Digital Commons Network^™

A Real Taste For Fairy-Stories: Essays (2025), By Verlyn Flieger., Marilyn R. Pukkila

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Marilyn R. Pukkila, of A Real Taste for Fairy-stories: Essays (2025) by Verlyn Flieger.

The Challenge Of Achieving Attributability In Multilingual Table-To-Text Generation With Question-Answer Blueprints, Aden Haussmann

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Generating faithful text descriptions from data tables is a significant challenge in Natural Language Processing (NLP), especially for the world’s many low-resource languages. This paper investigates whether Question-Answer (QA) blueprints—an intermediate planning step where a model first asks and answers questions about the data—can improve the factual accuracy of multilingual table-to-text generation. This novel approach is tested on the TaTA dataset, which includes several African languages, by finetuning models with and without these blueprints.

The results show a key distinction: while the QA blueprint method improves performance for English-only models, these gains disappear in the multilingual setting. This paper’s analysis …

The Uncanny, The October 7 Massacre, And The Folktale “The Wolf And The Kids” (Atu 123), Ravit Raufman

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Following Freud’s claim that folktales do not necessarily evoke uncanny experiences, this essay presents a case in which a folktale brought to life in the form of real-world events evokes uncanny experiences. The essay examines testimonies from the October 7 events in light of the folktale identified as “The Wolf and the Kids” (ATU 123) and proposes that beyond the horrors that occurred in the massacre, the comparative discussion reveals an additional level of terror, related to the way fairy tale experiences take on flesh and bone.

“Holy Trash” And The Tears Of The Deceased: The Emotional Role Of Genizot For The Jewish Communities Of Central Europe, Nathanael Riemer

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Since the 1980s, more than seventy genizot (Heb., repositories) have been rediscovered in former synagogues of Central Europe. A genizah is a room in or near a synagogue where damaged, discarded, or heretical texts and sacred relics are stored. This essay examines where, when, and why genizot developed in Central Europe. It also analyzes the emotional significance of the genizot for their respective communities. Historical and literary sources show that genizot were placed in the synagogue attics of Jewish metropolises from the seventeenth century at the latest and were usually not ritually buried. Smaller communities in rural regions adopted this …

Poetic Playing Fields: The Israel Folktale Archives As A Social Arena, Dina Stein

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

The literary biography of Yaakov Lasri, from his time as a frustrated transcriber of stories he heard from others until the publication of his last book, in which he molded stories with artistic freedom, is a voyage through the literary polysystem of Israel of his day and the literary and political fields available to him. His disappointment in the real and symbolic capital that the Israeli Folktale Archives (IFA) offered drove him to seek alternative literary fields at play within the political discourse that blossomed in the late 1960s. The Mizrachi discourse in which social-political marginality started to challenge the …

Theorizing Rabbinic Folklore: The Miraculous Sleep Of The Holy Man, Gal Sela

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

The miraculous sleep (ATU 766) is a well-known, recurring tale-type observed in Abrahamic folktales since the Second Temple period. This study compares variants of ATU 766 on three levels of analysis: as a popular tale in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writings from late antiquity and early medieval times; as a Jewish rendition; and as a multiple tale-type in rabbinic literature. The analysis engages with Dan Ben-Amos’s critical work concerning the use of syntactic methods in folklore studies to analyze Midrash and Aggadah. The essay offers a new theoretical perspective on rabbinic folklore using the notions of tale-type, ecotype, …

Editorial: Jewish Cultural Scholarship And Scholars—And Their Institutions—Under Duress, Simon J. Bronner, Amy K. Milligan, Tsafi Sebba-Elran

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

The editors of Jewish Folklore and Ethnology (JFE) express concern about intimidation and estrangement of Israeli and Jewish professors in the international academic community after the surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The editors point out that these types of hurtful antisemitic incidents against Israeli and Jewish academics preceded the attack, and they call on their colleagues and administrators to voice their outrage at the harassment, boycotts, and violence against Israeli and Jewish academics in addition to the suppression of Jewish studies, and their adverse effects on scholarship as well as Jewish students and their …

Identifying Older Adult Orthopedic Patients’ Learning Styles For Tailored Communication And Health Literacy, Alexis Flippen Von Zimmer

Pacific Journal of Health

Effective patient communication supports health literacy, treatment compliance, and health outcomes. This study examined whether older adult orthopedic patients’ learning style modality preferences differ from general population norms and characterized their multimodal communication preference profiles to inform tailored provider–patient interactions. Using the Barsch Learning Style Inventory (BLSI), 57 English-speaking male orthopedic patients (50+ years) in a semi-rural Northern California practice were assessed. Primary learning modality distributions (n = 50 with single primary preferences) differed significantly from the BLSI theoretical norms using an exact multinomial goodness-of-fit test (p = 0.048), with fewer auditory learners and more kinesthetic learners than expected. …

