Digital Commons Network^™

Photochemical And Electrochemical Assessment Of Uio-66-Nh₂/G-C₃N₄ Thin-Film Heterostructures As Potential Candidates For Hydrogen Evolution: An Experimental Study Augmented By Dft Insights, Nour Abouseada, Maryam Galal, Sameh O. Abdellatif, Khaled Kirah

Electrical Engineering

The global shift towards carbon-neutral energy systems has catalyzed an intensified focus on sustainable hydrogen production, with photo and electrochemical water splitting emerging as a particularly promising pathway. This study elucidates the design, simulation, and synthesis of advanced photo and electrocatalytic materials tailored for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), concentrating on heterostructures formed by zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)— specifically, UiO-66 and its amine-functionalized derivative, UiO-66-NH₂—in conjunction with graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄). Employing density functional theory (DFT) simulations, we pre-screened the electronic properties of the MOFs, revealing that amine functionalization significantly narrows the bandgap and optimizes band alignment, thereby enhancing photocatalytic …

Happiness, Trust, And Mental Fitness In The Workplace: Part Ii, Maureen L. Mackenzie-Ruppel Ph.D.

Business: Faculty Presentations

This paper is the second in a series of papers that will explore happiness in the workplace as a driver of performance. This research agenda was launched at the 2024 NBEA conference with a literature review revealing seven themes that collectively described and defined Workplace Happiness. With IRB approval, thirty-three seasoned professionals were invited to complete a structured questionnaire. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered and analyzed. Results revealed the interconnected nature of happiness with key workplace elements. The integration of Happiness within workplace processes, was found to be of critical importance. The nuanced interplay of happiness in the …

2025 November - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

Hi All,

The month of November 2025 averaged warmer than normal by 2-4°F across most of the state. The northeastern corner of TN was closer to average, with a few areas even slightly cooler than normal. Additionally, November was drier than normal for most areas, with the exception of a few parts of the Cumberland Plateau and in East TN where heavier bands of precipitation set up while most of the state recorded only light rainfall.

The main weather and climate story of November 2025 was the early taste of winter that impacted the state November 9-12, which also coincided …

Une Library Services Quarterly Report November 2025, Une Library Services

Quarterly Reports

Highlights of accomplishments of the University of New England's Library Services department.

Impact Of Lignin Content On Decomposition Rates, Lindsey Powell, Olivia Fawkes, Moses Elijah Cadawas, Isaac Paul Dent, Darlene Panvini

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

This study aimed to analyze decomposition rates of plants containing different amounts of lignin. Lignin can be found within cell wall structures in plants and aids in natural rigidity. Opuntia humifusa was chosen to represent plants with high levels of lignin, and Allium schoenoprasum was chosen in contrast because of its significantly lower levels of lignin. Due to these characteristics, A. schoenoprasum is hypothesized to decompose at a quicker rate than O. humifusa. To test this hypothesis, eight samples of O. humifusa and eight samples of A. schoenoprasum were placed in litter bags to prevent macroorganisms from aiding in …

Assessment Of Nature Based Solutions Through Soil Microbial Community Diversity Using Biolog Ecoplates™, Roma C. Brassell, Lili M. Wrenne, Darlene Panvini

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

Nature-based solutions (NBS) mimic the functions of natural environments to promote ecosystem services beneficial to society and biodiversity, which is especially crucial to urban environments. On a college campus in an urban landscape, how do NBSs affect soil microbial diversity? Three soil samples were collected from seven locations across Belmont University’s campus in Nashville, TN: a community garden, rose garden, indigenous-people’s garden, manufactured creek, two green roofs, and an alley-berm as the control. To characterize each site, the pH, nitrogen and phosphorus level, percent moisture, and soil type were determined. Plant diversity and percent coverage were assessed using a 1 …

An Update & Exploration Of The Herbarium At Belmont University, Corinne Parker, Darlene Panvini

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The Belmont University Herbarium is a collection of plant samples used to catalogue species for research and teaching. These specimens have been collected by Belmont students since 1973, helping to document the flora of Middle Tennessee. This semester the specimens have been organized, and identifications have been confirmed. An Excel spreadsheet was developed to record the specimens. This allowed for analyses of the 1,790 specimens by phylum and family. The updated organization of the herbarium and spreadsheet allows for faster specimen retrieval and identification of target species for future collection.

