Digital Commons Network^™

The Racialized Treadmill Of Robotic Agriculture: Colonial Legacies, Legal Exceptionalism, And Labour Control, Vasanthi Venkatesh

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The title of this paper draws on two historical meanings of the word ‘‘treadmill”. First, it references the economic concept of the ‘‘agricultural technology treadmill”, which describes how technological advances in farming lead to market consolidation, pushing smaller producers out while benefiting agribusiness oligopolies. Second, it invokes the literal treadmill, which was invented in 1818 as a punitive labour technology and a ‘‘rational” tool to discipline racialized and indentured labourers in colonial plantations. By connecting these two threads in agricultural technology — economic domination and racialized labor control — this paper examines how robotics and automation in modern agriculture perpetuate …

Consensus Ad Artificialis: Contract Theory Meets The Genai Mind, Katie Szilagyi, Marina Pavlovic´

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The advent of generative AI (GenAI) has generated shockwaves across industries. Many established professions are grappling with how GenAI’s functionality transforms their daily activities, staying power, and raison d’eˆtre. GenAI’s newfound facility with words and language has rapidly encroached upon the purview of lawyers, whose trade has long been expertise with words. While some worry about lawyers’ place in a GenAI-oriented future economy, others are optimistic about the transformative potential GenAI offers as a tool to the practicing lawyer. Legal service providers have been quick to adopt GenAI tools in the name of efficiency, harnessing its generative power for tasks …

Admissions Magazine Spring 2026, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Admissions Magazine

Altitude: Fueling the Future

• Flight Training Starts Here
• Opening Doors To Discovery, Access, and Opportunity
• Built for Pressure, Trained for Altitude
• Smarter Design, Stronger Performance
• Fueling the Future: Advancing Cryogenic Fuel Innovation for Safer, Smarter, Lunar Missions
• Planting the Seed for Smart Farming
• Out-Of-This-World Research in the Andes
• Inside a World of Science: Taking on Space, Systems, and Science
• Staying Ahead of the Herd: Student Innovation Reaches NASA
• Against the Current, Making History
• Transformative Technology
• Shadowing Success
• Where Passion Ignites Altitude: Embry-Riddle Rocket Team Overcomes Setbacks to Launch DENEB-2
• Cross Country to Crash Scenes: Running Toward Understanding
• Making an Impact: …

Who Is A Champion Teacher? A Comparative Longitudinal Analysis Of Teacher Practices In Teacher Professional Development Programmes In East Africa, Jane Rarieya, Esther Kibga, Omari Abunga, Fredrick Mtenzi, Nyagwegwe Wango

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

This comparative mixed-methods study defines and profiles the “champion teacher” by synthesising primary longitudinal and cross-sectional data from two complementary teacher professional development (TPD) initiatives implemented across East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda): the long-term, pre-service teacher-oriented Foundations for Learning (F4L) programme and the short-course, in‑service teacher Strengthening Education Systems East Africa (SESEA) programme. The champion teacher construct is operationalised through a Champion Teacher Index (CTI) comprising three integrated domains: head (cognitive pedagogical knowledge), hands (psychomotor instructional practice), and heart (affective, leadership, and gender-responsive dispositions). Quantitative analysis revealed statistically significant longitudinal differences between the programmes. F4L teachers demonstrated higher mean …

Department Of Mathematical Sciences Newsletter, Spring 2026, University Of Montana--Missoula. Department Of Mathematical Sciences

Newsletters from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at UM

Alumni Profile: Dr. Frank Gilfeather / John Bardsley -- Does Distance from Treatment Centers Impact Cancer Survival in Montana? / Hanna Antonsen -- Notes from the Chair / John Bardsley -- Math Department Cultivates New Perspectives with Indigenous STEM Course / Frederick Peck -- Mary Kay Kriley, 1942-2025 -- Michael O'Lear, 1947-2025 -- Photos from the 2026 Pi Day "Mathathon" -- Donations to the Math Department -- Degree Recipients 2025-2026 -- Spring 2026 Scholarships & Awards -- Analyzing High School Districts Through Redistricting: An Undergraduate Research Project

Testing The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis On Anthropogenic Pressure In Central Alabama, Gavin Terrell

Theses

Biodiversity is fundamental to maintaining ecosystem structure and function globally. Prior to the late 20th century, ecological theory generally predicted that biodiversity would be highest in systems experiencing minimal disturbance. However, Joseph H. Connell challenged this view with the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH), which posits that species diversity peaks at intermediate levels of disturbance and declines under conditions of both low and high disturbance. Although widely cited, the applicability of the IDH to natural systems remains debated, particularly in the context of anthropogenic disturbances and when diversity is measured beyond species richness alone.

