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Chimes: April 7, 2025, Calvin University

Chimes

CPI celebrates 10 years by James Chelekis & Robert Hine

Faculty respond to Calvin's official report to CRC Synod 2025 by McKenna Wilkinson, Clare Rybicki & Graham Kort

Funding for library services cut nationwide by Grace Buller

Faculty Gender Divide at Calvin by Elisabeth Stevens

Calvin Disc Gold competes at National -- and brings the sport back to campus by Zach Kern

On This Year's Graduation Speaker by Elisabeth Stevens

Letter from the editor: Diversity at Chimes by Ethan Meyers

Emergency Operations Plan To Sufficiently Support Prison Disaster Preparedness, Nyhrie Love Chapman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Emergency management in correctional facilities is a critical aspect of institutional safety and security. Natural disasters and public health crises have exposed significant gaps in preparedness, leaving incarcerated individuals and staff vulnerable during emergencies. This qualitative study was conducted to examine prison staff members’ perspectives on the effectiveness of emergency operations plans (EOPs) in responding to natural and human-made disasters. Guided by social vulnerability theory and policy implementation and effectiveness theory, this study employed a phenomenological approach to explore staff experiences. Through 12 in-depth interviews, participants described challenges related to resource limitations, training deficiencies, and breakdowns in communication between agencies. …

Living With Alzheimer’S: A Guide To How To Lower The Risk Of Memory Loss & Care For Those With Alzheimer’S, Mona Muzammil, Washain Muzammil

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Despite the frequent characterization of Alzheimer's disease as a “loss of self,"" this enlightening book demonstrates unequivocally that a person's unique self persists throughout the course of the disease. The important message in Caring for People with Alzheimer’s is how much can be done in care settings to support a person's sense of identity and thereby enrich the lives of people experiencing the many losses associated with dementia. Drawing from a diverse body of research, this book brings together the recommendations of the best thinkers and practitioners in multiple disciplines to illustrate the meaning of self and the importance of …

It’S Time For A Change: A Proposal To Abolish Solitary Confinement From Canadian Prisons, Amy Rico

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

Despite Canada’s reputation for being a leader in human rights, its treatment of prisoners requires a closer examination. In particular, prisoner and human rights advocates have widely criticized the use of solitary confinement in Canadian federal and provincial prisons as a form of torture. Solitary confinement imposes excruciating and demeaning conditions on prisoners, jeopardizing their mental and physical welfare. Following court decisions deeming solitary confinement unconstitutional, the federal government replaced the formal use of solitary confinement with structured intervention units. However, these units continue to be a reformulated version of the original practice, sustaining the torturous conditions subjected to inmates. …

Enhancing Smart City Management With Ai: Analyzing Key Criteria And Their Interrelationships Using Dematel Under Neutrosophic Numbers And Mabac For Optimal Development, Asmaa Elsayed, Mai Mohamed

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Purpose: This paper explores the transformative role of AI across various domains of smart cities, including urban mobility, energy management, public safety, healthcare, environmental monitoring, economic development, and data management. It aims to develop a novel decision-making framework that integrates AI technologies with a hybrid approach to analyze the interrelationships among smart city components.

Methodology: This paper employs a hybrid decision-making framework that combines the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method with single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers (STrNN). This approach is used to analyze the complex relationships among criteria and sub-criteria in smart city contexts, addressing uncertainty and incomplete information …

Stacked Against Defendants: Retroactivity, Vacatur, And The First Step Act In Hewitt V. United States, Matthew N. Barry

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

In 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act with overwhelming bipartisan support. One of its provisions, § 403, clarifies 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) by eliminating the "stacking" of mandatory minimum sentences for certain firearm offenses for first-time offenders. Section 403(b) makes the provision retroactive so long as "a sentence for the offense has not been imposed" as of the Act's date of enactment.

