BRADFORD, Pa. – University of Pittsburgh at Bradford faculty have had a productive year publishing and presenting papers, planning a research conference and earning a new degree.

Tyler Babinski ’23 published his first article with two of his Pitt-Bradford faculty mentors, Dr. Salma Shaik, assistant professor of computer information systems and technology, and Dr. Y. Ken Wang, associate professor of computer information systems and technology. “Exploring Inflammatory Bowel Disease Discourse on Reddit Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic Using OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 Turbo Model Validation and Case Study” was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Babinski said, “This work represents a significant step forward in how health conversations on social media platforms can be analyzed.”

Shaik also served as chair of the “Equity, Institutions and Social Impact in Economics Systems” session at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences’ Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

Dr. Elinam Amevor, assistant professor of communications, published two articles, “Gendered Framing of Agribusiness Under USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative in Liberia: A Colonial Sequel?” in Journal of Black Studiesand“’We’re Not Lab Rats’: Analysis of Netizens’ Response to BCG Vaccine-Test Proposal Against COVID-19 in Africa,” in Howard Journal of Communications.

Catherine Baldwin, instruction services librarian, presented a paper titled “It’s Deeper than you Think: How Librarians Contribute to the Cognitive Development of University Students through Research Instruction” at the West Virginia-Western Pennsylvania Chapter Conference of the Association for College and Research Librarians at West Virginia University.

                Dr. William Clark, assistant professor of education, published a book review in the American Association of School Administrators magazine. He reviewed “Making Your School Irresistible: The Secret to Attracting and Retaining Great Teachers” by Carrie Bishop and Jessica Holloway.

Dr. Michaela Dringnei, associate professor of mathematics, presented the paper “Modeling vibrating strings using ordinary differential equations” at SIMIODE Expo, an online conference for Systematic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities in Differential Equations.

                Dr. Drew Flanagan, assistant professor of history, presented his paper titled “Prestige and Contempt in Baden-Baden, 1945-55” at the first Members’ Conference of the Occupation studies Research Network, a new international research network focused on the study of military occupation.

Dr. Mark Kelley, associate professor of exercise science, earned a Master of Studies in Law with a concentration in human resources law from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Rebecca McHugh, associate professor of psychology, and Dr. Ovidiu Frantescu, associate professor of environmental science, organized the Penn York Undergraduate Research Association conference held at Pitt-Bradford last month. The conference was an opportunity for 70 undergraduate students to present their research to peers.

Dr. Femi Oloye, assistant professor of physical chemistry, published “The Slow Pandemic: Emergence of Antimicrobial Resistance in the Post-advent of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic” with colleagues in Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics. The paper examined how the increased use of disinfectants and antiseptics during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), may contribute to antimicrobial resistance, focusing on their detection in wastewater and resistance development in bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii.

Dr. Vinayak Ranjan, visiting assistant professor of mechanical engineering, published several papers, “Prediction of approaching trains based on H-ranks of track vibration signals,” in Computer-Aided Civil Engineering; “Optimization of vibration and noise reduction in sigmoid functionally graded plates using mode localization” in Wave Motion; and “Free Vibration of Moderately Thick Functionally Graded Plates Using the Dynamic Stiffness Method and the Wittrick-Williams Algorithm” in Computers and Structures.

Additionally, he served as a peer reviewer for six scientific journals in areas such as vibration analysis, functionally graded materials and computational mechanics.

Dr. Beth Rezaie published a paper in the peer-reviewed Journal of Process Safety and Environmental Protection.The paper, “Energy storage management using Li-ion, lead-acid, flywheel, and photovoltaic systems integrated to a near zero energy building using TRNSYS simulation,” investigated different methods for studying electricity produced by solar panels on the roof of the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building at Pitt-Bradford.

                Finally, research Martha J. Rogus completed at Pitt-Bradford with Rana Muhammed Alzahrany in 2019 appeared in Alzahrany’s doctoral dissertation at the University of York, “Effects of Pen-Pal Letter Writing on EFL Saudi Students’ Communicative Ability, Language Competence and Writing Motivation.” The project involved pen pal letter exchanges of Pitt-Bradford Composition 101 and 102 students with Saudi Arabia University English learners.