Digital Commons Network^™

Stat 216.50: Introduction To Statistics, Scott Davis

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

A Surrogate-Model Methodology For Thermoacoustic Engine Design Using Multilayer Perceptrons, Ángela Alonso-Solórzano, Ana I. Velasco-Fernández, Carmen Iniesta, José Luis Olazagoitia, Jordi Vinolas

Artículos científicos

Thermoacoustic Stirling-like cycle engines offer a compelling solution for converting residual heat into usable energy through the generation of acoustic waves, providing a mechanically simple and environmentally friendly alternative. While recent developments have demonstrated the feasibility of using artificial neural networks for performance prediction, limited research has addressed the effect of training data volume or the experimental validation of these models. This study investigates the use of artificial neural networks to predict the acoustic power delivered to the power extraction branch in thermoacoustic engines operating at low drive ratios, using data generated through DeltaEC (Design Environment for Low-Amplitude Thermoacoustic Energy …

Introducing The Math Narrative Project, Liza Bondurant, Sarah Salisbury, Darolyn Flaggs, Belinda Edwards, Uchenna Miles, Daniel Kaufmann

Publications

Whether you teach calculus to engineering students, algebra to future teachers, or developmental math to first-generation college students, the students in your classroom carry narra- tives about mathematics—about whether they belong, wheth- er it matters, and whether asking for help is safe. You carry narratives too. We authors are mathematics educators who work across university classrooms, secondary schools, and teacher preparation programs in Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, and Pennsylvania. In this piece, we introduce the Math Nar- rative Project (2026), a professional development initiative led by the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity ([BranchED], n.d.) that we participated in as field testers. …

Capacity Development Priorities For Enduring Biodiversity Conservation: A New Methodology And Evidence From Peru, Katia Nakamura, Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Johanna Eklund, Jenny Brooks, Daniel C. Miller

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Capacity development is essential for long-term biodiversity conservation. Yet knowledge of conservation capacity development needs and priorities remains limited, particularly in low- and middle-income countries with high biodiversity and limited institutional capacity. This study addresses this gap by identifying and analyzing the priorities highlighted by conservation professionals in Peru. Using Q-methodology and open-ended surveys, we found three distinct perspectives from 27 conservation professionals working in Peru: strengthening legal enforcement and financing, shifting power to Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and embedding conservation values in public norms. These perspectives reflect fundamentally different theories of change, yet converge in their call for …

The Cross-Section Of Empirical Evidence And Personal Experience: A Deeper Look At School Resource Officers Through The Lens Of Demarcus A. Jenkins' Research On The Public Opinion Of Their Potential Removal From Public Schools, Quin Armstrong

University Honors Theses

Following the 2020 Black Lives Matter and Anti-Police movements, there were many discussions across the nation about possible changes to law enforcement operations. Among these discussions included specific discussions about what to do about law enforcement officers stationed in schools. These law enforcement officers are known as school resource officers, or SROs.

The focus of this thesis is specifically on Portland, Oregon's Portland Public School (PPS) district's decision to sever ties with the Portland Police Bureau, and what may have contributed to that ultimate decision. This is accomplished through an analysis of a research paper written by fellow Criminal Justice …

Molecular Detection Of Staphylococcus Aureus: A Performance Comparison Of Colony Pcr And Conventional Pcr Targeting The Icab Gene, Farah Badri Abed, Shahrazad Hazim Muhi, Sahar Mustafa Ibrahim, Riyam Alaa Mohammed

Muthanna Medical Journal

Background: Staphylococcus aureus is an important nursing disease that requires a prompt and effective diagnosis to implement a strategy to curb its transmission and spread. Although the gold standard is the conventional PCR using column-purified genomic DNA, Colony PCR with crude cell lysates saves a lot of time and cost of the test and its performance features have not been well established.
Objectives: This paper will compare Colony PCR (boiling method) and Conventional PCR (ABIOpuretm kit extraction) to amplify icaB gene (141 bp), which is a major determinant of biofilm formation in S. aureus and then assess their application with …

“Voices Of Tomorrow”: A Youth Participatory Action Research Study Of A Middle School Advisory In An Urban Public Charter School, Seth Hull