In 2009, bank robbers Corey Duffey, Tony Hewitt, and Jarvis Ross were convicted of several federal crimes, including stacked § 924(c) offenses. After their sentences were vacated in 2020, they argued that they should be resentenced under …

A Qualitative Examination Of Probationary Police Candidate Success And Attrition, Joseph Eugene Roy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Law enforcement has undergone significant changes, requiring modern officers to embody a complex blend of traditional values and adaptive capabilities. Despite rigorous selection and training processes, some police recruits leave the profession prematurely, often during their probationary or field training phases. This early attrition represents a costly challenge for law enforcement agencies, with training expenses sometimes exceeding $200,000 per recruit. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of police recruits who successfully completed field training and compared them to the observations of FTOs who trained recruits who left law enforcement early. The research used Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory and …

Enhancing Smart City Management With Ai: Analyzing Key Criteria And Their Interrelationships Using Dematel Under Neutrosophic Numbers And Mabac For Optimal Development, Asmaa Elsayed, Mai Mohamed

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Purpose: This paper explores the transformative role of AI across various domains of smart cities, including urban mobility, energy management, public safety, healthcare, environmental monitoring, economic development, and data management. It aims to develop a novel decision-making framework that integrates AI technologies with a hybrid approach to analyze the interrelationships among smart city components.

Methodology: This paper employs a hybrid decision-making framework that combines the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method with single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers (STrNN). This approach is used to analyze the complex relationships among criteria and sub-criteria in smart city contexts, addressing uncertainty and incomplete information …

Sentencing, Melvyn Zarr

Maine Law Review

Once the legislature has defined the acts it will punish as criminal, it must then establish a sentencing system. There are two principal features of a sentencing system: it grades crimes according to seriousness, and it apportions sentencing discretion among the legislature, the courts, and administrative agencies. The device for apportionment between the legislature and the courts is the mandatory sentence, by which the legislature may fix a period of imprisonment for a crime and forbid judges to grant probation. Apportionment of sentencing discretion between the courts and administrative agencies, on the other hand, is governed by the choice between …

Compelled Expression: Maynard V. Wooley, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

In 1969, the New Hampshire legislature enacted a law requiring that the state motto, "Live Free or Die," be displayed on all license plates for noncommercial vehicles. Many individuals in New Hampshire objected to the motto for various religious or philosophical reasons, and several decided to obliterate the motto by placing tape or painting over it. After numerous prosecutions under the license plate defacement statute, the constitutionality of the law was challenged as it applied to the obliteration of the motto. In 1972, the New Hampshire Supreme Court in State v. Hoskin held that the law did not violate the …

Tort Law Developments, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Any discussion of recent tort law developments in Maine should begin with the abrogation of sovereign immunity, for in the timing of that far-reaching act the Law Court revealed the essence of its approach to this entire area, at once expanding liability while ensuring its careful limitation. Other progressive changes, such as the judicial creation of a new tort remedy in the cause of action for invasion of privacy, have also been hedged with restrictions. Similarly, in charting the development of legislatively created or enlarged grounds of liability in such realms as products liability or owners' and occupiers' duties to …

The Use Of Federal Habeas Corpus In Child Custody Disputes, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Inability to enforce child custody decrees on a nationwide basis has created an unfortunate and well-publicized anomaly in the law. A parent disappointed with one state's award of custody may remove the child to another jurisdiction, gambling that the second state's courts will decline to enforce the original decree. Of the several remedies that have been suggested to relieve this situation, federal habeas corpus remains among the least explored. The use of federal habeas corpus in child custody disputes raises two questions central to every federal jurisdictional controversy: Do the federal courts have power to entertain the action? If the …

The Scowl - V. 88 N. 18 - April 3, 2025

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 88 No. 18 - April 3, 2025. 20 pages.

