Digital Commons Network^™

Influence Of Material Composition And Constitutive Representation Of Cold Recycled Asphalt Mixtures On Mechanical Response And Pavement Performance, Fausto Bisanti

Doctoral Dissertations

Cold recycling technologies provide a sustainable approach for pavement rehabilitation by reusing existing materials while reducing the consumption of virgin resources, transportation requirements, production temperatures, and construction-related environmental impacts. However, the mechanical response of cold recycled mixtures (CRM) differs from that of both conventional hot mix asphalt and unbound granular materials and is influenced by material composition, volumetric characteristics, confinement, curing, and stress state. These characteristics create uncertainty regarding material selection, mechanical characterization, and the prediction of the structural contribution of cold recycled layers. Further opportunities to enhance the sustainability of cold recycling lie in the incorporation of alternative recycled …

Assessing The Skill Of Stock Mutual Fund Managers, Rupsha Dey

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores whether active equity mutual fund managers are skilled enough topick stocks and create portfolios that outperform the market on average. Much of the existing literature finds marginal or negligible evidence of skill which is in line with the standard theory of efficient market hypothesis. In this study I explore the role of investment style in assessing skill among active mutual funds. In chapter 1 of my dissertation, I use cross section method to investigate skill among active mutual funds. In this method, a bootstrap analysis is performed to estimate the distribution of outperformance that arises purely by …

Reliable Gait Analysis With Context-Aware Wearable Sensor Systems, Stella Abena Ansah

Doctoral Dissertations

Accurate gait analysis is important for clinical assessment, rehabilitation monitoring, fall-risk evaluation, sports performance analysis, and the control of assistive devices. While wearable sensor systems offer practical solutions for estimating key gait parameters outside the laboratory, their accuracy is often affected by sensor noise, drift, activity-dependent movement patterns, and changes in sensor response over time. These challenges limit their practical use in real-world settings, where continuous ground-truth validation and repeated laboratory calibration are not always available.This study addresses these challenges by developing context-aware wearable sensing methods for reliable gait analysis during everyday activities. The proposed approaches use information about the …

Characterization Of Coronal Mass Ejections Near 1 Au Using Simultaneous Measurements From Multiple Spacecraft, L1 And Stereo-A: 2022 To 2025, Sahanaj Aktar Banu

Doctoral Dissertations

In this thesis, we construct a database of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed by Windand STEREO-A between January 2022 and May 2025, near the maximum of Solar Cycle 25. During this interval, STEREO-A moved from 35◦ east to 35◦ west of the Sun–Earth line, providing a unique opportunity to investigate the longitudinal extent of CMEs near 1 au. A total of 106 CMEs were identified, of which only 39 events (∼ 37%) were detected by both spacecraft. The probability of simultaneous detection decreases rapidly with increasing angular separation, dropping to about 50% at separations of 14◦—20◦. These results suggest that …

Individual Differences In The Granularity, Complexity, And Diversity Of Bodily Sensations, Alexandra L. Ecker

Doctoral Dissertations

The majority of theories of emotion posit that the body is central to the experience of emotion (see, e.g., Barrett & Bar, 2009; Barrett, 2006; Lindquist, 2013; James, 1884; Schacter & Singer, 1962; Gendron & Feldman Barrett, 2009; Stemmler, 2004; Kreibig, 2010; Russell, 2003). Thus, it is no surprise that body awareness, or the subjective awareness of internal sensations (Mehling et al., 2009), has gained much attention in emotion research. There is some evidence that body awareness (BA) is related to both affective experience (i.e., general feelings of pleasantness/unpleasantness and activation/deactivation; MacVittie et al., 2025a), emotional intensity (i.e., the strength …

Multiaxial Characterization And Machine Learning – Enhanced Modeling Of Anisotropic Materials For Forming Applications, Abrar Salam Ebrahim

