Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Acute Dietary Nitrate Supplementation On The Inspiratory Muscle Metaboreflex In Young Healthy Adults, Sabrina Ehrenfort, Riley Dienna, Ben Kerns, Hannah Lyons, Rachel Phillips

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Increased work of breathing (Wb) triggers the inspiratory muscle metaboreflex, which elevates systemic blood pressure in response to diaphragmatic fatigue. To counteract this, dietary nitrate could act as a source of nitric oxide, which is known to improve muscle power and efficiency (Jones et al., 2018). This study examines the hypothesis that acute nitrate supplementation would attenuate this response. Utilizing the KH2 device from PowerBreathe, 20 healthy participants (mean age: 21.1 ± 2.5 years; range: 18–30 years) underwent a resistive breathing task (RBT) for a total of three minutes at 60% of their maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP). All 20 participants …

Environmental Ethics Of Plastics And Microplastics Manufacturing: Balancing Industrial Production And Ecological Responsibility, Arindam Gupta

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

The global production of plastics has increased dramatically over the past several decades, providing substantial economic and societal benefits while simultaneously generating complex environmental and ethical challenges. A growing body of research has identified microplastics—plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters—as persistent pollutants that accumulate in aquatic ecosystems, soil systems, and the atmosphere. These particles originate both from the degradation of larger plastic products and from direct industrial production processes used in plastics manufacturing. The ethical implications of plastics and microplastics production raise important questions about environmental responsibility, regulatory oversight, and the balance between economic development and ecological sustainability. This project …

Environmental Ethics And Impact Of Artificial Intelligence Data Centers, Jacky Yang

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Data centers, including artificial intelligence (AI) facilities, serve as the backbone for many modern digital services and products. With the rapid digitization of society, the expansion of these centers in the United States has accelerated significantly. From an anthropocentric and utilitarian perspective, they provide economic benefits, supporting employment and generating public revenue. However, they can also create a significant amount of environmental and societal challenges. From an ecocentric and environmental justice perspective, AI data centers has contributed to increased competition for the limited resources, such as water, electricity, and land and has been linked to rising utility costs, noise pollution, …

Assured Learning For Intelligent Dynamic Systems: A Metacognitive Framework, Rocio Jado Puente, Michael Budihartono, Eduar Cabrera Gaspar

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Assured Learning for Intelligent Dynamic Systems: A Metacognitive Framework   Advanced Air Mobility systems, including electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and autonomous drone platforms, require increasingly high levels of autonomy and safety. Meeting these demands calls for intelligent systems that can adapt in real time to uncertainty and changing environmental conditions. However, traditional certification methods are not well suited to rigorously measure or quantitatively verify the performance of online learning components because of their non-deterministic behavior.   This work introduces a novel runtime safety assurance method based on a metacognitive architecture (MCA) that supervises and regulates learning-enabled components. The approach …

Learning Motion Primitive Selection And Environment Abstraction, Edison Alberto Martinez Samaniego, Natalie Alexander, Kaelyn Weddle

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Learning Motion Primitive Selection and Environment Abstraction Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is emerging as a transformative solution for short and medium range transportation; however, it introduces an operational model that differs significantly from conventional aviation. AAM vehicles are expected to operate closer to populated areas, with increased autonomy, in dense urban and suburban environments. These settings present constrained maneuvering conditions which highlights the importance of maintaining safe operation under degraded flight conditions. Abnormal conditions may endanger onboard passengers, people on the ground, and surrounding infrastructure, making rapid detection and mitigation essential to prevent loss of control. Recent research has explored …

Impact Of Stress & Fatigue On Cardiovascular Function In Young Pilots: A Thematic Review, Swarna Manoj

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Impact of Stress & Fatigue on Cardiovascular Function in Young Pilots: A Thematic Review   Authors: Swarna Manoj, Scott Ferguson   Keywords: pilot, stress, fatigue, heart rate variability (HRV), cardiovascular disease (CVD) Aviation is expanding globally and young pilots are the major workforce, yet FAA protocols require mandatory ECG only from age 35, with annual cardiac screening after age 40. Over the past five years, a pattern of sudden cardiac arrests in pilots particularly aged 30-40 has urged safety concerns. Despite the existing literature examining fatigue, burnout, stress, sleep hygiene and circadian disruption, only few studies systematically examine how these factors impact …

Plastic Roads And Waste Utilization In Pavements: Recycling Plastic Waste Into Durable Road Construction, Hunter Smith, Caden Hoffer, Robert Kincart, Winston De Feria Weber

