Pennsylvania State University

Creative or uncreative partner: Comparing humans and AI in collaborative creative tasks

: Creativity is fundamentally a collaborative process. As generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into creative work, understanding how it reshapes collaboration becomes critical. This pre-registered study directly compares human-human and human-AI collaboration dynamics ac...

Rainfall-induced microbial resuscitation reveals functional decoupling across biocrust succession

Abstract Dryland ecosystems rely on infrequent rainfall pulses to activate soil microbial communities, yet the fraction and identity of microbes resuscitating after hydration remain unclear. We applied bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging coupled with fluorescence-activ...

Developing a More Accurate Picture of Veteran Offending: A Short Report on the Potential of Linked Administrative Data

Abstract Most criminal justice administrative databases lack an identifier for veteran status. As a result, analyses of military veterans’ offending often use prison-based samples or rely upon self-identification, which can omit critical populations of veterans, confounding resul...

Seasonal fluctuations in fitness result in severe reductions in effective population size

Abstract Genetic evidence for fluctuating selection has begun to accumulate for different species over the past few decades, especially for the Drosophila genus where studies have reported hundreds of loci undergoing putatively adaptive oscillations across successive seasons. How...

Comparative Genomic Analysis of Clonal Variants of a Spirabiliibacterium Lineage Recovered from a Chicken in the United States

The family Pasteurellaceae includes pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria affecting poultry, yet taxonomic resolution remains challenging due to phenotypic heterogeneity, limited genomic representation, and the poor performance of routine diagnostic systems for uncommon taxa. At...

Promiscuous Metal Site in Hepatitis B Virus X Protein Binds an Fe–S Cluster

Abstract Fe–S clusters are emerging as important cofactors in viral replication but are frequently misassigned as Zn due to their O2-sensitivity and overlapping cysteine-based coordination chemistry. The Hepatitis B virus regulatory protein HBx, which is essential for viral repli...

New pectoral fin material from the Late Devonian of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada and diversity of the radius in finned tetrapodomorphs

The paired fins of stem tetrapods (tetrapodomorphs) have been studied extensively to understand both the phylogenetic framework of early tetrapods and the functional context of the fin-to-limb transition. Attention has predominantly been focused on a few exemplar taxa with well-p...

Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Language: Some Old and New Urgent Issues

Some children struggle with speech development and a small minority never achieve intelligible speech. This review explores research on the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to support their development of communication and language. There is no generally ac...

Effect of Substrate Miscut on the Epitaxial Growth of MoS2 on Sapphire

Abstract The combined effects of substrate miscut angle and growth temperature on the epitaxial growth and properties of MoS2 monolayers synthesized by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on c-plane sapphire substrates were investigated. Increasing the miscut angle tow...

Invisible Threats, Relentless Hunters: Biosurveillance of Airborne Plant Pathogens

Airborne dispersal enables plant pathogens to travel across fields, regions, and continents, fueling rapid epidemics and emerging disease threats. Biosurveillance, the systematic monitoring of airborne inoculum, offers the opportunity to detect pathogens before symptoms appear an...

Reproducibility, Replicability, and Research Quality in Homogeneous Catalysis

Abstract Researchers from all sectors of homogeneous catalysis convened in response to concerns regarding reproducibility in science to analyze the issue and provide recommendations. In addition to an in-person workshop, the group engaged the broader homogeneous catalysis communi...

Cell recovery and DNA extraction methods skew relative abundance estimations of foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms on stainless steel surfaces

ABSTRACT Amplicon sequencing investigations of surface microbiota in food facilities often report the relative abundance of bacteria and fungi. However, physiological differences among cell types can result in variable cell recovery and DNA yields, thereby skewing relative abunda...

Far From Home? Accessing Everyday Places in Rural and Urban Communities

OBJECTIVES: Rural residents are believed to experience greater social isolation than their urban counterparts. This isolation is typically attributed to the structural conditions that distinguish rural communities from urban communities. In the present study, we direct attention...

Automatic Extraction of a Generalized Physics‐Based Feature From Time‐Lapse Active Source Ultrasonic Waveforms for Prediction of Shear Stress in Laboratory Friction Experiments

Abstract Physics‐based handcrafted features, such as P‐wave amplitude derived from early parts of active source ultrasonic waveforms, successfully predict shear stress evolution. This study investigates whether feature extraction can be automated by leveraging full active source...

The Potential Anaerobic Cultivation of Microbial Biomass for Astronaut Nutrition During Long-Term Space Flight

Long-term crewed space missions will have significant constraints on the weight and volume of supplies. The food needed and the management of the waste produced present a challenge, demanding technologies that effectively recycle nutrients. Using microbiological processes may be...

State-of-the-Art Vehicle-to-Pedestrian Systems Technology: Survey and Recommendations for Effective Deployments

Abstract In 2023, the World Health Organization reported approximately 1.19 million road traffic deaths annually, with over half involving vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) systems promise to improve pedestr...

Rationale and study design for the Social Environment and Cognitive Health in Urban and Rural Areas Study

Abstract Objective The Social Environment and Cognitive Health in Urban and Rural Areas study was designed to examine cognitive health disparities in later life. It gathers data on access to social resources, engagement in cognitively stimulating interactions, and exposure to act...

Decoding the KISS1 gene: unraveling KISS1 polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

Abstract Background Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder and the leading cause of anovulatory infertility in women of reproductive age. Changes in the pulsatility of hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) have been linked to the pathophysi...

Percolation Thresholds for Walker-Delta Inter-Satellite Link Networks: A Closed-Form Approximation

This paper develops a closed-form engineering approximation for the satellite-failure fraction at which a Walker-delta mega-constellation's inter-satellite link (ISL) graph fragments, together with a topological vulnerability of the architecture that, to our knowledge, has not be...

Group Differences in Sexual Victimization Risk Among Women as a Function of Developmental Stage and Victimization Status

Guided by traumagenic dynamics and evolutionary-developmental (e.g., life history) frameworks, this study examines whether developmental stage and sexual victimization group status (e.g., childhood, adolesces, adulthood, or multiple victimizations across developmental stages) are...