Institutional Repository

The UDSpace Institutional Repository collects and disseminates research material from the University of Delaware.

Faculty, staff, and graduate students who want their research material hosted in UDSpace should contact the University of Delaware Insitutional Repository team at openaccess@udel.edu.
Faculty may use UDSpace to fulfill the University of Delaware Faculty Senate Open Access Resolution, and in many cases may use it to fulfill open access requirements from grant funding agencies.
Departments can use UDSpace to publish or distribute their working papers, technical reports, or other research material.
UDSpace also includes all doctoral dissertations from winter 2014 forward, and all master's theses from fall 2009 forward.

To learn more about UDSpace, and how you can make your research openly accessible to the public, visit our UDSpace Information website.

Communities in DSpace

Select a community to browse its collections.

Recent Submissions

Exploring the role of ergothioneine and mycorrhizal fungi in shaping the wheat soil microbiome
(Environmental Microbiome, 2026-06-01) Ravi, Sri Sai Nandini; Pipinos, Alexandra; Insley, Nick; Heller, Wade; Smith, Andrew H.; Zinati, Gladis; Richie, John; Bais, Harsh
The association between plants and soil microbes is critical for both soil and plant health. Introducing beneficial microbial inoculants, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), can enhance the uptake of nutrients and compounds in plants including ergothioneine (ERGO), a well-known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound that humans must obtain through diet. However, little is known about how ERGO and inoculated AMF influence ERGO uptake in plants or affect soil microbiome composition, including bacteria, archaea, and fungi. This study investigates the interaction between soil-applied ERGO and AMF inoculation in plant–microbe symbioses to assess (1) whether these treatments increase ERGO content in the staple crop wheat (Triticum aestivum), and (2) how they alter soil microbiome structure.
Government volunteering: how it started, how it’s going
(Journal of Chinese Governance, 2026-03-24) Piatak, Jaclyn; Sowa, Jessica
Governments have long turned to volunteers to help provide public services. From volunteers on citizen advisory boards to park clean-ups to restocking books in libraries, government agencies rely on volunteers to provide insights and service. At a time when the government workforce is being shrunk in the United States and there is increased pressure on governments to do more with less across the world, the study of how volunteers are used in government is more important than ever. As such, we review the research on government volunteering across levels of government at the federal, state, and local levels, with an emphasis on what we know about the composition of government volunteers and how they are managed. The public sector is distinct from other volunteering contexts and faces different trends, challenges, and accountabilities that should be considered in tailoring volunteer management practices. We identify avenues for future research and highlight implications for practice. We call for governments to use strategic volunteer management tailored to the government context and centering government volunteers to provide them with meaningful experiences that foster retention.
Sex Education Incorporating High-Leverage Practices for Students with Autism and Developmental Disabilities
(Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research (CADSR), 2026-02-26) Curtiss, Sarah; Stoffers, Melissa
Students with autism and developmental disabilities, including autism, have the right to access the age-appropriate sex education being provided to their peers, but may be unable to do so without adaptations and modifications. Psychologists, counselors, therapists, special educators, and social workers who work with those with autism and developmental disabilities are often called on to supplement sex education, but do not always have the background in both specialized instruction and sex education. This article provides examples of sex education using high-leverage practices for students with disabilities in both clinical and school-based settings. Resources are also provided for teaching sex education, and examples are offered of how sex education can be included in individualized education plans (IEPs).
Community structure and methylation of microbes in an artificially forced sediment core
(Microbiology Spectrum, 2026-05-28) Zhao, Rui; Biddle, Jennifer F
Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, may be used in prokaryotes for the adaptation of microbes to external environmental changes. In this study, we examined the microbial community structure, recovered the genomes of the dominant microbes, and tracked methylation in several dominant microbes in a 23-cm artificial sediment core formed in a settling tank that mimics the sediment formation process. Our results indicated that the prokaryotic communities only showed minor variations with depth and were dominated by bacteria (especially taxa of Deltaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidota), while archaea (dominated by Bathyarchaeia) accounted for <5% of the total communities throughout the core. We detected methylation by analyzing metagenome sequencing data of methyl-specific specificmethyl-specificenzyme-digested and undigested DNA. We recovered 72 high- or medium-quality metagenome-assembled genomes for the dominant taxa, for 7 of which we detected distinct downcore methylation patterns. This work highlights the diverse processes of epigenetic modification in response to the sediment burial process, which may have a long-term impact on the overall community fitness in the evolving energy-limited conditions in marine sediments.
The Global Contribution of Individual Submarine Groundwater Discharge Components to the Ocean
(Geophysical Research Letters, 2026-05-29) Levy, Y; Michael, H. A; Sahu, S; Kiro, Y
Saline submarine groundwater discharge (SSGD) contributes to ocean chemistry through water-rock interactions as seawater circulates in coastal aquifers. Its components, driven by different mechanisms, exhibit varying residence times and degrees of chemical alteration, so constraining solute fluxes requires quantifying each component. We estimated global density-driven and tidally driven SSGD and solute fluxes using numerical modeling and geospatial data. The modeled global fluxes of density-driven circulation, nearshore tidal circulation, and tidal pumping are 23 (3–219) km3/yr, 254 (173–275) km3/yr, and 388 (179–1,032) km3/yr, respectively. Groundwater flow models often underestimate density-driven circulation because aquifer heterogeneity creates complex salinity distributions that can increase fluxes by orders of magnitude. Accounting for heterogeneity and hydraulic conductivity uncertainty, the revised estimate for density-driven circulation is 523 (181–1,705) km3/yr, comparable to the total tidal-driven SGD. This water flux delivers ∼3 Tmol/yr Ca2+ to the ocean, a significant fraction of the global riverine calcium input.