted of a 1 M sulfuric acid solution at ambient conditions for 7 h. The interaction between the reagent and …

On The Existence, Uniqueness And Stability Of Solutions Of Sdes With State-Dependent Variable Exponent, Mustafa Avci

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

We study a time-inhomogeneous nonlinear SDE with drift and diffusion governed by state-dependent variable exponents. This framework generalizes models like the geometric Brownian motion (GBM) and the constant elasticity of variance (CEV), offering flexibility to capture complex dynamics while posing analytical challenges. Using a fixed-point approach, we prove existence and uniqueness, analyze higher-order moments, derive asymptotic estimates, and assess stability. Finally, we illustrate an application where Poisson’s equation admits a probabilistic representation via a timehomogeneous nonlinear SDE with state-dependent variable exponents.

Companion Matrices Associated To Stochastic Matrices, Andreas Boukas, Philip Feinsilver

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

Starting with a stochastic matrix, we study the behavior of powers of an associated companion matrix, which has the same characteristic polynomial as the original matrix. In general the companion matrix will have negative entries while maintaining rowsums equal to 1. We will find the growth rate even if the Ces`aro limit of the sums of the companion matrix diverge. Surprisingly, in the irreducible aperiodic case the powers of the companion matrix will converge even though the norm of the matrix exceeds 1 and it has possibly negative entries.

Z+-Valued Additive Processes In Law With Nonnegative Increments, Nadjib Bouzar

Journal of Stochastic Analysis

The goal of this article is to study in depth the subclass of Z+- valued additive processes in law with nonnegative increments. We establish key distributional properties of these processes and obtain some existence results under a variety of conditions. We show that they form a subclass of the family of inhomogeneous Markov chains with spatial homogeneity. We extend the notion of factoring introduced by Sato (2004, [9]) for Rd-valued additive processes in law to their Z+-valued counterparts with nonnegative increments. We give a sufficient condition for the existence of a factoring for these processes. Lastly, we obtain their representation …

School Principals’ Perspectives Regarding Successful Professional Development, Kathryn L. Bauserman, Diana Quatroche, Linda E. Martin

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This descriptive study examined K–12 principals’ perspectives on providing and supporting school‑based professional development in one Midwestern state. Survey responses from 300 principals explored how they defined successful professional development, how they determined teacher learning needs, and the challenges they encountered. Findings revealed that principals valued professional development aligned with instructional improvement, yet many relied on their control of decision‑making processes. Professional development was commonly delivered by school or district personnel, funded through limited local and state resources, and typically offered in short sessions. Principals identified success through surveys, observations, and student achievement data while noting challenges related to funding, …

Designing Smart Charity: A Tri-Tiered Systems Engineering Framework For Global Capital Allocation, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Traditional philanthropic capital allocation models consistently exhibit binary systemic failure modes: low-velocity palliative aid loops that induce sovereign moral hazards, or hyper-insulated frontier engineering moonshots that leave present-day socio-economic baselines highly vulnerable to exogenous shocks. This specification introduces the Tri-Tiered Systems Engineering Framework for Philanthropy, an objective, non-weaponizable technical model that treats charitable giving as an essential infrastructure risk-management protocol rather than a speculative moral luxury.

By segmenting capital allocation into three distinct, non-interchangeable tiers—Palliative Stabilization (Tier 1), Environmental Upgrades (Tier 2), and Frontier Innovation (Tier 3)—this architecture models global civilizational utility as a complex physical system. We leverage historical …

Reinterpreting The Lux-Zeplin High-Energy Nuclear Recoil Anomaly: Localized Boundary Strain And Substrate Pushback Dynamics As An Alternative To Heavy Inelastic Wimps, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Abstract

On September 1, 2026, the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) collaboration reported a single, highly unexpected high-energy nuclear recoil event within an extended energy window up to ~270 keV, exhibiting a 2.6-sigma significance level (0.5% background probability). While mainstream interpretations attribute this June 16, 2023 event to an ultra-heavy inelastic Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) exceeding \(200 \text{ GeV/c}^2\), this paper presents a rigorous mathematical alternative grounded in the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Cosmology (DEHP) framework. We demonstrate that this singular interaction can be perfectly modeled without exogenous dark matter particles. By treating the local vacuum as an incompressible fluid substrate bounded by …