“The Role Of Machine Learning In Social Media Content Moderation”, Bethaney A. Mallory-Smothers

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

The majority of the world's over one billion active users depend on large-scale machine learning based social media platforms to personalize content through various methods of curation. Recommendation systems use many types of machine learning model including collaborative filtering, content-based filtering and deep learning to find what a specific user is likely to be interested in, and therefore increase user engagement. As beneficial as this is to the user experience, it has also generated a significant amount of concern about both bias in recommendations and the dissemination of false information on the web, as well as issues related to the …

Revisiting The Geneva Summit 40 Years Later:, Thomas Quinn Marabello, Jonah S. Schaller

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Forty years ago this month, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland. What became known as the “Geneva Summit” was an important Cold War meeting between the two superpowers that would reset and impact their relations to this day. The Geneva Summit, some would argue, was the beginning of the end of the Cold War, as both leaders began working towards arms reduction, peace, and cultural and educational exchanges between both countries. It is hard to believe that November 1985 was forty years ago. The world watched as the …

November 2025 Library & Learning Newsletter, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Library & Learning Dean’S Office Communications Team

Library & Learning Newsletters

PDF version of the November 2025 (Volume 4, Issue 4) Library & Learning Newsletter.

Internship, Practicum, And Capstone: A Guide For Health Sciences, Lisa Dunkley

Internship, Practicum, and Capstone: A Guide for Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Single-Fibril Förster Resonance Energy Transfer Imaging And Deep Learning Reveal Concentration Dependence Of Amyloid Β 42 Aggregation Pathways, Sara Sohail, J. Yoo, H. S. Chung

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Works

Amyloid fibril formation is a highly heterogeneous process as evidenced by polymorphism in fibril structure. It has been suggested that different polymorphs are associated with different diseases or disease subtypes. Detailed characterization of this heterogeneity is a key to understanding the aggregation mechanism and, possibly, the disease mechanism. In this work, we develop Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging of amyloid fibril formation in real time and investigate the concentration-dependent heterogeneous fibril formation of amyloid β 42 (Aβ42). We incubated a mixture of unlabeled and labeled (5% donor and 5% acceptor) Aβ42, followed aggregation, and characterized individual fibrils in terms …

Smart City Development, Orlando Woods, Liyana Doneva

Asian Management Insights

Why does it matter for Southeast Asia?

Bridging The (U)Rban And (I)Ndividual To Transform Cities, Lily Kong

Asian Management Insights

Urban transformation efforts are often focused on infrastructure and technology issues, overlooking how the individual experiences the city. An interview with SMU President Professor Lily Kong.

Modernizing Family Courts: How Technology-Driven Triage Improves Access To Justice For Self- Represented Litigants And Enhances Efficiency For Lawyers, Ayyoub Ajmi, Alicia Davis

Faculty Works

Family courts are overwhelmed by rising caseloads, increasing parental conflict, and limited judicial resources. With 80–90% of litigants self-represented (SRLs), case delays and inefficiencies affect all parties, including those with private counsel. High-conflict cases make up 10–30% of dockets, consuming judicial time and worsening outcomes for families, especially children. This article explores the Family Court Services Portal, a technology-driven triage tool designed to streamline family case processing, improve access to justice, and help courts allocate re- sources effectively. The portal integrates pre-screening triage automation, guiding parties through structured issue identification to support proportional judicial intervention and informed case management. Developed …

Fisheries Research Report No. 357: Recreational Fishing For Marron In South-West Western Australia In 2025 - Estimates Of Participation, Effort And Catch, Claire B. Smallwood, Karina L. Ryan, Eva Lai

Fisheries Research Reports

The smooth marron (Cherax cainii) (‘marron’) is endemic to freshwater dams and rivers of south-west Western Australia. Marron are managed as a single stock within the South-West Recreational Freshwater Resource and are highly vulnerable to over-exploitation due to the biological characteristics of the species (e.g., low fecundity, localised populations) as well as environmental (e.g., habitat loss, reduction in rainfall) and human (e.g., fishing, land clearing) pressures on freshwater ecosystems.

Due to this vulnerability, this species has been the focus of research, monitoring and management since the 1970’s. Since 2000, annual phone-recall (2000 – 2021) and online-recall (2022 – 2025) surveys …

Direct-In-Nod Genetic Ablation Of Bcl3 Leads To Complete Type 1 Diabetes Protection., Jeremy Racine, Jennifer R Dwyer, Harold D Chapman, Amy Bell, Raymond F. Robledo, David V. Serreze

Faculty Research 2025

It was previously reported that genetic ablation of the NF-κB atypical inhibitor Bcl3 through congenic introduction of a 129P2-embryo derived knockout allele (Bcl3tm1Ver) accelerated autoimmune diabetes in the NOD mouse model. Conversely, we found that direct CRISPR-mediated ablation of this gene in the NOD/ShiLtDvs substrain completely inhibited diabetes development. Our CRISPR approach excised exons 3-7 within the NOD Bcl3 gene. These new NOD-Bcl3-/- mice had very low levels of insulitis, indicating protective mechanisms elicited early in the disease process. Dissimilar to reports of Bcl3 ablation in nonautoimmune C57BL/6-background mice, we found that splenic and lymph node B cells were not …

