Digital Commons Network^™

Standard Specifications For Road And Bridge Construction, April 1, 2021, Tennessee. Department Of Transportation.

TDOT Standard Specifications

No abstract provided.

Exploring Autistic Children’S Play Cycles Using The Play Cycle Observation Method (Pcom), Eleanor C. Mugford, Pete King

International Journal of Playwork Practice

The Play Cycle Observation Method (PCOM) enables researchers to observe and record the process of play based on the theory of the Play Cycle. While the PCOM has been used with both video footage and in real-time observation of neurotypical children, it has not previously been applied with neurodivergent children. This study involved ten one-hour naturalistic PCOM observations with nine autistic children during play sessions. The results demonstrated variability in play processes, with several styles of play behaviour observed, including differences in how play was initiated, sustained, and terminated. The findings both corroborate and challenge strands of the existing literature …

The Association Between Apoe Ε4 Carrierships And The Detection Of Amyloid Positivity Using An Alzheimer's Disease Proteomic Blood Test In Asymptomatic Down Syndrome, Lubnaa Badriyyah Abdullah, Fan Zhang, Melissa Petersen, James Hall, Benjamin L. Handen, Mark Mapstone, Brad Christian, Elizabeth Head, Sigan Harley, Howard Andrews, Joseph H. Lee, Dana Tudorascu, Christy Hom, Shahid Zaman, Adam M. Brickman, Diana Rosas, Annie Cohen, Jordan P. Harp, Frederick Schmitt, Lauren Ptomey, Jeffrey M. Burns, Ira T. Lott, Florence Lai, Charles Laymon, Carlos Cruchaga, Sid O'Bryant, Beau M. Ances

Neurology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: This study evaluates plasma-based proteomic profiles for predicting amyloid positivity in adults with Down syndrome (DS) and examines the impact of apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) on test performance. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from 290 adults with DS were analyzed using single molecule array (SIMOA) technology to measure plasma amyloid beta (Aβ)42, Aβ40, neurofilament light chain (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), tau phosphorylated at threonine 181, and total tau. Amyloid burden was quantified using Pittsburgh Compound B and (18)F-florbetapir Aβ positron emission tomography. Support vector machine analyses were conducted with biomarkers as predictors and age, sex, and APOE ε4 …

The Effects Of Cannabis Use On Physical Activity, Nitya Chiru, Brionna L. Smith, Karen L. Cropsey, Elizabeth K. Lee

Expo Student Presentations

2026 Spring Expo Poster Presentation

• Biological & Life Sciences

Communication Patterns In Ngs Result Discussions: An Analysis Of Physician And Patient Speaking Time, Amberly Selina Luna-Flores

Expo Student Presentations

2026 Spring Expo Poster Presentation

• Arts & Humanities

Robin Mckenzie Method For Lumbar Disc Herniation And Low Back Pain, Abby Richards, Christopher Hurt

Expo Student Presentations

2026 Spring Expo Poster Presentation

• Health Sciences & Health Professions

Essentials Of Adolescent Literacy, Joan Sedita

Science of Reading

Adolescent literacy is a critical determinant of academic success, postsecondary readiness, and effective communication. As students transition from elementary to middle and high school, they encounter increasingly complex texts and are expected to use advanced reading and writing skills across content areas. While it is often assumed that students have mastered foundational literacy skills by this stage, many continue to struggle, placing them at a significant disadvantage.

This research brief examines the concept of adolescent literacy, highlighting its dual focus on content literacy—general strategies used across disciplines—and disciplinary literacy—specialized practices unique to specific subject areas. Within a Multi-Tiered System of …

Motivating K-12 Students To Read Independently, Breanya Hogue, Yilin Shen, Jorge Perez De Jesus

Science of Reading

As we consider the technical aspects of the Science of Reading (SOR), which include advancing the skills of reading within phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, a prerequisite or simultaneous efforts should be placed towards building self-motivated readers. Developing motivated readers actually intersects with many of the SOR skills as it involves the practice of building oral reading skills, structured read alouds, vocabulary development, fluency building and more (Ariyanti & Qomar, 2016; Nevo et al., 2020; Toste et al, 2020). Motivating readers is an interconnected process which begins as early as infancy and beyond. Each section of this brief …

Secondary Syphilis Mimicking Marginal Zone B-Cell Lymphoma In A 70-Year-Old Man., Hannah Gier, Shannon Trotter

Ambulatory and Primary Care Articles

No abstract provided.

A Systematic Review Of Puppetry-Based Social Skills Interventions For Children With Disabilities, Yilin Shen, Jasmine Begeske, Fan Cao

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

Children with disabilities often require explicit social skills instruction. Underdeveloped social skills can impact a child’s ability to form relationships, communicate effectively, and navigate social situations. Puppetry has emerged as a promising and multifaceted tool for social skills instruction for children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to systematically appraise the quality of the existing literature and summarize the characteristics of puppet-based social skills interventions for children with disabilities. Suggestions are given for future social skills research involving puppetry.

