Digital Commons Network^™

Youtube As A Tool For Digital Diplomacy And Strategic Security: A Comparative Analysis Of Russia And Kazakhstan, Bekzat Baktybekovna Baktybekova, Elmira Kagazbaeva, Botagoz Ali

Journal of Strategic Security

In the context of growing competition in the information space, digital diplomacy is gaining key importance for the strategic security of states. This study analyzes how Russia and Kazakhstan use the YouTube platform to promote their foreign policy narratives, shape the image of the state, and strengthen digital sovereignty. Based on a qualitative analysis of 60 videos (30 for each country) published by official government channels between 2020 and 2024, differences in strategies, visual codes, tonality, and patterns of interaction with the audience were identified. The Russian approach is characterized by an aggressive narrative, antagonism to Western structures, and a …

Classified Information Management In Kosovo: Lessons From Nato, The European Union, And The Western Balkans, Bahri Gashi, Ngadhnjim Brovina, Arian Kadriu

Journal of Strategic Security

This study examines the legal framework for the protection of classified information in Kosovo, focusing on the role of the Agency for the Protection of Classified Information (APCI). The selection of APCI as the focal institution stems from its central role in implementing Kosovo’s legal and institutional framework for classified information, following the country’s efforts to align with Euro-Atlantic standards. In a newly established state like Kosovo, protecting sensitive information is crucial for national security. The study compares Kosovo’s model with those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and Western Balkan countries, highlighting its alignment …

The Role Of Special Services In Providing National Information Security, Volodymyr Artemov, Alexander Rusnak, Viktor Trepak, Grygorii Ostafiichuk, Alexandr Kalinin

Journal of Strategic Security

The growing dependence of states on digital infrastructures has elevated national information security to a matter of strategic importance. This study examines the role of special services (intelligence agencies) in protecting against cyber threats, focusing on their legal, operational, and technological functions. Using a combination of comparative legal analysis, case law review, expert surveys, and statistical modelling across 20 countries, the research highlights both strengths and limitations of current approaches. The findings demonstrate that states with clear and specific legislation on intelligence and cybersecurity achieve a 26% higher rate of preventive success than those with ambiguous frameworks. Strong judicial oversight …

Public-Private Cooperation In European Cybersecurity, Andreea Nicoleta Dragomir, Daiana Maura Vesmaș

Journal of Strategic Security

This article critically examines if the public–private partnerships (PPPs) help the European Union strengthen its cyber resilience, a challenge that is now closely tied to the Union’s broader strategic security goals. The discussion does not rely on one single angle. It moves back and forth between the legal side—looking at instruments such as the Network and Information Systems 2 (NIS2) Directive, the Cybersecurity Act, the proposed Cyber Resilience Act, and the Cyber Solidarity Act—and the lessons that come from practice. Examples include the dismantling of Operation Avalanche, the experience of the European Cyber Security Challenge, and the information-sharing efforts of …

Analysis Of Security Concerns In India-Central Asia Relations, Anmol Mukhia, Anurag Tripathi, Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari

Journal of Strategic Security

India-Central Asia relations have gained strategic significance driven by its historical ties, growing economic interests, and, most importantly, evolving security dynamics. This article deals with multifaceted security concerns such as drug trafficking, terrorism, radicalization, and the implications of instability in Afghanistan. The findings show that security concerns in the region, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, constitute a significant obstacle, alongside geographical challenges, to India’s connectivity with the Central Asian Republics (CARS). India’s rising aspiration to increase connectivity and build closer ties with the region in energy, trade, and commerce heavily relies on a peaceful, prosperous, and stable Central and South …

Shadow Logistics: Military Vulnerability Through Civilian Dependence, Gilles A. Paché