Theses and Dissertations

Urban middle schools often grapple with how to create spaces that affirm students’ identities and foster authentic engagement within a broader landscape shaped by standardized testing and accountability pressures. This dissertation examines Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and advisory as two relationally grounded practices that can address these challenges. Grounded in critical hope (Zembylas, 2013), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), and community responsive education (Duncan-Andrade, 2022), the study explores the experiences of 12 middle school students who spent seven months investigating their school’s advisory program as student-researchers, as well as the findings that emerged about advisory. Data sources …

Reply, Jacqueline L. Chen, Amanda J. Lu, Rohan Verma, Li Wang, Douglas D. Koch, Allison J. Chen

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Bison Health Network Newsletter, September 2026, Bison Health Network

Bison Health Network News

Newsletter Content:

Updates
Network Demographics
Health Highlight: Parasites (Part 2)

Catalysts For Third-Country Market Entry: The Role Of Preferential Trade Agreements, Qiugu He, Xuan Luo

Research Collection School Of Economics

Preferential trade agreement (PTA) membership is known to divert trade volumes away from nonmember (third) countries along the intensive margin of trade, yet much less is known about its effects on third-country market entry along the extensive margin of trade. This paper examines whether PTAs catalyze market entry into third countries, and more broadly whether PTAs create spillover effects beyond member countries that matter for development. Using bilateral trade data from 1948 to 2020, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy, and find that the third-country market entry rate rises by 2.1% when the origin country has a PTA partner in the …

Sustainable Critical Minerals: Mining, Production, And Legacy, Joel G. Burken, Heileen Hsu-Kim, Mariam Al-Lami, Hunter W. Schroer, Scott Banta, Om Parkash Dhankher, Kwame Awuah-Offei, Lana Alagha

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

How E-Bicycle Policy And Infrastructure Challenge Sustainable Transportation: An Ethical Assessment, Shane Ray Epting

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

While new transportation technologies such as transportation network companies and electronic scooters showed promise for sustainable mobility, their initial impacts suggest otherwise in several instances. Electronic bicycles are no exception, resulting in an increasing number of injuries and deaths in many cities. Despite having environmental advantages, such outcomes challenge the view that they qualify as sustainable, bearing in mind that negative health impacts undermine sustainability's social pillar. While this issue is of paramount importance, it is only one factor among many that could impact several stakeholder groups, including many human groups, nonhuman animals, ecosystems, future people, and urban artifacts. In …

Hla-Dr Expression At Diagnosis Is Not Predictive Of Relapse Risk Post Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation For Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Report From The Children's Oncology Group., Vasant Chinnabhandar, Michael R. Verneris, Kirk R. Schultz, Alan S. Gamis, Richard Aplenc, Chad A. Hudson, Todd A. Alonzo, Robert B. Gerbing, John T. Horan, Joseph H. Chewning

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

No abstract provided.

20260901: Alumni Association, 1932-2024, Alumni Association

Guides to University Archives

These items include materials from the Alumni Association at Marshall University from 1932-2024. Items were received in 2026 and include notable materials from or about the Alumni Office and other campus events including Herald-Advertiser issues of early campus, the Sesquicentennial Souvenir Section from the Herald-Dispatch, issues of The Parthenon, Marshall Magazine, the Marshall High School Yearbook from the 1960s "The Brigadier", a songbook from Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and other materials from Sigma Alpha Epsilon from the 1960s and 1980s. This is not an exhaustive list. Please download the finding aid for a full list of contents.

Greennet: Ai-Driven Routing Simulator For Sustainable Internet Energy Optimization, Olta Zagraxha

Theses

Reducing the energy consumption of communication networks while maintaining reliable service is an important challenge in sustainable computing. This capstone presents GreenNet, a simulation and evaluation framework designed to investigate whether energy-aware network control can reduce estimated energy consumption without unacceptable degradation in Quality of Service (QoS). GreenNet combines a graph-based network simulator, configurable traffic scenarios, and a web-based interface for examining network behavior and comparing control strategies. Three approaches are evaluated: an All-On baseline that keeps all links active, a rule-based heuristic that selectively deactivates links, and a hybrid controller based on Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), whose proposed actions …

Predictive Modeling For Traffic Accident Severity Using Machine Learning, Ahmad Bin Eid

