Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing Principal Component Analysis And Sequential Fusion Deeponet With Varying Dataset Size For Design Space Exploration Of Hypersonic Flow, J. Dallan Trentman

Theses and Dissertations

Design space exploration and optimization of hypersonic vehicles is costly due to the difficulty of producing high fidelity CFD simulations in the hypersonic domain. Reduced order modeling can allow for design optimization at a fraction of the computational cost. This paper investigates the amount of training data required to produce an accurate Reduced Order Model. A PCA based ROM is developed and compared to a Sequential Fusion DeepONet by comparing model prediction accuracy, training time, and prediction time, across dataset sizes from 25 samples to 1024 samples. These models are applied to 2D hypersonic CFD simulations of the Orion reentry …

Towards The Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison: How Civilizations Work Case 3: The Chinese Case, Tiantian Wu

Comparative Civilizations Review

Drawing on Liah Greenfeld’s (2024) framework of Systematic Cross-Civilizational Comparison, this study examines Chinese civilization as an enduring and culturally autonomous system shaped by its unique first principles, “the Great Unity”, which integrates Confucian orthodoxy, political legitimacy, and cultural tradition into a coherent worldview. Historically, this framework justified dynastic rule through moral virtue and the Mandate of Heaven, forming a durable model of statecraft that incorporated Taoist, Legalist, and Buddhist influences. Expressed and perpetuated through the Chinese language, these principles have systematically shaped the civilization’s modes of thought, ethics, and emotional patterns. Although the Opium War and subsequent “Century of …

The First Principles Of Chinese Civilization: Relationalism And Pragmatism, Sai Zhang, Yongnian Zheng

Comparative Civilizations Review

This article examines the first principles of Chinese civilization, relationalism and pragmatism, through Liah Greenfeld’s (2024) definition of civilization as a distinct cultural reality. By comparing Chinese civilization with others, particularly in the context of globalization, we seek to identify its distinctive characteristics. Our overview analysis draws on interdisciplinary literature (including linguistics, philosophy, sociology, political economy, and social psychology). We argue that the complexities of Chinese civilization require a nuanced understanding of its first principles, which are codified in language and cognition. The article explores how these principles manifest in mainstream thoughts such as Confucianism and Legalism, influencing social structure …

Radiation Effects On The Amd Versal Running An Automatic Modulation Classification Model, Allan D. Howe

Theses and Dissertations

With the recent increase of interest into artificial intelligence (AI), graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used as the main hardware architecture for AI computation. Because of their high power consumption and large size, it is necessary to consider other architectures to perform AI computing in outer-space where size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) are tightly constrained. One such architecture is the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Versal Adaptive Compute Acceleration Platform (ACAP), which can achieve acceptable AI throughput at a lower power and size compared to a GPU. As the Versal ACAP gets used in space applications, it is necessary …

Russian Language In An Interdisciplinary Setting: A Case Study, Foreign Area Studies At The United States Naval Academy, Joan Chevalier

Russian Language Journal

Russian language enrollments have been dropping in recent years at colleges and universities in the United States. In contrast to this national trend, the number of students studying Russian language at the United States Naval Academy (USNA) has remained robust over the past decade and is poised to increase in the near future as a relatively new interdisciplinary major, Foreign Area Studies (FAS), is expanded and revised. This paper traces recent developments at USNA that have led to the development and expansion of Foreign Area Studies, integrating language study into an interdisciplinary curriculum featuring courses related to nations and cultures …

The Implication Of Permanence: Indigenous Water Rights In The State Of Arizona V. Navajo Nation, Collin Powell

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

In the State of Arizona v. Navajo Nation, the Supreme Court asked the Navajo to accept a contradiction. In light of disagreements over water rights between Arizona and the Navajo Tribe, members of the Navajo pointed to the Treaty of Bosque Redondo. The Treaty was a compromise between the Navajo and US Officials to reparate the Navajo after “The Long Walk”: a series of forced relocations against the Natives that resulted in over 2,500 deaths. Among these reparations was the guarantee of a “permanent home” on US federal lands. For over a century, case law defined a “permanent home” to …

The Politics Of Exposure: How Local Israeli Violence Affects Palestinian Public Opinion, Noah Passey

Undergraduate Honors Theses

International violence has been connected to domestic public opinion in a variety of ways. Most of the research on this topic focuses on large-scale events like war and ignores smaller events like airstrikes, border conflicts, and police action. This thesis examines small-scale, individual-level violence in Palestine and what impact this violence has on Palestinian public opinions. It uses data on Palestinian casualties to specifically examine the effects of violence perpetrated by Israel in the period 2000-2016—a period marked by frequent conflict short of all-out war. Through multilevel regression analysis, I find that this low-level violence does influence Palestinian public opinion, …

