Digital Commons Network^™

Mems 4110: Air Cannon Launcher Demo, Jackson Strauss, Avery Cohen, Wilson Gao, Jack Galloway

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

For our senior design class (MEMS 4110) at Washington University in St. Louis, we were tasked with creating a demonstration for the St. Louis Science Center that demonstrated an engineering principle or concept. The Science Center functions as a science-oriented museum and saw more than 600,000 visitors in 2024. For our demonstration, we wanted to showcase the principles of kinematic motion. Kinematic motion is study of the motion of objects without considering applied forces. Additionally, when the acceleration of an object is either zero or held constant, the trajectory path that the object follows can be described by a few …

Fall 2025, John M. Pfau Library

Peacock – John M. Pfau Library Newsletter

In this Issue:

• From Tokyo to California pgs. 1 & 2
• Congratulations, Dr. Higgins! p. 2
• More Than 100,000 Streaming Videos p. 2
• CSUSB Libraries Launch Digital Exhibits pgs. 3 & 4
• Guest Speaker Author of Banned Graphic Novel p. 4
• The Thesis Digitization Project is Complete! p. 5
• Chess Club Tournament pgs. 6 & 7
• Banned Books in Library History p. 7
• New Databases pgs. 8 & 9
• Classifieds With Books p. 9

The Mandate For Accountability And The Rule Of Law: A Theological-Ethical Analysis Of The House Of Representatives’ Role After Duterte V. House Of Representatives, Kerr Nell S. Deliva

Loyola Papers

This article offers a theological-ethical analysis of Duterte v. House of Representatives, interpreting the tension between the House of Representatives of the Philippines and the Supreme Court of the Philippines as a kairos that clarifies their institutional vocations. It examines impeachment as a moral duty rooted in popular sovereignty and public accountability, while highlighting challenges to fides publica arising from judicial intervention. Drawing on moral theology, the article underscores the need to balance justice and legal order, proposing pathways for responsible governance and deeper civic engagement.

In Praise Of Limits: A Reading Of The Creation Accounts, Lorenzo Zura

Loyola Papers

This paper critiques the modern culture of omnipotence that equates power with limitless freedom, arguing instead that limits are essential for life’s flourishing. Drawing on the biblical narrative—especially Book of Genesis—it presents God not as dominating but self-limiting, as seen in creation and Shabbat. Through key texts, it reinterprets limits as enabling human fulfillment and reframes “original sin” within this perspective, proposing limitation as a foundational condition for authentic life.

Ready For A Theology Of The Mind? Faith Response To The Mental Health Crisis, Ramil R. Marcos, Phil Nielsen G. Galvez

Loyola Papers

This article argues for the urgent development of a “theology of the mind” as a pastoral and theological response to the growing mental health crisis in the Philippines. This timely study highlights the systemic problems surrounding this important concern, such as limited access to professional help, cultural stigma, poverty, and inadequate government facilities. The paper draws from Scripture, Church teaching, papal pronouncements, and local initiatives to show that mental health struggles are not alien to Christian life but resonate deeply with biblical figures, the life of Christ, and the Church’s mission of compassion. Among its unique contributions is the proposal …

Fall 2025: Antimatter

The Weldon Times

A student-run publication from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Co-Editors in Chief: Kimberly Gilson, Carleigh MacKenzie

Identifying Land Snails, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

Snails can be voracious eaters, destroying leafy vegetables, cereal crops, pasture grasses and some native plants. From time to time, exotic snails are intercepted in cargo, machinery, vehicles and packaging and then destroyed.

Snail species may be native or already established in Westen Australia; however, your reports will help detect exotic snails early and prevent them from invading gardens, agriculture and the environment.

Control And Cuckoldry In “Calypso” And “Circe”, Corinne Lafont , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Sex, femininity, and dirt in James Joyce’s Ulysses form what Julie Kristeva calls “abjection.” The abject is "the border where exact limits between same and other, subject and object, and even beyond these, between inside and outside, and disappearing—hence an Object of fear and fascination,” (Kristeva 1980, 185) evident by Leopold Bloom’s identity as a cuckold. Alternately approached with loss, disconnection, and anxiety, the text reveals that Leopold Bloom craves his abject to distance himself from physical and emotional rejection. “Calypso” establishes how his abject operates as a defense mechanism to self-defile before others can approach any realized sexual bond. …

“He’S Here, He’S Not Queer”: The Indexical Potential Of Pronoun Use On American Drag Reality Television, Finn Verdonk , '26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

