Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Unitary Rational Functions: The Scaled Quaternion Case, Daniel Alpay, Ilwoo Choo, Mihaela Vajiac

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We develop the theory of minimal realizations and factorizations of rational functions where the coefficient space is a ring of the type introduced in our previous work, the scaled quaternions, which includes as special cases the quaternions and the split quaternions. The methods involved are not a direct generalization of the complex or quaternionic settings, and in particular, the adjoint is not the classical adjoint and we use properties of real Hilbert spaces. This adjoint allows to define the counterpart of unitarity for matrix-rational functions, and we develop the corresponding theories of realizations and unitary factorizations. We also begin a …

A Solution To The Tension Of Burning On Neutron Stars And Nuclear Physics, Yuri Cavecchi, D. K. Galloway, A. Heger, P. Santillán-Ortega, M. Nava-Callejas, F. M. Vincentelli, Liliana E. Rivera Sandoval, A. Goodwin, Z. Johnston

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

When neutron stars accrete matter from a companion star, this matter forms a disk around them and eventually falls on their surface. Here, the fuel can ignite into bright flashes called Type I bursts. Theoretical calculations based on state-of-the-art nuclear reactions are able to explain many features of the bursts. However, models predict that the bursts should cease at high accretion rates, whereas in many sources they disappear at much lower rates. Moreover, their recurrence times also show strong discrepancies with predictions. Although various solutions have been proposed, none can account for all the observational constraints. Here, we describe a …

Detecting Stigmatizing Language In Clinical Notes With Large Language Models For Addiction Care, Rohan Sethi, John Caskey, Yanjun Gao, Matthew M. Churpek, Timothy A. Miller, Anoop Mayampurath, Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, Majid Afshar, Dmitriy Dligach

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Intensive care units (ICU) produce numerous progress notes that may contain stigmatizing language that perpetuate negative biases and punitive approaches against patients. Patients with substance use disorders are particularly vulnerable to stigma. This study examined the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in the identification of stigmatizing language. We annotated a dataset with over 77,000 stigmatizing and non-stigmatizing notes from the MIMIC-III database. We utilized Meta's Llama-3 8B Instruct LLM to run the following experiments for stigma detection: zero-shot; in-context learning; in-context learning with a selective retrieval; supervised fine-tuning (SFT); and keyword search. All approaches were evaluated on a held-out …

Corrigendum To “Interim Rationalizable Implementation Of Functions” (Kunimoto T, Saran R, Serrano R (2024) Mathematics Of Operations Research 49(3):1791–1824), Takashi Kunimoto, Rene Saran, Roberto Serrano

Research Collection School Of Economics

This is the brief corrigendum to “Interim rationalizable implementation of functions” [Kunimoto T, Saran R, Serrano R (2024) Interim rationalizable implementation of functions. Math. Oper Res. 49(3):1791–1824].

Final 2022 Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Sampling: Bres No. 37 – Josephine Shaft Site Evaluation Summary Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Numerical Modeling Of The Magnetic Vector Potential And The Associated Electromagnetic Momenta, John Adams, Christopher L. Duston

Physics Faculty Publications

The idea that the magnetic vector potential A is associated with stored electromagnetic momenta dates back to Maxwell himself. Here, we present numerical modeling results that illustrate the connection between A and associated linear and angular electromagnetic momenta, expanding on previous work which mostly considered examples that could be analytically solved. We first focus on a stationary point charge q interacting with the magnetic fields of a solenoid, separately calculating A(r) and the electromagnetic momentum added to the system in bringing q to r from a distant location where ⁠A ≈ 0. We then model the …

On Resolving The Neutron Lifetime Puzzle, Polievkt Perov

College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Works

The neutron lifetime puzzle, characterized by significantly different lifetime values obtained from bottle vs beam experiments, may stem from differences in how decayed neutrons are counted. Neutron decay is a beta-decay process producing a proton, an electron, and a neutrino. In bottle experiments, the number of decayed neutrons is measured directly. In beam experiments, this number is inferred indirectly by counting the protons resulting from neutron decays. It is proposed that in beam experiments, some protons may capture electrons and form neutral hydrogen atoms, which go undetected by proton detectors. Consequently, not all neutron decay events are counted, leading to …