Doctoral Dissertations

Reliable prediction of material deformation in forming processes requires constitutive models that accurately capture anisotropy while remaining practical to calibrate. This dissertation combines mechanical testing, full-field deformation measurements, finite element (FE) analysis, and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to address three complementary requirements: representation of complex material behavior, characterization across an expanded multiaxial loading space, and experiment-efficient identification of advanced anisotropic yield functions using machine learning. Chapter 2 develops a hybrid ANN-enhanced constitutive framework for Grade 1 commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) sheet metal to describe temperature and strain rate-dependent hardening and anisotropy. Implemented in an Abaqus user material subroutine, the framework …

Systems Analyses For Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management: Road- Stream Crossings And Urban Drainage Networks, Koorosh Asadifakhr

Doctoral Dissertations

Road-stream crossings (RSCs) and municipal storm sewer networks convey water across and beneath the built environment, and their failure carries consequences for flood risk, aquatic habitat, and public safety. Much of this infrastructure is aging and incompletely characterized, and it is managed under simultaneous budget, coordination, and data constraints. Replacement needs exceed available funding, responsibility is divided among agencies with differing mandates, and asset inventories are maintained for operational rather than analytical purposes. Decisions with large and long-lived consequences are therefore made without the systematic analysis that would inform them. This dissertation develops systems analyses directed at that gap, combining …

Uv-Vis Spectrophotometric Strategies For Stormwater Analysis: Lab- And Field-Verified Multivariate Regression, Monte Carlo Assessment Of Sampling Protocols, Cost And Power Budgets, And Field-Validated Best Practices, Daniel Macadam

Doctoral Dissertations

Stormwater runoff conveys nutrients, sediments, and pollutants to receiving waters. Conventional monitoring produces temporally sparse observations that introduce substantial uncertainty in pollutant load estimates. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry offers a continuous, high-resolution alternative but lacks a standardized calibration framework, formal comparison with conventional protocols, and field-validated operational guidance for stormwater applications. This dissertation addresses these three gaps.The first chapter developed and compared multivariate regression models (principal component regression, partial least squares regression, and artificial neural network) for predicting the concentrations of total nitrogen, nitrate, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, reactive orthophosphate, and total suspended solids from UV-Vis absorbance spectra. The calibration …

Improving Physical And Biochemical Properties Of Gelatin Microgels For Tissue Engineering, Ziqiang Guan

Doctoral Dissertations

Gelatin-based microgels are modular biomaterial building blocks that can be injected and assembled into three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering. Their performance, however, is limited by the transport properties of individual particles, the difficulty of directly encapsulating cells while preserving viability and secondary crosslinking capacity, and the limited ability of passive scaffolds to provide externally controlled physical stimulation. This dissertation investigated three complementary strategies to expand the structural and functional capabilities of gelatin-based microgel systems. First, thermally stable porous gelatin/alginate microgels were produced using calcium-mediated ionic crosslinking and subsequently annealed with microbial transglutaminase. The resulting assemblies maintained internal porosity at physiological …

Baseline Studies To Quantify Microplastic Pollution In Living And Non-Living Estuarine Resources In Selected U.S. Atlantic Coast Estauries, Taja Sims-Harper