Remote Display Spatial Pointing Using Processed Inertial Sensor Data From A Mobile Device, Chien-Feng Yu, Pei-Yu Chen, Eusden Lin, Shang Wei Lin, Dewita Sonya

Defensive Publications Series

A mobile computing device (e.g., a smartphone, smart watch, wearable device, augmented reality glasses, etc.) may function as a spatial pointer for a remote display by processing data from an on-board inertial measurement unit. An on-device spatial engine can translate the device's physical orientation and movement into two-dimensional screen coordinates. This translation process may, for example, involve techniques such as isotropic aspect ratio correction and a dynamic motion amplification layer that adjusts sensitivity based on angular velocity. The processed coordinates can then be streamed to the remote display over a low-latency network protocol. This approach may provide improved cursor control …

Macroscopic Momentum-Space Tomography: Utilizing High-Z Cryogenic Target Arrays As Resonant Phase-Retrieval Lenses For Substrate Interferometry, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This paper introduces a formal engineering architecture to transition the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Projection (DEHP) model from numerical simulation to empirical instrumentation. Integrating the spatial phase-retrieval mechanics of 3D Photoemission Orbital Tomography (3D-POT) with the high-density containment engineering of deep-underground liquid xenon detectors, we outline a method for a macroscopic momentum-space microscope. Rather than treating the September 1, 2026 LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV anomaly as an exogenous particle collision, we demonstrate that a high-Z condensed target array can function as an active, resonant phase-retrieval lens. We provide the complete mathematical tensor frameworks, specific material specifications, and structural engineering steps required to …

Localized Generation Of Privacy-Preserving Ambient Chronicles, Karl Tao, Gaurav Arora

Defensive Publications Series

A system is disclosed for generating a localized activity chronicle within a private environment. Local cameras capture sparse static snapshots of room environments over a local network. A local smart hub platform receives each snapshot directly into an ephemeral, volatile memory buffer. An on-device vision model, such as a quantized vision-language model executed by a local hardware neural processing unit or other local processing resource, processes the snapshot to generate a time-stamped natural-language description of activities within the private environment. Immediately following text generation, the raw snapshot is purged from the volatile memory, preventing raw image data from being stored …

Semantics-Aware And Controllable Hand-Object Grasp Generation, Alberto García, Dominik Thabo Beeler, Jesús Pérez, Vasileios Choutas, Hiroyasu Akada, Emre Aksan

Defensive Publications Series

Current systems configured to generate three-dimensional interactions between a hand and an object typically rely on fragmented computational pipelines that can fail to generalize to novel target objects and may offer restricted control. A system is disclosed for generating poses of a hand utilizing a hand diffusion transformer configured to process conditioning signals, such as target object geometry and a direction of a hand. The hand diffusion transformer may output a distance profile, which represents target distances between regions of a hand and surfaces of an object. A subsequent optimization layer can use the distance profile to refine candidate hand …

Cross-Surface Ad Narrative Orchestration Using Llm Sequential Reasoning With Engagement-Responsive Story Branching, Tamar Yakar, Ilia Labzovsky, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

A system orchestrates stateful, multi-chapter advertising narratives across different digital platforms within real-time bidding environments. The system separates the ad-serving process into an asynchronous control plane for computationally intensive planning and a synchronous data plane for low-latency auction execution. The asynchronous control plane uses a large language model (LLM) to generate a narrative directed acyclic graph (NDAG) that defines a story arc with branching logic based on potential user engagement. The system then compiles this narrative graph into a deterministic state transition matrix for execution at the network edge. To track user progression, the synchronous data plane uses a compact …

The Impact Of Art-Integrated Instruction On Handwriting Development Among Primary School Students, Maryam Ahmed Alomair

Scientific Journal of King Faisal University: Humanities and Management Sciences

This study explores the impact of art-integrated instruction on handwriting development among primary school students compared to the traditional approach. The study perceives handwriting as a form of visual and creative expression with the capacity to foster greater motivation and motor control, positioning it as more than simply a handwriting skill. A quantitative quasi-experimental pretest–post-test design was used for the study, comprising 39 primary school students divided into two main groups, namely, the experimental group (n = 20) and the control group (n = 19). For a period of four weeks, the control group continued to receive the traditional introduction …

Employee Salary Report [University Of Missouri - St. Louis] 2026, University Of Missouri-St. Louis

UMSL Salary Report

No abstract provided.