Journal of Strategic Security

The rapid evolution of civilian-origin technologies repurposed for defense is reshaping the foundations of logistical advantage and altering the conditions under which armed forces operate. Modern missions rely on an extensive ecosystem of infrastructures—port terminals, cloud services, data platforms, and civilian contractors—whose reliability frequently lies beyond the authority of public institutions. This environment gives rise to shadow logistics, a network of civilian systems largely absent from conventional doctrine yet capable of producing significant operational disruptions when failures occur. Case studies show that some dark assets, whether physical or informational, can act as multipliers of effectiveness while simultaneously creating systemic vulnerabilities …

Chokepoints: American Power In The Age Of Economic Warfare. By Edward Fishman. Portfolio Penguin, 2025., Mark T. Peters Ii

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

The Heterogeneous Response Of Astrocytes In Different Brain Regions Under Metabolic Stress, Pawan Kumar Thapaliya

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Astrocytes play a central role in maintaining ionic homeostasis, neurotransmitter clearance, and brain en-ergy metabolism. Their excitability, reflected in activity-evoked intracellular sodium (Na+, [Na+]i) and calcium (Ca2+,[Ca+]i) dynamics, is increasingly recognized as a critical determinant of neuronal function and vulnerability, particularly under metabolic stress. Despite their importance, the mechanisms underlying astrocytic ionic signaling and its regional heterogeneity remain incompletely understood. In this thesis, I developed detailed computational and biophysical models to investigate astrocytic Na+ and Ca2+ dynamics, their bioenergetic consequences, and the roles of key ion transporters under physiological and metabolically stressed conditions, validating the models against experi- mental data. …

Motivating Lung Cancer Screening Uptake: An Experimental Test Of Didactic Versus Narrative Messages For Lung Cancer Screening Among Individuals Who Currently Smoke Or Formerly Smoked, Honor M. Woodward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer-related death in the United States and worldwide. Lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) has been associated with a 20% reduction in lung cancer-related mortality. Despite the obvious benefits of lung cancer screening with LDCT, screening is heavily underutilized compared to other cancer screening tests. Thus, it is critically important to develop strategies that help motivate screening uptake among eligible individuals. This study explored the effectiveness of narrative messages for motivating lung cancer screening uptake among individuals eligible for lung cancer screening who currently smoke or formerly smoked. Drawing from …

Riki&Dolphin: Real Time Data Transmission From The Bottom Of A Cave To A Website, Luca Tringali, Giacomo Canciani Dr., Tecla Tripari, Alexander Debenjak, Caterina Bearzotti

International Journal of Speleology

Coming from over 10 years of experience in cave monitoring in northeast Italy, Gruppo Speleologico Talpe del Carso, has designed Riki and Dolphin: customizable, low cost, and easy to assemble tools for getting real time data transmission from the bottom of a cave, even underwater, to a webserver. Their use has been tested to monitor air temperature inside the Abisso Bonetti Cave (Classical Karst, Italy), proving for the first time that a cave in Gorizian Karst can systematically be colder than the outdoor temperature even in winter, recording an internal temperature even lower than 0°C. The Dolphin device can be …

Hand Gesture Control For A Di2erential Drive Robot, Seyoung Kan, Laray Lopez, Zachary Hinnen, Alfredo Weitzenfeld

Bellini College REU Symposium (BCREUS)

As technology becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, seamless and multimodal human-robot interaction has become essential. This project presents a lightweight, real-time human-following system implemented on a differential-drive robot (Ham-Bot) using a Raspberry Pi, motivated by the growing need for robotic companionship among elderly and mobility-impaired individuals. The system integrates HSV-based color segmentation, MediaPipe hand gesture recognition, LiDAR-based distance regulation, and a six-state finite state machine to achieve robust human-robot interaction without relying on heavy machine learning models for body detection. A socket-based communication architecture streams camera frames from the robot to a MacOS client, where perception is performed and …

Misty: An Llm-Driven Recipe Recommender Robot, Alina Pineda, Stuti Goyal, Jingjing Li, Zhao Han

Bellini College REU Symposium (BCREUS)

Introduction & Problem Statement

Meal planning requires balancing nutritional needs, available ingredients, and user preferences, which can be time-consuming and cognitively demanding. While mobile recipe applications provide personalized recommendations, they lack interactive and socially engaging communication. In contrast, social robots such as Misty enable expressive interaction through speech, gestures, and emotional cues, but typically rely on rigid, pre-programmed behaviors and lack domain-specific knowledge for tasks such as recipe recommendation.

