Digital Commons Network^™

Startup Accelerator Returns: J Curve Or L Curve? A Comparative Performance Analysis Between A Venture Accelerator And Early-Stage Venture Capital, Aleš Pustovrh

Economic and Business Review

This document analyses the profitability of investments in venture accelerators compared to early-stage venture capital funds. Using a case study of a single fund manager operating both investment types, it tracks the Total Value to Paid-In (TVPI) ratio over 6 years. The early-stage venture capital investments showed a positive trend, exceeding a TVPI of 1, indicating profitability driven by company survival rates, external funding attraction, and growth. Conversely, the accelerator investments underperformed, with a TVPI consistently below 1, suggesting a loss for investors. This raises questions about the long-term viability of the accelerator model, potentially resulting in an L curve …

Does The Organization–Employee Relationship Matter? Linking The Organization–Employee Relationship With Employee Well-Being And Performance, Deepti Pathak, Gaurav Joshi

Economic and Business Review

The study examines the relationship between the organization–employee relationship (OER), well-being, and work performance of remote workers who were mandated to work from home because of the uncertainties and health risks brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study focuses on the work performance of the employees contributed through positive psychological well-being and positive OERs. A comprehensive nationwide survey was undertaken, involving a sample size of 1289 full-time IT employees in India, with the objective of determining the impact of well-being on individual work performance. Results from the analyses indicate that though the employees with limited experience of work from …

Customer Prioritization: From Conceptualization To International Application, Maria Gracner, John William Cadogan, Gregor Pfajfar

Economic and Business Review

This study examines customer prioritization, a strategic practice where businesses allocate resources and efforts based on customer value. While its significance in international marketing continues to grow, limited research exists on how customer prioritization is understood and applied in international firms operating across diverse cultural contexts. Addressing this gap, the study explores how international-marketing managers conceptualize customer prioritization and identifies its key components. Using a qualitative methodology, the study conducted in-depth interviews with Slovene international-marketing and sales managers from 13 export-oriented firms. Thematic analysis, guided by the Gioia methodology, identified four central themes: prioritization tactics and strategies, international customer profitability, …

Comparison Of Two Injection Techniques On Pain Perception Among Adult Patients Receiving Intramuscular Injection: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Dr.Sindhu L, Dr. Bindu R. Nayar, Dr. Rajamohanan Pillai K

Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences

Introduction: The administration of intramuscular injection is a common procedure performed by nurses that causes pain to the patient. The way nurses administer injections is one of the factors associated with increased client discomfort. Aspiration has been ingrained in the intramuscular injection procedure, and even though many policies no longer endorse it, it is often frequently taught and used. Injections without aspiration are considered more comfortable for patients. Aspiration in the injection is a controversy concerning its perceived benefits and indications due to a paucity of available data, there is no evidence that this procedure is essential or truly …

Oms 4 Early List Of Papers, Tim Lenz

OMS Early List of Papers

The June 10th list for OMS 4, compiled by Tim Lenz.

Xmr: Extensible Model Representation, Jason Cisneros, Lucas Van Der Heijden

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

In safety critical industries, such as aerospace, verification and validation are crucial steps in system development. Validation begins with decomposing a system into its requirements. These requirements are used to create the high level model of the system. The low level system that is created from this must then be verified. Manually ensuring that the system being verified exactly matches the validated design is tedious, time consuming, and error prone. To solve this, we have created an open source tool that can automatically generate the code from UML models. This enables going from the high level model to the low …

High-Resolution Temperature Profiling In The Pi Chamber: Variability Of Statistical Properties Of Temperature Fluctuations, Robert Grosz, Kamal Kant Chandrakar, Raymond A. Shaw, Jesse C. Anderson, Will Cantrell, Szymon P. Malinowski

Michigan Tech Research Data

This study delves into the small-scale temperature structure inside the turbulent convection Pi Chamber under three temperature differences (10, 15, and 20 K) at Rayleigh number Ra ~ 10^9 and Prandtl number Pr = 0.7. We performed high-frequency measurements (2 kHz) with the UltraFast Thermometer (UFT) at selected points along the vertical axis. The miniaturized design of the sensor with a resistive platinum-coated tungsten wire, 2.5 μm thick and 3 mm long, mounted on a miniature wire probe, allowed for vertically undisturbed temperature
profiling through the chamber’s depth spanning from 8 cm above the bottom to 5 cm below the …

Navigating The Convergence Of Global Competitiveness And Sustainable Development: A Multi-Level Analysis, Arman Canatay, Leonel Prieto, Muhammad Ruhul Amin

Business Administration Faculty Research

Sustainable Development (SD) involves multiple factors and different perspectives that are critical to individuals, organizations, regions, countries, and the world. Even though relationships among Global Competitiveness, the Macroeconomic Environment, and SD dimensions, encompassing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are critical, for national and global policymaking, many of these relationships have not been studied systematically nor at different aggregation levels. Therefore, this study examines the relationships among the Global Competitiveness pillars (e.g., Institutions, Infrastructure, Education, Technology, Business Sophistication, and Innovation) and the Macroeconomic Environment and the SD dimensions (Social, Economic, and Environmental) using various models. Additionally, this study examined three country …

