Digital Commons Network^™

From Prison To The World: A Comparative Reading Of Naji’S Hirz Mikamkim (Rotten Evidence, 2020) And Abd El-Fattah’S You Have Not Yet Been Defeated (2021), Teresa Pepe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article analyses Ahmed Naji’s Hirz Mikamkim (Rotten Evidence) and Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s You Have Not Yet Been Defeated through the lens of ‘prison literature’, that is “literary works produced in, about, or through the experience of political detention” (Taleghani 13). Comparing them to previous forms of prison literature from Egypt, it shows that both books depart from the social-realistic mode that has prevailed throughout the 20^th century. Rather they renovate the genre with aesthetic traits drawn from postmodern and digital literature, exemplified by autofictional or anonymous modes of authorship and co-authorship, narrative fragmentation, and bodily exposures. These aesthetic …

Khairy Shalaby’S Novel The City Of The Enslaved: Egyptian Prison Literature With A Russian Twist, Sarali Gintsburg

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Although the interconnectedness of Russian and Arabic literatures has been demonstrated by Soviet/Russian and, to a limited extent, Western Arabists, this research remains limited to a few names. However, the role that the Russian/Soviet literary tradition had in shaping contemporary genres of Arabic literature is complex and diverse. This is, for instance, the case with prison literature—Russian/Soviet literature has a long tradition of turning to the topic of imprisonment. It was Dostoyevsky, who turned to the genre of katorzhnaya proza (prison literature) and popularized it. Later, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Gorky dedicated a number of their influential literary works to further …

Terrorists, Spies, And Diplomatic Crises: The Birth Of Morocco’S Multimedia Prison Literature, Brahim El Guabli

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article captures the literary shift that accompanied the transformation of the nature of political imprisonment in Morocco in the last twenty years. Focusing on the new victims of state violence, who fall within two categories: prisoners accused of terrorism and those accused of heinous sexual crimes, this article argues that the emergence of these new criminal profiles has led to the establishment of a transnational “Multimedia Prison Literature” (MPL). Drawing on the cases of Ali Arras, a Belgian-Moroccan whom Spain delivered to Morocco for terrorist charges, and Mohamed Hajib, a German-Moroccan citizen whom Germany extradited to his country of …

The Absurdity Of Liberation In Moroccan Prison Narratives, Hakima Choukri

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Moroccan prison narratives have been credited with major political and social changes, yet their existential value is equally worth acknowledging. The prison narratives of Aziz Binebine, Mohamed Raiss, Malika Oufkir, and Fatna El Bouih, to mention but a few, are fraught with existentialist patterns that are uncovered upon reading them comparatively. One pattern that persists through these narratives is the absurdity of liberation. Borrowing Camus’ concept of the absurd, this article highlights the absurdity of the post-prison chapter for being nothing more than an extension of the prison episode that makes the impossibility of freedom acutely felt. The absurdity of …

Palestinian Prisoners: Smuggling Freedom, Writing From Captivity, Basil Farraj

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article discusses writings by Palestinian political prisoners and the broader body of prison literature situating them as practices of ‘smuggling freedom’ from Israel’s carceral regime, shedding light onto their political and social meaning. Through discussing writings by prisoners, the article points to a long history through which Palestinian prisoners confronted the Israeli regime’s torture and violent practices, and its broader project of eliminating the political nature of captivity. The article argues that prisoners’ writings reveal much about the dynamics of carceral power and violence, and the logic behind the confrontation practices used by prisoners in Palestine and beyond. These …

New Approaches To Mena Prison Literatures After 2011, Anne-Marie Mcmanus

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Second Reaction: Patron Saint Of Ireland, Taimur Sabih

First Opinions, Second Reactions

No abstract provided.

Desktop-Scale Robot Tape Manipulation For Additive Manufacturing, Nahid Tushar, Rencheng Wu, Yu She, Wenchao Zhou, Wan Shou

School of Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Advancements in additive manufacturing and robotic automation have enabled diverse fabrication techniques using various materials. However, small-scale tape placement for three-dimensional (3D) printing remains underexplored, with most research focused on large-scale composite manufacturing using carbon fiber prepreg tapes. This work presents an innovative, automated, and cost-effective tape placement system that extends traditional methods beyond carbon fiber prepreg. We developed a customized tape print module (TPM) integrated with a robotic arm, enabling precise and versatile tape placements. Our system supports non-linear toolpaths, complex patterns, and controllable placements on multi-plane surfaces, creating overhangs without support. We demonstrate circuit printing with copper tape …

