Digital Commons Network^™

Sex-Based Differences In The Representation Of Top Youth Athletes, Jessica J. James, Sandra K. Hunter, Elizabeth P. Bueckers, Michael J. Joyner, Jonathon W. Senefeld

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

Although emerging research demonstrates that male athletes outperform female athletes before puberty, the effect of these sex-related advantages on ordinal ranking of top performances remains unclear.

Objectives

Among overall top performances of youth track and swimming athletes, we aimed to determine 1) the proportional number of male compared with female athletes represented and 2) at what age females are no longer represented.

Methods

Finishing times and sex of the top 10 and top 100 performances of youth runners and swimmers between 5 and 18 yr were abstracted from online U.S.-based databases for four running (100 m–800 m) and six freestyle …

Exploring Subfield Interest Development In Undergraduate Physics Students Through Social Cognitive Career Theory, Dina Zohrabi Alaee, Benjamin M. Zwickl

Physics and Engineering Science

This study investigates how undergraduate physics majors develop an interest in specific subfields. We examine interest formation through the lens of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) using four SCCT constructs: learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and proximal environmental influences. We conducted 27 interviews with physics majors across multiple years of study between 2020 and 2022. Our first research question used SCCT constructs to provide detailed insights into factors affecting interest formation in various subfields of physics. We identified many factors that positively impacted students’ interests, such as positive learning experiences (e.g., coursework, experimental projects, extracurricular clubs, and self-directed learning), high …

From Photogrammetry To Virtual Reality: A Framework For Assessing Visual Fidelity In Structural Inspections, Xiangxiong Kong, Terry F. Pettijohn, Hovhannes Torikyan

Psychology

Civil structures carry significant service loads over long times but are prone to deterioration due to various natural impacts. Traditionally, these structures are inspected in situ by qualified engineers, a method that is high-cost, risky, time-consuming, and prone to error. Recently, researchers have explored innovative practices by using virtual reality (VR) technologies as inspection platforms. Despite such efforts, a critical question remains: can VR models accurately reflect real-world structural conditions? This study presents a comprehensive framework for assessing the visual fidelity of VR models for structural inspection. To make it viable, we first introduce a novel workflow that integrates UAV-based …

Reevaluating Fourth Amendment Protections In The Digital Age, Tiffany Benjamin

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Consumer Behavior Of Gen Z In Kosovo: Purchasing Preferences And Brand Engagement, Sara Dumani

Theses

This capstone project examines the consumer behavior of Generation Z in Kosovo by analyzing their purchasing preferences and brand engagement. The Generation Z demographic, which includes individuals born between 1996 and 2010, is the focus of this study. This generation is characterized by digital savviness and a significant influence from social media platforms, shaping their purchasing decisions and brand engagement. Generation Z’s behavior is often marked by a preference for online shopping, collaborative marketing approaches, and sustainability, making it essential to understand these factors in the context of Kosovo. The data for analyzing Generation Z’s consumer behavior were collected through …

Exploring Kosovo's Need For A Technology-Driven Offset Strategy, Alba Cikaqi

Theses

At a time where technological innovation is redefining national security, Kosovo risks falling behind by failing to adopt emerging technologies for defense and security. This research addresses that vulnerability by exploring the need for a dedicated national strategy as a solution. Drawing on global best practices, including the United States Offset Strategy, NATO frameworks, and innovation models from the Baltic countries, the study outlines a potential path forward. Additionally, through qualitative analysis, including interviews with key stakeholders across public, private, and academic sectors, this study looks into the opportunities and challenges of developing a context-specific strategy for integrating emerging technologies …

Development Of Nanopocket Membranes For The Isolation And Purification Of Extracellular Vesicles, Munther Alsudais

Theses

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a crucial role in intercellular communication and serve as significant biomarkers for various diseases. EVs carry biomolecules such as lipids, proteins, DNA, and RNA, which reflect the physiological state of their cells of origin, making them promising tools for non-invasive diagnostics and therapeutic applications. Effective isolation of EVs is essential for advancing scientific understanding of their biological roles and unlocking their clinical potential. Porous membranes have been widely used for the purification of various biological species from biological fluids. While membranes have prove highly effective for general size-based separation, recent innovations have focused on structurally refined …

Protein Language Models-Based Representation For Post-Translational Modification Prediction, Suresh Pokharel