Jose Montanez V. Paula Price

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Analyzing Adversarial Strategies And Countermeasures For Cyberbullying Detection, Maddie Juarez, Eldor Abdukhamidov, Manuel Sandoval, Deborah Hall, Mujtaba Nazari, George Thiruvathukal, Tamer Abuhmed, Yasin Silva, Mohammed Abuhamad

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Cyberbullying on social networking sites has become more prevalent. Most cyberbullying detection models often lack consideration of adversarial threads, leaving them vulnerable. This study evaluates the resilience of text-based cyberbullying detection models, constrained by limited available datasets, against word-level substitutions and character-level perturbations. We consider well-established ML techniques with real-world data and more recent LLM-based approaches to uncover model weaknesses. The results reveal that adversarial attacks can significantly reduce detection accuracy, e.g., most models are vulnerable to word- and character-level attacks with success rates up to 88% and 44%, respectively. We also find that LLM-based models such as CyberBERT are …

Developing Civic Competence With Educative Curriculum Materials Featuring A Historical Photograph Of Antarctica, Cory Callahan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Here the author advocates for an innovative teaching approach synthesizing three research-based, instructional strategies: promoting civic competence within international and global contexts, planning with educative curriculum materials, and exploring historical photographs for higher-order thinking. He traces the crafting of an exemplary lesson through this approach and discusses its underpinning rationale. The lesson helps students and teachers think deeply about land claims and resource disputes in Antarctica while addressing a persistent value conflict throughout history: balancing national sovereignty and international law. A teacher-friendly narrative constitutes the lesson plan; however, it is not teacher-proof, as teachers are encouraged to make instructional decisions …

A Deep Dive Into The Nazis’ Animal World: Facilitating The Holocaust Through Symbolization, Filippa V. Frogner

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper examines the use of animal symbolism in Nazi propaganda as a tool to dehumanize Jewish individuals and facilitate the Holocaust. Through an analysis of propaganda posters, films, and literature, it highlights how Jews were consistently depicted as animals such as rats, cockroaches, and monkeys—symbols associated with filth, disease, and inferiority. These portrayals, often reinforced by explicit textual messages, stripped Jews of their humanity and encouraged widespread acceptance of their persecution and extermination.

By exploring the methods, extent, and consequences of this dehumanizing propaganda, the paper sheds light on the critical role of animal symbolism in shaping public perception …

Diverse Presentations Of Aphasia: A Comparative Analysis Of Polysynthetic And Analytic Languages Through Kanien'keha (Mohawk) And English Morphology And Syntax, Halle L. Elder

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper looks to compare two linguistically diverse languages, English and Kanien'keha, a native American language commonly known as Mohawk. The comparison will revolve around the morphology and syntax typologies of these two languages. In addition to the morphological and syntactic comparison, I will discuss how aphasia presents itself in different language typologies, placing this comparison onto English and Kanien'keha. The research questions I look to answer are: How does word formation and sentence structure differ between English and Kanien'kéha? Does aphasia present differently in analytic and polysynthetic languages like English and Kanien'kéha? The morphological data and syntactic data are …

Relationship Between Musculoskeletal Disorders And Productivity Loss Among Hospital Nurses: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study With Secondary Data Analysis, Minkyung Kang, Inah Kim, Chang Park, Ari Min

Individual Articles

Aim: To identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among hospital nurses and explore their effects on productivity loss.

Design: An analytical cross-sectional study with secondary data analysis was conducted.

Methods: Data were collected via an online survey of 607 registered nurses working in general and tertiary hospitals in South Korea. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between musculoskeletal disorders and four productivity loss indicators: absenteeism, presenteeism, perceived productivity loss, and work limitations.

Results: Musculoskeletal disorders were highly prevalent among hospital nurses, with 83.9% of participants reporting muscu-loskeletal disorder symptoms in the past week. Lower back complaints …

Chatrouter: A System And Method For Hierarchical Intent Classification And Dynamic Routing In Multi-Skill Ai Architectures, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

ChatRouter is a system and method for processing natural language user inputs to accurately classify them into one or more predefined intents and subsequently route them for appropriate handling within a multi-skill artificial intelligence (AI) architecture. The core of the invention lies in its unique combination of a large language model (LLM) guided by a specialized few-shot learning paradigm, a multi-intent detection capability, and a hierarchical priority-based routing mechanism. This system is designed to interpret diverse user phrasings and map them to specific actionable categories, even when multiple intents are present in a single input.