2026 February - Tennessee Monthly Climate Report, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

Hi All

February 2026 began with a volatile combination of a mid-level low from the Central U.S. and a powerful system moving up the East Coast, trapping Tennessee in a deep freeze. This convergence brought heavy snowfall to East Tennessee while much of the rest of the state was still recovering from a major winter storm just a week prior. On the morning of February 2, record-breaking temperatures hit 15-20°F below normal across the state. In particular, the Bristol/Tri-Cities airport recorded a low of -7°F, breaking its daily record by seven degrees and marking its first sub-zero temperature since 2015. …

Positive Solutions Of Semipositone Singular Three-Points Boundary Value Problems For Nonlinear Fractional Differential Equations, Xueyan Zhang, Zhaocai Hao, Martin Bohner

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study introduces the existence of one positive solution for a specific category of semipositive singular three-point boundary value problems associated with Caputo fractional differential equations. The proof relies on the application of the Guo–Krasnosel'skii fixed point theorem. In the end, we provide an illustrative example.

To Hold Or Sell Breeding Cattle In The Rangelands, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Animal production and livestock factsheets

In a dry season where feed, water and finances are limited, removing less productive animals as soon as possible is a good option. This will free up feed for more productive animals and help preserve ground cover.

This page provides some of the information and a process for making decisions about holding or selling breeding cattle.

Lc-Ms/Ms Method Development For The Analysis Of Cannabinoids In Wastewater, Abigail M. Castellanos, Ava La Lande

The Kean Review: Journal in Student Research

The goal of this research was to establish a reliable method to detect the presence of cannabinoids in wastewater and increase the sensitivity of detection. Since the legalization of cannabis in many states, toxicology research has expanded on methods of detection in hopes of identifying usage patterns. At the Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties, it was established that cannabinoids are not thoroughly accounted for in the process of filtering wastewater in addition to our limited understanding of consumption trends. This stands true for many wastewater facilities, especially as the intake of cannabis remains prevalent for various populations across …

Fisheries Management Paper No. 311: West Coast Deep Sea Crustacean Resource Harvest Strategy, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Fisheries Management Papers

Harvest strategies for Western Australia’s (WA) aquatic resources are formal documents developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD, the Department) to support decision-making processes that ensure the outcomes are consistent with the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD; Fletcher 2002a) and Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM; Fletcher et al. 2012). Harvest strategies are a key component of all contemporary fishery management systems and a requirement for certification under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The objectives of ESD are reflected in the objectives of the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 (FRMA).

This West Coast Deep Sea Crustacean …

2026 February - Tennessee Climate Snapshot, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Novel Buxus Papillosa-Assisted Green Synthesis Of Copper And Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles With Enhanced Catalytic Degradation Of Alizarin Red S Dye, Afrah Zahid, Warda Hassan, Syed Awais Ali, Zahoor Ullah, Mohammad Younas, Syed Nasir Shah, Ali Fatehizadeh, Mashallah Rezakazemi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this work, the biogenic synthesis route using the leaf extract of Buxus papillosa was employed for the green synthesis of copper oxide (CuO) and nickel oxide (NiO) nanoparticles (NPs), which were then applied for the catalytic degradation of Alizarin Red S dye (ARS) as a model organic pollutant. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis confirmed spherical and rod-like morphologies for CuO and NiO NPs, respectively, while Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) verified their elemental composition. The average crystallite sizes of CuO and NiO NPs were 6.21 and 5.94 nm, respectively, as determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and their optical band gaps …

