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Information Technology Services Fy2025 - Winona State University, Minnesota, Information Technology Services-Winona State University

Information Technology Services Annual Reports

Information Technology Services (ITS) provides the technology-based foundation to support and empower the Winona State University (WSU) community to meet and exceed their educational and business needs. This is the ITS report for the fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025).

A Framework For Interpreting Emojis In Legal Contexts, Anne Merritt

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

In the 2023 case of South West Terminal Ltd. v. Achter Land & Cattle Ltd., a Saskatchewan court found that a thumbs-up emoji, as a standalone item of communication, constituted the acceptance of a contract between a buyer and seller. The trial judge noted that such communication was “the new reality in Canadian society” for which courts should be prepared to interpret novel units of language arising in the digital age. However, an analysis of recent Canadian cases involving emojis shows that courts have not been prepared, with inconsistencies in how emojis are represented in evidence, how they are …

Canada's Foreign Fighter Problem: How Should The Federal Government Manage Suspected Isis Members Held In Syria?, Mira Stephenson

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

Since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fell in 2019, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of accused ISIS fighters and their families in Northern Syria. Among those detained are Canadian citizens. Although Canada has repatriated Canadian women and children from AANES custody, its policy approach to date has been inadequate.

Canada must take action to develop a cohesive policy for the approximately 17 Canadians remaining in AANES custody. In this paper, I will evaluate four potential policy options available to the Canadian government. First, that Canada could take …

Supporting Cultural Capital In Undergraduate Biology: Instructor Roles And Practices, Lydia Nicole Mayo

Dissertations

Undergraduate biology students must navigate complex academic environments that require more than content mastery alone. Increasing evidence shows that students’ attitudes, beliefs, and values—such as motivation, confidence, and a sense of belonging—are critical to student engagement, persistence, and success, especially among first-generation college students and those from historically marginalized backgrounds. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to use cultural capital theory to explore how instructor practices in college biology classrooms support these non-content resources, framed as three forms of cultural capital: aspirational, navigational, and emotional capital for college biology.

To investigate this phenomenon, the dissertation integrates three complementary studies. …

Reinforcement Learning And Virtual Human Animation: A Novel Approach To Data-Driven Animation, Portraying Dynamic, Flexible Human-Like Behaviours, Vihanga Gamage

Dissertations

Virtual characters require animation capable of portraying dynamic, context-sensitive human-like behaviours. Several approaches to generating such animation have been developed, but each carries limitations. Motion capture can produce high-fidelity animation but is expensive and ill-suited to systems that must respond in real time. Physics-based reinforcement learning (RL) enables flexible, dynamic behaviour portrayal, yet relies on simulation feedback signals that are unavailable for social gestures. Supervised approaches can learn social behaviours from motion capture data but yield agents with limited flexibility and generalisation.

This thesis presents RLAnimate, a model-based, data-driven RL framework for character animation that enables a single agent to …

Use Of Infrared Spectroscopy In Animal Studies: Aspects Of Health Science, Brian Manzanares

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Non-invasive imaging technologies, such as infrared thermography (IRT), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) are revolutionizing the field of animal research by enabling real-time, stress-free assessment of physiological conditions. Such methods like these are align with the ethical standards of the 3Rs, replacement, reduction, and refinement-by reducing the need of invasive procedures while enhancing data quality and animal welfare. These methods can also provide critical insight into animal health, behavior, and stress responses without the need for invasive procedures or restraint, thereby minimizing harm and distress. This literature review will explore the practical applications of IRT, NIRS, and …

The Role Of Nicotine In Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases, Jacquelyn T. Deaton

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Neurodegenerative diseases have emerged as a critical medical challenge because they cause progressive neuronal death alongside structural or functional deterioration. Families, healthcare institutions, and affected individuals face significant challenges due to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases, which impair both cognitive function and motor abilities. Researchers have found that nicotine in tobacco products is a compound with therapeutic potential. This literature review explores how nicotine interacts with neurodegenerative mechanisms, such as oxidative stress and inflammation, and assesses its potential neuroprotective effects in conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In the central nervous system, nicotine binds to the …

