Digital Commons Network^™

Ontologies For Smart Agriculture: A Path Toward Explainable Ai-A Systematic Literature Review, Rima Grati, Najla Fattouch, Khouloud Boukadi

All Works

Smart agriculture has grown significantly over the last few years, particularly with the integration of advanced technologies (e.g., the Internet of Things, robots, artificial intelligence, etc.), leading to the development of intelligent agricultural systems. However, these systems often lack data integration, interoperability, and semantic explainability. Various approaches have been proposed to address these challenges. This study provides a comprehensive literature review that addresses, on the one hand, the use of semantic resources (e.g., semantic web technologies and ontologies) to tackle data integration and interoperability in smart agriculture systems and, on the other hand, the integration of explainable artificial intelligence into …

Note From The Editor, Jessica Barrio

The Agora

A note from the Editor-in-Chief, welcoming you to the third issue of The Agora

The Imperfect Soul, Jasmine Vaughn

The Agora

“The Imperfect Soul” is a personal painting of mine, it was born from an old argument I had with my family, where from their perspective appearance is everything, but for me, it is not. This acrylic painting reflects how imperfect we are as humans, which is okay. This can be seen in the same painting, how it looks “incomplete” in so many aspects, from the pencil lines from the original sketch or how it appears to be symmetrical, but it is not. I have never taken any painting class, every knowledge I have about acrylic painting is from the internet …

Temperance As The Key To Moral Balance — An Analysis Of Aristotle And Aquinas, Alexandra Dimauro

The Agora

Temperance is often misunderstood as simple self-denial or restraint, but it is a profound virtue that aligns desires with reason to foster moral balance and harmony. This paper explores temperance through the frameworks of Aristotle and Aquinas, arguing that it is essential for achieving a virtuous life. Aristotle’s concept of temperance as a mean between excess and deficiency emphasizes balance, while Aquinas builds on this by framing temperance as a causal virtue that actively integrates desires into rational and ethical goals. Through this integration, temperance transcends mere restraint, becoming a foundation for moral growth and self-realization. The historical roots of …

Hieronymus Bosch’S Purgatory In In Bruges, Yalet Yanar

The Agora

In this paper I analyze the critically acclaimed film _In Bruges_, directed by Martin McDonagh, arguing that the film transforms the town of Bruges into a narrative embodiment of the Purgatory depicted in Hieronymus Bosch’s medieval paintings. The Boschian transformation is achieved through the use of medieval symbolism, themes of sin, repentance, and the afterlife, as well as visual references to Bosch’s characters, scenes, and his Last Judgement triptych in Bruges.

Defined Places, Contested Memories: An Analysis Of Historical Memory In La Ascensión, Chihuahua, Mexico, Joel Gonzalez Parra

The Agora

La Ascensión, a town in Chihuahua, Mexico, was founded between 1871 and 1872 and represents a unique case of Mexican repatriation after the Mexican-American War. Its settlers underwent a double relocation, first from Doña Ana, New Mexico, in 1850 and again after the Mesilla Riot of 1871. While the Mexican government saw the town’s formation as a strategic emigration to modernize and defend the frontier, historical memory has largely overshadowed this foundational event, favoring the town’s role in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. This paper argues that broader historical narratives and political violence have obscured the town’s original settlers in …

The Overmedicalization Of The Female Orgasm And The Orgasm Gap, Mackenzie Dybvik

The Agora

This paper, as the title suggests, dives into the overmedicalization of the female orgasm, and subsequently, the orgasm gap. It touches on five commonly believed reasons for the orgasm gap– women’s orgasm difficulty, biology, men’s fault, interpersonal communication issues, and sociocultural influence– and it links all of them to overmedicalization. It describes overmedicalization as the actual issue that needs to be resolved, and thus proposes a solution of increased and more comprehensive sexual health. It argues that better sexual health will help tackle overmedicalization as both clinicians and citizens become more aware of how to fight overmedicalization. It concludes by …

Music Therapy's Application On Developmental Milestones Throughout Childhood And Adolescence, Paige Whisler, Sarah Daughtrey

The Agora

New Mexico State University’s Bachelor of Arts in Pre-Music Therapy is a relatively new degree, and awareness of music therapy's definition, applications, and profound impact remains limited for many. Music therapy is a clinical and evidence-based practice that can foster change and improvement for diverse needs and goals across all age groups. In particular, children and adolescents can benefit significantly from music therapy, as it supports developmental milestones crucial to their growth. Treatment plans build upon a clear understanding of milestones for effective interventions and tailor techniques and applications to age-appropriate expectations. Completed in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of …

Give Back To Birmingham And Volunteer For Uab Unite Day On May 10, Shannon Thomason

