Digital Commons Network^™

Advanced Robotic Multimodal Imaging With Real-Time Motion Compensation For Dynamic Structural Health Monitoring, George Papaioannou, Christos Mitrogiannis, Mark Schweitzer, Maria Pappa, Pegah Khosravi, Apostolos Karantanas, Chris Ruberg, Shawn Owens, Nikolaos Michailidis

Publications and Research

Modern composite materials promise superior performance and load-bearing capabilities, yet evaluating their structural integrity remains challenging. Current testing methods, such as visual, thermographic, ultrasonic, optical, electromagnetic, terahertz, shearography, X-ray, and neutron imaging, are hampered by long scan durations, limited field of view, suboptimal accuracy, and high costs, particularly when applied to large structures.

This paper addresses these issues by introducing a novel robotic multimodal imaging system that overcomes the limitations of traditional methods. This system dynamically captures both static and dynamic properties of materials using advanced motion compensation techniques. By integrating multiple radiographic modalities into a coordinated robotic platform, it …

Phosphorylation Deficient Inducible Camp Early Repressor (Icer) Modulates Tumorigenesis And Survival In A Transgenic Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) Model Of Melanoma, Justin Wheelan, Melissa Rose Spigelman, Angelo Cirinelli, James Reilly, Carlos A. Molina

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer, is commonly associated with mutations in the BRAF gene, particularly BRAF^V600E, which drives tumor proliferation via the ERK1/2 signaling cascade. While BRAF inhibitors initially demonstrate efficacy, therapeutic resistance remains a significant challenge. Emerging evidence implicates the cAMP signaling pathway, particularly the cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and its repressor, inducible cAMP early repressor (ICER), in melanoma progression and drug resistance. ICER, a transcriptional repressor regulated via Ras/MAPK-mediated phosphorylation and ubiquitination, is degraded in melanoma, undermining its tumor-suppressive role. In a braf^V600E; p53 (loss of function) transgenic zebrafish ( …

Relational Observables, Quiddities, And Structural Realism, Emily Adlam

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, I argue that modern spacetime physics causes problems for a number of traditional accounts of modality, but also offers important new ideas about the connection between modal and non-modal features of reality. I suggest that recent work on relational observables in general relativity and quantum gravity can help us understand how non-modal features of reality could arise from modal features of reality within some form of modal ontic structural realism. In particular, I argue that the notion of an ‘internal view,’ as employed in the partial/complete observables formalism and the quantum reference frame formalism, is an important …

Student Perceptions About How Supplemental Instruction And Instructor Engagement Support Academic Achievement In A College-Level Statistics Course, Tasha Y. Rhodes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many college students enter postsecondary education underprepared for college-level mathematics, posing challenges for course completion and degree attainment. In response, a local community college system implemented a mainstreaming initiative that places underprepared students directly into college-level statistics courses with supplemental instruction (SI). This basic qualitative study explored students’ perceptions of the role of SI and instructor engagement in supporting their success in a college-level statistics course. The research was guided by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 students enrolled at a comprehensive college who had completed the course. Through thematic analysis employing open coding yielded five distinct …

Ocean And Coastal Acidification Monitoring Priorities For The Northeast Us And Eastern Canada, Christopher Hunt, Austin Pugh, Jake Kritzer, Samantha Siedlecki, Kumiko Azetsu-Scott, Parker Gassett, Diane Lavoie, Adam Pimenta, Amy Trice, Elizabeth Turner

Faculty Publications

The Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification Monitoring Prioritization Plan 2024 calls for Coastal Acidification Networks to identify the ocean and coastal acidification (OCA) monitoring needs most important for their regions. The Northeast Coastal Acidification Network (NECAN) organized a webinar series to study regional needs, which culminated with a workshop in November 2023. This workshop led to the identification of six priority new Monitoring Needs in addition to the maintenance of current monitoring efforts:

• Improve spatial and temporal scale of monitoring co-located OCA variables and biological measurements to better resolve variability of acidification dynamics in concert with biological processes …

Male Mating Preference For Larger Females Does Not Vary Among Age Classes In The Long-Lived Beetle Bolitotherus Cornutus, G. M. Jiron, C. A. Greene, E. D. Brodie Iii, Vincent A. Formica

Biology Faculty Works

Theory and past experimental work suggest that as males age, the strength of their mate preference should decrease. However, the empirical work investigating this question has primarily been conducted in insects that have very short life spans and often live for just a single mating season. This leaves a gap in our understanding of the relationship between male mate preference and age across taxa, as age can conflate with other ecological changes in a single mating season. In this study, we ask how the strength of preference for large female body size changes as males age in a long-lived insect, …

Enhancing Sustainable Rice Production Through Organic Plus Fertilizer In Irrigated Paddy Fields, Oviyanti Mulyani, Emma Trinurani Sofyan, Ania Citraresmini, Benny Joy, Anne Yuliana Husen

Jurnal Kultivasi

Sustainable rice farming is increasingly threatened by declining soil fertility, excessive reliance on chemical fertilizers, and environmental degradation from intensive agricultural practices. There is an urgent need for innovative organic fertilizer products that combine organic materials with macro and micronutrient enhancements to restore soil health effectively. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of organic plus fertilizer (OPF) as a sustainable soil amendment to improve soil nutrient status, increase paddy productivity, and enhance overall soil health. The experiment was conducted using a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with nine treatments: one recommended OPF dose, six combinations of NPK (75 – 100%) …

Evaluation Of Color, Water Content, And Antioxidant Properties Of Wood Ear Mushroom With Nano Edible Coating, Packaging, And Storage Temperature, Aulia Afifah Rachman, Jajang Sauman Hamdani, Kusumiyati

Jurnal Kultivasi

Wood ear mushrooms are often consumed in Asia and Tropical America for their jelly-like texture, health, and freshness. However, they are easily damaged due to microbes and poor postharvest handling, which affects quality. The combination of nano edible coating, packaging, and storage temperature offers a solution to these issues. This study aims to evaluate the effect of nano edible coating, packaging, and storage temperature on the color (L*, a*, and b*), water content, and antioxidant properties (total phenolic and flavonoid) of wood ear mushrooms. The study was conducted at the Horticulture Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Padjadjaran. The experimental design …

2025 August 14 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Eco-Enzyme Application On Soil Nutrient And Plant Productivity Of Green Mustard-Peanut In Inceptisol, Idris Abd Rachman, Buhari Umasugi, Krishna Aji, Nurul Fahira A Hakim, Adnan Sofyan, Asrul Dedy Ali Hasan

Jurnal Kultivasi

Appropriate land management has a long-term impact on soil performance and is believed to improve soil fertility. This study investigated the effect of eco-enzymes on soil nutrients and plant productivity of green mustard-peanut in inceptisol. The research was conducted from February to April 2025. The experiment used a randomized block design (RBD) consisting of 5 treatments and replicated 3 times, so that there were 15 units, including N0 = without Eco-enzyme, N1 = Eco-enzyme 2cc/L. N2= Eco-enzyme 4cc/L, N3= Eco-enzyme 6cc/L, and N4= Eco-enzyme 8cc/L. The commodities used were green mustard (Brassica juncea L) and peanut (Arachis hypogaea Linn). Soil …

Re: Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Draft Final Bres No. 35 Del Monte Reclamation Improvement Field Sampling Plan (Fsp), Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Career: Algebra And Representation Theory For Non-Semisimple Topological Field Theory, Matthew Young

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Safe Real-Time Obstacle Detection And Navigation Using Cbf–Clf And Cbf–Pid Control, Nicolas M. Hernandez