Doctoral Dissertations

Global plastic pollution is increasing in part because more than 90% of plastic is discarded and not recycled. Plastic travels from rivers, shorelines, coastal soils, and estuaries, ultimately reaching the open ocean, where it now represents the most abundant form of marine debris. Degradation of plastic polymers has resulted in smaller particles <5mm in size termed microplastics (MP). Attempts to quantify the amount of MP, especially in the oceans, are stymied by the variable interpretations of MP in samples. Their ability to remain suspended in the water column for long periods, means marine species are likely to accumulate MP over time in their muscles and organs and thus, marine MP have been reported to have multiple lasting effects in marine organisms around the world. The aim of this dissertation was to build a baseline of microplastic (MP) concentrations for Great Bay Estuary (GBE) and evaluate MP distribution patterns in the GBE water column and living resources.Surface water samples were collected May to November, 2018-2022 at multiple sites. The body burden of MP in three ecologically important taxa of Great Bay Estuary, NH (GBE) was determined from 310 specimens of each collected through the months of May through October in 2021 and 2022. and oysters were collected throughout the months of June and August of 2022 from two regions, Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, and Casco Bay, Maine. Microplastic burdens were quantified in gut content from European green crabs, Carcinus maenas, whole body preparations of Eastern oysters, Crassostrea virginica, and gut, gill, and muscle tissues from Atlantic silverside fish, Menidia menidia. Oysters collected throughout the months of June-August 2022 from two regions, Rehoboth Bay, Delaware, and Casco Bay, Maine, were analyzed for MP content to 1 determine if there were consistent predictable differences between farmed and wild. All three studies used standardized methods of separation, chemical digestion of biogenic matter, and filtration of MP, after which MP were quantified and analyzed using laser direct infrared (LDIR) spectrometry on all samples and specimens. Across 389 water samples, MP were detected in GBE waters at an average of 248±23 particles m-3. Particle quantity and morphology varied significantly across sites on any particular sampling day. On average, MP shapes were nearly circular. The most commonly identified particles were polyvinyl chloride (the third most common synthetic plastic used for packaging and construction), polypropylene (the most used thermoplastic polymer in food containers, automotive parts, and packaging), and polyamide (mostly known as nylon and used for automotive and machinery parts). Simulations using velocity fields obtained from hydrodynamic modeling and offline particle tracking algorithms showed significant spatial variation of MP particles sampled high and low tide, and particle distributions changed rapidly at all sites and at most sampling stations, usually by day two of a simulation. Most MP extracted from tissues were approximately 10-50 μm in diameter and had aspect ratios close to 1-1.5, indicative of rounder shapes. Most polymers detected (88±2%) were biogenic as opposed to anthropogenic, and 40±5% of biogenic particles were rubber. In living resources, the predominant anthropogenic MP among 14 total MP polymer types detected across all 40 specimens were polyurethane and polypropylene. European green crabs, C. maenas (n=20), had a gut MP range from 0-3 ́104 MP. Eastern oysters, C. virginica (n=10), had a whole-body range of 257-8 ́103 MP. Tissues from Atlantic silverside fish, M. menidia (n=10), had MP ranging from 725 to 11 ́104 in their guts, MP ranging from 11 ́104 to 32 ́104 in their gills, and MP in muscle tissue ranging from 2 ́103 to 3 ́103 MP. 2

Microplastics were found in 100% of farmed and wild oysters collected from Rehoboth and Casco Bays. The MP were predominantly circular, £ 50 μm in size, round (very few fibers), and consisted of many types of polymers. Numbers of MP g-1 wet tissue in Casco Bay oysters ranged …

Assessing The Evolution Of Large Gene Families Through Phylogenetic Focusing, Christopher John Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations

Our understanding of gene and gene family evolution has advanced rapidly in recent decades thanks to the prolific expansion of available sequence and genomic data for non-model species. While these resources enable deeper and more complex phylogenies of gene evolution, maintaining good input sequence alignment quality and computational efficiency requires us to select which genomic sequences are most relevant. Instead of using subjective criteria, this dissertation emphasizes a novel, phylogeny-first method for selecting input sequences called Phylogenetic Focusing. Chapter One introduces this program and explains how its six major steps enable sequence selection in a phylogeny-based manner, helping ensure subsequent …

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Mental Health Impacts As Co-Benefits Of Flood Risk Mitigation, Sebastian Rowan

Doctoral Dissertations

Flooding is the most perilous natural hazard in the United States. Flood risk has historically been mitigated by constructing flood defenses such as sea walls or levees that are designed to prevent flood waters from reaching developed areas. However, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of flood events beyond the magnitude for which many flood defenses were designed, and the presence of flood defenses has incentivized development within floodplains significantly increasing the consequences of flooding when these systems fail. Total annual flood risk in the U.S. has been estimated in the tens of billions of dollars; however such …

Enhancing Implementation Of Balanced Mix Design For Asphalt Mixtures Through Improved Material Selection, Cracking Characterization, And Performance Prediction, Shubham Harishbhai Modi