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Trenching And Compost Sustain Grain Yield Increases Over Nine Years On Deep Sands But At A Cost, David J.M. Hall, Tom J. Edwards

Grain and Other Field Crops Research Articles

Context. Crops grown on deep sands on the south coast of WA are limited by soil physical and chemical properties including compaction and poor nutrition. Aims. Crops grown on deep sands on the south coast of Western Australia are limited by soil physical and chemical properties including compaction and poor nutrition. Our aim was to determine what effects deep-placed organic amendments have on soil properties and crop production in a deep sand and whether such amendments are profitable. Methods. A long-term field trial was conducted over nine years (2015–2023) to investigate soil amendments including lime (0 and …

Automating Course Scheduling With Linear Programming And The Python Pulp Framework: First Steps, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article presents a pragmatic approach to automating course scheduling in an academic setting using linear programming.

We explore how linear optimization via current open-source tools can efficiently handle scheduling constraints such as instructor preferences, teaching loads, course section requirements, and specific time slots. Using Python’s PuLP library and matplotlib for visualization, we built a flexible and accessible scheduling system.

Our research prototype balances course assignments while addressing department-specific needs, demonstrating how linear programming can simplify academic scheduling and improve efficiency.

Although this is a research prototype, our results already demonstrate the ability to generate a correct course schedule that …

Teacher Perceptions Of Factors Contributing To Special Educator Teacher Attrition, Carlesha Shanita King Douglas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem investigated in this study was the high attrition rate for special education teachers. Attrition rates have been associated with a variety of adverse outcomes, including heavy workloads, behavior problems, reduced student achievement, and increased levels of stress. High attrition rates also create a financial burden on school districts. Using Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory as the conceptual framework, this qualitative study aimed to identify job-related factors that contribute to special education teachers leaving the profession. The research question guiding this study identified the factors that cause special education teachers to leave the profession. Data were collected by interviewing 12 current …

Leadership Strategies For Increasing Access To Care For Persons Suffering From Anxiety And Depression, Brandee L. Downes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leadership strategies and decisions can impact the accessibility of mental health services for those seeking services related to anxiety and depression. The impact of readiness of leadership through strategy, implementation, and decision-making was the focus of this study. When the preparedness of an organization is at its peak, it increases the utilization of mental health services among adults, children, and adolescents struggling with anxiety and depression. The problem addressed in this study was how leadership strategies within the behavioral health organization contributed to a lack of collaboration, outreach, and training due to the absence of strategic planning, implementation, and leadership. …

Socioeconomic Status, Parental Sex Education, And Race: Intersecting Influences On Adolescent Sexually Transmitted Infection Rates, Kiersten Hawkins-Moore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adolescents and young adults represent many of the new sexually transmitted infections diagnosed each year in the United States, with pronounced disparities among minority racial and ethnic groups. This study examined 3,480 participants aged 15-24 from the 2017-2019 National Survey on Family Growth to explore the influence of race and socioeconomic status (SES) on the likelihood and comprehensiveness of parental sex education before the age of 18, using the Intersectionality Theory and Social Determinants of Health as frameworks. Controlling for formal sex education, binary and multinomial logistic regression models demonstrated that formal sex education significantly increased the odds of adolescents …

Effective Followership And Successful Leadership In Small And Medium Enterprises In The Middle East, Kayan Alameh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Effective leadership has long been recognized as a critical factor in organizational success, yet the role of followership remains underexplored. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to examine the relationship between effective followership and successful leadership within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East. Followership theory, transformational leadership theory, and organizational culture theory grounded this study. The participants comprised 192 employees working in SMEs across the Middle East who completed the implicit followership theories scale developed by Thomas Sy to measure followership effectiveness. Leadership success was determined based on whether leaders achieved at least 80% of …

Risk Factors Of Self-Reported Prediabetes Status In New York State, Kari Ann Hunter Thompson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prediabetes affects over 4 million people in New York State and increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Prior research identified risk factors such as poor diet, inactivity, obesity, hypertension, and smoking; but no studies examined these collectively or assessed their interactions. This quantitative, cross-sectional study analyzed a sample of 289 non-institutionalized adults aged 18 or older with landline or cellular phone, from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The study examined relationships between prediabetes and 16 factors in five categories: demographic (age, race, sex, education), socioeconomic (income, employment), behavioral (fruit intake, vegetable intake, physical activity, smoking), physiological (hypertension, BMI), …

