Digital Commons Network^™

Planetary/Peripheral Appalachia, Matthew Halm

Critical Humanities

One of the characters in William Gibson’s science fiction novel The Peripheral describes the timeline-manipulating technology around which the story turns as a way of “third-worlding” the past. By sending information back and forth across time, the users of the technology, in our future, outsource work to inhabitants of their past (our near-present). An entire world becomes the “third world” for another world, home to cheap labor and expendable resources. The characters this happens to in the novel live in Appalachia, a choice that works in part to ground the otherwise cosmic scale of timeline manipulation and global catastrophe while …

Planetary [] Appalachia: Editor’S Introduction, Scott C. Mcdaniel

Critical Humanities

Editor's Introduction to Volume 4 Issue 1

The Tax Adviser, Volume 12, Number 4, April 1981, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

New Tax Cost Of Excessive Compensation, James E. Cheeks

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Tax Contingency Audit Workpapers: Current Developments, Observations, And Proposals, William T. Diss, Robert E. Hanson

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Taxation Of Group-Term Life Insurance: Sec. 79 History, Denise Lamaute

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Testing For Exchange Rate Bubbles For The Indian Rupee Versus Major World Currencies: An Empirical Examination Over The Long Run, Adrian M. Austin, Swarna Dyuti Dutt, Dipak Ghosh

Pennsylvania Economic Review

Identifying and dating financial bubbles in real time is at the forefront of current empirical research. The ability to recognize these events in real time can provide very useful alerts to central bankers and fiscal regulators. The complexity, however, of their nonlinear structure and the inherent sudden break mechanisms make econometric testing challenging. Recent econometric advances propose a recursive flexible window methodology that can detect single and multiple financial bubbles. It successfully, ex-ante, identifies the well-known historical episodes of exuberance and collapse and can differentiate between periodically collapsing bubbles and strong financial growth. One sizeable strand of the current research …

The Creation And Evaluation Of An Engineering Student Leadership Academy, Jean Mclaughlin, Thuy Vu, Seokmin Kang

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This article describes the creation and evaluation designed to support student success through their inclusion in a variety of professional and technical training programs. The opportunity to develop a leadership academy specifically for engineering students allowed faculty program coordinators to deliver content that was normally not available to students at this Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). We implemented and evaluated the leadership academy using a mixed-methods approach involving multimedia interviews and two traditional survey data collection techniques. Traditional online surveys gave quick feedback to coordinators on what the students found valuable, with the biggest change in programming being the spreading out of …

Towards A Theoretical Account Of The Refugee In International Law, Catherine Dauvergne

All Faculty Publications

The ambition of this work is to describe what it would mean to interject the concept of the refugee into theoretical accounts of international law and to argue that this undertaking is overdue and increasingly necessary. The starting point is the twinned observations that the refugee is almost entirely absent from international legal theory, and that refugee law scholarship has rarely engaged with the dominant narratives of international legal theory. Despite being a creature of the law, the refugee is more theoretically anchored in accounts of international relations than in theoretical accounts of the law. The article begins outside legal …

Preliminary Investigation Of The Association Between Epigenetic Aging Acceleration And Amyloid Biomarkers In Bipolar Disorder, Gabriel R Fries, Steven De La Garza, Ning O Zhao, Andres W Bass, Camila N C Lima, Nobuhide Kobori, Tatiana Barichello, Gustavo Turecki, Paul E Schulz, Breno S Diniz, Jair C Soares

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives: Bipolar disorder (BD) has been associated with an elevated risk of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). We assessed AD biomarkers in BD and tested whether epigenetic aging (EA) acceleration is associated with changes in these markers.

Design, setting, participants: Cross-sectional study of n = 58 living individuals with BD and n = 20 age- and sex-matched control participants, as well as analyses of postmortem brain samples (Brodmann area 9/46) from n = 46 individuals with BD.

