Digital Commons Network^™

How Much Can Families Afford To Pay For College?, Peter Hinrichs

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper studies families’ capacity to pay for college in the United States, focusing on changes over time and differences by race and socioeconomic status. I use data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) to document changes over time in the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The results suggest that the EFC has been rising over time, and that this has been driven primarily by families in the upper quartile of the income distribution. I then use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to calculate alternative measures …

Navigating Ethical Dimensions In The Metaverse: Challenges, Frameworks, And Solutions, Mousa Al-Kfairy, Saed Alrabaee, Omar Alfandi, Amr Taha Mohamed, Souheil Khaddaj

All Works

The Metaverse is rapidly evolving into a transformative digital ecosystem, bringing with it unprecedented opportunities and a complex array of ethical challenges. This narrative review, based on an in-depth analysis of 105 full publications, explores the key ethical themes associated with the Metaverse, including privacy and data security, identity and behavior, digital inclusivity, mental and physical health, ethical AI, content moderation, intellectual property, governance, environmental sustainability, harassment, cultural representation, and economic implications. Proposed solutions for these challenges encompass privacy-by-design frameworks, robust identity verification systems, equitable access initiatives, explainable AI, and blockchain-based intellectual property protections. Additionally, the review examines governance and …

Studies To Understand The Stability And Liabilities Of Legumain-Cleavable Antibody-Drug Conjugates, Michele Yi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) offer targeted drug delivery of potent cytotoxic payloads, minimizing systemic toxicity. However, the stability of the linker is integral to ensure that there is minimal off-target payload release and little systemic toxicity. This study analyzes the physical and biological stability of our new legumain-cleavable vs traditional cathepsin-cleavable antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), with a focus on hydrophobicity, thermal stability, aggregation, and biological payload release. Our findings indicate that decreased hydrophobicity of the legumain-cleavable ADCs compared to cathepsin-cleavable ADCs is correlated with decreased aggregation (predicting lower uptake by liver macrophages and therefore slower clearance and less systemic toxicity) and lower …

Distinct Adipose Progenitor Cells Emerging With Age Drive Active Adipogenesis, Guan Wang, Gaoyan Li, Anying Song, Yutian Zhao, Jiayu Yu, Yifan Wang, Wenting Dai, Martha Salas, Hanjun Qin, Leonard Medrano, Joan Dow, Aimin Li, Brian Armstrong, Patrick T Fueger, Hua Yu, Yi Zhu, Mengle Shao, Xiwei Wu, Lei Jiang, Judith Campisi, Xia Yang, Qiong A Wang

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Starting at middle age, adults often suffer from visceral adiposity and associated adverse metabolic disorders. Lineage tracing in mice revealed that adipose progenitor cells (APCs) in visceral fat undergo extensive adipogenesis during middle age. Thus, despite the low turnover rate of adipocytes in young adults, adipogenesis is unlocked during middle age. Transplantations quantitatively showed that APCs in middle-aged mice exhibited high adipogenic capacity cell-autonomously. Single-cell RNA sequencing identified a distinct APC population, the committed preadipocyte, age-enriched (CP-A), emerging at this age. CP-As demonstrated elevated proliferation and adipogenesis activity. Pharmacological and genetic manipulations indicated that leukemia inhibitory factor receptor signaling was …

A Study Of The Parameters Involved In Nir Sintering Of Silver Microparticle-Based, Pad-Printed Features, Jonah Clement Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the effectiveness of pad printing and near-infrared (NIR) sintering for producing conductive silver microparticle traces. A new pad printer was set up, and silver inks with varying concentrations of silver particles (17.5 %v/v, 20 %v/v, and 25 %v/v) were manufactured, printed, and sintered. The study identified sintering time and silver concentration as the most influential parameters affecting resistivity, with the best result of 8.73 × 10⁻⁷ Ω·m achieved using 25 %v/v ink sintered for 3 seconds at full power. Although resistivity continued to decrease at this maximum sintering duration, further optimization of parameters, including NIR bulb distance …

