Characteristics of Active Home-to-School Transportation Among Children Living in North Macedonia: WHO COSI Rounds 5 and 6

The Republic of North Macedonia is located in the Balkan region with a population of around 2 million inhabitants. North Macedonia has a rich history with influences from the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and other ex-Yugoslavian nations. Mirroring other regions of Europe, childhood obesity rates have increased throughout the years, with North Macedonia being regularly above the European average. Physical activity plays a central role in childhood obesity, and active transport to school is a broadly practiced, consistent measure that contributes to childhood activity across Europe. To explore characteristics of active home-to-school transportation over time in North Macedonia, we used the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). COSI was founded in 2006 due to growing concern about obesity rates in Europe as a project under the World Health Organization (WHO). North Macedonia joined COSI in the second round in 2009. COSI is a nationally representative survey aimed at collecting health information from students, their schools, and their parents. From secondary analysis, we hypothesized that personal characteristics (ex. sex, BMI) and built environment (ex. parental perceived safety, distance) would be significant predictors on whether children engaged in active round-trip school transportation in Round 5 (2019) and Round 6 (2022) of COSI. Using combined data from Rounds 5 and 6 (n=5413), a multivariate logistic regression model was used to assess the association of children’s personal characteristics, family characteristics, built environment, and active living behaviors on their use of round-trip active transportation, while simultaneously controlling for the effect of all covariates. For the purposes of multivariate logistic regression analyses, responses to the round-trip transportation item were dichotomized as active and inactive. Results of the multiple logistic regression models were reported in adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Statistical significance was set at p<0.01 a priori. Personal characteristics and active living behaviors did not significantly predict whether students were involved in active transport as built environment and family characteristics did.A one-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Biomedical Scienc

Probability of Perioral Touch or Steady Chin Pressure Enhancing Feeding Engagement in Infants with Congenital Heart Disease

Background/Purpose: Many infants with complex congenital heart disease (CCHD) have feeding difficulties. This study aimed to describe how common feeder oral support interventions influence feeding engagement in infants with CCHD undergoing surgical intervention. Theoretical framework: Thoyre’s Dynamic Systems framework was used to assess the potential effect of feeder support on infant behavioral response. Methods: This descriptive case study included neonates ≥ 37 weeks gestation following surgery for single- or two-ventricle conditions and with low engagement in the first post-operative feeding. The Dynamic Early Feeding Skills Assessment Tool measured infant engagement and feeder intervention (perioral touch and steady chin/face pressure) in videorecorded feedings. Lag sequential analysis was used to examine the probability of feeder behavior altering infant engagement. Results: Data from 12 single-ventricle and 9 two-ventricle infants was analyzed. Among single-ventricle infants, feeder steady pressure showed no change in low engagement in 10/12 infants, and two with 20% and 100% probabilities of disengagement/distress. Feeder oral touch showed no change in low engagement in 9/12 infants, with three showing 8-100% probabilities of subsequent disengagement/distress. Among two-ventricle infants, feeder steady pressure resulted in no change in 8/9 infants, with one showing a 50% probability of subsequent disengagement/distress. Feeder oral touch resulted in no change in 7/9 infants, with one showing a 25% probability of disengagement/distress, and one showing a 33% probability of a subsequent brief distress cue. Conclusions: Common feeder interventions may not enhance feeding engagement in infants with either single- or two-ventricle CCHD. Further research is needed to develop interventions promoting successful feeding in this vulnerable population.This project was funded by NIH/NINR 1F31NR018586-01.A five-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Nursin

Student Direct and Spillover Responses to a University Composting Program

Universities are implementing composting programs to cut scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, waste management costs, and overall campus food waste. Literature suggests that university composting programs impact an individual’s environmental attitudes, environmental locus of control, and overall sustainable behaviors. Behavioral spillover is an emerging topic in social science to describe the idea that if an individual is involved in a target behavior, then another behavior is affected by the intervention for the target behavior. In the case of this study, composting is the target behavior, and the measured spillover behaviors are related to different sustainability indicators. Behavioral spillover can be positive or negative, so this study seeks to identify how a composting program may positively or negatively encourage different pro-environmental behaviors or shifts in environmental attitudes. Two surveys measuring compost knowledge, environmental behaviors, and environmental attitudes were administered to Ohio State University’s on-campus residents. Students automatically enrolled in an in-room composting program were contrasted to other students. Surveys were administered in the middle and at the end of the program to measure shifts in behaviors and attitudes over time. We hypothesized that automatically enrolled students would have a more positive change in their sustainable behaviors and be more aware of their environmental footprint. This study found that automatic enrollment made a statistically significant difference in student composting participation in the middle of the school year, but not at the end of the school year. Additionally, the study concludes that the quality of composting education is statistically significantly associated with student composting engagement. Lastly, this study found no evidence to support that automatic enrollment in composting programs leads to positive spillovers to other pro-environmental behaviors by the participating students.No embargoAcademic Major: Environmental Scienc