This study evaluated the predictions of the …

When Are Two Polygons Fold Congruent?, Elena Ruiz, Benjamin Walden Philippi, Lucy Watson, Adam Cartisano

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Hilbert's Third Problem, presented in 1900, asked: given two polyhedra of equal volume, are they scissors-congruent? That is, can one always be cut into a finite number of pieces and be reassembled into the other?  In two dimensions, it is clear that two polygons have equal area if they are scissors congruent, but the converse was proved in 1807. The parallels between flat origami and polygonal decomposition suggest a common framework, which motivates us to define a notion of fold-congruence. We pose the question: are two polygons of equal area always fold-congruent? In this talk, we discuss preliminary investigations into …

Assessing The Influence Of Temperature And Water Level On Gill Disease In Goldfish, Moses Elijah Cadawas, Emmalie Turner, Darlene Panvini

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Gill disease in fish is a strong biological indicator of water quality and environmental stress. These diseases are commonly caused by bacterial or parasitic infections that target gill tissues and can lead to severe physiological impairment and ultimately mortality. Several environmental factors, including water level and temperature, play a critical role in determining fish susceptibility to these infections. Changes in these conditions can act as stressors that weaken immune defenses and promote pathogen proliferation. This study aimed to evaluate the relative impact of environmental stressors on the development of gill-associated disease in Carassius auratus (goldfish) under controlled conditions. Following exposure …

Adverse Childhood Experiences Effect On Resting State Eeg, Emily R. Stripling

SPARK Symposium Presentations

In this experiment, we processed the resting state EEG data. The data was split into 4 groups: a. Eyes closed with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), b. Eyes open with ACES, c. Eyes closed without ACEs, d. Eyes open without ACEs. The goal is to determine whether those with ACEs have an elevated Alpha band during the eyes closed recording compared to those without ACEs

Bayesball : A Comprehensive Framework For Predicting Ucl Injury, Brady M. Pinter, Will Best Ph.D.

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) reconstruction, commonly referred to as Tommy John Surgery, has seen a significant rise among Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers, prompting growing interest in identifying the mechanical and performance-based factors that contribute to injury risk. While previous studies have examined these relationships using traditional frequentist approaches separately, this study combines multiple different model techniques to present a broad framework for finding significant predictors of UCL Surgery. These models include Lasso and Ridge Regression,  Principal Component Regression (PCR) , Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS) , Random Forest, Multiple Linear Regression, and a Bayesian Statistical Model. Using these models, …

Bayesball : A Comprehensive Framework For Predicting Ucl Injury, Brady M. Pinter

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Ulnar Collateral Ligament (UCL) reconstruction, commonly referred to as Tommy John Surgery, has seen a significant rise among Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers, prompting growing interest in identifying the mechanical and performance-based factors that contribute to injury risk. While previous studies have examined these relationships using traditional frequentist approaches separately, this study combines multiple different model techniques to present a broad framework for finding significant predictors of UCL Surgery. These models include Lasso and Ridge Regression,  Principal Component Regression (PCR) , Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS) , Random Forest, Multiple Linear Regression, and a Bayesian Statistical Model. Using these models, …

Reimagining Productive Struggle In Secondary Mathematics: Introducing The Instructional Feedback For Inclusive Struggle Framework, Totrina L. Mosley

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Abstract

This conceptual study introduces the Instructional Feedback for Inclusive Struggle (IFIS) framework, a model designed to address inequities experienced by learners with disabilities in compressed-pacing mathematics classes (CPMC). Although accelerated formats such as the 4x4 instructional block schedule are intended to deepen engagement, research shows that opportunities for sense-making, reflection, and productive struggle are often limited due to time constraints (Allen Queen et al., 1997; Cooke, 2023; Young et al., 2024). IFIS responds to these challenges by integrating three foundational theories: Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which emphasizes cognitive support; Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which foregrounds …