This gap highlights the need for a system that combines the strengths of both technologies. Recipe recommendation is inherently multimodal, requiring both social interaction for engagement and visual presentation for detailed …

Teacher Candidates’ Reflective Practices Of Mathematics Curriculum From The Lens Of Universal Design For Learning, Weichen Zhao

Journal of Practitioner Research

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework encourages educators to proactively remove barriers in curriculum and instruction to increase accessibility for all learners. While UDL is often applied during lesson planning, it can also serve as a powerful tool for critically examining and revising existing mathematics curricula. Drawing on qualitative data from teacher candidates’ reflective journals and curriculum artifacts collected over two semesters, this study examines how guided reflection supported teacher candidates in identifying barriers, proposing inclusive adaptations, and deepening their understanding of equity-oriented mathematics instructional design. As a self-study grounded in participatory action research, the findings also informed the …

(Re)Imagining Research-Practice Collaboration And Partnership: Constructivism By Way Of Interdisciplinarity, Multimodality, And Humanity, Bethany Silva, Alecia Magnifico, Laura Allen, David Baroody, Ashley Barry, Shawna Coppola, Cathy Fraser, Emily Geltz, Anne Mcquade, Christina M. Ortmeier-Hooper, Laura Smith, Donna Turco

Journal of Practitioner Research

Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) have become an important vehicle for educational research. By connecting researchers and educators, RPPs can couple systematic research and practical application. However, relational practices for building research collaboratives are understudied, and RPPs often reinscribe power imbalances among practitioners and researchers. With its focus on the centrality of practitioners and their knowledge, practitioner research offers possibilities for disrupting such power imbalances. In this reflective essay, our team describes our efforts to harness practitioner research’s capacity to identify and address salient school-level issues and RPPs’ power to impact a wider audience. We identify practices to build relationships, inform research …

Breathing Life Into Sel: A Practitioner Inquiry On Hā, Belonging, And Multilingual Learners In Hawai‘I, Mylia Briggs, Monica Gonzalez Smith

Journal of Practitioner Research

This practitioner inquiry explores how a Pacific-oriented social-emotional learning (SEL) framework, Nā Hopena A‘o (HĀ: BREATH), can affirm the cultural identities and emotional well-being of Filipino multilingual learners (MLs) in Hawai‘i. Implemented over a 15-week period in a third-grade classroom, the study draws on culturally adapted SEL lessons, student exit tickets and focus groups, and teacher reflections to examine how SEL shifts when grounded in Indigenous values, heritage language use, and community knowledge. Findings reveal three key themes: (1) Cultural Connection Fosters Belonging, (2) Language Visibility Promotes Emotional Safety, and (3) Identity-Affirming Practices Build Confidence and Voice. While students responded …

From Inquiry To Action: Leveraging Group Level Assessment To Elevate Teacher Voice, Claire C. Underwood, Leslie Kochanowski, Abraham Underhill

Journal of Practitioner Research

This methodological paper explores the use of Group Level Assessment (GLA) (Vaughn & Lohmueller, 2014; Vaughn, 2024) as a participatory approach to practitioner inquiry within an early childhood education program. Using Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s (2009) inquiry as stance as a guiding conceptual framework, GLA is framed as a methodology that affirms educator expertise, fosters collective reflection, and generates tangible action. We document the adaptation and implementation of the GLA protocol at the Arlitt Center, a university-affiliated early childhood laboratory school committed to teacher-led professional learning. Through an adapted GLA process, teaching staff engaged in identifying barriers and opportunities related to …

Exploring Researcher-Practitioner Authorship Collaboration In English, Foreign Language, And Mathematics Education, Rachel Cullen, Joseph Taylor, Matthew Laney, Mohamed Nouri