Theses

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are chemical changes that occur after translation and play a key role in regulating protein function and cellular processes. Their dysregulation is associated with various diseases, making accurate prediction of PTM sites essential for understanding cellular mechanisms and informing therapeutic strategies. This work focuses on the computational prediction of two biologically significant PTMs, namely succinylation and O-GlcNAcylation, utilizing recent advances in protein language models (pLMs). Drawing an analogy to natural languages, amino acids are treated as words and sequences as sentences, allowing pLMs to capture contextual dependencies within protein sequences. One of the earliest contributions of this …

Identifying Underspecifications In Security Requirements Using A Formal Reasoning Approach, Viktoria Koscinski

Theses

Within requirements engineering, software requirements specifications tend to prioritize functional needs, potentially failing to capture critical security aspects and adequate security requirements. Security requirements engineering is a manual and error-prone activity often neglected due to the knowledge gap between cybersecurity professionals and software requirements engineers. Consequently, security requirements are especially prone to being underspecified, a condition where they lack a complete set of feature-values and are thus open to multiple interpretations. Underspecified security requirements can lead to incorrect assumptions and missing security properties, often remaining undiscovered until system deployment, thereby leaving the system vulnerable to exploitation. Furthermore, even individually well-written …

Online And Offline Multi-Variate Time Series Forecasting With Neuroevolution Based Neural Architecture Search, Zimeng Lyu

Theses

Time series forecasting plays a crucial role in various fields, ranging from financial markets and predictive maintenance in industrial settings to healthcare analytics. Traditionally, statistical approaches were employed primarily for univariate forecasting tasks, but modern applications often require robust solutions capable of handling complex, multivariate, noisy, and non-stationary data. Current state-of-the-art solutions predominantly utilize transformer-based models, which demand significant computational resources, limiting their practicality, especially in resource-constrained environments. This dissertation introduces novel and efficient approaches to multivariate time series forecasting, leveraging NeuroEvolution-based Neural Architecture Search (NAS) methodologies. Specifically, two robust algorithms---Evolutionary eXploration of Augmenting Memory Models (EXAMM) for offline forecasting …

Comprehensive Investigation Of The Torsional Behavior Of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (Tpms) Inspired Structures, Mikhail Skibar

Theses

This work is concentrated on research of torsion properties of TPMS structures, numerically and experimentally. Currently, there are not many works that concentrate on studying torsion properties of TPMS structures. Most of them are concentrated on structures for biomedical applications and structures, printed of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy. In other areas, such as aerospace, automotive, etc. TPMS structures may also find applications. In this work, shear modulus, shear strength and resilience are tested, depending of the following conditions: cell geometries Diamond, Gyroid and Primitive, with relative densities of 30%, 50% and 70%, and unit cell sizes of 10 mm, 15 mm …

Cardiac Transplantation Does Not Improve Exercise Tolerance, Muscle Mass, Or Substrate Metabolism In Barth Syndrome, W Todd Cade, Kathryn L Bohnert, Linda R Peterson, Lisa De Las Fuentes, Emily Poehlein, Cynthia L Green, Christina A Pacak, Barry J Byrne, Dominic N Reeds, Adil Bashir, Brian Feingold, Carolyn Taylor

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Barth syndrome (BTHS) is a rare X-linked recessive disorder characterized by mutations in the TAFAZZIN gene, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, cardioskeletal myopathy, neutropenia, exercise intolerance, and growth delay. While cardiac transplantation can improve heart function in BTHS patients, the metabolic effects of this procedure remain poorly understood. This study aimed to compare skeletal muscle morphology, substrate metabolism, energetics, and exercise tolerance in individuals with BTHS who had undergone cardiac transplantation (BTHS-T) versus BTHS patients without transplantation (BTHS-noT) and healthy controls. Six (

How Social Movements Catalyze Firm Innovation, Kate Odziemkowska, Yiying Zhu

Department of Management Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We investigate the impact that social movements have on firm innovation through private politics. We argue that firms strategically respond to private politics by investing in new technologies that address movement-advocated issues material to firms’ performance. Although both contentious private politics—when activists contentiously target firms—and cooperative private politics—when activists and firms collaborate—catalyze innovation, they do so in different ways. Contentious private politics increases the amount of innovation that firms undertake by drawing managerial attention to movement-advocated issues material to the firm, prompting search for solutions to those issues. Conversely, cooperative private politics provides firms access to new knowledge that encourages …

Exogenous Ketones Reduce Inflammation And Pathology In The Tgf344-Ad Rat Model, Amaya Rogers, Pheven Yohannes, Juan P. Carcamo, Preetham Gundlapally, Amaya Coker, Macy A. Seijo, Caesar M. Hernandez

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Summer Expo Poster Presentation

