Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

How Ai Governance Differs Between Regime Type, Jackson T. Guillou

Honors Theses

This thesis will examine how artificial intelligence (AI) regulation and development differ across political regime types, arguing that governance outcomes are fundamentally shaped by institutional political structures. This thesis will draw on comparative frameworks analyzing democratic and authoritarian systems. This thesis will also include case studies of the European Union, the United States of America, China, and Russia. The study finds that democratic regimes tend to emphasize transparency, accountability, and rights-based regulation of AI. This often results in slow regulation of AI, but it is more ethically legitimate and constrained. In contrast, authoritarian regimes prioritize centralized control, strategic coordination, and …

Beyond Technology Acceptance: Ai Adoption In The United States And Korean Accounting Firms, Madeline Ortega, Brenda Vazquez Saavedra

Posters - 2026

A comparison of AI adoption between the United States and South Korea

Production Tax Credits Promote U.S. Wind Power Development With A Rush To Develop Before They Expire, Michelle M. Arnold, Emily Richards, Brennan Bean, Rebekah Scott, Christopher L. Lant

Environment and Society Student Research

A statistical analysis of wind power development in each U.S. state from 2000–2022 shows that the Production Tax Credit strongly promoted wind power development, especially when it was due to expire, and producers rushed to qualify. This implies that the Inflation Reduction Act should also have an important effect in promoting wind power, with an exaggerated effect when developers perceive that tax credits will be discontinued. Physical wind power potential is positively related to wind power development among states. States with high potential selectively pass Renewable Portfolio Standards, but they have no statistically significant influence on capacity developed among the …

Short-Term Preeclampsia Prediction: Cutoff Variations For Sflt-1/Plgf In U.S. Patients With Or Without Hypertensive Disorders, Yaxin Li, Kristen Cagino, Jim Yee, Caroline Andy, Dajana Borova, Ayush Shah, Isla Racine, Tracy Grossman, Zhen Zhao

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia (PE) is a complex disorder with significant maternal and fetal risks. The soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) and placental growth factor (PlGF) ratio shows promise as a diagnostic tool, but its adoption in the U.S. remains limited due to the lack of accessible testing platforms, U.S.-based studies, and evidence-based implementation guidelines.

PATIENTS/MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cohort study to evaluate the sFlt-1/PlGF ratio for predicting PE within two weeks among pregnant individuals ≥18 years, ≥20 weeks gestation. Serum samples were obtained from routine prenatal visits or triage evaluations. sFlt-1/PlGF ratios were measured using Roche Elecsys assays, and …

Modeling The Importance Of Life Exposure Factors On Memory Performance In Diverse Older Adults: A Machine Learning Approach, Evan Fletcher, Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, Emily Hokett, Yi Lor, Umesh Venkatesan, Ruijia Chen, Omonigho M. Bubu, Rachel Whitmer, Paola Gilsanz, Zvinka Z. Zlatar

Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Papers

INTRODUCTION: Many health life exposure factors (LEFs) influence cognitive decline and dementia incidence, but their relative importance to episodic memory (an early indicator of cognitive decline) among diverse older adults is unclear. We used machine learning to rank LEFs for memory performance in a large and diverse US cohort.

METHODS: Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences (KHANDLE) and Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR), participants underwent neuropsychological testing and answered questionnaires about multiple LEFs. XGBoost and Shapley Additive exPlanation values ranked the importance of factors influencing cross-sectional episodic memory in the full sample and by sex and …

Changes In Mental Health Care Utilisation Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic Among People Living With Hiv In The Usa: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using The All Of Us Dataset, Atena Pasha, Shan Qiao, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Ruilie Cai, Buwei He, Xueying Yang, Chen Liang Ph.D., Sharon Weissman, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction Despite the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with HIV (PLWH) mental health, large-scale, real-world data on mental healthcare utilisation and associated factors among PLWH remain limited. This study explores mental healthcare utilisation and associated factors among PLWH during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods Using a retrospective cohort design, we identified and included 4575 PLWH through computational phenotyping based on relevant Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model concept sets from the All of Us programme between March 2018 and March 2022. Mental healthcare utilisation was measured using the yearly count of mental healthcare visits and compared …

