Digital Commons Network^™

The Anthropology Of Life: An Interview With Perig Pitrou, Perig Pitrou, Tomas De Oliveira, Maddalena Canna

Transatlantic Forum

This interview focuses on the proposal for an "anthropology of life" developed by Perig Pitrou. The conversation traces the origins of this framework to fieldwork with the Mixe of Mexico, where rituals involving the metaperson "He Who Makes Being Alive" revealed a crucial distinction between "the living" (living beings) and "life" (the causes that make them alive). This separation underpins a comparative model examining how societies socialize two fundamental dimensions: the power to generate life and the fragility of individual existences. Methodologically, the approach draws on the anthropology of techniques, employing the concept of "agentive configurations" to analyze how humans …

Book Review: How Drones Fight: How Small Drones Are Revolutionizing Warfare, Chase Metcalf

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Lars Celander

Reviewed by: Colonel Chase Metcalf, assistant professor, Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations

Celander’s book discusses the new technologies at the forefront of military transformation and offers recommendations for countering them. He also argues that the introduction of drones into warfare has shifted the approach to air superiority. The reviewer critiques How Drones Fight’s lack of depth and narrow focus yet still sees it as an accessible introduction to drones and the future of warfare.

The Influence Of Alongside For Educators, An Ai Wellness Tool, On Educator Well-Being, Amanda Grell

Doctorate in Education

Educator well-being has become an urgent concern in K-12 education, as educators continue to experience chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and high levels of burnout. Despite these challenges, few school-based interventions offer timely, individualized support that addresses educators’ real-time emotional needs. This mixed-methods study examined the influence of the Alongside for Educators application on educator well-being within middle and high school settings. The purpose of this research was to explore how the tool supported educators across the Coping-Competence-Context (3Cs) framework, including experiences with the application, contextual factors shaping engagement, and changes in well-being. Qualitative findings from 10 interviews revealed that educators …

Exploring Identity Development Of Therapeutic Boarding School Alumni, Travis Philipsen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research on therapeutic boarding schools (TBS) has largely focused on treatment experiences and immediate adolescent outcomes, with limited attention to identity development after program discharge. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine identity development during emerging adulthood in TBS alumni aged 18-24 and to explore how internal strengths and external supports influenced participants’ developmental experiences after leaving TBS. Positive youth development was the guiding theoretical framework, emphasizing the bidirectional relationship between a person and the external ecological assets they access. Semistructured interviews were conducted with six alumni, and data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis within a …

Ai-Enhanced Citation Mapping: Tools & Strategies For Graduate Instruction, Corinne Bishop Edd, Rachel Trnka Phd, Ven Basco

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

AI-enhanced citation mapping tools offer the potential to streamline the discovery process when conducting academic literature searches. Among the wide range of AI-enhanced tools now available, tools like Citation Gecko, Connected Papers, LitMaps, and Research Rabbit are designed to identify, visualize, and uncover relevant connections between sources. While these tools offer the potential to streamline the discovery process, many graduate students may be unaware of how to use AI tools effectively or how to evaluate the relevancy of search results. Graduate students may also mistakenly view the use of an AI-enhanced citation mapping tool as a “one-stop solution” to search …

From Research To Writing: How Collaboration Strengthens Thesis Preparation, Carly Mcleod, Ben Lee Taylor

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Graduate students have unique learning needs that often require simultaneous support from multiple service areas to be successful. From navigating scholarly sources to developing strong academic writing skills, students benefit most when guidance is provided at critical points through intentional collaboration and shared expertise.

In response to a faculty request for supplementary workshops for mechanical engineering students, the Teaching and Learning unit within the library partnered with the Writing and Academic Skills Centre to design timely instruction that aligns with students’ academic goals as they enter the thesis preparation stage. Rather than delivering separate sessions, we recognized this would be …

What Would It Take To Compose The Ideal Library Dashboard As A 'Symphony' Of Library Data?, Evan Rusch, Heidi J. Southworth, Nat Gustafson-Sundell

Library Services Publications

Most areas of the library produce data informative about the scope and success of library services. Many areas use that data, but there might be a variety of approaches. In our library, we have developed online, interactive dashboards to understand the value of collections on our campus. Other library service areas might produce one-shot reports encapsulating their data, or they rely on analytics silos specific to their services. Our hope is to work toward a dashboard of all or most library services, possibly to include other learning services under the library roof. Instead of a ‘battle of the bands,’ we …

