bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Remotely Controlled Magneto-Phononic Devices Achieving Nonreciprocity and Anderson Localization in Ferrofluid
Authors:   , Jin Yuqi
Published: January 2025

Motivated by previous relevant research on phononics including both active and passive phononics, the interest of faster turnability and more functions of the active phononics of further study led to this proposing research topic: magnetic field tunable active functional phononics. The first design of magnetic field tunable reciprocal--non-reciprocal transmission acoustic device was established, material was characterized, and numerical simulation has been performed. The simulation results show clear T-symmetric breaking non-reciprocity due to energy level splitting effect with Doppler effect – an acoustic Zeeman effect. Inspired by this preliminary work, further experiments were planned to demonstrate this effective Zeeman effect in phononics and effectively charged phonons in water based ferro-fluid. The objectives of this work as the next series of tasks were to illustrate acoustic Zeeman effect and acoustic Landau levels in various strength of magnetic field to investigate a design non-reciprocal sound device with magnetic field switching, which could be controlled on the amount of non-reciprocity with the strength of magnetic field. Once this new field first discovered by the proposed study tasks, more active tunable magnetic field phononics devices could be designed and exemplified in terms of both simulations and experiments. Faster and more controllable active phononic devices could be designed and made based on this study. The experimental maximum non-reciprocity was measured as 22 dB difference and the amount of the non-reciprocity can be further controlled by adjusting the strength of the external magnetic field. The remote pumping system in the device worked as expected and did not introduce any impact of the cavity properties.
Reduced Visceral Fat and Biological Indices of Inflammation Following Combined Prebiotic/Probiotic Supplementation in Free Living Adults
Authors:   , Tanner Elizabeth A.
Published: January 2025

Probiotics/prebiotic supplementation represents a viable option for addressing systemic inflammation and chronic disease risk resulting from excessive body weight. The purpose of this feasibility study was to determine if 90-d of supplementation with prebiotic and probiotic could alter mRNA responsible for inflammation and subsequently metabolic health in weight stable overweight adults. Participants were advised to not change their diet or exercise habits during the study. All protocols were approved by the University IRB and participants gave written informed consent. Participants were randomly assigned to either placebo (N=7; rice flour) or combined (N=8) prebiotic (PreticX® Xylooligosaccharide; 0.8 g/d; ADIP) and probiotic (MegaDuo® Bacillus subtilis HU58 and Bacillus coagulans SC-208; 3 Billion CFU/d) and measurements were made at baseline, 30, 60, and 90-d. Whole body DXA scans (GE iDXA®) and blood 574-plex mRNA analysis (Nanostring®) were used to generate primary outcomes. Compared to placebo, supplementation was associated with a 36% reduction in visceral adipose tissue (p = 0.001). Supplement resulted in significant, differential expression of 15 mRNA associated with adipose tissue inflammation, systemic inflammation, and/or chronic disease risk. The key findings support that 90-d prebiotic/probiotic supplementation may be associated with an improved metabolic health, reduced adipose tissue inflammation, reduced systemic inflammation, and reduced chronic disease risk. Collectively these findings demonstrate the potential of a prebiotic/probiotic supplement to impact metabolic health risk independent of weight loss in free-living individuals.
Real Time Gas Monitoring and Modeling on the Pyrolysis Process of Biomass
Authors:   , Smith Lee Miller
Published: January 2025

In order to better understand the changes occurring in the internal environment of the pyrolysis process a method of monitoring the internal environment in real time is the key objective of this study. To accomplish this objective four tasks were laid out in order to develop an effective way of monitoring the changes in gases present as pyrolysis is occurring as well as in material activation processing. For all processing the self-activation process was used which combines pyrolysis and thermal activation into a single step process. In the first task 10 hard wood species were activated and the resulting properties were compared to see the impact of wood species on the resulting carbon structures. In order to understand the impact of gas concentration on the resulting carbons the second task developed a gas sensor array which effectiveness was corroborated using GC-MS and then comparisons of the changes in the resulting were made. For the third task the gas sensor array was used to analyze the production of CO2 gas and a triple Gaussian model was developed to model the changes in gas production throughout processing. H2 gas production was modeled in the fourth task using the same Gaussian model as the third, where the results of both gas productions were compared showing the impact of processing parameters on gas production. With these four tasks completed we can see how our processing effects wood species similarly but at different rates, gas concentration was linked to changes in carbon structure, the effectiveness of our sensor was proven, a triple Gaussian model was developed to around gas production, and the impact of processing parameters on gas production was observed. With this Information a link between resulting carbon structure and gas content of the pyrolysis can be done and the changes in the pyrolysis environment were monitored in real time.
Thermokinetics-Dependent Microstructural Evolution and Material Response in Laser-Based Additive Manufacturing
Authors:   , Pantawane Mangesh
Published: January 2025