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Uptake Among Black/African American Men Who Have Sex With Other Men In Midwestern, United States: A Systematic Review, Oluwafemi Adeagbo, Oluwaseun Abdulganiyu Badru, Prince Addo, Amber Hawkins, Monique J. Brown Ph.D., Mph, Xiaoming Li, Rima Afifi

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Black/African American men who have sex with other men (BMSM) are disproportionately affected by HIV, experience significant disparities in HIV incidence, and face significant barriers to accessing HIV treatment and care services, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Despite evidence of individual and structural barriers to PrEP use in the Midwest, no review has synthesized this finding to have a holistic view of PrEP uptake and barriers. This review examines patterns of, barriers to, and facilitators of PrEP uptake among BMSM in the Midwest, United States (US).

Methods: Five databases (CINAHL Plus, PUBMED, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, and Web of Science) were searched …

Patient Consent And The Right To Notice And Explanation Of Ai Systems Used In Health Care, Meghan E Hurley, Benjamin H Lang, Kristin Marie Kostick-Quenet, Jared N Smith, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Given the need for enforceable guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI) that protect the public and allow for innovation, the U.S. Government recently issued a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights which outlines five principles of safe AI design, use, and implementation. One in particular, the right to notice and explanation, requires accurately informing the public about the use of AI that impacts them in ways that are easy to understand. Yet, in the healthcare setting, it is unclear what goal the right to notice and explanation serves, and the moral importance of patient-level disclosure. We propose three normative functions …

Visualizing The Rise Of American Women's Soccer, Hoi Wah Tang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The rise of American women’s soccer is a compelling narrative of determination, talent, and triumph on the global stage. From the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 to the ongoing dominance of the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), this journey encapsulates not only athletic excellence but also the broader struggles for equality, representation, and respect in sports.

This project aims to bring this story to life by presenting a rich tapestry of data visualizations, timelines, and multimedia elements that showcase key moments, players, and milestones. Through engaging graphics and interactive features, users will explore how the sport evolved, the …

Landslide At River's Edge: Alum Bluff, Apalachicola River, Florida, Joann Mossa, Yin-Hsuen Chen

Center for Geospatial Science, Education & Analytics Faculty Publications

When rivers impinge on the steep bluffs of valley walls, dynamic changes stem from a combination of fluvial and mass wasting processes. This study identifies the geomorphic changes, drivers, and timing of a landslide adjacent to the Apalachicola River at Alum Bluff, the tallest natural geological exposure in Florida at similar to 40 m, comprising horizontal sediments of mixed lithology. We used hydrographic surveys from 1960 and 2010, two sets of LiDAR from 2007 and 2018, historical aerial, drone, and ground photography, and satellite imagery to interpret changes at this bluff and river bottom. Evidence of slope failure includes a …

Clinician Perspectives On Virtual Reality Use In Physical Therapy Practice In The United States, Danielle T. Felsberg, Jared T. Mcguirt, Scott E. Ross, Louisa D. Raisbeck, Charlend K. Howard, Christopher K. Rhea

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

The primary goal of physical rehabilitation is to assess movement impairments and restore function to improve overall quality of life. Virtual reality (VR) may provide the optimal environment to promote these goals due to its motivating and modifiable nature which can be difficult to accomplish through traditional real-world therapeutic methods. Current research of VR for rehabilitation has demonstrated that VR interventions can produce clinically meaningful change in motor outcomes. Despite this, adoption and usage of VR by physical therapy professionals is unclear due to the limited research in this area. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify the …

Partisan Divides In Environmental Spending Attitudes: A Two-Level Hierarchical Analysis, 1973-2022, Jordan Lipner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Public attitudes toward environmental spending have become increasingly divided along party lines, with sharp shifts over the past five decades. This thesis updates and expands on Johnson and Schwadel’s 2019 study by applying a two-level hierarchical linear model to General Social Survey data updated to include data from 2015-2022, capturing how political affiliation, education, race, and economic context interact with broader political and economic contexts to shape environmental attitudes over time.
The results show that political affiliation remains the strongest and most reactive predictor of environmental spending attitudes. Republican respondents are significantly more likely to oppose environmental spending, especially under …

Copyright And Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This report by the United States Copyright Office addresses the legal and policy issues related to artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright as outlined in the Office’s August 2023 Notice of Inquiry (NOI).

