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Structural Diversity, Thermal, and Semiconducting Characteristics of Two N,N′-bis(phosphonomethyl)-1,4,5,8-Naphthalenediimide-Based Compounds
Get PDFTwo crystals of N,N&prime;-bis(phosphonomethyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide were grown in the presence of neutral (water) and charged (imidazolium cation) species, yielding [(H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>P)CH<sub>2</sub>-(C<sub>14</sub>H<sub>4</sub>N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>)-CH<sub>2</sub>(PO<sub>3</sub>H<sub>2</sub>)]&#8729;H<sub>2</sub>O (<b>1</b>) and [C<sub>3</sub>H<sub>5</sub>N<sub>2</sub>][(H<sub>1.5</sub>O<sub>3</sub>P)CH<sub>2</sub>-(C<sub>14</sub>H<sub>4</sub>N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>)-CH<sub>2</sub>(PO<sub>3</sub>H<sub>1.5</sub>)] (<b>2</b>), respectively. The ligand N,N&prime;-bis(phosphonomethyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide was synthesized via the condensation of naphthalene-1,4,5,8-tetracarboxylic dianhydride with (aminomethyl)phosphonic acid in N,N&prime;-dimethylformamide or imidazole. The flexible N-methyl phosphonic acid groups adopt a <i>cis</i> configuration in compound <b>1</b> and a <i>trans</i> configuration in compound <b>2</b>. In compound <b>1</b>, the phosphonate groups engage in extensive hydrogen bonding, as well as with water molecules and &pi;&ndash;&pi; stacking, resulting in a three-dimensional closely packed structure. Compound <b>2</b> forms a densely packed three-dimensional network stabilized by charge-assisted hydrogen bonding (anion-cation), anion&ndash;&pi; interactions, and &pi;&ndash;&pi; stacking interactions. Hirshfeld surface analysis was conducted and the associated two-dimensional fingerprint plots were generated to further elucidate the nature and contributions of these noncovalent interactions. Direct bandgap measurements estimated from Tauc plots yielded values of 2.92 eV and 2.85 eV for compounds <b>1</b> and <b>2</b>, respectively, highlighting their potential as promising <i>n</i>-type organic semiconductors. Thermal analysis reveals that compound <b>2</b> exhibits greater thermal stability than compound <b>1</b>
Towards Sustaining Newcomers' Cultures: An ESL Teacher's Math Curriculum Design Journey
Get PDFThis study examined how a high school teacher created a culturally sustaining math curriculum for Newcomers in the content-based instruction (CBI) math English as a second language (ESL) course. Through a qualitative, single case study, this study uncovered one teacher’s experience and process for creating the culturally sustaining math curriculum. Through semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and document analysis, this study highlighted the teacher’s experience and process to bring about changes in curriculum and instructional policy and practice. The main finding of this study was that the teacher navigated the complexities of the culturally sustaining pedagogies in mathematics at each point where there was a leveraging of various spheres of resources and a balancing of pedagogical approaches. This study provided implications for both curricular and educational leadership policy and practices, along with recommendations for future studies on supporting school leaders and teachers to sustain Newcomers’ cultures in the high school CBI math ESL course.Educational Leadership and Policy Studie
State-Specific Explainable Machine Learning for Predicting Premature Dropout in Medication for Opioid Use Disorder
Get PDFOpioid use disorder (OUD) presents a pressing global public health challenge, with Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) serving as an effective treatment. However, the success of MOUD is largely dependent on patient adherence, as premature dropout increases the risks of relapse and worsens health outcomes. Motivated by large variations in treatment outcomes across different states in U.S., this study proposes a novel, explainable machine learning (ML) framework to predict premature dropout from MOUD, enabling state-specific customization through multi-task learning. The proposed multi-task learning model integrates shared layers to capture general dropout patterns and state-specific layers to highlight regional differences. To enhance interpretability, we employ Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) to identify key predictive features for each state and use Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) to offer individualized insights into adherence factors. Evaluations on real-world datasets demonstrate superior performance compared to baseline models, validating the framework's ability to address both general and state-specific factors. This work underscores the need for targeted interventions and policies to improve MOUD retention and tackle the opioid crisis across diverse states.Information Systems and Cyber Securit
Poster: Beacon: Interpretable Land-Use Classification for Edge AIoT via Information Lattice Learning
Get PDFBeacon evaluates whether an intrinsically interpretable rule learner, Information Lattice Learning (ILL) [1], can offer practical advantages for edge AIoT landuse mapping when trained on the same, leakage-safe, physically grounded features as a tuned Random Forest (RF) [2]. Using stratified learning-curve experiments (10–125 samples per class; five seeds; fivefold CV) across five algorithmic families, XGBoost and Random Forest achieved top performance while ILL produced compact, ecologically coherent rulebooks at a 15–25 percentage-point interpretability tax suitable for audit and expert scrutiny. We summarize the end-to-end pipeline, report statistically rigorous results (Wilson CIs, paired tests with Bonferroni control, Cohen's d), and discuss deployment patterns that pair RF's accuracy with ILL's transparency for on-device audit and rapid expert contestability. Our conclusions are bounded by the Costa Rica domain, fixed hyperparameters, and a single ILL implementation; ongoing work targets expert rule validation, sensitivity analyses, and multitemporal/multimodal inputs. These claims and numbers are drawn from the full Beacon study.Computer Scienc
Is Being a Woman a Crime? Feminicide, Impunity, and the Translation of Women's Rights in Mexico
