Digital Commons Network^™

Distribution Comparisons Of Eac Cost Growth For Aircraft Work Breakdown Structure Elements, Kyle P. Marquis, Edward D. White, Brandon M. Lucas, Robert D. Fass, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Shawn M. Valentine

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes and investigates the distribution of cost growth of the Estimate at Completion (EAC) for the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements of approximately 60 historical United States Acquisition Category I Research, Development, Test and Evaluation aircraft programs. Using the method of maximum likelihood in conjunction with the Akaike Information Criterion, the authors suggest that both the lognormal and Weibull distributions provide relatively good fit to EAC cost growth, with the lognormal slightly edging out the Weibull. As a summarized finding, the authors present their empirical results for the mean, coefficient of variation (CV), the 15th and 85th percentiles …

The Effects Of Snow Cover On The Dynamic Pressure Of Nuclear Detonation Blast Waves, Adam Card, Andrew W. Decker

Faculty Publications

Blast pressure is the primary military targeting metric for nuclear weapons. Any local conditions that affect blast pressure have the potential for altering nuclear plans, both from defensive and offensive standpoints. Understanding the impact of snow to the blast wave, therefore, provides a benefit both to military planners and to warfighters on the ground, for any operation occurring in arctic environments. No existing data provides a quantitative description of how snow on the ground affects a nuclear detonation blast wave passing over it. Similar blast waves passing over dust have experimentally proven to enhance blast pressure in a localized region.1 …

Core Self-Evaluation And The Relationship To Employee Green Behavior, Matthew Nyquist

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Employee green behavior (EGB) is a construct that includes environmentally related workplace behaviors (Zacher et al., 2023). This construct has been researched in terms of its relationship with personality traits under the Big 5 but has scarce research on its relationship with Core Self Evaluation (CSE) (Katz et al., 2022; Patrasc-Lungu & Iliescu, 2022). This is important to examine for the purpose of increasing the understanding of how personality characteristics relate to EGB. The present research aims to identify the strength of the relationship between CSE and EGB. Autonomy, which is the degree to which an employee has control over …

An Investigation Of Selected Imprecations In The Old Testament In Light Of Recent Psychological Biblical Criticism, Uma John

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Innovative Mechanisms For Marketing Health Insurance: An Experimental Field Test (Results From Colorado), Wendy Netter Epstein, Christopher Robertson, David Yokum, Hansoo Ko, Kevin Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

We hypothesize that marketing messages using a generosity framing have the potential to draw healthy persons into the insurance pool, thereby improving access and health outcomes and lowering premiums, but without removing choice or requiring substantial government action. The dependent variable for our field experiment is whether or not recipients of the marketing campaigns enroll in health insurance via the participating exchanges or in Medicaid.

Taking Revolution Seriously, Zohra Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

Every so often, a prison strike will make national news, as it did in 2014, 2016, and 2018. ¹ The media will focus on the atrocious conditions of confinement; the unchecked violence; the wages numerated in pennies; and the state’s indifference to the strikers’ modest demands for food, medical care, and human contact.

Orisanmi Burton’s² book, Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt, urges us to process such reporting with a healthy dose of skepticism. What if prison rebellions were telling us something else, something even more important? What if they were …

Response To Petition For Rehearing En Banc, Felicia M. Sonmez V. Wp Company Llc Et Al, Madeline H. Meth, Brian Wolfman, Becca Steinberg, Regina Wong, Elizabeth Brownstein, Nathaniel Allen Deacon

Faculty Scholarship

Felicia Sonmez alleges that the Washington Post violated the D.C. Human Rights Act by banning her from covering certain stories because she is a woman and a sexual-assault survivor. Op. 2-3. After finding Sonmez’s detailed allegations plausible, a panel of this Court rejected as premature the Post’s First Amendment defense that its decision was driven not by discrimination but by a desire to maintain an appearance of objectivity. Op. 4. Because “what actually motivated the Post editors to impose the bans on Sonmez is a factual question,” the panel held, the Post’s First Amendment defense could not be resolved on …

Marketing For Musicians And Artists: A Pedagogical Model For Creative Business Education, Aron Levin, Jose Luis Saavedra Torres

AMTP Proceedings 2025

The myth of the "starving artist" persists, but marketing and entrepreneurial skills can empower creatives to thrive in the gig economy. This paper presents a pedagogical framework for a marketing course tailored to non-business students, particularly those in the creative arts. Using Sam Ryder, a musician who leveraged digital platforms to achieve meteoric success, as a case study, we explore the role of higher education in equipping artists with business skills. Grounded in experiential learning theory, the course integrates modules on branding, digital marketing, pricing, and work-life balance, emphasizing hands-on projects like SWOT analyses, brand identity design, and marketing strategy …

