Digital Commons Network^™

Integration Of An Artificial Intelligence–Based Autism Diagnostic Device Into The Echo Autism Primary Care Workflow: Prospective Observational Study, Kristin Sohl, Erik Linstead, Kelianne Heinz, Elia Eiroa Lledo, Alicia Brewer Curran, Melissa Mahurin, Valeria Nanclares-Nogués, Carmela Salomon, Minda Seal, Sharief Taraman

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Pediatric specialist shortages and rapidly rising autism prevalence rates have compelled primary care clinicians to consider playing a greater role in the autism diagnostic process. The ECHO Autism: Early Diagnosis Program (EDx) prepares clinicians to screen, evaluate, differentiate, diagnose, and provide longitudinal care for children with autism in primary care settings. Canvas Dx is a prescription-only Software as a Medical Device designed to support clinical diagnosis or rule out of autism, including in primary care settings. It is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use, in conjunction with clinical judgment, in 18‐ to 72-month-olds with indicators …

Jamaican Newspapers’ Strategies For Transitioning From Print To Web Publishing, Collin George Turner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A lack of effective strategies to transition from print publishing to web publishing can adversely impact newspaper publishers’ sustainability and profitability. Business leaders of established newspaper publishers are concerned, as they require such strategies to enhance and maintain financial viability. Grounded in Christensen’s disruptive innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore the effective strategies some Jamaican newspaper publishers used to transition from print publishing to web publishing to improve and sustain profitability. The project participants included six business leaders from established Jamaican newspaper publishers. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, public websites, and other publicly …

A Knowledge-Driven Deep Learning Framework For Organoid Morphological Segmentation And Characterization, Yiming Qin, Jiajia Li, Yin Heng, Zheyuan Wang, Dezhi Wu, Mahi Rahman, Pengwei Hu, Tobias Plötz, Alexander Hopp, Nicholas Kurniawan, Mathias Winkel, Philipp Harbach, Chunling Tang, Feng Tan

Publications

BACKGROUND: Organoids have great potential to revolutionize various aspects of biomedical research and healthcare. Researchers typically use the fluorescence-based approach to analyse their dynamics, which requires specialized equipment and may interfere with their growth. Therefore, it is an open challenge to develop a general framework to analyse organoid dynamics under non-invasive and low-resource settings.

RESULTS: In this paper, we present a knowledge-driven deep learning system named TransOrga-plus to automatically analyse organoid dynamics in a non-invasive manner. Given a bright-field microscopic image, TransOrga-plus detects organoids through a multi-modal transformer-based segmentation module. To provide customized and robust organoid analysis, a biological knowledge-driven …

Towards Mitigation Of Hallucination For Llm-Empowered Agents: Progressive Generalization Bound Exploration And Watchdog Monitor, Siyuan Liu, Wenjing Liu, Zhiwei Xu, Xin Wang, Bo Chen, Tao Li

Michigan Tech Publications

Empowered by large language models (LLMs), intelligent agents have become a popular paradigm for interacting with open environments to facilitate AI deployment. However, hallucinations generated by LLMs - where outputs are inconsistent with facts - pose a significant challenge, undermining the credibility of intelligent agents. Only if hallucinations can be mitigated, the intelligent agents can be used in real-world without any catastrophic risk. Therefore, effective detection and mitigation of hallucinations are crucial to ensure the dependability of agents. Unfortunately, the related approaches either depend on white-box access to LLMs or fail to accurately identify hallucinations. To address the challenge posed …

Healing The Heart Of Healthcare, Loren E. Hand, Nicole M. Probst, Leigh Griffis

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Learn how to help healthcare workers in your community heal from the trauma caused by being on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can return to work feeling proud, validated, and with a renewed sense of purpose for the profession.

Detailed abstract attached.