Get PDFFeminicide has been a raging crime that has overcome Ciudad Juárez and the rest of Mexico. Women and girls have been kidnapped, raped, mutilated, then murdered, and their bodies left as if they were trash. These murders brought and created an influx of political organizing, where victims' mothers became advocates for their daughters, unifying local activists, NGOs, and international organizations to develop a transnational advocacy network. On the flip side, the Mexican government has utilized a good global governance agenda by signing and ratifying international human rights frameworks such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Belém do Pará Convention, but these international norms weren’t implemented in their domestic structures. This thesis investigates how transnational feminists utilized international human rights norms to address, combat, and institutionalize feminicide in Mexico. To analyze this process, the study will be a case study that applies Lisbeth Zimmermann’s three-stage model of norm translation, which traces how international norms move through discourse, law, and implementation. What will be uncovered is how international humanitarian norms on women’s rights entered and uprooted the domestic discourse in Mexico, where machismo is deeply intertwined within Mexican culture and society. Next, how the work of transnational feminists significantly contributed to the adoption of the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence and the 2012 federal definition of feminicide. However, during the implementation step, what is found is that these laws have been contested due to institutional weakness, machismo, and impunity.Political Science and Geograph
Southern Skies: Stories
Get PDFThe body of work is a creative thesis exploring literary traditions of the Southern Gothic. The methods of research included studying a variety of 20th and 21st-century writers such as William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Toni Morrison, Dorothy Allison, Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Stephen King, William Gay, and more. The work aims to identify the common craft methods, literary tropes, and traditions in the Southern Gothic leveraged by the authors listed and identify the ways in which the genre has evolved and takes on new forms. The collection of short stories is original and prepared by the author, Roxanna Rodriguez.Englis
UAVs, Computer Vision, and Context: The ECERI Approach to Construction Safety at Height
No full textConstruction workers operating at heights face unique ergonomic challenges that traditional assessment methods fail to capture. While musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) cost U.S. employers over $20 billion annually, current ergonomic evaluation tools like REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) were developed primarily for ground-level activities and do not account for height-specific contextual factors that significantly modify risk profiles. This research introduces the Elevated Construction Ergonomic Risk Index (ECERI), a novel mathematical framework that enhances traditional ergonomic assessment by integrating crucial contextual factors: height, surface condition, slope angle, and edge proximity. Using UAV-captured imagery and computer vision for pose estimation, the system first generates baseline ergonomic assessments through a fuzzy logic implementation of REBA, then applies the context-aware ECERI model to produce more accurate risk evaluations. Validation across multiple construction scenarios demonstrates the potential of the ECERI approach to significantly improve risk assessment accuracy compared to traditional methods, which fail to capture the height context. The model's systematic integration of height-specific factors provides construction safety managers with more precise intervention targeting, potentially reducing both the frequency and severity of MSDs in elevated work environments. This research represents a significant advancement in construction safety technology, bridging the critical gap between fall protection and ergonomic assessment while leveraging emerging technologies for practical field implementation.Civil Engineerin
Flags of Texas Settlers
No full textWith Corresponding Classroom Activity for Grades 4-8, Based on Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills. Previously published as part of Texans One and All.Twenty-four flags of nations representing Texas’ earliest settlement groups are outlined here. We attempt to answer some of the many questions your students may have about the flags of Texas, the flags of the world’s
nations, and the flags flown in front of the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures. Where did the colors and symbols of flags originate? Which flags have been changed since the early settlers left their counties of origin and
which have stayed the same? How do the flags of the world’s nations differ? How are they similar? What are the reasons for these similarities
Learning-Based Modeling and Control of Dynamical Systems
No full textDynamical systems are mathematical descriptions of applications around our world. However, there are many challenges in control of dynamical systems, such as nonlinearity, uncertainty and high dimensionality. Recent research has revealed significant connections between neural networks and dynamical systems. Neural networks are powerful technologies that used for learning and predicting dynamical systems. Correspondingly, dynamical insights could be applied to neural networks. In this paper, we investigated neural network structures to learn high-order dynamical systems. We proposed a continuous high-order neural network structure based on Neural Ordinary Differential Equations to model high-order planar dynamical systems. This dissertation also investigates the problem of stabilizing uncertain upper-triangular nonlinear systems using structure-aware learning-based control methods. Such systems, frequently encountered in practical applications like robotics and aerospace, are challenging due to their unknown dynamics and hierarchical structure. Traditional model-based controllers often fail to guarantee stability in the presence of uncertainty, while purely data-driven approaches may lack theoretical guarantees.
