Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Accurate Body Weight Class Prediction From Mirna And Gene Expression In Blood And Saliva Samples, Kimberly Lettner

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

miRNA interference on protein abundance related to glucose uptake and lipid production has been evaluated in biomedical research and linked to metabolic disorders like severe obesity. The direct regulation of protein abundance caused by miRNAs on a person’s metabolism can lead to an increased weight and overall size. Body size, measured by BMI, provides additional physical descriptions that can be combined with hair color, eye color, age, and skin pigment to aid investigations of unidentified remains or unknown suspects not found in a database. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the miRNA expression of target biomarkers in dried …

Development Of Novel Signatures For Determination Of Cell Types In Blood And Saliva Mixtures, Caitlin Lydon

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Determination of tissue source and the time at which a biological material is transferred from its source to another surface, known as the time-since-deposition (TSD), would assist forensic analysts by providing crucial context for DNA profiles generated from biological evidence. Many methods for cell identification have been explored using biomolecule markers such as mRNA, miRNA, and differential DNA methylation. Forensic laboratories have also developed methods for TSD estimation that focus on degradation of biomolecules. Biomolecules such as mRNA or miRNA degrade at different rates due to some being more stable than others. The ratio of stable degrading biomolecules, therefore, can …

Advancing Forensic Firearm Analysis: Quantitative Measurement Of Pellet Patterns Using Open Source Software, Inez Staples

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Shotgun pellet pattern analysis plays a critical role in forensic firearm investigations, particularly for estimating muzzle-to-target distances. However, conventional methods based on pattern diameter become unreliable when only partial patterns are recovered, as is often the case in forensic scenarios involving soft tissue or incomplete impact surfaces. This study aimed to validate ImageJ, an open-source image analysis software, as a standardized, accurate, and reproducible tool for measuring pellet-to-pellet distances in partial shotgun patterns. The methodology included calibration of ImageJ using a perforated poly board, comparison of manual versus digital measurements on 17 pre-made pellet patterns, and development of a calibration …

Qualitative Method Validation Of Acid/Neutral Drugs Carisoprodol, Meprobamate, And Naproxen Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Kate O. Martin

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Meprobamate, carisoprodol, and naproxen are acidic/neutral drugs widely prescribed for muscle relaxation and inflammatory conditions, with frequent detection in forensic toxicology casework due to extensive clinical use. A method to qualitatively evaluate these compounds was developed to unify acid/neutral drug screening. This study incorporated blank blood, antemortem blood, postmortem blood, urine, and liver homogenate as representative biological matrices. Method validation was conducted in accordance with ANSI/ASB Standard 036 for Forensic Toxicology, encompassing key parameters including limit of detection (LOD), endogenous interferences, potential interferences, carryover, processed sample stability, and ionization suppression/enhancement. The validation was performed using the internal standards carisoprodol-D7, meprobamate-D7, …

Impact Of Substrates And Deposition Time On Bacteria Associated With Saliva Samples And Its Implication On A Bacterial Signature-Based Body Fluid Identification Method, Olisdey Galano Cruz

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Traditional serological methods for body fluid detection are limited by poor specificity and sensitivity, lacking confirmatory capability and thereby increasing the risk of false positives that may compromise the integrity of forensic investigations. While molecular methods such as mRNA, miRNA, and DNA methylation offer improved specificity, they are often hindered by marker instability and operational complexity in routine forensic workflows. Bacterial signature profiling has emerged as a promising alternative, offering enhanced stability, abundance, and compatibility with existing DNA workflows. However, its forensic implementation requires further validation. This study evaluated the effects of substrate type and storage time on the salivary …

Whipped Into Shape: Infrastructure As Punishment For The Unruly Citizen, Eliza Mortimer