Medical Debt In The Mountain West, 2022, Kian Parikh, Lara Karaalp, Otoniel Ramos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet presents 2022 data on the prevalence of medical debt in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The Urban Institute report, “The Changing Medical Debt Landscape in the United States” includes data on medical debt estimates, hospital market concentration, as well as estimates of uninsured individuals, disabled adults, average household incomes, and racial compositions at the state and county level for the 50 states and Washington, DC. This fact sheet focuses on state-level differences on the prevalence of medical debt, as well as differences in the percentages of uninsured individuals and …

Notes On The Invariance Of Tautness Under Lie Sphere Transformations, Thomas E. Cecil

Mathematics and Computer Science Department Faculty Scholarship

An embedding ϕ : V → Sⁿ of a compact, connected manifold V into the unit sphere Sⁿ ⊂ Rⁿ⁺¹ is said to be taut, if every nondegenerate spherical distance function d_p, p ∈ Sⁿ, is a perfect Morse function on V , i.e., it has the minimum number of critical points on V required by the Morse inequalities. In these notes, we give an exposition of the proof of the invariance of tautness under Lie sphere transformations due to ´Alvarez Paiva. First we extend the definition of tautness of submanifolds of S …

Deepfake Detection, Timothy Tong, Abem Lucas

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

From elections, to wars, to people’s personal lives, deepfakes have become ever more present, blurring the distinction between reality and fiction. Many deep learning-based deepfake detection methods lack generalizability. They often overfit to deepfake generation techniques in their training distribution, and fail to detect deepfake generation techniques outside of their training distribution. One approach to solve the generalization problem has been to use Vision Language Models, such as the pretrained CLIP model, to extract features that generalize across different deepfake generation techniques, including diffusion and GAN images. However, most CLIP approaches only consider image level features for detection, such as …

St. Louis, Missouri’S Gayborhood And Washington, Dc’S Black Lives Matter Plaza: Revealing The Healing Potential Of Resistance Stories That Are Grounded In Place, Ryan R. Lindsay, Lotte I. Lent, Ackesha J. Patrick

Dissertations

Oppressed people resist, even when facing severe consequences for doing so. At the core of systemic oppression—genocide, slavery, racism, and sexism—is a drive to control and dehumanize. Resistance, however, can serve as a powerful act of rehumanization. From enslaved individuals fleeing plantations to LGBTQ+ individuals risking arrest to gather in mid-20th-century bars, resistance reclaims power and autonomy under oppressive regimes. This study applies South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) “four truths” framework—comprising forensic, personal, social, and healing truths—to the interpretation of contested heritage sites. We argue that sites commemorating resistance hold transformative potential for individual and community healing. Using …

Exploring Novel Methods For Real-Time Multi-Camera People Tracking In Machine Learning, Johan Kou, Connor Vallero

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Multi-camera people tracking is the process of tracking persons and their paths, continuously across different camera fields of view. It can help track suspects across large areas, and assist individuals in emergency situations. The current state-of-the-art (SOTA) method involves using geometric-consistent constraints, information on the appearance of subjects, and pose estimation for dealing with occlusion issues. This current SOTA works well, but is still lacking in its ability to handle occlusion and perform well in real-time applications on a network. With occlusion, the IDs assigned to persons can be accidentally swapped in high density areas, or places where there are …

Vintage Game Emulator, Andrew Katchour, Ashwin Raman

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This project explores the integration of artificial intelligence into retro-style arcade titles to enhance the gameplay, while still preserving the nostalgic aesthetic and overall mechanics of the titles. By using Pygame to explore clones of the existing video game titles, we modified the existing games to develop AI into the games using various AI algorithms. The system introduces adaptive enemy behavior that responds to the players actions and also introduces an additional player to some games that will play alongside the player as well. This helps to create a more engaging and unpredictable gaming experience. The AI logic is implemented …

An Ai-Driven Microfinance Platform To Enhance The Growth Of Small Businesses, Abdullah Naveed, Yunzhou Wang

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

Microfinance provides financial services to businesses which do not have access to regular banking institutions. There have been many digital applications developed to support microfinance schemes globally. However, the applications currently on the market do not yet fully leverage technology features, which are already being widely used in traditional banking. In conjunction with the Miller Center of Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University, we have developed an application utilizing the latest technologies to help small businesses and lenders in all stages of a microfinance project.

Variable Natural Language Translator For Video Games, Gabriel Bernini, Cole Propach

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

In the field of video games, developers work to immerse players in a variety of ways. In one genre of video games, 2D exploration, or Metroidvania as its colloquially known, developers try to immerse players by letting them explore large worlds with the hope to overcome isolation. Often these worlds are sparse or dead worlds where the player is alone, but by exploring more of the world familiarity with the space is achieved and this isolation can be overcome. We hope to innovate in this genre by utilizing a new way to simulate and overcome this isolation, through language learning. …

2025 Denominational Survey Results, Calvin University

CRCNA Denominational Survey Results

As part of the denominational ministry plan, Our Journey , the CRCNA has contracted with DataWise Consulting to administer an annual denominational survey. The results from the 2025 survey have now been compiled.

