Digital Commons Network^™

Envelope Marked Official Business

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Envelope addressed to [Gen. Senior Cameron], Secretary of War, labelled with Official Business and Last Orders to Col. Belton

Letter To Francis S. Belton From The Adjutant General's Office

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Letter from L. Thomas of the Adjutant General's Office ordering Francis S. Belton to be examined for disability

Widow's Claim Of Harriet Kirby Belton, John Palmer Usher, Joseph Banett

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Widow's Claim of Harriet Kirby Belton giving her a government pension, signed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher and Commissioner of Pensions Joseph Banett

Letter To Harriet Kirby Belton

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Letter to Harriet Kirby Belton from [E. H. L.] regarding Francis S. Belton

Letter From Leonard C. Mcphail, Leonard C. Mcphail

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Copy of letter from Leonard C. McPhail certifying as attending physician that Francis S. Belton died in service of his country

Letter To Harriet Kirby Belton

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Letter to Harriet Kirby Belton from [Martin Burhn]

Letter To Harriet Kirby Belton, Harriet Kirby Belton

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Letter to Harriet Kirby Belton from [Benjamin F. Laued]

Letter To Harriet Kirby Belton From The Office Of The U.S. Surgeon General

Colonel Francis S. Belton Mexican War Letters

Letter to Harriet Kirby Belton from the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General

List Of Published Articles, Volumes One - Seventeen

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Female Pelvic Dimensions, Birth Weight, And Number Of Live Births, Allison P. Sears

McNair Scholars Research Journal

This study investigates the relationship between birth weight, female pelvic dimensions, and number of live births. Pelvic inlet and outlet dimensions were recorded using three dimensional models from a sample of 30 females from the New Mexico Decedent Image Database (NMDID). By taking an approach closely informed by pre-existing anthropological and obstetrical literature, this study examines the potential relationship between female individuals’ birth weight and reproductive characteristics in adulthood, as well as the influence of these variables on the number of live births these females delivered during the course of their lives. The results suggest that there is a weak …

The Mediating Role Of Emotion Regulation Between Parent-Child-Relationship Quality And Psychological Health Of Adolescent Girls, Ethan M. Rick

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in adolescent psychological health and is influenced by the quality of parent-child relationships. Prior research suggests that supportive relationships foster adaptive emotion regulation, while conflict-ridden relationships contribute to emotion regulation difficulties, leading to negative psychological outcomes. This study examines the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the association between mother-daughter relationship quality and adolescent psychological maladjustment, including anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. A sample of 106 adolescent girls (ages 11–21) in the United States completed self-report measures assessing relationship closeness and discord, emotion regulation difficulties, and psychological distress. Results indicated that relationship discord …

Zero-Tolerance Discipline In American Schools: Racial Injustice In The Age Of Youth Disposability, Trinity J. Perkins

McNair Scholars Research Journal

This study critically examines how neoliberal social controls and school-based criminalization efforts emerged in response to a series of moral panics surrounding perceived increases in school violence and mass shootings. Largely, this response manifested in the form of rigid zero-tolerance disciplinary policies focused on deterrence and retribution. However, research reveals the application of these policies produce racial and income-based disparities in how school discipline is administered, which contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline (i.e., a pathway for youth to be funneled out of education and into incarceration). As such, it is believed that racial threat dynamics may be contributing to the …

Mental Health Implications Of Substance Use Among Queer College Students, Samia L. Neeley

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Studies reveal that sexual minorities are at greater risk for tobacco and nicotine use (Harlow et al., 2023). In addition, experiences with discrimination and harassment are related to substance use in queer adults (Blackwell & López Castillo, 2020). Building on previous research, this study aims to investigate the relationship between substance use, mental health, and sexual/gender identity among queer college students. We asked undergraduate students (anticipated N = 100) to report their alcohol, e-cigarette, and cannabis use as well as depression and anxiety symptoms. We anticipate that queer students will report greater substance use and greater mental health challenges than …

The Energy Consumption Of Artificial Intelligence And Sustainable Strategies For Reducing Its Environmental Impact, Haley M. Johnson

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is swiftly transforming the world, yet its environmental impact is often unknown. Training AI models, deploying AI models, and storing large volumes of AI’s data in data centers all contribute to both positive and negative environmental outcomes. While many studies highlight the benefits of AI, there are also a few that address how AI’s widespread use results in unsustainable environmental impacts. This literature review investigates the negative environmental impacts of AI, including environmental degradation, increased energy consumption, and carbon emissions. From the rise of unpredictable weather and natural disasters, to the melting of icebergs, the impact of …

Differential Effects Of Amiloride And Benzamil On Salt Taste Physiology And Behavior: The Case For Phasic Responses In The Generation Of Sodium Appetite, Amyra M. Issa

McNair Scholars Research Journal

The current experiment aims to investigate the relationship between the early phasic portion of salt taste transduction and sodium appetite. Prior research has identified two salt transduction pathways: a sodium-selective pathway, which is inhibited by amiloride or benzamil, and a non-selective pathway, which is insensitive to these blockers (Breslin & Spector, 2008). When presented with sodium solutions, sodium-depleted mice exhibit a behavior termed the “sodium appetite,” which results in voracious sodium consumption. The prevailing theory is that this behavior depends on neural activity of sodium-selective neurons (Breza & Contreras, 2012; Roitman & Bernstein, 1999). While previous studies have demonstrated that …