De Aquí Y De Allá: Exchanging Language And Visual Culture In The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Chloë M. Robinson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines graphic design in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) as a site of cultural hybridity, shaped by transnational histories and bilingual practice. It explores how Mexican and Anglo design markers intersect and are negotiated in daily life through analysis of 2,180 visual artifacts, interviews with ten local creatives, and a survey of fifty residents. Historical research traces influences like nineteenth-century wood type and rótulo signage to contemporary advertising. Interviews reveal that local creatives navigate hybrid identities through code-switching, bilingual fluency, and borderlands experiences. Survey results show that participants’ language preferences predict how they categorize and rank typographic …

Strategic Parallels: How Historic Military Tactics Inform Modern Business Strategy, Eli S. Nelson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The field of business strategy emerged out of military strategy during the mid- twentieth century. Despite this shared DNA, the connection between the two fields has been limited to broad conceptual comparisons and abstract motivational framing. No prior research has paired a specific military history case with a specific modern business case to analyze the parallels between these disciplines in detail.

This research addresses that gap by comparing the German Blitzkrieg campaign during the 1940 invasion of France and the transformation of Ryanair in the early 1990s. Despite being separated by fifty years and operating in completely different domains, the …

Full Issue

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

No abstract provided.

Stephen Hastings To Speak On, Janel E. Lundgren

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

JBS-USA is delighted to announce another special Zoom presentation by the celebrated writer and author Stephen Hastings on Tuesday, October 22, 2024 at 7:30 pm EDT, which will be repeated on Saturday, October 26 at 12 noon EDT. After his presentation, he will be joined by Stefan Johansson, longtime chief dramaturg of the Swedish Royal Opera, for what promises to be a lively and informed discussion of performers and performance traditions. JBS board member Sue Flaster will serve as moderator.

According to Mr. Hastings, “Jussi Björling and Carlo Bergonzi belonged to different generations and their careers overlapped only in the …

Memories Of The Low-Income Elderly Of South Korea, Jacob Gilbert

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Rain pattered against my umbrella as I walked down the small alleyway near Tapgol Park. An elderly man carrying a black umbrella hobbled past me. Rain dripping from the gutters made puddles at my feet. I carefully avoided several puddles in the pavement making my way to the end of the alleyway. As I drew closer to the end, loud voices echoed down the alley. Around the corner a crowd of elderly people huddled underneath the roof of the front gate to the park. Some stood, while others sat on the ground leaning their backs against the walls of the …

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.

Colonial Legacy And National Identity:, Nina Harris

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The island of Taiwan occupies an unusual political position in the world today. Taiwan is viewed primarily in relation to its complicated relationship with the People’s Republic of China. While Taiwan considers itself distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically elected leaders, China’s government claims the island is an inalienable part of China and has been for centuries. Taiwan’s history, however, is more complicated and diverse than China allows. Unbeknownst to many, Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, and it was an era of highly significant change for Taiwan. The Japanese occupation was …

Made For War, Abandoned In Peace:, Michelle Parada-Gonzalez

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Amid a raging blizzard in the mountains of 1907 Hokkaido, Sugimoto Saichi shelters inside the still-warm carcass of a freshly killed deer, huddled beside his companion, Asirpa. As she asks if his wounds still hurt, he brushes it off, insisting that the man he killed earlier had no human heart and felt little pain. When Asirpa reprimands him, Sugimoto concedes—war has changed him. The person he once was had been left behind on the battlefield. Some men, he says, can return to their old lives, but others like him remain stuck in the past. Asirpa, only twelve years old, considers …

Beyond War: Building Wisdom Civilization To Rescue Humanity, Andrew Targowski

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper presents a comparative civilizational analysis of humanity’s transition from a War Civilization to the emerging Wisdom Civilization. Drawing on the works of Toynbee, Sorokin, Quigley, Huntington, Spengler, and Koneczny, it interprets the present global disorder — marked by the tension between Western, Chinese, Russian, and Muslim civilizations — as a transformative moment in human history. War and militarism, once adaptive mechanisms of civilizational growth, have become self-destructive in an era of technological interdependence. It is proposed that the next evolutionary stage of civilization must integrate knowledge with conscience to form a Wisdom Civilization founded on empathy, sustainability, and …

Review:Linklater, Andrew. Violence And Civilization In The Western States-Systems. Cambridge University Press, 2017., Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

The late Andrew Linklater (1949-2023) has been considered one of the most influential scholars within the field of International Relations. This was the result of his innovative synthesis into the field, with others, of the historical sociology of Norbert Elias (1897- 1990), work that addressed the long-term figuration processes of societies. This synthesis was enriched with the insights of the English School of International Relations, as devised by Martin Wight (1913-1972) and Hedley Bull (1932-1985), scholars who analyzed the many and differing interlocking networks and connections amongst geopolitical actors on the world stage. These efforts led Linklater to his final …

Books Of Interest Spring 2026

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Extending Norbert Elias: Adjacency And The Dynamics Of Civilizations, Arthur Michelino

Comparative Civilizations Review

Civilizations have rarely been approached as systems of interdependence and strain. Most modern theories have oscillated between cyclical visions of rise and fall and static conceptions of blocs defined by cultural essence. Both perspectives have offered sweeping interpretations, but both also detached civilizations from the environments of pressure and interaction in which they have always existed. To reframe civilizations as relational processes requires both recognition of their internal dynamics and attention to the external conditions that compel their transformation.

