Digital Commons Network^™

The Evolution And Impact Of Artificial Intelligence In Municipal Grant Applications And Management, Butch Calvert

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into municipal operations represents a paradigm shift in how local governments approach resource acquisition and management. As municipalities face increasing pressure to secure funding while operating with limited staff and resources, AI technologies offer promising solutions to streamline grant processes, enhance proposal quality, and improve post-award management. This research examines the current landscape of AI applications in municipal grant writing, application preparation, and post-award management, exploring both the transformative potential and the challenges that accompany these technological innovations

Holistic Strategies For Optimizing Municipal It Operations And Cost Efficiency, Joseph Yazdanpanahi

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

Municipalities work to deliver secure and impactful IT (information technology) services while often working within tight budget constraints. To address this problem, this article offers an experience-based and comprehensive framework to optimize municipal IT operations. It emphasizes leveraging automation, streamlining hardware and software management, and forging strategic partnerships to drive cost savings and efficiency gains. Designed to equip municipal IT leaders with practical tools and insights, this article aims to help modernize IT processes.

“I Was Well Informed. It Was A Great Advantage”: Pre-Arrival Information Seeking, Information Intelligence, And Immigrants’ Settlement, Nafiz Z. Shuva, Paulette Rothbauer

Publications and Research

This study reports on the role of pre-arrival information seeking and informed decision making in the settlement experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada. Despite the importance of immigrants in shaping Canada’s future in innovation, economy, and population, this research shows a significant mismatch between immigrants’ expectations and their actual settlement experiences, particularly in terms of their employment. This mismatch can lead to depression, frustration, and anxiety, affecting integration into Canadian society. While there has been a recent increase in immigrants’ settlement information behavior research in LIS, most focus on post-arrival information needs and seeking. Research findings of this study contribute …

Sealing Ability Of Polydopamine-Coated Gutta-Percha With Bioceramic Sealer:An In Vitro Study, Mariam Fahmy

Dentistry

No abstract provided.

Why Gödel Believed In The Afterlife, Alexander Englert

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Despite some renewed interest in Gödel’s thought beyond his logical and mathematical contributions, his philosophy of religion remains sorely understudied. In this paper, I present a thorough examination of Gödel’s reasons for believing in an

afterlife based on evidence from his notebooks and collected papers. Along the way, I explore important tenets of his philosophical thought more broadly, such as his notion of essence, his views on the essence of human beings, the nature of learning, as well as the sort of afterlife that Gödel conceived as the most rational. The result of the study is a picture of his …

A Wideband Omnidirectional Dual E-Shaped Microstrip Patch Antenna Based On Partial Ground Plane, Fengyu Du, Boning Ren

Warith Scientific Journal of Engineering and Technology

To address the problems of narrow impedance bandwidth in conventional microstrip patch antennas at the 2.4 GHz Bluetooth band and the strong dependence of port matching and radiation efficiency on structural dimensions, this paper investigates the structural design, equivalent-circuit modeling, and test-result analysis of a wideband omnidirectional dual E-shaped microstrip patch antenna based on a partial ground plane. The antenna is fabricated on an F4B dielectric substrate with a relative permittivity of 2.2, a loss tangent of 0.0009, and overall dimensions of 30 mm × 22.5 mm × 1.575 mm. The radiating patch adopts a dual E-shaped slotted configuration, and …

2026-06-03 The Sequel-Ification Of Movies, Nicole Baltimore

The Spectator Online

No abstract provided.

Member Spotlight, Blair Jones

The Southeastern Librarian

Member Spotlight no. 4 for the Spring 2026 issue of the Southeastern Librarian. The spotlight shines on Crystal R. Gates, Chief Executive Officer of the North Little Rock (Arkansas) Public Library System.