Complementary Self-Care Therapies To Self-Manage Endometriosis In Association With Health-Related Quality Of Life, Sarah Cummins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a lack of understanding within the psychological and medical communities on the extent to which endometriosis impacts the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people with endometriosis (PWE). This population is understudied in relation to the effects of endometriosis on HRQoL, the various methods used to treat and cope with endometriosis-related symptoms, the influence of self-managing endometriosis on PWE’s HRQoL, or the HRQoL outcomes associated with using nontraditional methods to self-manage endometriosis. As such, there is a lack of knowledge on the extent to which the use of various types of complementary self-care therapies to self-manage endometriosis is …

Executive Summary: Quality Improvement Initiative Retrospective Program Evaluation Of Sms Reminder System In Decreasing Outpatient Mental Health Clinic No-Show Rates, Jordan Rogers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This doctor of nursing practice (DNP) project presents an organizational quality improvement initiative implementing a text message reminder system to decrease appointment no-show rates in the outpatient mental health clinic. The project was developed based on the high rate of appointment no-shows at the DNP project site. Appointment no-shows are costly to both clinics and patients. Clinics experience decreased revenue and efficiency, and patient outcomes can be compromised. The project evaluated whether text message reminders sent 24 hours before a scheduled appointment time decreased no-show rates by at least 10%. Preimplementation data were collected for months October, November, and December, …

Building Capacity And Technical Skills For Effective Trail Management Through Local Practitioner Training In Nyc, Josh Otero, Gabriel Cummings

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

This is a case study of the Trail Improvement Techniques Training developed by the New York City Citywide Trail Program. This annual training is provided to partners across the city and includes in-field technical skills, identification of trail concerns, trail management best practices and reporting of trail activities. The case study includes the training’s target audience, lessons learned since 2019, professionalization through provision of credentials and a reflection on future growth opportunities.

Partnering For Pathogen Free Plants: Joining Forces To Keep Plants Healthy In The City Of Tacoma Plant Holding Facility, Elizabeth N. Matteri, Michael T. Yadrick Jr., Joseph M. Hulbert, Marianne Elliott, Lisa M. Kenny

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Partnerships between cities and universities can help overcome the challenges of producing healthy plants free of pests and pathogens for urban planting and restoration. In Tacoma, a partnership with researchers from Washington State University (WSU) helped the City of Tacoma implement best management practices in its plant holding facility (PHF). The PHF is a critical resource for improving open spaces, managing stormwater, and fostering community environmental stewardship throughout Tacoma and Pierce County. It supports urban forestry and natural area restoration by cultivating 8000 native plants and 1000 street trees for planting into restoration sites and neighborhood streets respectively. While many …

Samd9 Senses Cytosolic Double-Stranded Nucleic Acids In Epithelial And Mesenchymal Cells To Induce Antiviral Immunity, Gaopeng Hou, Wandy Beatty, Juhee Son, Yinxing Zhu, Qingyu Sheng, Wanyi Huang, Dian Li, Constin Liu, Chen Shen, L David Sibley, Siyuan Ding, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Sensing of cytosolic, double-stranded (ds) DNA or dsRNA molecules derived from microbial or endogenous sources triggers cell-intrinsic innate immunity, but sensors recognizing both cytosolic dsDNA and dsRNA are sparsely reported. Here we find that full-length human SAMD9 protein directly binds to synthetic or viral dsDNA or dsRNA. Overexpression of SAMD9 from various vertebrate species leads to robust production of interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines. By contrast, loss of endogenous SAMD9 impairs the interferon responses to cytosolic dsDNA and dsRNA stimulation in multiple cell types and enhances the infectivity of pathogenic dsDNA and dsRNA viruses. Mice lacking Samd9l, the human SAMD9 homolog, …

Disuse-Driven Plasticity In The Human Thalamus And Putamen, Roselyne J Chauvin, Dillan J Newbold, Ashley N Nielsen, Ryland L Miller, Samuel R Krimmel, Athanasia Metoki, Anxu Wang, Andrew N Van, David F Montez, Scott Marek, Vahdeta Suljic, Noah J Baden, Nadeshka Ramirez-Perez, Kristen M Scheidter, Julia S Monk, Forrest I Whiting, Babatunde Adeyemo, Jarod L Roland, Abraham Z Snyder, Benjamin P Kay, Marcus E Raichle, Timothy O Laumann, Evan M Gordon, Nico U F Dosenbach

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Subcortical plasticity has mainly been studied using invasive electrophysiology in animals. Here, we leverage precision functional mapping (PFM) to study motor plasticity in the human subcortex during 2 weeks of upper-extremity immobilization with daily resting-state and motor task fMRI. We found previously that, in the cortex, limb disuse drastically impacts disused primary motor cortex functional connectivity (FC) and is associated with spontaneous fMRI pulses. It remains unknown whether disuse-driven plasticity pulses and FC changes are cortex specific or whether they could also affect movement-critical nodes in the thalamus and striatum. Tailored analysis methods now show spontaneous disuse pulses and FC …

Empowering Youth And Transforming Lives: Evaluating Pathfinders Impact On Milwaukee’S Youth, Kalifa Wright, Deshanda Clark, Liz Smulian, Lawrence Moore

All Other Contributions

No abstract provided.