Laser-based additive manufacturing offers a high degree of thermokinetic flexibility that has implications on the structure and properties of the fabricated component. However, to exploit the flexibility of this process, it is imperative to understand the process-inherent thermokinetic evolution and its effect on the material characteristics. In view of this, the present work establishes a fundamental understanding of the spatiotemporal variation of thermokinetics during the fabrication of the non-ferrous alloys using the laser powder bed fusion process. Due to existing limitations of experimental techniques to probe such thermokinetics, a finite element method-based computational model is developed to predict the thermokinetic variations during the process. With the computational approach coupled with experimental techniques, the current work presents the solidification behavior influenced by spatially varying thermokinetics. In addition, it uniquely predicts the process-inherent multi-track multi-layer evolution of thermal cycles as well as thermal stress cycles and identifies their influence on the post-solidification microstructural evolution involving solid-state phase transformation. Lastly, the response of the material with a unique microstructure is recorded under various conditions (static and dynamic), which is again compared with the same set properties obtained for the same material processed via conventional routes.
Character Strengths in High School Choir: Students' Perceptions of Their Choral Experience
Authors:   , Critchfield Jared B.
Published: January 2025

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of character strengths that high school students reported to develop while participating in choir. I created the Character Strengths in Choir Scale (CSCS) to explore the degree to which students believed they exercised 18 character strengths. Local choir students in the pilot study (n = 44) and the main study (n = 114) completed the CSCS and revealed that gratitude, teamwork, and honesty were among the most prevalent strengths while bravery, creativity, and spirituality were among the least prevalent strengths. Student responses were also investigated by subgroups according to gender and years of experience. Results indicated that there were statistically significant differences for the ranking of various character strengths in each subgroup. Aggregately, high school choir students viewed themselves as above average on all assessed strengths.
The Correspondence between Receptive and Expressive Task Performances: A Further Analysis of Necessary Conditions
Authors:   , Nachawati Noor
Published: January 2025

This study was a replication and an extension of the 2021 research performed by Spurgin and Borquez on the correspondence between receptive and expressive behavior. Spurgin examined the role of the echoic in a hear-say procedure with adult learners, while Borquez examined the role of the echoic in both hear-say and see-say procedures. Both studies found that receptive and expressive correspondence did not occur consistently across participants. The present study asked if the fading steps used during training contributed to the results of the previous researchers. In the present study, the fading steps were changed to minimize the chance that the participant developed a position bias. The conditions were also counterbalanced to analyze the effects of hear-say vs. see-say, easy vs. difficult words, and the order in which the words were trained on the acquisition of receptive labels and the emergence of expressive labels. The study consisted of five phases: pre-training, hear-say teaching, see-say teaching, receptive testing, and expressive testing. Results indicated that although that acquisition of receptive labels improved, the change in fading steps did not make a significant difference in the correspondence of receptive and expressive language. Results showed similar correspondence in the hear-say and see-say procedures. Easy words and words taught more recently were correlated with increased receptive-expressive correspondence.
Third Party Actor Interests, Conflict Management Approaches, and Intrastate Conflict Outcomes
Authors:   , Mintun Daniel T.
Published: January 2025

This dissertation examines the role of third parties in civil war mediation and peacekeeping efforts. The dissertation makes two primary contributions to the literature. First, it builds upon existing literature by applying state-level arguments of third party involvement in mediation and peacekeeping efforts to the United Nations Security Council and regional IGOs. Second, it investigates the role of communication and coordination between third parties in their conflict management efforts.
Adoption of Credit-Hour Reductions in Master of Divinity Programs at the Association of Theological Schools Member Institutions: An Event History Analysis
Authors:   , McKanna Nathan Jay
Published: January 2025

Seminaries in the United States have for more than two centuries sought to equip ministerial leaders for service within the community of faith. And yet these institutions have traditionally been the focus of very little quantitative research. This lack of data is particularly noteworthy given the existential crises many seminaries currently face, especially regarding their flagship Master of Divinity (MDiv) programs. Among seminary leadership, a common response to declining MDiv enrollment has been to decrease the length of the program, which historically required at least 90 credit hours. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore change at the Association of Theological Schools member institutions (AMIs) between 2000–2019 through the lens of these credit-hour reductions. Longitudinal data from 113 AMIs were analyzed to examine the relationship between a variety of financial, enrollment, and institutional characteristics and the likelihood that an AMI would reduce its required MDiv credit hours. Results from an event history analysis revealed that, all else being equal, experiencing an increase in total revenues reduced an AMI's likelihood of making a reduction, while being a middle-age institution (founded 1870–1959) and having a higher percentage of peer institutions that made a change increased the likelihood of making a reduction. These findings, which well fit with existing theory on resource dependence and institutionalization, provide seminary leaders with objective data by which they can better understand the financial and cultural pressures impacting change at their institutions.
Production and Optimization of Para-Hydroxybenzoic Acid (pHBA) in Algae Using Metabolic Engineering and Genomics Approaches
Authors:   , Saxena Garima Girish
Published: January 2025