Theses

Road traffic accidents remain a persistent public safety challenge, responsible for over 1.3 million deaths annually according to the World Health Organization. While considerable effort has gone into understanding accident patterns, predicting the severity of an accident before or immediately after it occurs remains a difficult problem — particularly when the underlying data is messy, imbalanced, and largely categorical in nature. This study applies three supervised machine learning classification algorithms — Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting — to predict the severity of road traffic accidents using a dataset of 12,316 records collected by the Addis Ababa Sub-city Police …

Individualized Bayesian Inference Identifies Novel Genetic Variants For Parkinson's Disease, Jin Ren, Yasaman J. Soofi, Md Asad Rahman, Qing Lu, Jinling Liu

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with a significant genetic component. While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been instrumental in identifying genetic variants associated with PD, the reliance on large sample sizes and population-level analyses may overlook variants with lower minor allele frequencies or individual-specific relevance. Individualized Bayesian Inference (IBI) offers a promising method to complement GWAS by identifying and prioritizing candidate genetic markers at both the individual and patients-like-me subgroup levels. This study evaluates the application of IBI to PD genetics, using GWAS as a baseline for comparison. We analyzed genetic data from the Fox Insight online …

Manufacturing Routes For Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Alloys, Ertugrul Demir, Seung Min Ha, Alexander Killips, Guan Cheng Chen, Yitian Chi, Dileepa Maddumage, Dalong Zhang, Xiaochun Li, Haiming Wen, Enrique Lavernia

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Oxide dispersion strengthened alloys are promising structural materials for high temperature, irradiation, and mechanically demanding environments because their performance depends on fine and stable oxide dispersoids distributed within a metallic matrix. However, reliable fabrication remains challenging because precursor oxide nanoparticles or oxide forming species must be transformed into stable oxide dispersoids without excessive agglomeration, coarsening, contamination, or loss during processing. This review critically compares powder metallurgy, additive manufacturing, and liquid metallurgy routes for ODS alloy fabrication, with emphasis on oxide evolution, microstructure control, mechanical performance, scalability, and industrial maturity. Powder metallurgy remains the most reliable route for producing fine and …

Identifying Influential Drivers To The Utilization Of Prefabrication On Student Housing At Cal Poly: A Case Study On The Delivery Method, Dominique Giang

Construction Management

As universities experience increasing enrollment and housing shortages, student housing projects require efficient delivery methods capable of meeting strict occupancy deadlines while minimizing disruption to active campus environments. This research investigates the influential drivers behind the utilization of prefabrication on an ongoing student housing project at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The seven-story project consists of 417 student beds and incorporates repetitive layouts and prefabricated building components. Through qualitative interviews with key project stakeholders involved in early decision-making and field execution, the study examines how project objectives, construction constraints, and delivery considerations influenced the decision to implement prefabrication. …

Diverse Pumpkin And Winter Squash Grown In Indiana, Wenjing Guan, Elizabeth Maynard

Purdue Extension Numbered Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ramifications Of Covid-19 On Young Adults With Ocd, Clare E. Mcintosh

Dissertations

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was a profound event in modern history, contributing to significant disruptions on a societal and individual level. This period of time was marked by elevated uncertainty and fear among individuals. COVID-19 contributed to deterioration in not only physical health but also psychological well-being. One mental health condition frequently under-examined and saturated with misconceptions is obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a condition characterized by the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions. Intolerance of uncertainty is a core component of the condition, and the pandemic was riddled with unpredictability. The purpose of this study was to …

The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Protective And Compensatory Experiences, And Parenting Attitudes Among Fathers, Kylie Schmidt

Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are defined as potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood particularly between the ages of 0 and 17 years that negatively influence long-term health, relational functioning, and parenting practices (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2026; Felitti et al., 1998; Merrick et al., 2019). Conversely, protective and compensatory experiences (PACEs) have emerged as protective factors that foster resilience and possibly buffer against the adverse outcomes of ACEs (Narayan et al., 2018). As the existing research has greatly focused on mothers, little is known about how men’s early life experiences shape their parenting attitudes, particularly during the …

Building Wellbeing Through Nature And Adventure For Justice-Involved Youth, Lewis Kogan, Meagan Ricks, Janna Coulter, Miranda Margetts, Lori Butterfield, Ben Ukoh-Eke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Justice-involved youth often experience elevated levels of stress, mental health challenges, and reduced access to positive developmental opportunities. A nature- and adventure-based youth development program designed to strengthen resilience, self-efficacy, nature-connectedness, and well-being among justice-involved youth was piloted in 2025 to address these challenges. Pilot findings indicated improvements in resilience, self-efficacy, hopefulness, and connectedness to nature.