The report will be published in several parts each one addressing a different topic. This part addresses the copyrightability of works created using generative AI. The first part, published in 2024, addresses the topic of digital replicas—the use of digital technology to realistically replicate an individual’s voice or appearance. A subsequent part will turn to the training of AI models on copyrighted works, licensing considerations, and allocation of …

Surgical Delay-Associated Mortality Risk Varies By Subtype In Loco-Regional Breast Cancer Patients In Seer-Medicare, Macall Leslie Salewon, Rashmi Pathak, William Dooley, Ronald Squires, Hallgeir Rui, Inna Chervoneva, Takemi Tanaka

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

Substantial evidence supports that delay of surgery after breast cancer diagnosis is associated with increased mortality risk, leading to the introduction of a new Commission on Cancer quality measure for receipt of surgery within 60 days of diagnosis for non-neoadjuvant patients. Breast cancer subtype is a critical prognostic factor and determines treatment options; however, it remains unknown whether surgical delay-associated breast cancer-specific mortality (BCSM) risk differs by subtype. This retrospective cohort study aimed to assess whether the impact of delayed surgery on survival varies by subtype (hormone [HR] + /HER2 -, HR -/HER2 -, and HER2 +) in patients with …

Using Academic Librarians And The Academic Library: Survey Results From Mathematics Faculty In United States And Canada, Elizabeth Novosel, Daniel G. Kipnis, Jenni Burke, Rasitha Jayesekera

Libraries Scholarship

Presented at STEM Librarian South Conference, November 6, 2024

Despite our diligent outreach and relationship-building efforts, certain groups of faculty within STEM disciplines remain hesitant to engage with academic librarians and utilize library resources. This challenge raises a critical question: How can librarians effectively support a department when faculty members are unresponsive?

Our research team, composed of three frustrated mathematics librarians and one mathematics faculty member, recognized the need for a fresh approach. Mathematics, a department known for its independence, has received limited attention in scholarly Library and Information Science (LIS) literature. To address this gap, we embarked on a …

Impacts Of Climate Change In The United States, Nathan T. Thompson

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Climate change, a shift in long-term climate patterns primarily driven by anthropogenic factors, poses a super wicked problem impacting every sector and region globally, including the United States. This paper explores the scientific basis of climate change, its contributing factors, and the myriad consequences on terrestrial and aquatic systems, as well as mental health. Notably, the emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and agricultural activities is the primary cause, exacerbated by ideological division and psychological distance. The U.S. has seen some progress with a 7% decrease in emissions over the past 30 years and a growing shift toward renewable …

Detection And Analysis Of Solid-Phase Nutrients In Complex Benthic Cyanobacterium Communities, Cassidy Ann Crandell

Theses and Dissertations

Eutrophication is one of the most serious water quality issues affecting aquatic systems in the United States. Densely populated urban areas as well as mining and agriculture are major sources of anthropogenic nutrient loading into lakes and rivers. Excess loading of nutrients like phosphorus (P) into these ecosystems can cause native algal species to be outcompeted by harmful algal bloom (HAB) species. Increases in these HAB events are a growing public health concern as contact with excreted toxins can be harmful for human, aquatic, and land species. Remediation techniques like total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) have been implemented to reduce …

A/B Testing Of User Enrollment Forms To Enhance Diversity In The Biomedical Workforce Via The National Research Mentoring Network: User-Centered Design Case Study, Toufeeq Ahmed Syed, Erika L Thompson, Jason Johnson, Zainab Latif, Nan Kennedy, Damaris Javier, Katie Stinson, Jamboor K Vishwanatha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is a National Institutes of Health-funded program for diversifying the science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine research workforce through the provision of mentoring, networking, and professional development resources. The NRMN provides mentoring resources to members through its online platform-MyNRMN.

OBJECTIVE: MyNRMN helps members build a network of mentors. Our goal was to expand enrollment and mentoring connections, especially among those who have been historically underrepresented in biomedical training and the biomedical workforce.

