Digital Commons Network^™

Chicago Southland Regional Model Pathways, Education Systems Center

Practitioner Toolkits and Resources

These models from Prairie State College and South Suburban College are aligned to the State of Illinois College and Career Pathway Endorsement framework and include dual credit coursework pre-approved by the colleges for inclusion by regional high schools.

Immune Suppression And Metabolic Reprogramming In Bactrocera Dorsalis Parasitized By Fopius Arisanus, Rehemah Gwokyalya, Jeremy Herren, Thomas Ogao Onchuru, Sahadatou Mama Sambo, Cassandra Purity Ronnie, Ndlela Shepard, Sunday Ekesi, Samira A. Mohamed

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Abstract – Bactrocera dorsalis is a major horticultural pest. Biocontrol using parasitoids, such as Fopius arisanus, is a sustainable tool for managing this pest. However, the mechanisms enabling the successful parasitism of B. dorsalis are poorly understood. Using transcriptomic profiling, cellular bioassays, and targeted metabolite analyses, we investigated how F. arisanus modulates the immunity and metabolic activity of B. dorsalis to achieve a high parasitism rate. Our results revealed a weak and late encapsulation response of B. dorsalis towards F. arisanus. Additionally, parasitism reduced the number of circulating haemocytes by 35%, lowered constitutive granulocyte counts and inhibited phenoloxidase activity in …

Tectonics: Supporting Information For Deformation Rates And Patterns Of The Emerging Banda Ranges Revealed By Uplifted Coral Terraces In Timor-Leste, Ron Harris, Nicole Cox, Megan Flexhaug, Dorothy Merritts, Chua-Chou Shen, Frederico Santos

ScholarsArchive Data

The supplementary information provided consist primarily of figures detailing coral terrace profiles and terrace inner margin elevation to MIS highstand correlations.

• a general overview of the kind of data files;
• a general description of processing steps used;
• any known imperfections or anomalies in the data.

Re: Comment Letter For The Draft Final Butte Mine Waste Repository Operations And Maintenance (O&M) Plan (Dated May 8, 2026), Emma Rott

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Smart-Biosense: Surface-Wave Molecular Aptamer-Based Recognition For Selective Whole-Cell Bacterial Detection, Eashan Selvarajah, Vikram Jangid

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

One of the largest causes of food waste in the United States is recall or disposal of produce due to bacterial infection, with a prevalent cause being the pathogen Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium. Current detection methods are inadequate for many use cases due to cost and speed of detection. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel method of detecting the presence of S. Typhimurium quickly using a combination of aptamers and love-surface acoustic wave sensors. Our experiments demonstrate repeatable changes in sensor response during exposure to S. Typhimurium under test conditions. Our data shows a measurable difference in …

Examining The Relationship Between Civic Agriculture Participation And Civic Engagement In South Texas, Allison Kaika, Dongkyu Kim, William Donner, Alexis Racelis, Owen Temby

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Civic agriculture is often credited with strengthening democratic life by encouraging civic and political engagement, yet this claim has scarcely been tested in socioeconomically marginalized regions. Using original survey data collected through a combination of random and purposive sampling, this study assesses that relationship in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, a majority-Hispanic agricultural region marked by high poverty and low civic participation. Phone and online surveys were administered in English and Spanish to reach both the general population and individuals involved in civic agriculture initiatives, yielding over 400 responses. We examine whether civic agriculture participation predicts greater community …

Measures Of Linguistic Complexity And Vocabulary Diversity As Indicators Of Oral Language Production Growth Of 4th Grade Spanish-Speaking Els, Carla T. Zayas-Santiago

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As fourth-grade students transition from learning to read to reading to learn, their ability to use language for academic purposes becomes increasingly important, particularly for Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs). However, students often have limited opportunities to produce extended oral language during instruction. Students’ oral language production reflects both structural aspects of language use, captured through measures of linguistic complexity, and lexical aspects of language use, captured through measures of vocabulary diversity. Although prior studies have examined transcript-derived measures of oral language production, limited research has examined how these measures predict English proficiency, capture growth over time, and respond to different …

