Digital Commons Network^™

Chronofy: A Temporal-Logical Decay Architecture For Information Validity In Time-Aware Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Muntaser Syed, Marius Silaghi, Sheikh Abujar, Sharun Akter

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Student Publications

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems retrieve and integrate external knowledge to ground large language model (LLM) outputs. However, current RAG architectures treat all retrieved facts as equally valid regardless of temporal provenance, leading to temporal hallucination, where plausible but obsolete facts corrupt the output. A clinical lab reading from yesterday is actionable; the same reading from six months ago is noise. We present Chronofy, a three-layer neuro-symbolic framework implementing the Temporal-Logical Decay Architecture (TLDA) that embeds temporal validity directly into the representation, retrieval, and reasoning layers of RAG systems. Layer 1 reserves a dedicated temporal subspace within Matryoshka embeddings to make …

Epistemic Edge: Subjective Logic Guardrails For Llm-Driven Iot Actuation, Muntaser Syed, Marius Silaghi

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Student Publications

Deploying large language models (LLMs) as decision-making agents in safety-critical Internet of Things (IoT) systems introduces risks that purely behavioral guardrails, such as action whitelists, cannot fully address. This paper presents Epistemic Edge, a four-tier neuro-symbolic pipeline that augments LLM-driven actuation with subjective logic (SL) uncertainty quantification, temporal decay, and dual guardrails combining epistemic threshold checks with behavioral whitelists. We evaluate seven locally-deployed models: three PrismML Bonsai 1-bit models (1.7B, 4B, 8B), three 4-bit quantized models (Qwen3-8B, Llama 3.2-3B, Phi-3.5-mini), and the DeepSeek-R18B reasoning model, across eight ablation conditions and five IoT actuation scenarios (2,800 controlled trials). We further validate …

Legal Semiotics, Political Ontology, & Merging Chronotopes Of Identity Through The Federation Of Aboriginal Nations Of The Americas, Kevin T. Inglesby

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation studies the concept of self-determination related to a confederation known as the Federation of Aboriginal Nations of the Americas. It addresses three main questions: How does FANA represent an institution of legal cooperation? In what ways does cultural capital become reproduced? And what are key principles for the Federations’ code of unity? Self-determination is a core principle of international law and may be identified through treaties and social conventions like Wunnandry. The study explores an interdisciplinary approach to American Indian selfdetermination through a focus on applied anthropology, cultural heritage, and Peircean legal semiotics to problematize some historical approaches …

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

Advancing Understanding Of Lived Experience Of Unhoused People To Reduce Social Stigma And Promote Community Health: A Theoretically-Guided Photovoice Study, B-Rad Stephen Applegate

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Homelessness is a persistent public health challenge shaped by structural inequities, stigma, and exclusion from social and health systems. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has increasingly been used to center the knowledge of people who are unhoused, yet limited attention has been given to the theoretical frameworks guiding this work across disciplines. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine theories and methods used in CBPR with unhoused populations and to explore the extension of Margaret Newman’s Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness from a nursing-focused theory to a public health framework for understanding lived experience.

Using a scoping review methodology …

Between Care And Protection: Constraints On Political Authority In Kamala Harris's 2024 Presidential Campaign, Marissa Barbara Pax

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Competing expectations about strength, care, and protection shape how presidential leadership and authority are constructed in contemporary U.S. politics, particularly for members of marginalized communities. This thesis examines Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign as a case study to explore how candidates negotiate competing understandings of political authority through appeals to Lakoff’s (2002, 2008) Strict Father Morality and the Nurturant Parent Morality. An analysis of her campaign reveals that Harris repeatedly appeals to both moral frameworks, constructing authority through empathy, mutual responsibility, and care while also emphasizing threat identification, protection, discipline, and moral strength. Although Harris successfully mobilizes the rhetorical resources …

Enhancing Market Transparency Through Co-Creation Of Csr And Sustainability Ratings Between Firms, Rating Agencies And Customers, Christopher Agyapong Siaw

Plymouth Business School

No abstract provided.