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Plastic waste production continues to increase worldwide, creating significant environmental and waste management challenges. With over 350 million tons of plastic waste generated annually, researchers and engineers are exploring innovative methods to reuse materials in sustainable construction practices. To reduce construction waste and make productive use of recycled materials, engineers are investigating utilization applications for plastic waste in pavement systems. This project examines the use of recycled plastic as a modifier in asphalt pavement mixtures to improve road performance while addressing environmental concerns. The objective of this work is to evaluate how incorporating recycled plastics into asphalt mixtures can enhance …

Analyzing Fungal Growth Dynamics Under Different Environmental Conditions Using A Lotka–Volterra Competition System, Maria Ordonez, Fabrio Araujo

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Fungi play a critical role in ecosystems as decomposers that recycle nutrients and maintain environmental balance. Their populations are influenced by multiple environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, nutrient availability, and interactions with other organisms. In this project, the Lotka–Volterra model is used to analyze how competing fungal species interact and how these interactions influence population dynamics over time. By modeling two fungal populations competing for the same limited resources, the equations illustrate how environmental conditions and competition coefficients determine whether one species dominates; both species coexist, or one species becomes extinct. The model provides insight into how changes in …

Ai-Based Pilot Fatigue Monitoring For Enhanced Aviation Safety, Joshua Henderson, Alexander Landau, Braxton Moor, Jacky Yang, Caleb Difabio

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Pilot fatigue remains a persistent systemic operational hazard in commercial aviation because it can degrade attention, reaction time, decision-making, and crew coordination during safety-critical phases of flight. Although regulatory duty-time limits and Fatigue Risk Management Systems provide baseline protections, these controls rely heavily on voluntary reporting and post-event analysis, which may fail to detect fatigue in real time. The purpose of this project was to design and evaluate an artificial intelligence-enabled fatigue monitoring concept intended to reduce undetected pilot fatigue risk within the airline Safety Management System framework. The study applied a structured research approach including a literature review to …

Assessing The Impact Of Various Factors On Hypoxic Response, Reese Kim, Allysa Hayden

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Hypoxia is a condition in which the body’s tissues are deprived of oxygen and has deleterious effects on cognition, perception, and performance. Hypoxia has a myriad of symptoms such as euphoria, difficulty concentrating, headache, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, tunnel vision, and more. Outward signs of hypoxia include cyanosis (blueing of the fingertips and lips), tremors, loss of coordination, pallor, and complexion change, and can be used to notice the onset of hypoxia in others. Many factors are known to contribute to the manifestation of hypoxia, namely altitude, exposure duration, and certain physiological conditions such as heart problems and low blood flow …

Pipeline Array Architecture: Topological Freedom Beyond 2d Grid, Jinhui Wu

Defensive Publications Series

In prior work, we introduced the Pipeline Array architecture—a distributed parallel data processing
framework based on the five core characteristics of Assignment, State Holding, Compare, Block, and
Update. The architecture was presented with a two-dimensional (2D) grid as a typical embodiment for
spatially structured data such as image pixels and sensor grids.
This paper clarifies and extends the topological understanding of the Pipeline Array. We emphasize that
the defining characteristic of an Ordered Array is fixed spatial coordinates and neighbor relationships
—not the specific geometric shape of the array. The 2D grid is one valid embodiment, but not a limitation. …

Radiographic Evaluation Of Kidney Size In Cats: Effects Of Sex And Gonadal Status, Somchin Sutthigran, Auraiwan Klaengkaew, Chutimon Thanaboonnipat, Suppawiwat Ponglowhapan, Nan Choisunirachon

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Radiographic evaluation of kidney size using the kidney-to-second lumbar vertebral body length (K/L2) ratio is a standard method for assessing kidney size in cats. However, current reference values underdetermine biological factors such as sex and gonadal status, which may influence kidney and lumbar length. Reproductive hormones are known to influence kidney and vertebral development, but their specific effects on radiographic kidney and vertebral measurements in cats are unclear. This retrospective study aimed to assess the effects of gonadal status on kidney length, L2 vertebral length, and the K/L2 ratio in clinically healthy cats. A total of 285 cats were included …

Ronald E. Mcnair Research Symposium Presentation Schedule 2026, Mcnair Scholars Program

McNair Symposium

This is the presentation schedule for the 24th Undergraduate Ronald E. McNair Research Symposium 2026.

Beyond The Indicators: Community-Defined Sustainability In Bario, Sarawak, Rhonwyn Hagedorn

Capstone Collection

This study examines how Kelabit community members in Bario, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo define and practice sustainability within community-based tourism (CBT), and how these local understandings align with or diverge from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study used a thematic analysis drawing on fifteen semi-structured interviews with Kelabit community members, supplemented by tourist questionnaires and document analysis of online tourism materials. Four themes emerged: sustainability as collective stewardship; community decision-making and collaboration; cultural identity as the core of tourism; and equity, participation, and the limits of growth. Findings suggest that Kelabit community members hold a holistic, relational, and …

Transoral Robotic Surgery (Tors) Post-Operative Chemoradiotherapy In High-Risk Patients: Exploratory Study On Survival Benefit Of Concurrent Cisplatin, Yin-Chieh Handley, Clifton D. Fuller, Mai Mandor Badawy, David I. Rosenthal

CATALYST Summer Training Program 2026

Preliminary evaluation of survival and recurrence benefits of adjuvant radiotherapy with and without cisplatin.

