Digital Commons Network^™

Weird Science, Michael G. Stephens

Creative Nonfiction Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Solitude: Listening To Environmental Change In Rocky Mountain National Park, 1945-Present, Mark Boxwell

Rocky Mountain National Park

A telling of the history of mechanical nose's proliferation in RMNP and people's reactions to tourist and their machines.  A sensory and environments history of the park.

Rocky Mountain National Park; Boxwell, Mark; Smith, Mark; Marx, Leo; Sutter, Paul; Coates, Peter; Estes Park; McNeill; Crutzen, Paul ;Nash, Roderick; Brooks Range; Darling, Fraser; Echhorn, Noel; Harvey, Mark; Wilderness Act; Abbey, Edward; Mooney, David; Estes Park Trail Gazette; Estes Park Board of Trustees; Estes Park Airport Committee; Love, John Arthur; Beau; Lucas; Bussey, Woodrow; Federal Aviation Administration; Louter, David; Black, Brian; Eisenhower, Dwight; Drury. Newton; Mission 66;

Dynamic Alpha Channel Tone Mapping And Multi-Factor Transparency Modulation, Yannis Guyon, Vincent Rabaud

Defensive Publications Series

Dynamic alpha tone mapping optimizes transparency for non-opaque digital content across varying environmental and digital contexts. An environmental sensing module, a content intent analysis module, and a composition analysis module concurrently ingest ambient luminous intensity, semantic metadata, and spatial frequency measurements of underlying content layers. A mathematical interpolation engine normalizes the data into a unified coefficient scale to select a non-linear Alpha Transformation Function. The Alpha Transformation Function, implemented as a localized gain map or a global gain curve, modifies the alpha channel of graphical assets during rendering. The Alpha Transformation Function facilitates increased contrast and legibility for high-priority assets …

Fusing Fitness And Health Sensor Data From Multiple Sources, Justin Phillips, Daniel Roggen, Robert Harle

Defensive Publications Series

Estimates of cardiorespiratory fitness metrics (e.g., maximal oxygen uptake) from wearable electronic devices are often characterized by significant noise and variability. Inconsistencies arise due to algorithmic differences between manufacturers, sensor inaccuracies, and biological variance. The integration of data from multiple disparate sources lacks a standardized method for weighting measurements based on source reliability or handling late-arriving data. While the disclosed method is described in the context of cardiorespiratory fitness metrics such as VO2 max, it is equally applicable to any changing physiological variable derived from noisy or disparate sources, including but not limited to daily or weekly average blood pressure. …

Faculty Senate Agenda February 2, 2026, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:00 Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes January 5, 2026
• 3:05 University Business
• 3:20 Faculty Senate Business
• 3:35 Report
• School of Graduate Studies
• Professional Responsibilities and Procedures Committee
• Office of Research
• 4:00 Old Business
• 4:05 New Business
• 4:10 Information
• EPC Report - January 8, 2026
• Adjourn: 4:30 pm

Tourism Carrying Capacity As Dynamic Property Of Complex Socio-Ecological Systems, Sebastian Sebastian Raimondo, Martino Biondani, Carlo Giupponi

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Working Papers

Overtourism is not just overcrowding: it is a systemic imbalance sustained by feedbacks between visitors, residents’ welfare, the performance of local facilities, and environmental quality. Tourism carrying capacity sits at the centre of overtourism research and policy, yet it is still commonly operationalised as static visitor limits, implicitly assuming that thresholds could be set without accounting for the feedbacks they are meant to regulate. Here we introduce a minimal dynamical model that retains the essential feedbacks through which residents, tourists, economic capital, and environmental quality co-evolve. From this model, a formal definition of tourism carrying capacity emerges as a state-dependent …

Critical Student Agency In An Integrated Social Studies Unit, Bolaji Bamidele, Kristin A. Searle

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Student Research

Background: Research has highlighted the value of centering student voices and agency in classroom contexts, yet few curricula explicitly foreground critical agency in their design. This qualitative case study examines how students enact agency within an integrated curriculum that combines computer science, social studies, and Indian Education for All (IEFA) standards. The unit focused on tribal sovereignty and why treaties still matter for indigenous people today, enabling students to connect their lived experiences to broader sociopolitical contexts. Data were collected through classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, and student artifacts. Results: Analysis revealed that students performed agency in three interrelated …