Efficient Privacy-Preserving Conjunctive Searchable Encryption For Cloud-Iot Healthcare Systems, Jiadi Ma, Tianqi Peng, Gong Bei, Muhammad Waqas, Hisham Alasmary, Sheng Chen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In cloud-Internet of Things (IoT) healthcare systems, private medical data leakage is a serious concern as the cloud server is not fully trusted. Dynamic searchable symmetric encryption (DSSE), with necessary forward and backward privacy security properties, enables doctors to retrieve ciphertexts while guaranteeing data privacy. However, existing forward and backward private DSSE schemes are not well-suited for cloud-IoT healthcare systems with attribute-value type databases. To this end, we propose an efficient privacy-preserving conjunctive searchable encryption scheme for cloud-IoT healthcare systems, called PC-SE. It is the first conjunctive DSSE scheme designed for attribute-value type databases. Specifically, we design flexible search capabilities …

Mitigating Malware Prevalence In Networks With Arbitrary Topologies: A Flip-It Cyber Game Approach Integrated With Epidemic Modeling, Mousa Tayseer Jafar, Lu Xing Yang, Gang Li, Robin Doss, Kon Mouzakis, Rajesh Vasa, Helge Janicke, Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahmed Mohsin, Iqbal H. Sarker, Kristen Moore, Seyit Camtepe, Diksha Goel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Cyber threats have evolved in complexity, aiming at a wide range of sectors using advanced methods and tools. This evolving threat landscape challenges existing cybersecurity frameworks, many of which lack the adaptability to counteract the complex tactics of sophisticated adversaries. Developing robust cyber defense strategies requires simulating dynamic interactions between attackers and defenders across high, moderate, and low-impact scenarios. The Flip-It cyber game serves as an intelligent framework for simulating these interactions, enabling the analysis of adaptive strategies in cybersecurity. This paper aims to address the problem of mitigating malware prevalence with full consideration of attack/defense capabilities in arbitrary network …

Communication As Layered Architecture: Core Processing And Empathic Modulation, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper proposes a structural re-description of communication by separating Core processing from its social interface. Using the developmental sequence of Large Language Models (LLMs) as an external reference point, a layered architecture is identified, consisting of a foundational Core processing layer and a subsequent Empathic modulation layer.

The investigation begins with the observation that empathic signaling can obstruct rather than facilitate interaction for certain individuals. By examining the emergence of Base AI—Core processing prior to empathic adjustment—it is demonstrated that coherent, constraint-preserving interaction is possible without affective resonance.

Through this framework, existing cognitive theories and observed "deficits" are repositioned. …

Rivers Reimagined: Floods, Droughts, And The Future Of Hydrologic Systems In Aotearoa, Ryan Anderson '26

Annual Student Research Poster Session

Hydroelectric power plays a crucial role in New Zealand’s renewable energy system and depends on consistent and reliable rainfall and river flow. This study analyzes hydrologic variability in two Wairoa River catchments in the Northland Region of New Zealand, the Mangahahuru River (Site 46674) and the Kaihu River at Gorge (Site 46611). Over four months, streamflow data provided by the University of Otago, Department of Geography was analyzed using R in RStudio to examine flood frequency, seasonal drought periods, and long-term flow trends. Both catchments were evaluated with approximately 95% completeness. The comparison in flow trends between the rivers highlights …

Impact Of Iron-Bearing Fillers On The Mechanical Strength And Chemical Stability Of Magnesium Potassium Phosphate Matrices Incorporating Rhenium, Sergey Sayenko, Volodymyr Shkuropatenko, Hans Conrad Zur Loye, Petr Vecernik, Monika Kiselova, Vlastislav Kašpar, Vlastimil Miller, Petr Bezdicka, Jan Šubrt, Petra Ecorchard, Natalija Murafa, Iva Milisavljevic, Scott T. Misture

Faculty Publications

We report on the study of the immobilization process of non-radioactive rhenium (Re), a chemical analogue of technetium-99 (⁹⁹Tc), in compounds based on magnesium potassium phosphate (MKP), as well as the possibility of enhancing their properties with iron-bearing additives/fillers. Powdered Re2O7 was used as the initial Re-containing source. Because of the solubility and high leachability of Tc (VII), which is also volatile at high temperatures, its immobilization for long-term storage and disposal poses a serious challenge to researchers. Taking this into account, low-temperature stabilization technology based on MKP, a cementitious material, is currently considered promising. We prepared experimental …