The Development of Global Governance from the Catholic Church to the United Nations: The Pazzi Conspiracy and the Sanctioning of Iraq

Denman Undergraduate Research Forum 3rd PlaceThis paper seeks to understand how global governance institutions have changed over time by exploring the similarities between the United Nations at the turn of the millennia and the Catholic Church of the 15th and 16th centuries. By suggesting that the institutional structure and the political nature of the Catholic Church serves as a proto-United Nations, it challenges existing theories about the emergence of global governance by suggesting that versions of global governance had begun to appear as early as the medieval ages. This also challenges the distinction between secular and theological institutions that marked the post Westphalia world by examining linguistic overlap between the documents produced by both secular and religious institutions. To gain leverage on the relationship between these two institutions, I use two methods: a qualitative case analysis comparing logic and actions of the Catholic church and the UN during their respective cases: Interdict of Florence following the Pazzi Conspiracy and the UN sanctions placed on Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait; and a quantitative analysis comparing the linguistic overlap of documents produced by both institutions. By running each document through Word2Vec, I am able to get vector representations of the words within each document and average to place the two documents within a 300-dimensional space. Then by taking the cosine of the angle between the two documents the linguistic overlap can be represent on a scale from -1 to 1 with the higher number representing higher overlap. Both the qualitative case study and quantitative textual analysis of this paper confirm the hypothesized relationship between the two institutions. The fact that these two institutions exercise similar authority through similar mechanisms has significant implications for the theory and practice of global governance today.No embargoAcademic Major: Political Scienc

Effect of Quantization on Data-Driven Model Predictive Control of Quadcopters

The increasing reliance on autonomy in aerospace systems has created high demand for robust and computationally efficient control methods. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as drones, are among the most common autonomous systems due to their versatility and widespread applications. However, these drones can be heavily affected by the environmental conditions, e.g., wind gusts, which are difficult to model. Therefore, data-driven system identification and subsequent controller design has become increasingly important in UAV operation. Due to their limited onboard computation power and memory, small UAVs are not always able to perform the system identification on board, and they need to communicate the acquired data to an edge server for system identification. This communication is done via a band-limited wireless channel where the data needs to be quantized to make efficient use of the available bandwidth. Quantization, the process of discretizing continuous-valued data into a smaller subset of discrete values, addresses these constraints by reducing the the bandwidth required to communicate the data and trading precision for efficiency. While theoretical studies have shown some degradation in system identification and control performance due to data quantization, its effects in experimental UAV settings remain minimally explored. This thesis investigates the effect of dither quantization to the Extended Dynamic Mode Decomposition (EDMD) method, a Koopman operator-based method for data-driven system identification and the subsequent Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework. The goal is to characterize and quantify the performance loss during experimental testing. The methodology of this research includes MATLAB simulations, software-in-the-loop simulations in Gazebo, and hardware validation using the PX4-Starling Drone Autonomy Developer Kit. These testing phases aim to determine the effects of quantization on model accuracy, control fidelity, and real-world UAV flight performance. Results from MATLAB simulations indicate that higher levels of quantization degrade both system identification and subsequent MPC performance. Hardware validation provides key information about the crosstalk between quantization and UAV dynamics, revealing practical challenges and opportunities for improvement. By bridging the gap between theory and application, this research advances the understanding of how communication bandwidth affects resource-limited data-driven MPC for multirotor UAVs. The findings contribute to the development of efficient, data-driven control strategies with broader implications in sensor fusion algorithms, real-time embedded systems, and wireless communications.The Ohio State University College of Engineering Undergraduate Research ScholarshipSystems, Optimization, and Autonomous Robotics Laboratory (SOAR)No embargoAcademic Major: Aerospace Engineerin

The Moritz Briefing (August 2025)

An occasional newsletter highlighting recent activities and achievements of the Moritz Faculty.Note: Volume/issue numbers are incorrect in document. Please use information from item metadata for citation

