Digital Commons Network^™

If Only Justice Could Heal Or Make Whole: Hard Lessons From Rwanda’S Legal Responses To Genocide And Mass Atrocity, Gerald Gahima

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

My reflections on the limits of legal responses in Rwanda stem from both academic and lived experience. I served as Rwanda’s Deputy Minister of Justice (1996–1999), Prosecutor General (1999–2003), and Deputy Chief Justice (2003–2004) during the period after the genocide. In those roles, I had access to a large volume of information drawn from policy- making roles, case files of members of my staff, as well as my own fieldwork relating to the suffering of victims of the genocide. While I obviously believe that justice for those crimes is not in vain, my work with survivors left me with an …

Global Human Rights Sanctions: How Can They Contribute To Addressing Mass Atrocities?, Yifan Jia

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Global Human Rights Sanctions (GHRS) have been used in over 30 countries as a mechanism for imposing unilateral human rights sanctions on individual perpetrators. Despite the hundreds of specific sanctions that have been imposed globally, there remains a lack of understanding about how these measures function on gross human rights violations. This article seeks to explore how GHRS, as an emerging human rights mechanism, contributes to addressing mass atrocities. I categorize the functions of GHRS into two phases: post-atrocity and pre-atrocity. In the post-atrocity phase, I identify three primary objectives asserted by sanctioning states: punishing perpetrators, promoting behavioral change, and …

Arts & Literature: Beyond Mourning: Art As Healing A Decade After The Yazidi Genocide, Sarwa Azeez

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Impact Of A Novel Program To Address Acute Food Insecurity Among Cancer Patients, Elliott M. Sina, Michael Rowe, Gina Mancuso, Gregory Garber, W. Kevin Kelly, Amy E. Leader

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Acute food insecurity (FI) significantly impacts cancer patients' health, exacerbating physical and psychological burdens. While current interventions address chronic FI, acute cases remain undermanaged. Legacy of Hope, a Philadelphia-based non-profit, addresses this gap through its Emergency Patient Support Network (EPSN), offering free bi-weekly groceries to patients facing acute FI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The pilot study evaluated EPSN's impact utilizing the Legacy of Hope Acute Food Insecurity (LOHAFI) survey, which was performed at baseline and two weeks post-intervention. The survey combines the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G7) and questions on food and financial security. Mean scores and frequencies were …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Sbcca Principles For A Greener Cleanup Report, Josh Bryson

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Highway Crossing Rates Of Wild Felids Before, During, And After Wildlife Crossing Structure Installation, Sarah E. Lehnen, Mitch Sternberg, Hilary M. Swarts, John H. Young Jr., Victoria Hanley, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

In an environment increasingly dominated by roads, wildlife crossing structures (WCS) have been installed to decrease wildlife mortality and improve habitat linkages. In South Texas, vehicle collisions have been a major mortality source for the endangered ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis ). To mitigate threats to this species, eight WCS, along with associated fencing, were strategically placed along Farm‐to‐Market Road 106 (FM106), which passes through ocelot habitat. We assessed the rate of on‐roadway crossings and WCS use by GPS‐collared animals before, during, and after WCS installation using camera traps to verify WCS use. Because of the rarity of ocelots in this …

Racism, Depression, And The Superwoman Schema: A Narrative Inquiry With Fourth-Grade Black Girls, Athena Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, racism has been labeled a public health emergency. Amid rising rates of racism reported in schools, many Black girls aged 5 to 12 have severe and persistent symptoms of depression. Although Woods-Giscombé’s Superwoman Schema (SWS) is an acknowledged coping mechanism that Black women and adolescent girls can use to fight and transcend interconnected systems of racial and gender oppression, it has rarely been studied among pre-adolescent girls. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the lived experience of the SWS among fourth-grade Black girls in Detroit, Michigan. The theoretical framework was the SWS. …

Revisiting Insider Practices: Ethical Considerations, Practices, And Hopes For Doing Community Work And Narrative Research In And About Our Own Communities, Tiffany Sostar, Nathan Viktor Fawaz, Elliot Trimble, Theodosia Octavia Markarian, Bekett Noble

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, we describe the hopes, considerations, and questions of a narrative practice research collaboration among three closely connected transgender (trans) and/or non-binary collaborators, in a collection of work meant to support trans, non-binary, and gender expansive life and in response to trans death at a time of increasing hostility toward trans communities. We apply a specific focus on inquiring into how to do narrative therapy and community work research in and about our own communities, and what the ethical, relational and methodological practices for this work might be. We do this through reflecting on existing literature related to …