Anthós

This article interrogates how inflexible designs and policies of airline seating, as well as critical socio-political rhetoric, discipline and marginalize bodies that do not conform to normative standards. Situating airline seating within fat and disability studies models, Mortimer argues that these punitive measures are not neutral, but rather reflective of cultural narratives of productivity, morality, and bodily discipline. Mortimer draws from ethnographic analyses of first-person accounts and policy reviews to demonstrate how shrinking seats, rigid policies, and moralized discourse construct a “space of calculability” that pressures fat individuals to monitor and minimize their bodies to justify their presence in public …

The Life Of Or Measure 110: Evolution, Implementation, And Impact, Matthew D. Albertson

Anthós

In 2020, Oregon voters approved Measure 110, a groundbreaking policy that decriminalized possession of small quantities of controlled substances and redirected cannabis tax revenues to treatment and recovery centers. This article examines the passage, implementation, and rollback of Measure 110 with HB 4002, enacted in 2024. Drawing on state audits, legislative records, and public health data to contextualize Measure 110 within broader debates on public health, criminal justice reform, and policy-making, Albertson analyzes the progressive policy’s aspirational, reform-minded goals and the practical shortcomings in its enactment. Albertson argues that while Measure 110 has faced justified criticism and partial reversal, it …

A Proposed Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé Game Model For Natural Language Processing Generative Adversarial Networks, Don Li

Anthós

Large Language Models (LLM’s) (e.g., ChatGPT) constitute both a significant research area and commercial application of AI. Current major LLM’s are built on Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) neural network architecture to perform natural language processing (NLP) tasks. Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is another popular neural network architecture, which leverages a zero-sum game between constituent neural networks within the architecture to train the GAN, and is widely used for visual data applications. This article proposes a new GAN architecture for NLP: an EF-GAN whose underlying algorithm uses Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé (EF) games, a game-theoretic approach from model theory to determine elementary equivalence of …

Seizing The Moment: Post-Covid-19 Enrollment Trends Among Nontraditional Honors Students, Solomon Aleph

Anthós

This article investigates the motivations behind the rising enrollment of nontraditional students at Portland State University’s Honors College, which nearly doubled from 2019 to 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic. Aleph argues that nontraditional students viewed education as a means of reclaiming agency and reshaping their futures. Through interviews and a focus group with four nontraditional students, Aleph explores how the pandemic created disruption and opportunities. The study finds that while economic instability and isolation were factors, intrinsic motivations—especially a desire for self-improvement, intellectual challenge, and rewriting personal narratives—were more prominent factors shaping enrollment decisions. Drawing from this qualitative analysis, Aleph …

Different Responses Involving Tfh Cells Delay Parasite-Specific Antibody Production In Trypanosoma Cruzi Acute Experimental Models, Ana Carolina Leão, Maria Jose Villar, Rakesh Adhikari, Cristina Poveda, Leroy Versteeg, Gregório Almeida, Peter J Hotez, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Kathryn M Jones

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Introduction: Chagas disease (CD), caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects millions globally. Despite treatment options in the acute phase, most infections progress to a chronic indeterminate form or develop severe cardiac/gastrointestinal complications. Understanding the immune response is crucial for the development of vaccines and more efficient drugs for the disease control.

Methods: This work investigates the immune response to T. cruzi H1 K68 strain infection in female BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice to characterize differences in Tfh and B cell responses that may be involved in the poor parasite-specific antibody production during acute infection. For this, mice were euthanized …

A Landscape Analysis Of Psychedelic Retreat Organizations Advertising Online, Logan Neitzke-Spruill, Caroline S Beit, Jill Oliver Robinson, Nikita Singh, Srijith Kambala, Rishi Ramesh, Amy L Mcguire

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Research into psychedelics' clinical potential has corresponded to a growth in public interest and adult use. One common pathway to accessing psychedelics is through psychedelic retreats. While individual retreats have been characterized in the anthropological literature, no systematic evaluation of the psychedelic retreat industry exists. Assessing the characteristics of the psychedelic retreat industry is critical to understanding the associated ethical, legal, and social implications and ensuring consumer safety. To this end, we conducted a landscape analysis of online, publicly available information to capture and characterize a broad range of organizations offering psychedelic retreats and marketing to English-speaking consumers. From July …