Dampened Social Motivation In Dysphoria: The Role Of Negative Social Expectancies And Internal Causal Attribution Style, Julie L Ji, Nilly Mor, Colin Macleod

School of Psychology

Dysphoria is associated with dampening of social interaction intention, but the cognitive mechanisms that underpin this relationship are under-investigated. This study tested the hypothesis that heightened negative social expectancies mediate the association between dysphoria and dampened social motivation. Additionally, it tested the hypothesis that the association between dysphoria and negative social expectancies is mediated by an attribution style bias that attributes negative, but not positive, outcomes to internal causes. University students (N = 271) with varied levels of dysphoria read vignettes describing hypothetical situations where they initiate a social interaction that results in positive or negative outcomes. Participants rated their …

Training Healthcare Professionals To Deliver A Group-Based Intervention For People Living With Severe Obesity: Lessons From The Progroup Feasibility Trial, Shokraneh Moghadam, Mark Tarrant, Lily Hawkins, Dawn Swancutt, Rod Sheaff, Laura Hollands, Raff Calitri, Jonathan Pinkney, Jenny Lloyd

School of Psychology

Introduction: Group-based programmes are increasingly adopted to support people living with obesity, as they have the potential to reduce staff time and costs and enhance motivation and capability for behaviour change. Group-based programmes could also provide members with opportunities to form meaningful social connections. As such, training should equip healthcare professionals to deliver group interventions successfully and be accessible and feasible for them to complete. This study presents how mixed-methods process evaluation data from the feasibility randomised controlled trial of PROGROUP (a group-based weight management intervention for people living with severe obesity) informed optimisation of the PROGROUP training programme. Methods: …

Video-Dprp: A Differentially Private Approach For Visual Privacy-Preserving Video Human Activity Recognition, Allassan Tchangmena A. Nken, Susan Mckeever, Peter Corcoran, Ihsan Ullah

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Considerable effort has been made in privacy-preserving video human activity recognition (HAR). Two primary approaches to ensure privacy preservation in Video HAR are differential privacy (DP) and visual privacy. Techniques enforcing DP during training provide strong theoretical privacy guarantees but offer limited capabilities for visual privacy assessment. Conversely, methods such as low-resolution transformations, data obfuscation and adversarial networks, emphasize visual privacy but lack clear theoretical privacy assurances. In this work, we focus on two main objectives: (1) leveraging DP properties to develop a model-free approach for visual privacy in videos and (2) evaluating our proposed technique using both differential privacy …

Corporations’ First Amendment Rights And Algorithmic Cocoons, Sol Murgui Orsucci

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This Note examines how corporate First Amendment doctrine applies to algorithmic systems that curate commercial information and public discourse across online platforms. Courts have increasingly treated ranking, recommendation, and moderation practices as exercises of protected editorial judgment. At the same time, the Court has justified protection for corporate speech in part by reference to listener-centered interests in access to information and competitive comparison. This Note argues that the interaction between these doctrinal strands and contemporary algorithmic intermediation reveals a structural tension. Data-driven optimization can generate individualized informational environments—what this Note terms “algorithmic cocoons”—in which users encounter content, offers, and prices …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 2nd International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Daniela Morganti

Faculty Publications

The report provides an overview of the second international workshop on Seismic Resilience of Arctic Infrastructure and Social Systems. The report discusses agenda, workshop activities, interdisciplinary working groups, and results. It ends with several strategic questions and investigation plans that were developed as part of the workshop activities.

Impact Of Prophylactic Oral Azithromycin During Labor On Azithromycin Resistance (Amr) In Nasal Staphylococcus Aureus And Streptococcus Pneumoniae In Women And Infants In The Multi-Country Azithromycin Prevention In Labor Use Study (A-Plus)., Patricia L. Hibberd, Jean H. Kim, Marissa Trotta, Sixto M. Leal, Anna Aceituno, Doyle V. Ward, Archana Patel, Akila Subramaniam, Waldemar A. Carlo, Imran Ahmed, Sarah Saleem, Sk Masum Billah, Rashidun Haque, Manolo Mazariegos, Fabian Esamai, Manjunath S. Somannavar, Shivaprasad S. Goudar, Elwyn Chomba, Muska Mwenchanya, Adrien Lokangaka, Antoinette Tshefu, Robert L. Goldenberg, Melissa Bauserman, Nancy F. Krebs, Sherri Bucher, Richard J. Derman, William A. Petri, Marion Koso-Thomas, Denise C. Babineau, Elizabeth M. Mcclure, Alan T. N. Tita

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Prophylactic oral azithromycin vs. placebo reduced maternal, but not neonatal, mortality/sepsis in the A-PLUS Randomized Trial. While prophylactic intrapartum azithromycin reduces maternal mortality/sepsis, it may promote antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in commensal bacteria,.