Journal of Practitioner Research

This study examined collaboration and bidirectional relationships between researchers and practitioners in the context of journal publications. Through exploration of research and practitioner journals in the areas of English, Foreign Languages, and Mathematics, we aimed to understand how authorship patterns and types of references illustrate the gap between research and practice. Findings indicate that collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the context of journal publications is minimal, and practitioner presence is scarce in research. The types of references included in publications are high quality regardless of authorship, but there is a problem of exposure that limits the research from reaching …

Numeracy-Based Civic Education Model: Needs Analysis Through An Explanatory Sequential Design, Sulkipani Sulkipani, Kokom Komalasari, Sapriya Sapriya, Susan Fitriasari, Vina Amilia Suganda Makenun

Numeracy

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals emphasize numeracy as essential for quality education, and require its integration across the curriculum, including into civic education (CE). However, the integration of numeracy in CE in Indonesian universities has not yet been clearly mapped out. This study aims to analyze the need for numeracy integration in CE as a basis for developing a numeracy-based CE learning model. Using a mixed method with an explanatory sequential design, the study involved a convenience sample of 225 students and 10 lecturers from various universities through surveys, interviews, observations, and documentation studies. Quantitative findings show that numeracy …

Needs Assessment Plan: For An Undergraduate In Reearch Administration (Ra) Curriculum With Artificial Intelligenc Integration., Jo Ann Smith

All Research Ops Exchange Publications

This needs assessment plan establishes a framework for developing an undergraduate Research Administration (RA) curriculum that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) competencies across all program components. The plan synthesizes findings from research literature across workforce competency studies, national RA curricula frameworks, e-mentoring models in undergraduate programs, and AI pedagogy in professional education. Key findings reveal that entry-level research administrators require core competencies, including critical thinking, interpersonal skills, written communication, and knowledge of the research enterprise, which are valued by hiring managers (Parker, 2024; Signorelli et al., 2025). The evolving research administration landscape increasingly demands AI literacy, including the ability to interact …

Considerations For Cherenkov Radiation Imaging In External Beam Radiotherapy For Diverse Populations In A High Throughput Cancer Clinic, Diego A. Hernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cherenkov radiation imaging is a burgeoning field of optical imaging that has become a promising, non-invasive, technique that allows the visualization of radiation delivery during external beam radiotherapy. This form of imaging has opened the door to real-time and retrospective treatment verification and sparked a plethora of research aimed at improving the utility. This dissertation investigates possible clinical implementations and limitations of Cherenkov radiation imaging within a high-throughput cancer clinic serving a diverse patient population. The central motivation is the need to advance Cherenkov radiation imaging as a reliable tool for clinical use by improving its quantitative accuracy and applicability …

Development And Feasibility Testing Of A Video-Based Virtual Reality Bullying Safety Skills Intervention For School-Aged Children With Disabilities, Trevor C. Maxfield

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as a promising instructional tool for children with disabilities; however, research on using VR to improve safety skills in this population remains limited. The present study employed a 2-phase approach to develop and evaluate a video-based VR bullying safety skills intervention for children with disabilities. In Phase 1, bullying and applied behavior analysis experts reviewed and validated the intervention content, including the response to bullying steps, school-based scenario storyboards, and embedded behavioral procedures, rating the content as valid and technically adequate. Expert feedback informed refinements to the intervention content and the decision to transition …

Table Of Contents, The Cleveland Bird Calendar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, The Cleveland Bird Calendar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, The Cleveland Bird Calendar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, The Cleveland Bird Calendar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Headlands Beach State Nature Preserve And Vicinity, Ray Hannikman

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Ben Winger, Dwight Chasar, Ann Chasar, Dick Rickard, Bob Finkelstein

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Leo Deininger, Dick Rickard, Dwight Chasar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

The Weather, Dwight A. Chasar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Dwight Chasar, Ann Chasar, Gabe Leidy, Christa Glatter, John Pogacnik, Doug Vogus

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.