Shsp Dean's Newsletter, Spring 2025, Robert W. Amler

SHSP Dean’s Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Deep Learning For Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitoring: Model Performance And Quantization Trade-Offs, Anbu Valluvan Devadasan, Saptarshi Sengupta, Mohammad Masum

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The development of non-invasive blood pressure monitoring systems remains a critical challenge, particularly in resource-constrained settings. This study proposes an efficient deep learning framework integrating Edge Artificial Intelligence for continuous blood pressure estimation using photoplethysmography (PPG) signals. We evaluate three architectures: a residual-enhanced convolutional neural network, a transformer-based model, and an attentive BPNet. Using the MIMIC-IV waveform database, we implement a signal processing pipeline with adaptive filtering, statistical normalization, and peak-to-peak alignment. Experiments assess varying temporal windows (10 s, 20 s, 30 s) to optimize predictive accuracy and computational efficiency. Attentive BPNet achieves the best performance, with systolic blood pressure …

Network-On-Chip Packet Obfuscation And Encoding For Hardware Trojan Mitigation, Sydale John Ayi

Theses

Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) represent a transformative advancement in System-on- Chip (SoC) communication architectures, addressing the scalability and performance limitations of traditional bus-based systems. The increasing reliance on NoCs in modern SoCs has raised security concerns, particularly in untrusted fabrication environments. This thesis investigates the vulnerabilities posed by malicious hardware Trojans and untrusted IP cores, such as reverse engineering, misdirection attacks, and brute-force decryption. To counter these threats, the study introduces a robust security framework leveraging encoding and obfuscation techniques. Hamming codes are employed to detect and correct errors, ensuring data integrity and correcting misdirection attacks. Discrepancies between codewords and data words …

Implementation And Dissemination Of The 'About Eating' Program: Evaluating Participant Engagement, Usability, And Module Interest, Justin Konrad Walker

Theses

Abstract Background: Online nutrition education can improve food choices among underserved populations. The About Eating New York (AENY) program is a web-based, self-paced series of modules designed to enhance nutritional literacy, resource management, and confidence in healthy eating. Leveraging dissemination and implementation (D&I) science, AE partnered with community organizations across New York’s ten fiscal regions to extend its reach. Methods: This study analyzed secondary data from the AENY dissemination effort. Participants were recruited via social media and community organizations. Pre- and post-program surveys and end-of-lesson surveys assessed demographics, engagement, and perceptions of usability. Quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVAs, …

Beyond The Food: A Scoping Review Of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (Arfid)'S Comorbidities, Nutrition, And Growth Outcomes, Emily Szewczyk

Theses

Objective A scoping review design was chosen for this study to appropriately assess and understand the knowledge on ARFID and to identify psychological or developmental comorbidities, growth outcomes, and nutrient deficiencies and/or excesses in children and adolescents. Introduction Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is a relatively new eating disorder, characterized by the DSM-5 in 2013.1 Individuals with ARFID exhibit selective eating due to lack of interest in eating food, sensory sensitivity, or a fear of possible vomiting or choking.2 The malnutrition seen in individuals with ARFID can result in physical health complications including weight loss, malnutrition, growth delay, decreased bone …

Interspecific Sources Of Resistance For Neisseria Gonorrhoeae: Investigating Horizontally Transferred Antimicrobial Resistance Markers, Makenna Swartz

Theses

Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health crisis, limiting treatment options and increasing the burden of infectious diseases. Bacteria can rapidly gain resistance through mutations and horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Understanding these mechanisms is critical for developing strategies to mitigate resistance and preserve antibiotic efficiency. Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the causative agent of gonorrhea, has developed resistance to multiple antibiotics, and has only one remaining treatment option. Commensal species are constantly exposed to antibiotics in humans, and over time acquire resistant mutations that then transfer to pathogenic species through HGT. Investigating these exchanges can provide insight into how resistance evolves and spreads …

Mapping Accessibility In Dubai: Evaluating Al Wasl And Mirdif Against 20-Minute City Principles And The Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, Fatima Mohammed Almulla

Theses

The 15-minute city is a planning concept that aims to give people easy access to daily services such as schools, shops, healthcare, and recreation within a short walk or bike ride. Dubai has adapted this concept into a 20-minute city model under the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan. The goal is to reduce car use, improve quality of life, and create connected and sustainable neighborhoods. This study evaluates how well two neighborhoods in Dubai, Al Wasl and Mirdif, match the 20-minute city model. It analyzes three main goals from the Urban Master Plan: having 55% of residents within 800 meters …