METHODS: Randomly selected women and their infants participating in A-PLUS were enrolled in a longitudinal cross-sectional sub-study to assess the presence of azithromycin resistance in selected bacteria in nasal cultures. Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae were cultured on selective agar, then azithromycin-containing agar to select for azithromycin resistant bacteria, identified biochemically. Azithromycin susceptibility was assessed by E-test. Nasal cultures were collected from women and infants between August …

Balancing Accuracy And Discovery: A Bias-Aware Evaluation Framework For Music Recommendation, Jose Luis Maidana

ICT

Music recommender systems play an important role in helping users navigate large catalogues, but their reliance on historical interaction data can reinforce popularity bias and limit the visibility of less popular, long-tail items. This research develops and evaluates a bias-aware framework for assessing and mitigating popularity bias in music recommendation using implicit user-item interaction data. The study first quantifies popularity bias through inequality and long-tail metrics, before evaluating two baseline recommender approaches: a non-personalised Most-Popular model and a personalised Matrix Factorisation model. Their performance is assessed using both predictive accuracy measures, including Precision, Recall and NDCG, and beyond-accuracy measures relating …

Against Doctrinal Siloing: Harmonizing Fiscal Federalism And The U.S. Constitution, David Gamage, Darien Shanske

Faculty Publications

This Essay argues that constitutional law’s treatment of fiscal federalism has fractured into a bewildering collection of doctrinal silos. Federal spending that pressures states, federal preemption of state taxes, the Dormant Commerce Clause, sovereign immunity, Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the federal taxing power are all analyzed through distinct tests, even when they implicate the same basic conflict between federal authority and state fiscal autonomy. The result is not just theoretical confusion but inconsistent constitutional answers. Current doctrine can protect states from comparatively modest liabilities while leaving uncertain whether Congress may displace large swaths of state revenue authority. …

Exploring The Impact Of Mindful Social Media Literacy Instruction On Self-Regulated Smartphone Use, Catherine Coons

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Smartphone and social media addiction, and increasingly high rates of anxiety and other mental health challenges, afflict contemporary undergraduate students more than previous generations of college students. The mental health challenges faced by students directly affect their academic potential, influencing their ability to concentrate, maintain confidence, get adequate sleep, and sustain overall well-being. Despite the increasing prevalence of these issues, universities often lack sufficient resources, services, and trained staff to support this growing student population adequately.

This study examines the impact of mindfulness-based social media literacy instruction on curbing problematic social media use in college students. While extensive research has …

Performance Enhancement Of A Fully Integrated Solar Still Using Flat Plate Collector, Reflector, And Evaporative Cooling System, Joe Patrick Gnanaraj Sundararaj, Vanthana Jeyasingh

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Water scarcity has become a major global concern due to increasing population growth, industrialization, and depletion of freshwater resources. Solar desalination is considered an eco-friendly and sustainable solution, especially for rural and off-grid regions where conventional water treatment facilities are limited. However, conventional solar stills suffer from low productivity, which restricts their practical application. In this study, a fully integrated solar still system was designed and fabricated by incorporating a flat plate collector, front-wall reflector, and passive evaporative cooling arrangement. The system was experimentally tested under natural climatic conditions over seven consecutive days to evaluate temperature variation, distillate yield, and …

Boundaries Of Rules: Social Reactions To Legal Intervention, Francesco Parisi

Articles

This chapter examines what happens at the boundaries of rules: when social practices acquire legal recognition, when legal rules seek to reshape social expectations, and when formal and informal enforcement operate together. The conventional economic model treats the expected formal sanction as the principal source of compliance. Although this model provides a fundamental benchmark, it captures only part of the effects of legal intervention. The taxonomy developed here identifies the different ways in which legal, moral, and social incentives may interact. The kinds of public and private enforcement through which individuals express norms shape the additive, nonadditive, and countervailing effects …

The Utah Reusable Root Module: Evapotranspiration Dynamics And Moisture Sensor Performance In Five-Month Reused Peat-Based Media, Claudia Garrido-Ruiz, Bruce Bugbee, Juan D. González-Teruel, Scott B. Jones