Autoregressive Temporal Modeling For Advanced Tracking-By-Diffusion, Pha Nguyen, Rishi Madhok, Bhiksha Raj, Khoa Luu

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Object tracking is a widely studied computer vision task with video and instance analysis applications. While paradigms such as tracking-by-regression,-detection,-attention have advanced the field, generative modeling offers new potential. Although some studies explore the generative process in instance-based understanding tasks, they rely on prediction refinement in the coordinate space rather than the visual domain. Instead, this paper presents Tracking-by-Diffusion, a novel paradigm for object tracking in video, leveraging visual generative models via the perspective of autoregressive models. This paradigm demonstrates broad applicability across point, box, and mask modalities while uniquely enabling textual guidance. We present DIFTracker, a framework that utilizes …

Advanced Interactions Of Directed Energy With Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells And Their Photochemical And Photothermal Responses, Jin B. Ha

Theses & Dissertations

Excess optical radiation can injure the retina through either rapid heat deposition (photothermal damage) or cumulative photo‑oxidative stress (photochemical damage), yet current laser‑safety limits treat these mechanisms as independent. To test that assumption, this dissertation integrated systematic wavelength, duration and temperature‑controlled laser exposures with live/dead fluorescence imaging in a melanin‑loaded hTERT‑RPE1 monolayer model. First, concurrent 447 nm (blue) and 2 µm (infra‑red) beams delivered for 200 s demonstrated a strong thermal–photochemical synergy: each beam alone was sub‑threshold (≤25 % lethality) but together produced 100 % RPE death without exceeding 50 °C, proving that modest heating markedly lowers the photon dose …

Novel Sequential Modeling Framework Improves Phytoplankton Biomass Predictions In Response To Multiple Environmental Stressors, Zhuyin Tong, Jiayu Guo, Yikai Liu, Lizhen Lin, Jixin Chen, Xin Liu, Bangqin Huang, Edward A. Laws, Wupeng Xiao

Faculty Publications

Understanding the impacts of multiple environmental stressors on phytoplankton biomass is crucial for predicting marine ecosystem responses under global climate change. This study employed a sequential modeling framework integrating principal component analysis, generalized additive models, and artificial neural networks to improve predictions of phytoplankton chlorophyll a concentrations in the Taiwan Strait. Analyzing a decadal dataset, we found that a 2°C rise in sea surface temperature and a 0.2 pH decline will each lead to an 11.3% reduction in chlorophyll a biomass, whereas nitrogen enrichment is expected to increase it by only 2.8%. The combined effects of these stressors will result …

Detected Abundances Of Nuclei Relative To 26fe For Elements 14si Through 44ru With Calet On The International Space Station, O. Adriani, Y. Akaike, K. Asano, Y. Asaoka, E. Berti, P. Betti, G. Bigongiari, W. R. Binns, M. Bongi, P. Brogi, A. Bruno, N. Cannady, G. Castellini, C. Checchia, M. L. Cherry, G. Collazuol, G. A. De Nolfo, K. Ebisawa, A. W. Ficklin, H. Fuke, S. Gonzi, T. G. Guzik, T. Hams, K. Hibino, M. Ichimura, M. H. Israel, K. Kasahara, J. Kataoka, R. Kataoka, Y. Katayose, C. Kato, N. Kawanaka, Y. Kawakubo

Faculty Publications

The Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET), launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 August and continuously operating since, measures cosmic-ray (CR) electrons, nuclei, and gamma rays. CALET, with its 27 radiation length deep Total Absorption Calorimeter, measures particle energy and allows for the measurement of spectra, secondary to primary ratios of the more abundant CR nuclei through 28Ni, while the main charge detector can measure ultra-heavy CR nuclei through 44Ru. The results for the abundances of elements from Z = 14 to Z = 44 relative to 26Fe over 7.5 yr of observation are presented here and compared to …

The Automation Of Aesthetics: Artificial Intelligence And Commercial Artists In North Brooklyn, Devin Sudweeks

Theses and Dissertations

Corporate elites expect generative AI to replace commercial artists but overlook their social and aesthetic expertise. This ethnographic study explores how Brooklyn-based commercial artists narrate their value amid automation, emphasizing embodied presence in cultural scenes, visual language, style, and authenticity, skills not easily mechanized but vital to aesthetic economies.