METHODS: To improve the ease of enrollment, we implemented the split testing of iterations of our user interface for platform registration. …

Diverse Mentoring Connections Across Institutional Boundaries In The Biomedical Sciences: Innovative Graph Database Analysis, Toufeeq Ahmed Syed, Erika L Thompson, Zainab Latif, Jay Johnson, Damaris Javier, Katie Stinson, Gabrielle Saleh, Jamboor K Vishwanatha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: With an overarching goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in biomedical sciences, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) developed a web-based national mentoring platform (MyNRMN) that seeks to connect mentors and mentees to support the persistence of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical sciences. As of May 15, 2024, the MyNRMN platform, which provides mentoring, networking, and professional development tools, has facilitated more than 12,100 unique mentoring connections between faculty, students, and researchers in the biomedical domain.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the large-scale mentoring connections facilitated by our web-based platform between students (mentees) and faculty (mentors) across institutional …

Age At Lung Cancer Diagnosis In Females Versus Males Who Never Smoke By Race And Ethnicity, Batel Blechter, Jason Y Y Wong, Li-Hsin Chien, Kouya Shiraishi, Xiao-Ou Shu, Qiuyin Cai, Wei Zheng, Bu-Tian Ji, Wei Hu, Mohammad L Rahman, Hsin-Fang Jiang, Fang-Yu Tsai, Wen-Yi Huang, Yu-Tang Gao, Xijing Han, Mark D Steinwandel, Gong Yang, Yihe G Daida, Su-Ying Liang, Scarlett L Gomez, Mindy C Derouen, W Ryan Diver, Ananya G Reddy, Alpa V Patel, Loïc Le Marchand, Christopher Haiman, Takashi Kohno, Iona Cheng, I-Shou Chang, Chao Agnes Hsiung, Nathaniel Rothman, Qing Lan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: We characterized age at diagnosis and estimated sex differences for lung cancer and its histological subtypes among individuals who never smoke.

METHODS: We analyzed the distribution of age at lung cancer diagnosis in 33,793 individuals across 8 cohort studies and two national registries from East Asia, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). Student's t-tests were used to assess the study population differences (Δ years) in age at diagnosis comparing females and males who never smoke across subgroups defined by race/ethnicity, geographic location, and histological subtypes.

RESULTS: We found that among Chinese individuals diagnosed with lung cancer …

The Effects Of Partisanship On Legislative Support For Environmental Policies In The United States, Rachel Summers

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This study investigates the relationship between political partisanship and support for environmental policies at the state level in the United States from the years 2017-2022. To do this, the study focused on two policy areas, water and land, for the average proposed, enacted, and failed bills for all 50 states in the timeframe, with the states categorized as Democratic, swing, or Republican based on the 2016 and 2020 elections. While the study did find that Democratic states were more likely to introduce environmental bills than Republican states, the study also found that there was no statistical difference in the enactment …

Generalizable Pipeline For Constructing Hiv Risk Prediction Models Across Electronic Health Record Systems, Sarah B May, Thomas P Giordano, Assaf Gottlieb

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: The HIV epidemic remains a significant public health issue in the United States. HIV risk prediction models could be beneficial for reducing HIV transmission by helping clinicians identify patients at high risk for infection and refer them for testing. This would facilitate initiation on treatment for those unaware of their status and pre-exposure prophylaxis for those uninfected but at high risk. Existing HIV risk prediction algorithms rely on manual construction of features and are limited in their application across diverse electronic health record systems. Furthermore, the accuracy of these models in predicting HIV in females has thus far been …

Multivariate Evaluation Of Flash Drought Across The United States, J. A. Otkin, Y. Zhong, T. W. Ford, M. C. Anderson, C. Hain, A. Hoell, Mark D. Svoboda, H. Wang

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Transformer-Based Deep Learning Approach For Fairly Predicting Post-Liver Transplant Risk Factors, Can Li, Xiaoqian Jiang, Kai Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Liver transplantation is a life-saving procedure for patients with end-stage liver disease. There are two main challenges in liver transplant: finding the best matching patient for a donor and ensuring transplant equity among different subpopulations. The current MELD scoring system evaluates a patient's mortality risk if not receiving an organ within 90 days. However, the donor-patient matching should also consider post-transplant risk factors, such as cardiovascular disease, chronic rejection, etc., which are all common complications after transplant. Accurate prediction of these risk scores remains a significant challenge. In this study, we used predictive models to solve the above challenges. Specifically, …