Doctoral Dissertations

Balanced Mix Design (BMD) has emerged as a promising approach for improving asphalt mixture performance by balancing rutting and cracking resistance through performance tests rather than relying solely on volumetric criteria. Therefore, its application is increasingly being explored by transportation agencies for both highway and airfield domains. Despite its advantages, several challenges still limit the widespread implementation of BMD. These challenges include uncertainties associated with the compatibility of asphalt mixture components, the limited practicality of existing cracking performance tests, and the lack of performance prediction tools suitable for process control during mixture production. This dissertation addresses these critical challenges by …

Cultural Food Security And Alternative Food Network Participation: Participatory Research With Sub-Saharan African Immigrants In The Northeastern United States, Luyue Zheng

Doctoral Dissertations

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) immigrants are a growing population in the U.S. and experience a high prevalence of food insecurity. As many report challenges accessing healthy and culturally appropriate foods after migration, cultural food security is a growing concern. Alternative food networks (AFNs), such as farmers markets and community gardens, provide opportunities for immigrant communities to produce and access culturally important foods to support their cultural food security. Beyond improving food access, AFNs may also enhance the agency and sustainability dimensions of food security by creating opportunities for immigrants to produce, distribute, and access culturally appropriate foods through local food systems, …

A Systematic Study Of Solar Wind Tangential Discontinuity Inclination And Their Impact On Dayside Magnetospheric Dynamics Using Global Mhd Simulations, Neha Srivastava

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a systematic investigation of how the inclination of solar wind tangential discontinuities controls the dayside magnetospheric response using global MHD simulations conducted with the OpenGGCM model. This study is motivated by the need to understand how TD orientation controls dayside magnetospheric response, and adopts the view that the bow shock (BS) and magnetopause (MP) can be treated as large-scale discontinuities, such that their interaction with an interplanetary TD may be interpreted as a nonlinear discontinuity–discontinuity interaction. Within this framework, the role of TD orientation in governing the coupled evolution of disturbances across the dayside magnetospheric system is …

Theology As The Queen Of The Sciences? Kuyper, Bavinck, And Dooyeweerd, Steve Bishop, Renato Coletto

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate Commencement Address 2026: Let's Go Exploring, Tom J. Clark

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Shocking Words And Helper Spirit, Joel E. Kok

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

A Kuyperian Solution To The Contemporary Problem Of Individualism Manifested In Eucharistic Practice, Isaac Krommendyk

Pro Rege

Issac Krommendyk, a senior at Dordt University majoring in History and Spanish, submitted this winning paper to the Lambertus Verberg Prize for Excellence in Kuyperian Scholarship, 2026

A Model For A Christian Business, John Wassenaar

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Resisting A Consumeristic Approach To Reading In Our Lives (And Our Classrooms), Elise Kamp

Pro Rege

Reviwed Title: Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age by Rachel Griffis, Julie OOms, and Rachel De Smith Roberts. Baker Academic, 2024. 230 pp. ISBN: 9781493446023.

Finding Home: How Richard Mouw And Dordt's Community Healed My Heart, Brad D. Hickey

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Brooding Upon The Waters: A Memoir Of Farming, Fishing, And Failure In America's Lost Landscape (Book Review), Abby De Groot

Pro Rege

Reviewed Title: Brooding Upon the Waters: A Memoir of Farming, Fishing, and Failure in America's Lost Landscape by Howard Schaap. Slant Books, 2025. 238 pp. ISBN: 9781639822096.

Inosine-Triphosphate-Pyrophosphatase Activity As A Potential Predictor Of Methotrexate Remission In Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis., Sofia Sindici Forgiarini, Marianna Lucafò, Debora Curci, Davide Selvestrel, Valentina Moressa, Sofia Pagarin, Barbara Bellich, Martina Franzin, Alberto Tommasini, Mara L. Becker, Laura Ramsey, Susan D. Thompson, Carl D. Langefeld, Federica Corba, Edoardo Marrani, Gabriele Simonini, Gabriele Stocco, Giuliana Decorti, Andrea Taddio, Serena Pastore

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVE: Methotrexate (MTX) is the first-line therapy for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), but up to 40% of patients do not respond to it. Low inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase (ITPA) activity has been associated with reduced clinical remission. We investigated the role and underlying mechanisms of ITPA in vitro.