Rrh Library Newsletter, Winter 2025, Libraries At Rochester Regional Health

Rochester Regional Health authored publications and proceedings

Newsletter sections include: New Database: Embase; St. Lawrence Health New Database Access; EBSCOhost New Database User Interface; Discovery Tool Update

University Libraries Impact Report 2025, Leslie Haynsworth, Kristine Hontz, Abigail Cole

University Libraries Policies and Reports

A report on notable activities in University of South Carolina Libraries in 2025.

Introducing Sustainable Development Goals In College Curricula: A Way Forward, Christy Ashley, Jason D. Oliver, Hillary Leonard

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The commentary proposes a blueprint to help guide curriculum innovations, partnerships, and teaching interventions that incorporate the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) into the curriculum. It suggests the utilization of AACSB’s Societal Impact Canvas with Ancona et al.’s (2007) Leadership Capabilities (Sensemaking, Relating, Visioning, Inventing) to provide a blueprint for mission-aligned SDG integration at a local level. It provides an illustrative example from the University of Rhode Island (USA), where the focus is on the Blue Economy. It aims to provide practical guidance for how a college or university can efficiently organize to gain stakeholder input that helps enhance …

Metaphoric Sense Developments In The Names Of Places Of Worship In Contemporary American English, John G. Newman, Sylwester Łodej

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This paper offers an account of the metaphorical extension of the names of religious houses of worship such as temple, church, mosque, and synagogue in contemporary American English, reflecting processes of linguistic secularization. Using data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), the study investigates how the meanings of religious terms enter into secular domains, signalling shifts in societal perceptions of religious experience. The findings show that temple and church frequently undergo metaphorization, appearing in phrases like temple of learning and church of football, where non-religious modifiers drive semantic extension. These terms increasingly denote secular places characterized by human …

Showing Our Resolve, Michael Fernandez, Rachel E. Scott

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

[In the absence of an abstract, the opening of the editorial is provided.] New Year’s resolutions tend to be ephemeral things, conceived in the waking fog of the early morning (or afternoon, no judgment) on January 1 and usually abandoned before the first bloom of spring. Here at Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS), we strive not to be fair weather planners, and so our resolution for 2025 (and beyond) has been years in the making. The editors of LRTS, working alongside Core Journal editors and within the broader family of American Library Association (ALA) publications, resolves …

Too Essential To Fail: Lessons From County Fiscal Crises, Michael A. Francus

Journal Articles

This Article draws out the lessons of counties for municipal finance. To do so, the Article begins by unpacking the municipal finance regulations that have provided counties with extraordinary fiscal safety. The Article then turns to case studies of the eleven counties that either filed for bankruptcy or had state fiscal interventions since the passage of the Bankruptcy Code in 1978. Those case studies show how counties' finances can (in rare cases) go wrong despite well-designed municipal finance regulations. The case studies also show how counties have successfully responded to those crises through bankruptcy and fiscal intervention.

Using that analysis, …

"I’Ll Wait Zero Seconds": Faculty Perspectives On Serials Access, Sharing, And Immediacy, Rachel Elizabeth Scott, Anne Shelley, Chad E. Buckley, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Julie A. Murphy

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study explores how faculty across disciplines access and share scholarly serial content and what expectations they have for immediacy. The authors conducted twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured interviews with faculty of various ranks representing all Illinois State University (ISU) colleges. The findings, presented in the words of participants and triangulated with data from local sources, suggest that faculty use a variety of context-specific mechanisms to access and share serial literature. Participants discuss how they use library services such as databases, subscriptions, interlibrary loan, and document delivery, coupled with academic social networks, disciplinary repositories, author websites, and other publicly available sources to …