Controlled Environments

Efficient water management is essential for closed-loop food production in space applications. The Utah Reusable Root Module (URRM) is designed to support repeated cropping in the same peat-based growth media. Here, we report moisture sensor performance, nighttime-to-daytime evapotranspiration (ET) rate, yield, and water-use efficiency (WUE) in the Engineering Development Unit (EDU) using Outredgeous lettuce. Five previous crops had been planted in the same media, and this study reports growth and ET from the final crop cycle. Volumetric water content (θ_ᵥ) was monitored using two electromagnetic moisture sensors (CS650 and TEROS ONE) across five root modules (RMs) with multiple …

History And Design Overview Of The Utah State University 16-Chamber Photobiology System, Abby Laughlin, Alec Hay, Bruce Bugbee

Controlled Environments

The USU Crop Physiology Laboratory has developed a 16-chamber system for photobiology research. At the time of the design in 2004, the CPL was collaborating with the Russian space agency on plant research and the chambers were constructed to match the dimensions of the Russian LADA plant growth system being flown on the International Space Station.

How Directors Of E-Learning Contribute To New Expectations Of Privacy, William R. Jones

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative research study used semi-structured interviews to ask directors of elearning at regional public universities about decision-making concerning new information technologies that affected the data privacy and security of students and staff. The institutional setting and target population were chosen to standardize the inquiry and allow focus on how privacy decisions were made. The conceptual framework drew on Helen Nissenbaum’s theory of contextual integrity for privacy and contributions of behavioral economists on expert decision-making including studies of heuristics and biases, naturalistic decision-making, and the failures of deliberative groups. Data collection involved a first interview and then a second follow-up …

Examining Knowledge And Comfort Levels Of Nursing Students In Providing Sexual Health Education, Deanna M. Gower

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Sex education has been a part of the education in the United States for over 100 years. Nursing education is focused on educating nursing students in a comprehensive fashion that develops a safe and competent nurse. Due to the substantial scope of content required in nursing programs, sexual health topics can be pushed aside. This may result in gaps in sexual health knowledge and comfort for nursing students as they may be inadequately prepared to competently address patients’ sexual health needs in clinical practice. The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study is to examine nursing students knowledge and comfort levels …

Therapeutic Landscape Of Early Symptomatic Alzheimer's Disease Translated Into Everyday Practice For Geriatric Providers., Melissa J Bailey-Taylor, Paula Morrow, James Hendrix, Katherine E. Galluzzi, Golnosh Sharafsaleh

PCOM Scholarly Works

Alzheimer's disease (AD) accounts for 60-80% of all dementia cases. Recent advances in diagnostic biomarkers of early symptomatic AD (ie, mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia due to AD) and amyloid-targeting therapies (ATTs) have the potential to improve outcomes for patients with AD. Two ATTs (donanemab and lecanemab) are currently approved and available for use in the US. Both ATTs can slow disease progression as well as cognitive and functional decline in patients with early symptomatic AD. Treatment with ATTs is associated with specific safety concerns such as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities. Therefore, the benefit versus risk profile needs to be …

2026-2027 Graduate Catalog, Morehead State University. Registrar's Office.

Morehead State Catalog Archive

2026-2027 graduate catalog for Morehead State University.

Pxaa: A Root-Cause Decision-Support System For Airline Passenger Complaints Using Sentiment Analysis And Complaint Classification, Adélia Acacio Da Silva, Stefani Rabelo De Campos Nunes

ICT

PXAA (Passenger Experience Analytics Assistant) is a machine learning and decision-support prototype developed to analyse airline passenger complaints using sentiment analysis and complaint classification techniques. The project follows the CRISP-DM methodology and uses airline passenger reviews collected from AirlineQuality.com through Python web scraping. Natural language processing (NLP) techniques were applied to clean and preprocess the textual data, while logistic Regression was used to classify passenger sentiment into positive, negative and neutral categories.