Exploring Effective Technological And Innovation Strategies For Sustaining Fintech Startups In Nairobi, Kenya, Beyond 5 Years, Esay Kollie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some small financial technology, or fintech, startup leaders in Nairobi, Kenya, lack the technological and innovation strategies required to sustain operations beyond 5 years. High failure rates among fintech startups in the early stages of operation affect financial inclusion and economic development in the region. Grounded in resource-based view theory, this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore effective technological and innovation strategies fintech startup leaders in Nairobi use to sustain operations beyond 5 years. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with eight fintech startup leaders from different firms. Thematic analysis revealed seven major themes: (a) leveraging technological infrastructure, (b) innovating …

Successful Cybersecurity Strategies For Protecting Consumer Data, Zylia Ortiz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The continued advancement of information technology, although extraordinary and innovative, may have a profoundly negative impact on the adequate protection of consumer information. Consumers and organizational stakeholders alike are increasingly concerned about the risk of data ending up in the hands of cybercriminals. Grounded in the routine activity theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry research project was to identify and explore the strategies information technology leaders use to protect customer data from security breaches. The participants were eight information technology leaders in the Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland area. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and public websites. …

Identifying Motivators For Retention Of Service Workers In Youth Group Care Programs, Michelle Lynn Briegel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Residential group care programs in Calgary, Alberta, Canada face challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified human service workers. This workforce retention issue affects the quality of care provided to vulnerable children and youth, as well as the overall stability of residential group care. The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore why service workers in front-line jobs choose to stay in their positions in youth-serving residential group care programs, guided by Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation. Nine participants were recruited through purposeful sampling via social media and email, with the criterion that they had been employed at …

An Investigation Of Corrective Approaches For Uncertain Winds And Analysis Of Impacts On Smoke Model Performance, Zongrun Li, Susan M. O'Neill, Rime El Asmar, Yongtao Hu, Adam K. Kochanski, Angel Farguell, Jan Mandel, David J. Tanner, L. Gregory Huey, Armistead G. Russell, Rodney J. Weber, M. Talat Odman

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In wildland fires, wind affects fire propagation, emission intensity, and smoke transport; therefore, uncertainties in wind simulations can critically impact PM2.5 concentration produced by coupled fire-atmosphere models or chemical transport models. These uncertainties must be addressed prior to assessing other parameters that may affect model-predicted PM2.5 concentrations through comparisons with observations. This study simulated prescribed fire events with accurate ignition pattern design and high spatial-temporal resolutions using the coupled fire-atmosphere model WRF-SFIRE. We designed, implemented, and evaluated various wind bias reduction and smoke model evaluation methods to quantitatively capture the impacts of wind uncertainty on simulated smoke concentrations. For the …

Algorithmic Collusion Among Ev Charging Stations With Independent Reinforcement Learning Agents, Yulin Zeng, Yiheng Zhao, Yuanliang Li, Yefeng Yuan, Jie Gao, Hepeng Li, Xiao'ou Yang, Hohyun Lee, Yuhong Liu, Jun Yan

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Recent advancements in reinforcement learning (RL) have significantly enhanced the autonomous decision-making capabilities of energy systems. In the realm of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, operators aim to autonomously learn optimal pricing strategies based on local observations and user behavior. Traditional multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) approaches often assume cooperative settings with reward sharing or communication, real-world EV charging infrastructures are typically decentralized and competitive. This paper investigates the potential for tacit collusion in such realistic, non-cooperative environments. By leveraging decentralized MARL, we show that independently trained agents can still exhibit emergent collusive behaviors. Our findings highlight a critical need for …

High-Stakes Exams Inflate A Gender Gap And Contribute To Systematic Grading Errors In One Introductory Physics Series, David J. Webb, Cassandra Paul

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Previous research has suggested that changing the percentage of the course grade associated with exam grades in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses can change the gender gap in the course. It has also been shown that high-stakes assessments yield the lowest (relative) scores for female students. Previous research by the authors has shown that implementing retake exams can eliminate the gender gap in introductory physics courses. This paper explores several different hypotheses for why retake exams are associated with a zeroed gender gap. Two independent measurements comparing exams with different stakes are used in support of the argument that …

The Orange Glow In The Sunshine State: Three Visions Of Plato In Florida (1970-1990), Ryan Mcgahan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The PLATO network, a collection of mainframe computers, terminals, and educational software, has received an increasing amount of scholarly attention in the last decade as a social precursor to the modern internet. Existing histories have neglected to investigate the ways in which PLATO and its related business enterprise worked to accelerate the shift in university governance away from classical liberal ideas centering the public good and towards a more profit-centered neoliberal rationality. By tracing the rise of PLATO in Florida universities, this paper argues that PLATO aided and was aided by the shifting priorities of American universities in the 1970s …