Joint Map Of Warren County, Kentucky, Steven L. Martin, Emily R. Morris

Map and Chart--KGS

This fracture map is a compilation of joint locations and faults mapped in Warren County, Kentucky, and provides orientations of fractures (joints and faults) for hydrological, geotechnical, slope stability, and rockfall mitigation analysis. The joint data include orientations collected from 2023 to 2024, and those collected during the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologic mapping of the Woodburn 7.5 -minute quadrangle (Shawe, 1963c). New joint orientations were measured to fill gaps in the published geologic map data. Joints are fractures with no appreciable movement parallel to the fracture plane and only slight movement normal to the fracture plane, whereas faults exhibit …

Understanding Teacher Pd In The Greater Newark Stem Ecosystem: What Do Educators Need, And How Can We Deliver It?, Brad Schenker, Christopher Abbaleo, Michelle Cirillo, Rosemary Cortez, Tanisha Davis, Mark Maire, Vincent Nguyen, Jasmine Ramsey, Brad Schenker

STEM for Success Showcase

The Greater Newark region faces significant challenges in providing high-quality STEM professional development (PD) for teachers. These challenges include:

● time constraints

● cost barriers

● contract limitations

● lack of centralized information

The Greater Newark STEM Ecosystem implemented a 16 day virtual “sprint”, using the Knowtion platform , that brought together STEM educators, program providers, school supervisors, and administrators to explore what meaningful PD for STEM teachers looks like and how it can be delivered effectively at scale. The insights gathered will inform an ecosystem-wide educator survey aimed at developing new PD solutions for STEM teachers.

Assessment Of Precision Rangeland Management Tools In The Nebraska Sandhills, Hannah K. Allen

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective of this thesis is to evaluate tools and management strategies that contribute to rangeland monitoring and livestock distribution in heterogeneous grassland systems of the Nebraska Sandhills. Chapter one reviews relevant literature related to precision livestock management, the Nebraska Sandhills, biomass estimation, and pyric herbivory. The second chapter evaluates the use of fractional green canopy cover (FGCC) derived from the Canopeo mobile application as a rapid method for estimating aboveground biomass in Sandhills rangelands. Biomass samples were collected across topographic positions in both early and late growing season, and relationships between FGCC and clipped biomass were assessed using generalized …

Be Responsible In Your Answers! Monitoring Out-Of-Domain Behaviors In Domain-Specific Llms, Boquan Li, Chenzhe Lou, Zhe Ren, Peixin Zhang, Zirui Fu, Jun Sun, Yaowen Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large Language Models (LLMs) have accelerated the rapid development of chatbot web applications in various domains, such as coding, biomedicine and psychology. Compared to general LLMs like ChatGPT, domain-specific LLMs require a greater sense of responsibility. For instance, if a programming LLM casually answers medical or psychological questions, it not only misleads the public but also poses legal risks. This highlights new demands for monitoring and preventing such irresponsible behaviors. Existing efforts attempt to monitor LLMs from multiple aspects, such as lying, jailbreaks, and toxic content, while overlooking out-of-domain behaviors. In this work, we propose an innovative LLM domain monitoring …

Music Listening While Studying And Academic Performance Among College Students With Attention Deficit And Hyperactivity Disorder, Raihan K. Khan, Md Towfiqul Alam, Madalynn Nofplot, Sojib Bin Zaman, Catherine L. Zaman

Faculty Scholarship

Evidence on whether music listening supports academic performance, particularly among students with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), remains mixed. We explored associations between music listening while studying and academic performance (GPA: grade point average) among college students, and to evaluate whether the associations differed by ADHD status. We analyzed cross-sectional survey data from college students and conducted linear regression models with self-reported GPA as the dependent variable. Models were adjusted for sex, academic level, college affiliation, primary study location, weekly study hours, and preferred genre of music. A total of 541 students participated. Most of the students were at …

Synthesis And In Vitro Evaluation Of Potential Tuberculosis Antibiotics, Chloe Spradlin

Honors Projects

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health threat. The bacteria causing TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has proven difficult to combat, as drug resistance (MDR-TB) continues to develop within the bacteria. Access to healthcare in developing countries complicates the treatment of TB and MDR-TB. The World Health Organization has declared TB a global health crisis and has called for the development of new therapies. Previously, we used AutoDock Vina software to design novel drugs targeting InhA, an enzyme involved in mycobacterial cell wall synthesis. This project focuses on synthesizing amino diphenyl amides (ADA) and screening them against Mycobacterium. The synthetic pathway enables …

