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Engineers Week 2026
No full textPoster showing a curated selection of engineering‑focused resources that showcase student research, faculty scholarship, and U.S. government information. This poster features selected books, open‑access UTRGV theses and dissertations, peer‑reviewed articles, and educational resources that support engineering education, research, and innovation.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/librarydisplayposters/1092/thumbnail.jp
Ohio U.S. Senate Race: Farewell to the Last Statewide Elected Democrat
No full textThe 2024 U.S. Senate race in Ohio between three-term progressive populist Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and Colombian-born car dealer magnate Bernie Moreno (R) hinged less on the candidates and their strategies than it did on what Ohio had become since Donald J. Trump first carried the state in 2016: a red, Make America Great Again (MAGA)-dominated state, awash with electioneering cash from outside interests, in which Trump’s endorsement in a primary is sufficient to elevate his preferred candidate into the general election. The contest highlighted how potent feelings of economic and cultural grievance have come to define Ohio’s political sensibility in the era of Trump. “Economically, culturally and politically, Ohio is more like Missouri now than Virginia…” according to one observer (Healy 2024). Brown was the last elected Democrat in statewide office and a renowned champion of policy initiatives focused on the dignity of work. His defeat meant that the fundamentality of Ohio’s partisan change was beyond debate
Global dynamics of cubic Cherkas systems with Z 2 -equivariance (Ⅰ): The saddle case
No full textIn this paper, we investigate bifurcation diagrams and global phase portraits on the Poincaré disc for a cubic Cherkas system with symmetry. When the sum of indices of equilibria is −1, we obtain some interesting dynamical behaviors, including Hopf bifurcation, heteroclinic bifurcation, saddle-node bifurcation, and saddle connection bifurcation. These results greatly enrich the dynamics of planar nonlinear differential systems and demonstrate different features
Photograph of Kika de la Garza, Jose R. Hinojosa, and Students
No full textColor photograph. Kika de la Garza with Dr. Jose R. Hinojosa and MPA students in a classroom.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1140/thumbnail.jp
Photograph of Kika de la Garza - 01
No full textColor photograph. Kika de la Garza with two unidentified men, one standing and one on horseback.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1141/thumbnail.jp
A comprehensive framework for statistical testing of brain dynamics
No full textNeural activity data can be associated with behavioral and physiological variables by analyzing their changes in the temporal domain. However, such relationships are often difficult to quantify and test, requiring advanced computational modeling approaches. Here, we provide a protocol for the statistical analysis of brain dynamics and for testing their associations with behavioral, physiological and other non-imaging variables. The protocol is based on an open-source Python package built on a generalization of the hidden Markov model (HMM)—the Gaussian-linear HMM—and supports multiple experimental modalities, including task-based and resting-state studies, often used to explore a wide range of questions in neuroscience and mental health. Our toolbox is available as both a Python library and a graphical interface, so it can be used by researchers with or without programming experience. Statistical inference is performed by using permutation-based methods and structured Monte Carlo resampling, and the framework can easily handle confounding variables, multiple testing corrections and hierarchical relationships within the data, among other features. The package includes tools developed to facilitate the intuitive visualization of statistical results, along with comprehensive documentation and step-by-step tutorials for data interpretation. Overall, the protocol covers the full workflow for the statistical analysis of functional neural data and their temporal dynamics
Congruences of coefficients in expansions of non-Habiro ring elements
No full textIn 2016, Andrews and Sellers studied the coefficients in the (1−q)-expansion of F(q), known as the Fishburn numbers, and established several congruences modulo primes. Motivated by their work, there has been considerable interest in extending these congruences to similar expansions of q-hypergeometric series within the Habiro ring that satisfy so-called “strange” identities. In this work, we establish a general result on prime-power congruences for coefficients arising from certain expansions of non-Habiro ring elements that also satisfy strange identities. As applications, we consider two such non-Habiro elements previously studied by Andrews et al. (Duke Math J 108(3):395–419, 2001), and show that the appropriately normalized coefficients in their expansions obey prime-power congruences
Photograph of Kika de la Garza, Ed King, and Jose Armando
No full textColor photograph. Kika de la Garza with Ed King and Dr. Jose Armando at an event.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/kikadelagarzaphotographs/1130/thumbnail.jp
Exploring Prospective Relationships of Emotion Regulation Difficulties With Eating Disorder Psychopathology and Eating-Related Psychosocial Impairment Among Older Adults in China
No full textObjective: Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties are a robust risk factor for eating disorder (ED) psychopathology. As symptoms are often overlooked or misattributed to ageing, these associations are unclear in older adults. This study investigated the longitudinal relationships between ER difficulties, ED psychopathology (e.g., thinness-oriented ED psychopathology and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder [ARFID] symptoms), and eating-related psychosocial impairment among Chinese older adults.
Method: An online sample of 551 Chinese adults aged 56-78 provided data at baseline (T1), and 202 older adults were retained 12 months later (T2). Cross-lagged models explored reciprocal associations between ER difficulties, both global ER difficulties and six unique dimensions, and eating-related variables.
Results: Global ER difficulties at T1 were related to higher ED psychopathology and eating-related psychosocial impairment at T2. For ER difficulties as six dimensions, lack of ability to manage one\u27s impulse during negative emotions at T1 was uniquely related to higher ARFID symptoms and eating-related psychosocial impairment at T2. However, eating-related variables at T1 were not associated with global or any dimension of ER difficulties at T2.
Conclusions: Results suggest unidirectional, prospective associations between ER difficulties and eating-related variables, underscoring the potential importance of ER-focused prevention and intervention strategies to improve eating behaviours and reduce psychosocial impairment in older adults
Glucagon-Like Peptide-1: The Role of Calcium in Gut-Glucose Axis
No full textGlucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a key metabolic hormone secreted by intestinal L-cells in response to nutrient ingestion. It plays a central role in regulating glucose homeostasis by enhancing insulin secretion, inhibiting glucagon release, delaying gastric emptying, and suppressing appetite. While glucose, fat, and protein are established stimulators of GLP-1 release, calcium has emerged as a key modulator of this enteroendocrine axis. Recent studies have shown that extracellular calcium, acting through the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) and voltage-gated calcium channels, triggers intracellular calcium influx, which is essential for GLP-1 exocytosis from L-cells. This highlights the role of calcium not merely as a dietary mineral but as a signaling ion that links nutrient sensing in the gastrointestinal tract to the hormonal regulation of blood glucose homeostasis. This chapter briefly explains how calcium influences the GLP-1-mediated gut-glucose axis