In The Name Of The Mother, The Nation, And The Race: White Women, The Jim Crow South, & Moralized White Supremacist Feminism, Shayna M. Lawson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces the concept of moralized white supremacist feminism to examine the central role white women played in constructing, legitimizing, and sustaining racial hierarchies in the Jim Crow South through a network of cultural and political organizing, particularly through the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Women’s Ku Klux Klan. Far from passive observers, white women were strategic agents of segregation, leveraging ideals of purity, motherhood, and moral virtue to enforce anti-Black violence and oppression through educational, civic, legal, and symbolic institutions, as well as extra-legal practices. Drawing from archival materials, oral histories, and critical race theory, this study …

August 2025, Pacific Alumni Association

Alumni News & Events

No abstract provided.

Unl Emeriti And Retirees Association Newsletter, August 2025

UNL Emeriti and Retirees Association: Newsletters and Other Materials

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Emeriti and Retirees Association Newsletter, August 2025

President's message: Continuing our commitment, Pam Edwards

Welcome to new members

Wake up your well-being

Book review, Atlas of the Heart

A look ahread at programming

Recapping past programming

Memory moments

The Effects Of National Elite Signaling On Ranked Choice Voting In Utah, Mathew Woodman

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) is a voting method used in few cities in the United States. There has recently been an increase in interest in adoption of the voting method in other cities using pilot programs, much like the one introduced in Utah. Ranked-Choice Voting has become a topic of contention with strong disapproval coming from opponents of the voting system. The questions are why there is disdain for Ranked-Choice Voting, and why such disdain seems to exist more heavily in Republican camps. Public opinion polling from “likely and confirmed Utah voters” in Salt Lake, Utah, and Grand Counties, conducted by …

Owl Solar-Powered Link: Duck Radio Mesh For Autonomous Monitoring, Jaden Tran, Shane Williams

Electrical Engineering

The Solar Duck Sensor Node transforms a standard DuckLink into a fully self-sustaining environmental monitor. A compact solar panel / power bank module plugs into the power ports of both the DuckLink and the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, keeping them charged through day-night cycles. The Pi Zero 2 W will perform local processing of sensor data. Sensor output will come from the Raspberry Pi AI Camera and its object detection capabilities. This output will be distilled into metadata and advertised over BLE. The DuckLink captures these packets, encapsulates them into LoRa payloads, and forwards them across the ClusterDuck mesh …

Analysis Of Popular Songs In The Us Market, Michael Myers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In today’s digitally driven music landscape, understanding what drive’s a song’s popularity requires insight not only into its acoustic and lyrical content, but also into patterns of listener engagement across platforms. This thesis explores the predictive and descriptive dimensions of song popularity by applying supervised and unsupervised machine learning models to a multi-source dataset integrating audio features, sentiment analysis, and temporal consumption behavior. Drawing from a novel, multi-platform dataset that includes Billboard Hot 100 rankings, Spotify acoustic features and popularity scores, streaming, airplay, and sales metrics as reported on Luminate’s Music Connect, and lyrics from AZLyrics, the study investigates the …

Assessing The Impact Of Pll And Ple Concentrations And Aging On Protein Condensates Formation Via Llps, Nabil Harche