Adaptive Reuse Of Abandoned Schools, Dayana Williams

Theses

This thesis investigates the adaptive reuse of abandoned school buildings in economically declining communities, mainly focusing on how these transformations can contribute to sustainable community revitalization. The research highlights Columbus, Ohio, where school closures and grade realignments threaten to leave many school properties vacant, especially in minority neighborhoods. This adaptive reuse strategy presents an opportunity to address issues such as urban decay, resource efficiency, and social equity by repurposing these buildings into multifunctional community assets. The study adopts a multi-method approach, including literature reviews, case study analysis, and community needs assessments, to identify best practices and critical challenges in adaptive …

Insights Into Covid-19 Dynamics Via The Integration Of Subpopulations, Vaccinations, And Bayesian Calibration In A Semi-Enclosed Community Model Framework, Meghan Rowan Childs

Theses

From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities have experienced unique challenges due to their multifaceted nature as a place of education, residence, and employment. Previous work has used mathematical models to explore varying approaches to combating COVID-19 and tailored these models to local contexts, such as hospitals. However, previous work has not broadly incorporated pharmaceutical mitigation strategies into university models. We address this gap in research by integrating subpopulations, vaccines, and COVID-19 variants into a semi-enclosed population model framework. We further improve the quantification of uncertainty in the model parameters by implementing a formal Bayesian model calibration, fusing real-world …

Spring 2025, Humayun Islam

PMI Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Linguistic Ideologies Of Foreign Assistant Language Teachers In Japan, Catherine Johnson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in Japan are recruited globally to provide support in primary and secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. Though there are several recruitment programs, this study examined ALTs who participated in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Specifically, this study addressed the research question: how do foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Japan develop a linguistic ideology? To provide context to this research question, the literature review covered prescriptivism and descriptivism as two ends of a spectrum of linguistic ideologies, speakerism and pedagogy of Global Englishes, pragmatic …

Bridging The Divide: Addressing The Achievement Gap Amidst Educational Resegregation In The Twin Cities, Josiah Wiest

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study uses secondary analysis of data to examine the following research questions: RQ1: What is the relationship between funding allocation and academic performance across metro high schools with varying levels of racial segregation? RQ2: What is the correlation between demographic factors and academic achievement in metro high schools, and how do these factors contribute to the racial achievement gap? The review of literature analyzes the implications of the rapid resegregation in the Minnesota education system, examining how racial and economic segregation confines Black and Brown children within a cycle of inequality, forcing students to receive a lesser education. The …

A Look At Improving Independent Reading: Introducing Concept Mapping Into Sustained Silent Reading To Improve Comprehension, Shawn Reagan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Reagan, S. (2025). A Look at Improving Independent Reading: Introducing Concept Mapping into Sustained Silent Reading to Improve Comprehension

This thesis explores how integrating concept mapping into a sustained silent reading (SSR) program affects middle school students’ reading comprehension. Motivated by personal experiences as a reader and educator, and shaped by literacy research and the Science of Reading movement, this study investigates strategies to increase student engagement and comprehension through intervention within independent reading programs. Conducted at a K–12 charter school in Minneapolis, the quasi-experimental study involved two sixth-grade English Language Arts classes over nine weeks. One class (experimental group) …

Genomic Analysis Of 11,555 Probands Identifies 60 Dominant Congenital Heart Disease Genes, Michael C Sierant, Sheng Chih Jin, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a leading cause of infant mortality. We analyzed de novo mutations (DNMs) and very rare transmitted/unphased damaging variants in 248 prespecified genes in 11,555 CHD probands. The results identified 60 genes with a significant burden of heterozygous damaging variants. Variants in these genes accounted for CHD in 10.1% of probands with similar contributions from de novo and transmitted variants in parent-offspring trios that showed incomplete penetrance. DNMs in these genes accounted for 58% of the signal from DNMs. Thirty-three genes were linked to a single CHD subtype while 12 genes were associated with 2 to …

Motivators And Barriers To Healthy Food Consumption: Qualitative Study With Gen Z Living In Bratislava, Emel Yarimoglu, Lucia Vilcekova

AMTP Proceedings 2025

People in Europe have been caring about physical activity, healthy eating, and healthy body weight. The study aimed to explore the motivators and barriers to healthy food consumption among university students living in Bratislava, Slovakia. Qualitative research was conducted with sixteen students, and data were collected by written text. Self-reported written data were collected by convenience sampling and analyzed via content analysis. Four motivators of healthy food consumption were revealed (personal appearance, health-consciousness, physical activity, and social), and four barriers to healthy food consumption were obtained (functional, personal, psychological, and social). This research is original since it demonstrated motivators and …