Microalgae being photosynthetic and having quick growth cycles can prove to be excellent candidates as biofactories for the production of aromatic compounds like para-hydroxybenzoic acid (pHBA) that act as a monomer in liquid crystal polymers. We developed transgenic lines of the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by performing nuclear transformation using electroporation. The transgenic cell lines expressed the ubiC gene that utilized chorismate from the shikimate pathway as a substrate to produce pHBA. The maximum yield of pHBA measured in these lines was 80 mg/L. Accruing pHBA can be toxic to the cells and the mechanism by which C. reinhardtii could detoxify pHBA is not known. C. reinhardtii genome was thus scanned for sequences similar to UDP-glucosyltransferase (UGT) that can transfer the glucose moiety to pHBA, rendering it non-toxic to the cell lines. Our analysis suggested the absence of any potential UGTs that could glycosylate pHBA and detoxify it. We further performed feeding experiments to test the ability of wt-type C. reinhardtii cells to detoxify pHBA and understand its fate. C. reinhardtii cells were fed with varying concentrations of pHBA and harvested at different time intervals. The HPLC chromatograms indicated a majority of the pHBA was catabolized. Based on these results, literature was reviewed to find a suitable UGT candidate to enable the engineering of the glycosylation mechanism in the alga. A transgenic algal line with gene encoding UGT89B1 was created and fed with varying concentrations of pHBA. HPLC chromatograms from the extracts revealed the presence of phenolic glucoside. Following this, C. reinhardtii was co-transformed with ubiC and gene encoding UGT89B1; this led to the production of pHBA and further glycosylation to pHBA glucoside (phenolic glucoside). The maximum yield of pHBA yields in these cell lines was 180 mg/L. Growing C. reinhardtii lines producing pHBA on a large scale can lead to problems like contamination with bacteria and other algal species, a decline in pH, and a rise in temperature. To circumvent these problems, we explored the plausibility of using other algal strains. We analyzed the genome of Galdieria sulphuraria, a photosynthetic thermophile, that can use more than fifty different carbon sources for its growth and metabolism. We hypothesized several of these traits to have arisen by acquiring genes through horizontal gene transfer. We used a segmentation and clustering algorithm to identify regions of the genome that have atypical nucleotide composition. The atypical segments identified by the method were further analyzed using phylogenetic methods to further support claims of their alien origin. Our method identified 69 genes that were not previously reported as alien genes, some of which could be implicated in imparting resistance to environmental stress factors. Our experiments also revealed G. sulphuraria has a greater extent of alien genes compared to C. reinhardtii.
Credentialing in Higher Education: A User Experience Study of the University of North Texas' Student Learner Record
Authors:   , Stutts Sarah
Published: January 2025

This was a mixed-method user-centered study regarding the University of North Texas's student-owned learner record and credentialing system. Through methods of quantitative and qualitative inquiry, student perceptions were unearthed and recommendations to improve the system were provided.
Usability Testing for e-Portfolio Websites in an Academic Environment: A Qualitative Study
Authors:   , Reborn Jaime
Published: January 2025

Many academic institutions are tasked with trying to improve the usability of their online educational support technologies such as ePortfolios, intelligent websites, and other interface technology to make them as efficient as possible to meet the requirements of their end users. This is particularly important for the academic institutions during times and situations when they may not have a live human presence available to respond to various inquiries from their end users about the technology. The challenges of an academic institution in making its ePortfolios viable can cost itself, its end users, as well as its other stakeholders, money, time, and confidence in the technology. This study is about usability testing for improving the user-interface for ePortfolios. This is a qualitative study using the think-aloud protocol (TAP) for data collection and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) for data analysis.
A Career Construction Expressive Arts Group: An Exploration of Self-Concept and Life Themes of Preadolescent Girls
Authors:   , Hastings Tessa M.
Published: January 2025