Building Community At An Academic Library With Bilingual Story Trails, Laura Bright, Janice S. Lewis

The Southeastern Librarian

A story trail is an activity that combines exercise and literacy as visitors read sequentially displayed book pages while walking. Story trails are often set up outdoors along existing paths and feature rotating selections of children’s picture books. Many story trails are set up and maintained by community groups, public libraries, or schools. Academic libraries can use story trails as opportunities to promote literacy, foster a sense of local community, support families, and encourage healthy habits. The authors of this article use City of Greenville (North Carolina) StoryWalks® created by staff at East Carolina University’s Joyner Library as an example …

Chet Atkins: Mr. Guitar, David W. Young

The Southeastern Librarian

Author: Don Cusic

Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2025

ISBN: 9780820373393

464 pp. $24.13 (Hbk)

Genetic Architecture Of White Matter Microstructure Captured By Unsupervised Deep Representation Learning Of Fractional Anisotropy Maps, Xingzhong Zhao, Ziqian Xie, Wei He, Hyun Yong Koh, Bohong Guo, Han Chen, Myriam Fornage, Degui Zhi

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Fractional anisotropy (FA) from diffusion MRI is a widely used marker of white matter (WM) integrity, but conventional FA-based genetic studies typically rely on tract- or atlas-defined averages that may obscure spatially distributed WM variation and limit genetic discovery. Here, we propose a deep learning framework, termed unsupervised deep representation of WM (UDR-WM), which uses voxel-wise FA maps to derive brain-wide unsupervised deep imaging phenotypes (UDIP-FA) without prior anatomical assumptions. Compared with traditional FA phenotypes, UDIP-FA shows greater sensitivity to aging and substantially higher SNP-based heritability. Multivariate GWAS identified 939 lead SNPs across 586 loci, mapping to 3,480 UDIP-FA-associated genes. …

The Omeract Core Domain Sets For Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Disease, David Grossberg, Ken Cai, Amy Fuller, Geraldine M Mccarthy, Tristan Pascart, Augustin Latourte, Edoardo Cipolletta, William J Taylor, Cesar Diaz-Torne, Tim L Jansen, Lih En Hong, Silvia Sirotti, Fabio Becce, Georgios Filippou, Beverley Shea, Robin Christensen, Jasvinder A Singh, Abhishek Abhishek, Sara K Tedeschi

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: To develop OMERACT core domain sets for chronic and recurrent calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) disease and acute calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystal arthritis.

Methods: Following OMERACT methodology, the CPPD Working Group (comprising of patient research partners, fellows, clinicians, and methodologists) defined the core domain sets. The development of the core sets occurred through a scoping review, qualitative study, Delphi surveys, and ranking exercises to identify the most relevant domains. A virtual e-module was developed to enable members of the OMERACT community to discuss and vote for endorsement of the OMERACT CPPD core domain sets.

Results: The core domains for chronic …

Autoregulation Of Three Yeast Ribosomal Protein Genes By Splicing Inhibition, David Granas, Anirudh Kesanapally, Michael A White, Gary D Stormo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Yeast ribosomal protein genes RPL18B, RPL28, and RPS22B are autoregulated by inhibition of splicing. This is demonstrated by inserting their introns into a chromosomal copy of GFP and observing repression upon induction of the cognate protein. In RPL18B and RPS22B, a predicted conserved secondary structure within the intron is required for regulation, while in RPL28, it is not.

Cytosine Base Editing Of Lpa In Transgenic Mice Averts Large Deletions, Usosa Too-Chiobi, Daniel Betancourth, Mingming Cao, Marco De Giorgi, Christopher J Walkey, Anjana Tiwari, Biana Godin, Julia M Assini, Donna J Palmer, Philip Ng, Michael B Boffa, Marlys L Koschinsky, Gang Bao, William R Lagor

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is a genetically determined causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease, with approximately 20% of the population exhibiting elevated levels. While there are promising drugs in development, there are currently no approved therapies specifically designed to lower Lp(a) levels. For high-risk individuals with extreme levels of Lp(a), liver-directed genome editing could be an effective one-time solution. Genome editing approaches such as CRISPR and TALENs can reduce Lp(a) in LPA-transgenic mouse models, but they frequently induce large and potentially harmful genomic deletions. Here, we report the first application of TadA-derived cytosine base editing (CBE), delivered via helper-dependent adenovirus (HDAdV) and …

Complement Activation In Maternal And Placental Pathology Of Preeclampsia, Allyson W Nevins, Antonio H Ruano, Simone H Ruano, Jon A Fuson, Chandra Yallampalli

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Preeclampsia is a multifactorial, pregnancy-related disorder characterized by new-onset hypertension and proteinuria, with distinct early- and late-onset forms. Although complement dysregulation has been implicated in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, its causal role remains unclear. In mice, Crry (complement receptor 1-related protein Y) functions as a critical complement regulator at the fetal-maternal interface. Because complete Crry deficiency is embryonically lethal, direct in vivo investigation of complement activation in pregnancy has been challenging.