METHODS: ITPA enzymatic activity was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection in erythrocyte lysates from patients with JIA (enrolled in Trieste, Italy; Florence, Italy; and Kansas City, Missouri) receiving weekly MTX (10-15 mg/m²) for at least 12 months. Remission was evaluated by Wallace et al criteria. ITPA rs1127354, which …

Posaconazole Target Attainment In Critically Ill Children: A 15-Year Single-Center Retrospective Analysis., Kathryn Pavia, Addison M. Pritchett Ms, Jennifer Goldman

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Posaconazole is a triazole antifungal agent used for prophylaxis and treatment of invasive fungal diseases. Posaconazole has high inter-individual variability in dose-exposure relationship and benefits from therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). Adult studies report particularly high rates of subtherapeutic exposure among intensive care unit (ICU) patients related to changes in physiology during critical illness. The rates of subtherapeutic posaconazole exposure among critically ill children in ICU's are unknown. This single-center retrospective analysis at a large freestanding children's hospital used TDM results from 2010 to 2025 obtained while patients were undergoing care in a pediatric ICU. Therapeutic targets were ≥ 1.0 mg/L …

Hla-Dr Expression At Diagnosis Is Not Predictive Of Relapse Risk Post Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation For Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Report From The Children's Oncology Group., Vasant Chinnabhandar, Michael R. Verneris, Kirk R. Schultz, Alan S. Gamis, Richard Aplenc, Chad A. Hudson, Todd A. Alonzo, Robert B. Gerbing, John T. Horan, Joseph H. Chewning

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

No abstract provided.

Girls’ Education Roadmap: 2026 Report, Meredith Kozak, Miriam Temin, Lina López-Lalinde, Amaranta Martinez Martinez

Adolescents and Young People

This Roadmap highlights where the gender and education field can align on coordinated action and investment to close critical gender gaps in education and improve learning for all. Building on findings from the original 2021 Girls’ Education Roadmap, it brings together data on the greatest gender and education needs, evidence on evaluated approaches, and where current practice reaches or misses vulnerable learners. From this foundation, the Roadmap organizes insights around 18 gender-related barriers to education, giving decision makers a framework for diagnosing context specific challenges and identifying proven approaches to address them.

Single Immunoglobulin Interleukin1-Related Receptor-Twist1 Axis Regulates Barrier Function In Neonatal Intestine., Aparna Venkatraman, Wei Yu, Heather Menden, Sherry M. Mabry, Joshua Wheatley, Shahid Umar, Susana Chavez-Bueno, Venkatesh Sampath

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The genetic basis of impaired intestinal barrier function in preterm infants is poorly understood. Variants in single immunoglobulin interleukin1-related receptor, a negative regulator of Toll-like receptor signaling, have been identified in preterm infants with necrotizing enterocolitis. We hypothesized that single immunoglobulin interleukin1-related receptor variants associated with necrotizing enterocolitis impair gut barrier function to pathobionts. The aim of this study was to determine how single immunoglobulin interleukin1-related receptor genetic variants disrupt neonatal intestinal barrier integrity and promote susceptibility to Gram-negative bacteria implicated in sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis pathogenesis.

METHODS: Transgenic mice and preterm infant-derived enteroids expressing SIGIRR variants …

Front Matter

Journal of Science & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Autonomy, Adolescents, And Artificial Intelligence, Michael J. S. Beauvais

Journal of Science & Technology Law

In this essay, I explore the potential implications of adolescent use of AI assistants on the development of adolescents’ capacities for autonomy. Thinking through these issues from the perspective of first principles is, I believe, needed in order to sharpen our understanding of some of the issues AI assistants pose for young people. A clear analysis will suggest which legal or policy prescriptions should follow.

I first give an overview of adolescent use of AI assistants, noting their popularity and the variety of use contexts. Drawing upon the work of Catriona Mackenzie, I then outline a relational conception of autonomy …