Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Polarization-Based Optical Communications Ground Station For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Leah Vashevko, Mason Mccormack, Rodrigo Spinola E Castro, Ashley Ashiku, Joshua Johnson, Elizabeth Rosario, Kevin Zamudio, Sasha Malysheva, Nusret Efe Ucer, Qihong Wu, Sofia Mansilla, Seth Knights, Logan Hanssler, Mohammad Hassan, Sofia Cavallione, Nguyen Do, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

The Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) is the University of Chicago’s student-led mission to demonstrate an optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK). PULSE-A comprises a 3U CubeSat bus carrying a < 1.5U optical transmission terminal and a dual optical-RF ground station. The ground station (GS) system consists of the optical ground station (OGS) and the RF ground station (RFGS). The RFGS is responsible for standard communications and control tasks, while the experimental OGS receives the optical transmission from the satellite’s payload.

To perform satellite-to-ground optical communications, the OGS needs to track, receive, and decode the transmitted signal while providing its own beacon, which allows the satellite to track the OGS. These requirements are accomplished by four assemblies within the OGS: tracking, polarization state preparation, signal decoding, and beacon. The tracking assembly collects, condenses, and collimates incoming laser light from the …

Development Of An Open-Source Spacecraft Bus For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Graydon Schulze-Kalt, Robert Pitu, Spencer Shelton, Catherine Todd, Zane Ebel, Ian Goldberg, Leon Gold, Henry Czarnecki, Mason Mccormack, Larry Li, Zumi Riekse, Brian Yu, Akash Piya, Vidya Suri, Dylan Hu, Colleen Kim, John Baird, Seth Knights, Logan Hanssler, Tian Zhong, Michael F. Lembeck

Small Satellite Conference

The undergraduate-led Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) at the University of Chicago seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of circular polarization shift keyed satellite-to-ground laser communication. Free-space optical communications offer significantly improved data rates and lower power requirements than radio frequency communications for a similar form factor, which makes optical communications of particular interest for future satellite missions as on-orbit data collection rates increase. PULSE-A’s low-cost open-source bus serves as the backbone of the mission and has been designed in tandem with the Payload, with design driven by strict requirements for pointing accuracy, component alignment, power demand, and thermal stability. This …

Development Of Itasat-2 Cubesat's Primary Structure With Ait-Oriented Design Now, Denis Guilgim Vieira, Lídia Shibuya Sato, Renan Guilherme Soares Meneses, Felipe Oliveira Tavares, Uziel Parada Nunes, Pedro Henrique Dos Santos Alves, Douglas Luan Cardoso Arena, Isabela Dos Santos Pereira, Luis Eduardo V. Loures Da Costa

Small Satellite Conference

The ITASAT2 mission is a key advancement in CubeSat technology, building upon the progressive development of small satellite missions at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA). As a continuation of the ITASAT and SPORT missions, ITASAT2 consists of three 16U CubeSats in a formation flight, designed to investigate critical space weather phenomena and perform technological demonstration of geolocation and formation flight. In addition to its scientific contributions and technological demonstration, the mission incorporates technological advancements to improve CubeSat design and integration processes. The ITASAT2 project is part of the progressive evolution of CubeSat missions at ITA, simultaneously addressing space weather …

Development Of Mechanical Ground Support Equipment For Small Satellite Thermal Vacuum Testing, Vincent Côté-Larouche

Small Satellite Conference

Small satellite thermal vacuum tests involve securely mounting a spacecraft in a chamber, providing a representative thermal environment in the absence of convection. This study investigates the design of mechanical ground support equipment for supporting a range of spacecraft masses, from cubesats to ESPA-Grande class satellites of up to 500 kg, inside an existing thermal vacuum chamber. A system of four pieces of equipment is proposed to facilitate thermal vacuum testing, while keeping in mind various considerations such as the laboratory cleanroom environment, available floor space, the load capacity of the chamber rails, the thermal vacuum environment and the human …

Neoseeker To Investigate Earth’S Neighbors, Ryan Holton, Harrison Auerbach, Anthony Stan, Kevin L. Simmons

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Robot Swarm: A Test Platform For Spacecraft Formations, Colbren Fujimoto, Scott Ginoza, Yosef Ben Gershom

Small Satellite Conference

Satellite swarms are transforming space exploration by enabling cost-effective missions and distributed onboard intelligence. Precise formation control is critical for optimized data collection, collaborative sensing, and collision avoidance. NASA’s Starling mission demonstrates how scalable, autonomous swarms enable satellites to operate as a coordinated network in low Earth orbit [1]. This research project offers a practical, cost-effective platform for testing agile swarm formation control using physical robots, enabling testing and validation of formation control algorithms and evaluating their effectiveness. This project tests Interstel’s iCOSMOS-Swarm, a software platform designed for autonomous coordination of unmanned vehicle swarms. The formation includes four robots to …