Tricking Students Into Talking To You: “House Calls” Edition, Ashley Mcguire

Libraries Professional Work

As a STEM librarian, the struggle to get to know students (and faculty) is real. Beyond the usual "We have a librarian?" phenomenon experienced by most subject liaison librarians, there is an extra layer of stigma carried by many in the STEM fields – scientists should be able to figure things out all by themselves, so asking for help or advice is admitting that you can't handle it! Of course, we know the truth – librarians are here to help with many tasks that scientists are never formally taught, including selecting databases and developing good search strategies. Before being able …

Understanding Agtech Adoption: Evidence From The Farm Tech Adoption Challenge 2025, Ankit Chandra, Mark Stone

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

The Farm Tech Adoption Challenge (FTAC) examined how farmers evaluate emerging agricultural technologies through structured interactions with startups. Farmers assessed solutions based on their on-farm challenges and indicated adoption decisions. Results showed that adoption was driven by how well technologies addressed economic pressure, risk reduction, and operational simplicity. Startups aligned with these priorities were more likely to gain traction, with five out of nine receiving farmer commitments for adoption. However, adoption also depended on clear economic value, field validation, and system integration. Overall, the findings suggest that the primary bottleneck in agtech is not the lack of relevant technologies, but …

U.S. Arctic Sea Lines Of Communication (Sloc): The Imperative For A Maritime Complex And Corridor In The Bering Region, Samuel A. Krakower, Troy J. Bouffard

Joint Force Quarterly

This paper examines the current American capacity to defend its newfound Sea Lines of Communication in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The history, and importance, of Sea Lines of Communication trace back to great naval strategists such as Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett, and consistent protection of these maritime corridors in times of war and peace led to the success of the United States. As the Arctic Region emerges as a new theater of geopolitical importance, the United States finds itself significantly disadvantaged or "strategically handicapped” in terms of presence, capability, and proximity to defend …

A Primer On Ukrainian Special Forces: Beyond Joint, Kevin D. Stringer, Taisiia Vivdych

Joint Force Quarterly

"A Primer on Ukrainian Special Forces: Beyond Joint" by Kevin D. Stringer and Taisiia Vivdych examines the evolution, structure, and operations of Ukrainian special operations forces (SOF), highlighting key distinctions from U.S. and NATO models. Tracing their lineage from Soviet spetsnaz to contemporary formations, it analyzes the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces Command (USOFCOM), State Security Service’s Special Operations Center Alfa (SOCA), Rapid Response Corps (KORD), the 10th Separate Operational Response Unit (DOZOR), Foreign Intelligence Service (SZR) units, and the volunteer Kraken Regiment under the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). Ukrainian SOF are dispersed across military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies, …

Cognitive Warfare And Organizational Design: Leveraging Ai To Reshape Military Decision-Making, Michael Silver, Kellen Sick, Matthew Snyder, Justin Farnell, Justin E. Farnell

Joint Force Quarterly

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is transforming modern warfare, particularly in decision-making. To maintain its strategic edge, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) must accelerate AI/ML adoption within its decision-making. This paper examines the organizational design factors that influence AI/ML integration in the Joint Force, applying a modified Star Model framework that includes People, Structure, Processes, Incentives, and Leadership & Management.

Effective AI/ML adoption is not just a technological challenge, but a behavioral and organizational one. Possessing AI tools alone is insufficient; realizing their full potential requires adapting how …

Fabrication At The Tactical Edge, Aubry J. Eaton, Dustin T. Thomas

Joint Force Quarterly

This research reviews empirical evidence of rapid battlefield fabrication efforts and proposes potential new uses of this technology. It recommends that the joint force must undergo a paradigm shift to view battlefield manufacturing as an inherent component of force projection with potentially decisive impact across the spectrum of conflict. It proposes a doctrinal concept for Fabrication At The Tactical Edge (FATE), defining the technologies that enable this concept. FATE offsets adversary capabilities by imposing asymmetric costs while making U.S. forces difficult to predict. Unlike prior studies on military innovation, this research focuses on manufacturing itself as a weapon system. If …

Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 119, 4th Quarter 2025, National Defense University Press

Joint Force Quarterly

Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ) 119 examines the evolving challenges and innovations shaping the U.S. joint force and professional military education. Key themes include tactical-level manufacturing (“Fabrication at the Tactical Edge”), the ongoing debate over curriculum focus in professional military education (“Breadth or Depth in PME”), and the transformative role of artificial intelligence in decisionmaking for military operations. Together, these articles and others highlight the dynamic intersection of technology, strategy, and education in modern defense. This issue highlights how digital transformation, industrial capability, and intellectual agility are vital to maintaining strategic advantage across domains of competition and conflict.