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Traditional robotic navigation pipelines typically follow a three stage architecture: obstacle detection, path planning, and low-level control for trajectory tracking. While effective in static environments, these methods often introduce latency and lack formal guarantees of safety in dynamic or unplanned for scenarios. Our work addresses these limitations by developing a real-time controller grounded in Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) and Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs), unified through a Quadratic Program (QP). We first investigate a hybrid CBF-PID-QP controller on a 1/10 scale car, where the CBF serves as a real-time safety filter, modifying the PID output to prevent constraint violations. While this …

From Anorthosite To Silicic Volcanics: Photometry, Composition, And Buoyancy Of Crustal Rock Types On The Moon, Emily Margaret Culley

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

To better constrain the formation and evolution of the lunar crust, this dissertation addresses two key aspects of lunar crustal formation: the primary feldspathic crust, formed during solidification of an ancient lunar magma ocean (LMO), and non-mare silicic volcanic constructs, which represent either secondary or tertiary crustal formation processes. Specifically, we performed photometry on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) images to determine the single-scattering albedo (SSA) of surface features that expose these two non-mare crustal rock types. Using digital terrain models (DTMs) derived from LROC NAC images of each analysis region, we accounted for potential topographic …

Re: Butte Mine Flooding Site Cd, Cv 02-35 Bu-Rfc, 2025 Second Quarter Report, Mark Thompson, Dave Griffis

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Re: Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Revised Draft Final Reclamation Improvement Sites Field Sampling And Investigation Plan (Fsp): Bres No. 45 – Garfield Response To Agency Comments Received June 28, 2024, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Using The Epic (Exposure, Persuasion, Identification, And Commitment) To Develop A Measure Of Student Buy-In To Laboratory Learning Goals, Elizabeth Blanche Vaughan, A. Montoya-Cowan, Jack Barbera

Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Buy-in has been described as the series of judgements students make when deciding to engage with a pedagogical practice. Buy-in to pedagogical practices is known to have a meaningful impact on students’ engagement in learning environments, making it a construct of interest for researchers and practitioners. This study develops a measure of student buy-in to faculty defined laboratory learning goals by adapting an existing measure which operationalizes the construct in terms of Exposure, Persuasion, Identification, and Commitment (EPIC). The adapted measure presented in this study, deemed the EPIC-LaG (Laboratory Goals), was developed using learning goals for general and organic chemistry …

Passive Precision Alignment For Thin-Panel Deployable Space Systems, Jake Sutton, Trevor Carter, Brooklyn Olson, David Wing, Fisk Lungreen, Larry Howell, Nathan Usevitch, Spencer Magleby, Mark Stephen

Small Satellite Conference

Optical satellite performance improves with increased surface area, which enhances light capture and sensor input. Deployable mechanisms allow satellites to remain compact during launch and expand in orbit but the large relative motion during deployment makes it difficult to achieve precision alignment in the final deployed state. This study focuses on designing passive hinges in rigid-panel origami-based deployable satellites for optical applications. A novel kinematic coupling method is developed, incorporating magnets, compact Lamina Emergent Torsional (LET) joints, and principles from Maxwell couplings. This system autonomously achieves alignment without motorized actuation. The design process involved iterative testing of ten two-panel hinge …

Augmenting Attitude Knowledge For Optical Communication Terminals On Cubesats By Kalman Filter Based Estimation, Elisa Garbagnati, René Rüddenklau, Chrisopher Schmidt

Small Satellite Conference

Given the growing demand for high data rate transmission on small satellites like CubeSats, free-space optical communication terminals have recently attracted an increasing interest thanks to their capability of ensuring high data rates, compact designs and low power requirements. Yet, the performances of the acquisition and pointing processes crucially depend on their attitude knowledge information. This information is currently available only if an optical link has already been established. Nevertheless, it is likewise important to accurately know the attitude during the link acquisition phase to shorten the search time until the opposing target is found. This aspect is equally relevant …