An Investigation Into The Effects Of Explosive Based Shockwaves And Heat Generation Imparted On Bomb Squad Helmets, Aaron James Champion

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Secret Service Industry: Reimagining Trade Secret Protections To Curb Exploitation In The Hospitality Industry, Caleb Graham

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This paper observes and analyzes the current discussion around the exuberant use of non-compete clauses in the business world by placing a focus on the hospitality industry and why, in an time where we are witnessing the demonization of non-competes it might be prudent to revisit and enhance trade secret laws to make them better equipped to handle the caseload that would inevitably come should non-competes be banned by the FTC. While the near-ban or complete ban of non-competes would certainly affect other industry fields and bodies of law, the hospitality industry is one that has been particularly scrutinized as …

Perspectives On Older Workers: Maine's Prohibition Of Mandatory Retirement, Susan Dana Kertzer

Maine Law Review

The 1978 Amendments to the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which generally prohibit mandatory retirement before the age of seventy, have been criticized as proposing to "extend freedom of choice by restricting freedom of contract. Despite such criticisms and other less philosophical objections to the Act, the 108th Maine Legislature in 1977 passed the first part of a legislative program which, as of January 1, 1980, prohibits all mandatory retirement in Maine, in both the public and private sectors. Emphasizing the parallels between age discrimination legislation and other civil rights legislation, one of the bill's senate supporters acknowledged …

"Fighting Words" And The First Amendment In Maine: State V. John W., Deborah J. Ross

Maine Law Review

On April 1, 1979, John W. was driving his car, accompanied by his sister Maria. The car was stopped by a police officer who requested John's license and registration. Maria asked the officer why they had been stopped. When the officer remained silent, Maria became abusive and was arrested for disorderly conduct. John demanded to know what was going on. Ordered to get back into his car, John began shouting at the police: "Hey, turn around and come back here;" "Hey, you fucking pig, you fuckin' kangaroo;" "Fuck you." John was arrested and convicted in a juvenile proceeding of disorderly …

Assessing Various Methods Of Social Media Use To Combat Vaccine Hesitancy, Jeremy Abe, Janelle Angelo, Emily Martin, Braden Prillwitz

NURS 464: Evidence-Based Nursing Capstone

Science is no stranger to skeptics, and vaccine technology has proven no exception to being immune from detractors since the inception of inoculation (Lanzarotta, 2024). At first, people questioned vaccine safety and efficacy, fearing contraction of disease. Public trust in vaccination gained traction with such successes as the polio vaccine, but the Wakefield article published in 1998 falsely linked the MMR vaccine to autism, arguably launching modern vaccine skepticism (Motta & Stecula, 2021). It was retracted twelve years after publication following refutation by evidence-based research, but not before increasing internet speeds allowed for the dissemination and proliferation of vaccine misinformation. …

Sustainable Pavement Design, Evan Antonius, Matthew Graham

General Engineering

This thesis proposes a transformative vision for highway infrastructure, prioritizing sustainability, resilience, and innovation. Concentrating on California's Interstate 80, a vital freight and commuter corridor that is vulnerable to climate variability and structural issues, this research introduces an innovative pavement design. This design seeks to address the system's ongoing challenges while aligning with California's ambitious climate and infrastructure objectives.

Utilizing cutting-edge materials and design techniques, this solution incorporates a comprehensive three-layer Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) system designed for durability and high performance. The top layer features an Open-Graded Friction Course (OGFC), enhanced with 3.5% Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) to improve permeability, mitigate …

When Business Meets Badge: Corporate America's Hand In The Crackdown Against Dissent In Cop City, Ariana Crepeau

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Spring Expo Poster Presentation

• Social & Behavioral Sciences

Development Of Sustainable Nano-Engineered Cementitious Composites Reinforced With Graphene Oxide From Invasive Seaweed, Steven Garcia, Will Weber, Noah Chun

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

This research explores the integration of graphene oxide (GO) derived from invasive sargassum seaweed into cementitious composites to enhance concrete performance while addressing critical environmental and sustainability challenges. With the dual goal of reducing the carbon footprint of cement and repurposing harmful sargassum blooms in Puerto Rico, the research investigates the viability of sargassum-derived GO (SGO) as a partial cement substitute in mortar mixes. The study is motivated by the urgent need to lower cement-related CO₂ emissions—currently contributing nearly 8% of global totals—and by the ecological and economic burdens caused by the accumulation of sargassum along coastlines. Graphene oxide, with …

The Northern Student, Spring 2025, Bemidji State University

Northern Student Newspaper

No abstract provided.