Spacenet Testbed – Small Satellite Constellation Network Emulation Of Real-World Scenarios, Suryansh Aryan, Jack Downs, Alexander Kedrowitsch, Josh Smith, Alexa Houck, Samantha P. Kenyon

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

An Open-Source, Hybrid Communication System Twin And Tool For Cubesat Applications, Julian B. Birk, Spyridon Daskalakis, Haijun Fan, George Goussetis

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a digital replica of a satellite communication system. To correctly depict end-to-end connectivity, a rudimentary flight software package around an imaging payload is built using NASA JPL’s F Prime framework. For radio communication, a custom implementation of the AX.25 protocol is built in Python and implemented into a GNU Radio block. In GNU Radio, an appropriate signal processing chain for up and downlink is set up. The resulting flow graph can be used fully digitally, for simulation or be connected to software defined radios for true, over-the-air communication. The Python implementation performs sufficiently well for a low …

Automated Pointing Budget And Reaction Wheel Sizing Tool For Cubesat Attitude Control With Iterative Sensitivity Analysis, Logan Thompson, Matthew Devor, Michael Harrigan, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

Reaction wheels are a widely used solution for CubeSat attitude control, offering precise pointing capabilities without the need for a propulsion system. However, sizing reaction wheels correctly is a persistent challenge due to the difficulty of accurately defining the pointing budget, which determines the required torque and momentum storage capacity. Designers must account for mission-specific constraints, spacecraft mass properties, and environmental disturbances, all of which introduce uncertainty into the sizing process. As a result, reaction wheels are often either oversized, leading to unnecessary mass and power consumption, or undersized, risking performance failures such as saturation. To address this challenge, a …

Conceptual Design Of A Low Orbit Dust Detector Powder, Matheus De Carvalho Abelha, Felipe Oliveira Tavares, Marco Antonio Ridenti, Luís Eduardo Vergueiro Loures Da Costa

Small Satellite Conference

The Pulse Observation OWing to Dust impact ExpeRiment (POWDER) instrument is a conceptual lunar orbital dust detector designed to measure and analyze dust impacts at a lunar polar orbit. POWDER operates by detecting electric charges generated during dust collisions on a designated collector surface. This study is focused on analyzing the design feasibility for a collecting surface plate, in terms of generated voltage signal from dust impact in comparison to the base ambient noise level. The low amplitude of the voltage signal presents significant challenges, as measuring such a faint signal requires …

Cots Implementation Of Magnetorquer-Only Cubesat Spin Stabilization, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Deemo Chen, Om Deshmukh, Haonan Gong, Nicholas Natsoulas, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the implementation of CubeSat attitude control algorithms on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware. Cornell’s Alpha CubeSat seeks to spin-stabilize using only magnetorquer outputs and IMU inputs. Extensive software development and testing is carried out to overcome these hardware limitations. This paper shares tools, techniques, and niche considerations when bringing the control algorithm from simulation to hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing with embedded flight software. In-depth approaches for magnetometer filtering are discussed, along with software implementation decisions for safe mission operations.

Cubesat Dr3am: A 4u Demonstrative Robust 3d Additive Manufacturing System, Spencer Stowell, Casey Gooch, Taylor Anderton

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Developing A Full System Thermal Analysis Of A Cubesat To Design A Low-Cost Battery Heater System, Owen Nesbit, Sydney Whilden, Deepak R. Mishra

Small Satellite Conference

The Mission for Education and Multimedia Engagement Satellite (MEMESat-1) is a low-budget 2U CubeSat under development by the University of Georgia Small Satellite Research Laboratory. Once launched into LEO, the CubeSat will serve as an FM repeater for the Ham Radio community and will uplink and downlink donor-submitted images.

To verify that all MemeSAT-1 electrical components remain within their operational temperature limits throughout its lifetime, a system-level thermal analysis is performed using C&R Technology’s Thermal Desktop. This software allows for the satellite to be subjected to LEO temperatures and solar radiation, accurately simulating the amount …

The Wealth Of Nations V.2, Adam Smith

Hannah Arendt Marginalia - All

London: Dent; New York: Dutton, 1950, 1910

Contains marginalia, underlining and marginal lining.