Deployable Diffractive Optical Elements For Small Satellite Lidar Missions, Adam Bahlous-Boldi, Leila Freitag, Amber Cooper, Mary Dahl, Afreen Siddiqi, John Leckey, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

SPECIES (Smart Polyimide Expandable Collector to enable Investigations for Earth Science) is a NASA Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) project that explores the use of a deployable diffractive optical element (DOE) in a space-based lidar instrument for a 12–24U CubeSat operating in low Earth orbit (LEO). The DOE, a 0.6-meter hybrid multi-level Fresnel zone plate, is made using a tessellation of hexagonal molds, each with a unique number of diffractive levels. It is stowed for launch and deployed on orbit using a 3 meter long extendible boom, which positions the optic at the correct distance from the spacecraft, while guy …

From Classroom To Orbit: How A High School Girls-In-Stem Club Started The Journey Of Pleiades Orpheus, Diya Dalal, Pooja Verma, Rhea Cherukuri

Small Satellite Conference

Students from Irvington High School in Fremont, California built and launched a 1U CubeSat satellite called Pleiades Orpheus after its establishment in 2022. This project was a central part of the Irvington High School Girls-in-STEM Club and is among the few high school student-run programs globally to design, build, and successfully launch a satellite. The Pleiades Orpheus team strived to increase gender diversity in their student body, eventually leading them to form IHS Women in Satellite Engineering (IHS WiSE) in 2024.

This paper will showcase the central goals and progress of the team, highlighting their most important goal: to make …

From Classroom To Orbit: How A High School Girls-In-Stem Club Started The Journey Of Pleiades Orpheus, Diya Dalal, Pooja Verma, Rhea Cherukuri

Small Satellite Conference

Students from Irvington High School in Fremont, California built and launched a 1U CubeSat satellite called Pleiades Orpheus after its establishment in 2022. This project was a central part of the Irvington High School Girls-in-STEM Club and is among the few high school student-run programs globally to design, build, and successfully launch a satellite. The Pleiades Orpheus team strived to increase gender diversity in their student body, eventually leading them to form IHS Women in Satellite Engineering (IHS WiSE) in 2024.

This paper will showcase the central goals and progress of the team, highlighting their most important goal: to make …

Paradise Lost In The Patent Law? Changing Visions Of Technology In The Subject Matter Inquiry, Dana Remus Irwin

Florida Law Review

In recent decades, the Patent and Trademark Office and the federal courts have dramatically expanded the scope of patentable subject matter—the set of inventions eligible for patent protection. Existing scholarship has taken a narrow view of this expansion. Scholars argue on efficiency grounds that without more meaningful limits on the scope of patentable subject matter, future invention will be impeded rather than encouraged. This Article takes a broader view of the subject matter inquiry, tracing its historical development and its changing theories of technology, from the patent system’s inception to the present. This Article demonstrates that through these theories of …

Development Of A Tool For Planning Fuel-Optimized Collision Avoidance Maneuvers, Saksham Jain

Small Satellite Conference

The need for collision avoidance maneuvers is expected to rise due to growing congestion in low-Earth orbit. This paper presents the development of a tool to automate the generation of collision avoidance maneuvers in response to conjunction events. The tool presented has allowed the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) to eliminate concerns associated with human error, while concurrently addressing the expected increase in the need for these maneuvers without needing to impose any additional burden on flight dynamics engineers. The automation of this task has reduced the hands-on time required by over 80% when compared to the pre-existing workflow.