Resisting Ableism In Research Design, Gipsy Hosking

The Qualitative Report

This paper explores how ableist assumptions can unintentionally create barriers to participation in research by those of non-normative bodies or minds. In traditional epistemology, bodies are considered “universal” rather than “specific,” and the universal body is coded as fully able-bodied and independent with brain and body adhering to normative standards of the White heterosexual English-speaking male. In this article, I present a story of “enabling participation” for those of diverse body capacity in my work with young women living with chronic illness.^[1]Specifically, I explore the accommodations and adaptions I made to my research design to account for the …

Narrative Engineering: Tools, Computational Structure, And Impact Of Stories, Michael A. Debuse

Theses and Dissertations

Computational Linguistics has a long history of applying mathematics to the grammatical and syntactic structure of language; however, applying math to the more complex aspects of language, such as narrative, plot, scenes, character relations, causation, etc. remains a difficult topic. The goal of my research is to bridge the narrative humanities with mathematics, to computationally grasp at these difficult topic, and help develop the field of Narrative Engineering. I view narrative and story with the same mathematical scrutiny as other engineering fields, to take the creativity and fluidity of story and encode it in mathematical representations that have meaning beyond …

Investigating The Role Of The I-Ii Linker In Nav1.5, Emily Wagner

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel, Nav1.5 is essential for initiating the cardiac action potential. Its dysfunction can lead to dangerous arrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest, and death. Like many channels, its known properties depend heavily on its structure. The functional core of the alpha subunit consists of four homologous repeats (I, II, III, and IV), each formed from a voltage sensing domain and a pore domain. The channel also contains two cytoplasmic termini and three cytoplasmic linkers (I-II, II-III, and III-IV). While most of the channel has been resolved in multiple structures, the I-II and II-III linkers have remained conspicuously absent …

Quantitative Approaches To Unravel The Mechanobiology Of Cortical Folding, Ramin Balouchzadeh

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Quantitative Approaches to Unravel the Mechanobiology of Cortical Folding by Ramin Balouchzadeh Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, 2024 Professor Philip V. Bayly, Chair Professor Kara E. Garcia, Co-Chair Brain development is a highly complex process driven by mechanical forces and material properties that shape the cerebral cortex’s characteristic gyri and sulci. Abnormalities in this folding pro?cess are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Despite significant advancements, the underlying mechanical principles governing brain morphogenesis remain incompletely understood. This body of work investigates three key aspects of brain de?velopment: stress-dependent growth, evolving tissue …

Coding For Decentralized Systems And Forensic 3d Fingerprinting, Canran Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents novel coding techniques that optimize communication costs and address security challenges in decentralized systems and 3D printing technologies. The first part focuses on encoding data in distributed systems in a decentralized manner, i.e., without a central processor which orchestrates the operation. In such systems, processors require coded data generated from inputs provided by source processors. An example is a distributed storage system with geographically dispersed nodes storing a large database collected by specific source processors. To reduce communication costs, we propose a universal solution applicable to any linear code, with optimizations for systematic Reed-Solomon and Lagrange codes, …

Investigating The Role Of The I-Ii Linker In Nav1.5, Emily Wagner

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel, Nav1.5 is essential for initiating the cardiac action potential. Its dysfunction can lead to dangerous arrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest, and death. Like many channels, its known properties depend heavily on its structure. The functional core of the alpha subunit consists of four homologous repeats (I, II, III, and IV), each formed from a voltage sensing domain and a pore domain. The channel also contains two cytoplasmic termini and three cytoplasmic linkers (I-II, II-III, and III-IV). While most of the channel has been resolved in multiple structures, the I-II and II-III linkers have remained conspicuously absent …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Final Bpsou Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Belle Of Butte (Bres No. 8 & Ur-39) Remedial Action Work Plan (Rawp) Request For Change Ir- 2024-Ra-02, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Draft Final Quarterly Operations And Maintenance Report Butte Treatment Lagoon System – Third Quarter 2024., Dave Griffis

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Racism, Depression, And The Superwoman Schema: A Narrative Inquiry With Fourth-Grade Black Girls, Athena Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, racism has been labeled a public health emergency. Amid rising rates of racism reported in schools, many Black girls aged 5 to 12 have severe and persistent symptoms of depression. Although Woods-Giscombé’s Superwoman Schema (SWS) is an acknowledged coping mechanism that Black women and adolescent girls can use to fight and transcend interconnected systems of racial and gender oppression, it has rarely been studied among pre-adolescent girls. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the lived experience of the SWS among fourth-grade Black girls in Detroit, Michigan. The theoretical framework was the SWS. …

Reply Brief For Plaintiff-Appellant Brandon Velez, Stephen T. Martin, Seth J. Hipple, Madeline H. Meth

Faculty Scholarship

Defendants don’t want to face the evidence, including video footage, that shows them escalating a traffic stop in front of Velez’s home to a forceful arrest because Velez exercised his First Amendment rights. So, instead of dealing with the record directly, Defendants rely entirely on the district court’s (improper) view of the record, which on appeal from that court’s grant of summary judgment is subject to this Court’s de novo review. Besides ignoring the evidence that favors Velez, Defendants leave unaddressed this Court’s key cases, citing only precedent in which officers confronted wildly different circumstances from those presented here.