Measurements: Amyloid beta (Aβ)40, Aβ42, and total Tau levels were measured in plasma from individuals with BD and controls, and Aβ42 levels were measured in …

Exploring Sex-Specific Clinical Features In Chinese Patients With Takotsubo Syndrome, Hong-Yi Duan, Ling-Lin Wang, Ling-Chun Lyu, Zhen-Hua Shi, Xiao-Ping Lin, Zheng-Yang Yu, Guo-Hua Fan, Jing Chen, Xin-Hong Yang, Wei Deng, Chang-Wu Xu, Yan Huang, Qing Zhou, Jin-Ling Chen, Hong-Ning Song, Dong Hu, Jin-Qiu Liu, Hector Barajas-Martinez, Charles Antzelevitch, Kan Liu, Hong Jiang, Dan Hu

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is considered as a transient acute heart failure syndrome predominant in females. However, data on Chinese TTS patients are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of Chinese TTS patients, identify prognostic markers.

METHODS: A total of 258 TTS patients were enrolled. Data on clinical characteristics and in-hospital major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were collected and analyzed. The latter included severe heart failure, shock, malignant arrhythmia, and death.

RESULTS: The average age of TTS patients was 59.3 ± 19.2 years. Female patients accounted for 68.9%. MACE occurred in 41.4% of patients during hospitalization. …

A Novel Approach To Increase Accuracy In Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration Through Basin Water Balance And Flux Tower Constraints, Kul Khand, Gabriel B. Senay, Mackenzie Friedrichs, Koong Yi, Joshua B. Fisher, Lixin Wang, Kosana Suvočarev, Arman Ahmadi, Housen Chu, Stephen Good, Kanishka Mallick, Justine Missik, Jacob A. Nelson, David E. Reed, Tianxin Wang, Xiangming Xiao

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Remote sensing-derived evapotranspiration (RSET) products capture the spatiotemporal variations of evapotranspiration (ET) from field to basin scales with unprecedented details. However, their accuracy varies across RSET estimation methods and diverse hydroclimate regions. While ET modeling efforts to account for biophysical processes and controlling parameters have made good progress in recent years, a parallel approach of integrating in-situ ET with RSET could reduce biases in RSET products. Basin water balance ET (WBET) and flux tower ET are widely applied to evaluate RSET accuracy, yet such ET measurements are rarely used for RSET bias corrections, especially for large area applications. To address …

Hikikomori Risk In The Uk, Gregory Gorman, Alison Bacon, Jon May, Stephen Minton

School of Psychology

Background: Hikikomori syndrome involves voluntary withdrawal from social life, school and work, with onset typically in young adulthood. Hikikomori risk has not been examined in the UK, and these studies aimed to validate and refine the Hikikomori Risk Inventory-24 (HRI-24) screening tool in UK young adults. Methods/Results: In Study 1, participants (n = 341) completed the HRI-24. Item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a shorter 13-item HRI (HRI-13), which demonstrated a perfect correlation with the full HRI-24. Both the HRI-13 and HRI-24 showed strong convergent and divergent validity, correlating with depression, anxiety, avoidant coping and negative early life …

Emergent Collective Reproduction Via Evolving Neuronal Flocks, Nam H. Le, Michael Levin, Richard A. Watson, Josh Bongard, Christopher L. Buckley

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

This study advances the understanding of evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs) through a novel artificial life framework, VitaNova, which integrates self-organization and natural selection to simulate the emergence of complex, reproductive groups. By dynamically modeling individual agents within an environment shaped by predators and spatial constraints, VitaNova reveals mechanisms by which simple agents evolve into cohesive units exhibiting collective reproduction. The findings highlight the synergy between self-organized behaviors and adaptive evolutionary strategies as fundamental drivers of ETIs. This approach deepens our understanding of higher-order biological individuality and offers a new empirical pathway for investigating ETIs, extending current theoretical frameworks.

Exact Solutions Of M-Fractional Complex Ginzburg-Landau Equation Via Two Analytical Methods, Nematollah Kadkhoda, Mojtaba Baymani, Maad M. Mijwil, Mostafa Abotaleb

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

This article investigates the M-fractional complex Ginzburg-Landau (CGL) equationby utilizing the modified simplest equation method and the modified G'G-expansion method. The CGL holds significant importance in the realm of oscillatory phenomena and optical fibers. By implementing a fractional complex transformation, the M-fractional CGL equation is transformed into an ordinary differential equation (ODE).By employing these methodologies, bright periodic solutions, periodic solutions, and dark wave solutions relevant to phenomena witnessed in nonlinear optics or plasma environments are ascertained.It is demonstrated that these methods are very powerful and efficient to solve many fractional differential equations.

