Digital Commons Network^™

Counting Everyone: Using Demographic Data To Build Representative Repositories, April K. Anderson-Zorn

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

In 2021, the Rayfield Archives migrated from Archon to ArchivesSpace. During the transfer, we asked “Does our repository reflect all of our campus communities?” While we do collect administration-focused records, we also collect affinity and service group records and faculty papers. We ran reports to identify percentages of demographics represented in our collections with little success. Anderson-Zorn began work on creating a controlled vocabulary to apply processed and accessioned materials to understand trends in collecting and identify areas that need improvement.

Volume 34, Number 1, Spring 2025, Office Of Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2018-present

VOLUME 34 | NUMBER 1 | Spring 2025

ON OUR COVER:

The Shirk Center has been a cherished University landmark for 30 years.

22 30 Years of Shirk. In 2024, the Shirk Center reaced a new milestone with its 30th anniversary. The Center still serves as an essential community hub for campus and Bloomington-Normal.

24 A Hearth for Haiti. Kevin Hineline '88 is working with IWU physics students to develop a new cooking stove for use in the most impoverished and disaster-stricken regions of the world.

28 Setting the Standard. Jeff Becker '01 and Matt Gavin '01 are the minds …

Tellecollaboration Task L2l, Susanna Nocchi, Morgana Valentina

Case studies: Digital Education

The Italian Telecollaboration project began in 2021 as a partnership between Language Studies at TU Dublin, DCU, and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. DCU is no longer involved and the initiative now continues as a collaboration between TU Dublin students of Italian and Università Cattolica students of English. The Telecollaboration is offered as a 2 ECTS module in Università Cattolica (see Collaborative Online International Learning) while at TU Dublin it is integrated into the language interaction assessment for the Italian Language 2A module, within the IBL degree. During Semester 2, students from both universities work in pairs …

Multiphase Iterative Algorithm For Mixed-Integer Optimal Control, Chaoying Pei, Sixiong You, Yu Di, Ran Dai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mixed-integer optimal control problems (MIOCPs) frequently arise in the domain of optimal control problems (OCPs) when decisions including integer variables are involved. However, existing state-of-the-art approaches for solving MIOCPs are often plagued by drawbacks such as high computational costs, low precision, and compromised optimality. In this study, we propose a novel multiphase scheme coupled with an iterative second-order cone programming (SOCP) algorithm to efficiently and effectively address these challenges in MIOCPs. In the first phase, we relax the discrete decision constraints and account for the terminal state constraints and certain path constraints by introducing them as penalty terms in the …

On The Probability Of Necessity And Sufficiency Of Explaining Graph Neural Networks: A Lower Bound Optimization Approach, Ruichu Cai, Yuxuan Zhu, Xuexin Chen, Yuan Fang, Min Wu, Jie Qiao, Zhifeng Hao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The explainability of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) is critical to various GNN applications, yet it remains a significant challenge. A convincing explanation should be both necessary and sufficient simultaneously. However, existing GNN explaining approaches focus on only one of the two aspects, necessity or sufficiency, or a heuristic trade-off between the two. Theoretically, the Probability of Necessity and Sufficiency (PNS) holds the potential to identify the most necessary and sufficient explanation since it can mathematically quantify the necessity and sufficiency of an explanation. Nevertheless, the difficulty of obtaining PNS due to non-monotonicity and the challenge of counterfactual estimation limit its …

Chatcrs: Incorporating External Knowledge And Goal Guidance For Llm-Based Conversational Recommender Systems, Chuang Li, Yang Deng, Hengchang Hu, Min-Yen Kan, Haizhou Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper aims to efficiently enable large language models (LLMs) to use external knowledge and goal guidance in conversational recommender system (CRS) tasks. Advanced LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT) are limited in domain-specific CRS tasks for 1) generating grounded responses with recommendation-oriented knowledge, or 2) proactively leading the conversations through different dialogue goals. In this work, we first analyze those limitations through a comprehensive evaluation, showing the necessity of external knowledge and goal guidance which contribute significantly to the recommendation accuracy and language quality. In light of this finding, we propose a novel ChatCRS framework to decompose the complex CRS task into …