9th Gsep Research Symposium - 2025

GSEP Research Symposium

The Ninth Annual GSEP Research Symposium, themed "Building Bridges to Elevate Humanity: Innovations and Insights in Education and Psychology", was hosted by the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) on June 19–20, 2025, at the historic Château d’Hauteville in Switzerland and virtually via Zoom.

This hybrid symposium convened a vibrant global community of students, alumni, faculty, and scholars to share research that addresses real-world challenges, advances scholarly inquiry, and builds pathways for inclusive collaboration and leadership. Spanning a wide array of topics—from artificial intelligence and mental health to trauma-informed practices, educational equity, social justice, and cross-cultural leadership—the …

The Teaching And Learning International Survey 2024: Non-Response Bias Analysis Report For Australia, Katherine Dix, Toby Carslake

OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)

This report considers potential non-response bias in the 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Analysis in this report demonstrates that Australia’s ISCED 1 and ISCED 2 respondents are representative of the broader school and teacher populations, strongly supporting a ‘Fair’ rating for data quality, particularly given the high in-school principal and teacher responses rates.

Talis 2024 Australian Report: The Teaching And Learning International Survey, Tim Friedman, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Katherine Dix

OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)

The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) collects internationally comparable data on the learning environment and the working conditions of teachers and principals in schools across the world. This report outlines the results of the 2024 survey of Australian teachers under the headings of: teaching for today's world; thriving in teaching; the demands of teaching, developing teacher expertise, teacher leadership and autonomy, professional relationships in schools, and sustaining the teaching profession. Australia’s participation in TALIS 2024 was managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

Program Review Report 10-7-25, Angela Brock

Program Review Committee

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Assessment Of Early Childhood Learning And Development, Stephanie Templeton, Dan Cloney, Sandra Knowles, Ursula Schwantner

Global education monitoring

This policy brief aims to assist governments and development partners in creating and enhancing assessments of early childhood learning and development to inform the creation of evidence-based policies and practices. It draws on the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre's Monitoring learning in the early years: A review of early childhood assessments to support global monitoring.

How Free Should Campus Speech Be?, Heidi M. Hurd, Michael S. Moore

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The general topic to which this piece is devoted concerns how non-governmental entities and individuals may and should respond to the speech of other non-governmental entities and individuals. The emphasis on private, non-governmental actions removes the discussion from the ambit of the First Amendment’s constitutional right of free speech and, indeed, removes the discussion from issues of legality, more generally. Although such normative discussions can result in recommended legal actions, in the first instance at least such discussions are about the morality—as opposed to the legality—of the negative responses by private persons to the speech of others.

The particular focus …

Everyday Norms Have Become More Permissive Over Time And Vary Across Cultures, Kimmo Eriksson, Pontus Strimling, Irina Vartanova, Brent Simpson, Minna Persson, Khalid Ahmed Abdi, Neta Ad, Alisher Aldashev, Habib Mohammad Ali, Maurizio Alì, Khatai Aliyev, Yasser M. Alrefaee, Alberth Estuardo Alvarado Ortiz, Per A. Andersson, Giulia Andrighetto, Gizem Arikan, John Jamir Aruta, Christian Lutete Ayikwa, Jonatan Baños-Chaparro, Davide Barrera, Justina Barsyte, Birzhan Batkeyev, Azma Batool, Elizaveta Berezina, Stéphanie Ngandu Bimina, Marie Björnstjerna, Sheyla Blumen

Faculty Publications

Every social situation that people encounter in their daily lives comes with a set of unwritten rules about what behavior is considered appropriate or inappropriate. These everyday norms can vary across societies: some societies may have more permissive norms in general or for certain behaviors, or for certain behaviors in specific situations. In a preregistered survey of 25,422 participants across 90 societies, we map societal differences in 150 everyday norms and show that they can be explained by how societies prioritize individualizing moral foundations such as care and liberty versus binding moral foundations such as purity. Specifically, societies with more …

Ucc Minutes 10-7-25, Angela Brock

UCC Agendas/Minutes

No abstract provided.

Does The Acquisition Of Spanish Affect The Acquisition Of English? A Longitudinal Study Of Minority-Majority Simultaneous Bilingual Development From 2.5 To 12 Years, Heather J. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Past work with bilinguals suggests that the acquisition of one language has an impact on the acquisition of another. What is unclear is the direction and strength of the relation between the two languages and whether the relation changes with age. Participants were children in South Florida who heard both Spanish and English at home. They were assessed in expressive (from 2.5 to 12 years) and receptive vocabulary (from 4 to 12 years). Both concurrent bivariate correlations and bivariate splines were used to evaluate the cross-language relations. Results suggest that early in acquisition the two languages compete for resources, but …

Animation Film Industry Of India And Service Design: A Systematic Review Of Literature, Abhishek Kumar, Dr. Shikha Rai, Dr. Sonali Srivastav