Unraveling The Nanoscopic Characteristics Of The Heterogeneous Deep Eutectic Solvent Formed By Lauric Acid And N-Methylacetamide: An Experimental And Computational Approach, Laura X. Sepulveda

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are attractive systems for extraction and separation of compounds. One example of this is the DES formed by the combination of lauric acid (LA) and N-methylacetamide (NMA), system that has been shown to efficiently separate oil/water mixtures through gel formation between LA and oil molecules. Structural characterization of this system using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and vibrational spectroscopy revealed the existence of nanometer-scale LA domains embedded in a continuous polar NMA phase, where LA and NMA interact through hydrogen bonding. These LA domains are responsible for the separation efficiency of linear organic molecules. However, this DES …

The Standard Deviation, R. Canevet

Revue Marocaine de Droit, d'Economie et de Gestion (Moroccan Journal of Law, Economics and Management)

This article provides a didactic explanation of the standard deviation and its statistical foundations. It clarifies the relationship between variance and dispersion, illustrates the interpretation of the standard deviation, and discusses its usefulness for teaching and applying quantitative methods.

Understanding Dysgraphia: Teaching Students With Dysgraphia, Elizabeth Klein Ms.

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

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In today’s inclusive classrooms, the ability to develop skilled, confident writers is a core competency for every educator. However, while reading disabilities …

Pharmacovigilance For Health Management: A National Profile Of Methylphenidate Adverse Events In Thailand Using National Databases, Suwapat Sukthas, Pornpan Soontorntham, Surasak Saokaew

Journal of Health Research

Background: Methylphenidate, a Schedule II psychostimulant, is indicated for ADHD in children ≥6 years when other measures fail, with unclear adult indications beyond narcolepsy. Global use increases necessitate robust pharmacovigilance, especially in low/middle-income countries like Thailand where safety data is sparse. This study characterized methylphenidate-associated adverse events (AEs) in Thailand, analyzing product types and patient factors.

Methods: Spontaneous Thai Vigibase™ reports (2005-2024) were analyzed alongside national distribution data. AEs were MedDRA-coded and stratified by age, sex, indication, formulation (original/generic; immediate/extended-release), allergy history, and comorbidities. Reporting Odds Ratios (RORs) identified safety signals. Serious AEs followed WHO criteria.

Results: Among 424 patients …

U.S. Black Men’S Perceptions Of The Similarities And Interplay Among Mind-Body Practices, Spirituality, And Religion: A Qualitative Study, Khanh Pham

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored U.S. Black men’s perceptions of relations among mind-body practices (MBPs), spirituality, and religion to understand how these factors might influence Black men’s health. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze data from individual semi-structured interviews with 18 Black male MBP instructors. Five themes were generated. The themes were (1) spirit(uality) is the foundation for Black men’s experience of life seen and unseen, (2) MBPs and religion are rooted in spirituality, (3) MBPs, religion, and Black culture share common characteristics, (4) MBPs and religion facilitate holistic wellbeing, and (5) confusion and negative perceptions about MBPs, spirituality, and …

Context-Sensitive Control-Flow Analysis For Non-Standard Language Semantics, Tim Whiting

Theses and Dissertations

Control-Flow Analysis (CFA) is a static technique for understanding the execution of higher-order programs without running the code. CFA aids in identifying bugs, assisting program comprehension, and exposing optimization opportunities. Constructing a CFA typically begins with an idealized evaluator--such as an abstract machine or interpreter--and proceeds by approximating components of evaluation to ensure that: (a) the analysis is sound (representing all possible behaviors), and (b) the analysis is guaranteed to terminate (finitely representable). These constraints necessitate a loss of precision, providing an approximation of the values that flow to program locations rather than exact execution traces. This imprecision causes the …

Automated Detection Of Bacterial Flagellar Motors, Eben J. Lonsdale

Undergraduate Honors Theses

With advances in cryogenic electron tomography, the ability to study bacterial structures in their cellular context has improved. However, 3D images of bacteria, called tomograms, have a low signal-to-noise ratio. This makes annotating structures of interest difficult, as traditional computer vision models struggle with tomograms and manual annotation is time consuming. We build on the results of the BYU Kaggle competition to create an ensemble model capable of automatically annotating flagellar models with nearly around 85% accuracy.