Rethinking Neural Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization Via Neat Weight Embedding, Jinbiao Chen, Zhiguang Cao, Jiahai Wang, Yaoxin Wu, Hanzhang Qin, Zizhen Zhang, Yue-Jiao Gong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent decomposition-based neural multi-objective combinatorial optimization (MOCO) methods struggle to achieve desirable performance. Even equipped with complex learning techniques, they often suffer from significant optimality gaps in weight-specific subproblems. To address this challenge, we propose a neat weight embedding method to learn weight-specific representations, which captures weight-instance interaction for the subproblems and was overlooked by most current methods. We demonstrate the potentials of our method in two instantiations. First, we introduce a succinct addition model to learn weight-specific node embeddings, which surpassed most existing neural methods. Second, we design an enhanced conditional attention model to simultaneously learn the weight embedding …

Learning-Guided Bi-Objective Evolutionary Optimization For Green Municipal Waste Collection Vehicle Routing, Shubing Liao, Yixin Xu, Yunyun Niu, Zhiguang Cao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Waste management has emerged as a critical issue in modern society, where vehicles are scheduled to visit multiple locations for waste collection and transport. This study focuses on a key problem in waste management: route optimization of waste collection vehicles, and formulate it as a bi-objective vehicle routing problem with stochastic demand (VRPSD), aiming to minimizing both total costs and carbon emissions. Although previous studies have significantly advanced our understanding of solving similar problems, the lack of real-world data and limited problem-solving capabilities still restrict the practical applicability of existing methods. To bridge this research gap, this study designed a …

Agentstudio: A Toolkit For Building General Virtual Agents, Longtao Zheng, Zhiyuan Huang, Zhenghai Xue, Xinrun Wang, Bo An, Shuicheng Yan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

General virtual agents need to handle multimodal observations, master complex action spaces, and self-improve in dynamic, open-domain environments. However, existing environments are often domain-specific and require complex setups, which limits agent development and evaluation in real-world settings. As a result, current evaluations lack in-depth analyses that decompose fundamental agent capabilities. We introduce AgentStudio, a trinity of environments, tools, and benchmarks to address these issues. AgentStudio provides a lightweight, interactive environment with highly generic observation and action spaces, e.g., video observations and GUI/API actions. It integrates tools for creating online benchmark tasks, annotating GUI elements, and labeling actions in videos. Based …

Interferometric Differential High-Frequency Lock-In Probe For Laser-Induced Vacuum Birefringence, R. G. Bullis, Ulrich D. Jentschura, D. C. Yost

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We propose a measurement of laser-induced vacuum birefringence through the use of pulsed lasers coupled to femtosecond optical enhancement cavities. This measurement technique features cavity-enhanced pump and probe pulses, as well as an independent control pulse. The control pulse allows for a differential measurement where the final signal is obtained using high-frequency lock-in detection, greatly mitigating time-dependent cavity birefringence as an important and possibly prohibitive systematic effect. In addition, the method features the economical use of laser power and results in a relatively simple experimental setup.

Phases And Dynamics Of Quantum Droplets In The Crossover To Two-Dimensions, Jose Carlos Pelayo, George Bougas, Thomás Fogarty, Thomas Busch, Simeon I. Mistakidis

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We explore the ground states and dynamics of ultracold atomic droplets in the crossover region from three to two dimensions by solving the two-dimensional and the quasi-two-dimensional extended Gross-Pitaevskii equations numerically and with a variational approach. By systematically comparing the droplet properties, we determine the validity regions of the pure two-dimensional description, and therefore the dominance of the logarithmic nonlinear coupling, as a function of the sign of the averaged mean-field interactions and the size of the transverse confinement. One of our main findings is that droplets become substantially extended upon transitioning from negative-to-positive averaged mean-field interactions. This is accompanied …

Tunable Pairing With Local Spin-Dependent Rydberg Molecule Potentials In An Atomic Fermi Superfluid, Chih Chun Chien, Seth T. Rittenhouse, S. I. Mistakidis, H. R. Sadeghpour

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We explore the energy spectrum and eigenstates of two-component atomic Fermi superfluids with tunable pairing interactions in the presence of spin-dependent ultralong-range Rydberg molecule (ULRM) potentials, within the Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism. The attractive ULRM potentials lead to local-density accumulation, while their difference results in a local polarization potential and induces the in-gap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states whose energies lie below the bulk energy gap. A transition from equal population to population imbalance occurs as the pairing strength falls below a critical value, accompanied by the emergence of local Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like states characterized by out-of-phase wave functions and lower energies compared to …

The Employment Situation Of Veterans: March 2025, Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

In March 2025, U.S. employment rose by 228,000, with notable gains in health care, social assistance, and transportation, while the overall unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. Veteran unemployment declined overall, though trends varied by age, gender, and race, with some subgroups—such as older veterans and Black veterans—experiencing increases.