When …

In Situ Preparation Of Silver Nanoparticles/Organophilic-Clay/Polyethylene Glycol Nanocomposites For The Reduction Of Organic Pollutants, Amina Sardi, Bouhadjar Boukoussa, Aouicha Benmaati, Kheira Chinoune, Adel Mokhtar, Mohammed Hachemaoui, Soumia Abdelkrim, Issam Ismail, Jibran Iqbal, Shashikant P. Patole, Gianluca Viscusi, Mohamed Abboud

All Works

This work focuses on the preparation and application of silver nanoparticles/organophilic clay/polyethylene glycol for the catalytic reduction of the contaminants methylene blue (MB) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in a simple and binary system. Algerian clay was subjected to a series of treatments including acid treatment, ion exchange with the surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTABr), immobilization of polyethylene glycol polymer, and finally dispersion of AgNPs. The molecular weight of polyethylene glycol was varied (100, 200, and 4000) to study its effect on the stabilization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and the catalytic activity of the resulting samples. The results showed that the catalyst with …

Reconstructing Superoscillations Buried Deeply In Noise, Derek D. White, Shunxing Zhang, Barbara Šoda, Achim Kempf, Daniele C. Struppa, Andrew N. Jordan, John C. Howell

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We utilize a method using frequency combs to construct waves that feature superoscillations—local regions of the wave that exhibit a change in phase that the bandlimits of the wave should not otherwise allow. This method has been shown to create superoscillating regions that mimic any analytic function—even ones well outside the bandlimits—to an arbitrary degree of accuracy. We experimentally demonstrate that these waves are extremely robust against noise, allowing for accurate reconstruction of a superoscillating target function thoroughly buried in noise. We additionally show that such a construction can be easily used to range-resolve a signal well below the commonly …

Editorial: Artificial Intelligence For Smart Health: Learning, Simulation, And Optimization, Bing Yao, Nathan Gaw, Hyo Kyung Lee

Faculty Publications

With rapid developments in medical sensing and imaging, we now live in an era of data explosion in which large amounts of data are readily available in clinical environments. The fast-growing biomedical and healthcare data provide unprecedented opportunities for data-driven scientific knowledge discovery and clinical decision support. Our Research Topic aims to catalyze synergies among biomedical informatics, machine learning, computer simulation, operations research, systems engineering, and other related fields with three specific goals: (1) develop cutting-edge data-driven models to accelerate scientific knowledge discovery in biomedicine using healthcare data collected from laboratory systems, imaging systems, and medical and sensing devices; (2) …

Introduction: Failed Futures? (Post)-Colonial Planning And Future-Making In Tanzania, Ulrike Lindner

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Future-making and planning as social practices are strongly related to the
surrounding society’s political structures and power relations. In this
special issue of ZAMANI, we conceptualize future-making as physical
changes and social practices that shape future conditions by making future
an issue in the present. We analyse how different approaches to the future,
and also surprises and unintended side-effects, have informed the politics
and practices of planning in Tanzania and its various regions.1 When we ask:
“Failed Futures?” we address future in the plural, a term that has diffused
into historical scholarship rather recently and originates from
futurology/future studies, known …

Health Infrastructure Planning In Tanzania, 1961–1980s: The Problems Of Future-Making, Frank Edward, Ulrike Lindner

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Between 1961 and 1978, Tanzania invested significantly in the health service provision – from training requisite manpower, provision of health education to building the necessary infrastructure in order to improve health conditions of the population. As existing research indicates, the investment paid off considerably in qualitative terms, for instance, with a gradual increase in life expectancy and a decline in infant mortality. This paper examines the vision of the state of health in Tanzania by using the prism of infrastructure. Its focus is on direct and indirect physical infrastructures, particularly medical buildings and facilities. Through the analysis of archival and …

Transparency And Authority Concerns With Using Ai To Make Ethical Recommendations In Clinical Settings, Jeffrey Byrnes, Michael Robinson

