Digital Commons Network^™

Imputation Via Domain Adaptation: Rethinking Variable Subset Forecasting From Knowledge Transfer, Runchang Liang, Qi Hao, Yue Gao, Kunpeng Liu, Lu Jiang, Pengyang Wang, Minghao Yin

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multivariate time series forecasting in practical deployment faces a critical challenge termed Variable Subset Forecasting (VSF), where certain variables accessible during training are entirely missing during inference. This creates a stark discrepancy between the training (source domain with full variables) and inference (target domain with partial variables) environments, disrupting cross-variable dependencies and fragmenting global temporal patterns. Existing imputation methods, limited to transferring local knowledge (e.g., temporal neighbors or pairwise correlations), fail to capture essential global dynamics, leading to severe performance degradation under distribution shifts. To address these challenges, we redefine VSF as a cross-domain knowledge transfer problem and propose VIDA, …

Recent Advances In Developing Cell-Free Protein Synthesis Biosensors For Medical Diagnostics And Environmental Monitoring, Tyler P. Green, Joseph P. Talley, Bradley Charles Bundy

Faculty Publications

Cell-free biosensors harness the selectivity of cellular machinery without living cells’ constraints, offering advantages in environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and biotechnological applications. This review examines recent advances in cell-free biosensor development, highlighting their ability to detect diverse analytes including heavy metals, organic pollutants, pathogens, and clinical biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity. We analyze technological innovations in cell-free protein synthesis optimization, preservation strategies, and field deployment methods that have enhanced sensitivity, and practical applicability. The integration of synthetic biology approaches has enabled complex signal processing, multiplexed detection, and novel sensor designs including riboswitches, split reporter systems, and metabolic sensing modules. …

Enhancing Patient Positioning Accuracy: Evaluating Daily Cone Beam Computed Tomography In The Halcyon System., Duong Thanh Tai, Luong Tien Phat, Tran Trung Kien, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Nguyen Xuan Hai, Peter Sandwall, David Bradley, James C L Chow

Oncology Articles

BACKGROUND: Precise patient positioning is crucial for successful radiotherapy, ensuring accurate delivery of radiation to tumors while minimizing exposure to healthy tissues. Positional errors can significantly impact treatment efficacy and increase side effects. This study evaluates the effectiveness of daily cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging in the Halcyon system for detecting and correcting patient misalignments across various cancer types and treatment sites.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 411 patients treated with the Varian Halcyon linear accelerator from August 2022 to August 2024. Patients were grouped based on tumor location: Head and Neck (118 patients), Chest (188 patients), …

Correlation Measures In Metagenomic Data: The Blessing Of Dimensionality, Alessandro Fuschi, Alessandra Merlotti, Thi Dong Binh Tran, Hoan Nguyen, George M. Weinstock

Faculty Research 2025

Microbiome analysis has revolutionized our understanding of various biological processes, spanning human health and epidemiology (including antimicrobial resistance and hor- izontal gene transfer), as well as environmental and agricultural studies. At the heart of microbiome analysis lies the characterization of microbial communities through the quantification of microbial taxa and their dynamics. In the study of bacterial abundances, it is becoming more relevant to consider their relationship, to embed these data in the framework of network theory, allowing characterization of features like node relevance, pathways, and community structure. In this study, we address the primary biases encoun- tered in reconstructing networks …

Enhanced Nanomechanical, Tribological And Electrical Properties Of Ni-Cr Coatings Via Max Phase Reinforcement And Metallic Interlayers, Mohammad Ashikul Alam

Theses and Dissertations

Nickel-Chromium (Ni-Cr) coatings are widely used in industrial applications due to their resistance to oxidation, thermal stability, and adjustable electrical and mechanical properties. However, achieving improved multifunctional performance across various use cases ranging from extreme tribological environments to microscale device integration remains a significant challenge. This thesis explores two complementary strategies for enhancing the performance of Ni-Cr coatings in both thick and thin film configurations, aiming to address limitations in wear resistance, durability, adhesion, and electrical conductivity. For thick coatings, Ni-Cr was reinforced with Ti3SiC2 MAX phase particles and processed using selective laser sintering (SLS) with optimized parameters. The addition …

Antioxidant Properties Of N-Hexane Extract From Tobacco Leaves (Nicotiana Tabacum L.) Using 2,2-Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazil (Dpph) Method, Vinda M. Patricia, Dhea K. Az-Zahra, Taufik M. Fakih, Farendina Suarantika

Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy Research

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is a commercial plant that often used for making cigarettes. In 2012, the government issued regulations for the diversification of tobacco products besides cigarettes. Some of these diversified tobacco products include organic pesticides, anesthetics, cosmetic ingredients, and biochar as an alternative to coal. Therefore, in order to further to diversification of tobacco product, this study aimed to determine the antioxidant activity from n-hexane extract from leaves using the Soxhlet extraction method. Antioxidant activity was assessed by the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) method, while the total phenolic content was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu method that allowed quantification of phenolic …

Tooth Brushing Technique Detection With Deep Learning On The Edge, Anthony Teal, Dheryta Jaisinghani

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Non-communicable gum disease affects about 42%_[4] of adults aged 30 years and older. Developing a robust model to detect brushing techniques on a smartwatch can help reinforce good brushing habits and prevent gum disease.