Secondary Dual Language And Immersion Content Teachers And Their Instructional Materials, Curtis Larsen

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Secondary dual language and immersion (DLI) teachers who teach content courses, such as social studies or science, balance two central responsibilities: meeting content-area standards and supporting students’ language development (Cammarata & Tedick, 2012). Managing these responsibilities presents challenges when preparing and using instructional materials in languages other than English (Moate, 2014; Morton, 2013; Skinnari, 2020; Sun, 2017). While existing research shows that DLI teachers expend enormous energy seeking and preparing instructional materials for their content-area classes (Mathieu, 2022), little is known about the factors that guide this work or how well existing materials meet teachers’ needs. This dissertation sought to …

Correlated Many-Body Quantum Dynamics Of The Peregrine Soliton, D. Diplaris, G. A. Bougas, P. G. Kevrekidis, C. L. Hung, P. Schmelcher, S. I. Mistakidis

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We explore the correlated dynamics underlying the formation of the quantum Peregrine soliton, a prototypical rogue-wave excitation, utilizing interaction quenches from repulsive to attractive couplings in an ultracold bosonic gas confined in a one-dimensional box trap. The latter emulates the so-called semiclassical initial conditions and the associated gradient catastrophe scenario facilitating the emergence of a high-density, doubly localized waveform. The ensuing multiorbital variant of the Peregrine soliton features notable deviations from its mean-field sibling, including a reduced peak amplitude, wider core, absence of the side density dips, and earlier formation times. Moreover, Peregrine soliton generation yields coherence losses, while experiencing …

Wright State University's Celebration Of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities From Wednesday, April 1, 2026, Wright State University

Celebration of Undergraduate & Graduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

The student abstract booklet is a compilation of abstracts from students' oral and poster presentations at Wright State University's Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities on April 1, 2026.

Architecture-Agnostic Test-Time Adaptation Via Backprop-Free Embedding Alignment, Xiao Ma, Young D. Kwon, Pan Zhou, Dong Ma

PhD Student’s Publications Collection

Test-Time Adaptation (TTA) adapts a deployed model during online inference to mitigate the impact of domain shift. While achieving strong accuracy, most existing methods rely on backpropagation, which is memory and computation intensive, making them unsuitable for resource-constrained devices. Recent attempts to reduce this overhead often suffer from high latency or are tied to specific architectures such as ViT-only or CNN-only. In this work, we revisit domain shift from an embedding perspective. Our analysis reveals that domain shift induces three distinct structural changes in the embedding space: translation (mean shift), scaling (variance shift), and rotation (covariance shift). Based on this …

Scalable Multi-Task Low-Rank Model Adaptation, Zichen Tian, Antoine Ledent, Qianru Sun

PhD Student’s Publications Collection

Scaling multi-task low-rank adaptation (LoRA) to a large number of tasks induces catastrophic performance degradation, such as an accuracy drop from 88.2% to 2.0% on DOTA when scaling from 5 to 15 tasks. This failure is due to parameter and representation misalignment. We find that existing solutions, like regularization and dynamic routing, fail at scale because they are constrained by a fundamental trade-off: strengthening regularization to reduce inter-task conflict inadvertently suppresses the essential feature discrimination required for effective routing. In this work, we identify two root causes for this trade-off. First, uniform regularization disrupts inter-task knowledge sharing: shared underlying knowledge …

Simulation And Optimization Of The Active Magnetic Shield Of The N2edm Experiment, N. J. Ayres, G. Ban, G. Bison, K. Bodek, V. Bondar, T. Bouillaud, G. L. Caratsch, E. Chanel, W. Chen, C. Crawford, V. Czamler, C. B. Doorenbos, S. Emmeneger, S. K. Ermakov, M. Ferry, M. Fertl, A. Fratangelo, D. Galbinski, W. C. Griffith, Z. D. Grujic, K. Kirch, V. Kletzl, J. Krempel, B. Lauss, T. Lefort, A. Lejuez, K. Michielsen, J. Micko, P. Mullan, O. Naviliat-Cuncic, F. M. Piegsa

