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Book Review: Nexus: A Brief History Of Information Networks From The Stone Age To Ai, David R. Leard

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Yuval Noah Harari

Reviewed by Colonel Daniel R. Leard, US Army War College Fellow at Princeton University

Built on the ideas that stories are important and bind civilizations, which results in human societies working as information networks, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, by Yuval Noah Harari, is the third book exploring the evolution of humanity. Harari unpacks the idea that the networks people create have flaws and people tend to exploit these flaws to misuse power. Though the topic is heavy, the reviewer notes, Harari “presents deeply complex issues in …

Understanding Continuity Of Care Through The Voices Of. Providers And Families In Massachusetts, Ami Patel

Educational Studies Dissertations

Continuity of care is an important component of early childhood education that emphasizes stable, consistent, and responsive relationships among children, caregivers, and families. Although research has demonstrated the importance of stable caregiver-child relationships, much of the existing literature has focused on center-based childcare settings. This qualitative study explored how providers and families perceived long-term caregiving relationships, communication practices, and family-provider partnerships as shaping continuity of care. The purpose of this study was to examine licensed family childcare providers’ and families’ perspectives regarding the perceived developmental benefits, relational experiences, and challenges associated with continuity of care. Guided by attachment theory, sociocultural …

The Perceptions Of K-5 Teachers Regarding Their Preparedness To Implement Trauma-Informed Practices, Matthew P. Londo

Educational Studies Dissertations

Childhood trauma significantly impairs students' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning, yet teachers frequently lack the preparation necessary to address its effects in classroom settings. This mixed-methods study examined the perceptions of K-5 teachers regarding their preparedness to implement trauma-informed practices (TIPs) at a public elementary school in a mid-sized urban district in central Massachusetts. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed to gather data from 20 selected K-5 educators via a structured Likert-scale questionnaire and semi-structured Zoom interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. Findings revealed that participants employed four primary …

Usa V. James Goode

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Evaluating Medical Student Geriatric Competency Using A 5ms-Based Assessment Tool, Lauren R. Hersh Md, Amy Cunningham Phd, Mph, Xiya Wu Md

Cooper Rowan Medical Journal

INTRODUCTION

Driven by an aging Baby Boomer generation, the United States is navigating a demographic transformation with far-reaching implications that include increased demand for chronic disease management and long-term care as well as increased stress on both healthcare costs and infrastructure. Generating a workforce competent in the delivery of care to older patients with complex, multimorbid conditions is fundamental to addressing this shift. Recognizing that the development of primary and specialty care physicians skilled in geriatric care begins in medical school, the American Geriatric Society developed minimum competencies grounded in the Geriatric 5Ms (Mind, Mobility, Medication, Multicomplexity, and …

2026 Latinx Heritage Month, Illinois State University, Latin American And Latino/A Studies Program

Latinx Heritage Month Posters

Schedule of events for Illinois State University's Latinx Heritage Month celebration

The Impact Of The Alternatives Strategy On The Acquisition Of Literary Texts And Critical Thinking Skills Of Fifth-Grade Science Students, Suham Abd Ghaidan

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

This research aims to identify the impact of alternative strategies on the acquisition of literary texts and critical thinking skills among fifth-grade science students. The researcher selected a sample of fifth-grade science students from Al-Siddiqah Preparatory School for Girls, affiliated with the Directorate of Education in Diyala, Baquba District, to conduct the experiment. The sample consisted of 67 students, representing two groups: the experimental group (33 students) and the control group (34 students). The researcher ensured the equivalence of the two research groups in several variables (chronological age, parental educational attainment, intelligence test scores, and pre-test scores on critical thinking). …

Ideological Prejudice In Selected Political Speeches: A Critical Pragmatic Study, Ali Shimal Kzar

