Digital Commons Network^™

Appalachia Winter/Spring 2026: Complete Issue

Appalachia

Winter/Spring 2026 - Volume LXXVII, Number 1 - Issue #261. Healing and Hazards: Finding and Saving Health in Wild Places

The Implementation Of English School Examination Of Speaking And Writing Skills In The Upper Secondary Level Of Education In Bandung, West Java, Andang Saehu, Utami Widiawati, Johannes A. Prayogo, Effendi Kadarisman

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

This study aims at investigating the ways the English teachers develop the test prompts of and the ways they administer the English US of speaking and writing skills. The study employed quantitative and qualitative approaches involving 73 SMAs in Bandung. The findings indicate that administrative aspects were successfully administered; however, technical aspects were not appropriately administered because most teachers did not involve experts and students in validation and try-out processes.

Method For Secure Ai Grounding Using Semantic Token Substitution And Client-Side Re-Hydration, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

Using generative artificial intelligence with sensitive data may present challenges, as transmitting personally identifiable information or protected health information to third-party providers can introduce security risks, and some data masking techniques can reduce reasoning capabilities. A described system uses a proxy, masking layer that can intercept data within an enterprise's secure perimeter. This layer can substitute sensitive strings with persistent, structured semantic tokens that may be enriched with non-sensitive metadata hints to help preserve context. An external artificial intelligence can perform reasoning on this abstracted data, and its tokenized response can be re-hydrated into readable text on a client device …

System For Modeling Coexisting Speed Limits Via Parallel Propagation Of Conditional, Statutory, And Variable Rules, Danendra Singh, Mert Kalender

Defensive Publications Series

Digital map systems may represent speed limits as static, single-value attributes, which can limit their ability to model real-world scenarios with multiple, context-dependent rules for a single road segment. A system is described for modeling coexisting speed limits via a multi-stage processing pipeline that may feature a parallel propagation architecture. This mechanism, which can be referred to as smearing, can propagate different speed limit types as independent, overlapping layers along a road network. The process can generate a dynamic, multi-dimensional map layer that consolidates explicit rules from physical signs and implicit legal rules. This framework may enable a vehicle's computing …

A Heuristic Framework For High-Fidelity Domain Assessments Via Modularized Attention Steering, Subhankar Sarkar, Michael Quam

Defensive Publications Series

The application of large language models (LLMs) for complex document analysis may be limited by a potential to generate factually incorrect information, which can be unsuitable for fields where high precision and verifiability are beneficial. This disclosure describes a non-deterministic methodology for conducting complex, multi-variable assessments of unstructured data using Large Language Models (LLMs). Conventional systems often fail due to "semantic dilution" and "attention fragmentation" when evaluating high numbers of concurrent rules against large unstructured data or documents. The framework introduces Decoupled Semantic Anchoring and Attention Steering (DSA-AS), which integrates thematic modularization, decoupled knowledge-graph anchoring, and a consensus protocol with …

System And Method For Cross Issuer Payment Coordination, Gaurav Gupta, Ritesh Saini, Haseen Ahmad

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure relates generally to the field of payment systems, in particular to a system and method for enabling cross issuer payment coordination with real-time temporary card issuance. A merchant interface may provide a customer with an option to obtain a temporary payment card in real time to avail an offer associated with a different issuer. Upon selection, a transaction request including an indicator for temporary card issuance may be transmitted through a merchant bank to a payment network, which routes the transaction for authorization and facilitates issuance and provisioning of the temporary card with a predefined limit. The payment …

Utah Secondary English Language Arts Teachers And The Use Of Body Diverse Young Adult Literature, Katy Johnson Bigham

Theses and Dissertations

Representation in young adult (YA) literature has expanded significantly in recent years, but body size diversity - specifically the inclusion of fat protagonists - is still minimal and understudied in secondary English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Research shows that diverse literature plays a crucial role in helping students see themselves and other reflected in the texts they read, as shown in the metaphor of literature as "windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors" (Bishop, 1990). So how does this apply to the representation of body size diversity in the ELA classroom? This study explores how secondary ELA teachers in Utah perceive …

Psoas Muscle Volume Asymmetry, Not Attachment Site Asymmetry, Is Associated With Chronic Low Back Pain Status, Kassity D. Clay