Practical Engineering Design: Hands-On Learning In An Undergraduate Embedded Systems Design Course, Nadieh Moghadam

School of Engineering: Faculty Scholarship

Hands-on engineering design can help bridge the gap between theoretical coursework and real-world engineering practice, particularly during the middle years of undergraduate programs. This paper presents the implementation and outcomes of an open-ended final project in ELEC 310: Embedded Systems Design at the University of San Diego. Student teams designed and prototyped smart environmental monitoring systems using STM32 microcontrollers, selecting sensors and defining system objectives under realistic constraints. Project outcomes were evaluated using prototype demonstrations, team technical reports, and post-project student reflections analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. Reflections and project artifacts suggest that debugging and hardware–software integration functioned as key …

Integrating Reflection Data With Stratigraphic Analysis In Little Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, Caleb S. Saks

Earth Sciences Undergraduate Senior Theses

Reflection events within ground penetrating radar (GPR) and CHIRP seismic data are commonly used to infer changes in stratigraphy in lake basins. My thesis provides ground truth for these data by correlating reflection events to measured changes in sediment characteristics including composition and density. My focus is Little Lake Sunapee (LLS), located in central New Hampshire, which contains sediments deposited during and after the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), during late Pleistocene and Holocene time. These sediments provide a record of post-glacial climate and environmental change.

I present detailed coverage of the LLS sub-bottom sediment stratigraphy based on …

Uranyl Complex Of 1,3-Bis(Ditertbutylphosphinoxidomethyl)Benzene, Maha M. Alotaibi, Md Abdul Goni, Eric Reinheimer, Tasneem A. Siddiquee

Chemistry Faculty Research

This short note presents a new molecule isolated and characterized from the reaction of uranyl nitrate with the PCP-type pincer ligand 1,3-bis(ditertbutylphosphinomethyl)benzene in the presence of UV light under ambient conditions. The new dinuclear uranyl-PCP complex was characterized by using FT-IR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. As revealed by the crystal structure, the new complex had oxygen atoms coordinating from the phosphinoxides that were oxidized under ambient conditions. Each uranium atom of this dinuclear complex was found to exhibit pentagonal bipyramidal coordination geometry.

Transformative Practices: The Multiple Impacts Of The Mat Program At Al-Quds Bard College, Daniel Terris, Derek Furr

GHEA21 Open Educational Resources

This paper summarizes research on the impact of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Al-Quds Bard College, which since 2009 has trained more than 600 Palestinian K-12 teachers working across the West Bank and reaching over 120,000 students, many in disadvantaged communities. Supported in part by the Education Above All foundation, the program combines educational theory, discipline-based knowledge, classroom research, and reflective practice, requiring in-service teachers to experiment with new teaching approaches in their own classrooms. Multiple studies reviewed in the paper show that MAT graduates adopt more student-centered pedagogies—such as backward design, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative …

Measurement Discipline For Sustainable Industrial Transition: Frontier Productivity Evidence From Shandong And Jiangsu Manufacturing, 2013-2023, Shaopu Wu, Jianguang Hou, Danlin Yu

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Sustainable industrial transition requires productivity evidence that separates real efficiency improvement from scale expansion, capital deepening, and reporting change. This study develops a reproducible frontier-productivity diagnostic for provincial leading industry policy, using official 2013-2023 sector panels for 23 two-digit manufacturing sectors in Shandong Province and a matched 2019-2023 benchmark against Jiangsu. The framework combines input-oriented Banker-Charnes-Cooper (BCC) data envelopment analysis (DEA), Simar-Wilson bootstrap bias correction, Malmquist total factor productivity change (TFPCH) decomposition, producer price index (PPI) deflation diagnostics, scale-productivity classification, and targeted sensitivity tests. Bootstrap correction lowers mean BCC efficiency from 0.77 to 0.69 in Shandong and from 0.79 to …