ServDes Conference Series

The medium of animation transcends the physical limitations posed by other visual media, combining elements of fantasy with realism. By 2030, the animation business in India is expected to grow from ₹215.8 billion to ₹1.21 trillion. The major companies that dominate this segment in India are Disney and Pixar. The fact that the top 10 highest-grossing animation films in India are all produced by international companies, with ‘Kung Fu Panda 4(2024)’ at the top further demonstrating this foreign domination. Compared to its global counterparts, the Indian animation industry is yet to see the boom, despite the market accepting the medium. …

Dispute Resolution As A Service: Leveraging Service Design And Ai Assistance, Ravi Mahamuni, Sachin Pawar, Manoj Apte, Girish Palshikar

ServDes Conference Series

India’s insurance dispute resolution system is burdened by long delays, escalating costs, and growing complaint volumes. With the insurance market projected to reach US$ 222 billion by 2026 and recent data showing that leading public insurers registered over 81,000 complaints in FY2023, traditional processes are no longer viable. This paper proposes a “Dispute Resolution as a Service” model for the insurance claim domain, enabled by AI technologies with service design principles. By rethinking dispute resolution as a service, the solution addresses not only the technical requirements for speed and cost reduction but also the softer aspects such as transparency, user-centeredness, …

Mental Health And Wellbeing Practices In Design Education: A Call For Action, Daniela Sangiorgi, Martina Čaić, Amalia De Götzen De Götzen, Rike Neuhoff, Rebecca Prices, Nuria Solsona Caba, Josina Vink, Hena Ali

ServDes Conference Series

Alarming numbers of university design students are experiencing significant issues related to their mental health and wellbeing. While the conditions affecting their mental health are systemic, universities play a key role in addressing academic related factors. This paper aims to better understand the stressors impacting design students’ wellbeing and identify strategies for addressing them. It reviews general academic and design-specific stressors highlighted in the literature. Drawing from a small sample of European design schools, the paper also shares promising practices for addressing these stressors. Kick-starting cross-institutional sharing, it offers a starting point for further collective efforts to improve student wellbeing.

Improving Service Information Inclusiveness In Emergency Preparedness And Response: A Case Of Public Service Design In Commercial Large-Scale Mass Cultural Events, Yue Yu, Sijia Yang, Wanqiang Li, Fei Hu

ServDes Conference Series

Attention to the differentiated capabilities, needs, and expectations of vulnerable groups is an important research focus for inclusive service design. In a context where the increasing complexity of urban sites and industry chains has increased the potential risk of disasters, enhancing public emergency services is related to life safety for vulnerable groups. In disasters, user groups with special needs due to differences in cognitive abilities may be more vulnerable than other populations due to their exposure and crisis response competence. These vulnerable groups have more difficulty accessing emergency information and therefore lack adequate resources for emergency response. However, there is …

Co-Designing Ev Dashboards For Rural India: A Participatory Approach, Parinita Rai, Prasad Onkar

ServDes Conference Series

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in rural India is hindered by literacy barriers, language diversity, and infrastructural constraints. This study focuses on designing an optimized digital Human-Machine Interface (HMI) dashboard for two-wheeler EVs to enhance usability among rural consumers. Building on insights from prior research presented at Design 2024, a user-centric approach was employed, incorporating qualitative interviews to gather authentic user feedback. Key findings emphasize the need for simplified interfaces, localized content, and adaptive displays to accommodate diverse user needs. The proposed HMI design aims to reduce the learning curve and encourage EV adoption by making digital dashboards more …

Assessing A Community Health Worker-Facilitated, Digitally Delivered, Family-Centered Diabetes Management Program: Single-Arm Quasi-Experimental Study, Zenong Yin, Vanessa L Errisuriz, Heather Cuevas, Bertha E Flores, Laura Delfausse, Christina Galvan, Jing Wang, Chengdong Li, Renata Morfin, Shiyu Li, Maysa Sapargeldiyeva, Giliane Yza Muyna, Minyu Zhang, Vanessa Sweet, Deborah Parra-Medina

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The high prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and associated complications disproportionately affect low-income Latino populations, who also experience disparities in diabetes self-management (DSM), including poor medication adherence, physical activity, diet, and glycemic control.

Objective: This study examined, through an academic-community partnership, the effectiveness of ¡Salud, Salud! (an evidence-based, family-centered diabetes self-management education and support [DSMES] program) on primary (glycemic control and quality of life) and secondary (social, psychological, and behavioral factors related to T2D management) outcomes among low-income Latino adults with T2D or prediabetes.

Methods: In total, 81 adults (mean age 48.90 years, SD 12.57; n=57, 70.4%, female; …