Construction Project Performance Research: A Bibliometric, Scientometric, And Qualitative Review (1989–2023), Abdelnaser Abdelhameed, Mohamed S. Yamany, Ahmed Abdelaty, Emad Elbeltagi

Faculty Publications

Despite the significant increase in publications on construction project performance (CPP), there is a deficiency of research that rigorously assesses and synthesizes previous studies to delineate the field’s development, themes, and research gaps. This article employs quantitative and qualitative methodologies to critically evaluate studies on CPP published over the last three decades and indexed in the Scopus database. The quantitative approach includes bibliometric searches and scientometric analyses to assess the extent of research interest and achievements. The qualitative methodology aims to conduct thorough content analysis to classify existing material based on prevalent themes. The results demonstrate an exponential growth of …

4-Chlorobenzylamine Containing Maleic Acid Derivatives: Synthesis, In Silico Studies, And Anti-Alzheimer’S Activity, Muhammad Junaid Tariq, Madiha Kanwal, Athar Ata, Humaira Nadeem, Mahwish Siddiqui

Michigan Tech Publications

One way to protect neurons is to protect them from oxidative damage by reducing lipid peroxidation (LPO). Therapeutic medicines that target the inflammatory response have antioxidant activities and can also block inflammatory cascade pathways and counteract cell lyses. The goal of this investigation was to see if new maleic acid derivatives could protect the brain from scopolamine-induced amnesia. To evaluate and characterize the maleic acid derivatives, spectroscopic techniques such as ¹H NMR and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used. To further evaluate the synthesized compounds, an in vitro DPPH antioxidant assay was performed, compound 2f exhibited the best …

Unitary Rational Functions: The Scaled Quaternion Case, Daniel Alpay, Ilwoo Choo, Mihaela Vajiac

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We develop the theory of minimal realizations and factorizations of rational functions where the coefficient space is a ring of the type introduced in our previous work, the scaled quaternions, which includes as special cases the quaternions and the split quaternions. The methods involved are not a direct generalization of the complex or quaternionic settings, and in particular, the adjoint is not the classical adjoint and we use properties of real Hilbert spaces. This adjoint allows to define the counterpart of unitarity for matrix-rational functions, and we develop the corresponding theories of realizations and unitary factorizations. We also begin a …

Boronate Esters For The Binding And Detection Of Low Molecular Weight Volatile Amines, Xiaoning Li, James Boyt, Steven Sloope, Luke T. Lackovic, Mark D. Smith, James J. Lavingne

Faculty Publications

Conjugated thiophene-based diboronate esters, 1–4, were synthesized to investigate how substituents on catechol alter the Lewis acidity and accessibility to boron, and influence binding interactions with low molecular weight Lewis basic amines. Crystallographic analysis indicated that both boron centres bind analyte and that Lewis base coordination induces deplanarization of the conjugated system. Spectroscopic studies demonstrate that amine binding disrupts conjugation, producing distinct and reproducible optical responses that depend on analyte basicity and structure, with association constants in organic solvent ranging from 10³ to 10⁶ M⁻¹. Quantitative binding analyses indicate strong negative cooperativity between the two boron …

A Robust Framework For Solving Pdes: Biorthogonal Spline Wavelet Methods, Mutaz Mohammad, Alexander Trounev

All Works

This paper presents a novel numerical approach for solving the partial differential equations (PDEs), focusing on the Diffusion equation. The method combines a collocation approach with wavelet techniques to achieve high accuracy in approximating solutions. A detailed framework for the proposed method, explaining the discretization process at multiple collocation points and the formulation of the resulting system of linear equations is provided. An implementation is conducted to demonstrate the method's effectiveness in capturing the complex behaviors typical of the model studied. Comparisons with analytical solutions underscore the robustness and precision of the technique, paving the way for its application in …

Fedda-Tsformer: Federated Domain Adaptation With Vision Timesformer For Left Ventricle Segmentation On Gated Myocardial Perfusion Spect Image, Yehong Huang, Chen Zhao, Rochak Dhakal, Min Zhao, Guang-Uei Hung, Zhixin Jiang, Weihua Zhou