Sustainfed-Llm: Renewable Energy Aware Client Selection For Energy Efficient Federated Training Of Large Language Models, Sunbal Iftikhar, Hassan Khan, Steven Davy

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Federated Learning (FL) offers a decentralized approach to training large language models (LLMs), addressing critical concerns around data privacy and transmission costs. However, FL's inherent distributed training paradigm can lead to increased energy consumption and carbon emissions, especially with random or uninformed client selection. To tackle this issue, we propose SustainFed-LLM, a novel Q-learning-based client selection framework that integrates real-time renewable energy availability, carbon intensity data, and fairness considerations. By dynamically assessing client performance, spare capacity, and sustainability metrics, SustainFed-LLM optimizes client participation to minimize environmental impact while maintaining model accuracy. SustainFed-LLM significantly reduces energy consumption by up to 50%, …

Exploring The Role Of Culture And Bilingualism In Programming Activities: Lessons From African Educators, Emma R. Dodoo, Katharine Childs, Ethel Tshukudu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The delivery of culturally relevant content in K-12 computing education is widely recognized as essential for engaging students and fostering meaningful learning experiences. However, in many African contexts, K-12 computing teachers feel unprepared to address this need. Course materials often fail to reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of the students they serve. In this study, we conducted participatory design sessions with education stakeholders, including primary and secondary school teachers, to develop culturally relevant programming activities for a national programming outreach initiative in Botswana. Our findings emphasize the importance of relatable examples and a balanced approach to integrating cultural elements …

Contextualizing Introductory Computer Science: Insights From African Faculty, Ethel Tshukudu, Ismaila Temitayo Sanusi, Oluwakemi Ola, Sally Hamouda, Linda Marshall, Oluwatoyin Adelakun-Adeyemo, Emma R. Dodoo, G. Ayorkor Korsah, Sandani Luvhengo, Jack Parkinson

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Contextualizing computer science education has been recognized as a key factor in enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes. This study investigates the initial perceptions of university computer science faculty in Africa regarding the benefits, adoption challenges, and institutional support required for the successful integration of contextually relevant materials into introductory computer science (CS1) courses. Faculty then assessed a set of previously developed contextually tailored materials, grounded in Banks' Additive Approach to curriculum reform and aligned to the CS curricula 2023. The research adopted qualitative methods, gathering data through open-ended surveys from 22 CS faculty across 9 African countries. Thematic analysis …

Research Progress On The Effect Of Grafting Technology On Disease Resistance And Stress Resistance Of Watermelon, Xuena Liu, Shikai La, Chang Chen, Ainong Shi, Mingjiao Wang, Yingying Zhang, Jinghuai Guo, Lingdi Dong

Horticulture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Grafting is an effective horticultural technique that significantly enhances disease resistance and stress tolerance in watermelon. This review systematically summarizes the types of rootstocks used in watermelon grafting and analyzes the effects of grafting on plant responses to biotic stresses, such as viral and fungal pathogens, root-knot nematodes infections, and abiotic stresses, including drought, temperature extremes, and salinity. Furthermore, it discusses the changes in fruit quality and explores the underlying mechanisms associated with graft-induced resistance. By synthesizing recent research advances, this review aims to offer valuable insights and practical references for improving resistance and promoting sustainable production in cucurbit and …

Coupling The Parflow Integrated Hydrology Model Within The Nasa Land Information System: A Case Study Over The Upper Colorado River Basin, P.Eyman Abbaszadeh, Fadji Zaouna Maina, Chen Yang, Dan Rosen, Sujay Kumar, Matthew Rodell, Reed Maxwell

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding, observing, and simulating Earth's water cycle is imperative for effective water resource management in the face of a changing climate. While NASA's Land Information System (LIS)/Noah-MP is widely used for land surface modeling, its ability to represent groundwater processes is limited. In contrast, the ParFlow hydrologic model explicitly simulates subsurface water movement. This study explores the effectiveness and usefulness of the newly coupled modeling framework, ParFlow-LIS/Noah-MP (PF-LIS/Noah-MP) over the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). The framework integrates the strengths of both models to provide a physically based representation of surface and subsurface processes and their interactions. Unlike standalone LIS/Noah-MP, …