Investigating Teachers' Perceptions On The Effectiveness Of School Inspection In Public Schools In The United Arab Emirates, Ruqaia Adel Mohammed

Theses

School inspection plays a significant role in ensuring quality education in UAE public schools. This paper investigates public school teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of school inspections in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and examines the impact of teachers’ demographic factors on these perceptions. A total of 218 teachers across the UAE participated in the study. The research focused on four key domains within the School Inspection Perception Framework (SIPF): Perceived Effectiveness of School Inspections (PESI), Perceived Effectiveness of School Inspection Training (PESIT), Perceived Credibility of School Inspections (PCSI), and Perceived Usefulness of School Inspection Feedback (PUSIF). Data were collected …

The Development Of Year One Students’ Reading Ability In A Curriculum Using Monster Phonics Scheme In The Uae, Sara Berrandjia

Theses

This study explores the impact of the Monster Phonics program on the reading development of Year 1 students in Al Ain, UAE. Reading proficiency is a fundamental skill in early education, and phonics instruction plays a crucial role in literacy acquisition. Monster Phonics, a color-coded synthetic phonics program, has been increasingly adopted in classrooms, yet its effectiveness in multilingual settings remains underexplored. This research aims to investigate how students' reading ability develops in the context of a curriculum using the Monster Phonics scheme. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative assessments pre- and post-tests on grapheme-phoneme correspondence, word reading, and …

Reflections On Linear B, (Part 10): Linear B Sign *49 May Derive From An Egyptian Hieroglyph Denoting Sunrays, Gerald Leonard Cohen

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

Linear B sign *49 (and it's Linear A antecedent), evidently of unknown origin, may be interpreted as influenced by the ancient Egyptian veneration of the sun god, specifically the drawings of the sun sending forth its rays. The Egyptian drawings include the sun itself (a circle with a dot inside), whereas the Linear A and B sign presents a wavy line in its place. I suggest the wavy line derives from part of the Egyptian hieroglyph for ‘horizon,’ whose full picture represents the sun emerging over a mountain. If the sun is removed from the picture, the upper part of …

The Impact Of Electronic Health Record Training: How Students Utilize The Electronic Record To Inform Clinical Judgment, Sarah Marie Calonder

Dissertations (1934 -)

Nurses practice within a complex healthcare environment and must make well-informed judgments about their patients to provide safe, quality care. The electronic health record (EHR) is a piece of healthcare and informatics technology which houses important patient information that nurses utilize frequently while making clinical judgments surrounding patient care. The importance of entry-level nurse competency with the EHR and similar healthcare and informatics tools has been outlined by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials and other nursing organizations concerned with the preparation of future nurses (AACN 2021; QSEN, 2020). Currently, there are limited established best practices for …

Student Described Importance Of Nurse Educator Caring Actions In Various Class Settings, Jessica Leiberg

Dissertations (1934 -)

Caring pedagogy is a well-known and proven nurse educator instructional approach resulting in improved student attrition, enhanced attitude towards the students’ nursing program, and a caring approach extending into professional practice. Despite much research and development of nurse educator caring actions, the possible effect of different class settings on the student perception of these nurse educator caring actions is unknown. The purpose of this study aimed to identify how students’ rate and rank order the importance of nurse educator caring actions within the different class settings. A descriptive quantitative design was conducted to explore student perceptions of the importance of …

Cas Honor Symposium Program, Spring 2025, College Of Arts & Sciences Honors Program

College of Arts & Sciences Honors in the Major Symposium

No abstract provided.