From Human To Mouse And Back Again: Genetic And Genomic Ta(I)Les Of Islet Dysfunction In Type 2 Diabetes., Romy Kursawe, Khushdeep Bandesh, Sai Nivedita Krishnan, Kevin S Liu, Redwan M Bhuiyan, Michael L. Stitzel

Faculty Research 2025

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex genetic disease with substantial environmental inputs leading to glucose homeostasis defects. Insulin production is central to proper glucose control, and islet cell dysfunction and death lie at the nexus of T2D genetics and pathophysiology. Comprehensive identification of genes and pathways contributing to these processes is essential for mechanistic understanding and therapeutic targeting. Here, we summarize the latest human and mouse T2D genetic and genomic studies and assess how these parallel variant-to-function efforts and associated data contribute convergent or complementary insights and new opportunities to dissect T2D islet (dys)function. We distill mechanistic and phenotypic …

New Dentist News (November 2025), Ada Committee On The New Dentist

New Dentist News

New Dentist News offers timely information on scientific, social, educational, political and economic developments affecting new dentists. This collection is historical and items may not reflect current standards. For up-to-date information contact the ADA. The New Dentist News was alternately titled ADA Lifeline, 1997-June 2001.

Adaptation Of The Use Of The Makerspace Resources For The Improvement Of The Education System In East Africa, Mary Oluga, Jane Rarieya, Wachira Nicholas, Nyagwegwe Wango

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Adopting new teaching and learning methods to improve learning outcomes is a critical concern in contemporary education. In line with this, the Makerspace movement, accompanied by Design Thinking, is being ingrained into teacher education as a strategy to enhance the performance of teacher educators and the quality of pre-service teachers. Borrowing from constructivism theory, Makerspaces provide opportunities for tutors, student teachers, and school learners to develop artifacts that aid and demonstrate their learning. This paper examines how Makerspace materials might be incorporated into teacher education and school classrooms, emphasizing strategies, empirical findings, and actionable recommendations derived from a study across …

Analysis And Simulation Of The Effect Of Voids In Dually Reinforced Particle And Short Fiber Composites, Matthew Mckinley Luci

Graduate Theses - Mechanical Engineering

This thesis investigates dual-reinforced polymer composites tailored for flywheel energy storage, combining short, chopped carbon fibers for load bearing with iron particulates for multifunctionality. A unified experimental–computational workflow was developed: tensile coupons were fabricated and tested, machine compliance was quantified using neat resin and removed from all curves, and elastic moduli were extracted with robust MATLAB routines. Parallel finite-element models in ANSYS 2023R reproduced the dog-bone geometry with standardized meshing, named selections, and displacement-controlled loading. Four material states—neat resin, resin and iron, resin and short carbon fiber, and the iron and fiber hybrid— were evaluated. Results show carbon fibers dominate …

Is There An “I” In Team?: Racial And Gender Differences In Interdependent Teamwork, Lucy Z. Bencharit, Cade R. Creason, Julia Lee Cunningham, Isabella V. Gasparyan, Dia Dhariwal, Hazel R. Markus

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

The popular adage “There's no ‘I’ in team" aims to encourage Americans to place the team’s needs ahead of their individual goals, which research shows is essential to effective team functioning (Wageman et al., 2012). However, do Americans actually follow this recommendation in practice? Decades of research in cultural psychology has consistently shown that our cultural contexts (e.g., race, gender, and nation of origin) thoroughly influence the degree to which individuals hold independent (i.e., focus on one’s unique goals and preferences) and/or interdependent (i.e., focus on the needs of others and the environment) models of self and personhood (Markus & …

Himmelfarb Headlines - November/December 2025, The George Washington University, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Himmelfarb Headlines (2009 - present)

News, information, and resources relating to Himmelfarb Library that is of interest to patrons.