Public Relations And Marketing On Websites Of Guide Dog Organizations, Sakura Mizuta, Mayuko Kato-Shimizu, Naoko Koda

People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice

This study investigates websites of organizations that train and provide guide dogs to visually impaired people and present marketing methods as social welfare services. The study also makes suggestions for improving the websites. Among the members of the International Guide Dog Federation, 110 official websites of the organizations were analyzed. Websites were evaluated based on criteria including organizational basics, staff details, top page images, donation information, guide dog application guidance, user comments, and specific guide dog information. The websites play various roles, such as providing both general and visually impaired people with information on organizational activities, while calling for donations. …

Literacy Skills And Practices In Cambodian-American Families: A Portraiture Of Ten Women, Sothy Tep

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Abstract:This research article describes the literacy skills and practices in ten Cambodian-American (CA) families within their home environment. It also investigates such contextual problems as CA students not being a part of the Asian model minority and the invisibility that some experience at school.Its literature review addresses the evolving concept of family literacy scholarship, specifically diversity scholarship, with a conceptual framework focusing on Dewey’s (1916) ideas linking family literacy ultimately to human empowerment, hope, progress, growth, and meaning within society. A narrative inquiry technique called portraiture is employed to collect the data of its ten participants’ …

Midwest Entrepreneurship Case Competition Page In The Pitch Platform, Zoeanna A. Mayhook, Annette H. Bochenek, O'Neill Terence, Ilana Stonebraker

Libraries Faculty and Staff Supplemental Materials

This is an archived version of the competition page for the 2024 Midwest Entrepreneurship Case Competition, a regional, library-led business case competition held from February 10–24, 2024. The page was hosted on Purdue University’s Pitch Platform, an in-house system for managing case competitions. This page was captured on January 7, 2025.

Eggplant Cultivar Demonstration Results For West-Central Indiana, 2025, Petrus Langenhoven, Alexandria Catherine Snabes

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

An eggplant cultivar demonstration at Purdue University's Meigs Horticulture Facility evaluated ten cultivars during the 2025 growing season to support evidence-based variety selection for Indiana growers. Eggplant production in Indiana totaled 34 acres in 2022, representing part of a national industry where 88.9% of 7,261 operations cultivate less than one acre. This demonstration provided performance data under Indiana conditions while offering hands-on learning for horticulture students. Results inform cultivar recommendations for small to medium-scale Midwest producers supplying diverse markets, including restaurants, farmers' markets, and ethnic food retailers seeking this Solanaceae crop for Asian, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern cuisines.

Advancing Accelerated Bridge Construction And Fabrication In Indiana, Camila Duarte, Ashley Thrall

JTRP Technical Reports

The aim of this research was to increase the use of the accelerated bridge construction (ABC) and accelerated bridge fabrication (ABF) in Indiana. Specific research objectives included: (1) understand barriers to implementing ABC and evaluate ABF capabilities in Indiana, (2) investigate the benefits and limits of various ABC/ABF strategies specific to Indiana, and (3) develop guidelines and recommendations for implementing ABC/ABF in Indiana. The focus was on the scoping stage, with the goal of triggering which projects are candidates for ABC or ABF early in the process. Research culminated in (1) a system-level analysis tool that scores all bridges in …

Feasibility Of Utilizing Native Grasses And Forbs In Lieu Of Exotic Cool Season Grasses On Roadside Rights-Of-Way, Wesley Bollinger, Rabin Bhattarai, Jeffrey W. Matthews

JTRP Technical Reports

We assessed the status of 34 native species plantings along roadsides in Indiana and Illinois and evaluated soil conditions, distance from road, and surrounding landscape cover to determine which factors led to successful long-term establishment of plantings. Cover by seeded native species and native species overall increased with distance from road and decreased with increasing soil nitrate and phosphorous. Number of native species and seeded native species increased with distance from road and greater seed mix diversity. In contrast, richness of non-native, non-seeded species was greater at shorter distances from road. Across all sites, 84 of the 150 native species …

Research Support To Indot On I-465 Southeast Variable Speed Limit And Ramp Meter Project, Jairaj Desai, Christopher Gartner, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Edward D. Cox, James Sturdevant, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Traditionally, crash data, crash risk models, video recordings and user surveys have been utilized by agencies to measure the safety benefits of ramp metering technology. Connected vehicle data can now provide an agile evaluation alternative for quantifying impact of ramp meter deployments. Furthermore, in contrast to crash data, connected vehicle near miss events occur much more frequently, so the before-after evaluation can be conducted over a much shorter time period consisting of a few months, or perhaps even a few weeks.