From Crisis To Reform: How The 1918 Influenza And Covid-19 Pandemics Redefined The Relationship Between Nurses And The American Healthcare System., Anh N V Le

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The 1918 Influenza and COVID- 19 pandemic have become two major public health crises that reshaped the role of nurses in the America healthcare system. Although a hundred years apart, both pandemics revealed how deeply the country depends on nurses during emergencies without proper and efficient strategies. This paper argues that these pandemics acted as turning points that redefined the social contract between nurses and the U.S. healthcare system. By examining historical context, nurses’ responsibilities, public perception, and long-term effects, this research show how pandemics expanded nurses’ authority while also exposing long-term weakness of the systems. In 1918, nurses were …

Bioethics As Seen On Stage: Can Theater Change The World?, Sarah J. Cavanaugh

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

This research paper investigates the extent to which theatrical works can influence societal reform through the depiction of bioethical dilemmas through time, analyzing performative theater’s ability to change the world through great societal impact. By examining four plays from distinct historical periods—Philoctetes by Sophocles (409 BCE), Whose Life is it Anyway? by Brian Clark (1972), The Waiting Room by Lisa Loomer (1994), and Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey (2010)—this study analyzes how theater has consistently engaged with evolving issues of medical ethics and patient autonomy. Each play presents ethical conflicts reflective of the medical and social dilemmas of …

The "3 A'S" Of Sport Specialization: Emerging Themes To Characterize Athletes' Sport Participation Pathway Decisions, Adelaide F. Stark, Justin S. Disanti Ph.D.

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

In this study, former youth sport participants were grouped by their developmental sport pathways (i.e., if they specialized and when they specialized over the course of their participation) to identify emerging themes regarding why they chose their respective pathway, as well as how this impacted their sport experience. 948 participants completed a retrospective survey measure detailing their sport histories. Based on their specialization trajectory across their sport involvement (i.e., during elementary school, middle school, and high school) participants were sorted into three participation pathways – Early Specialization, Late Specialization, or Continued Multi-sport. Participants responded to open-ended questions about their decision-making …

Impacts Of Climate Change On Microalgae: Physiological Responses And Future Adaptations - A Review, Mohamed Zein Alabdein Nassar

Blue Economy

Climate change is increasingly affecting aquatic ecosystems, including microalgae (phytoplankton), which play a crucial role as primary producers and account for nearly half of global carbon fixation. This review synthesizes recent advances in understanding the effects of climate change on microalgae from physiological, ecological, and molecular perspectives. Increased temperatures, ocean acidification, changes in light regimes, and nutrient variability greatly affect microalgal growth, photosynthesis, and community structure, often promoting smaller and more stress-tolerant species. These changes also contribute to the expansion and intensification of harmful algal blooms, with serious ecological and economic consequences. Microalgae exhibit diverse adaptive responses, including metabolic reprogramming, …

Ctamj Forum On Mshsl Activities: Speech, Kathleen Walker, Scott Voss, Tanner Sunderman, Rebecca Meyer-Larson

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The CTAM Journal seeks to raise up voices from notable interest groups. Occasionally, individuals are asked to share their thoughts on issues that pertain to the target readership of CTAMJ.

For this special forum, four coaches share their voices on Minnesota State High School Speech: Kathleen Walker (Fairmont), Scott Voss (Apple Valley), Tanner Sunderman (Mounds Park), and Rebecca Meyer-Larson (Moorhead).

"The Climate Emotion Wheel" - An Exercise To Address Climate Anxiety Inspired By Boal's Forum Theatre, Talin Abadian

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The goal of this exercise is to provide students a space to articulate these complex emotions, engage in collaborative problem-solving with their peers, reclaim a sense of agency and empowerment by exploring meaningful action collectively while also highlighting individual responsibilities towards the environment. This exercise can be used effectively to demonstrate the power of Boal’s Forum Theatre as a tool for collaborative problem-solving and communal rehearsing of solutions to real-world challenges.