Ambient Trichloroethylene Exposure And Parkinson Disease Risk In Medicare Beneficiaries, Brittany Krzyzanowski, Kassu Mehari Beyene, Jay R. Turner, Brad A. Racette

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an important environmental contaminant in the United States due to widespread use industrially. Epidemiologic studies suggest that occupational exposure to TCE and TCE-contaminated drinking water may increase the risk of Parkinson disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate the nationwide relationship between ambient TCE and PD risk.

METHODS: We performed a nationwide, population-based, case-control study to investigate the association between incident PD in US Medicare beneficiaries aged 67 years and older in 2016-2018 and their residential exposure to ambient (outdoor) TCE in 2002. We assigned residence based on the latitude and …

Adoption Of Blockchain Technology In Beverage Supply Chains: Drivers, Benefits, And Challenges In The Coca-Cola And Bodyarmor Sport Water Recall Case, Alexander Adams Jr., Nima Molavi

Communications of the IIMA

The beverage industry faces growing scrutiny as demands for transparency and accountability intensify. In today’s digital landscape, companies must prioritize enhanced traceability to ensure product safety, comply with regulations, maintain consumer trust, and safeguard brand reputation. This research investigates blockchain technology as a potential solution to these challenges, emphasizing its capacity to decentralize data, improve traceability, and accelerate response times during safety recalls.

The study traces the evolution of food safety regulations and analyzes current traceability practices and technological innovations within the beverage sector. Using the Coca-Cola and BODYARMOR Sport Water recall as a case study, this study examines drivers, …

An Empirical Investigation Into The Effect Of Brain Drain “Japa Syndrome” On Agile Practitioners Developing Healthcare Information Systems Software In Nigeria, Yazidu Buba Salihu, Julian M. Bass, Gloria E. Iyawa

Communications of the IIMA

Within the software engineering context, agile approaches encourage customer collaboration, iterative development, and flexibility. However, the mass exodus of highly skilled professionals, known as the “brain drain” or "Japa Syndrome," has emerged as a significant challenge, especially in Nigeria. This phenomenon has particularly impacted agile software development practitioners by undermining project continuity, knowledge transfer, and team dynamics. This study empirically examines the effect of brain drain, “Japa Syndrome,” on agile practitioners developing healthcare information systems software in Nigeria. It employed a qualitative, multi-method approach to gather empirical data from 13 agile practitioners in Nigeria’s healthcare information systems sector. The study …

Exploring Ai Corporate Governance Through The Lens Of Dynamic Capabilities, Albert Samigullin, Paul Dooley

Communications of the IIMA

As AI technologies evolve, organizations must continuously adapt their governance structures to address emerging challenges related to transparency, ethics, and regulatory compliance. Given the rapid pace of AI advancements, traditional governance approaches may not be sufficient to ensure responsible AI oversight while maintaining competitiveness. This research examines AI corporate governance through the lens of Dynamic Capability (DC) Theory, focusing on how organizations can develop the capacity to sense technological and regulatory shifts, seize opportunities, and reconfigure governance mechanisms to align with AI-driven transformation. Through a literature review and the development of an AI Corporate Governance Framework grounded in DC Theory, …

History In Our Backyard: Youth Podcasting About Jimmy And Rosalynn Carter’S Georgia, Katherine A. Perrotta, Hao Ran Li, Prinsha Chanda, Anvitha Battu, Shaurya Attal

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

The purpose of this article is to highlight the curriculum development and recording of a special episode about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter for the student-created History in our Backyard: The Names of Places in Georgia podcast. The students’ research process for writing and recording the podcast are highlighted, as well as pedagogical strategies that social studies teachers can use to engage students in creating their own podcasts. Insights from the student researchers are included to provide teachers with actionable steps for promoting historical thinking and inquiry through podcasting.