Indiana deployed ramp meters on the southeast section of I-465 around Indianapolis, on or around May 14, 2024, which …

Communication Of Fixed And Mobile Warnings To Commercial Trucks Using In-Cab Notification, Jairaj Desai, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jijo K. Mathew, Nathaniel Sturdevant, Edward Cox, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Improving commercial vehicle safety continues to be an important priority for all stakeholders. There has been considerable focus in Indiana on reducing work zone related crashes, particularly those involving commercial motor vehicles encountering unexpected slowdowns or stopped traffic on the Interstate. Connected vehicle data have the potential to warn motorists of impending slowdowns and congestion in real-time. Multiple data providers have recently begun providing in-cab alerts to commercial vehicle drivers in areas of congestion, dangerous slowdowns, and work zone construction to increase driver awareness of potential hazards. This research utilized 1-second frequency data from trucks receiving in-cab alerts for Congestion …

Automated Record Keeping For Maintenance Operations Via Tracking Of Maintenance Vehicles Using Telematics Tracks, Anugunj Naman, Yaguang Zhang, Aaron Ault, James V. Krogmeier

JTRP Technical Reports

Efficient and accurate record-keeping for maintenance vehicle operations is essential for optimizing resources, improving accountability, and enhancing decision-making for transportation agencies. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) sought an automated system to verify and improve work order records using telematics-based vehicle tracking. This study developed and evaluated a system that leverages GPS data from INDOT’s Data Warehouse to automate work order verification, track vehicle movements, and enhance data accuracy for winter highway maintenance operations.

The system integrates GPS tracking, automated data processing, and visualization tools to address key challenges such as data standardization, GPS accuracy, and time resolution. Results indicate …

Roadside Right-Of-Way Maintenance Strategies, Cheryl Daniels, Angela Burdell, Patrick Ewbank, Keith Shane

JTRP Technical Reports

The Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) roadside management program is tasked with multiple items across the state’s 39,000 lane miles. Roadside maintenance is an essential task that keeps INDOT’s rights-of-way (ROWs) safe and functional for drivers. Most roadside vegetation maintenance work for INDOT is outsourced, and INDOT’s in-house staff perform any follow-up vegetation maintenance as needed. INDOT needs to focus on cost-efficient solutions due to budgetary constraints from increased labor, equipment, and contractor costs and no budgetary increases.

INDOT contracted Davey Resource Group, Inc. (DRG) to provide recommendations for updates to INDOT’s roadside ROW vegetation maintenance strategies. DRG completed a …

Reducing The Dependency On Chlorides And Impacts, Ajuna P. John, Hoon C. Shin, Isaiah C. Mwamba, David J. Yu, Amisha Shah, Samuel Labi

JTRP Technical Reports

This study examined the performance and environmental impacts of various deicing materials, assessed their short- and long-term effects on infrastructure, soil, and water quality, and identified opportunities for operational improvement within INDOT’s winter maintenance practices. The study used a comprehensive methodology that included an extensive literature review, a detailed survey of INDOT personnel (both field crews and supervisory staff), in-depth interviews, and rigorous statistical analysis. Additionally, a multi-criteria decision analysis framework was developed and used to evaluate alternative deicing materials based on performance, cost, environmental impact, and ease of application. The results and findings suggest that sodium chloride remains the …

Assessing The Asset Management Programs Of Locals: Bridges And Pavement Conditions, Richard Ajagu, Dongyoon Song, David Holguin Mejia, Deepak Benny, Mohammadhosein Pourgholamali, Isaiah C. Mwamba, Kumares Sinha, Samuel Labi

JTRP Technical Reports

Indiana’s 2016 House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1001 provided a funding mechanism for transportation infrastructure that required Local Public Agencies (LPAs) to have an Asset Management Plan (AMP) to be eligible for funding. In 2022, the Indiana General Assembly desired to know the extent to which LPAs had adopted AMPs in response to this legislation. This study’s literature review found that LPAs nationwide are increasingly adopting asset management practices. Analysis of aggregate data on local road expenditures and revenues in Indiana showed significant reductions in maintenance expenditures in post-HEA 1001-2016 years, suggesting the efficacy of the 2016 legislation. The data trend …

Case Studies Documenting Lessons Learned And Identifying Opportunities For Maintenance Of Traffic (Mot) Improvements, Myles W. Overall, Justin Mukai, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jairaj Desai, Deborah Horton, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

From July 2023 to July 2025, the team performed several dozen after-action reviews of interstate work zones and the associated maintenance of traffic (MOT). These after-action reports generally contain the following information: Date, location, visual images, connected vehicle summary graphics, qualitative discussion of activity, and in some cases press releases or media posts. In general, these themes emerged:

1. MOT plans in some cases do not accurately capture the geometry constraints placed by bridges, guardrail and or barrier wall. It is important that design reviews place careful focus on ensuring lane widths, shoulders, and shoulder treatments fit across the entire cross …

Continued Deployment Of Indiana Work Zone Analytics, Myles W. Overall, Justin Mukai, Jairaj Desai, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Mischa Kachler, John Mcgregor, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Work zones along interstates often have increased congestion and crash rates when locations are close to or over capacity. Having agile monitoring methods to identifying emerging issues and challenges can provide data to transportation agency decision makers to refine maintenance of traffic plans and inform future designs.