Methods: We generated a placenta-specific, doxycycline-inducible short hairpin RNA mouse model in which Crry expression can be downregulated in a dose-dependent manner. This system employs Cyp19-driven Cre recombinase …

A Novel Qa Method For Adaptive Aperture Position Verification Of Proton Therapy System, Winter Green, Baozhou Sun, Tianyu Zhao, Yao Hao

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Accurate Adaptive Aperture (AA) leaf positioning is essential for some proton therapy systems to ensure precise dose delivery and patient safety. However, conventional quality assurance (QA) methods can be suboptimal or inefficient for routinely assessing the dynamic nature of AA in the Mevion S250i HYPERSCAN system. This study introduces a novel automated QA method to verify AA positions utilizing a scintillation detector. A specialized QA plan consisting of 7 rectangular fields was generated in the RayStation treatment planning system (TPS) and delivered using the Mevion S250i HYPERSCAN proton therapy system. Dose distributions were measured with an IBA Lynx PT scintillation …

Digital Platforms, Structural Barriers And Gender Inclusion: A Systemic Model For The South African Construction Industry, Kabemba Steve Ngoy, Abimbola Windapo, Olugbenga Timo Oladinrin, João Alencastro, Muhammad Qasim Rana

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This study examines the systemic structures that limit inclusivity, diversity, equality, and accessibility (IDEA) in South Africa’s construction industry. It develops an empirically grounded framework, linking digital platform/tool (software tools and systems that facilitate construction processes) adoption to the institutional changes needed to advance gender equity. Building on a literature review, an online survey of 112 Construction Industry Development Board (Cidb)-registered practitioners was analyzed in SPSS v26 using descriptive and inferential statistics and principal component analysis (PCA). Results show that gender differences in mastery of core digital tools were not statistically significant (p > 0.05 across tool categories). The regression model …

Transgenic Hookworm Secretes Anti-Tetrodotoxin Human Single Chain Antibody, Mahdiyeh Bigham, Samuel C Uzoechi, Young-Jun Choi, John C Martin, Danielle Kemper, Slavica Pavlovic Djuranovic, Darren A Pickering, Rachael Ryan, Bethany K Bracken, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Eric C Carnes, Wannaporn Ittiprasert, Matthew Moyle, Paul J Brindley, Alex Loukas, Sergej Djuranovic, Makedonka Mitreva

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Biologics, protein- and peptide-based drugs derived from living organisms or cell lines have emerged as effective therapies across a broad range of indications. However, parenteral administration and the need for frequent dosing increase costs and limit compliance, creating an urgent need for innovative platforms capable of continuously, safely, and efficiently delivering sustained biologics in situ within the host. Here, we describe a bioengineered hookworm platform to manufacture and deliver biologic therapeutics in vivo. As proof of concept, we engineer the Ancylostoma ceylanicum secretome by inserting a human single-chain variable fragment antibody (s16-HuScFv) into its genome. Transgene expression does not perturb …

Impact (Immune Monitoring And Phenotype Assessment Of Clinical Trajectory) For Patients With Inborn Errors Of Immunity From The Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium (Pidtc), Geoffrey D E Cuvelier, Nicola A M Wright, Rebecca A Marsh, Suhag Parikh, Blachy Davila Saldana, Mark T Vander Lugt, Rosa Bacchetta, Lisa Forbes Satter, Shanmuganathan Chandrakasan, Erinn Kellner, Eric J Allenspach, Erica G Schmitt, Brent Logan, Lauri Burroughs, Morton J Cowan, Linda M Griffith, Luigi Notarangelo, Sung-Yun Pai, Michael A Pulsipher, Christopher C Dvorak, Elie Haddad, Jennifer M Puck, Troy R Torgerson, Jennifer W Leiding, Jennifer Heimall, Alice Y Chan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Evaluating natural history and outcomes of rare inborn errors of immunity (IEIs) has been challenging due to the diverse disease manifestations and lack of standardized data.