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with increasing evidence implicating neuromuscular factors such as muscle asymmetry in its pathophysiology. The psoas major muscle (PMM), a key contributor to lumbar spine stability, has been comparatively under-investigated despite its biomechanical importance. PURPOSE: To determine whether right-to-left differences in PMM volume and attachment site asymmetry are associated with CLBP; to evaluate whether ODI, IPAQ, and age are associated with PMM volume imbalance; and to assess whether combined PMM volume and attachment asymmetry are associated with CLBP. METHODS: A retrospective secondary analysis was conducted using lumbar MRI data …

"A Politics Of Its Own": Reading Adelaide Procter's Poetry In The Context Of The English Woman's Journal, Rachel Diane Gouff

Theses and Dissertations

Victorian poet Adelaide Anne Procter, a devout Catholic and a nineteenth-century feminist and social activist, was hugely popular in her lifetime for her devotional and sentimental poetry. However, scholars who have looked closely at her work have recognized that her poetry contains moments of tension that suggest they may be more than they appear on the surface. Such tensions and ironies are often glossed over or misread by readers whose expectations of Christian devotional messaging and domestic sentiment overshadow the contradictions. In this paper, I propose that one of the most effective ways to more fully understand the nuance and …

Affective Archives: Friendship And Material Intimacy In The Manuscripts Of Dora Wordsworth And Maria Jane Jewsbury, Madison Elizabeth Maloney

Theses and Dissertations

Manuscripts have long been analyzed for how they circulated alongside traditionally published texts, with scholars taking an interest in both the content and material form of such documents. In a print-centric era like the early nineteenth century, the surplus of published writing was sometimes framed as impersonal and generic. As such, material elements of manuscripts like paper, ink, and handwriting were increasingly valued as affective reflections of authors' bodies and circumstances. For example, tear stains on a letter might allow for a more personal and meaningful connection between writer and reader than the homogeneity of mass-produced texts. In a project …

Phishing Restraint: University Simulated Phishing Campaigns, Alexander M. Abou Khir

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

Universities face heightened vulnerability to phishing attacks due to their open information-sharing culture and diverse user populations. This study examines how phishing exploits human factors within campus environments and evaluates three major training strategies: embedded phishing, microlearning, and role-based instruction to understand their individual and combined effectiveness. I explored studies that implement these strategies in pairs and use the strategies alone, identified trends in susceptibility reduction, behavioral reinforcement, and contextual relevance. I suggest that, while each method independently improves user awareness, multiple approaches offer stronger, more adaptable protection by addressing both psychological triggers and role-specific risks. The paper contributes a …

Salivary Mirna As An Early Biomarker For Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Shloka Potineni

Student Publications and Research

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is diagnosed at late stages in the majority of cases despite its physically accessible location, resulting in five-year survival rates that drop from 90% at Stage I to below 50% at Stage III or IV. Current screening relies on visual examination and invasive biopsy, neither of which can detect the molecular changes that precede visible tumor formation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in saliva reflect tumor biology before lesions appear, but the signal spans over 2,000 species simultaneously, making traditional statistical methods insufficient for reliable diagnostic pattern extraction.

This study applies a Random Forest classifier to miRNA expression …

Poor Peer Relations During Early Adolescence Amplify Bidirectional Pathways Between Body Dissatisfaction And Alcohol Misuse, Molly Selover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The current study focuses on the growth of body dissatisfaction and alcohol misuse, and factors that amplify their interplay. Participants were 221 sixth- and seventh-grade students (118 girls, 103 boys; ages 10–13) attending a public school in Florida. Self-reports and peer nominations were collected at three time points across the course of a school year. Results from parallel process growth models indicated that higher self-reported body dissatisfaction at the beginning of the school year predicted increases in self-reported alcohol misuse across the academic year. Conversely, higher initial alcohol misuse predicted increases in body dissatisfaction. Follow-up analyses revealed that loneliness, low …

A Computer Vision Approach To Analyzing Taxane Effects On Prostate Cancer Cells, Diana Elizabeth Dancea