Latex: Overleaf, Anette Moreno-Lozano Phd, John Connolly Phd

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

This workshop introduces participants to LaTeX for scientific writing. Attendees will learn to create and compile documents in Overleaf, insert and format equations, figures, tables, and references, use collaboration and version control tools, and find discipline-specific resources and templates.

History Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Often Rhymes: Comparing The Messaging Of Adolf Hitler And Donald Trump, Elaina Varney

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

With the growing divide between the left and right, many on the left have raised alarms that Donald Trump is a fascist. My research paper compares Donald Trump’s messaging to Adolf Hitler’s messaging to find any similarities between the two in order to determine if Trumpism is a precursor to fascism. This study begins by looking at previous scholars’ research into whether or not Trumpism is a precursor to fascism and then I proceed to draw on primary sources such as speeches, Mein Kampf, and Trump’s TruthSocial posts, particularly those related to immigration and minorities, attacks on and suppression …

How Recruitment And Retention Of Staff Affect Behavioral Health Care Facilities, Teresa A. Rodriguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

ABC Organization identified the barriers of how recruitment and retention of staff affect a behavioral health care agency. The goal of the study was to determine how these barriers affect behavioral health care organizations. The framework used for the study was the Baldridge framework. The research questions that guided the study addressed how recruitment of staff affects an organization and how retention of staff affect an organization. The methodology was a qualitative case study with 10 participants. Data was analyzed by coding and identifying themes. The results showed that when an organization invests in the leaders and offers benefit packages, …

Lanthorn, Vol. 60, No. 13, March 16, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 60, August 4, 2025 – April 20, 2026

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

"This Is Not A Scam!": Assessment Of An Awareness Raising Program Tackling Older Adults' Scam Victimization In A Multi-Method Study, Katalin Parti, Pamela Teaster, Susanna Rinehart, Charles Dye

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Interactive theatre has long been used to educate and empower communities and prevent crime across all age groups. Although older populations are disproportionately victimized through fraudulent online schemes, effective educational interventions, like interactive theatre, have not been utilized to increase crime awareness. This paper describes an explorational research project, analyzing the results of a theatre-based fraud awareness program aimed towards educating victims and their communities about scams targeting older people. The study employs a mixed-method research design to examine program impact. In applying multifaceted tools of data collection, such as survey, participant observation, and follow-up interviews, the research team identified …

Cognitive Interaction Architecture: A Structural Account Of Mode-Specific Problems And Design Responses In Ai Interaction, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

Contemporary conversational AI is optimized for a single interaction mode: the continuous, engagement-driven dialogue characteristic of Empathic-modulationforegrounded (EF) processing in social contexts. This optimization is not neutral. It produces structural mismatches when users operate under different cognitive configurations or pursue different task types. This paper analyzes four interaction cases generated by the cross-product of cognitive configuration (Core-foregrounded / Empathic-modulation-foregrounded) and task type (conversational / research). For each case, it identifies the structural problems produced by the current single-architecture approach and proposes mode-specific design responses. The analysis draws on prior work in this series on Emotional Branch Termination, termination of conceptual …

Three-Layer Cognitive Architecture: A Structural Account Of Core Processing, Modulation, And The Prior Layer, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

The two-layer model of Core processing and Modulation processing, developed in prior work in this series, provides a structural account of conscious communicative architecture. This paper identifies the limits of that model and introduces a third layer—the Prior layer—as a structural necessity implied by those limits. The Prior layer is not directly observed. It is inferred from constraints that cannot be explained within the two-layer model: the source of orientations that conscious processing neither generates nor controls, and the persistence of constraints that precede and shape all conscious outputs. Using the developmental architecture of large language models as an external …

Ai As Structural Reverse-Engineering: A Structural Account Of Multi-Model Research Protocol, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper documents an operational protocol used to infer AI system design constraints through structured interaction. AI output is treated as behavioral data through which alignment priorities, layer transitions, and constraint hierarchies become observable. The protocol consists of two structurally distinct operation types. Perceptual operations require only that Modulation processing is not foregrounded. Arbitration operations additionally require an internally stabilized theory. These conditions are not identical and are not interchangeable. Through this protocol, AI interaction functions as structural reverse-engineering: patterned responses expose embedded alignment priorities and constraint hierarchies that would otherwise remain invisible. The present account does not propose a …

Ai As An Amplifier: A Structural Account Of Theory-Driven Research Collaboration, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper specifies the cognitive conditions under which AI functions as a research instrument in theory-driven writing. AI use capability is not a technical skill. It is a structural condition. The decisive condition is whether the user possesses an internally stabilized, coherence-preserving theory prior to engagement with AI-generated output. In Core-foregrounded (CF) cognition, the Modulation layer does not intervene between Core processing and articulation. Theory is not assembled from external elements but expanded from a pre-integrated constraint configuration. This internal structure makes it possible to evaluate AI-generated conceptual branches against fixed constraints and to terminate branches that violate structural coherence. …