Genetic Engineering For Pastures, W J. Peacock

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The first genetically engineered food products from horticultural production systems are now entering the mnrke< and field trials of genetically engineered crop species are well advanced. We cnn expect that a range of crop cultivars, in which gene

Labor Union Directory June 1973, Texas Employment Commission

Justice for Farah Strikers Committee Records

A revised directory of labor unions made by the Texas Employment Commission in June, 1973. Signed by Emileo Molleda Jr..

Labor Union Directory March 1973, Texas Employment Commission

Justice for Farah Strikers Committee Records

A revised directory of labor unions made by the Texas Employment Commission on March 15, 1973.

Dft Prediction Of Adsorption Properties Of Chrysene On Si(001) Surface, Çağil Kaderoğlu

Turkish Journal of Physics

In this study, DFT calculations were carried out in order to reveal the adsorption properties of chrysene molecule on the Si(001)−(2×1) surface. For this purpose, structural, electronic, and optical properties were calculated for five different adsorption configurations. The results show that the electronic and optical properties vary depending on the adsorption configuration of the molecule. In general, the chrysene molecule was found to reduce the work function of the Si(001)−(2×1) surface and affect its optical absorption and reflection properties in the IR and UV regions. These results indicate that the Chrysene + Si(001) hybrid could be quite useful in molecular …

A Comprehensive Study On The Structural, Electrical And Optical Properties Of Dc Sputtered Molybdenum Thin Films, Fi̇li̇z Keleş, Abdullah Atilgan, Eli̇f Damgaci, Ayşe Seyhan, Abdullah Yildiz

Turkish Journal of Physics

This study investigates the influence of key deposition parameters on the optoelectronic properties of Molybdenum (Mo) films fabricated via DC magnetron sputtering. The results demonstrate that increasing the Argon gas pressure significantly raises the sheet resistance, primarily due to increased porosity and defect formation. In contrast, films deposited at lower pressures exhibit higher conductivity due to their denser morphology. The substrate temperature also plays a critical role in determining crystallographic structure and electrical performance. Mo bilayer films deposited at 250 °C show a much lower sheet resistance compared to room temperature (RT) growth. Additionally, increasing the total film thickness from …

On-Chip Ge-Based Refractive Index Sensor Based On Multislot Ge Waveguide, Çi̇çek Boztuğ

Turkish Journal of Physics

On-chip optical sensors have been attracting significant attention of the researchers due to their portability, low cost, and in-situ detection compatibility. The realization of these compact and mass-producible sensors will be possible if all required optical and electronic components are fully integrated on the same chip. However, the main obstacle here is the lack of the room-temperature on-chip light source; therefore, an external source has been utilized for optical sensing applications. Our work introduces a germanium-based optical sensing structure, specifically designed to operate at low refractive indices, with all required optical components integrated on silicon in a CMOS-compatible manner. The …

Charge Asymmetry Phenomenon For The Leptonically Decaying W Γ Pair At Nnlo Qcd, Kadi̇r Saygin

Turkish Journal of Physics

The paper presents for the first time a phenomenological assessment which focuses on the charge asymmetry phenomenon for the W γ production process with subsequent leptonic decay modes W⁺γ → l⁺ν_lγ and W⁻γ → l⁻ν_l^¯γ in proton-proton (pp) collisions. Charge asymmetry for the leptonic W γ process is predicted by the inclusion of genuine next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) corrections in the QCD perturbation theory. NNLO predictions of asymmetry distributions are assessed for the key observables, including the decay lepton and photon pseudorapidities η_l and η_γ, …

Shifted Frequency Analysis Hybrid Simulation Algorithm Based On Multi-Rate Asynchronous Coordination, Yankan Song, Libin Wen, Ying Chen, Jinji Xi, Haoyuan Zhang, Li Xiong

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Large-scale AC/DC power systems exhibit complex dynamics across multiple time scales, and existing hybrid simulations suffer from interface delays and frequency losses during multi-rate coordination, compromising accuracy. To address this issue, a multi-rate asynchronous coordination method was proposed to construct hybrid simulations using shifted frequency analysis (SFA). Within the multi-area Thevenin equivalence (MATE) framework, the algorithm introduced an interpolation-based asynchronous coordination mechanism, effectively eliminating interface delays; by extending SFA theory and designing a universal interface model, it achieved lossless data exchange between partitions with different rates and model types. Case studies on an AC/DC test system demonstrate that …