Michigan Tech Publications

BACKGROUND: Accurate assessment of left ventricular function is essential for diagnosing and managing cardiovascular disease. Gated myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) enables simultaneous evaluation of perfusion and function, but reliable contour extraction is challenged by image noise, resolution limits, and anatomical variability. Multi-center validation is further restricted by data privacy concerns, underscoring the need for robust and privacy-preserving contouring methods. METHODS: In this study, we propose a novel approach, FedDA-TSformer, which integrates Federated Domain Adaptation with the TimeSformer model for the task of left ventricle segmentation using MPS images. The proposed model captures spatial and temporal features through a Divide-Space-Time-Attention mechanism, …

Super Bowl Lx: How Have Analytics Helped The Patriots? A Unh Expert Weighs In, Aaron Sanborn

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

The Rider (2026-02-02), Daniela Chapa-Reyes

The Rider Archives

Vol. 11, No. 17

Search For Low-Mass Electron-Recoil Dark Matter Using A Single-Charge Sensitive Supercdms-Hvev Detector, M. F. Albakry, I. Alkhatib, D. Alonso-González, J. Anczarski, T. Aralis, T. Aramaki, I. Ataeelangroudy, C. Bathurst, R. Bhattacharyya, A. J. Biffl, P. L. Brink, M. Buchanan, R. Bunker, B. Cabrera, R. Calkins, R. A. Cameron, C. Cartaro, D. G. Cerdeño, Y. Y. Chang, M. Chaudhuri, J. H. Chen, R. Chen, N. Chott, J. Cooley, H. Coombes, P. Cushman, R. Cyna, S. Das

All Works

We present constraints on low-mass dark matter electron scattering and absorption interactions using a SuperCDMS high-voltage eV-resolution (HVeV) detector. Data were taken underground in the NEXUS facility located at Fermilab with an overburden of 225 meters of water equivalent. The experiment benefits from the minimizing of luminescence from the printed circuit boards in the detector holder used in all previous HVeV studies. A blind analysis of 6.1 g·days of exposure produces exclusion limits for dark matter-electron scattering cross sections for masses as low as 1 MeV/c², as well as on the photon-dark photon mixing parameter and the coupling …

Detecting Stigmatizing Language In Clinical Notes With Large Language Models For Addiction Care, Rohan Sethi, John Caskey, Yanjun Gao, Matthew M. Churpek, Timothy A. Miller, Anoop Mayampurath, Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, Majid Afshar, Dmitriy Dligach

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Intensive care units (ICU) produce numerous progress notes that may contain stigmatizing language that perpetuate negative biases and punitive approaches against patients. Patients with substance use disorders are particularly vulnerable to stigma. This study examined the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the identification of stigmatizing language. We annotated a dataset with over 77,000 stigmatizing and non-stigmatizing notes from the MIMIC-III database. We utilized Meta's Llama-3 8B Instruct LLM to run the following experiments for stigma detection: zero-shot; in-context learning; in-context learning with a selective retrieval; supervised fine-tuning (SFT); and keyword search. All approaches were evaluated on a held-out …

Biologically-Inspired Multiscale Neuromorphic Architecture, Christian O'Reilly, Ramtin Zand

Publications

This white paper proposes a biologically-inspired multiscale neuromorphic architecture that bridges key gaps between artificial neural networks (ANNs), spiking neural networks (SNNs), and biological neural networks (BNNs). While SNNs offer promising energy efficiency, their broader adoption remains limited by suboptimal performance and the need for novel learning paradigms. To address these challenges, the proposed framework integrates structural and functional principles observed in the brain, including hierarchical organization, sparse and modular connectivity, predictive coding, and diverse neuronal dynamics.

The architecture operates across micro-, meso-, and macro-scales, incorporating neuron-level diversity (e.g., excitatory/inhibitory and principal/support cells), canonical microcircuits (CMCs), and large-scale hierarchical organization. …

A Solution To The Tension Of Burning On Neutron Stars And Nuclear Physics, Yuri Cavecchi, D. K. Galloway, A. Heger, P. Santillán-Ortega, M. Nava-Callejas, F. M. Vincentelli, Liliana E. Rivera Sandoval, A. Goodwin, Z. Johnston

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

When neutron stars accrete matter from a companion star, this matter forms a disk around them and eventually falls on their surface. Here, the fuel can ignite into bright flashes called Type I bursts. Theoretical calculations based on state-of-the-art nuclear reactions are able to explain many features of the bursts. However, models predict that the bursts should cease at high accretion rates, whereas in many sources they disappear at much lower rates. Moreover, their recurrence times also show strong discrepancies with predictions. Although various solutions have been proposed, none can account for all the observational constraints. Here, we describe a …

Exploring Enacted Active Learning Practices In Postsecondary Chemistry Lecture And Laboratory Courses, Kendall M. Zammit

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The work in this thesis begins to explore the enacted active learning practices in postsecondary chemistry lecture and laboratory courses. Chapter 1 explores the level of inquiry in postsecondary laboratories. Chapter 2 explores instructional and assessment practices at two-year institutions.