Reason for Expression of Concern: …

Enhancing Image Denoising Performance Through Cosine Similarity-Based Block Matching And Adaptive Thresholding - Ca-Ebm3d, R. Padmapriya, A. Jeyasekar

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Image denoising plays a vital role in enhancing visual quality by effectively suppressing noise while retaining critical image structures and textures. Traditional Block-Matching and 3D (BM3D) Filtering techniques, although widely adopted, often encounter challenges in achieving an optimal trade-off between noise reduction and feature preservation due to limitations in fixed-thresholding strategies and suboptimal block matching. To address these shortcomings, this study introduces a novel Cosine Adaptive BM3D (CA-BM3D) approach, which integrates cosine similarity for more accurate block matching and incorporates adaptive thresholding to enhance denoising efficiency. The proposed method was evaluated on six standard 8-bit grayscale images such as Leena …

From Industrial Automation To Intelligent Automation: The Impact Of Iiot On Process Control - A Review?, Ali S. Allahloh, Mohammad Sarfraz, Duraid Y. Mohammed, Nadeen Khaleel Ibrahim, Hayder Hussein Thary

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is reshaping process control, turning torrents of plant data into near-instant insight. Field evidence already shows unplanned-downtime cuts of 55%, maintenance-budget savings of 40%, and gains in overall-equipment-effectiveness of roughly 15%; nevertheless, fewer than 30% of facilities have pushed beyond pilot scale to full, always-on predictive maintenance. To clarify why, this review screens 312 Scopus records published between 2010 and 2023, then subjects 62 peer-reviewed studies and a broad set of industry reports to deep content analysis, bibliometric mapping, and thematic clustering.The results reveal four tightly connected research fronts—IIoT/Industry 4.0 core technologies, classical process-control …

Reliability-Based Design Optimization Using Differential-Algebraic Equations, Saad Abbas Abed, Mona Ghassan, Shaimaa Qais Latef, Hind S. Hassan

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) determines optimal design parameters by incorporating reliability constraints. This paper presents a RBDO approach using differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) for modeling and constraints. DAEs provide an accurate representation of dynamic engineering systems with coupled differential and algebraic equations. However, the nonlinearity and implicit nature of DAEs pose challenges for uncertainty propagation and optimization. This study proposes an efficient RBDO methodology based on stochastic collocation to quantify uncertainty in DAEs. The DAEs are transformed into an explicit ODE system to enable direct uncertainty analysis via sampling. Optimization under reliability constraints is achieved using a sequential approximate programming strategy. …

Challenges And Constraints In Trajectory Planning For Autonomous Robots, Jawad Abdouni, Tarik Jarou, Toufik Mzili, Abderrahim Waga, Karima Bensassi

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Autonomous mobile robots have revolutionized navigation by operating without human intervention, leveraging advanced data acquisition systems such as cameras, radar, and LIDAR, along with sophisticated planning, localization, and control algorithms. A critical challenge in this domain is path planning: determining optimal trajectories to ensure safe and efficient travel in diverse environments. This paper addresses the need to systematically evaluate trajectory-planning algorithms, whose selection directly impacts navigation performance. We present a comprehensive analysis of various classes of path-planning methods, detailing their advantages, limitations, and application contexts. By comparing these algorithms, we identify key criteria for selecting the most suitable approach for …

Diagnosis Of Covid-19 And Viral Pneumonia With Chest X-Ray Images Using Resnet-34, Sudhir Anakal, Krishna Prasad K, Chandrashekhar Uppin, Dileep Kumar M

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

COVID-19 is a highly contagious viral infection that primarily affects the respiratory system, causing symptoms such as high fever, cough, and severe respiratory distress. Early detection of the disease is of utmost importance to control the spread and severity. Common diagnostic methods include Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), antigen tests, chest X-rays, and computed tomography (CT) scans. Similarly, viral pneumonia, another severe lung infection, leads to fluid or pus accumulation in the lungs, causing symptoms such as chest pain, fatigue, excessive sweating, and nausea. The elderly and young children are particularly vulnerable to severe complications. Similarly, viral pneumonia, another …