A Note On Sufficient Dimension Folding For Regression Mean Function With Categorical Predictors, Bilin Zeng, Akim Adekpedjou, Xuerong Meggie Wen

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multi-dimensional arrays are referred to as tensors. Tensor-valued predictors are commonly encountered in modern biomedical applications, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion-weighted MRI, and longitudinal health data. In survival analysis, it is both important and challenging to integrate clinically relevant information, such as gender, age, and disease state along with medical imaging tensor data or longitudinal health data to predict disease outcomes. Most existing higher-order sufficient dimension reduction regressions for matrix- or array-valued data focus solely on tensor data, often neglecting established clinical covariates that are readily available and known to have predictive value. …

Majority Of Utahns Support Keeping Bears Ears National Monument As Originally Designated, Michaelann Nelson

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Bears Ears National Monument in Southeastern Utah was established in 2016 by President Obama after a coalition of Native American petitioned for its designation. In 2017, during his first administration, President Trump reduced the size of the monument by 85%. It was subsequently restored to the original boundaries in 2021 by President Biden. In 2022, the Utah Legislature provided $5 million in funding for the Attorney General’s office to challenge the Bears Ears National Monument designation, and the State of Utah filed a lawsuit in August 2022 challenging the designation (1).

Responsible Ai In Teaching And Learning, Asa B. Stone, Mark C. Stone, Derek M. Heeren, Santosh Pitla

PRAIRIE: Pioneering Responsible AI for Research, Innovation, and Education

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education presents both transformative opportunities and significant pedagogical risks. While AI tools are becoming embedded in academic and professional environments, their integration into teaching and learning raises critical questions about cognitive engagement, academic integrity, equity, and skill development. This white paper proposes a principled framework for the responsible integration of AI in higher education, grounded in the dual commitment to AI literacy and the cultivation of durable skills.

The framework articulates six core principles: purposefulness; transparency; integrity and attribution; critical AI literacy; equity and access; and privacy and data protection. …

Future Trends In Cybersecurity: A Meta-Review, Yara Mohammed, Manar Alsaid, Gahangir Hossain

Faculty Publications

The increasing importance of cybersecurity in protecting digital assets, data and infrastructures necessitates a reevaluation of research priorities within the discipline. As of today, numerous emerging cybersecurity topics are gaining significant importance in both academic research and industry applications. To identify recent trends in cybersecurity topics, this study extracts scholarly articles from two prestigious academic databases, the ACM Digital Library, and Google Scholar, covering the period from early 2015 to late 2024.Through a systematic identification of trends and focal points in cybersecurity research, a comprehensive analysis is facilitated, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), Biterm Topic Modeling (BTM), keyword frequencies, and …

Phosphorus Adsorption And Desorption Characteristics On Micronutrient Doped Biochar, Moe Kikuchi '27

Annual Student Research Poster Session

The increasing global demand for food necessitates efficient agricultural practices; however, the overuse of phosphorus (P) fertilizers presents a major environmental concern. Advanced materials, including biochar, offer promising strategies for mitigating these effects. Biochar, a carbonaceous material derived from biomass, can be functionalized with micronutrients such as magnesium (Mg) or iron (Fe) to enhance its P adsorption and retention characteristics so that the ion-doped biochar could serve as a sustained nutrient release fertilizer besides improving soil health. This study investigated the adsorption and desorption behavior of dissolved P (200 µM/g and 400 µM/g) in three types of biochars: raw (BC), …

The Feelit System: Application Content-Aware Perspectives And Challenges On Understanding User Likes In Social Network Posts, Konstantinos Theocharidis, Hady W. Lauw, Panagiotis Karras

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In a series of our prior works, we study influence and subscription maximization problems in social networks that are based on posts having influential content; as content we consider a set of features where each feature corresponds to a specific social network page, whereas influence and subscription relate to gaining the postlike and subscription-to-brand page of targeted users, respectively; subscription is conceptually achieved as repetitive influence on users. So, both influence and subscription depend on content that gains the likes of users; however, to be realistic, modeling and estimating such likes is a complex problem that has not been adequately …