• Biological & Life Sciences
• Engineering
• Physical & Applied Sciences

A Uas-Centered Investigation Of Vorticity Characteristics And Cold Pool Structure Across Forward And Left-Flank Boundaries In Supercells, Mark R. De Bruin

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Supercell internal boundaries are the locus of tornadogenesis; thus, understanding the characteristics of these boundaries, particularly in terms of vorticity, is important for identifying the role they play in tornado formation. Insight into the overall characteristics of internal boundaries and their possible role in tornadogenesis have been driven by studies reliant on numerical modeling-based experiments. Observational studies often neglect above-surface conditions or, when these observations are made, lack the spatial resolution to resolve boundary characteristics. During TORUS (Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells) 2019 and TORUS-LItE (TORUS Left-flank Intensive Experiment) 2023, uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and mobile mesonets …

Development And Implementation Of A Vector-Quantized Transformer Autoencoder For Monitoring Bicycle Road Conditions, Kewei Ren

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Adviser: Chun-Hsing Ho

The long-term, sustainable assessment of bicycle road conditions is essential for ensuring cyclist safety and promoting equitable infrastructure management. While traditional detection methods based on manual thresholds have demonstrated some effectiveness, they carry limitations due to the diversity of pavement materials, cyclist behaviors, and sensor platforms. Although recent advances in deep learning offer promising alternatives, established techniques are primarily applied to highway anomaly detection and are rarely adapted for bicycle roads. Furthermore, most related studies lack clear definitions for anomalies and transparent annotation procedures, resulting in a shortage of effective datasets and detection methods specifically for bicycle …

Feasibility Of Using Recycled Waste Plastic In Concrete Pavements In Nebraska, Amasi Hajahja

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Waste plastic (WP) is a growing environmental concern due to its non-biodegradable nature, large-scale production, and harmful impact on natural resources. With nearly 75% of WP in the United States ending up in landfills, effective recycling strategies are urgently needed. In parallel, the limited availability of natural aggregates highlights the need for alternative materials in concrete construction. This study investigates the feasibility of using recycled waste plastic (RWP) in concrete mixtures, both as aggregates and fibers for rigid pavement applications in Nebraska. Concrete mixtures were prepared by partially replacing natural fine aggregates with recycled plastic aggregates (RPA) at replacement levels …

Catching A Fever: A Comparison Of Vachellia Xanthophloea Populations In The Limpopo And Luvuvhu River Floodplains Of The Makuleke Contractual Park, Kianie B. David

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study investigates patterns of stand structure regeneration, growth characteristics, and coarse woody debris (CWD) patterns in Vachellia xanthophloea (fever tree) stands within the Makuleke Contractual Park (MCP), a semi-arid savanna system in northern Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. Fieldwork was conducted across two stand types: a monospecific fever tree stand in Rietbok Vlei and a mixed-species stand in the Western Nhlangaluwe Floodplain where fever tree is established with Faidherbia albida (ana tree). Data were collected from 20 total 1/4-acre (1,011 m²) circular plots between both stands in 2024 and 2025, including seedling root collar diameter (RCD), …

Urbanization And Earthquake Resilience In The Kathmandu Valley, Alex Nation

Nepal: Geoscience in the Himalaya

The Kathmandu Valley is the fastest growing city in South Asia and is developing in a haphazard manner, subsequently creating an unnecessary earthquake risk. Few papers have been published regarding the development of Kathmandu and its surroundings as a whole and relating it to earthquakes. This study conducted visits to some cities in the valley and analyzed the infrastructure, architecture and engineering, as well as city layout. It was discovered that zoning is completely absent in the region and planning attempts are unable to keep up with the rate of expansion. Further awareness, enforcement of codes, and zoning is needed …

A Preliminary Classification And Quantification Of The Microplastics Within Remote Glacial Runoff In The Upper Manang Region Of Nepal, Caden Lipsky

Nepal: Geoscience in the Himalaya

Microplastics, defined as particles of plastic waste less than 5mm (US EPA), are becoming steadily more common throughout remote ecosystems and are damaging to human and environmental health. The level of microplastics found in water sources within remote regions has become increasingly concerning following growing influxes of tourists and residents each year. These particulates found in freshwater have historically only been found downstream of populated areas; however, more recent cases have demonstrated their appearance at higher elevations and lower population water sources. This study aims to develop a preliminary understanding of the amount and type of contamination that has occurred …

Geological And Cultural Investigation Of Clay Used In Newari Pottery, Inés Fabián-Hicks