Efficacy And Rationale Of Differentiated Racecadotril Doses Combined With Bifidobacterium Triple Viable In Managing Pediatric Persistent Diarrhea: A Comprehensive Analysis, Yanrong Liu, Li Ma, Dian Jin, Jingli Peng, Han Wei, Xueyun Zhang, Yajing Wu

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: Pediatric persistent diarrhea poses a severe burden on children's health. This study investigates the efficacy and fundamental mechanisms of varying doses of racecadotril in combination with bifidobacterium triple viable for treating this condition in children. Methods: Employing a randomized controlled trial design, participants diagnosed with pediatric persistent diarrhea were randomly allocated to a high-dose group (observation) and a low-dose group (control), both treated with racecadotril combined with bifidobacterium triple viable. During treatment, clinical parameters were meticulously recorded and analyzed. ELISA techniques were utilized to quantify alterations in immune, inflammatory, and oxidative stress markers in serum. Quantitative culture methods for …

Lncrna Mzf1 Antisense Rna 1 Promotes Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Pneumonia In Children Via Mir-16-5p, Qin Wang, Bing Han, Yanan Ji, Cuicui Zhang, Lianying Ruan, Hengrui Hao

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: To determine the expression, as well as the underlying mechanism, of lncRNA MZF1 antisense RNA 1 (MZF1-AS1) in Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP). Methods: GSE179051 was analyzed for differentially expressed lncRNAs in MP infection. The levels of MZF1-AS1 were determined by quantitative Real-time PCR in children with MPP and healthy subjects. The diagnostic value of MZF1-AS1 was assessed using ROC curves. The effects of MZF1-AS1 knockdown on A549, human primary alveolar macrophages (hpAM) and human airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell function were assessed. The downstream miRNA for MZF1-AS1 was predicted and validated. Results: MZF1-AS1 was a differentially expressed lncRNA in …

Management Of Febrile Infants Under 3 Months Of Age With Sars-Cov-2 Infection In The Emergency Department, Patricia Diego, Aina Seguí, Victoria Trenchs, Carles Luaces, Susanna Hernández-Bou

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: Febrile infants with a proven viral infection are at lower risk for a potentially serious bacterial infection (SBI). Our objective is to describe the management of young febrile infants with COVID-19 in the emergency department. Methods: Febrile infants (polymerase chain reaction) test for SARS-CoV-2 between March 2020 and October 2022 were included in a cross-sectional study. The indication for complementary tests, hospital admission and antibiotic therapy was analyzed. We performed a global analysis and by age subgroups (≥29 d). Results: A total of 172 patients were included in the study, out of which 32 (18.6%) were (93%), with urine …

Comparison Of Ischemia-Modified Albumin Levels In Children With Pneumonia And Bronchiolitis, Elife Capan Gun, Feyza Husrevoğlu Esen, Yakup Cag, Yasemin Akın

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objectives: Bronchiolitis and bronchopneumonia are important causes of hospitalization in children. Many biomarkers are used in monitoring the clinical course of these diseases, grading severity, and making hospitalization decisions. This study is therefore intended to evaluate the role of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) level in the differential diagnosis of pneumonia and bronchiolitis and to compare it with other biomarkers used in the diagnosis. Methods: Thirty patients with pneumonia and thirty patients with bronchiolitis were included in our study. Patients were diagnosed based on history, physical examination, posteroanterior chest radiography, as well as serum C-reactive protein (CRP), sedimentation, procalcitonin (PCT), hemogram, and …

Construction And Validation Of An Early Identification Model For Refractory Mycoplasma Pneumoniae-Positive Lobar Pneumonia, Bi Zhou, Xiaodong Tang, Dawei Mi, Ying Li, Haiyan Liu, Feng Zhu

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: This study analyzed the relationship between clinical parameters and prognosis in children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia positive lobar pneumonia and developed an early identification model. Methods: Relevant clinical parameters were collected. Patients were then categorized into two groups based on their length of hospital stay: 116 cases in the refractory group (≥10 days) and 94 cases in the non-refractory group (<10 >days). A univariate analysis of variance and binary logistic regression were utilized to develop a predictive model, accompanied by the construction of a nomogram. The model's performance was assessed using ROC curves, diagnostic calibration curves, and DCA curves. …

