Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Anode Size On The Properties Of Constricted Hollow Anode Pulsed Plasma Source, Nirav Patel, Garret Seckinger

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

With the advent of ion thrusters, burns requiring large velocity changes can be performed with a fraction of the propellant required by traditional chemical rocket engines. However, current ion thrusters produce thrust in the order of millinewtons and thus cannot be viable for launching vehicles or burns requiring velocity changes in a small amount of time. Furthermore, current ion thrusters experience grid and component erosion, where the two grids at the termination of the nozzle slowly erode due to particle impact, and the hot electrodes degrade due to high thermal load. This limits the life of ion engines, which require …

Influence Of Infill Geometry On The Vibrational Behavior Of 3d-Printed Cantilever Beams, Owen Maute

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Vibration and damping are important considerations in many engineering structures, especially as additive manufacturing becomes more widely used in functional mechanical components. This project investigates how the internal structure of 3D-printed parts affects their vibrational behavior. A series of cantilever beams with identical outer dimensions will be designed and manufactured using a 3D printer with PLA filament, since PLA is one of the most commonly used materials in consumer and prototyping-level additive manufacturing. The study will examine five different infill patterns at three different infill densities, producing multiple beam configurations that vary only in their internal geometry. In addition to …

Polymer Degradation And Their Environmental Impact, Addison Orr, Vanessa Gilbert

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Synthetic polymer material usage has increased significantly within the last several decades due to their durability, resistance to mechanical wear, low density, and inexpensiveness. Despite these advantages, most synthetic polymers are not biodegradable and instead undergo slow degradation processes. The processes are multifaceted, involving physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms influenced by material properties and environmental conditions, such as soil, light, temperature, and moisture levels. As a result, the polymers break into microplastics and contaminate air, water, and soil, posing risks to human health and surrounding ecosystems. Additionally, polymer degradation can release harmful substances that disrupt food chains and can lead …

Production And Analysis Of Lavender Essential Oil: Extraction, Composition, And Applications, Mary Zoeller

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Steam distillation was performed to extract essential oil from lavender and analyze its chemical composition. Lavender is known to contain several compounds such as linalool, terpinen-4-ol, and linalyl acetate, which contribute to its characteristic aroma and biological activity. The purpose of this experiment was to isolate these compounds without decomposition and identify them using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Approximately 14.851 g of lavender was heated with water to generate steam, which carried the volatile compounds into a condenser where the vapor was cooled and collected. The distillate was transferred to a separatory funnel to isolate the organic layer from the …

Bridging Discrete And Continuous Systems: Fibonacci Sequences And Exponential Growth From Odes, Martyna Wojcik

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Bridging Discrete and Continuous Systems: Fibonacci Sequences and Exponential Growth from Ordinary Differential Equations       It has been observed that nature often exhibits specific patterns of growth and structure in biological systems and spiral formations. The Fibonacci sequence, defined as a discrete recursive sequence where each term is generated as the sum of the two preceding terms, “has been applied extensively to understand some natural phenomena” (Pakdemirli, 2023). In contrast, exponential growth describes a continuous process in which the rate of change of a quantity is proportional to its current value. Such behavior is modeled using differential equations that “produce solutions …

Analysis Of Non-Thermal Plasma’S Effects On Melanoma: A Biological Examination, Violet Ochrietor, Mia Nilsen, Arden Rodriguez, Ally Schwennesen

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer that may present as a real and increased risk during long-term spaceflight due to radiation exposure and limited treatment options. Non-Thermal Plasma (NTP) has emerged as a promising therapeutic tool due to its ability to generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) that affect cellular functioning without causing temperature related damage to surrounding tissues. This project investigates the effects of NTP on melanoma cells through a biological examination of exposure time, frequency of plasma, and cellular growth conditions. Human melanoma cells and keratinocytes will be cultured and exposed to the …

Gender Disparities In Sheltered Status And Systemic Drivers Of Homelessness In Johnson City, Tennessee, Preet Patel, Dr. Opal Frye-Clark

Journal of Appalachian Health

The article examines the homelessness crisis in Johnson City, Tennessee, a mid-sized Appalachian city. First, analysis of Point-in-Time (PIT) counts from 2023 to 2025, conducted in 2025, showed persistently high unsheltered rates (35.88% – 47.17%), with men comprising 60 – 65% of the unhoused population. Men experiencing homelessness also had approximately half the odds of being counted as sheltered compared with women, indicating a gender disparity in sheltered status. Second, an interview with an experienced public health practitioner from the Appalachian Region contextualized these findings by identifying systemic drivers, including the regional housing crisis and policy restrictions, and supporting equitable …

School-Centered Tobacco Retailer Exposure And Neighborhood Opportunity Across Urban And Rural Tennessee, Sima Namin Dr, Jacob Black, Jennifer Ferris, Robert E. Heidel Dr

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Tobacco retailer availability contributes to youth tobacco use, and retailers are concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. However, few studies have examined how school-centered retailer exposure intersects with neighborhood opportunity in a predominantly rural Appalachian state.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the association between neighborhood opportunity and school-centered tobacco retailer exposure across Tennessee (TN), including differences by rurality and Appalachian status.