Three Reference Genomes For Freshwater Diatom Ecology And Evolution, Wade R. Roberts, Andrew J. Alverson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Diatoms are an important component of marine and freshwater ecosystems. Although the majority of described diatom species live in freshwater systems, genome sequencing efforts have focused primarily on marine species. Genomic resources for freshwater species have the potential to improve our understanding of diatom ecology and evolution, particularly in the context of major environmental shifts. We used long- and short-read sequencing platforms to assemble reference genomes for three freshwater diatom species, all in the order Thalalassiosirales, which are abundant in the plankton of oceans, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers worldwide. We targeted three species that cover the breadth of phylogenetic diversity …

How Are We Preparing Australian And Aotearoa New Zealand Teachers To Be Health Promotors? Examining Physical Activity, Sleep And Sun Safety In Initial Teacher Education, Joseph J. Scott, Alexandra P. Metse, Bronwen M. Mcnoe, Sally Blane, Sharyn Chin Fat, Justine Osborne, Nicky Muir

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Issue Addressed: While physical activity, sleep and sun safety (PASS) have been identified as important modifiable health behaviours and schools and teachers have been identified as vital for health promotion and primary prevention; little is known about how initial teacher education programs across Australia and New Zealand (NZ) are preparing future teachers to deliver PASS-related curriculum. This study investigated teacher educators' insights on their programs and their graduate's preparedness to plan and teach PASS education. Methods: Teacher educators (n = 98) from Australia and NZ completed a 30-item electronic survey. Quantitative tests were used to explore differences in the data. …

Endothelial Micu1 Protects Against Vascular Inflammation And Atherosclerosis By Inhibiting Mitochondrial Calcium Uptake, Lu Sun, Ruixue Leng, Monan Liu, Meiming Su, Qingze He, Zhidan Zhang, Zhenghong Liu, Zhihua Wang, Hui Jiang, Li Wang, Shuai Guo, Yiming Xu, Yuqing Huo, Clint L Miller, Maciej Banach, Yu Huang, Paul C Evans, Jaroslav Pelisek, Giovanni G Camici, Bradford C Berk, Stefan Offermanns, Junbo Ge, Suowen Xu, Jianping Weng

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Mitochondrial dysfunction fuels vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis. Mitochondrial calcium uptake 1 (MICU1) maintains mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis. However, the role of MICU1 in vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis remains unknown. Here, we report that endothelial MICU1 prevents vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis by maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis. We observed that vascular inflammation was aggravated in endothelial cell–specific Micu1 knockout mice (Micu1ECKO) and attenuated in endothelial cell–specific Micu1 transgenic mice (Micu1ECTg). Furthermore, hypercholesterolemic Micu1ECKO mice also showed accelerated development of atherosclerosis, while Micu1ECTg mice were protected against atherosclerosis. Mechanistically, MICU1 depletion increased mitochondrial Ca2+ influx, thereby decreasing the expression …

Intestinal Epithelial Serotonin As A Novel Target For Treating Disorders Of Gut-Brain Interaction And Mood, Lin Y Hung, Nuno D Alves, Andrew Del Colle, Ardesheer Talati, Sarah A Najjar, Virginie Bouchard, Virginie Gillet, Yan Tong, Zixing Huang, Kirsteen N Browning, Jialiang Hua, Ying Liu, James O Woodruff, Daniel Juarez, Melissa Medina, Jonathan Posner, Raquel Tonello, Nazli Yalcinkaya, Narek Israelyan, Roey Ringel, Letao Yang, Kam W Leong, Mu Yang, Ji Ying Sze, Tor Savidge, Jay Gingrich, Robert J Shulman, Michael D Gershon, Annie Ouellet, Larissa Takser, Mark S Ansorge, Kara Gross Margolis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background & aims: Mood disorders and disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI) are highly prevalent, commonly comorbid, and lack fully effective therapies. Although selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are first-line pharmacological treatments for these disorders, they may impart adverse effects, including anxiety, anhedonia, dysmotility, and, in children exposed in utero, an increased risk of cognitive, mood, and gastrointestinal disorders. SSRIs act systemically to block the serotonin reuptake transporter and enhance serotonergic signaling in the brain, intestinal epithelium, and enteric neurons. Yet, the compartments that mediate the therapeutic and adverse effects of SSRIs are unknown, as is whether gestational SSRI exposure directly …

Navigating Nonlinear Pathways: Challenges And Opportunities For Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Leaders In Academic Emergency Medicine, Melanie F Molina, Annika Bhananker, Beatrice Torres, Dalia Owda, Edgardo Ordoñez, Anita N Chary

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leadership roles have grown in academic emergency medicine (EM). We sought to elucidate specific pathways to DEI leadership roles among current DEI leaders in academic EM.