Improving Continuity Of Care: Social Determinants Of Health In Hospital Discharges, Kenyana Tyiska, Margie Dunn, Beth Thorson, Kjersti Knox

All Other Contributions

No abstract provided.

Sars-Cov-2 N Protein And Anti-Spike Serologies: Insights Into Covid-19 Disease Severity And Mortality-A Secondary Analysis Of The Activ-1 Trial, Alfredo J Mena Lora, Kimi Enders, Huimin Wu, Luis Parra-Rodriguez, Christopher Palma, Katy Saliba, Sylvain Laverdurre, P Brian Smith, Kevin J Anstrom, Samuel A Bozzette, William G Powderly

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Understanding factors that predict progression to severe COVID-19 is critical. Antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein confer protection, while the N protein of SARS-CoV-2 plays roles in viral replication and immune dysfunction. This study explores the significance of N protein and anti-spike antibodies on disease severity, progression, and mortality.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 N protein and anti-spike antibody levels with disease severity, clinical outcomes, and mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

DESIGN: A secondary analysis of serologic data from participants in the ACTIV-1 randomized clinical trial, which evaluated immunomodulators for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. …

Aurora Family Medicine Satellite Clinic At The Coa Goldin Center, Kunal Sondhi, Anne Getzin, Rachel Castillo, Samantha Busch, Kjersti Knox, Tevine Brown, Lorenzya Polnitz

All Other Contributions

No abstract provided.

Population Health Hot Spotting At Aurora St. Luke's Family Practice Center, Tien Vo, Glenda Sundberg, Stephenie Quirke, Morgan Erickson, Catherine De Grandville, Will Lehmann

All Other Contributions

No abstract provided.

Inpatient Length Of Stay And Mortality Prediction Utilizing Clinical Time Series Data, Junde Chen, Mason Li, Miles Milosevich, Tiffany Le, Andrew Bahsoun, Yuxin Wen

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Electronic Health Records (EHRs), which include demographic information, clinical notes, vital signs, laboratory test results, and others, provide rich information for clinical outcome prediction. In this work, we propose a novel attention embedded residual long short-term memory (LSTM) fully Convolutional Network (FCN) to perform the clinical predictions of inpatients’ length of stay (LoS) and mortality. The proposed model is uniquely composed of a convolutional neural network (CNN) layer, three residual blocks, an LSTM unit, an FCN module, and a self-attention module. This innovative architecture allows for comprehensive feature extraction, where the CNN and residual blocks enhance clinical data features, the …

Enhancing Holistic Patient Care Of Black Individuals Diagnosed With Hiv And Comorbid Chronic Conditions, Marc Fleming, Saharnaz Nejdat, Jon C. Schommer, Crystal K. Hodge

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Pharmacists can play a crucial role in delivering the holistic care model. Research suggests that HIV-positive African American patients particularly benefit from this approach compared to other communities. Typically, pharmacists in community pharmacy settings are limited in their access to a patient's medical record, preventing holistic care delivery.

Objectives

This study addressed the impact of access to medical records on a holistic patient care approach among pharmacists engaged in medication therapy management.

Methods

This was a sub-analysis of a randomized controlled trial of the impact of community pharmacist access to medical records during MTM for African Americans diagnosed with …

The Havcr1-Centric Host Factor Network Drives Zika Virus Vertical Transmission, Wenzhe Yu, Jun Tao, Hongmin Cao, Wanshan Zheng, Beiang Zhang, Yue Zhang, Peiqun Xu, Yiwei Zhang, Xuan Liu, Yinan Wang, Han Cai, Gang Liu, Fan Liu, Haibin Wang, Haiyan Zhao, Indira U Mysorekar, Xiaoqian Hu, Bin Cao

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) vertical transmission results in devastating congenital malformations and pregnancy complications; however, the specific receptor and host factors facilitating ZIKV maternal-fetal transmission remain elusive. Here, we employ a genome-wide CRISPR screening and identify multiple placenta-intrinsic factors modulating ZIKV infection. Our study unveils that hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 1 (HAVCR1) serves as a primary receptor governing ZIKV entry in placental trophoblasts. The GATA3-HAVCR1 axis regulates heterogeneous cell tropism in the placenta. Notably, placenta-specific Havcr1 deletion in mice significantly impairs ZIKV transplacental transmission and associated adverse pregnancy outcomes. Mechanistically, the immunoglobulin variable-like domain of HAVCR1 binds to ZIKV via …