Preadolescence is a transitional stage between childhood and adolescence characterized by rapid and erratic change. Preadolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to negative impacts to self-concept and adaptability and may benefit from support to strengthen these key aspects of their development. School-based expressive arts groups provide a developmentally appropriate opportunity for preadolescent girls to process their thoughts, feelings, and experiences that can influence their self-concept and adaptability. Additionally, providing expressive arts groups from a career perspective provides participants a three-fold developmental intervention that includes components of the personal/social, academic, and career domains. Lindo and Ceballos combined the Career Construction Interview (CCI) with expressive arts school-based group counseling to create a developmentally appropriate intervention called the Child and Adolescent Career Construction Interview (CACCI). This study examined preadolescent girls' perceptions of participated in a CACCI group. Analysis of data yielded four major themes: (a) experiencing, (b) connecting, (c) expressing, and (d) becoming. Finding of this study have the potential to inform developmentally appropriate career counseling for preadolescents.
The Resiliency Experiences of Black, Indigenous People of Color Counselors in Training at Historically White Institutions
Authors:   , Lollar Shannon R
Published: January 2025

In this phenomenological investigation, a qualitative approach to research methodology is utilized to explore the resiliency experiences of Black, Indigenous, people of color counselors in training (N = 12) at historically or predominantly White institutions. The participants represent multiple regions of the United States, spanning from the northeastern United States to the Pacific Northwest. Five themes were uncovered as a result of the interviews: (1) strategies for resiliency; (2) experiences with discrimination and oppression; (3) experiences of allyship and affirmation; (4) awareness of intersections and identity; and (5) call to action. I offer suggestions for ways to increase BIPOC student resiliency as well as increase student retention within counselor education programs and recommendations for creating nurturing and equitable classrooms to provide safety for marginalized students within counselor education programs.
3D Printing of Zinc Anode for Zinc Ion Batteries
Authors:   , Amoko Stephen Adot Oyo
Published: January 2025

Recently, 3D printing has received increasing attention for the fabrication and assembly of electrodes for batteries due to the freedom of creating structures in any shape or size, porosity, flexibility, stretchability, and chemistry. Particularly, zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) are favored due to high safety, cheap materials cost, and high volumetric capacity (5,849 mAh/cm3), however, rapid evaporation of Zn due to low melting temperature has limited its 3D printability via conventional laser-based additive manufacturing technique. Here, we develop a printable ink for the fabrication of flexible and 3D printed Zn anode with varied surface areas using the direct ink writing (DIW) method. Our 3D printed porous and high surface area Zn anode structures effectively suppressed the dendrite growth while providing high Zn ion diffusion towards the cathode to significantly enhance the performance of ZIB. By varying filament distancing and path, we 3D printed zinc anode structures with different active surface areas, surface area to volume ratio, porosity, flexible and multiple layer structures that can be incorporated on any device. Carbon in the composite improved conductivity, and mechanical stability of 3D printed zinc anode. Our 3D printed composite anodes allowed flexible designing of batteries surpassing conventional battery designs such as coin cells or pouch cells and can be used to design printed energy storage systems.
Reliability Characterization and Performance Analysis of Solid State Drives in Data Centers
Authors:   , Liang Shuwen
Published: January 2025

NAND flash-based solid state drives (SSDs) have been widely adopted in data centers and high performance computing (HPC) systems due to their better performance compared with hard disk drives. However, little is known about the reliability characteristics of SSDs in production systems. Existing works that study the statistical distributions of SSD failures in the field lack insights into distinct characteristics of SSDs. In this dissertation, I explore the SSD-specific SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) attributes and conduct in-depth analysis of SSD reliability in a production environment with a focus on the unique error types and health dynamics. QLC SSD delivers better performance in a cost-effective way. I study QLC SSDs in terms of their architecture and performance. In addition, I apply thermal stress tests to QLC SSDs and quantify their performance degradation processes. Various types of big data and machine learning workloads have been executed on SSDs under varying temperatures. The SSD throughput and application performance are analyzed and characterized.
Living Art, Living History, Living Material: Exploring the Impact of Heritage Clothing and Materials on Museum Educator Pedagogy
Authors:   , Harper Sarah Ellen
Published: January 2025

Historical dress as a museum theater and research process encompasses material, technological, and cultural experiences from the past in the present. This research examines how intimate experiences with heritage materials, processes, and environments may impact development of educator pedagogy. Historical attractions in the US draw visitors due in part to providing guests with context for the objects and built environments displayed. New Materialist theory offers insights into how inanimate objects and environments "teach" human and non-human entities in their own right. Using a New Materialist lens, I observed, interviewed, and conducted participant observations through a novel research methodology, intra-active narrative inquiry, with costumed museum educators to better discern how relations between humans and historical materials intra-act as embodied experiences of object knowledge in museum pedagogy.
First Principles Study of the Effect of Local Bonding on Diffusion Mechanisms in Alloys
Authors:   , Paranjape Priyanvada Madhukar
Published: January 2025