Objective: To develop a set of standardized, quantitative, generalizable data collection modules to measure organ dysfunction in IEIs, modeled on the previously validated Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event system for grading treatment toxicity.

Methods: Disease conditions were organized by organ system. Experts from the Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium identified essential features of severe combined immunodeficiency, chronic granulomatous disease, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, and primary immune regulatory disorders and compared these to Common Terminology …

The Relationship Between Psychological Stress And Sars-Cov-2 Nucleocapsid-Antibody Response Following Natural Infection: Longitudinal Findings From The Aegis Study, Stephanie Dickinson, Lilian Golzarri Arroyo, Anna L M Macagno, Michael J Ricciardi, Jon Macy, Stanley Perlman, Christina Ludema, Kevin C Maki, Molly Rosenberg

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Psychological stress can cause diminished immune response to infectious challenges. The extent this holds true during severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the modifying effect of vaccination status is untested. We explored these relationships in a non-random sample standardized to the US adult population. Across 2178 participants in the Aegis study (2021-2022), we identified 507 eligible laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. We estimated the natural log of nucleocapsid-binding antibody absorbance (N-antibody) at study visits up to 225 days following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. Linear mixed effects models were fit to estimate the association of baseline perceived stress and, separately, …

Emotional Intelligence And Teamwork In A Ship’S Bridge : A Proposed Training Framework For Upskilling, Sofia Kallou, Nikitas Nikitakos, Dimitrios A. Papachristos, Dimitrios Dalaklis, Momoko Kitada

Articles

The notion that computers equipped with software and artificial intelligence (AI) applications can effectively replace human intelligence is under the existing paradigm of operations. This is the leading facilitator of task automation on board a ship to fulfill various jobs and is often supported by numerous scientists/academics who contribute to gaining today’s momentum in public opinion. The discourse of Industry 4.0 in the maritime domain, however, tends to focus heavily on technological contexts and overlooks socio-economic contexts. This gap is evident in the strong emphasis on technical and digital skills for future maritime professionals. This paper, therefore, argues that the …

Concept Analysis In Occupational Therapy Research: Exploring Approaches And Discipline-Specific Considerations, Patricia Schofield, Tanja Krizaj, Kirsty Thomas

School of Nursing and Midwifery

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the use and considerations needed for conducting a concept analysis within occupational therapy research. Concept analysis is a popular analytical research tool used with the methodology providing firmer definitions of ambiguous concepts.Design/methodology/approachAn exploration into the use of concept analysis within occupational therapy research. Discussing current approaches of concept analysis and the implementation of this within occupational therapy research.FindingsConcept analysis within occupational therapy research requires further consideration. Current research is favouring one approach when completing a concept analysis that leads to common flaws within the methodology.Originality/valueFurther consideration is required to the approaches followed when completing a …

Fsec Meeting Minutes June 3, 2026, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Residential Ai Data Centers: Security, Privacy, And Governance Concerns, Alan Saquella

Publications

The concept of placing mini data centers and distributed AI computer nodes inside residential homes may appear innovative from an energy efficiency perspective, but it introduces significant security, privacy, governance, and liability concerns. What is effectively occurring is the expansion of commercial and potentially critical infrastructure into lightly protected residential environments.