Investigation Of Sleep Disorders And Related Influencing Factors Among The Elderly In Southeast Coastal Regions Of China: A Cross-Sectional Survey Analysis, Yaopian Chen, Fu Su, Haixia Xiang, Jinhong Xia

Student Publications [Scholarly]

Objective: To assess the sleep status and prevalence rate of the elderly in southeast coastal areas of China, and analyze related factors. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among elderly individuals in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, situated in the southeast coastal areas of China, using a multi-stage random sampling method. A total of 903 elderly people aged ≥ 60 years were selected for the survey. The questionnaire aimed to assess their sleep status using PSQI and to evaluate related factors using Self-designed General Information and Health Behavior Questionnaires, SAS, GDS-15, ESS, AD8, SHAP, WHOQOL-BREF, among other tools. Logistic regression was …

Human Perception Of Ai Capabilities At Classifying Perturbed Roadway Signs, Katherine R. Garcia, Jing Chen, Yanru Xiao, Scott Mishler, Cong Wang, Bin Hu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is crucial to numerous functions required for driving automation systems, including the computer vision techniques used to detect the roadway environment and make real-time decisions. However, the images used as inputs to the AI system may be maliciously perturbed, or manipulated, causing the AI system to make an incorrect classification. In this study, we examined humans’ perception of the AI’s computer vision capability of classifying various road sign images, including the original images, images with two different types of malicious attacks, and images that are scrambled randomly at the pixel level. Our results showed that participants rated …

A Real-Time Approach To Capture Ambient And Focal Attention In Visual Search, Gavindya Jayawardena, Yasith Jayawardana, Yasasi Abeysinghe, Bhanuka Mahanama, Sampath Jayarathna, Jacek Gwizdka

Computer Science Faculty Publications

During visual search, individuals’ attention shifts between ambient and focal states in response to task demands and stimuli. The ambient/focal coefficient K is a statistically validated measure of these states, computed offline from fixation duration and saccade amplitude data. While current methods compute K offline, real-time computation could enable applications such as monitoring user attention, creating attention-adaptive user interfaces, and optimizing graphics rendering. However, real-time computation of K requires stable estimates for the parameters of fixation duration and saccade amplitude distributions. Since these distributions are heavy-tailed, the real-time estimates exhibit high variance and slow convergence. To overcome this, we propose …

A Bibliographic And Topic Modeling Analysis Of The P-Adic Theory Literature Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation, Humberto Llinás, Ismael Gutiérrez, Anselmo Torresblanca, Javier De La Hoz, Brian Llinás

Computer Science Faculty Publications

P-adic analysis, introduced by Kurt Hensel in the early 20th century, has developed into a fundamental area of mathematical research with broad applications in number theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. This study aims to examine the thematic evolution and scholarly impact of p-adic research through a comprehensive topic modeling and bibliometric analysis. Using classical bibliometric techniques (e.g., performance analysis, co-authorship, and co-citation networks) combined with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), we analyzed 7388 peer-reviewed documents published between 1965 and 2024. The computational workflow was conducted using R (version 4.4.1) and VOSviewer (version 1.6.20), which enabled the identification of 20 distinct …

From Philosophy To Nlu: Evolving Definitions With Research Hypotheses, Jian Wu, Sarah Rajtmajer

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Over the past decades, alongside advancements in natural language processing, significant attention has been paid to training models to automatically extract, understand, test, and generate hypotheses in open and scientific domains. However, interpretations of the term hypothesis for various natural language understanding (NLU) tasks have migrated from traditional definitions in the natural, social, and formal sciences. Even within NLU, we observe differences defining hypotheses across literature. In this paper, we overview and delineate various definitions of hypothesis. Especially, we discern the nuances of definitions across recently published NLU tasks. We highlight the importance of well-structured and well-defined hypotheses, particularly as …