Mystics, Oracles, And Bones: Spiritual Resistance For Justice, Healing, And Resolution, Leah Hollis

Comparative Civilizations Review

This conceptual essay examines the enduring human impulse to seek meaning, justice, and healing through mystical traditions in response to suffering and harm. When traditional solutions through grievance, the law, or mediation fails, some individuals may turn to spiritual practices not as superstition, but as embodied strategies of survival, reclamation, and clarity. Comparing diverse traditions from a variety of cultures, including oracle bone divination in ancient China, the Oracle at Delphi in Greece, West African Ifá, Benin’s Voudou, diasporic Hoodoo, Celtic Druidic law, and Sufi mysticism, this paper explores how mystics have long served as interpreters of suffering and perceived …

Full Issue

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Egypt, Israel, And The Levant: The Merneptah Stele's Role In Shaping Historical Narratives, Quincy Adams

Studia Antiqua

This paper investigates the Merneptah Stele, an exceptional artifact from the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah during Egypt’s New Kingdom, to reassess the stele’s role in understanding early Israelite identity. The Merneptah Stele is among the earliest known references to “Israel,” and consequently has sparked discussion among scholars regarding this early group’s socio-political and cultural status during the late Bronze Age. By examining the stele in conjunction with the inscriptions of the Cour de la Cachette in the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, this study situates the Merneptah Stele within the broader historical and cultural framework of the New Kingdom to …

Curious Contradictions: A Critical Edition Of 'The Great War In England In 1897,' By William Le Queux, Jacob D. Liljenquist

Student Works

Written by William Le Queux in 1894, The Great War in England in 1897 is a work of invasion literature, and a book full of curious contradictions. Once popular and now forgotten, its material construction belies its status as sensational literature. This critical edition of the 4th edition copy of the novel housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections evaluates the book's conception, creation, and reception, and provides a material bibliography of the HBLL's unique copy, all with the aim to reveal and explain the contradictions in the book as a product of imperial culture.

Revisiting The Geneva Summit 40 Years Later:, Thomas Quinn Marabello, Jonah S. Schaller

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Forty years ago this month, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland. What became known as the “Geneva Summit” was an important Cold War meeting between the two superpowers that would reset and impact their relations to this day. The Geneva Summit, some would argue, was the beginning of the end of the Cold War, as both leaders began working towards arms reduction, peace, and cultural and educational exchanges between both countries. It is hard to believe that November 1985 was forty years ago. The world watched as the …

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Note: Comparative Civilizational Turn: The Future Of The Iscsc In The Wake Of Geopolitical “Grey Rhino” Events, Greg Lewicki

Comparative Civilizations Review

The last few years seem to have brought some bitter realizations among political scientists, forecasters, and security analysts. Namely: they tend to err, and their forecasts too often remain off-target.

Civilization: The Gaze Of Photography, William Alexander Ewing

Comparative Civilizations Review

If the lifetime of our species were imagined as a single 24-hour day, then civilization makes its appearance at the 23.02 mark. And photography? It comes on stage under a minute before midnight.

How marvelous it would have been to have had photography recording our lives throughout those millennia.

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Under The Sea And Into The Future With Darwin, Verne, & Wells: Evolutionary Ideas In Early Science Fiction Literature And Atomic Age Adaptations, Suzette K. Forston

Theses and Dissertations

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin's theories challenged traditional ways of thinking about the world so dramatically that his writings inspired the formation of a new genre: science fiction. Two pioneering authors, Jules Verne and H. G. Wells drew from Darwin's writings in their classic novels, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Time Machine (1895). Though the two authors are often compared because they were both early science fiction authors, they approached Darwinian theory in different ways. Verne uses a more extrapolative approach and focusing on specific details of Darwin's texts to tell a …

Recent Advances In Developing Cell-Free Protein Synthesis Biosensors For Medical Diagnostics And Environmental Monitoring, Tyler P. Green, Joseph P. Talley, Bradley Charles Bundy

Faculty Publications

Cell-free biosensors harness the selectivity of cellular machinery without living cells’ constraints, offering advantages in environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and biotechnological applications. This review examines recent advances in cell-free biosensor development, highlighting their ability to detect diverse analytes including heavy metals, organic pollutants, pathogens, and clinical biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity. We analyze technological innovations in cell-free protein synthesis optimization, preservation strategies, and field deployment methods that have enhanced sensitivity, and practical applicability. The integration of synthetic biology approaches has enabled complex signal processing, multiplexed detection, and novel sensor designs including riboswitches, split reporter systems, and metabolic sensing modules. …