METHODS: From March to May 2023, we conducted semistructured, qualitative interviews with DEI leaders in academic EM across 5 US regions to investigate their pathways to leadership. Participants were recruited via email using Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited EM residency websites and the Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in EM. After recording and transcribing the interviews, we used an inductive approach to identify major themes.

RESULTS: Of …

Warm-Ischemia And Cold Storage Induced Modulation Of Ferroptosis Observed In Human Hearts Donated After Circulatory Death And Brain Death, Shiyi Li, Katherine V Nordick, Abdussalam E Elsenousi, Rishav Bhattacharya, Randall P Kirby, Adel M Hassan, Camila Hochman-Mendez, Todd K Rosengart, Kenneth K Liao, Nandan K Mondal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

We investigated ferroptosis, a type of programmed cell death mechanism, in human hearts donated after brain death (DBD) and those donated after circulatory death (DCD), focusing on warm ischemia time (WIT) and cold storage. A total of 24 hearts were procured, with six from the DBD group and 18 from the DCD group. The DCD group was divided into three subgroups, each containing six hearts, based on different WITs of 20, 40, and 60 min. All procured hearts were placed in cold storage for up to 6 h. Left ventricular biopsies were performed at 0, 2, 4, and 6 h. …

Time Tracking And Comparison Of Genetic Counseling Tasks In Inpatient And Outpatient Settings, Alexandra Osborne, Emily Magness Bland, Callie Diamonstein, Kristen Fishler

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Genetic counselors (GCs) practice in critical care settings. Some GCs have full-time inpatient roles, while most GCs who see inpatients do so as needed or on a rotating schedule in addition to seeing patients in an outpatient setting. Few studies have tracked and compared the amount of time it takes GCs to perform tasks in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Genetic counselors were invited to participate in this study via the National Society of Genetic Counselors research listserv. Participants completed an online survey asking how their role is structured and what types of support are available to them while seeing …

Citation Issues In The American Academy Of Pediatrics Policy Statement On Transgender And Gender-Diverse Children And Adolescents (Rafferty, 2018), Kathleen Mcdeavitt

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Destructive And Protective Effects And Therapeutic Targets Of Il-36 Family Cytokines In Dry Eye Disease, Xin Chen, Na Lin, Haixia Liu, Jing Lin, Ning Gao, Zhao Liu, Cintia S De Paiva, Stephen C Pflugfelder, De-Quan Li

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Purpose: To explore the destructive and protective effects and therapeutic targets of IL-36 cytokines in dry eye disease using a murine dry eye model.

Methods: A dry eye model was established in C57BL/6 mice exposed to desiccating stress (DS) with untreated mice as controls. A topical challenge model was performed in normal mice with exogenous rmIL-36α, rhIL-38 and 2 % ectoine, or PBS vehicle. IL-36 cytokine expression was assessed by RT-qPCR and immunofluorescent (IF) staining. Corneal epithelial damage was evaluated by corneal smoothness score, Oregon Green Dextran (OGD) fluorescent staining, and tight junction barrier.

Results: All members of the IL-36 …

Who And Its Enduring Commitment To Global Pediatrics, Peter J Hotez

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Klf4 Enhances Transplantation-Induced Hematopoiesis By Inhibiting Tlrs And Noncanonical Nfκb Signaling At A Steady State, Chun Shik Park, Cory S Bridges, Andrew H Lewis, Taylor J Chen, Saptarsi Shai, Wa Du, Monica Puppi, Barry Zorman, Sumazin Pavel, H Daniel Lacorazza

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The transcription factor Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) acts as a transcriptional activator and repressor. KLF4 plays a role in various cellular processes, including the dedifferentiation of somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. Although it has been shown to enhance self-renewal in embryonic and leukemia stem cells, its role in adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) remains underexplored. We demonstrate that conditional deletion of the Klf4 gene in hematopoietic cells led to an increased frequency of immunophenotypic HSCs in the bone marrow, along with a normal distribution of lymphoid and myeloid progenitor cells. Noncompetitive bone marrow transplants showed normal engraftment and …