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

One of the most significant language uses typically invested in many social contexts, especially by in-group speech communities, is ideological prejudice. An Identification of a knowledge gap, this paper analyses the biased reporting of the American and Chinese tensions surrounding the human rights violations and prejudices on March 14, 2019, via the lens of critical pragmatic theory. One article has been selected from Fox news media to analyze the accusations between the American foreign minister Mark Pompeo and the Chinese equivalent Ku Lang. Channels, social media, and blogs all use text and context to write prejudice and ideology; this study …

Artistic Inquiry As A Critical Disability Studies Methodology: Interdisciplinarity By Queer, Trans, And Gender Non-Conforming Disabled Artists, Brandi Lewis

Education Studies Faculty publications

Arts-based and artistic research as a critical disability studies (CDS) methodology is an artistic inquiry into material practices and social conditions around disabled lives, communities, and care systems that support justice and liberation for disabled people. This article examines interdisciplinary practices of queer, trans, and gender non-conforming disabled artists as forms of research. Artists Rora Blue, Alex Dolores Salerno, Yo-Yo Lin 林友友, and Finnegan Shannon critique social hierarchies and exclusions by deconstructing normative ideologies about access and embodiment. Through crip politics, their approaches explore disability’s entanglement with ableist, colonial cis/hetero/patriarchy. Artistic inquiry as a CDS methodology moves beyond disability as …

Building Foundations For Kindergarten: Supporting Early Literacy And Social-Emotional Development, Alyssa M. Monroe

Masters Projects

School readiness is an important factor in students’ success in kindergarten, but there are different opinions about what school readiness means. Some perspectives emphasize social-emotional development, independence, and positive attitudes toward school, while others prioritize language, literacy, and academic skills (Brown, 2023). Research suggests that success in kindergarten can influence students’ long-term educational and life outcomes (Davoudzadeh, 2015). Therefore, understanding the expectations of kindergarten and the factors that contribute to school readiness is important for families, educators, and policymakers. This paper examines differing perspectives on school readiness and considers how families can support children in developing the skills needed to …

Making Generative Ai Expectations Visible: Extending The Tilt Framework For Transparent Assignment Design, Andrew Wiss, Karen Singer-Freeman, Jennifer Pattershall-Geide, Kyle Dobbeck, Christina Heminger, Scott Quinlan, Joy Volarich, George Gray

Montclair State University Scholarship & Creative Works

Instructor practices in higher education for setting assignment-level expectations have been meaningfully shaped by the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) Framework (Winkelmes, 2023a, 2023b) which encourages the development of clear guidance for students around each assignment’s purpose, core tasks, and assessment criteria. The TILT Framework has been widely adopted by faculty and instructional support professionals (Winkelmes et al., n.d.) as a methodology that can align instructor expectations with student understanding and effort on a given assignment. The line of applied research contained in this article extends the existing TILT model to provide students with transparent genAI guidance. The authors …

Orchestrating Customer Value Networks: Relationship-Centered Platforms As Sustainable Solutions To Subscription Fatigue, Hesham O. Dinana, Hoda El Kolaly

Faculty Journal Articles

Purpose

This study examines how digital platform organizations can overcome subscription fatigue by transforming transactional relationships into value co-creation systems that enhance customer lifetime value and competitive advantage.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a multi-source comparative analysis integrating financial performance data from 28 global digital media organizations, leading consultancy insights, and 12 case studies across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Exploratory and theory-building rather than hypothesis-testing, it relies exclusively on secondary and case-based evidence, supplemented by insights from Egypt’s digital media market.