Methods: We constructed a tract-level, school-centered youth tobacco exposure index for TN using tobacco retailer locations and public and private K-12 school data. The index incorporated retailer proximity, density, and distance-decay accessibility measures. Child Opportunity …

Deaths Of Despair Among Cancer Survivors In Rural/Urban Appalachia (2000-2022), Jason Semprini, Anders Erickson, Nosa Osazuwa-Peters

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Rising deaths of despair (premature deaths from suicide, overdose, alcohol, and violence) in adults under age 65 persist across the United States, especially in Appalachia. People diagnosed with cancer may face elevated risks of such deaths due to pain, psychosocial distress, and financial hardship.

Purpose: Deaths of despair trends were compared among adults with cancer across Appalachian and non-Appalachian regions, stratified by sex and rurality.

Methods: Analyzing SEER-21 Incidence-Based Mortality data (2000–2022), deaths caused by suicide, cirrhosis of the liver, or accidents (includes overdose) were identified among adults aged 20–64 years. Annual mortality rates per 100,000 total population were …

Effects Of Sleep Duration And Perceived Stress Of Reaction Time In Undergraduate Students, Caitlin Wescott, Edna Urrutia, Ryan F. Rednick, David Still

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Sleep deprivation and psychological stress are common among undergraduate students and can negatively affect cognitive performance. Reaction time is an important indicator of attention and processing speed and plays a critical role in both everyday activities, such as driving, and high-performance environments where rapid responses are required. This study aims to examine how sleep duration and perceived stress levels influence reaction time in undergraduate students. Participants will report their sleep duration and perceived stress levels through short surveys and wearable sleep data, while reaction time will be measured using a standardized computerized reaction time test. By comparing reaction time across …

Application Of Navier Stokes In Cfd, Hayden Kerkhoff, Gavin Palmer, Garret Seckinger

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This project investigates the use of 2-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyze aerodynamic behavior, then compare data with the numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations run by MATLAB. By leveraging open‑source and possible industry CFD platforms—including OpenFOAM and commercial solvers such as ANSYS Fluent and Inventor Professional—the study evaluates how computational methods simulate, optimize, and predict key aerodynamic quantities such as lift, drag, stall angle, and Reynolds number.   The project focuses on modeling an airflow over specific parameters, such as different angles of attacks and ISA Atmospheric Conditions. Parametric variations in density, angle of attack, chord length, and temperature …

Numerical Modeling Of Badminton Shuttlecock Trajectories, Lola G. Torres, Cassandra Pumphrey, Jadyn Peterson, Domenic Barsotti

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

The Trajectory of a badminton Shuttlecock can vary significantly when compared to a classic projectile motion, primarily due to aerodynamic drag. This project aims to model the flight of the shuttlecock using Newton's second law for gravitational and drag related forces, resulting in a nonlinear system of a first order differential equation. The given parameters include the shuttlecock mass, cross-sectional area, air density, as well as the drag coefficient, determining the overall magnitude of the drag force. The resulting initial value problem is solved numerically using a multitude of Runge_Kutta methods to compare the accuracy and stability across different computational …

Motion With Air Resistance, Gauge Mccain, Jacob Bealefeld, Francesca Wise

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

The motion of objects moving through air is influenced not only by gravity but also by air resistance, which affects the speed and acceleration of the object over time. This project examines the motion of a falling object by modeling it with an ordinary differential equation that accounts for both gravitational force and a resistive drag force proportional to velocity. Using Newton’s Second Law, a first-order differential equation is derived to describe how the velocity of the object changes as it falls. The solution of this equation demonstrates how the velocity increases initially and gradually approaches a constant value known …

Interactive Effects Of Tissue Temperature And Hydration State On Tendon Mechanical Properties Using A Chicken Drumstick Model, Makayla Maso, Kiara Maso, Mikayla Hulvey

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This study focused on the effects of temperature and hydration on tendon extensibility. Four experimental groups were tested using chicken leg tendons tested ex vivo: cold and dehydrated, cold and hydrated, warm and dehydrated, and warm and hydrated. Each treatment group was pulled with an increasing load and measured. It was hypothesized that the warm and hydrated test group would extend the furthest. This was based on studies citing increased bodily flexibility with increasing body temperature as well as stiffness at lower temperatures. Combining temperature and hydration state allowed for not only individual effects of variables to be tested but …

Simulating Pacemakers And Heartbeat Recovery Through Mathematical Modeling, Thomas Estrada, Jayla Edwards