The likelihood of someone owning a smart watch compared to a smart toothbrush is staggering. There were around 66,051_^[3] smart toothbrushes sold in 2022, with smartwatches shipping about 150,000,000_[2] units. It is important to have an alternative on a smartwatch, because it will reach far more users.

Data privacy has become a large issue worldwide. With a pre-trained model that is systematically fine-tuned …

Tooth Brushing Pressure Detection Using Only A Smartwatch, William Spielbauer, Dheryta Jaisinghani

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

• Roughly half (46%) of American adults aged 30 or older show signs of gum disease.^₁
• Improper tooth-brushing technique – in particular, excessive pressure when brushing – can cause inflammation and recession of the gums due to abrasion (gingivitis).^₂
• While there are ways to track and prevent excessive pressure (smart brushes have this feature built in), these are expensive solutions that require specialized equipment.

Eclipse, Nebraska: An Astronomical Event In Middle America, Maxwell Crees

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

I used documents and interviews to determine how the name, belonging to the once-populated town of Eclipse, Nebraska, originated. I concluded that it was the result of a real, astronomical event.

A Temporal And Spatial Analysis Of Agricultural Impacts On Water Bodies In The Cedar River Watershed, Erin Kennedy, Clair Taylor, Mohammad Iqbal

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Water quality in Iowa has a direct impact on the health of humans, the environment, and the economy. This is why pollution of surface water in northeast Iowa is not only a local, but also a regional and national concern. Agricultural runoff from Iowa has an impact on water bodies as far as the Gulf of Mexico. Excess nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, enhance phytoplankton growth and lead to the eutrophication of stream water. It also contributes to the hypoxia zone, also known as the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. In Iowa, excess nutrients have severely damaged lake …

Duality Of Quadrilaterals Via Quaternions, Parker Sjomeling

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

A quaternion is number which is hyper-complex, it has the form,

Where a₁, a₂, a₃, and a₄ are real “scalars”. Then i, j, and k are imaginary numbers which have the following properties:

q = a₁ +a₂i + a₃j + a₃k

Relevant operations on these quaternions include taking the conjugate and the norm (or commonly described as the distance).

The norm of q is equal to:

(a₁)² + (a₂)² + (a₃)² + (a₄)²

The conjugate of q is:

¯q = a …

Developing A Dna Extraction Method For Mineral Abundant Limestone Cave Samples, Treytun Garcia, Marek Sliwinski

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Caves offer a unique environment to study microbial life that survives under extreme nutrient limitation. To this extent, 16s metabarcoding serves as a sort of “DNA fingerprint” that allows us to identify and study the microbial composition of these environments, but there are hurdles that must be overcome to obtain enough DNA for effective and reliable 16s sequencing. It is important to maximize the amount of DNA that can be extracted from the Wind Cave samples because it is an extremely low biomass environment and sufficient DNA for sequencing can be hard to get. Wind Cave National Park serves as …

Building Countably Many Disjoint Stat Sets In Ω1, Jordan Mills

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

The first uncountable ordinal is ω₁. Here, we will describe the process for partitioning ω1 into countably many disjoint stationary (stat) sets. We first partition ω₁ into 2 disjoint stat sets, and then describe the process for continuing to partition ω₁ into infinitely many disjoint stat sets.

Linking Ruthenium(Ii) Polypyridyl Complexes Into Metal-Organic Frameworks Using Iron(Ii) And Zinc(Ii), Taofeek Mayowa Ogungbade

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Renewable energy has attracted significant interest in recent years as society seeks to minimize its dependence on fossil fuels. Among the various strategies proposed to achieve this goal, one promising approach is the conversion of carbon dioxide into organic fuels using photocatalysts. Unlike traditional semiconductor photocatalysts, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer advantages such as absorption of visible light, tunable structures, and uniform pore sizes, which enhance their efficiency in the photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide.