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

In response to recent proposals to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to automate ethics consultations in healthcare, we raise two main problems for the prospect of having healthcare professionals rely on AI-driven programs to provide ethical guidance in clinical matters. The first cause for concern is that, because these programs would effectively function like black boxes, this approach seems to preclude the kind of transparency that would allow clinical staff to explain and justify treatment decisions to patients, fellow caregivers, and those tasked with providing oversight. The other main problem is that the kind of authority that would need to be …

Medical Mission Futures: German Protestant Missionaries And Modern Healthcare In Southern Highlands, Tanzania,1891–1940, Luoneko Kaduma

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

The history of colonial missionaries in Tanzania is marked by a complex interplay between evangelical efforts and the provision of Western biomedicine, which functioned as crucial mechanisms for conversion and cultural transformation. Missionaries viewed the improvement of African health as a project aimed at attracting converts and propagating Christianity. However, the available data indicates that, instead of genuinely expressing interest in converting to Christianity, the majority of Africans primarily sought mission medical assistance for medical reasons while maintaining strong connections to their traditional beliefs and healing practices. This paper, drawing from archival documents, ethnographic accounts, and missionary writings, focuses on …

“Struggling For Years”: An International Survey On Autistic Experiences Of Menopause, Christine A. Jenkins, Rachel L. Moseley, Margaret Janse Van Rensburg, Julie M. Gamble-Turner, Miranda J. Brady

Faculty and Staff Publications

Emerging research suggests that menopause can be a difficult transition for some Autistic people. This international co-produced survey explored factors that might make menopause harder for Autistic people, such as lack of menopause and autism awareness; moreover, we aimed to explore what support Autistic people needed and what could help them cope and even flourish during this time. We employed a mixed-methods approach to analyze quantitative and qualitative responses from 508 Autistic participants. Both the quantitative and qualitative data supported relationships between lack of menopause and autism awareness and overall difficulties during menopause. Autistic participants wanted more appropriate and Autistic-specific …

Preparation, Characterization, Of Some Oxadiazol Derivatives Prepared From Different Carboxylic Acids, Selvana A. Yousif

Baghdad Science Journal

A series of Mefenamic acid derivatives were designed and synthesized and the products were characterized spectroscopically using FT-IR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR techniques. Series A included the transformation of six drugs (Mefenamic acid, Ampiciline, Noproxen, Benzilic acid, Diclofenac acid, and cephics) which are known to have highly medicinal effectiveness to acid chloride then react with thiosemicarbazide to synthesize series B. In the third stage, oxadiazole was prepared using POCl3 as a ring-closing agent to compounds (B1-B6). The final step in the strategy was building new Mefenamic acid derivatives consisting of condensation of the Mefenamic acid chloride with the compounds …

Determination Uranium And Its Isotopes In Biological Samples Of Smokers, Abdulhussein A. Alkufi, Mohanad H. Oleiwi, Ali Abid Abojassim, Noor Ulhuda G. Mohammed, Ali Saeed Jassim, Michele Guida

Baghdad Science Journal

This study was conducted in the Najaf Governorate- Iraq, to analyze biological samples from smokers and non-smokers. The samples, including blood serum, urine, hair, and nails, were used as biomarkers to determine uranium concentrations (UC) and isotopes (238U, 235U, and 234U). Using a natural exposure method, the nuclear track detector (CR-39, UK) was utilized to measure these Uc in the samples. Seventy-five samples of blood serum, urine, hair, and nails were collected for smokers of healthy people and fifty samples for non-smokers of healthy people in five age groups. This study was based on age and smoking to compare the …

Effect Of Chemically Synthesis Compared To Biosynthesized Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Using Extract Of Vitex Agnus On The Expression Of Mexab-Oprm Efflux Pump Genes Of Multi-Drug Resistance Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Shams Al-Shomos Khalis Khames, Shatha Thanoon Ahmed

Baghdad Science Journal

The current study's goal was to find out how the expression of the efflux pump genes (MexAB-OprM) in MDR P. aeruginosa isolates was influenced by chemically manufactured Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles using sol-gel method as compared to biosynthesized Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles using Vitex agnus-castus leaves extract. PCR analysis was used to confirmthe the presence of 16S rRNA gene in all 16 P. aeruginosa isolates The findings indicated that P. aeruginosa tested positive for 16S rRNA (100%), and 7 (43.75%) of the isolates were MDR. All MDR isolates carried MexA, MexB and OprM genes.The Vitex extract's GC-MS analysis exposed the existence of …

Relationship Between Hip Flexor Tightness And Non-Care-Seeking Low Back Pain., Kira Eimiller

Doctorate in Kinesiology

None provided