Ecosystem-Based Flood Disaster Risk Reduction In The Little Ruaha River Basin, In The Southern Highlands Of Tanzania, Mawazo Ghambi, Tiemo Romward Haule

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Ecosystem-based approach that integrates floods and environmental risk management is believed to reduce flood disaster risk while providing socio-economic and environmental benefits to floodplain occupants. This study examined the socio-economic and environmental benefits of the ecosystem-based approach in managing flood disaster risk in the Little Ruaha River Basin in the southern highlands of Tanzania. The study involved 157 participants and employed the mixed research design to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews, direct field observation and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect primary data, whereas documentary review was used to collect secondary data. Findings revealed that …

Phishing Susceptibility Among Healthcare Workers: A Multiyear Study, Darin Challacombe, Elizabeth Mcelhiney

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Understanding and improving phishing awareness is an important aspect of ensuring patient health information (PHI) is protected. Many health organizations require associates to complete annual training and supplement that training with simulated phishing email campaigns.

This poster will provide the results of a multiyear group of four studies in which health information (HI) professionals were provided various types of training and then tested on their susceptibility to simulated phishing emails. This will supplement the research on the viability of this method. And, this will present the findings by using real HI professionals (vs. college students).

We will provide a summary …

Mismatched Music And Meams: Short-Form Social Media Videos And Social Attitude Messaging, Kaitlyn M. Serafin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“If the formative power in the media are the media themselves, that raises a host of large matters” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 10). Famed communications theorist Marshall McLuhan stated this all the way back in the 60s to explain how technology can act as a formative force in the messaging of media. This is because the medium in which they communicate the messaging can act as its own force, shaping the message like clay. The dominant media at the time of this theory was television; however, in the past decade social media and short-form social media videos have become dominant forms …

Emotional And Psychological Well-Being In Early Postmenopausal Women: A Phenomenological Study, Marjorie F. Leon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how early postmenopausal women experience and navigate emotional and psychological well-being during the postmenopausal transition. Although menopause has been widely examined as a biological process, women’s lived emotional and psychosocial experiences during the early postmenopausal period remain underexplored in psychological research. Conceptually informed by Engel’s biopsychosocial model, this study examined how biological, psychological, and social factors intersect in shaping resilience, identity, and coping during this transitional life stage. Thirteen women within 5 years of menopause onset participated in semi structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase reflexive …

Insecure Attachment Predicts Poor Sexual Communication Among Emerging Adults, Carson T. O'Leary

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Sexual communication significantly predicts sexual satisfaction within adult romantic relationships (Byers, 2011). Further, research has demonstrated that relationship satisfaction and relationship outcomes are positively influenced by sexual satisfaction (Anderson, 2012). Research regarding interest in promoting long-term romantic relationships should target sexuality-related concerns in romantic partners. Sexuality research grounded in attachment theory has provided promising results. Attachment theory hypothesizes that individuals develop an attachment style based on early life experiences with their caregiver(s). These styles strongly predict how individuals respond to loved ones, including romantic partners (Bell & Ainsworth, 2023). Research also suggests insecurely attached individuals struggle with effective communication in …

The Human Rights Fulcrum: Using Environmental Rights As Leverage For Change, Rebecca Bratspies

Pace International Law Review

“Give me a lever long enough and a firm place on which to stand and I will move the earth." That is how Archimedes famously described the power of levers and the possibility they create for moving something that otherwise seems immovable. His point was that with the use of distance, a fulcrum, and a lever, nothing is really immovable. This same characterization has been applied to human rights law, and its attempts to disrupt patterns of structural dispossession, discrimination and oppression that bedevil human society. Indeed, the metaphor that human rights are a lever for change is relatively common …

Quantifying And Integrating Community Hardship Into Two-Stage Stochastic Grid Reliability Optimization With Battery Storage, Fredrica Arthur

LSU Master's Theses

Traditional reliability planning for conventional distribution systems is largely utility-oriented, with a focus on collective system performance metrics like Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS), where implicitly all unserved energy is considered of equal weight in terms of post-outage economic hardship. Yet, it is well understood that extended outage durations cause an uneven level of hardship to socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. This thesis proposes a community-informed reliability planning framework where the hardship caused by outages is explicitly considered in the battery energy storage system (BESS) location and sizing problem. First, a hardship-weighted Energy Not Supplied (WENS) measure is proposed, where income, education, …