This work demonstrates how local, randomized tailoring of bond stiffness can affect the activation energy of diffusion in model alloys using density functional theory-based computations. This work is organized into two parts. The first part deals with the vacancy diffusion mechanism, and it compares the in–plane (IP) vs out-of-plane (OOP) diffusion paths in prototypical binary Mg-X (Ca, Y, and Gd) and ternary Mg-X (Ca, Y, and Gd)-Zn alloys. We examine how vacancy formation, migration, and solute vacancy binding energies in binary Mg-X alloys influence diffusion activation and correlated them with conventional diffusion model based solely on the solute sizes. Next, we explore how Zn addition to binary Mg-X (Ca, Y, and Gd) alloys influences the OOP activation energy barrier is discussed in terms of detailed energetic computations and bond characterization in the present work. Our results indicate that Zn addition further enhances the OOP activation energy barrier compared to corresponding activation energies in Mg binaries. This work concludes that engineering stiffer directional bonds via micro-alloying additions in Mg is a promising route to dramatically improve their high temperature creep response. The second part of my work investigates the effects of Si, P, and S solutes on H interstitial diffusion mechanism in Ni. It examines how H interacts with vacancy, impurity atom, and vacancy-impurity atom defect pair by performing binding energy calculations. Results indicate that vacancy-impurity atom defect pair strongly traps the H atom compared to isolated defects. Finally, the effect of impurities on activation energy barrier of H diffusing in Ni is discussed by correlating migration energetics with bonding characteristics by performing charge density and electron density calculations. Our study validates experimental hypothesis of Berkowitz and Kane which postulates that P enhances the H diffusion in Ni. The present work also shows that H diffusion speeds up in Ni in the presence of Si and S solutes. In conclusion, we show that micro-alloying additions induce local lattice level pockets with covalent character, which substantially enhances the local bond stiffness. This will increase activation energy for vacancy diffusion mechanism while it reduces activation energy for interstitial H diffusion.
Reform on Educational Policy: The Alignment of Career and Technical Education Programs of Study to Local Labor Markets
Authors:   , Braswell CyLynn
Published: January 2025

Do federal policies influence program offerings for career and technical education(CTE)? Often the implication of compliance and the expectation of connecting compliance to funding is considered a tactic to leverage expectations on a large scale. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if the CTE programs located in a singular region of Texas were compliant with federal expectations by way of evaluating the alignment of programs offered and local labor markets prior to the implementation of Perkins V. The evaluation of a variety of archival data and subsequent findings of the correlation of alignment of programs within the region along with the amount of federal Perkins's dollars spent on CTE was a confirmed as an effective policy reform measure. Additional evaluations included the combination of federal and state spending in correlation to the number of programs offered in career and technical education along with the actual CTE student enrollment of a given district. Major findings showed that through a moderation analysis for some districts the number of programs offered could be influenced by program funding and size. In addition, this study confirmed that many programs are indeed compliant, however compliance does not guarantee program opportunities when resources and enrollment are abundant. Recommendations for future studies concerning administrative decisions for programming and compliance are discussed.
The Convolutional Recurrent Structure in Computer Vision Applications
Authors:   , Xie Dong
Published: January 2025

By organically fusing the methods of convolutional neural network (CNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN), this dissertation focuses on the application of optical character recognition and image classification processing. The first part of this dissertation presents an end-to-end novel receipt recognition system for capturing effective information from receipts (CEIR). The main contributions of this research part are divided into three parts. First, this research develops a preprocessing method for receipt images. Second, the modified connectionist text proposal network is introduced to execute text detection. Third, the CEIR combines the convolutional recurrent neural network with the connectionist temporal classification with maximum entropy regularization as a loss function to update the weights in networks and extract the characters from receipt. The CEIR system is validated with the scanned receipts optical character recognition and information extraction (SROIE) database. Furthermore, the CEIR system has strong robustness and can be extended to a variety of different scenarios beyond receipts. For the convolutional recurrent structure application of land use image classification, this dissertation comes up with a novel deep learning model for land use classification, the convolutional recurrent land use classifier (CRLUC), which further improves the accuracy in classifying remote sensing land use images. Besides, the convolutional fully-connected neural networks with hard sample memory pool structure (CFMP) is invented to tackle the remote sensing land use image classification tasks. The CRLUC and CFMP algorithm performances are tested in popular datasets. Experimental studies show the proposed algorithms can classify images with higher accuracy and fewer training episodes compared to popular image classification algorithms.
English Learner Instructional Programs in Texas Charter Schools: Perspectives of Instructional Leaders in Their Selection of Bilingual/ESL Programs
Authors:   , Navarrete Jesús Leopoldo
Published: January 2025