Neutrophil-To-Lymphocyte Ratio In Neonates: A Predictor Of Early-Onset Neonatal Sepsis, Thi Thanh Binh Nguyen, Khanh Linh Tong, Hoang Mai Linh

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: Early-onset neonatal sepsis (EOS) is a common cause of mortality in the neonatal period. The purpose of the study was to determine the value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the early diagnosis of EOS. Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study. A total of 102 newborns with early-onset infection (EOI) were enrolled within the first 72 hours of life in the neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary referral hospital, the largest pediatric center in central Vietnam. Results: Among 102 newborns, 32 were identified as having EOS, while the remaining 70 were classified as EOI. The median NLR …

The Covid-19 Pandemic’S Impact On General Pediatric Ward Admissions: A Single-Centre Study, Ashwaq Aleed, Abdullrahman Alsalamah, Abdulaziz O. Alharbi, Ahmad Alrashedi, Abdullah Al-Nafeesah, Osama Al-Wutayd, Manal A. Al-Batanony

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: A decline in healthcare utilisation and hospital admissions resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, severely affecting many aspects of life. In this study, we sought to evaluate the pandemic impact on general paediatric admissions by comparing the one-year pre-pandemic period. Methods: From the hospital records, all paediatric admissions from the beginning of March 2020 to the end of February 2021 and the corresponding period in 2019–2020 were included in this descriptive study. Results: A total of 4,179 hospitalisations met the study’s inclusion criteria; 2,778 occurred before the pandemic, and 1,401 occurred during the pandemic. The total paediatric hospitalisations decreased by …

Treatment Method Of Hydatid Disease In Children, Which Is A Problem In Developing Countries, Fatma Özcan Sıkı, Mehmet Sarıkaya, Metin Gündüz, Tamer Sekmenli, Alaaddin Nayman, Numan Kılıçlı, İlhan Çiftci

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: Hydatid disease (HD) is a parasitic disease caused by ingesting Echinococcus granulosus parasite eggs. HD is a common disease in developing countries. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and outcomes of medical, percutaneous, and surgical treatments in pediatric HD cases. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on pediatric patients diagnosed with HD between January 2013 and January 2023. Data on patients were analyzed. The files of 93 patients who had treatment of 112 hydatid cysts were reviewed. Results: In the study, hydatid cysts were most frequently seen in the liver (65,6%), followed by multiple organ involvement (28.9%) and isolated …

The Impacts Of Fluconazole On Invasive Fungal Infection, Colonization, And Overall Mortality In Preterm Infants: An Updated Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Tiehui Huang, Xue Zhang, Xueqiao Lei

Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Objective: Invasive fungal infection is not uncommon in preterm infants, and fluconazole has been reported to prevent fungal infection. The impacts of fluconazole on invasive fungal infection in preterm infants can be evaluated using an updated systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Methods: The log risk ratio was transformed using the risk ratio and 95% confidence interval to assess the impacts of fluconazole on fungal infection in preterm infants. After selection, eleven randomized clinical trials of 1097 preterm infants with fluconazole prophylaxis and 953 preterm infants in the control group were enrolled. The focused outcome was the risk …

Soft-Polymeric Contact Lenses Brands Evaluation According To User Preferences, Lina M. Shaker, Wan Nor Roslam Wan Isahak

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

The development of soft-polymeric contact lenses (SPCLs) has significantly enhanced vision correction by integrating advanced polymeric materials with optimized optical properties. This study examines the impact of refractive index (RI), oxygen permeability (Dk/t), and water content (EWC%) on visual quality and ocular health, correlating material properties with user-reported experiences. A survey of 5,585 medical SPCL users revealed that 31% experienced ocular fatigue and redness, often linked to optical aberrations and replacement frequency. Notably, commercially available SPCLs exhibit RI values ranging from 1.37 to 1.43, deviating from the natural ocular tissue RI (∼1.33), which contributes to light distortions and reduced visual …