In this thesis, we report the synthesis, structure, and properties of two novel heteronuclear MOFs that incorporate ruthenium(II) complexes and 3d-block transition metals using 2,2’-bipyridine-5,5’-dicarboxylic acid …

Tides, Tourists, And Tails: Exploring Human-Wildlife Overlap On The Homer Spit, Alaska, Serena Seiler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Coastal areas present unique challenges for human-wildlife coexistence due to their shared use by people and marine species. The Homer Spit in Homer, AK (59.6481° N, 151.5299° W) is a projection of land into Kachemak Bay on which lodging, restaurants, campgrounds, RV parks, fishing, and a variety of coastal activities exist or occur, especially during the summer months. Two of the most popular nearshore marine mammals that attract visitors are sea otters (Enhydra lutris) and harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). These two species spend time swimming, foraging, and resting around the Spit, potentially resulting in co occurrences with humans. Using a …

“Literally Made Me Cry”: The Impact Of Course Material Costs On University Of Kentucky Students, Stephen Krueger

Library Reports and White Papers

The Student Course Materials Cost Survey was administered September 16 – October 6, 2024. It was open to current students at the University of Kentucky (UK). The goals were to help UK Libraries better understand how the cost of course materials affects students at UK and to provide a snapshot of student spending across the university. The questions were based on similar research done at other institutions in Virginia (Virginia Course Materials Survey, 2021) and Florida (2022 Student Textbook and Instructional Materials Survey, 2022). Other work based on those surveys includes the 2023 Illinois Course Materials Survey (CARLI, 2023) and …

Rangelands Glossary, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Natural resources factsheets

An alphabetical list of common Rangelands terminology.

Understanding Structure-Property Relationships Within Polyolefin-Derived Vitrimer Systems, Mikaela Sadri

Dissertations

Polyolefins are extremely ubiquitous materials due to their satisfactory material properties, ease of synthesis, and low cost. Unfortunately, their extensive use has led to a global plastic waste mismanagement problem. As such, notable efforts have recently focused on converting these commodity polymers into vitrimers, or dynamic networks, to extend their use-life and tailor their properties. However, the fundamental polymer physics of these emerging materials, remain largely underexplored, hindering their widespread implementation. To address this challenge and enable a more sustainable future, the overarching goal of my dissertation research is to understand the fundamental structure-property relationships within complex polyolefin-derived vitrimer systems. …

Smokejumper Biographies For 1963 Rookie Class, National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Biographies by Rookie Year

This document contains short biographies of smokejumpers who rookied in 1963.

Energy-Stable And Efficient Finite Element Schemes For The Shliomis Model Of Ferrofluid Flows, Guo Dong Zhang, Kejia Pan, Xiaoming He, Xiaofeng Yang

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we aim to design two energy-stable and efficient finite element schemes for simulating the ferrofluid flows based on the well-known Shliomis model. The model is a highly nonlinear, coupled, multi-physics system, consisting of the Navier–Stokes equations, magnetostatic equation, and magnetization field equation. We propose two reliable numerical algorithms with the following desired features: linearity and unconditional energy stability. Several key techniques are used to achieve the required features, including the auxiliary variable method, consistent terms method, prediction-correction method, and semi-implicit stabilization method. The first scheme is based on a hybrid continuous/discontinuous finite elements spatial approximation, and the …

Systematic Review On The Technology’S Role In Supporting Lung Cancer Patients In The Treatment Journey, Safa Elkefi, Polly Wu, Roa Sabra, Steven Feiner, Lanyi Chen, Guy Hembroff, Alicia K. Matthews

Michigan Tech Publications

This systematic review examines the role of technology-based interventions in supporting lung cancer patients during their treatment. It identifies (1) the different technologies utilized, (2) their functions and benefits, and (3) the barriers encountered by patients. The authors searched six databases for literature examining the use of technology to support treatment among lung cancer patients. Twenty-three papers were included. We mapped each technology, telehealth platforms, online portals, and mobile apps, to specific treatment phases (pre-treatment, active treatment, post-treatment) and symptom domains (symptom management (N = 17), emotional distress (N = 12), and patient–provider communication (N = 7)). Our results demonstrate …

Fisheries Research Report No. 353: Ecological Risk Assessment For The North Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource, Kimberley A. Smith, Brett Crisafulli, Gabby E. Mitsopoulos, Fabian I. Trinnie, Taylor Grosse, T Thompson, Stephen J. Newman

Fisheries Research Reports

On the 26 March 2025, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) convened an ecological risk assessment (ERA) of the fisheries that access the North Coast Demersal Scalefish Resource (Resource). This Resource comprises a large number of tropical demersal scalefish species that occur in waters of the North Coast Bioregion, including tropical snappers, emperors and cods.