The project also implemented rule-based complaint classification to identify common complaint themes such as delays, baggage issues, customer service problems, comfort issues, payments/refund complaints and communication failures. These …

Synthesis, Structure, And Electrochemical Properties Of The Ni(Oh)2/Nimoo4 Composite On The Rgo/Nf Template For Hybrid Battery-Supercapacitor Electrodes, Retno Asih, Haniffudin Nurdiansah, Rogabe Sianipar, Ida Ayu Gayatri, Lukman Noerochim, Diah Susanti, Isao Watanabe, Darminto Darminto

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The growing demand for renewable and sustainable energy has intensified research on advanced energy-storage systems that can deliver both high energy and power densities. In this study, a Ni(OH)2/ NiMoO4 composite on a reduced graphene oxide/nickel foam (rGO/NF) template was synthesized through a hydrothermal and electrodeposition route to construct a hybrid battery-supercapacitor electrode. The unique hierarchical design combines the pseudocapacitive activity of Ni(OH)2/NiMoO4 with the excellent conductivity of rGO and the high surface area of NF, enabling efficient electron and ion transport. Structural and morphological analyses confirm the successful formation of the Ni(OH)2/NiMoO4/rGO/NF architecture. The electrode exhibits a specific capacitance …

Contributions Of Carbon Content And Cooling Rate On Phase Transformations And Mechanical Properties Of Sintered Fe-1.5cr-0.2mo-Xc Alloys, Mantana Yaruan, Wantana Koetniyom, Thanyaporn Yotkaew, Nattaya Tosangthum, Ruangdaj Tongsri

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Microstructural development in sintered Fe-1.5Cr-0.2Mo-xC alloys, produced under different cooling rates of 0.1℃∙s‒1 and 5.4℃∙s‒1, was investigated. It was found that, in slowly sintered Fe-1.5Cr-0.2Mo-xC alloys, the microstructure changed from hypoeutectoid to eutectoid and to hypereutectoid steel microstructural features with increasing carbon content. Under the fast-cooling rate of 5.4℃∙s‒1, the microstructural change with respect to the increase of carbon content involved the competition between the formation of ferrite + carbide mixture and that of martensite-austenite constituent. The increase of tensile strength of slowly cooled sintered Fe-1.5Cr-0.2Mo-xC alloys with increasing carbon content was attributed to …

Effect Of Garnet Incorporation On The Functional Properties Of Sunscreens, Parinya Chakartnarodom, Kanyarat Munmani, Sureerat Polsilapa, Duangrudee Chaysuwan, Wichit Prakaypan, Passakorn Sonprasarn, Edward Laitila, Nuntaporn Kongkajun

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Garnet, a silicate mineral, was investigated as a replacement for the TiO2-based compound in sunscreen formulations. Samples containing garnet were evaluated for color shade, viscosity, sun protection factor (SPF), and water resistance. Substituting the TiO2-based compound with garnet reduced both viscosity and SPF but markedly enhanced water resistance. This improvement is attributed to the physical reinforcement provided by garnet particles, which strengthen the sunscreen film and reduce wash-off under water exposure. Garnet incorporation also altered the product’s appearance from white to a darker brownish-beige tone, improving visual compatibility with a wider range of skin tones.

Fabrication Of A Chitosan‒Fe3o4/Activated Carbon/Tio2 Nanocomposite As A Pb(Ii) Heavy Metal Adsorbent, Berliantty Warim Putri, Arif Hidayat, Lya Rizka Herawati, Poppy Puspitasari, Nandang Mufti, Yap Wing Fen, Muhammad Safwan Abdul Aziz, Tahta Amrillah, Ahmad Taufiq

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Nowadays, water pollution by heavy metal Pb(II) is a significant issue in many countries, including Indonesia. To overcome this problem, a suitable and efficient waste treatment method is necessary. Therefore, in this work, Fe3O4/AC/TiO2 nanocomposite modified with chitosan (CS) for the treatment of Pb (II) waste were investigated. CS was used due to its OH and NH2 functional groups, which enable the formation of a new hybrid nanocomposite that can be used repeatedly. To reduce production costs, environmentally friendly, raw natural materials, such as iron sand, coconut shells, and shrimp shells, were employed. The XRD characterization results indicate that the …

Effects Of Various Heat Treatment Cycles On Mechanical Properties And Wear Resistance Of 65mn Carbon Steel, Amir Abbas Mojahedi, Seyed Abdolkarim Sajjadi, Fatemehsadat Sayyedan

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of various heat treatment cycles on mechanical properties and wear resistance of 65Mn carbon steel. For this purpose, five different heat treatment cycles including normalizing, austenitizing, quenching, and tempering were performed at different austenitization temperatures and tempering times. Subsequently, effects of the parameters on tensile strength, toughness, hardness, and wear resistance of the heat-treated samples were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were employed to analyze microstructure of heat-treated samples. To study the wear resistance of the samples after …