Agricultural And Ecological Resources Safeguarded By The Prevention Of Wild Pig Population Expansion, Colin Jareb, Kim M. Pepin, Ryan S. Miller, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Sophie C. Mckee

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are one of the most destructive invasive species in the United States, known for causing extensive damage to agricultural commodities, natural resources, and property, and for transmitting diseases to livestock. Following the establishment of the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program (NFSDMP) in 2014, the expansion of wild pig populations has been successfully slowed. This paper combines two modeling approaches across eight separate models to characterize the expansion of wild pig populations in the absence of intervention by the NFSDMP and forecasts the value of a subset of resources safeguarded from the threat of …

A Proxy System Modeling Approach To Combining Tree-Ring And Sediment-Based Paleotempestological Records, Elizabeth J. Wallace, Sylvia Dee, Joshua Bregy, Kerry A. Emanuel

OES Faculty Publications

The short and biased observational record of tropical cyclones (TCs) limits scientific understanding of how these destructive storms respond to climate forcing. Paleohurricane records use natural archives (tree rings, coarse-grained sediment) to reconstruct TC properties (frequency and intensity of rainfall, wind) over the past few hundreds to thousands of years. However, different sensitivities and sampling biases in the various paleohurricane proxies restrict our ability to compile these records into regional or basin-scale TC estimates. Here we test how well pseudo tree-ring records of paleohurricanes capture TC rainfall and occurrence. Using a large set of statistically downscaled storms forced with the …

Exposure To Climate Change Information Predicts Public Support For Solar Geoengineering In Singapore And The United States, Sonny Rosenthal, Peter J. Irvine, Christopher L. Cummings, Shirley S. Ho

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Solar geoengineering is a controversial climate policy measure that could lower global temperature by increasing the amount of light reflected by the Earth. As scientists and policymakers increasingly consider this idea, an understanding of the level and drivers of public support for its research and potential deployment will be key. This study focuses on the role of climate change information in public support for research and deployment of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) in Singapore (n = 503) and the United States (n = 505). Findings were consistent with the idea that exposure to information underlies support for research and deployment. …

Breaking The Loop: Strategies For Fighting Climate Change On U.S. Farms, Ashley Barry

Honors Capstones

Climate change is an increasingly urgent area of research due to the hardships it causes for lands and communities across the globe. Specifically in regard to the United States (U.S.), climate change has many concerning implications on our agricultural system. Increased weather hazards, decreased crop production, and drought are just a few of the hardships American farmers are facing in their fight to keep their farms alive and feed their communities, despite a rapidly changing climate. This study investigates how farmers can fight and prevent climate change through the use of specific mitigation and adaptation strategies on their farms. Semi- …

Innovation Process And Industrial System Of Us Food And Drug Administration-Approved Software As A Medical Device: Review And Content Analysis, Jiakan Yu, Jiajie Zhang, Shintaro Sengoku

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: There has been a surge in academic and business interest in software as a medical device (SaMD). SaMD enables medical professionals to streamline existing medical practices and make innovative medical processes such as digital therapeutics a reality. Furthermore, SaMD is a billion-dollar market. However, SaMD is not clearly understood as a technological change and emerging industry.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to review the landscape of SaMD in response to increasing interest in SaMD within health systems and regulation. The objectives of the study are to (1) clarify the innovation process of SaMD, (2) identify the prevailing typology of such …

Google Search Trends To Assess Public Interest In And Concern About Vuity For Treating Presbyopia, Taku Wakabayashi, Hana A. Mansour, Robert Abishek, Jayanth Sridhar, Michael N. Cohen, David Xu, Jordan Deaner, Yoshihiro Yonekawa, Jason Hsu, Ajay E. Kuriyan

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

PURPOSE: To assess public awareness, interest, and concerns regarding Vuity (1.25% pilocarpine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution), an eye drop for the treatment of presbyopia, based on Google Trends.

METHODS: We used Google Trends that provides a relative search volume for queried terms, to evaluate searches for Vuity from June 30, 2021, to June 30, 2022, in the United States. The data for this study were downloaded on June 30, 2022. Main outcome measures were changes in relative search volumes for the terms "Vuity," "Eye drops for reading," "Eye drops for near vision," "Presbyopia," "Pilocarpine," and related popular search terms, such as …