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Actin is a family of proteins that help create the structure of the cytoskeleton, which gives shape to the cell. In many chemotherapy treatments, researchers target actin because it controls the cell division process. Therefore, if they are able to understand the actin fibers, that may help in formulating methods to stop or slow down cancer cells from reproducing. Another important protein is PAK6, which regulates actin. In our research, a collaborative effort with Prof. Michael Lu’s lab at Florida Atlantic University, we use machine learning techniques to analyze cells which had their PAK6 protein knocked out, and compare them …

Draft Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Unreclaimed Sites: Ur-03 Construction Completion Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Convolutional Neural Networks For Through-The-Wall Radar Imaging: Challenges, Impacts, And Future Directions, Tumaini Edgar, Abdulla F. Ally, Abdi T. Abdalla

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Through-the-wall radar imaging (TWRI) is an essential technology for military and rescue applications; however, its performance in detecting and visualizing high-quality images of targets behind walls is significantly degraded by multipath reflections and signal attenuation. This paper reviews the current state of TWRI and its challenges, and explores the transformative potential of deep learning, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), in addressing these challenges. Peer-reviewed articles published from 2018 to 2024 were analysed to examine CNN applications in addressing TWRI challenges. The analysis reveals that using CNNs, TWRI systems can be more effective by filtering wall distortions, reducing noise, lowering computational …

Causes, Effects, And Solutions Of Wrongful Convictions, Allison B. Gobuzzi

Honors Theses

This study examines the wrongful conviction of Anthony Hinton and other examples that illustrate the causes of wrongful convictions in the United States and the effects that wrongful convictions have on the wrongfully accused and their families. This study uses research from scholarly articles and legal cases to analyze the factors that contribute to wrongful convictions and the impact on the wrongfully accused and their families. The research concludes that wrongful convictions are frequently the result of both evidentiary and procedural issues within the criminal justice system.

Solitude & Busyness, Eliza Kuhlmann

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Critical Decisions Regarding Retirement, Philip Zettlemoyer

Senior Honors Theses

Many retirees in America do not understand the variables and important decisions that go into a retirement plan. These variables, however, have a significant effect on any retiree’s financial wellbeing. This case study explains such variables and decisions, as well as the various rules and regulations from the United States Government around the decisions. It then applies this knowledge of variables and regulations in a practical manner by analyzing a specific case study of a middle-class couple nearing retirement. This analysis includes in-depth projections for the couple’s specific situation which would traditionally be created with the expertise of a financial …

The Texture Of A Threat: Adversarial Training, Cnns, And Obfuscated Malware Detection, Kaelyn Haynie

Senior Honors Theses

Accurately detecting malicious programs is an expanding field of research for machine learning (ML), with a novel approach incorporating a bytecode-to-image pipeline that produces images representative of software. These images are provided to convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to be examined for malicious pattern indicators. However, CNNs struggle to generalize these patterns effectively while still being robust against adversarial data, an issue which this research addresses with adversarial training. In this paper, three unique CNN architectures (a DBFS-MC-inspired baseline, MIRACLE, and PSP-CNN) are trained for binary classification with 15,000 benign and malicious software samples encoded into images for Android, Windows, and …

Keeping To The High Road: Avoiding The Ethical Pitfalls In Disseminating Your Research, Daniel T. Kulp

LEAP Conference Speaker Slides

No abstract provided.

Centering Ethics And Engineering In Research, Idalis Villanueva Alarcón

LEAP Conference Speaker Slides

No abstract provided.

Exploration Of A Relationship Between The Activities Of Trail And 4’-Trifluoromethoxychalcone., Abigail C. Ernst

Undergraduate Theses

Cancer is the overgrowth of dysregulated or mutated cells that affects 1 in 3 Americans. Chalcones are natural products with many possible derivatives, such as 4’-trifluromethoxychalcone (4TF), developed in Dr. Krzysiak’s lab, which exhibit anticancer activity against cancer cell lines. Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) is a tumor surveillance cytokine that acts on two receptor types: death receptors and decoy receptors. One way cancer cells can become resistant to TRAIL is by upregulating decoy receptors and/or downregulating death receptors. In this study, MTS assays evaluated the potential relationship between TRAIL and 4TF that sensitizes A549 cells to TRAIL. The …

Inside Looking Out The Joslyn Museum Geoportal Field Guide, Harmon D. Maher Jr.