Chimes: April 1, 2025, Calvin University

Chimes

Kelvin hires "media medium" to write all official comments for The Jingle by Disfavor Fuller

All dining halls closed, faculty to feed students by I. M. Hungary

Kelvin faces severe drop in student engagement by June Knot

budget Trouble? Kelvin steals Michigan's 5 Star QB Bryce Underwood with $15 million NIL deal, university economy collapses by Zach Korn

Entire football team cut- "it just seemed like the right thing to do" by Grant Funding & Ethan Liar

Synod-approved definitional gymnastics team to start inaugural season in 2025-26 by Nathan Meijer

Stairs by KE apartments to be turned into terraced rain …

Masthead

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Digital Dollar: Privacy And Transparency Dilemma, Jiayin Jiang

UC Law Journal

Many have voiced concerns that the digital dollar, a digital form of central bank money, will facilitate government surveillance, thus depriving users of privacy. This Article investigates critical technical designs proposed by leading think tanks, central banks, and scholars from interdisciplinary fields, reaching a surprising conclusion that contradicts popular belief: a digital dollar can offer better privacy protection than existing digital payment systems. The Article argues that those expressing concerns have made two flawed assumptions: (1) that digital dollar data is fully transparent regarding personal information and transaction details and (2) that the government or Federal Reserve has unrestricted access …

The Case Against Surge Pricing, Ramsi A. Woodcock

UC Law Journal

Surge pricing—using data and algorithms to raise prices in response to unexpected increases in demand—has spread across the economy in recent years, from Amazon and Disney World to commuter highways and, of course, Uber, which is infamous for surge pricing rides. Companies claim that surge pricing equilibrates supply and demand, but that is impossible, at least in the short run when demand unexpectedly outstrips supply. What surge pricing really does is to ration existing supply based on ability to pay. That is both distributively unjust and potentially inefficient. It should also be considered a violation of the antitrust laws because …

The Pathway To And Consequences Of Foster Parent Intervention In Dependency Cases, Gillian Katz Lamon

UC Law Journal

Over the last 50 years, federal child welfare legislation has wrestled with how to reconcile the competing goals of the child welfare system: child protection, family preservation, and permanency. The United States foster care system has evolved alongside transformations in private adoptions. As the prospects for private adoption have dwindled, the pendulum has shifted toward prioritizing child protection. Youth in foster care have suddenly become the private adoption alternative. Most recently, some state courts have granted foster parents standing to intervene in termination of parental rights proceedings. In those cases, foster parents are permitted to battle with natural parents for …

Compensated To The Moon: The Impact Of Excessive Compensation On Director Independence Post Tornetta V. Musk, Andrea Olofson Chen

UC Law Journal

Excessive director compensation erodes the independence that directors are supposed to bring to boardrooms. In theory, directors are meant to serve as objective parties, overseeing corporations using their care, skill, and loyalty to promote sound decisionmaking. However, excessive compensation can create the unintended ill-effect of rendering a director beholden to upper management and unable to make clear-eyed, impartial decisions. To mitigate this problem, this Note advocates for the implementation of tenure limits, compensation caps, and enhanced proxy disclosures to ensure that board members uphold their fiduciary duties and make decisions in the best interests of the corporations they serve rather …

Differentiation Stage Predicts Radiosensitivity In Mesenchymal-Like Pancreatic Cancer, Tingshi Su, Xinjian Yu, Mojtaba Hoseini-Ghahfarokhi, David B Flint, Scott J Bright, Joana I D S Antunes, David K J Martinus, Mandira Manandhar, Mariam Ben Kacem, Poliana C Marinello, Eurico J G Pereira, Hua-Sheng Chiu, Uwe Titt, David R Grosshans, Jan Schuemann, Henning Willers, Harald Paganetti, Pavel Sumazin, Gabriel O Sawakuchi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: To derive a genomic classifier to predict radiosensitivity of pancreatic cancer cell lines and patients with pancreatic cancer to allow genomic-guided radiation therapy.

Methods and materials: We collected a comprehensive data set of full clonogenic cell survival curves of 45 pancreatic cancer cell lines irradiated with clinical photon and proton beams. We derived classifiers based on data from human embryonic and fetal pancreas single-cell RNA-sequencing to distinguish between epithelial and mesenchymal cells and to predict pancreas cell-line differentiation stage. Independent testing was done with an embryonic mouse pancreas single-cell RNA-sequencing data set. We then used bulk RNA-seq profiles from …