Humans Vs. Llms On Open Domain Scientific Claim Verification: A Baseline Study, Benjamin Curtis, Stefania Dzhaman, Matthew Maisonave, Jian Wu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Verifying scientific claims is challenging for the general public because most people lack domain knowledge. Manual verification by subject domain experts is accurate, but it is obviously not scalable to meet the rising number of scientific claims on the Web. Whether the emerging large language models and large reasoning models can be used for scientific claim verification, and how their performances compare to humans, are still research questions. To this end, we developed a new benchmark MSVEC2 that consists of 138 claims from credible fact verification websites and science news outlets. Two tasks were given to both human and LLM …

Women On Boards Annual Monitoring Report 2024, Center For Entrepreneurship And Innovation

Faculty Books

The AUC Egypt women on boards monitoring report is issued annually to track and monitor the presence and representation of women on boards towards meeting the goal of having 30% women on boards by 2030. The importance of improving representation of women on boards stems from the fact that it is one of the good governance pillars, in addition to the positive impact on firm performance and profitability. The National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 has accordingly promoted for increasing the leadership roles of women and holding key positions in public institutions and companies, setting the target …

Frontiers At 50 Oral Histories: Feminist Community, Activism, And Scholarship, Elise Homan, Silvia P. Solis

School of Interdisciplinary Programs & Community Engagement Faculty Publications

As part of the fiftieth anniversary of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, the editorial collective at the University of Utah produced an oral history project including interviews with fourteen previous editorial members of the journal. This essay explores the oral histories to highlight the journal's enduring contributions to feminist scholarship, community activism, and grassroots knowledge production. Since 1974, Frontiers has been dedicated to sustaining a collective editorial structure, bridging academic and community experiences, and supporting diversity within feminist publishing. Through tracing a narrative across the oral histories, this essay shares the evolving challenges and successes of sustaining these …

Redesigning Home Reversion Products To Empower Retirement For Singapore's Public Flat Owners, Koon Shing Kwong, Jing Rong Goh, Jordan Jie Xin Lee, Ting Lin Collin Chua

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper introduces an innovative sell-type home reversion product aimed at monetizing Singapore’s public flats, serving as a new alternative to the existing Singapore Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS). This new product not only retains the LBS’s guaranteed period of residence in the property along with life annuity incomes but also enhances the product features to meet specific homeowner needs, including the ability to age in place, flexibility in retaining part of the property, options for bequests, and guaranteed principal return. By incorporating these additional features, the new product seeks to stimulate greater demand for monetizing public flats among asset-rich but …

Improving The Performance Of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships For Sustainable Development In Coastal Areas : Sweden (Hanö Bay) As A Case Study, Jennie Larsson

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

Coastal areas are vital for both ecosystems and human societies. Comprising diverse terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, coastal areas provide us with essential resources and services. However, these areas are under threat from human activities and climate change, necessitating new governance structures to ensure their sustainable management and conservation. This research investigates how to improve the performance of local multi-stakeholder partnerships (M-SPs) in coastal areas, promoted as key mechanisms for achieving sustainable development goals. By drawing on stakeholder theory and using Pattberg & Widerberg’s (2014) analytical framework with nine building blocks for successful M-SPs as a foundation, the study examined …

Milner Library Annual Report, 2025, Milner Library Illinois State University

Reports and White Papers - Milner Library

2025 annual report for Milner Library, Illinois State University.

Alert During What? Beyond The "Big O" To A Culturally-Cognizant, Process View Of Entrepreneurial Alertness, Robert J. Pidduck, Daniel R. Clark

Management Faculty Publications

Entrepreneurial alertness is a psychological aptitude generally associated with aspects of nascent venturing, centered on individuals' environmental observations, the association of resources, and idea evaluation. A decade following the Tang et al. (2012) consensus construct and scale, critiques remain questioning its utility and unique value to the major conversations in entrepreneurship. Proponents put great emphasis on entrepreneurial alertness's proven association with opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial actions. Yet, critics suggest it might be an unnecessary step offering little more than a positive association with opportunity recognition in a highly generalized and static way. The purpose of this paper is to address …