Contrasting Disparities Between Desi Populations And The Michigan Healthcare System In The Metro Detroit Atrea, Ramin Areeb

McNair Scholars Research Journal

This study investigated the healthcare disparities experienced by the Desi population (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepali, etc.), ages 18 and higher, in the Metro Detroit area. Despite the ever-growing population of South Asian communities in the United States, research on their interactions with Michigan healthcare remained very limited. The lack of consistent reports, population-specific studies, and overall popularity of the discussion proves this. Using a survey-based methodology, this study collected accounts from participants regarding their healthcare experiences, perceived inequities, and barriers to accessing high-quality medical services. The data then underwent a thematic review to identify recurring patterns, including issues …

Introduction, Kimberly J. Brown Ph.D., Brandie Bentley, Ph.D., Msw

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Materials

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Process For The Preparation Of Amorphous Form Of (4s)-2-{8-Fluoro-2-[4-(3- Methoxyphenyl) Piperazin-1-Yl]-3-[2-Methoxy-5­(Trifluoromethyl)Phenyl]-3,4-Dihydro Quinazolin-4-Yl} Acetic Acid, Msn Laboratories Private Limited, R&D Center; Hyderabad, India; Srinivasan Thirumalai Rajan; Revu Satyanarayana And Challa Suresh.

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to process for the preparation of amorphous form of (4S)-2-{8-Fluoro-2-[4-(3-methoxyphenyl) piperazin-1-yl]-3-[2-methoxy-5­(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-3,4-dihydro quinazolin-4-yl} acetic acid of formula-1

Formula-1.

Process For The Preparation Of (4-Fluorophenyl)[(8r)-8-Methyl-3-(3-Methyl-1,2,4-Thiadiazol-5-Yl)-5,6-Dihydro[1,2,4]Triazolo[4,3-A]Pyrazin-7(8h)-Yl]Methanone And Its Intermediates Thereof, Msn Laboratories Private Limited, R&D Center, 1. Srinivasan Thirumalai Rajan, 2. Sagyam Rajeshwar Reddy, 3. Keshavareddy Navin Kumar Reddy, 4. Kootikanti Krishnaiah, 5. Utnoori Venkata Chary

Defensive Publications Series

Abstract:

The present invention provides a process for the preparation of (4-Fluoro phenyl)[(8R)-8-methyl-3-(3-methyl-1,2,4-thiadiazol-5-yl)-5,6-dihydro[1,2,4] triazolo [4,3-a] pyrazin-7(8H)-yl]methanone of formula-1 and its intermediates thereof

Formula-1.

Neural Network Model Watermarking Using Quantized Least Significant Bits And Pseudorandom Error-Correcting Codes, Ranjit Kumaresam, Srinivasan Raghuraman, Ka Log Ng

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to watermarking techniques for neural network models that embed verifiable ownership information into model parameters. In one aspect, floating-point weight parameters are quantized and least significant bits are biased during rounding such that the bits collectively encode a pseudorandom error-correcting code derived from a digital signature of a model owner. In another aspect, a pseudorandom codeword generated from the digital signature is directly embedded by replacing least significant bits of quantized weight parameters. In both cases, the watermark is cryptographically verifiable and remains detectable even after model perturbations, fine-tuning, or partial retraining. Ownership verification is performed …

Multi-Agent Architecture For Diagnostics And Configuration Of Media Systems, Bin Xu, Chi Chen, Guillaume Bailey, Paul Colta, Hongguang Chen, Mehmet Hakan Isbiliroglu, Kaile Ding, Michael Keeley, Ryan Kusch, Roman Kalukiewicz, Wolfram Klein, Hugo Du Plooy, Michael Soland, Quxiang Fang, Xurui Huang, Weiping Tang, Zhiji Huang, Juliana Tsang

Defensive Publications Series

Users interacting with media playback systems, such as smart televisions, often navigate complex, nested on-screen menus to adjust device settings such as display brightness, audio quality, or network configurations. This manual navigation process can be cumbersome and unintuitive, creating a barrier to efficient device control and configuration. A user may clearly understand a desired outcome or be able to describe a current issue with the media system but may lack the specific technical knowledge to locate and modify the exact system settings required to resolve the issue.