If You Love Something, Let It Go: Giving Up Government Mandated Online Age Restrictions In Favor Of § 230 Inspired Immunity, Cole Pedro

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Composition Pedagogy As Ai‑Native Coding: From Design Kit To Scholarly Framework, Daniel Plate, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article advances a field-ready framework that reconceives first-year composition as AI-native coding, translating a complete “design kit” into scholarly method, evaluative protocol, and curriculum architecture. Background: Contemporary composition pedagogy emphasizes process, genre awareness, and collaborative revision; meanwhile, modern software practice operationalizes iteration through version control, test-driven development, and continuous integration. The uploaded kit demonstrates that these cultures are isomorphic: writing stages align with SDLC phases, and automated pipelines can lint prose, execute argument “tests,” and publish artifacts with auditable histories. Approach: The study systematizes that kit into (1) a conceptual map that recasts authorship as orchestration and verification, (2) …

Reliability Of Vertical Jump Force-Time Metrics In Collegiate Athletes Compared To Recreationally Active Individuals, Dimitrije Cabarkapa, Robert Smith, Luke Chowning, Tyler Neltner, Quincy R. Johnson, Yang Yang, Thayne A. Munce

Faculty Scholarship

As neuromuscular performance assessment has become a fundamental component of athlete monitoring, ensuring strong measurement reliability is essential for supporting accurate data-driven decision-making. Thus, the purpose of this study was twofold: (i) to examine the reliability of countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) force-time metrics obtained using a portable force plate system (Hawkin Dynamics) and (ii) to determine whether absolute and relative reliability scores differ between well-trained individuals (i.e., athletes) and those less familiar with CMJ force-plate testing (i.e., non-athletes). Seventy-four participants volunteered to take part in this investigation, of whom thirty-nine were NCAA Division-I baseball and track-and-field athletes and thirty-five age-matched …

Perspectives On Firearm Storage Conversations: Summary Of Health Care Provider Interviews And Parent Focus Group, Rachel M. Gallo Mph

Publications

This report summarizes perspectives from Maine parents who own firearms and health care providers on safe firearm storage and related conversations in health care settings. Through interviews and a parent focus group, the project explored how firearms are stored, what influences storage decisions, and how families and providers feel about discussing firearm safety. Parents emphasized the importance of responsible ownership, education, and individualized storage solutions, while identifying cost as a key barrier to safer storage options. Many health care providers expressed interest in addressing firearm safety but cited limited time, lack of training, and concerns about patient trust as challenges. …

Chronic Pain And Subjective Memory Problems Are Dynamic Risk Factors For Functional Decline, Tyler R. Bell, Cynthia Felix, Nathalie Gider, George W. Rebok, Michael Crowe, Karlene Ball, Gail Wallace, Sheila Black, Kelsey R. Thomas, Katie M. Wheeler, Felix J. Kollasserry, Jeanine M. Parisi, Caitlin A. Northcutt

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Chronic pain is highly prevalent in older adults and is associated with elevated risk for disability and dementia. Subjective memory problems (SMPs) - self-rated memory difficulties - are also common and may serve as early indicators of functional decline. This study examined associations between SMPs and cognitive, physical, and psychosocial functioning among older adults with and without chronic pain. Data were drawn from 2365 participants in the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study. Multilevel models assessed the impact of baseline and time-varying SMPs on cognitive performance (memory, reasoning, processing speed), physical function (mobility, grip strength, self-rated …

A Novel Method For Examining Autistic Children’S Comprehension Of Individual Words Produced Within Delayed Echolalia: A Proof-Of-Concept Pilot Study, Janine Mathee-Scott, Grace Corrigan, Emily Lorang, Zachary Hesse, Jennifer Johnson, Courtney E. Venker

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

Delayed echolalia, or the repetition of previously heard speech, is often observed in the expressive language of autistic children. Relatively little is known about how the production of delayed echolalia fits within the overall picture of autistic children’s language ability, including receptive language. To date, no empirical studies have tested autistic children’s comprehension of individual words within their delayed echoes. The present study aimed to establish proof-of-concept for a novel method of examining children’s comprehension of individual words that they produce in their own delayed echoes. Using natural language sampling combined with parent report, we identified instances of delayed echolalia …

Sensory-Selective Peripheral And Neuraxial Nerve Blockade With 2',6'-Pipecoloxylidide, Claire A Ostertag-Hill, Shuanglong Chen, Tianrui Xue, Rachelle Shao, Matthew Torre, Bin Feng, Zahra Vahedi, Longtu Chen, Steven J Staffa, Yueqin Zheng, Daniel S Kohane

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Background: Safe sensory-selective local anesthetics would be a major advance in the management of acute and chronic pain. This articles describes the sensory-selective local anesthetic properties and the toxicity profile of a known metabolite of amino-amide local anesthetics, 2',6'-pipecoloxylidide (PPX).

Methods: PPX was synthesized and made into its hydrochloride salt. PPX or ropivacaine (ROP) were injected at the sciatic nerve or intrathecally in rats, who then underwent modified hotplate (sensory) testing and weight-bearing (motor) testing. Rats injected with PPX or ROP were assessed for clinical toxicity endpoints. Conduction blockade was studied with single-unit recordings in mice. Biocompatibility was assessed histologically. …