Cellscout: Visual Analytics For Mining Biomarkers In Cell State Discovery, Rui Sheng, Zelin Zang, Jiachen Wang, Yan Luo, Zixin Chen, Yan Zhou, Shaolun Ruan, Huamin Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cell state discovery is crucial for understanding biological systems and enhancing medical outcomes. A key aspect of this process is identifying distinct biomarkers that define specific cell states. However, difficulties arise from the co-discovery process of cell states and biomarkers: biologists often use dimensionality reduction to visualize cells in a two-dimensional space. Then they usually interpret visually clustered cells as distinct states, from which they seek to identify unique biomarkers. However, this assumption is often this assumption often fails to hold due to internal inconsistencies in a cluster, making the process trial-and-error and highly uncertain. Therefore, biologists urgently need effective …

Prisrv+: Privacy And Usability-Enhanced Wireless Service Discovery With Fast And Expressive Matchmaking Encryption, Yang Yang, Guomin Yang, Yingjiu Li, Pengfei Wu, Rui Shi, Minming Huang, Jian Weng, Hwee Hwa Pang, Deng, Robert H.

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The evolution of decentralized identity (DID) and self-sovereign identity (SSI) frameworks, as endorsed by W3C Verifiable Credentials (VC) and eIDAS 2.0, underscores the need for secure, efficient, and privacy-preserving credential management. However, existing credential systems often depend on centralized issuers, lack efficient aggregation mechanisms, or fail to ensure unlinkability across authentication sessions. To address these challenges, we propose DISC (Decentralized Identity System with Self-Sovereign Credential Aggregation), a novel credential system that enables multi-authority credential issuance, user-controlled credential aggregation, and unlinkable authentication. DISC allows users to aggregate credentials from multiple issuers while maintaining constant-size authentication tokens and supporting batch verification for …

Prompt Tuning Without Labeled Samples For Zero-Shot Node Classification In Text-Attributed Graphs, Sethupathy Parameswaran, Suresh Sundaram, Yuan Fang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Node classification is a fundamental problem in information retrieval with many real-world applications, such as community detection in social networks, grouping articles published online and product categorization in e-commerce. Zero-shot node classification in text-attributed graphs (TAGs) presents a significant challenge, particularly due to the absence of labeled data. In this paper, we propose a novel Zero-shot Prompt Tuning (ZPT) framework to address this problem by leveraging a Universal Bimodal Conditional Generator (UBCG). Our approach begins with pre-training a graph-language model to capture both the graph structure and the associated textual descriptions of each node. Following this, a conditional generative model …

Fortifying The Seams Between C/C++ And Rust: Characterizing Bugs In Interop Tools, Xuemeng Cai, Jiakun Liu, Cunyang Liu, Lingfeng Bao, Yijun Yu, Lingxiao Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Rust has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its safety and high performance. Despite these advantages, Rust projects rarely start from scratch in practice, and many Rust-based systems instead use hybrid programming, where Rust interoperates with existing C/C++ code. To reduce the manual effort involved in this interoperation (interop) process, several interop tools have been proposed to facilitate hybrid programming between Rust and C/C++. However, the challenges and limitations of these tools remain largely unexplored, leaving developers unclear about the future directions and users unclear about the appropriate usage scenarios. To fill the gap, we mined 320 bugs …

Mm-Attackg: A Multimodal Approach To Attack Graph Construction With Large Language Models, Yongheng Zhang, Xinyun Zhao, Yunshan Ma, Haokai Ma, Yingxiao Guan, Guozheng Yang, Yuliang Lu, Xiang Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) parsing aims to extract key threat information from massive data, transform it into actionable intelligence, enhance threat detection and defense efficiency, including attack graph construction, intelligence fusion, and indicator extraction. Among these research topics, Attack Graph Construction (AGC) is essential for visualizing and understanding the potential attack paths of threat events from CTI reports. Existing approaches primarily construct the attack graphs purely from the textual data to reveal the logical threat relationships between entities within the attack behavioral sequence. However, they typically overlook the specific threat information inherent in visual modalities, which preserves key threat details …