The disclosed technology describes an agent-based artificial intelligence framework that enables natural language …

Hybrid Offline-To-Real-Time Architecture For Context-Aware Keyword Insertion, Karen Yao, Indu Ramamurthi

Defensive Publications Series

A Hybrid Offline-to-Real-Time Architecture generates context-aware ad copy while meeting the latency constraints of live ad auctions. In an offline phase, a large language model (LLM) analyzes a product catalog to pre-generate ad copy templates that contain semantic placeholders. During the real-time ad auction, a lightweight engine parses a user’s search query to extract contextual intent. The system then selects an appropriate template and injects the extracted intent into the placeholders to assemble the final ad copy. This two-pass approach decouples the computationally intensive LLM generation from the time-sensitive ad serving process, providing the semantic quality of LLM-generated text at …

Non-Semantic Safety Gates: A Closed-Loop Framework For Agentic Software Evolution, Santosh Kumar Kvs

Defensive Publications Series

A system for validating AI-generated code in a shadow execution environment prior to production deployment includes an AI agent configured to receive an intent from a user device and generate a code package based on the intent, a deployment controller communicatively coupled to the AI agent and configured to receive the code package, a shadow sandbox 105 communicatively coupled to the deployment controller and configured to receive the code package, execute the code package in an isolated environment while mirroring production traffic, and generate telemetry data based on execution of the code package, wherein the telemetry data comprises kernel-level metrics …

A Smart Contract Framework For Project Financing In Gold Mining Operations: Implications For Improved Financial Forecasting, Silvia Lydia Priskilla, Mohammed Ali Berawi, Mustika Sari Dr.

Smart City

Gold mining projects are characterized by high capital intensity and significant operational variability, making financial forecasting particularly sensitive to the quality and timing of cash-flow data. In practice, conventional financing systems rely on multi-stage administrative processes that create delays between work completion and payment realization, reducing the reliability of financial records used for investment evaluation.

This study aims to develop a smart contract-based financing framework to improve the accuracy of profitability projections in gold mining projects. A case study approach is employed using operational and financial data from a mining project in Sumatra over the period 2023–2026. The analysis combines …

Pruritus Associated With Systemic Sclerosis: A Systematic Review Of Treatment-Based Clinical Trials, Kiana Mortezaei, Rishika Pasula, Meryem Nursoy, Amit Syal, Ioannis Panayiotou, Geeta Kumari, Andreas Chatzitoffis, Pavle Milutinovic, Olajumoke O. Fadugba, Chris T. Derk

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

This paper aims to examine the latest research on treatments for itch (pruritus) in people with systemic sclerosis (SSc), identify areas where information is lacking, and propose suggestions for future studies.A comprehensive literature search was performed in PubMed and Scopus in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to identify studies evaluating therapeutic interventions for pruritus in SSc. Eligible studies included randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and case series comprising a minimum of three patients. Data extraction encompassed study design, patient demographics, pruritus assessment instruments including validated and non-validated measures, and clinical outcomes. Studies …

Learning Trajectories Of Online Batch Selection Methods, Luke Green

Theses and Dissertations

Modern deep neural networks achieve strong performance on large-scale datasets, but often require substantial training time. Online batch selection methods seek to reduce this cost by updating models on informative subsets of each batch rather than on all available examples. Recently introduced methods leverage teacher models and report substantial speedups, particularly in noisy-label settings. However, comparisons are often based on the number of epochs required to reach a target test accuracy, a coarse metric that is sensitive to implementation details and may obscure important differences in learning dynamics. In this thesis, we implement several online batch selection methods in a …

Advancing Data Usability, Activity Modeling, And Stability Optimization In Computational Enzyme Design, Spencer Gardiner

Theses and Dissertations

A grand challenge of computational biology is to computationally design, in a single pass, a protein sequence that catalyzes an arbitrary chemical reaction at a high rate under specified conditions [1]. This work details advances in three essential areas on the path to that goal: data quality, activity prediction and modeling, and stability optimization. The structure and implementation of the Allotrope Simple Model (a FAIR data format for many scientific instruments) was examined in [2], setting the stage for training deep learning models on high-quality experimental datasets from diverse sources. In [3], the limits of physics-based and deep learning tools …

Beyond Single Images: A Comprehensive Benchmark For Album-Level Vision-Language Understanding, Shawn Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic album organization has been studied extensively over the past decades due to significant progress in digital photography. Recent Vision-Language Models (VLMs) have shown strong performance on multi-image understanding, making them natural candidates for automating album organization workflows. While VLMs’ abilities in multi-image understanding have been widely studied, their performance on album organization remains underexplored. To bridge this gap, we introduce AlbumBench, the first comprehensive benchmark for automatic album organization. Specifically, we (1) define album organization tasks as photo selection for album-specific user objectives, photo rating according to how well user intents are fulfilled, and album-specific photo grouping given a …

Long-Term Monitoring Of The Optical Performance Of The Primary Mirrors At The Coihueco And Loma Amarilla Sites Of The Pierre Auger Observatory, A. Abdul Halim, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, M. Ahmed, I. Allekotte, K. Almeida Cheminant, B. Fick, K. Nguyen, D. Nitz, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

This paper presents the results of an optical performance monitoring campaign for the primary mirrors installed in fluorescence telescopes at the Coihueco and Loma Amarilla sites at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. Since the end of 2003, this effort has developed into a unique long-term dataset that addresses the performance of the primary mirrors. We have focused on the scattering characteristics and specular reflectance of mirror segments, as well as their evolution over several years of operation. Despite being housed in climate-controlled buildings, dust accumulation, impurities, and natural aging — such as oxidation or other chemical or physical degradation …