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Title: Simulating Pacemakers and Heartbeat Recovery Through Mathematical Modeling   This study utilizes the Fitzhugh-Nagumo model to simulate cardiac electrical activity and the regulatory role of pacemakers through ordinary differential equations (ODEs). By defining the rate of change for membrane voltage, 𝑑𝑣/dt, and a recovery variable, 𝑑𝑤/dt, the model captures the heart's excitability and resting states. Central to the analysis is the stimulus current parameter, which represents the "kick" provided by a pacemaker to correct flatline conditions or weak heartbeats. Using Euler’s method for numerical integration, the research compares unstable cardiac rhythms against corrected periodic oscillations. Additionally, the project implements vector …

Back Matter

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Cold War On Five Continents, Sviatoslav Kozlov

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

American Fascism: How Patrick Buchanan Paved The Way For Donald Trump, Hayden Cross

History in the Making

The term fascism is often thrown around to describe one’s political opponents; it constantly appears in the news and is used heavily in contemporary political conversation. However, what is fascism? Do the people espousing fascist characterizations on their political opponents know what it means? Furthermore, in the United States, there is a prevalent belief that the nation is immune to fascism. Like the ironic title of Sinclair Lewis’ novel, It Can’t Happen Here, so aptly suggests, people believe that American liberal democracy is an unmalleable constant. During Donald Trump’s second term, concerns regarding a turn to fascism in the United …

The Connection: American Influence On Nazi Racial Hygiene, Dylan O’Connor, Elizabeth Vazquez

History in the Making

This paper analyzes the American eugenics movement’s significant role in shaping Nazi policies, by providing institutional models, ideological inspiration, scientific justification, and legal frameworks that the Third Reich expanded on to pursue its racial purification goals. First, this article traces how the eugenic movement developed from Francis Galtons’s theories to fully established organizations and independent groups such as the Eugenics Record Office and the American Eugenics Society. The paper further examines figures like Charles B. Davenport and Harry Laughlin, who influenced American sterilization laws and immigration restrictions, as well as Ernst Rubin, Eugen Fischer, and Fitz Lenz German, racial hygienists …

The Impact Of Technology On The Chinese Queer Community, Samantha Collasco

History in the Making

This project’s aim is to analyze the various ways in which the internet has influenced the Chinese LGBTQ+ community. The Chinese government has created an immense censorship over the community and any accompanying terms, therefore leading to their discrimination and marginalization within Chinese society. How has queer representation changed in China since the decriminalization of homosexuality? How has the internet affected the public perception of the LGBTQ+ community? What role does censorship play in the shaping of public perception of queer identities? How has westernization and globalization affected the attitudes towards queer identities? This work engages with the existing scholarship …

An “Ill-Regulated Woman”: The Rhetoric Of Gendered Power In The Late Republic, Samantha Guichard

History in the Making

Cicero’s attack on Clodia Metelli in Pro Caelio was not a personal animus but a carefully wrought composition of rhetoric that rendered her an ideological emblem of late-Republican instability, reaffirming male authority through the reprobation of a wealthy, autonomous woman. This is supported by demonstrating that Cicero deployed similar characterizations of women across his career; against Sassia in Pro Cluentio and through Chelidon in the In Verrem, establishing it as a structural technique rather than a one-off tactic, and that Roman anxieties about women’s independent wealth provided the cultural conditions that made such rhetoric persuasive. This study engages in close …

Eugenics Ties With Nature, Samuel Griffin

History in the Making

While Eugenics and the American West have been thoroughly studied, the connection which highlights the continuous pattern of white supremacist ideals between the two has not been examined sufficiently. Drawing on writings from Frederick Jackson Turner, John O’Sullivan, and research by Douglas Sackman. This article articulates how the 19th-century American viewed nature as something to conquer, and those who did not share this view were deemed inferior. Additionally, this work analyzes Alexandra Minna Stern’s Eugenic Nation alongside Luther Burbank’s and Dr. John Kellogg’s personal writings to highlight California’s support and participation in eugenics. By analyzing Burbank’s and Kellogg’s writings, the …

Editorial Staff

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Introduction And Acknowledgements, Editors Of History In The Making

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Photo Essay: Affective Infrastructures Of Migration In Mindanao, Philippines, Marion Breteau

Asia Pacific Perspectives

This photo essay explores the affective infrastructures that sustain and shape return migration between the Philippines and the Arab Gulf states. By affective infrastructures, I refer to the material, moral, economic, and relational arrangements that make migration possible, and that continue to structure life after return. Rather than addressing migration as a linear trajectory (departureemployment-return), the essay presents it as processual, and encrypted in houses, debts, bodies, aspirations, and memories. The fieldwork is grounded in Tampakan, a rural municipality in South Mindanao, a region that contains one of the largest Filipino emigration basins to the Gulf. Illustrating how return reshapes …

Inside The Human Resources Of Camper Mesh Care, Melissa Van Scoy, Megan H. Owens

CompassPoint

No abstract provided.

Campwell Involves Playing Well, Alexandra Skrocki

CompassPoint

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of Mesh Care And Camp Nursing, Megan H. Owens

CompassPoint

No abstract provided.

Assessing Research Source Credibility, Kathleen B. Gaberson

CompassPoint

No abstract provided.