Call #: HB161 .S64 1950

PDF Information: 18 pages – 13.3mb

Letters To Soviet Leaders, Alexandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

Hannah Arendt Marginalia - All

New York, Harper & Row, 1974

Call #: DK274.3 .S6413 1974

Contains light marginalia, underlining and marginal lining

PDF Information: 18 pages – 6.3mb

Enhanced Navigation Using Wireless Beacons In Infrastructure, Qi Jiang, Danqing Fu

Defensive Publications Series

To address the limitations of conventional navigation systems in dynamic environments, this disclosure presents a system for improving location accuracy and providing real-time data to users. This disclosure describes equipping public infrastructure, such as traffic lights, pedestrian crosswalks, railroad crossings, and other roadside units (RSUs), with low-cost wireless beacons or local transmitters (e.g., Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband, RFID, etc.). These transmitters continuously broadcast or advertise valuable information, like traffic signal timing, status updates, or precise location data. A user's computing device—which could be a smartphone, wearable, or an in-vehicle system within a connected or autonomous vehicle—may then receive these signals as it …

Custom Scan Stitch Techniques To Reduce Scan Wire Length And Test Cost, Vevekanenda Gonugunta, Rathina Vel S, Sagar Patel

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to reduce scan wire length and test cost when performing a scan stitch for complex circuit designs. Per techniques of this disclosure, design compressor-decompressors (Codecs) are utilized for inter-scan and intra-scan partitions to tackle the problem of inter-scan path distance. In a first method, additional embedded deterministic tests (EDTs) and Codecs are inserted into the design and logical scan partitioning is performed to reduce overall scan wire length. In a second method, a logical scan partition mesh is generated for the design without any additional EDTs, based on which DFT partitions are created. These are then …

May Thurner Syndrome: Can We Stent It And Forget It ?, Sahej Arora, Asmaa Ahmed, Hafsa Jawaid, Aakriti Jain, Stephen Silver

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Background: May-Thurner Syndrome (MTS) is a cause of venous obstruction and acute Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in young females, due to extrinsic venous compression of left ilio-caval venous territory. It generally presents with unilateral lower limb swelling and DVT and long-term management requires endovascular stenting with anticoagulation. Little data is available on long term post-interventional outcomes. Case: A 73-year-old female with MTS, who underwent endovascular stenting of left external and common iliac vein 11 months ago, presented with recurrent symptoms. She had completed almost a year of oral anticoagulation with Eliquis approximately 45 days before presentation. She was found to …

Integrating Clinical History, Imaging, And Serologic Testing For The Accurate Diagnosis Of Neurocysticercosis: A Case Report, Jedediah Bondy, Paul Dobria, Dillon Woody, Bryan Scott

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Neurocysticercosis is a parasitic infection caused by the cestode Taenia solium, in which pigs serve as the definitive hosts. Humans can become accidental intermediate hosts through the ingestion of food contaminated with Taenia solium eggs via fecal-oral transmission. Once ingested, the eggs of Taenia solium hatch into larvae, which then migrate through the bloodstream and disseminate across various organs, including the central nervous system (CNS). In this case, a 40-year-old male from Mexico with a known history of seizure disorder presented to the emergency department with altered mental status. He had been told by a physician in his native …

Can Implementation Strategies Diminish Infection Prevention Barriers And Reduce Cardiac Surgical Site Infections, Jennifer West, Jennifer Gutowski, Jarvis Mcgrath, Kristen Paliani, Emil P. Lesho

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Background:

Surgical site infections (SSI) can affect up to 26.8% of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). In New York State (NYS), hospitals are evaluated by comparing their risk-adjusted CABG SSI rates to the NYS average rate. In 2021, our facility’s rate was significantly higher than the NYS average at 3.40 and 1.51, respectively. We sought to reduce infection rates using a multidisciplinary Implementation Science (IS) approach across the continuum of care.

Methods:

Standardized definitions from the National Healthcare Safety Network were utilized in a 24-month before and after study at a 528-bed hospital that averages 468 CABG/year. In …

Harmony In Motion: An Adaptive Dance Program For Enhancing Motor Skills And Social Engagement In Children With Down Syndrome, Diamond D. Sampson, Mary Jan Greer, Jennifer Johnson

Summer 2025 OTD Capstone Symposium

Harmony in Motion is an occupational therapy–inspired adaptive dance program designed to create inclusive, sensory-friendly ballet experiences for children with disabilities, including those with Down syndrome. Through tailored movement activities, environmental modifications, and the use of adaptive props, the program promotes participation, social connection, and self-expression.

In Memoriam: Perry Yaney, Professor Emeritus Of Physics, Dave Larsen

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

Respected for "his dedication for and impact on optics research and education, and scientific outreach," Perry Yaney continued to advise and mentor graduate students after his retirement in 2004.

Clinical And Demographic Predictors Of The Need For Pharmacotherapy In Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, Shawana Bibi, Rachana Singh, Janis L. Breeze, Jason Nelson, Walter K. Kraft, Jonathan M. Davis

Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: Development and validation of a clinical prediction model for receipt of pharmacotherapy for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS).

STUDY DESIGN: Data from three cohorts included

RESULTS: Of 698 infants included, 430 received pharmacotherapy. The final model included seven predictors of receipt of pharmacotherapy: gestational age, exposure to maternal breast milk, type of maternal opioid medication, and exposure to heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and/or antipsychotic medications. The model had an AUROC of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.64-0.72; optimism corrected 0.65).