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Protein droplets, also referred to as condensates, are membrane-less organelles formed through a biophysical process known as liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). These structures play an indispensable role in a wide range of cellular functions, including compartmentalizing biochemical reactions, regulating gene expression, and responding to cellular stress. Unlike traditional membrane-bound organelles, these condensates form dynamically and reversibly within the cytoplasm or nucleus, without the need for lipid membranes. The formation of these protein droplets is affected by several physicochemical factors, including pH, temperature, ionic strength, concentration of biomolecules, and specific molecular interactions such as electrostatics and hydrophobic forces. LLPS results in …

Human-Ai-Collaboration-For-Coding, Siddhardha Ravi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

AI-generated code, while rapidly producing functional solutions, often falls short in aspects like comprehensive error handling, robust documentation, and optimal architectural design, areas where human expertise excels. Conversely, humans can greatly benefit from AI's rapid code generation capabilities. This project proposes and evaluates "A Framework to Improve Code Quality by Utilizing Generative AI Coding Along With Human-Written Code", designed to create a synergy between AI and human intelligence for enhanced software development. Conducted over four weeks, the research leverages BigCodeBench as its core dataset to rigorously investigate how human intervention can improve AI-generated code quality, identify the most effective human-AI …

Comparative Expression Of Cgmp-Dependent Protein Kinase G (Pkg) From Plasmodium And Toxoplasma, Tsopmo Asaah

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Malaria and Toxoplasmosis are life threatening diseases to humans. The search for a cure and control of these diseases is still one of the major challenges of scientists worldwide. In this research we focused on two Malaria species; Plasmodium bergei² (Pb) and Plasmodium falciparum¹ (Pf) and also on Toxoplasma gondii. Part of the life cycle of these organisms is regulated by the enzyme cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase G (PKG)⁴. This is our drug target in this research. We believe that inhibiting this enzyme will be a great step in fighting these diseases. In this research, we devised a comparative study …

Simulation Of Photochemical Effects On Air Quality, Grace Li

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and ozone (O₃) are both EPA criteria air pollutants in the troposphere, largely generated by combustion and therefore present in significant concentrations in urban areas. Sunlight facilitates chemical reactions between pollutants and ambient air. Aerosols modulate the amount of available energy required to drive such photochemical reactions, ultimately impacting air quality. Simulating photolysis rates with FastJX software is a resource-efficient strategy to study how these aerosols can affect air quality.

Investigating The Influence Of Experimental Parameters On The Formation Of Gold Nanoparticles: A Green Synthesis And Design Of Experiments Approach, Isaac Opeyemi Subuloye

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using catechin, a naturally occurring plant-derived compound, as both a reducing and capping agent. The synthesis process was guided by a structured Design of Experiments (DOE) methodology to ensure systematic investigation and optimization. A two-phase experimental approach was adopted. First, a full factorial screening design was used to evaluate the effects of catechin concentration, NaOH concentration, and pre-reaction time. This was followed by an optimization phase using a face-centered composite design to identify conditions that produce nanoparticles with ideal characteristics. The nanoparticles were analyzed using UV-visible spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering …

Analyzing Sports Motion Using Calculus, Joshua Vidal, Maryam Khazaei Pool

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Calculus helps analyze sports motion by modeling a ball's vertical path as a quadratic fuction, capturing initial velocity, gravity, and height. Differentiating this function reveals velocity and acceleration, key to finding peak height, time to peak, and airtime. Using Python, we can accurately calculate and visualize these motions. Linear algebra further connects player skills like strength, technique, and accuracy to kick distance, enabling performance prediction and comparision.

Building Toward A Timbral Tool-Kit: A Practice-Led Exploration Of Timbre As An Inspirational Tool In The Composition Process, Kailan O’Dell

Postgraduate

This exegesis is a practice-led investigation into the role of timbre as a tool of inspiration and musical expression in the composition process, with a specific focus on keyboard instruments. Two contrasting compositions for grand piano were recorded, then recorded again using four other distinct keyboard instrument timbres. The composer’s emotional perception of each keyboard instrument timbre was evaluated through reflective analysis, and with the use of the Geneva Emotional Music Scale. Knowledge of the emotional associations of the various timbres was used in the creation of four new compositions, one for each of the four distinct keyboard instrument timbres. …