Ora (Oneball Robotic Arm), Isabella Murillo, Juan Pablo Fernandez Garza, Gabriel Kotab, Catherine Epstein

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Confined spaces are dangerous and awkward to navigate environments, often putting those who work in them at risk. To reduce effort and human exposure to these hazards, robotic systems can be used to navigate and inspect these areas to limit, or even eliminate the need for human presence in confined spaces. This project proposes an autonomous robot that can navigate confined spaces while sending data back to the user. The robot features a spherical body that is capable of a zero rotational axis, with an external, magnetically attached head. This head contains scanners or tools that the user can remotely …

Ai In Education And Information: Tool, Threat, Or Teammate? How Academia Is Shaping The Future Of Intelligent Work, Essraa Nawar

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the future of intelligent work across education, healthcare, leadership, communication, workplace culture, and health information management. Yet while AI adoption continues accelerating, institutions and professionals are still trying to understand what this transformation actually means for people, learning, careers, ethics, trust, governance, and human judgment. This interactive and forward-thinking panel brings together voices from higher education and healthcare information management to explore how AI is reshaping classrooms, workplaces, healthcare systems, professional identity, and future workforce expectations across generations.

Rather than focusing only on technology itself, the conversation will examine the broader cultural and organizational shift …

The Influence Of Gustav Holst's The Planets On The Music Of John Williams, Kara Lewis

Senior Honors Theses

Throughout his six-decade career in film music, John Williams has achieved incredible success. Yet, one of the most prominent criticisms of Williams’ work is that it borrows heavily from classical repertoire. It is common to read that Williams stole from composers such as Gustav Holst. This paper examines in what aspects and to what extent the music of Williams takes inspiration specifically from Holst’s The Planets. Overall style and specific excerpts will be compared to demonstrate that, while the two share some characteristics, there is not an overall sameness of style. It shall also be demonstrated that certain excerpts …

A Peer Evaluation Of Safety At Signalized Intersections, Auzton Mitchell Stutts

Theses and Dissertations

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has made significant efforts to reduce crashes at signalized intersections and is constantly seeking to improve safety across the state. The purpose of this research is to quantify and evaluate the safety rates and frequencies at signalized intersections in Utah compared to other states. Once the crashes have been quantified, the secondary purpose is to determine why there may or may not be differences. A survey was developed to understand how states analyze, prioritize, and implement safety at signalized intersections, including different policies, procedures, and countermeasures. Crash data from eight states were analyzed and …

Comparative Analysis Of Leaflet Materials, Stent Materials, And Stent Cell Density For Bileaflet Transcatheter Mitral Valve Design, Joseph Chibuike Nwokeafor, Joshua D. Hofmeister, Breandan B. Yeats, Lakshmi Prasad Dasi, Charanjit S. Rihal, Juan A. Crestanello, Leigh Griffiths, Mohamad A. Alkhouli, Hoda Hatoum

Michigan Tech Publications

Background: The biomechanical performance of bileaflet transcatheter mitral valves (TMVs) depends on complex interactions between leaflet material behavior and stent design. However, the contributions of leaflet materials and constitutive models, stent materials, and stent geometry to valve function and durability remain poorly understood. Methods: A parametric finite element study was conducted using a CAD model of a bileaflet TMV subjected to physiological pressure loading. Five leaflet material models were evaluated: 3 glutaraldehyde-fixed tissues—bovine pericardium (BP; FBP1, FBP2) and porcine pericardium (PP; FPP)—and 2 unfixed tissues—bovine (UBP) and porcine pericardium (UPP). BP was modeled as a linear elastic (FBP1) and Ogden …