Teaching Japanese Re-Thanking Through the Performed Culture Approach

Native speakers of Japanese often thank others for what they have previously done for them when they see benefactors again. This phenomenon is called re-thanking or saido no kansha (再度の感 謝). This seemingly innocuous expression of gratitude is not easy for Japanese language learners to perform. To explicate what is involved in re-thanking in Japanese, I will examine how rethanking is performed by native speakers of Japanese, how it poses a challenge for Japanese learners, and how re-thanking is not about merely using certain expressions of gratitude but about redressing "the debt-credit equilibrium." I will then discuss how re-thanking can be taught through the Performed Culture Approach (PCA), which aims to foster learners' skills to participate in the flow of social life through compilations of memories and stories

NEUROTENSIN MODULATION OF ULTRASONIC VOCALIZATION USING SYSTEMIC NEONATAL SEPSIS MODEL

Neonatal sepsis is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in newborns. The presence of non-specific signs and symptoms caused by invading pathogens hinders early recognition and diagnosis in neonatal sepsis. The brainstem neural circuits that maintain automatic breathing become disrupted in response to sepsis-induced neuroinflammation, leading to respiratory dysfunction. In addition, breathing circuits interact with eliciting vocalizations during the crying phase in newborns, showing a fundamental coordination of both circuits. Therapeutic hypothermia is defined as a 2-6°C reduction in body temperature that can act as neuroprotective for sepsis-induced encephalopathy. Neurotensin is a 13 amino acid peptide that binds to NTSR1 and NTSR2, promoting hypothermia in rodents. A poorly understood interaction exists between therapeutic hypothermia, neurotensin, and inflammation for breathing-vocalization circuits. Our hypothesis states that therapeutic hypothermia could provide neuroprotection and ultimately preserve the brainstem functions, including the respiratory-vocalization circuit integrity. This thesis investigated the potential of therapeutical hypothermia using neurotensin agonist (PD149163) to modulate respiratory circuit integrity following sepsis. We utilized a preclinical experimental model utilizing TLR ligands such as LPS (TLR4 agonist) and PAM3CSK4 (TLR1/2 agonist) to mimic systemic inflammatory response promoted by gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial infection. Postnatal day 5 CD1 mouse pups were exposed to either saline or neurotensin pretreatment, followed by sepsis induction. Physiological and behavioral assessments were performed 3 hours following the TLR ligands administration. We leveraged ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) and whole-body plethysmography (WBP) to assess respiratory circuit integrity. USVs and WBP were used as noninvasive approaches to provide a readout of intact respiratory-vocalization circuits in rodent models. Data analysis utilized machine-learning pipelines including MUPET and VocalMat in MATLAB for USVs recordings. R programming language and environment were utilized for statistical computing and graphics. Neurotensin agonist was effective inducing hypothermia in PD5 control pups. As previously reported by our lab, LPS also induced hypothermic effects. PD149163 paired with LPS further reduced the body temperature whereas PAM3CSK4 or paired with PD149163 did not promote changes. Maternal retrieval time increased in response to LPS, and it was aggravated by PD149163. USV complexity was deeply affected by neonatal sepsis changes due to LPS, reducing total calls, syllable variety, and repertoire units. PD149163 further exacerbated these vocal deficits with LPS-induced sepsis but partially restored complex call types in the PAM3CSK4 group. The WBP assessed the respiratory changes due to sepsis and hypothermia. The minute ventilation was depressed in baseline recordings of LPS and LPS + PD149163 groups. Hypercapnia was used to evoke a central ventilatory response; sepsis results in a depressed minute ventilation response which was further amplified with PD149163. The hypothermic effects due to PD149163 resulted in depressed minute ventilation during hypercapnia. Together, these findings demonstrate that neurotensin modulates brainstem respiratory-vocalization circuitry which might not be beneficial upon gram-negative bacterial induced inflammation. This work provides new insight into how thermoregulation, immune activation, and neural control of breathing and communication interact in early life. By revealing the conditions under which neurotensin signaling is protective or detrimental, this thesis establishes a foundation for future studies exploring neurotensin modulation as a potential regulator of neonatal responses during infection.No embargoAcademic Major: Microbiolog

To Praise and to Profane: The Evolution of Propaganda in Anglo-Norman England

The Norman Conquest of England brought changes to many aspects of English life and governance, it also brought a greater utilization of political propaganda by the conquering Norman nobility and the highly literate church that accompanied them. In this thesis, I assert that over the post-conquest decades until 1110 ce. the usage of propaganda not only became more common with increasing literacy but also evolved in its very makeup from a mostly supportive style of polemical panegyric into a targeting tool meant to sway the views of the power-elite and weaken the position of political enemies. Few studies have examined medieval propaganda in the light of how this communication tactic changed in its scope, tone, and objectives in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. This Norman inspired evolution in propaganda is examined here.No embargoAcademic Major: Histor