A Systematic Review Of Machine Learning In Groundwater Monitoring, Mrunmayee Dhapre, Shrikant Jadhav, Debanjana Das, Jehanzeb Khan, Youngsoo Kim, Sen Chiao, Thomas Danielson

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

With increasing concerns about water scarcity, groundwater has become crucial since this resource provides most of the freshwater needs. However, various human and natural activities often contaminate the groundwater, making it unsuitable for use. Over the years, scientists and engineers have used many methods to predict and track groundwater contamination as part of environmental monitoring. Consequently, there is an urgent need for improved methods, particularly in the face of increasing contamination. Machine learning has sometimes been used to monitor groundwater, air quality, and climate. Traditional methods must be improved due to the complexity and large amount of environmental data. This …

Machine Learning-Guided Field Site Selection For River Classification, Zhihao Wang, Gregory Brian Pasternack, Yufang Jin, Costanza Rampini, Serena Alexander, Nikhil Kumar, Rune Storesund, K. Martin Perales, Christopher Lim, Stephanie Moreno, Igor Lacan

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Sufficient abundance and variety of field site sampling are crucial for obtaining an accurate reach-scale river classification of a regional stream network in support of scientific research and river management. However, many studies still randomly select field sites or only visit accessible streams. This leads to an inadequate exploration of stream characteristics, resulting in incomplete or inaccurate classification. Machine learning has been recognized for discovering and extracting streams’ geomorphic patterns efficiently and accurately from data, but its application in field site sampling design is still in its infancy. This study developed a general and practical field site selection framework by …

Mitigating Ai Bias With Prompt Augmentation, Verónica C. Gonzales

Faculty Scholarship

Large-language-model (“LLM”) outputs are inevitably shaped by assumptions, biases, and attitudes rooted in racism and other systemic inequities embedded in the civil-law tradition. This Equity-in-Justice CLE focuses on helping civil legal service providers recognize and work to eliminate biases in generative AI outputs through equity-centered prompt augmentation and engineering. These small, cost-free interventions re-orient LLMs assistance toward fairness, cultural competency, and client-centered outcomes. Participants leave with an action plan for embedding anti-bias safeguards in everyday research, drafting, and client communication tasks.

Synergistic Enhancement Of Tribological Behavior And Colloidal Stability In Cuo Nanolubricants Via Ligand Tuning, Sherif Elsoudy, Sayed Akl Akl Dr, Sayed Akl A. Akl Dr, Esm Lane, Abas Hadawey, Philip D. Howes

Mechanical Engineering

Nanoparticle-based lubricants, or nanolubricants, can exhibit superior tribological properties compared to unmodified base oils. However, these performance gains are highly dependent on the nanoparticle surface chemistry, particularly in maintaining stable colloidal dispersions. This study explores the influence of oleic acid (OA) and oleylamine (OAm) functionalization on the tribological and colloidal properties of CuO nanoparticles dispersed in an SAE 20W50 base oil. We present a hybrid optimization framework combining Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with Bayesian Optimization (BO) to identify the optimal OA to OAm ratio (OA–OAm) for CuO nanolubricants. Unlike prior studies that employed either RSM alone or trial-and-error approaches, this …

Nebline, August/September 2025

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Contents

Summertime’s Natural Light Show: Fireflies by Kait Chapman

Insect Science with Kids: Bug Collecting as a Tool to Learn

The Perfect Partnership: EFNEP and SNAP-Ed Join Forces for Lifelong Nutrition and Health by Emily Gratopp

Recipe of the month by Emily Gratopp: Fruit salsa & cinnamon chips

Southeast nebraska Pasture & Acreage Expo

Southeast Nebraska Alfalfa & Wheat Expo

Landlord/Tenant Cash Rent workshop

Vegetable Gardening in the Fall by Mary Jane Frogge

GRO Big Red virtual learning series

2025 perennial plant of the year: Blue mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)

Garden guide: Things to do this month by …