Agrivoltaic Shading Reduces Soil Greenhouse Gas Fluxes In A Semi-Arid Vineyard, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, Rafael M. Almeida, Carine Cocco, Engil Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Agrivoltaic systems are expanding in semi-arid regions, raising questions about how panel driven shading alters soil greenhouse gas exchange. We used automated chambers to measure high frequency soil CO2, N2O, and CH4 fluxes in a newly established vineyard agrivoltaic system in Texas across three shading intensities (0%, 35%, 88%) that represent the light environment beneath panels as shaped by panel tilt and solar trajectory. Shading primarily cooled the soil, reducing mean soil temperature from 35.9 °C (0%) to 32.5 °C (35%) and 30.5 °C (88%), while mean soil water content shifted modestly (0.125, 0.106, and 0.130 m3 m−3, respectively). Over …

Enhanced Uav Surveillance With Rf-Based Drone Identification Using Transfer Learning, Prajoy Podder, Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Sanjay Madria

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the development of technology and the decrease in costs, drones are now becoming easily accessible to the public. As the accessibility of this technology continues to grow, the concerns of security and surveillance increase, and to ensure a sense of security, the need to have reliable drone detection and identification systems is more urgent than ever. Besides, many civilian applications have been found for drones, which play a huge role in modern security and warfare. Unauthorized drones can be very dangerous regarding security issues, as they can be used for spying, smuggling, or even attacks against critical infrastructure. We …

Geo-Registration Of Satellite Imagery Captured In Low-Earth Orbit With A Rolling-Shutter Camera, Keith Blonquist

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

Registering an image to an earth coordinate system (geo-registration) is a crucial task in satellite image processing that facilitates the creation of image products (ortho-rectified imagery, rational polynomial coefficients, etc.). When the images are collected with a rolling-shutter camera in low-earth orbit, during imaging the satellite travels a significant distance relative to the image size, and rotates a significant amount relative to the angular size of a pixel. Therefore, georegistration requires a mathematical model that accounts for the motion and rotation of the satellite during imaging. This presentation discusses the development, calibration, and validation of a mathematical model using on-orbit …

A Study On Culturally Sensitive Ai-Based Conversational Interfaces To Enhance Digital Service Accessibility For Senior Citizens In The Uae, Salma Eisa Alkhyeli

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

The UAE is steadfast in its digitalization process due to the Vision 2031, but the aging population encounters several barriers in its efforts to use essential services like subsidized food and fodder markets through an online platform. This thesis developed and validated an AI-based conversational system that focused on helping the elderly group to acquire digital services. The challenges here are associated with lack of knowledge on digital interfaces, language barrier because of dialects and lack of digital literacy in a majority of older adults. The Study addressed these challenges by considering the diverse dialect, cultural and technological needs of …

The Unexpected Gift: Using Hip-Hop And Autoethnographic Methods To Challenge The “Symbolic Death” Discourse Of A Child’S Autism Diagnosis, Adam Ellis

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article explores the social construction of autism through an autoethnographic account of parenting an autistic child in Canada. Drawing on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s grief model, neurodiversity scholarship, and post-traumatic growth theory, the paper examines how parents may experience grief, uncertainty, and the collapse of imagined futures following an autism diagnosis, while also arguing that much of this distress is produced by ableist and deficit-oriented social systems rather than autism itself. Using arts-based research, including a rap song and music video, the article explores: (1) what it is like to receive an autism diagnosis as a parent; (2) the grieving process …

Paper, Pixels, And Play: Designing A Trauma-Informed Ai Assessment Toolkit, Awais Hameed Khan, Angela Elvery, Dang Khuong Tran, Suvradip Maitra, Suzanna Fay, Paul Henman, Lyndal Sleep

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automated processes hold significant potential to enhance service user experiences, by augmenting or fully automating aspects of service delivery. However, if not carefully designed, these systems also risk creating unintended, widespread harms, at unprecedented speed and scale. Drawing upon trauma-informed principles and developed in collaboration with social service delivery practitioners, we designed the Trauma Informed AI Assessment Toolkit (TIAKIT). TIAKIT supports users in critically designing, reviewing, and evaluating current or planned AI service integrations. We report on the iterative design process of TIAKIT and its adaptation across three formats — analogue, digital, and design game. Findings …