This study developed techniques to fuse a multitude of data sources including connected vehicle speeds, connected vehicle hard-braking events, crash reports, digital alerts, commercial vehicle dash camera images, into a weekly interstate work zone report that gives stakeholders a holistic overview of their work zone operations and allowed for easy identification of opportunities …

Enhanced Traffic Pattern Knowledge Abstraction And Presentation From 511 Database, Jiannan Ding, Liya Koshy, Tanay Maheshwari, Abin Mathew, Jue Zhou, Stanley Chien, Tianyi Li, Chengcheng Tao, Yaobin Chen

JTRP Technical Reports

The explosive growth in the volume, variety, and velocity of transportation data has placed considerable strain on traditional data infrastructures employed by state departments of transportation (state DOTs). Existing traffic information systems are constrained by fragmented data streams, limited historical archiving, and inadequate interoperability, thereby hindering their utility for comprehensive analysis, causal inference, and predictive modeling. This study addresses these challenges by presenting the design and initial implementation of a traffic data integration platform that unifies multi-source datasets and establishes a foundation for more applications. The platform focuses on data integration and access, incorporating systematic data ingestion pipelines, schema harmonization, …

Further Refinement And Integrated Platform For Indot Traffic Management And Safety Toolset, Stanley Chien, Shu Hu, Yaobin Chen, Mei Qiu, William Lorenz Reindl, Noah Meng, Liya Koshy, Sajan Kumar

JTRP Technical Reports

The SRP-4930, Further Refinement and Integrated Platform for INDOT Traffic Management and Safety Toolset, aims to further refine the previously developed Anomaly Detection and Weaving Analysis programs and create a unified, Web-based user interface for users to access TASI-developed software tools conveniently.

1. The INDOT Application Suite has been successfully developed for centralizing the digital platform developed by Purdue University’s Transportation and Autonomous Systems Institute (TASI). It offers a secure, single point of access to a range of specialized applications, consolidating multiple tools into a unified system.
2. A scalable, lane-wise highway traffic anomaly detection framework that operates exclusively on video-based data …

Best Practices For Implementing Driving Simulators In Indot Driver Training, Soowon Chang, Luciana Debs, Yanchao Zheng, Jae Heo, Yunfeng Chen, Jiansong Zhang

JTRP Technical Reports

This study supports the Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT) initiative to enhance driver training through the strategic use of driving simulators. Traditional driving training methods are limited by seasonal variability and safety concerns. To address this, this project evaluated the role of simulators in improving driver preparedness, safety, and training efficiency. A comprehensive mixed-methods approach was used, including literature review, surveys, focus groups, performance data analysis, and case studies. Findings indicate that simulators are well-received, especially by novice drivers, enhancing confidence, decision-making, and situational awareness, particularly for snowplow operations. Realistic scenarios and structured debriefs using simulator-generated data were key to …

Connected Vehicle Trajectory Data To Screen Network For Hard-Braking And Hard-Acceleration Events, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jairaj Desai, Christopher Gartner, Justin Mukai, Nathan Sturdevant, Nathan Shellhamer, Taylor Ruble, Dan Mccoy, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Hard braking and hard acceleration data has been demonstrated as an important emerging data source that provides quicker feedback than crash data. In fact, a strong correlation between hard braking on the interstate and crash rates has been reported in previous studies. A previous study has shown that there are approximately 147 hard braking events in a work zone for every crash. However, there have been subtle changes in acceleration thresholds as well as techniques automotive companies and third-party vendors use to compute hard braking. The motivation of this study is to define scalable and sustainable procedures for obtaining consistent …

Spread And Pollinate: How Animals Help Plants, Piper Ellis

2nd Grade

No abstract provided.

Pumpkin, What Do You Need?, Christine Kim

Kindergarten

No abstract provided.

Exploring Light, Grace Pohodich

1st Grade

No abstract provided.

Seed Dispersal, Emma Cox

2nd Grade

No abstract provided.