All CRC-affiliated adults and older youth are welcome to respond to this survey as they are led. However, in order to ensure a healthy number of responses to the survey each year, CRC leaders have randomly assigned every CRC church to one of five “cohorts.” Each cohort includes about 20 percent of all active congregations, and each congregation will be asked to engage in active recruitment of …

Food Environments And Mental Health: Analyzing The Impact Of Fast-Food Availability On U.S. Adults (2011-2016), Nicole Tenner

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between the availability of fast food in US territories and mental health outcomes. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, the study examines data from the 2011 and 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from the CDC, along with data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Environment Atlas. The analysis included a nationally representative sample of 351,823 participants across all 50 US states. Multiple regression models examined the association between fast food availability and two primary mental health outcomes: the number of self-reported poor mental health days and the likelihood of being diagnosed with a depressive …

A Year Of Designing And Revising Instruction With Chatgpt:​Leveraging Ai For Information Literacy Instruction Using The Parts Approach, Omer Farooq

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Neural Engineering In Action: Exploring Muscle Movement Through Data And Design, Dr. Ashwin Mohan, Dr. Sowmya Anjur, Mrs. Namrata Pandya, Matthew Stroud, Dr. David Bergin Emeritus, Dr. Satish Nair

2025

No abstract provided.

High-Salt Tumor Microenvironment: Not As Bad As It Sounds, Not As Good As It Seems, Umer Ali, Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi

Biology Faculty Research

Recent evidence suggests a high-sodium microenvironment in breast tumors. However, the exact role of this high-sodium microenvironment on tumorigenesis is unknown. Salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is a well-known inflammatory molecule playing a significant role in various chronic ailments like cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. Importantly, chronic inflammation is recognized as one of the major hallmarks of carcinogenesis. Breast cancer cell culture-based studies demonstrated that high-salt (HS) treatment (Δ35–50 mM NaCl) induced cancer cell proliferation. However, preclinical murine research showed reduced tumor progression kinetics in mice fed a short-term HS diet (4% NaCl diet, 0–2 weeks prior to the injection of tumor …

Asme, University Of Mississippi. American Society Of Mechanical Engineers. Student Chapter

University Website Migration from WordPress

No abstract provided.

Jean Prillman V. George Parsons

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Daniel Andrews,Sr. V. Pennsylvania Department Of Corrections

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Lindenwood Faculty Awards Recognize Connection And Academic Passion, Lindenwood University

Archived Lindenwood Press Releases

No abstract provided.

The Efficacy Of Open Educational Resources On Achievement Outcomes In Different Higher Education Institutions, Angela Grace Findlay

Theses and Dissertations

Students suffer from achievement gaps in higher education. Achievement gaps refer to differences in graduation rates, retention rates, persistence rates, and student's grades. Achievement gaps may negatively affect students who are culturally or ethnically diverse and/or have a lower socioeconomic status. The use of open educational resources (OER) may mitigate achievement gaps as OER assists student success through higher academic performance and cost savings for students. Average quiz scores were obtained at different higher education institutions using an Introduction to Psychology OER. The scores from each course were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Colleges were nested by demographics to evaluate …

Compliant Mechanisms For Scalable Systems And Precision Deployment, Jared Rodney Hunter

Theses and Dissertations

Compliant mechanisms offer advantages in precision applications where size, scaling, and environmental effects render traditional mechanisms inadequate or likely to fail. However, designing compliant mechanisms and integrating them into larger, more complex systems remains a challenging problem. This thesis presents work that addresses this issue with analytical models and experiments on flat springs, scalable compliant mechanisms, and origami arrays. Storing and releasing energy in tiny, flat compliant mechanisms opens the door for the design of innovative actuators and products in space-constrained situations. Scaling compliant mechanisms allows novel systems to be made that can operate across scales. By designing for scalability …

Leveraging Reddit In Academia, Katherine A. Laflamme

Librarian Publications

This study investigates how integrating Reddit into academic environments can enhance authentic learning experiences and strengthen information literacy skills. As a crowdsourced platform with diverse communities, Reddit provides access to a wide range of perspectives, hard-to-reach populations, and both qualitative and quantitative insights. While Reddit holds potential as a research tool, this article focuses on its application in supporting information literacy and authentic learning assignments. It examines the benefits and challenges of using Reddit in academic settings, highlighting practical applications such as project-based learning (PBL) and renewable assignments that cultivate critical thinking and collaborative learning. By incorporating Reddit into the …

June 2025 General Education Council Minutes, University Of Nebraska At Kearney General Education Council

General Education Council

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Walls Of The Classroom, Erik L. Ringsby

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"I would argue that we need to have more fun in today’s school, and if you think back to your most memorable school experiences, I suspect that you have a fun memory, too."

Posting about promoting student flourishing from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Beyond the Walls of the Classroom