Jase 6.1 Front Matter

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

No abstract provided.

Unquestionably Undeniable: Meet And Remember Lachi, Kathy Nimmer

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

This interview-based article explores the career and advocacy of Lachi, a visually impaired musician and activist. Through personal reflections, she discusses identity, internalized ableism, and her role in co-founding RAMPD, highlighting how artistry and collective action advance accessibility, authentic representation, and disability visibility within the music industry.

Theater Is My Life: Creating Inclusive Spaces In Community Theater For Youth With Disabilities, Julie L. Stuckey, David Ray G. Miranda

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

This practitioners' guide provides 10 strategies for creating inclusive theater programs for youth with disabilities. The suggestions are based on experiences the author gained working with ACORN youth players. ACORN is an inclusive community theater that provides performance opportunities for all youth, but especially those with mental health struggles or high-incidence disabilities. Strategies focus on the different stages of theater production: planning, auditions, rehearsals, and performances.

High-Speed Driverless Racing: Lessons For Autonomous Mobility, Justin Gan, Samuel Labi

Center for Connected and Automated Transportation

Driverless racecar competitions are often perceived as recreational. However, their academic, industry, and research benefits are potentially tremendous, as several significant lessons can be learned from these competitions to advance autonomous mobility. This study was motivated (and its conduction facilitated) by the active involvement of the authors in several autonomous racing initiatives in the United States. The study first synthesized and analyzed information from existing literature related to the key modules of autonomous vehicle (AV) operations as part of AV racing competitions and identified some lessons that could be learned in the context of each module – perception and sensing, …

Profound And Absurd Poems By E. Stewart Saunders, E. Stewart Saunders

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

A collection of poems written between 2020 and 2026

Optimizing Auv Perception For Competitive Underwater Robotics: Analyzing Performance And Simplicity Of Machine Vision Hardware, Joseph King

Honors Theses

Underwater robotics is a growing field with many practical applications, such as pipeline and offshore structure monitoring, deep sea mining, mine reconnaissance/removal, and marine environmental monitoring. USM’s Robotics Club will participate in the international RoboSub competition, where student-led teams build autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that perform a variety of tasks within a pool requiring camera-based object detection. This project analyzes affordable hardware and software options for providing machine vision to USM’s future RoboSub AUV. The performance of an ESP32-CAM microcontroller, Raspberry Pi 5, and Jetson Orin Nano single-board computers running FOMO and YOLO object detection models was compared. These models …

Problematic Social Media Use’S Association With Social Anxiety And Neural Responsiveness To Reward From Social Media Feedback, Kaylee Mercer

All NMU Master's Theses

Social media has become increasingly relevant, especially among young adults. Those with social anxiety are more at risk for problematic social media use. Social media increases activity in the brain's reward centers. A common measure of the neural correlates of reward is the event-related potential, reward positivity (RewP) in EEG. Heightened RewP is associated with greater social anxiety. Problematic social media use is also associated with greater social anxiety. The neural correlates of reward elicited from social media use have yet to be adequately explored. The current research used continuous high-density electroencephalography to measure reward sensitivity when viewing positive or …

Improving Cannabis Sativa's Phytoremediation Capabilities Of Forever Chemicals Through Microbial Inoculations, Tyler S. Jolin

All NMU Master's Theses

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants that pose ecological and human health risks due to their resistance to degradation and potential for bioaccumulation. Phytoremediation has emerged as a potential strategy for mitigating PFAS contamination, and plant-microbe interactions may influence contaminant uptake and transport within plant systems. These studies investigated microbial inoculation methods and examined whether Bacillus subtilis could influence the uptake and distribution of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in hydroponically grown hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). Plant height and stem diameter growth rates and biomass accumulation were compared across treatments with and without PFOS exposure and microbial inoculation. PFOS …

Deep Learning Based Approaches For Low Cost Defense Detection, Adele J. Noel-Rickert

All NMU Master's Theses

Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive interstitial lung disease characterized by the accumulation of fibrotic tissue within the lungs, leading to impaired respiratory function and reduced quality of life. Early detection is important for disease management; however, accurate diagnosis often relies on high-resolution computed tomography (CT), which may not be accessible in all clinical settings. Chest radiography provides a lower-cost and widely available imaging modality, but interpretation of chest X-rays for fibrotic disease can be challenging due to subtle radiographic patterns and overlapping anatomical structures. This thesis investigates the use of multimodal deep learning techniques to assist in pul- monary fibrosis …

Evert J. Blekkink: Defender Of Civil Discourse; Collections Highlight: Vienna Summer School, Charlotte Ulloa, Charles Harris

Archives and Special Collections Quarterly

Evert J. Blekkink: Defender of Civil Discourse

Column: From the Director of Archives and Special Collections

Collections Highlight: Vienna Summer School

Tough Love Or Just Tough?: The Effect Of Juvenile Military Bootcamps On Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors, Paris Labadie

Honors Theses

Externalizing behaviors, which are mental health problems manifested as outward behavior, have negative impacts on the environment and relationships (Liu, 2004). They include traits such as impulsivity, aggression, and substance use. Externalizing behaviors are more common in justice-involved youth compared to those who were not involved. Interventions for justice-involved youth, such as military boot camps, offer an alternative to incarceration and provide rehabilitation opportunities and routine. Theoretical research suggests military boot camps are problematic, citing the ineffectiveness of “scared straight” tactics. To date, there are few studies examining changes because of completing boot camps. There are also no studies examining …

News From Hope College, Volume 57.3: Spring 2026, Hope College

News from Hope College

No abstract provided.