There are 184 active charter school districts in Texas, which use public tax dollars like traditional school districts, providing educational opportunities to over 350,000 Texas students. Charter schools accept state and federal funds and often operate with less oversight than their neighboring local public schools, yet they have the autonomy to accomplish the mission(s) set forth by the charter school operator. Although there have been numerous studies looking at the effectiveness of charter schools in terms of student achievement, very little research has been on the programs that charter schools implement to address the needs of their English learner populations. This study examined charter school leaders' perceptions in the selection of the EL instructional programs that are offered to their English Learners. Interviews of district bilingual/ESL directors of Texas charter schools, or their equivalents, were conducted. Using a constructivist grounded theory design, this study explored the factors and decisions of instructional leaders in implementing a particular second language program, with special attention to the ideologies informing these decisions. Themes emerged from the data and were be explored. The findings of this study are vital in helping other charter school operators better understand the challenges and potential pitfalls faced by current charter school operators in supporting their EL populations.
Unraveling the Effect of Atomic Configurations and Structural Statistics on Mechanical Behavior of Multicomponent and Amorphous Alloys
Authors:   , Yang Yu Chia
Published: January 2025

Multicomponent high-entropy and amorphous alloys represent relatively new classes of structural materials with complex atomic configurations and exceptional mechanical properties. However, there are several knowledge gaps in the relationships between their atomic structure and mechanical properties. Understanding these critical relationships will enable novel alloy design and tailoring of their mechanical properties for desired engineering applications. In this dissertation, first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulations are applied to investigate the local atomic configurations and ordering in high-entropy and amorphous alloys. Our findings suggest that fluctuations in local atomic configurations for high- entropy alloys result in significant changes in stacking fault energy, twin energy, dislocation behavior, dislocation-twin interactions, and critical shear stress. For amorphous alloys or metallic glasses, the short-range order (SRO) and medium-range order (MRO) were found to play decisive roles in determination of their mechanical properties. Structural relaxation was found to lead to shear localization, which was attributed to free volume change and evolution of SRO and MRO to more brittle nature. In contrast, rejuvenated metallic glasses had relatively large and uniform free volume distribution giving rise to homogeneous flow and increased plasticity.
The Examination of Black and Latino/a/x Students' and Responsive STEM Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher Cultural Consciousness and Culturally Responsive Instructional Practices
Authors:   , Norris Margaret Louise
Published: January 2025

School cultures, curriculum, and instruction are too often created through a monocultural lens, which excludes Black and Latino/a/x students both socially and academically, and perpetuates the false notion that these students are inherently less capable of achieving academic success when compared to their White counterparts. This is visible across all content areas, but especially in secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classes, which means that our Black and Latino/a/x students are continually denied preparation for the critical, high demand careers in the STEM field. Just as critical, with the dominance of White teachers in the classroom, out Black and Latino/a/x students often do not have access to teachers who share their lived experiences or who understand the nuances of their home cultures. However, teachers and school instructional leaders can change course by focusing their efforts to develop a rich cultural consciousness, and by focusing on the utilization of culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and related instructional strategies with great intentionality in the classroom. This mixed method, single site, exploratory case study was conducted to examine Black and Latino/a/x students' perceptions of their culturally responsive STEM teachers' cultural consciousness, and culturally responsive STEM teachers' perceptions of culturally responsive practices and their Black and Latino/a/x academic abilities. The results provide a clear discrepancy between STEM teacher and Black and Latino/a/x student perspectives that emphasizes a tension between them. This tension must be further explored and highlights a critical need for STEM specific professional development that encompasses both culturally responsive practices and opportunities to develop a critical consciousness.
Air Corridors: Concept, Design, Simulation, and Rules of Engagement
Authors:   , Muna Sabrina Islam
Published: January 2025

Air corridors are an integral part of the advanced air mobility infrastructure. They are the virtual highways in the sky for transportation of people and cargo in the controlled airspace at an altitude of around 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. above the ground level. This paper presents fundamental insights into the design of air corridors with high operational efficiency as well as zero collisions. It begins with the definitions of air cube, skylane or track, intersection, vertiport, gate, and air corridor. Then, a multi-layered air corridor model is proposed. Traffic at intersections is analyzed in detail with examples of vehicles turning in different directions. The concept of capacity of an air corridor is introduced along with the nature of distribution of locations of vehicles in the air corridor and collision probability inside the corridor are discussed. Finally, the results of simulations of traffic flows are presented.
Analysis of the Integration of LEO Satellite Constellations into 5G Networks
Authors:   , Cruz Vazquez Martin
Published: January 2025