The Internal Flame, Bailey Robydek

Interior Design Capstones

This body of research and design explores the vital relationship between interior environments and the well- being of firefighters. Challenging the traditional assumptions about how fire station design impacts their health and recovery. Firefighters endure significant physical exertion, psychological stress, and exposure to traumatic events, yet many fire station interiors remain focused primarily on operational functionality rather than personal wellness.

This research underscores the urgent need for fire station design to transcend traditional assumptions and evolve into a model that actively supports holistic recovery. Firefighters require spaces that address the cumulative impacts of their profession, both physical and mental taxation. …

Bridging Deterministic And Probabilistic Analysis For Dam Safety, Giselle Aviles

Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Senior Theses

Dams play a critical role in water supply, flood control, energy generation, and infrastructure resilience. However, many existing dams face significant risks due to aging structures, evolving environmental conditions, and outdated design methodologies. These dams pose a danger to downstream populations, demanding greater attention to investment in measures to help reduce risks to public safety and economic assets. Traditional deterministic methods for dam stability assessments rely on static factors of safety (FS), often resulting in either overly conservative or underestimated designs. In this approach, engineers input known material properties, loads, and the dam's geometry into a single FS, which is …

Prison Privatization And Its Impacts On Inmate Quality Of Life: An Analysis Through Logan's Eight Dimensions Model, Hafsa Ahmed

Master in Public Administration Theses

This capstone paper delves deeply into the ramifications of prison privatization on inmates' quality of life in contracted immigration detention facilities. With the increasing inclination towards privatizing correctional institutions, especially immigration detention centers, a rigorous evaluation is indispensable to ascertain the ramifications of such privatizations on the welfare of incarcerated individuals. In this exploration, Logan's quality of confinement model is meticulously applied to selected immigration detention centers to scrutinize the living conditions and reveal profound insights into the quality of life experienced by inmates. This model allows a structured assessment of various dimensions such as safety, order, care, activity, management, …

Security Or Suppression? Rethinking U.S. Policies Regarding Foreign Tech Firms And National Security, Gordon Mccreadie, Cade Morris

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Increasingly adversarial relationships between the United States and countries such as China, Russia, and Iran have resulted in legislative efforts to ensure the National Security of the United States by banning foreign technology firms deemed to pose a threat. Certain high profile bans, such as the ban of Huawei and potential ban of Tik Tok, have raised concerns that these bans are motivated by factors other than a legitimate national security threat. Failure to protect the rights of affected foreign firms could result in an anticompetitive, isolated U.S. market. This paper will analyze the legality of different efforts to ban …

A Theoretical Defense Of Police Recalibration In Columbia, South Carolina, Sanya Singh

Senior Theses

This paper defends police recalibrationism as the best means of reforming law enforcement. Columbia, South Carolina, will serve as a case study to demonstrate the philosophical and practical justifications of recalibrationism. Police recalibration, which aims to reconceptualize the role of police by reallocating extraneous responsibilities to other entities, offers a more comprehensive and viable solution than abolition, fiscal restraint, and managerialism. The paper further examines proposals that align with police recalibrationism through the lens of the philosophical frameworks of social contract theory and utilitarianism to demonstrate how the reform would fulfill the proposed goals of the American criminal justice system. …

Mathematics & Statistics 2025 Apr Self-Study & Documents, Unm Academic Program Review

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Mathematics & Statistics APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Spring 2025, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.

Feeding The Fire: The Feedback Loop Created By Mass Incarceration And Climate Change And Why Abolition Is The Only Way To A Stable Climate, Mandy Mericle

North Carolina Civil Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mixed-Methods Findings And Implications From Hrsa Grantees On Addressing Health Workforce Burnout And Moral Injury, Alys Barton, Lauren Munoz, Margaret Ziemann, Polly Pittman

GW Research Showcase 2021-2026

No abstract provided.