Bringing Back Dignity With Incontinence Care, Nivedita Venkateish

Asian Management Insights

After a decade-long career in consumer brand MNCs, Nivedita Venkateish began her own business to help seniors tackle urinary incontinence.

When Performance Is Not Enough: Managing Ngos In An Age Of Digital Mistrust, Christianna Sirindah Parr

Asian Management Insights

As NGOs lack formal authority, their influence depends on legitimacy, which can be contested at scale online. Leaders must treat social media as a governance decision, with clear scope, speaking authority and response protocols.

Roundtable: Issue 5, Brody Rohrich, Jonathan Blessing, Kysten Keever, Mona Kuylee, Makenna Maples-Janisch, Gavin Mitzel, Victoria Voss

Roundtable: Journal of the UND Honors Program

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Seal!Nd: School Year 2024-2025, Shawnda Schroeder, Rashid Ahmad

Indigenous Health Faculty Publications

Dr. Schroeder and Rashid worked with the team at the Oral Health Program to collect data on the clinical reach of the School-based Sealant program (SEAL!ND), the referral practices, dental sealant cost savings, and perceptions of school personnel regarding their experiences with the program. SEAL!ND continues to make a measurable difference in improving children’s oral health by increasing access to preventive care, reducing barriers for families, and supporting schools in meeting the needs of their students. The program’s impact is reflected not only in the thousands of services provided each year, but also in the strong satisfaction and gratitude expressed …

Who Votes Yes For Local Solar Energy? Evidence From An Exit Poll, Vasundhara Gaur, Corey Lang

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Working Papers

Social acceptance of solar energy is critical to understand as society broadly wants to transition to renewable energy, but specific projects face significant hurdles. We study a municipal referendum that decided the fate of a particular utility-scale solar project and take advantage of this consequential setting to better understand how individual beliefs and socioeconomic factors affect support. On Election Day, we conducted an exit poll survey and collected responses from 504 voters. Regression results indicate that trust in government, belief in anthropogenic climate change, and positive attitudes about solar energy in general are all strongly and positively related to approval. …

Han Kang On Time And Body, Clarissa V. Militante

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Han Kang's novel Human Acts delves into the liminality of time-space, as memories about a historical event become a ritual of remembering for those who survived tragedy. Time is not only historical, but can also be foregrounded by bodies, both dead and surviving. The survivors do not merely recall the past but inhabit it, too, so that they will not forget. This in itself is an act of defiance and resistance.

Ang Estados Unidos Sa Hiraya Ni Manong Frankie: Paglalapat Ng Tematikong Pagsusuri Sa Mga Nobela Ni F. Sionil Jose Sa Diwa Ng Araling Kabanwahan (The United States In Manong Frankie’S Mind: Araling Kabanwahan In The Thematic Analysis Of F. Sionil Jose’S Novels), Mark Joseph Pascua Santos

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Abstrak

Ginamit ng pag-aaral ang tematikong pagsusuri upang isalansan ang mga datos mula sa 13 nobela ni F. Sionil Jose ukol sa Estados Unidos at ugnayang Pilipino-Amerikano. Isinagawa ang paspasang pagbasa sa mga nobela, itinala ang mga pahinang may banggit sa “Estados Unidos” at mga salitang kaugnay nito, isinaalang-alang ang konteksto ng bawat banggit, at pinalitaw ang mga temang umiinog dito. Para ito sa layuning makapag-ambag sa Araling Kabanwahan (pagsasa-Filipino ng Area Studies/International Studies), kung saan pinag-aaralan ang mga kabihasnan sa labas ng Pilipinas gamit ang wika-at-perspektibang Pilipino. Hinahangad ng pag-aaral na maitaguyod ang ibayong interseksyon sa pagitan ng Araling …

Redefining Purpose: The Effect Of The 2019 Business Roundtable Statement On Corporate Tax Strategies, Sadok El Ghoul, Rana Jamshed, Omrane Guedhami

Faculty Publications

Business Roundtable (BRT) firms have faced intense scrutiny from investors, media, and the public following their 2019 “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation,” which marked a shift from shareholder-centric governance to a stakeholder-focused approach. This shift has sparked debate over whether BRT firms are genuinely committed to social responsibility or merely using it as a branding strategy without implementing meaningful changes. This paper contributes to the debate by empirically examining a key dimension of social responsibility—corporate tax behavior. Using a difference-in-difference analysis covering 2004–2022, we find that BRT firms engage in higher levels of tax avoidance than other publicly …