CONCLUSION: Our prediction model was parsimonious and identified seven predictors associated with the need for PT. Larger cohort studies are needed to more …

Usa V. Torey Dobbin

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Circadian Influences On Glycemic Control In 24-Hr Fasts Initiated At Different Mealtimes, Elizabeth Z. Gipson

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated whether the timing of a 24-hour fast influences indicators of glycemic control throughout the duration of the fast or upon refeeding. Twenty-four adults who have overweight or obesity (13 female, 11 male) completed this randomized crossover study involving three 24-hour fasts initiated at either 8:00 am, 1:00 pm, or 6:00 pm followed by a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) which lasted 2 hours. Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) were employed to track interstitial glucose throughout each fast and OGTT. Plasma samples for insulin, glucagon, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) were collected at the …

From Legal Grey Area To Legal Recognition: Recent Legislative Reforms Regarding Sex Work Under Employment Contracts In Belgium, Ninon Ramlot

Dispatches

ON 1ST DECEMBER 2024, the Law of 3 May 2024 portant des dispositions en matière du travail du sexe sous contrat de travail [laying down provisions on sex work under an employment contract] entered into force in Belgium.1 This piece of legislation establishes a strict legal framework for an employer to lawfully employ sex workers, without this being condemned under the criminal offence of procuring, as well as creating an employee status tailored to sex workers. This Act is another building block in the broader process undertaken over the last few years to resolve the legal inconsistency surrounding sex work …

China’S Reform On Gradual Delay Of The Retirement Age, Zhenxing Ke

Dispatches

APPROXIMATELY A DECADE AGO, China began considering postponing the retirement age, and this concept has now been officially implemented. On 13 September 2024, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the “Decision on the Implementation of Gradual Delay of the Retirement Age, 关于实施渐进式延迟法定退休年龄的决定,” (the “Decision on Retirement Age”). Concurrently, the State Council issued the “Measures to Gradually Delay of Statutory Retirement Age,” 关于渐进式延迟法定退休年龄 的办法, (the “Measures on Retirement Age”) providing detailed provisions. This marks the first instance of China raising its retirement age in several decades. Prior to this reform, the retirement age in China was 50 years …

Land8fire: A Complete Study On Wildfire Segmentation Through Comprehensive Review, Human-Annotated Multispectral Dataset, And Extensive Benchmarking, Anh Tran, Minh Tran, Esteban Marti, Jackson Cothren, Chase Rainwater, Sandra Eksioglu, Ngan Le

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Early and accurate wildfire detection is critical for minimizing environmental damage and ensuring a timely response. However, existing satellite-based wildfire datasets suffer from limitations such as coarse ground truth, poor spectral coverage, and class imbalance, which hinder progress in developing robust segmentation models. In this paper, we introduce Land8Fire, a new large-scale wildfire segmentation dataset composed of over 20,000 multispectral image patches derived from Landsat 8 and manually annotated for high-quality fire masks. Building on the ActiveFire dataset, Land8Fire improves ground truth reliability and offers predefined splits for consistent benchmarking. We evaluate a range of state-of-the-art convolutional and transformer-based models, …

Growth Of Cylindrical Micelles And Their Use To Prepare Porous Materials With Tailored Dimensions And Alignment, Mengxue Zhang, Xiaomeng Li, Chuanbing Tang, Morgan Stefik

Faculty Publications

Materials with cylindrical pores are optimal for electrochemical devices and filtration due to their straight paths with minimal tortuosity when aligned. Polymer templates have led to many individual cylindrical architectures however the independent tailoring of pore and wall dimensions has remained elusive. Here short cylindrical micelle templates (PEO-b-PS) with glassy cores enabled the fabrication of sample series with constant cylindrical pore diameter (∼63 nm) and tailored wall thickness (TiO₂, ∼45–100 nm). This ShortCyl series (aspect ratio 4.25) had modest alignment that was attributed to the low free-energy cost for misalignment. Though the plasticized micelles (DCM present) …

Changes In Mental Health Care Utilisation Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic Among People Living With Hiv In The Usa: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using The All Of Us Dataset, Atena Pasha, Shan Qiao, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Ruilie Cai, Buwei He, Xueying Yang, Chen Liang Ph.D., Sharon Weissman, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction Despite the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with HIV (PLWH) mental health, large-scale, real-world data on mental healthcare utilisation and associated factors among PLWH remain limited. This study explores mental healthcare utilisation and associated factors among PLWH during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods Using a retrospective cohort design, we identified and included 4575 PLWH through computational phenotyping based on relevant Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model concept sets from the All of Us programme between March 2018 and March 2022. Mental healthcare utilisation was measured using the yearly count of mental healthcare visits and compared …