Youth Gopher Trapping: Benefits For Agriculture And Youth, Melanie Heaton, Kalen Taylor

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Utah State University Extension partnered with local government and conservation districts to reduce agricultural losses while creating meaningful opportunities for youth. Over three years, 92 participants removed 3,941 rodents, earned $26,620, and gained practical skills through hands-on conservation work. The program shows how Extension-led partnerships can strengthen agricultural profitability, youth development, and community collaboration at the same time.

Expanding Access To Outdoor Recreation Through Adaptive Trail Riding In Utah, Makenna L. Pahlke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Limited access to outdoor recreation limits opportunities for people with disabilities to enjoy the physical and psychosocial benefits of horseback riding. The Utah State University Equine Experience, an Extension program focused on horses, assessed an adaptive trail riding initiative for participants aged 12 to 40. Findings showed improvements in confidence, self-awareness, engagement, and social connections, highlighting the public benefit of enhancing accessible equine-assisted activities.

Improving Public Perceptions Of Dairy Production Through On-Farm Educational Tours, Drew Swartz, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Jaydee Gunnell, Elise Jenson, Dylan Waldron, Jenna Dyckman

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Utah dairy producers identified public perceptions as a top concern. Utah State University Extension partnered with Cache County organizations to offer dairy farm tours. Participants reported increased knowledge, more favorable perceptions, and stronger intentions to engage with agriculture, supporting experiential education as a means to strengthen understanding of dairy production.

Piloting The Strong Bodies Strength Training Program In Utah, Gabriela Murza, Jenna Dyckman, Cris Meier, Emma Parkhurst, Sadie Wilde, Christina Pay, Naomi Brower, Cindy Nelson

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Muscle and bone loss occurs as we age, impacting health and independence. We evaluated a pilot 12-week strength training program for older adults in Utah. Participants showed improved fitness metrics and increased confidence. Results demonstrate the program’s effectiveness and public value in expanding access to evidence-based exercise that supports healthy aging.

Enhancing Programming Productivity For Individuals With Adhd Through Generative Artificial Intelligence: An Inductive Analysis, Lionel Mew

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) significantly impacts computer programmers through challenges in sustained attention, executive functioning, and organizational skills. While traditional intervention strategies have shown varying degrees of success, the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents novel opportunities to address ADHD-related programming challenges. This paper presents an inductive analysis synthesizing current research on ADHD's effects on programming, traditional productivity enhancement techniques, and the potential of generative AI tools. Through examination of recent literature and field studies, we propose that generative AI can serve as a transformative intervention by providing personalized cognitive support, reducing executive function demands, and enhancing code generation efficiency. …

Human Capital Disclosure And Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From Regulation S-K, Jung Ho Choi, Dan Li, Daniele Macciocchi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the labor market consequences of the 2020 Regulation S-K requiring human capital disclosure in 10K filings. Using large-sample job-level data and a Generative Large Language Model (GLLM), we observe that public firms subject to the regulation increase their disclosure of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) information in job postings relative to a matched sample of large private firms. The increase in job-posting disclosure is more pronounced among firms facing greater external pressure to increase their workforce diversity. These findings suggest a shift in demand for diverse candidates by public firms following the regulation. Yet, consistent with short-term inelastic …

Best Practices For Supporting Occupational Therapy Students With Disabilities During Clinical Education: Results From A Three-Round Delphi Study, Courtney Gohean, Katie Mclaughlin, Aster Harrison

Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Disabled occupational therapy students face systemic barriers in clinical education. Although legal mandates require reasonable accommodations, implementation is often inconsistent, and few standardized guidelines exist for fieldwork education. This study is aimed at establishing best practices for supporting occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant students with disabilities during fieldwork.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A three-round Delphi study was conducted with a panel of 30 experts, including disabled occupational therapy students, disabled occupational therapy practitioners, academic fieldwork coordinators (AFWCs), fieldwork educators (FWEs), disability services staff, and researchers. In Round 1, participants answered open-ended questions about challenges, accommodations, and environmental supports. Responses …