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

Inside Looking Out: The Joslyn Museum Geoportal Field Guide presents the Joslyn Museum as a unique interdisciplinary space where art and geology intersect. The guide invites readers to explore the museum not only through its paintings but also through its architectural materials, treating both as “portals” into broader narratives of Earth’s history, landscapes, and human experience. Organized as a series of flexible “field sites,” the book examines artworks and building stones side by side, highlighting how geological processes—such as sedimentation, metamorphism, and erosion—inform both the physical structure of the museum and the imagery within its collections. By blending scientific inquiry …

How Far Is Too Far? Travel Planning Burdens In Autism Families, Risae Carlson, Daniel Olsen, Ruth Kerry

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This study examines how the burden of planning and risk management influences travel distance and destination choice among families with a child on the autism spectrum. Survey data from Utah-based parents indicate that higher planning burden is associated with a preference for familiar, closer-to-home destinations and shorter travel distances. Despite these constraints, families report that travel remains highly valuable for bonding, fostering a sense of normalcy, and supporting developmental growth.

2026 April 17 - From My Notepads Newsletter, Office Of The President, East Tennessee State University, Brian Noland

From My Notepads: A Newsletter from President Brian Noland

No abstract provided.

Consistent Gas-Phase Temperatures And Metallicities From Uv And Optical Nebular Emission, Erin Huntzinger, Yuguang Chen, Tucker Jones, Ryan Sanders, Peter Senchyna, Daniel Stark, Fabio Bresolin, Stephane Charlot, Jacopo Chevallard

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectra of star-forming galaxies are increasingly important as they become one of the primary windows to probe the physical properties of cosmic dawn (z > 8) galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope. However, the systematic discrepancies between UV and optical gas-phase metallicity measurements remain poorly understood in the local universe, partly due to challenges in achieving precise comparisons between UV and optical spectra for the same objects. In this work, we introduce a novel method that leverages the He II λ1640 and He II λ4686 nebular emission lines to achieve accurate aperture and reddening corrections between …

An Emerging Approach To Ibd Treatment: Personalized Nutrition Through Gut Microbiome Optimization., Kafayat Yusuf, Thomas M. Attard, Mazin Al-Kasspooles, Shahid Umar

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by relapsing and remitting disease activity. Despite decades of research, a definitive cure for IBD remains elusive, as cycles of remission and flare-ups mark the disease course and often relies on long-term pharmacologic and supportive strategies. Increasing evidence indicates that diet and nutrition play an important role in modulating the outcomes of IBD. Although a wide range of dietary interventions has been explored, no universally effective approach has been established. Investigations have also proven that different dietary interventions can significantly affect clinical outcomes by altering gut …

The Fungus Among Us: Latency, Reactivation, And The Expanding Clinical Spectrum Of Coccidioidomycosis, Sumeet Bhardwaj, Arushi Tewari, Rishima Tewari, Simona Kogan

Student Publications

Coccidioidomycosis is a serious fungal infection that can produce a wide range of clinical manifestations, from mild, self-limiting pulmonary disease to severe, disseminated infection that can involve nearly any organ system, including the skin. Coccidioidomycosis may also affect patients at the psychiatric level. Its clinical relevance has increased markedly in recent years, as incidence continues to climb, geographic distribution widens, and emerging presentations challenge traditional assumptions regarding fungal latency and host immunity. A notably important and developing area of study is the concept of late reactivation. A narrative review of the literature was conducted using PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar. …

Assessing Readiness, Perceptions, And Behaviors Of Midlife Adults To Adopt A Dietary Pattern Associated With Cognitive Benefits, Meghan E. Sullivan

Theses

Objective:  To explore the barriers and facilitators for following a brain-healthy dietary pattern by assessing readiness, cognitive dietary adherence, eating competence, quality of life, and health beliefs in midlife adults. Design: Quantitative cross-sectional online survey. Participants: Adults aged 30-60 years (N=189) recruited through social media, flyers, email, and text. Main outcome measures: Readiness to adopt a brain-healthy dietary pattern, eating competence, health beliefs, quality of life, and dietary adherence to a brain-healthy pattern such as the MIND diet. Analysis: Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, Chi-Square, and correlations were conducted to explore associations among readiness, eating competence, health beliefs, quality of life, and …