This document contains the results of the ERA along with the background information used to support the risk scoring process. This includes an overview of the Western Australian commercial fisheries that access the Resource, namely the Pilbara Fish Trawl Interim Managed Fishery, …

Creativity: Interwoven In The Curriculum Or An Afterthought?, Amanda Bourne

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Students are identified as gifted and talented based on their abilities, including both academic and creative strengths. This study examined whether teachers foster creativity in their classroom, their perceptions of creativity, and how they incorporate creativity in their classroom. Using a mixed methods convergent parallel design, teachers at a K-8 school in the southeastern United States responded to questions about how they define creativity, how they incorporate creativity into the classroom, and their teaching practices, using the 45-item Creative Fostering Teaching Behaviour Index (CFTIndex). The study found that teachers implement practices in their classrooms that promote creativity, though there are …

Mechanochemical Investigation Of The Solid-State Reduction Of Metal Oxide Species, Trevor Webster

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Redox reactions are commonly performed in aqueous solutions. Mechanochemistry offers an alternative route to conduct these reactions in the absence of a solvent. The current research project investigates the feasibility of performing solid-state redox reactions using mechanochemistry as a means to initiate. Utilizing a Wig-L-Bug, sodium metavanadate and vanadium(V) oxide are milled with various inorganic and organic reducing agents. Zn, Mg, Na₂SO₃, ascorbic acid, and benzoic acid were selected due to the agents’ high reduction potential and ability to reduce vanadium(V) species in acidic or basic solutions. The use of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning …

Deposition Of Nickel/Iron Oxide Co-Catalysts Onto Titanium Dioxide Towards Water Photolysis, Md Towhidul Islam Tareqe

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Photocatalytic water splitting is one potential approach for sustainable hydrogen production, offering an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. This process typically employs metal–semiconductor hybrid systems, where the semiconductor absorbs sunlight to generate charge carriers, and the metal cocatalyst facilitates charge separation and surface redox reactions. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is a widely studied semiconductor due to its stability and abundance, but its limited absorption of the solar spectrum requires the incorporation of efficient cocatalysts. Platinum is regarded as the benchmark cocatalyst due to strong proton binding energy that easily facilitates the reduction of water to produce hydrogen gas. …

Smokejumper Biographies For 1962 Rookie Class, National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Biographies by Rookie Year

This document contains short biographies of smokejumpers who rookied in 1962.

Exploitation For All: The Factors That Enable Pig Butchering Schemes To Weaponize Cybersecurity's Weakest Link, Melaney Freeman

Boise State Graduate Student Projects

This paper discusses pig butchering schemes and how they leverage human weaknesses through advanced social engineering and manipulation techniques that are enabled through the use of human trafficking, forced labor, and government corruption in Southeast Asia. Details regarding scammer exploitation and the formation of a victim-offender identity is presented, followed by the explanation of factors that allow organized crime groups to exist. Essential tactics used by scammers are examined to understand how they weaponize people's vulnerabilities for the duration of the scam to build a relationship with the victim and earn their trust in order to financially exhaust them through …

Mantle Flow And Crustal Deformation Revealed By Seismic Anisotropy In The Subduction Zone Beneath Myanmar, Enbo Fan, Mingming Jiang, Yinshuang Ai, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Yumei He, Yiming Bai, Guangbing Hou, Yuan Ling, Chit Thet Mon, Myo Thant, Kyaing Sein

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The oblique convergence of the Indian and Eurasian plates drives significant deformation in the crust and mantle beneath Myanmar. However, the crustal deformation in the Indo-Burman Ranges (IBR) and mantle flow beneath Myanmar and adjacent areas remain unclear due to limited studies. We utilized data from the newly deployed second phase of the China-Myanmar Geophysical Survey of the Myanmar Orogen array to perform shear wave splitting analysis of PKS, SKKS, and SKS (XKS) phases. Our results, together with previous findings, provide new insights into mantle flow and crustal deformation across central Myanmar. In the IBR, we observed a transition from …

An Alternative Approach To Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics In Curved Space, Robert A. Hulsey

Dissertations

In the research presented in this dissertation, we propose an alternative formulation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics in curved spaces (Riemannian manifolds). Some toy quantum models (2D quantum harmonic oscillator in Poincaré half-plane model and the flat chart model of hyperbolic 2-space) are studied to understand the physical implications of this alternative formulation.

“We Are Not Robots”: Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Focus Group Talk About Problems Of Practice Around Literacy Instruction, Jacquelynn S. Popp, Carin Appleget, Tori Golden Hughes, Crystal Dail Rose, Christine Leighton, Kierstin M. Giunco, Poonam Arya, Xiufang Chen

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of elementary preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) problems of practice around literacy instruction and to explore how the PSTs framed/talked about such problems. The study comprised qualitative analysis of data collected from focus group interviews with 21 PSTs from five teacher education institutions across the United States. Analysis of the PSTs’ talk about problems of practice in the focus groups yielded three themes about the nature of their problems and how they defined and discussed strategies or solutions to problems. PSTs expressed concerns about (1) meeting the needs of students below expected …