Chemistry In The City Module, Ji Kim

Open Educational Resources

This project integrates a historical environmental health report from the CUNY Digital History Archive into an online Introductory Chemistry course to connect core chemical concepts with real urban pollution issues. Students analyze perchloroethylene contamination in apartments above dry cleaners, apply concepts such as volatility, vapor pressure, and concentration units, and reflect on chemical principles underlying indoor air pollution.

Chemistry In The City Module, Ji Kim

Open Educational Resources

This project integrates a historical environmental health report from the CUNY Digital History Archive into an online Introductory Chemistry course to connect core chemical concepts with real urban pollution issues. Students analyze perchloroethylene contamination in apartments above dry cleaners, apply concepts such as volatility, vapor pressure, and concentration units, and reflect on chemical principles underlying indoor air pollution.

"Our Heritage From The People", William Lindsey Mcdonald

Writings

A lecture presented to a history seminar at the University of North Alabama in March of 1979. The lecture addresses the geography and geology of North Alabama, removal of indigenous people, cultural influence of settlers, and development of the Tennessee Valley into contemporary settlements.

Motivating Second-Order Differential Equation Models Beyond The Spring–Mass System, Katherine E. Rutherford, John C. Borger

CODEE Journal

Students in introductory differential equations courses often learn to associate specific equation types with familiar physical systems. While this approach supports procedural fluency, it can inhibit transfer learning: students recognize familiar forms rather than construct models from first principles. This paper presents a modeling-first instructional approach designed to help students recognize the shared structure of second-order differential equations across diverse contexts. Students derive governing equations from fundamental physical laws for multiple systems, including an Inductor, Resistor, and Capacitor (LRC) electrical circuit, a simple pendulum, and viscous pipe flow. Through guided comparison, students identify common components such as inertia, damping, restoring …

A Multiwavelength Study Of A Long-Duration Very-High-Energy Flare From Bl Lacertae With Veritas, Avery Archer, Et Al.

Physics & Astronomy Faculty publications

We report the first observations of a long-duration very-high-energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) flare from BL Lacertae (VER J2202+422), taken with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS). On 2022 October 15, the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected elevated GeV activity originating from this blazar. This triggered a multiwavelength campaign, which includes observations from VERITAS, Swift, NuSTAR, and select optical and radio observatories. VERITAS observed the source for a total of ∼9.8 hr between 2022 September 1 and 2022 December 1. An analysis of these data yields a ∼28σ detection of the source. While previously observed VHE …

The Colorado River Water Supply Crisis In A Few Graphs: Part 2 Agricultural Water Use In The Lower Basin, Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

Reductions in Lower Basin water use during the last four years, including

forecast use in 2026, are similar to the initial targets for Lower Basin shortages

described in the Final Environmental Impact Statement for Post-2026

Operational Guidelines and Strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead (FEIS)

and the accompanying Record of Decision (ROD).

6 Lower Basin consumptive

use in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and forecast for 2026 has been the smallest for

the entire 2010-2026 period. These four years of smallest use are between 1.4

and 1.7 million acre feet/year (maf/yr) less than the 7.50 maf/yr amount

generally recognized as …

Re: Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Draft Final Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Field Sampling And Investigation Plan: Bres No. 46 – Missoula Mine, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Draft Final Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Field Sampling And Investigation Plan: Bres No 135 – Washoe Sampling Works, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Draft Final Reclamation Improvement Field Sampling And Investigation Plan: Bres No. 68 – Little Mina-2, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Draft Final Reclamation Improvement Field Sampling And Investigation Plan: Bres No. 171 – Blaine Center, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.