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The n2EDM experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute aims to conduct a high-sensitivity search for the electric dipole moment of the neutron. Magnetic stability and control are achieved through a combination of passive shielding, provided by a magnetically shielded room (MSR), and a surrounding active field compensation system by an Active Magnetic Shield (AMS). The AMS is a feedback-controlled system of eight coils spanned on an irregular grid, designed to provide magnetic stability to the enclosed volume by actively suppressing external magnetic disturbances. It can compensate static and variable magnetic fields up to ± 50 μT (homogeneous components) and ± …

Breathing Kagome Lattice-Based Nb3i8 Monolayer: Theoretical Insights Into Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis, Narender Kumar, Radha Somaiya, Ravindra Pandey, Nacir Tit

Michigan Tech Publications

Photocatalytic water splitting is a promising strategy for clean energy production, but its efficiency is restricted by poor light absorption, charge recombination, and slow reaction kinetics in photocatalytic materials. To address these challenges, a breathing Kagome lattice-based Nb3I8 monolayer is considered in the present study. Its photocatalytic performance is assessed via descriptors including the effective d-band center, spin-dependent carrier mobility, Gibbs free energy, and exchange-current density. The results based on density functional theory predict that the Nb3I8 monolayer is a type II magnetic semiconductor, with spin-up and spin-down bandgap energies of 1.06 and 1.77 eV, respectively. The application of biaxial …

Utilizing A Brief Experimental Analysis To Examine Therapeutic Interventions On Math Anxiety And Math Fact Fluency In School-Age Children, Erin Simon

Honors Theses

This study utilized a brief experimental analysis (BEA) to examine the effects of taped problems (TP) alone and in combination with brief therapeutic interventions on math fact fluency and math anxiety in elementary-aged students with language disorders. Math anxiety was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the Early Elementary School Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (EES-AMAS), a standardized measure for examining math anxiety levels in young students, and math fact fluency was measured using 2-minute Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) probes. Results indicated that TP-only was associated with improvements in digits correct per minute (DCPM) for most participants; further, the addition of therapeutic interventions …

Redbird Impact, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring 2026), Center For Civic Engagement, Illinois State University

Redbird Impact

No abstract provided.

Women Leading In Higher Education: Exploring The Experiences Of Women Leaders In Student Affairs, Amelia Lindsay

Honors Theses

Student affairs is a field within higher education that works to support students’ out-of-classroom needs and provide them with a college experience that promotes holistic growth. This study examines the experiences of women leaders in student affairs at a mid-sized university in the southeastern United States and the opportunities and barriers they encountered in their pathways to their careers. Through in-depth, qualitative interviews, clear themes emerged regarding both facilitators of and challenges to their progression to leadership. Data show that their early life characteristics, self-perceptions, collegiate involvement, and mentorship were the largest catalysts in their career trajectories while the challenge …

Algorithm Performance In The Search For Hamiltonian Cycles, Chance Davis

Honors Theses

The Hamiltonian cycle problem is ubiquitous in both computer science and graph theory: Given a connected graph, a solution would either confirm the existence of a cycle which visits each vertex only once or its nonexistence. The importance of this problem, as well as its difficulty, is described in the Clay Mathematics Institute’s Millenium Prize Problems and Karp’s 21 NP-complete problems. Despite its “hardness,” solutions to the Hamiltonian cycle problem are desired in logistics, electronic circuit design, and network routing, among other fields. In this work, we benchmark a promising exhaustive enumeration algorithm on various graphs, including ones derived from …

Competitive Reaction Pathways In The Fully Green Synthesis And Surface Modification Of Silver Nanowires Under L-Ascorbic Acid-Limited Conditions, Finley Neal

Honors Theses

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are critical building blocks for transparent conductive films (TCFs) in flexible electronics, yet their commercial viability is hindered by environmentally hazardous, energy-intensive synthesis methods and limited intrinsic chemical stability. This study investigated a fully green, room-temperature (25℃) batch synthesis of pristine AgNWs using tannic acid as a biodegradable dual reducing and capping agent under strict kinetic pH control (pH 1.25). To enhance oxidative resistance, a subsequent surface modification protocol was evaluated to deposit a protective palladium (Pd) shell using L-ascorbic acid (LAA) as a secondary reducing agent. The pristine green synthesis yielded one-dimensional Ag nanostructures with a …