Changes In The Incidence, Viral Coinfection Pattern And Outcomes Of Pneumococcal Hospitalizations During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, King-Pui Florence Chan, Ting Fung Ma, Hanshu Fang, Wai-Kai Tsui, James Chung-Man Ho, Mary Sau-Man Ip, Pak-Leung Ho

Faculty Publications

Background

The incidence of pneumococcal pneumonia in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, along with the real-world data on the ratio of non-invasive to invasive pneumococcal pneumonia, is an area that has not been thoroughly studied. The outcomes associated with coinfection of influenza and COVID-19 remain unknown. This study examined the incidence, demographics, coinfection with influenza and/or COVID-19, and clinical outcomes of pneumococcal hospitalizations in Hong Kong during the baseline, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods.

Methods

Hospitalization records of individuals aged 18 years and above with pneumococcal disease from January 2015 to August 2024 were extracted from the …

Maria Montessori, Vanessa Braun, Donna Devaughn Kreskey

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Maria Tecla Artemesia Montessori (born August 31, 1870, Chiaravalle, near Ancona, Italy – died May 6, 1952, Noordwijk aan Zee, Netherlands) was an Italian educator.  She is commonly remembered for the many schools around the globe that bear her name and implement her educational methods, the Montessori system. Maria Montessori was a scientist, educator, activist, and advocate for children.

Mamie P. Clark, Jayla Hill, Simon Howard, Kalen Kennedy

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Mamie Phipps Clark (born July 14, 1914 Hot Springs, Arkansas – August 11, 1983, New York City, New York) was an American developmental psychologist best known for her work on the development of African American children’s sense of self, specifically through a series of experiments conducted with her husband Kenneth Clark known as the “Doll Studies.” These studies would be instrumental in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court decision in which school segregation was declared unconstitutional.

Information Processing Theory (R.J. Lachman), Kimberly Diah, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Information Processing Theory is a cognitive approach designed to understand human learning. Several perspectives of this theory emerged from the cognitive revolution in psychology beginning in the 1950s. The invention of the technological age of computers brought with it an innovative way of understanding how information is processed in humans. This lead researcher to draw analogies between the processing ability of humans and computers. The human-computer analogy developed from the foundation that as computers are able to process information so too can humans in a very similar method. Both encompasses ‘cognitive’ processes such as learning or obtaining information, solving problems, …

Mathematical Skills, Rhonda Douglas Brown

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Mathematical Skills are essential for understanding how the world works and for solving problems that are important to human survival and prosperity.  They are used in everyday living in societies across the world.  The most basic mathematical skills involve estimating the amount of small sets of items without using symbols, called number sense, and tracking a small number of individual objects through space and time, called parallel individuation.  These skills are thought to be present at birth or early in life and to increase in precision into adulthood.

Brain Study Techniques, Rhonda Douglas Brown

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Brain study techniques are used to understand how the brain processes information and manages behavior.  They can establish which parts of the brain are responsible for different types of cognition and behavior.  One technique, called lesion studies, involves conducting case studies of patients with brain injury and associating damage in specific regions or structures with loss or impairment of specific cognitive processes and behaviors.  For example, in the mid1800s, using post-mortem autopsy, Paul Broca observed that patients who had lost the ability to speak, but could understand language, had damage in the posterior sections of the inferior frontal gyrus; whereas, …

Essential Pillars For The Post-2026 Colorado River Guidelines, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Jack Schmidt, Kathryn Sorensen, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

The process for determining the operating rules for the Colorado River system that will take effect in 2027 is in full swing. While various alternative operating regimes have been proposed, no preferred or consensus alternative has yet emerged. As a group of experienced Colorado River colleagues without affiliation to any Basin State, Tribe, or interested stakeholder, we submit that there are fundamental principles that should form the basis of the ultimate Record of Decision defining management of the Colorado River for the future. We propose the following essential pillars for inclusion in the Post-2026 Guidelines.