If the …

Cubesat-Compatible Q/V Band Phased Array Antenna Design For High-Bandwidth Mmwave Inter-Satellite Communications For Scalable Leo Satellite Constellations, Lucien Hammond, Rachel Swan

Small Satellite Conference

As instruments and payloads aboard satellites increasingly demand higher data rates to fulfill scientific objectives, the shift by industry and governments toward small satellite platforms necessitates high-performance communication systems tailored to these compact designs. With the growing use cases for multi-agent satellite constellations, particularly in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), frequency band congestion remains a critical challenge. To address this spectrum scarcity and enable adaptive, inter-satellite communication for multi-agent satellite constellations, this paper explores the design of a Q/V band patch antenna array to enable adaptive beamforming, high data rate inter-satellite communication for scalable satellite constellations. The use of millimeter wave …

Ronald E. Mcnair Research Symposium Presentation Schedule 2025, Mcnair Scholars Program

McNair Symposium

This is the presentation schedule for the 23rd Undergraduate Ronald E. McNair Research Symposium 2025.

Attitude Control Of A Floating Satellite (Floatsat) Via Deep Reinforcement Learning, Muhammad Faisal, Dennis Reimer, Sergio Montenegro

Small Satellite Conference

In this work, attitude determination and control (ADC) of a Floating–Satellite(FloatSat)1 through artificial intelligence is proposed. More specifically, Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) will be used to generate an optimal control policy for small satellites. This project evaluated an attitude control policy based on deep reinforcement learning using stable–baseline3 (a library which implements the DRL algorithms in PyTorch).² This Artificially intelligent attitude control was realized for a one-dimensional laboratory-based satellite, which is specifically designed to train the students for satellites and their subsystems.

Chantsat-1: A First-Time University's Experience In Small Satellite Development, George Hitt, Jean French, Juliana Harding, Ian Hewitt, Louis Keiner, Michael Woodle

Small Satellite Conference

ChantSat-1, Coastal Carolina University (CCU) High Altitude Nadir-pointing Satellite-1, is the first smallsat mission envisioned by our primarily undergraduate university. Capacity development to support mission planning over 18 months has integrated a range of interdisciplinary stakeholders while capturing the attention and imagination of students. The mission’s primary payload will be a multispectral camera for remote sensing of South Carolina’s coastal blackwater rivers, estuaries, and adjacent ocean shelf waters. The resulting coastal habitat mosaic supports ecologically important food webs and related economic and cultural engines of regional growth, while being uniquely vulnerable to the combination of natural episodic climate-related events combined …

Exploring Lunar Ionosphere Characterization Through Multi-Cubesat Occultation With Ranging Technology And Radiation Environment Analysis, Yiyu Chang, Yuhsiu Tien, Chieh Lung, Jason Yu, Weichih Lin, Yihsuan Chou, Roger Tsai, Terry Chen, Yi Duann, Loren Chang

Small Satellite Conference

Characterizing the lunar ionosphere and radiation environment is critical for advancing both scientific knowledge and the practical requirements of future lunar missions. This mission proposes deploying dual satellites in lunar orbit to perform radio occultation (RO) measurements and validate the presence and behavior of the lunar ionosphere. By analyzing the phase differences of dual-frequency signals, the electron density can be measured, enabling both temporal analysis and spatial mapping of the lunar ionospheric structure. A thorough understanding of these environmental factors is essential for identifying suitable landing sites, designing resilient infrastructure, and ensuring the reliability of communication and navigation systems—key enablers …

Csa-Xai: Channel–Spatial Attention And Explainable Ai In A Modular Multi-Backbone Framework For Lung Cancer Classification, Omar Ibrahim Obaid, Abdulbasit Alazzawi

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Computed tomography (CT) scans require precise and early lung cancer detection to produce better clinical results. High accuracy in deep learning approaches (DL) poses an existing challenge to interpret their functionality effectively. This research presents an innovative modular multi-backbone structure that combines channel-spatial attention together with explainable AI (XAI) methods for three-class lung cancer diagnosis (Normal, Benign, and Malignant). Research was carried out to evaluate six pre-trained CNN backbones (ResNet-50, VGG19, Inception-V3, EfficientNet-B0, MobileNet-V2, DenseNet-121) which received hybrid attention enhancement on the IQ-OTH/NCCD dataset. The experimental data showed four pre-trained models reaching perfect accuracy at 100 percent whereas the others …