To address this, we propose two distinct learning-based stabilization strategies. The first is a hybrid controller that integrates reinforcement learning (RL) with a nonlinear stabilizing controller. In this framework, a global RL policy explores the system’s dynamics and learns control actions in the full state space, while a local nonlinear controller with Lyapunov-based guarantees takes over near the equilibrium region to ensure stability. A switching strategy ensures smooth transitions between the two controllers based on a defined domain of attraction.
The second approach utilizes a self-supervised learning framework to train a structured deep neural network (DNN) to approximate a stabilizing control law. By embedding structural priors such as triangular feedback forms and Lyapunov constraints into the network architecture and training process, the learned controller inherits the system’s mathematical properties and achieves reliable performance even without explicit supervision.
We validate our methods through numerical experiments on simulated upper-triangular systems with unknown nonlinearities. Results show that both approaches successfully stabilize the systems, with the self-supervised DNN achieving high accuracy and robustness, and the RL-based hybrid controller demonstrating strong adaptability. Comparative analysis highlights the trade-off between adaptability and stability guarantees in both designs.
Overall, this work contributes to the growing field of structure-aware control by demonstrating how deep learning can be effectively integrated into nonlinear modeling and control of uncertain dynamical systems.Electrical and Computer Engineerin
An Initial Examination of Couple Therapy for PTSD Outcomes Among Black/African American Adults: Findings from an Uncontrolled Trial with Military Dyads
No full textBlack/African American individuals experience high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is frequently chronic and undertreated in this population. Intimate relationships are a salient resource for Black/African American adults&rsquo; psychological well-being. To help advance health equity, this study serves as an initial, proof-of-concept investigation of patient outcomes among Black/African American adults who received a disorder-specific couple therapy for PTSD. Participants were a subsample of seven Black/African American adults (mean age = 40.56 years, <i>SD</i> = 10.18; 85.7% male) who participated in an uncontrolled trial of an abbreviated, intensive, multi-couple group version of cognitive-behavioral conjoint therapy for PTSD with 24 military dyads. Treatment was delivered over 2 days in a weekend retreat format. Assessments were administered at baseline, 1 month post-retreat, and 3 months post-retreat. There were large and significant decreases in patients&rsquo; PTSD symptoms based on clinicians&rsquo; and patients&rsquo; ratings (<i>d</i>s &minus;1.37 and &minus;1.36, respectively) by the 3-month follow-up relative to baseline. There were also large and significant decreases in patients&rsquo; depressive, anxiety, and anger symptoms (<i>d</i>s &minus;1.39 to &minus;1.93) and a large, marginally significant decrease in patients&rsquo; insomnia (<i>d</i> = &minus;0.85; <i>p</i> = 0.083). Patients reported a medium, non-significant increase in relationship satisfaction (<i>d</i> = 0.68; <i>p</i> = 0.146) and a large, marginally significant increase in joint dyadic coping (<i>d</i> = 0.90; <i>p</i> = 0.069). Findings offer preliminary evidence that treating PTSD within a couple context is a relevant strategy to reduce PTSD and comorbid symptoms among partnered Black/African American adults and a promising approach to enhance relationships.Psycholog