Nepal: Geoscience in the Himalaya

This research project investigated the geological and cultural aspects of clay used in traditional Newari pottery in Nepal. The study aims to compare the particle-size distribution of raw clay directly sourced from traditional deposits with that of processed clay prepared for pottery production. Methodologically, the project will employ a combination of mechanical sieving and hydrometer analysis to generate detailed grain-size distribution charts for both clay types. In addition to laboratory analysis, the project incorporates a cultural dimension through a field visit to Pottery Square, an interview with a Newari potter, and a field visit to the source of the clay …

Forum, Volume 49, No. 2, Summer 2025, Florida Humanities, Pam Daniel

FORUM: The Magazine of Florida Humanities

Contents: Letter from the Executive Director -- Letter from the Secretary of State -- From the Editor -- Humanities Live -- Treasure -- Oral History -- Florida Seen -- Florida Reads -- The Saltwater Road -- The Hero with a Thousand Purses -- Indigenous Florida -- A Taste of Florida -- Environmental Humanities -- The Quiz

Town Of Hanover, New Hampshire Annual Report For The Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2025 And 2026 Town Meeting, Hanover Town Representatives

Hanover, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

July 2025, Pacific Alumni Association

Alumni News & Events

No abstract provided.

Sabin Center For Climate Change Law Annual Report 2024-2025, Tiffany Challe

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This 2024-2025 annual report highlights the Sabin Center’s breadth and impact across our program areas, including climate litigation, carbon management and negative emissions technologies, US climate policy, energy transition, climate law and finance.

The Unappreciated Role Of Intent In Algorithmic Moderation Of Abusive Content On Social Media, Xinyu Wang, Sai Koneru, Pranav Narayanan Venkit, Brett Frischmann, Sarah Rajtmajer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Quality Of Life Outcomes Following Total Temporomandibular Joint Replacement: A Systematic Review Of Long-Term Efficacy, Functional Improvements, And Complication Rates Across Prosthesis Types, Luis Eduardo Almeida, Samuel Zammuto, Louis G. Mercuri

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction:

Total temporomandibular joint replacement (TMJR) is a well-established surgical solution for patients with severe TMJ disorders. It aims to relieve chronic pain, restore jaw mobility, and significantly enhance quality of life. This systematic review evaluates QoL outcomes following TMJR, analyzes complication profiles, compares custom versus stock prostheses, explores pediatric applications, and highlights technological innovations shaping the future of TMJ reconstruction.

Methods:

A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library was conducted throughout April 2025 in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Sixty-four studies were included, comprising 2387 patients. Results: Primary outcomes assessed were QoL improvement, pain reduction, and …

A Strategic Approach For Space-Based Solar Power Implementation In The Uae, Salamah Alhajeri

Theses

This thesis investigates the strategic potential of Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) as a transformative clean energy solution for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Set against the UAE’s Energy Strategy 2050 and increasing global climate pressures, this study explores how the UAE can take a leadership position in orbital solar energy through foresight-based planning, technological innovation, and policy integration. The research is guided by the following four questions: 1. What trends and uncertainties shape the future of space-based solar power in the UAE? 2. How can strategic foresight methodologies be used to develop a flexible SBSP strategy for the UAE? 3. …

Investigating Spectral Rendering Techniques To Improve Colour Matching In Virtual Production, Vlad Simion

Theses

As rendering engines become increasingly important in film and television, with their use in virtual production (VP) to display rendered imagery, some underlying issues become more apparent. This thesis aims to investigate how we can improve asset color matching of VP elements with real-life objects found on sets. Experiments were conducted in which objects were exposed to various types of lighting setups, and digital twins were rendered using traditional computer graphics techniques. The renderings occurred in both classic RGB spaces and the spectral domain. Additionally, data reduction techniques were used for the spectral renderings to determine if any of them …

Dynamic Defenses To Systematically Secure Exposed Attack Surfaces In Wireless Systems, Naureen Hoque

Theses

While modern wireless systems rely on strong encryption, this alone does not secure the entire attack surface, including exposed signal attributes, pre-authentication exchanges, and protocol metadata. This dissertation challenges the assumption that existing cryptographic protections are sufficient to protect these vulnerabilities. Signal attributes, including phase and amplitude variations due to modulation, are physical-layer characteristics of encrypted data communication that remain observable and exploitable for attacks like traffic analysis. The pre-authentication phase—during which session keys are negotiated and installed—is vulnerable to spoofing and denial-of-service attacks. Protocol metadata, such as operating channel, sender’s address and location, and timestamps, is unencrypted and can …