The Chameleon Experience: Queer Identity, Mental Health, And Transformation, Cameron Penny

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In this autoethnographic piece, I examine the correlation between queer identity and mental health through reflective analysis of my own experiences within a Western socio-cultural setting. I expand external perspectives on the queer experience by highlighting the normalization of queer prejudice and its adverse impact on self-image. I share how the religious praxis of Catholicism enforces binary conformity by promoting dichotomous thinking that simultaneously constricts queer expression and subjugates implicit biases. In tandem, I utilize autoethnography as my medium because it provides a unique outlet to raise awareness for chronically stigmatized identities by centering marginalized voices (Atay, 2011; Chavez, 2013). …

Best Practices And An Agenda For Research In Benefits Communication, Kristi Egbert, Anne Kerber

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Benefits communication is information an employer/organization provides to employees about the types of benefit plans offered and information about them (i.e., health insurance, retirement, vacation time). Despite its importance to jobs across all sectors of the workforce, there is a dearth of current academic research regarding benefits communication. This paper defines benefits communication, examines its impact on organizations and workers, and explores existing research on best practices. Findings underscore the complexity of benefits material and emphasize the need for simpler and clearer language, employee-preferred formats, and adequate time for employees to review information and receive guidance from a knowledgeable source. …

State Of The World: Presidential Rhetoric At The United Nations, Jason A. Edwards, Zoe Hess Carney, Kory Hoyt

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In 1982, President Reagan spoke to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the first time. In doing so, Reagan established a presidential tradition that, we argue, created a new genre of presidential rhetoric. Like the State of the Union speech, presidents, in this address, outline their vision for U.S. foreign policy and global politics for the coming year. Specifically, presidents mediate on the history and values of the United Nations, assess the current state of global affairs, and offer policy recommendations to deal with those issues. Examining presidential rhetoric at the United Nations offers a heuristic to understand U.S. …

Communication & Theater Association Of Minnesota Journal, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2026

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Volume 49, Issue 1 (2026) of the Communication & Theater Association of Minnesota Journal.

Growth, Governance, And Organizational Crisis In Nonprofit Rowing Club: Failures In Leadership In A Growing Organization, Noah Legendre, Ehren R. Green

The COSMA Journal

This case explores governance and leadership challenges within a growing nonprofit sport organization governed by a volunteer board of directors. Within this case, the Litchberg Valley Rowing Club (LVRC), a rowing organization in a small community, experienced rapid growth in membership, financial resources, and competitive success. Despite this growth, the organization maintained informal governance structures and policies to guide its decision-making. In this case, the board of directors elected to terminate the head coach because of difficult contract negotiations and other issues at hand. This decision was met with public backlash, raising concerns about club leadership and the future of …

Amplifying Community Voices In Climate Policy: Attitudes On Climate Change And Decarbonization In Cache County, Cristina Chirvasa, Rivkah Haubner, Stacia Ryder

Transforming Communities

Climate change is altering global ecosystems and imperiling human health, but knowledge of these impacts does not always translate into adaptation and mitigation action. Many solutions fall under decarbonization, or the reduction and capture of atmospheric carbon. These actions are increasingly developed at more localized, sub-state levels. Thus, understanding the attitudes of Cache County, Utah, residents, including students and faculty at Utah State University, toward different decarbonization techniques will be important to building successful climate action plans and policies. Here, as part of a large-scale collaborative group of different on-campus departments and community partners, we held focus groups to examine …

Techniques, Skills, And Synthesis For “Cooking” In The Organic Laboratory, Emily C. Sylvester, Tim Evans

Open Education Materials

Lab manual for CHEM 211L, Organic Chemistry I Laboratory. Provides background and procedures for laboratory experiments, including fundamental techniques and several organic syntheses.

Creative Commons attribution.

Interview With Cecilia 'Sue' Sill, Cecilia 'Sue' Sill, Logan Dovalina

Rio Grande Valley Oral Histories

Cecilia 'Sue' Sill (b. 1939, Woodward, Oklahoma) recounts a life shaped by mobility, scientific curiosity, and engagement with the natural world of South Texas and Mexico. The daughter of a pipeline welder, she moved frequently as a child before settling for a time in Pharr, Texas, in 1950. She later spent roughly forty years in Corpus Christi, where she raised two sons, pursued higher education later in life, and earned a Ph.D. focused on the systematics of Tillandsia (air plants), describing several new species centered in Mexico.

After her divorce in 1990, Sill lived for eight years on a mountainside …

Multidimensional Total Quality Management And Its Effects On Sustainability And Performance In Industrialized Building System Projects, Felix Delmonte

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study develops and tests a multidimensional total quality management (TQM) framework to explain how distinct quality practices influence environmental sustainability, construction quality, cost and schedule performance, waste reduction, energy efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction, and overall project performance in industrialized building system (IBS) projects. Soft and hard TQM dimensions such as leadership commitment, customer focus, employee involvement, training and continuous improvement, process management, supplier quality, and data driven decision making are operationalised and linked to eight outcome constructs. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS SEM) is used to estimate direct effects and to examine mediation by waste reduction and energy …