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems have been proposed as a resource for combating the challenges in 5G network coverage and expanding connectivity to a global realm. This research focuses on the current architecture of LEO satellite constellations, with an emphasis on satellite coverage, visibility patterns and coordination schemes. Key-elements of integrating LEO satellites into the eMBB component of 5G are presented and a breakdown of potential link channel characteristics and physical layer performance metrics are described. The produced information allows for a justified analysis on the conceptualized integration.
A Proposal for a Training Program to Support Culturally Responsive Professional-Family Interactions
Authors:   , Anegbeh Cynthia Momoh
Published: January 2025

Behavior analysts often work with families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Ideally, behavior analysts and families interact in ways that are responsive to the family's culture and valued outcomes. The data indicate that most behavior analysts, however, come from one dominant cultural group. This is a proposal for training program and evaluation method to support culturally responsive professional-family interactions. This proposed study is designed to be conducted via Zoom-- a cloud-based video conferencing service. A pre-post treatment design is proposed to assess the effects of the training. Hypothetical data were generated to consider the range of effects such a program might have on trainee responses to written/live scenarios. Responses in the observation protocol included written descriptions, empathetic statements, perspective taking statements, and non-verbal behaviors. Overall, the program was designed using evidence-based procedures and is likely to support behavior analysts in training and in practice to improve their interactions with families and become more culturally responsive to groups of people that are from the non-dominant culture.
Spatial-Temporal Assessment of Irrigation Application Changes and Soil Moisture Analysis Using SMAP Maps
Authors:   , Unal Kerra E.
Published: January 2025

Due to inadequate long-term and large-scale observation approach for observation of soil moisture across the globe, this study intends to unveil the importance of using simulated soil moisture fields from land surface models, forced with observed precipitation and near-surface meteorology in monitoring drought and formulating effective water management practices for continued production irrigation applications. This study shows that socio-economic and ecosystem effects can be determined by evaluating spatial-temporal changes in irrigation applications. Thus, it facilitates understanding of the importance of water management and how water, energy, and carbon flows protect our climate and environment. By using Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) in monitoring soil moisture, the information obtained is critical in providing early drought warnings, particularly in those parts of the United States that experience flash agricultural droughts. Further, this study highlights that frequent and reliable soil moisture measurements from SMAP helped improve the predictive capability of weather and climate models.
Enterprise risk management manufacturing industry quality determinants
Authors: Dhewi Ratna Marta , Martunus Hendrian , Hidayah Nurul , Setiany Erna
Published: January 2025

Goal: Large manufacturing companies face significant risks due to importing raw materials and exposure to fluctuating exchange rates. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is vital in this sector to manage its distinctive risks. This study finds ERM factors in Indonesia and Malaysia that affect company value and empirically evaluates risk management in their organizations.
Design / Methodology / Approach: The factors that influence the quality of a company's ERM examined in this study include auditor quality, ownership concentration, board monitoring, gender on the board of commissioners, gender on the board of directors, and human capital. This study's population is 2018-2020; 300 Indonesian and 252 Malaysian manufacturing companies contributed 552 research observations. 
Results: This study shows that a qualified auditor, board monitoring, gender ratio on the board of commissioners, and human capital may uncover ERM implementation issues. On the other hand, higher share ownership does not affect ERM. Implications for practitioners and suggestions for future researchers are also described.
Limitations of investigation: The crucial role of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in mitigating these unique industry risks, this study underscores the limitations inherent in factors such as auditor quality, ownership concentration, board monitoring, and gender diversity within corporate leadership. 
Practical implication: The necessity for manufacturing companies to prioritize specific aspects of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in their organizational strategies. 
Originality / Value: This research illuminates the nuanced interplay of factors shaping Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) efficacy within the dynamic context of the manufacturing industry.
Immunological Profiles of Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia. I. State before the Start of Treatment
Authors: Humlová Zuzana , Klamová H. , Janatková I. , Šandová P. , Šterzl I. , Sobotková E. , Hamšíková E. , Haškovec C. , Písačka M. , Cetkovský P. , Michalová K. , Faber E. , Heřmanová Z. , Ordeltová M. , Roubalová K. , Roth Z. , Vonka Vladimír
Published: January 2025