Psychological Development: Cognition, Emotions, Personality, Anita Knight Kuhnley, Kelly Carapezza, Gary Sibcy

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Adolescence is considered the age that bridges childhood and adulthood, Erik Erikson, who has contributed much to our understanding of the developmental stages described adolescence as, “the age mediating between childhood and adulthood (Erikson, 1997, p.xi).” Adolescence includes the sometimes tumultuous years between the ages of 11 and 21, and the Eriksons addressed this as one stage (Newman and Newman, 2013). Some authors attribute the fact that adolescence is such a trying time to the fact that adolescents lose synapses in the brain specifically in the primary visual cortex at a rate of 5,000 per second (Bears, Connor, and Paradiso, …

Representative Sampling, Jessica Choe, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

The research process begins with an initial observation that scientists or researchers of various backgrounds want to engage in and understand, which prompts them to formulate theories and hypotheses, collect data, and use statistical procedures to organize, summarize, and interpret gathered data. Research conducted through questionnaires or surveys are often utilized to determine the nature of a population or the interests of members in a particular group.

Adolescent Social Development, Randall E. Osborne

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Views about the manner and nature of human development have changed across time (Psyking.net 2016). Some of these views have been religious (e.g., creationism) and some of these views have been more biological (e.g., preformationism).  Regardless of the focus of the view, how we believe human beings develop has a profound effect on our expectations for those beings.  One early view of human development from a biological perspective was Preformationism.  This is explained as, “A notion that was widespread among pioneer biologists in the 18th century was that the fetus, and hence the adult organism that develops from it, is …

Psychological Development During Childhood, Meg Milligan, Kanessa Miller Doss, Sherrionda H. Crawford

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Childhood is a time of tremendous psychological development. Our personalities, cognitive capabilities, and emotions expand and transform us from infants to adolescents. In some ways we exhibit continuous development, while others are more accurately described as stages. The following pages present some of these significant changes that occur during early and middle childhood.

Piaget's Conservation Experiments, Motolani Shenbanjo, Heidi Kloos

Essays in Developmental Psychology

When it comes to assessing the magnitude of a quantity, the mind has several options. For example, to determine the amount of juice in a glass, one could merely look at the height of the juice in the glass; or one could incorporate both the height and the width of the glass. The latter would be the correct approach: The height alone can be misleading, for example when the glass is very narrow. Thus, in order to behave rationally, one has to look past the salient dimension of height and instead focus on integrating several dimensions. According to Jean Piaget, …

Quality Improvement Project Improving Tele-Sitter Usage In The Surgical Trauma Pcu, Stephanie Stone

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

This project aimed to improve the knowledge and usage of virtual patient sitters/tele-sitters for surgical trauma progressive care nurses in the surgical trauma progressive care unit through the implementation of nursing education, utilizing evidenced based teaching strategies. Nurse leaders identified a need for staff education among the surgical trauma registered nurse staff population. The goal of the project was to increase knowledge of virtual patient sitters/tele-sitters and how to order them, improve the understanding of the benefits of utilizing the device and to increase the overall usage of the devices on the surgical trauma progressive care unit patients that would …

The Role Of Natural Language Processing In Abstract Dataset To Improve Virtual Assistant Devices, Reem Alshahoomi, Salma Alameri, Sanaa Alfalasi, Feras Al-Obeidat

All Works

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has transformed human-computer interaction, especially in the realm of virtual assistants. NLP enables machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language, driving innovations in applications ranging from virtual assistants to customer service chatbots. This paper delves into the intersection of NLP and virtual assistants, examining advanced models like BERT and RoBERTa, which enhance contextual understanding and user intent recognition. Through a comprehensive evaluation using the dataset of research abstracts to explore new methods and improve response for virtual assistant devices, it explores methods to improve model efficiency, precision, and scalability. By leveraging machine learning techniques and …

Re: Draft Final 2023 Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap) Butte-Silver Bow Parks Soil Remedial Action Construction Completion Report (Ccr), Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Draft Final 2023 Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap): Koprivica Park Soil Remedial Action Construction Completion Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Harmonic Generation Of Metallic Surface States Near The Plasma Frequency, Issac Martin Anderson

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Nervous System, Ashley R. Strong, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

There are two major subdivisions of the nervous system: the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). The CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord. Whereas the PNS consists of the nerves outside the CNS. These nerves bring sensory information to the CNS and transmit commands (i.e. motor information) from the CNS to the body. The PNS has three components, the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), somatic nervous system (spinal nerves), and the cranial nerves.

Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen), Mithra H. Pirooz, Jonathan B. Santo

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham was an Arab Muslim born around 965 CE and died circa 1040 CE in current-day Iraq.  A scientist, astronomer, philosopher, and mathematician, he is particularly known for his work in astronomy, mathematics, visual perception, and optics.  In medieval Europe, he was referred to as the “Second Ptolemy”.  As the first to determine that vision results from light being reflected from an object to the eye, he is often referred to as “the father of optics”.  He is also praised for being among the first theoretical physicists.  He was one of the first scientists …

Fine Motor Skills, Ashley R. Strong, Lisa K. Lashley, Charles J. Golden

Essays in Developmental Psychology

Fine motor skills are defined as the ability to control and coordinate muscles of the hand for precise movements. These skills play an enormous role in daily activities of independent living, including dressing, feeding yourself, and self-care. Examples of fine motor skills include cutting with scissors, tying shoelaces, and writing. Gross motor skills, on the other hand, are defined as larger movements of the arms and legs. Additionally, fine motor skills typically depend on coordination between the hands and the eyes. The development of fine motor skills is dependent on the development of gross motor skills, cognitive skills, and visual …

Bayesian Methodology To Model Field Failures Using Precise Operating Time, Ravi Teja Chikkam, Sean C Pegado, Colin Joseph Lacy

Defensive Publications Series

Field failures of products are frequently modeled using a constant failure rate assumption along with biased device usage times. This methodology provides convenience but may be inaccurate due to the failure rate assumptions and unavailability of precise device usage data. Techniques described herein provide for computing the precise device usage time along with assuming varying failure rates to better estimate field failures.

Modeling Cis/Trans Preferences Of Sn("Acac")2cl2 Complexes, Luke L. Rising, Hanna Sunsdahl, Matthew Burrows, Juan Carlos Feregrino Ponce

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Tin(IV) complexes bearing two chloride ligands and two symmetric β-diketonate ligands exhibit octahedral geometries. As such, they can theoretically present in two geometric isomer forms, cis and trans. Modeling of isomeric forms of these Sn(IV) complexes with five different β-diketonate ligands has been conducted to identify overall preference as well as to attempt to ascertain any influence the ligand's own electronic properties has on exhibited isomeric preference. Additionally, modeled IR spectra of cis and trans forms were compared to determine the utility of that characterization method in distinguishing these isomers.

Development Of A Hybrid Synthetic And Computational Teaching Lab Exercise Featuring Budotitane, Kezia J. Lemke

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Budotitane is notable for its reported activity against cancer cells as well as its array of geometric structural possibilities. Preparation of budotitane, bis(1-phenyl-1,2-propanedionato)bis(ethoxy)titanium(IV), and its subsequent characterization by 1H NMR and IR spectroscopies as well as mass spectrometry has been implemented in an upper-level inorganic chemistry course. Computational modeling has also been utilized to predict the most energetically favorable isomer, as well as to generate modeled spectra for comparison to experimentally obtained results.

Progress Towards The Synthesis Of Trans-4-Bromo-2-Heptene, Ava L. Dillon

Research & Creative Achievement Day

trans-4-Bromo-2-heptene (1) is a simple compound that has never been synthesized in pure form and could be a useful starting material for organic synthesis. Therefore, the goal of this research is to synthesize 1 with a multistep synthesis. The synthesis starts with the preparation of hept-2-yn-4-ol (2) via a Grignard synthesis with the triple bond acting as a masking group for the alkene. The alcohol is converted to 4-bromo-2-heptyne (3). Step 3 is the most crucial step of selectively reducing the triple bond to the desired double bond. Finally, because the reduction should produce the cis alkene, the …

Geospatial Analysis Of Flood Risk On Housing Price In Fargo, Nd, Sho Sato

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Flooding, one of the most destructive natural hazards, causes millions of dollars in damage each year. As climate change intensifies, even ar-eas previously less prone to flooding may become increasingly vulner-able. Fargo, ND, has experienced multiple floods in the past, high-lighting the growing risk. This research evaluates the relationship be-tween flood risk and property values in Fargo, ND.