Once a residence becomes part of a distributed computer grid supporting hyper-scalers, AI providers, or enterprise workloads, the home is no longer simply a private residence. It becomes a commercial technology asset, a potential cyber target, and even a physical target. A distributed network of thousands of residential nodes …

Maya Roots, Erin Schmidt, Megu Kanzawa

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This project focused on the continued development of Maya Roots, a mobile and web-based platform designed for farmers in Tahcabo: a rural agricultural community located in Yucatán, Mexico. Yucatán faces unique agricultural challenges due to its karst limestone terrain and highly variable land conditions that can significantly impact farming outcomes. At the same time, traditional agricultural knowledge such as Milpa farming practices is increasingly at risk of being lost across generations. These environmental and cultural challenges highlighted the need for a portable, accessible system that could preserve agricultural knowledge, improve access to geospatial information, and strengthen communication between farmers and …

Dual Language Immersion In Utah Schools: Examining Experiences And Access To Improve Sustainability, Melissa Catherine Jensen Kimball

Theses and Dissertations

Dual language immersion (DLI) programs can impact students in many ways. Multiple researchers have studied the effects of these programs and have found numerous benefits. However, there is little published information on the actual experiences of individuals in schools with a DLI program, including those who are involved in the program and those who were a part of DLI school communities but not directly involved in the program. A. Hawks, J. Rowley, D. Stovall, and their respective thesis and dissertation committees created a survey to better understand the current perspectives of administrators, parents, teachers, and other school staff on these …

The Sustainable Autonomy Framework: Explaining Autonomy In Aceh And Southern Yemen, Abdulsalam Saad, Arie Kusuma Paksi

Jurnal Politik

This article examines why post-conflict autonomy consolidates into durable self-governance in some cases while remaining fragile and externally dependent in others. While Aceh has maintained stable self-governance since the 2005 Helsinki Agreement, Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council remains a fragmented authority sustained by external patronage. To explain this divergence, the article develops the Sustainable Autonomy Framework (SAF) and asks: under what conditions does post-conflict autonomy become viable and sustainable? The SAF argues that durability depends on the alignment of three mutually reinforcing pillars: elite legitimacy, resource sovereignty, and mediation credibility. Using a most-similar systems comparison of Aceh’s Free Aceh Movement and …

Vitamin D–Amp Axis In Host Defense Against Fungal Infections, Nuraly S. Akimbekov, Ilya Digel, Svetlana K. Sakhanova, Kuanysh Tastambek, Dinara K. Sherelkhan, Mohammed S. Razzaque

School of Medicine Publications

Vitamin D–mediated regulation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is an important focus in innate immunology and is aimed at elucidating the role of vitamin D in enhancing antimicrobial defense. AMPs are short protein chains that serve as a first line of defense against invading pathogens, including fungi, bacteria and viruses. Unlike conventional antibiotics, AMPs are produced endogenously and are less likely to induce antimicrobial resistance, making them promising candidates for treating infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens. Studies indicate that optimal vitamin D levels are essential for activating antimicrobial pathways and regulating AMPs that target multiple fungal pathogens. This article summarizes recent …

From Performance To Practice: Knowledge-Distilled Segmentator For On-Premises Clinical Workflows, Zhongming Zhao, Xiaoqian Jiang, Yu-Chun Hsu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Deploying medical image segmentation models in routine clinical workflows is often constrained by on-premises infrastructure, where computational resources are fixed and cloud-based inference may be restricted by governance and security policies. While high-capacity models achieve strong segmentation accuracy, their computational demands hinder practical deployment and long-term maintainability in hospital environments. We present a deployment-oriented framework that leverages knowledge distillation to translate a high-performing segmentation model into a scalable family of compact student models without modifying the inference pipeline. The framework is primarily evaluated on nnU-Net, with additional validation across transformer and heterogeneous teacher–student architectures. The proposed approach preserves architectural compatibility …

Life Sustaining Well-Being Practices And Physiological Health Among Black Men, Dakota W. Cintron, Monique N. Golden, Jennifer M. Boylan, Julia K. Boehm, Tomiko Yoneda, Hebi Wang, Erik M. Hines, James L. Moore Iii

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective

To identify culturally grounded well-being practices among Black men in midlife and examine their associations with physiological health.

Methods

Analyzing data from the 2004–2005 Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, we examined, 116 open-ended responses to the question, “What do you do to make your life go well?” Network topic modeling identified six topics: (1) interpersonal kindness and positive mindset; (2) caring for children; (3) practicing spirituality and faith; (4) maintaining social connections and well-being; (5) avoiding stress; and (6) meaningful work and daily activities. Topic scores, reflecting participants’ tendency to discuss these themes, predicted allostatic load and …