In view of the increasing interest in the immunotherapy of CML it seems highly desirable to broaden the present knowledge on the immune reactivity of CML patients. A group of 24 patients and 24 healthy controls were studied for the total of 15 immunological parameters, including the prevalence of antibodies against human herpesviruses and papillomaviruses. To clearly discriminate between changes associated with the disease and those induced by the therapy, all patients were enrolled prior to the start of any anti-leukaemic therapy. Statistically significant differences between patients and controls were found in the levels of IgA, C4 component of complement, CRP and IL-6, the production of Th1 cytokines in stimulated CD3 cells and the E. coli stimulatory index. The analysis of the interrelationship between the results obtained in the individual patients presented some unexpected findings, such as the lack of correlation between the CRP and IL-6 levels. It will be the purpose of a follow-up to determine whether and how the immune status of the patients prior to the treatment correlates with their response to therapy and how the individual immunological profiles change in the course of the disease. These observations will be utilized in the future immunotherapeutic studies to constitute the vaccine- and placebo-treated groups.
Molecular Cytogenetic Stratification of Recurrent Oligodendrogliomas: Utility of Interphase Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization (I-FISH)
Authors: Zemanová Zuzana , Kramar F. , Babická L. , Ransdorfová Š. , Melicherčíková J. , Hrabal P. , Kozler P. , Michalová K.
Published: January 2025

In oligodendroglial brain tumours, losses of chromosomal material of the short arm of chromosome 1 and long arm of chromosome 19 have been shown to predict responsiveness to chemotherapy and prolonged patients’ survival. Therefore, the correct diagnosis of these genetic alterations in tumours of oligodendroglial origin is particularly important. To detect deletions of 1p36 and/or 19q13.3 in oligodendroglial cells we used dual-colour I-FISH with locus-specific DNA probes. I-FISH was performed on isolated whole cell nuclei, prepared from fresh non-fixed tumour tissue samples resuspended in media and processed using a standard cytogenetic procedure, thus bypassing the problem of nuclear truncation. We examined 16 patients with histologically proved oligodendrogliomas (5x oligodendroglioma, 9x anaplastic oligodendroglioma, 2x anaplastic oligoastrocytoma). The results of molecular cytogenetic analyses were correlated with morphological and clinical findings. Molecular cytogenetic analyses were successful in 15 patients and, due to a nonadequate tissue specimen, were uninformative in one patient only. Combined deletions 1p36/19q13 were proved in 13 patients. However, in six of them additional genetic alterations typical for high-grade astrocytoma were found, which could have negative influence on the prognosis. One patient had isolated deletion of 1p36 and another had a normal genetic pattern without any chromosomal alterations. In summary, I-FISH on isolated cell nuclei is a powerful tool for detecting chromosomal aberrations in tumour cells. A systematic molecular cytogenetic analysis may advance diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and targeted treatment of patients with brain tumours.
Protein Kinases, Their Function and Implication in Cancer and Other Diseases
Authors: Shchemelinin Igor , Šefc L. , Nečas E.
Published: January 2025

Protein phosphorylation is known to play an important role in various cellular processes such as cell division, metabolism, survival and apoptosis. It is driven by specific enzymes, tyrosine and serine-threonine protein kinases. Human protein kinases constitute a complicated system with intricate internal and external interactions. The complexity and sophistication of the system implies its vulnerability. Alterations in functions of these enzymes may launch series of pathological changes within the cell and as a result cause diseases. Protein kinases have been shown to be involved in various pathological processes, first of all malignancies. Deregulation of different protein kinases has been found in chronic myelogenous leukaemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumours, various other sarcomas and cancers as well as non-malignant disorders. Therefore, they are regarded as important effectors in human pathology and represent prospective therapeutic targets.
Soil constraints and recommendations for improving major farming in Vinh Long province, Vietnam
Authors: Minh V Q , Thanh Vu P , Hung T V , Dang P C , Phat P N , Vu L H , Tuan T
Published: January 2025

This study aims to assess the potential of soil and its constraints for production to meet economic needs and diversify types of crop models of Vinh Long province in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta region. Identifying the main constraints of the soil is the basis for reasonable land arrangement and proposing measures to maintain and improve the soil characteristics suitable for each crop type and purpose of use. The study used survey methods, interviewed farmers about the current farming situation and collected soil samples to analyze physical and chemical properties. Research results show that in Vinh Long, for three main crops, namely rice, fruit trees (grapefruit trees) and sweet potatoes, the primary constraints are a potential and active acid sulfate and low pH soil. In addition, Al toxicity causes phosphorus fixation, the exchangeable K content is low and the organic matter is only moderate. These limitations have affected crop productivity, especially for fruit trees. The research results also recommended improving soil properties suitable for the cultivation of major crops, including controlling the water level so as not to oxidize the sulfidic material to active acid sulfate soils, draining the water at the beginning of the season rain to leach the toxicity in the soil and need to fertilize with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium supplements for a long time, divided into several times of application.