Chemistry postsecondary laboratories offer a unique opportunity to engage students in inquiry-based instruction. Inquiry-based instruction was categorized by the asking faculty members at four-institutions about six characteristics of laboratory design: choosing a problem, background research, designing procedures, analyzing data, communicating results, and interpreting results. As students have the freedom to make decisions on more characteristics of inquiry learning, the closer …

Analysis Of Superior Economic Potential In South Tangerang City With Banten Province Comparator Using Location Quotient, Dynamic Location Quotient, And Shift Share Analysis Methods, Muhammad Qabus Abid Khairullah, Rastika Widiastuti, Cindy Adria Ananda Putri, Hayuning Anggrahita

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) is a key indicator for understanding regional economic structure and dynamics. Differences in sectoral contributions reflect levels of specialization, competitiveness, and growth potential, making comparative and dynamic sectoral analyses essential for regional development planning. This study aims to identify leading, supporting, potential, and lagging economic sectors using Location Quotient (LQ), Dynamic Location Quotient (DLQ), and Shift Share Analysis by comparing the economic performance of South Tangerang City with Banten Province. The analysis is based on GRDP at constant prices by industrial sector for the period 2019-2023. LQ is applied to identify sectoral comparative advantages, DLQ …

Challenges To Equity Leadership: Rural Leadership For Marginalized Students, Alex N. Oldham

The Rural Educator

This study examines the challenges and importance of equity-oriented leadership in rural schools. Equity, as opposed to equality, involves providing all students with the resources and support they need to succeed. Research indicates that equity-oriented leadership is crucial for creating positive school climates and improving student outcomes. However, implementing equity-oriented leadership in rural schools can be particularly challenging due to contextual factors and potential resistance from communities with differing values. The study explores the challenges and benefits of equity-oriented leadership in rural schools. While some principals express a desire to lead equitably and implement various initiatives to promote positive outcomes …

Impacts Of Literacy Programming During The Covid-19 And Recovery School Years, Julie Meredith

The Rural Educator

While numerous articles and research reports have focused on understanding the impact of COVID-19 recovery interventions on students in urban and rural schools, fewer have addressed the impact of school closures and efforts to recover lost learning time on children in rural schools. Children in rural areas faced challenges similar to their peers in urban and suburban areas, but infrastructure challenges in many rural places, such as lack of broadband, required tailored approaches guided by educators’ knowledge and connection to their communities. This article examines the impact of Save the Children’s school-age literacy program, supported by 21st Century Community Learning …

From Classroom To Field: Rural Teachers’ Integration Of Science And The Outdoors, Steph N. Dean, Julianne A. Wenner

The Rural Educator

This study explored how rural educators in the US use outdoor environments to enhance science instruction, addressing the educational marginalization of rural students. Using rural cultural wealth as a theoretical framework, we investigated how rural teachers integrate local nature-based resources and students’ out-of-school experiences into science learning. We conducted interviews and observations with rural teachers, using reflexive thematic analysis as our qualitative approach. Three key themes emerged that highlight the ways our participants use the outdoor environment to teach science: (a) harness rural community partnerships, (b) engage students through relational teaching, and (c) design learning opportunities that honor students as …

Chmy 121n.H53: Introduction To General Chemistry / Hamilton, Jennifer A. Corbin

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

M 065.01: Prealgebra, Ryan P. Wood

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

M 105.04: Contenporary Mathematics, Bergen J. Dolan, Ryan P. Wood

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

M 115.09: Probability And Linear Mathematics With Co-Requisite Support, Scott Davis

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

M 115.10: Probability And Linear Mathematics With Co-Requisite Support, Scott Davis

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

M 115.50: Probability And Linear Mathematics, Scott Davis

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.