When English speakers talk about drag performers, what factors impact the pronoun that is used? Pulling data from two seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 4 and Season 14) and one season of Dragula (Season 5), this thesis attempts to understand the ways in which drag performers use pronouns in discourse about fellow drag performers. Building from Myers’s 2018 proposal that using he/him pronouns for drag queens can index shadiness or criticism, I expand her sample to see if her findings hold up over time and across franchises. I find that he/him pronouns on RPDR no longer index shadiness and …

Pleasure & Pain In Intellectual Property, Andrew Gilden

William & Mary Law Review

Intellectual property produces pleasure. IP laws incentivize investment in popular culture, helping to ensure the viability of entertainment industries and the steady production of our favorite shows, cherished brands, and beloved celebrities. Across IP-heavy industries, creators cite the joy of writing, composing, coding, and experimenting as a motivation for countless hours in the office, studio, or lab. Nonetheless, in a broad range of settings, and across several areas of IP, courts have responded with hostility to personal accounts of pleasure in IP disputes. When a defendant admits to using IP because they are fans of the plaintiff, or because they …

Harding Magazine Fall 2025 (Vol. 33, No. 1), Harding University

Harding Magazines

Publication distributed to alumni and friends of the community

Write Free Or Die: Vol. 12, No. 01, Unh Writing Programs

Writing Program Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Adipose Tissue Estrogen Receptor-Alpha Overexpression Ameliorates High-Fat Diet–Induced Adipose Tissue Inflammation, Marion C. Hope, Christian A. Unger, M Chase Kettering, Cassidy E. Socia, Ahmed K. Aladhami, Barton C. Rice, Darya S. Niamira, Ben P. Wiznitzer, Diego Altomare Ph.D., William E. Cotham, Reilly T. Enos

Faculty Publications

Context

We created an innovative mouse model that enables inducible overexpression of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα), specifically in adipose tissue (Adipo-ERα↑). Objective

We aimed to investigate how elevated Adipo-ERα↑ influences the development of high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity in both male and female mice. Methods

Male and female Adipo-ERα↑ mice and littermate controls were fed a low-fat diet (LFD) or HFD for 13 weeks. Adipo-ERα↑ was induced at the initiation of dietary treatment. Body morphology and composition, hepatic lipid accumulation, glucose tolerance, fasting insulin concentrations, and adipose tissue mRNA profiling were assessed. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry was used to determine circulating and adipose …

Meridians 24:2 Milestones And Momentum: The Meridians Project At Twenty-Five, Ginetta E.B. Candelario

Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism

No abstract provided.

Creating Blender Animations To Help Students Visualize Organic Chemistry Concepts, Vasilina Vikareva, Jeffrey Hansen

Annual Student Research Poster Session

Many students struggle with organic chemistry because they find it difficult to visualize molecular structures and interactions in three dimensions. Concepts like bond rotation for conformational isomers and intermolecular forces require strong spatial imagination, which traditional 2D drawings fail to develop effectively. This spatial visualization deficit contributes significantly to high failure rates and student anxiety in organic chemistry courses, creating a substantial barrier to success in STEM fields. This project aims to solve this problem by creating animations that demonstrate complex chemical concepts in clear, visual ways that enhance student comprehension and retention. The research methodology involves developing a comprehensive …

Morphology-Performance Relationships To Understand Cichlid Neurocranial Evolution In The Context Of Adaptive Radiation, Sarah Pascarella

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Cichlid fishes have undergone multiple adaptive radiations in the rift lakes of East Africa pairing rapid taxonomic and morphological diversification. Lake Malawi’s rock-dwelling cichlids (mbuna) have diversified into hundreds of species that partition their habitat by depth and diet resulting in high morphological and behavioral diversity. We characterized morphological differences and performed behavioral assays among four cichlid genera from Lake Malawi focused on understanding form-function relationships in the neurocranium and oral feeding apparatus. We characterized neurocranial shape using 3D geometric morphometrics across a large taxonomic sample of mbuna cichlids, focusing primarily on the Tropheops species complex. Alongside broad changes in …

Ants Like Blood, Sean Bernard

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Journal Editors

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

Eating Manal, Raja'a Khalid

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

The Russians Are Coming, Or Maybe The Soviets Are Already Here, Kevin Finnerty

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

Over. Back. Around., Sarah Trautwein

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

Mathias Sets Out To Study Death, John Cross

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

Pale With Love, Audrey Carroll

Yalobusha Review

No abstract provided.

The Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (Bdnf) And Its Importance To Organism Survival And Development, Christopher Monnett Smith

Holster Scholar Projects

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) has been the subject of numerous studies regarding the functioning of the brain in relation to topics such as neural plasticity and neural survival. However, BDNF has also been implicated in the induction of changes not only in neural tissue but multiple other tissue types across the human body. The aim of this literature review is to provide a comprehensive, yet brief, overview of BDNF’s influence on the functioning of the nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, muscular, and immune systems.

Scholarly Writing Conventions, Dawn Atkinson

Writing

No abstract provided.

Adolescent Executive Function As A Resilience Factor In The Family Stress Model Among Mexican-Origin Families, Su Yeong Kim, Yayu Du, Tianlu Zhang, Jingyi Shen, Kiera M. Coulter, Lester Sim, Wen Wen, Belem G. Lopez, Maria M. Arredondo, Shen Yishan, Hou Yang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Mexican-origin families often face economic hardship due to systemic oppression, increasing the likelihood of adolescent marijuana use. While the family stress model provides insight into the mechanism of the association between family economic hardship and adolescent marijuana use, resilience factors are relatively unknown. The present study uses a three-wave longitudinal data set of Mexican immigrant families in the United States (Wave 1—adolescents: Mage = 12.29, SD = 0.93; mothers: Mage = 38.57, SD = 5.71) to investigate the mechanism underlying the association between family income and adolescents’ likelihood of marijuana use, guided by the family stress model. The protective role …

Does Increasing Canopy Liana Density Decrease The Tropical Forest Carbon Sink?, Stefan A. Schnitzer, David M. Defilippis

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

The ongoing decline in the American tropical forest carbon sink has serious ramifications for atmospheric carbon levels and global climate change. Increasing liana abundance may explain the decaying carbon sink because lianas reduce canopy tree growth and survival, which limits forest carbon storage. However, canopy lianas, not solely understory lianas, would have to be increasing for this hypothesis to be credible because canopy lianas compete especially intensely with canopy trees. We examined the change in canopy lianas over 10 years on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama to test two main hypotheses. (1) Canopy lianas are increasing on BCI. (2) Increasing …

Analyzing Sea Level Rise Scenarios Impact On The Mobility, Infrastructures, Environment Of Abu Dhabi And Defining Solutions By Creating A Digital Twin Using Gis And Game Engine, Justine Sylviane Lucie Sarrau

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the potential impact of future sea level rise (SLR) scenarios on the city of Abu Dhabi. With climate change, many coastal towns are at risk of experiencing this type of natural hazard. Currently, no precise scenario simulations have been developed, mainly due to the use of low spatial resolution elevation data. Additionally, the difficulty in understanding the real impacts persists when analyses rely solely on traditional cartography and GIS methods. This dissertation aims to advance the field by offering a new approach, which involves creating a comprehensive dynamic 3D simulation with dynamic flowing water. This model, defined …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Bridge Grate And Pipe Cattle Guard Designed To Mitigate Ocelot Road Mortality On Texas State Highway, Rupesh Maharjan, John H. Young Jr., Kevin W. Ryer, Md. Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The mitigated and fenced section of State Highway 100, extending from Laguna Vista to Los Fresnos, includes five wildlife crossing structures and 16 modified cattle guards (also called wildlife guards) installed to mitigate ocelot road mortality. Bridge grate and pipe wildlife guards were deployed at vehicle entries, and we evaluated their effectiveness in preventing meso-carnivores and ungulates from entering the roadway through the fence gaps from April 2020 to 2024. Wildlife guards collectively were >82% effective in repelling ungulate attempts to enter the roadway, while only 16.64% of meso-carnivore attempts were repelled. The pipe wildlife guard (PWG) design repelled 86.79% …

Effects Of The Kcnq (Kv7) Channel Opener Ezogabine On Resting-State Functional Connectivity Of Striatal Brain Reward Regions, Depression, And Anhedonia In Major Depressive Disorder: Results From A Randomized Controlled Trial, Avijit Chowdhury, Sarah Boukezzi, Sara Costi, Sara Hameed, Yael Jacob, Ramiro Salas, Dan V Iosifescu, Ming-Hu Han, Alan Swann, Sanjay J Mathew, Laurel Morris, James W Murrough

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with available treatments often showing limited efficacy. Recent research suggests that targeting specific subtypes of depression and understanding the underlying brain mechanisms can improve treatment outcomes. This study investigates the potential of the potassium KCNQ (Kv7) channel opener ezogabine to modulate the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the brain's reward circuitry and alleviate depressive symptoms, including anhedonia, a core feature of MDD.

Methods: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in individuals with MDD ages 18 to 65 years compared daily dosing with ezogabine (n= 19) with placebo (n …