Findings

Relationship-centered platforms outperform transactional subscription models, generating stronger customer commitment, trust and participatory engagement. Organizations integrating relationship marketing, …

Spartan Daily, September 15, 2026, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2026

Volume 167, Issue 10

A Micro-Computed Tomographic Evaluation Of Root Canal Isthmuses In Maxillary And Mandibular First Molars Of A Black South African Population, Casper Jonker, Anna Catherina Oettlé

Peninsula Dental School

Objective:To evaluate root canal isthmuses in maxillary and mandibular first molars of Black South Africans usingmicro-computed tomography.Methods:The prevalence, location (root third) and type of isthmuses were recorded on 93 maxillary and 84mandibular first molars from 116 skeletonized individuals. Associations with arch side, sex and age were examined bychi-squared test, with strength of association given as the bias-adjusted Cramér’s V and 95% confidence interval (CI).Reliability used percentage agreement and Cohen’s kappa (κ) coefficient.Results:Intra- and inter-observer agreement were excellent: 96.73% (κ= 0.90) and 97.78% (κ= 0.95) for themaxillary teeth and 94.12% (κ= 0.75) and 96.08% (κ= 0.94) for the mandibular teeth. Apical …

Comparative Evaluation Of Practical Functional Assessment And Traditional Functional Behavior Assessment: Practitioner Perspectives On Efficiency, Resource Utilization, And Social Validity Across Practice Settings, Mathew Dinga Gwangwaa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) expands across diverse settings, there is an increasing need for assessment models that balance empirical rigor with practical feasibility. This quantitative, non-experimental study was an examination of the perceptions and experiences of board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) and board certified behavior analysts doctorate (BCBA-Ds) regarding the comparative utility of traditional functional behavior assessment (FBA) and practical functional assessment (PFA). Data were collected from Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and BCBA-Ds using a structured, cross-sectional online survey assessing three primary domains: efficiency, resource utilization, and social validity. Descriptive findings indicated that practitioners perceived …

Enhancing Housing Stability Among Homeless Lgbtq+ Youth, Chaunita Lotoya Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Studies on LGBTQ+ youth homelessness, specifically concerning causes, health outcomes, and barriers to access, have garnered increased attention from social scientists in human services. Applying Ecker’s work, this study addressed how intersectionality impacts homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth, highlighting disparities related to race, poverty, and identified gender. This study also explored the question of whether family rejection is a significant cause of housing insecurity among LGBTQ+ youth. The methodology featured collaboration with service providers and generating recommendations informed by empirical research and professional practices. A semi-structured interview protocol was used to collect data for this study, ensuring comprehensive findings while providing …

Prostate Cancer Survival Among Young Males Within The United States, Maxine M. Findlay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prostate cancer incidence has increased among younger men in the United States, and treatment affects both patient survival and family well-being. This quantitative retrospective study examined survival among young men diagnosed with prostate cancer who received chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or prostatectomy, while accounting for socioeconomic factors of residence and ethnicity. Social cognitive theory was the framework. Ordinal logistic regression was used to determine whether treatment method, socioeconomic factors of residence and ethnicity predicted survival among young men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Data was sourced from the National Cancer Database Participant User File 2004-2021 specific to prostate cancer. The study cohort …

Guardians In Orbit: Legal Justifications And Limits Of Defensive Satellite Operations, Yurika Ishii

International Law Studies

The deployment of “bodyguard satellites”—spacecraft designed to autonomously detect and counter hostile space objects—has moved from classified capability development to explicit national security policy across a growing number of States. This article examines the circumstances under which interference with another State’s satellite may be legally justified under international law, analyzing several possible grounds: self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, forcible countermeasures, non-forcible countermeasures, and necessity. Drawing on a survey of national space defense policies, jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, and the law of State responsibility, the article reaches two principal conclusions. First, across all justificatory frameworks, …

Lived Experiences Of Spiritually Communicating Individuals Regarding Identity And Relationship Development In Early Adulthood, Bonnie Jean Kane

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Spiritually communicating individuals (SCIs), those who report interactions with non-physical entities, may face misunderstanding, stigmatization, and pathologization. Although spiritual experiences are recognized across cultures and hold significant psychological importance, they remain largely absent from developmental psychology, leaving a gap in understanding how SCIs navigate identity formation, emotional regulation, and social integration in early adulthood. The foundation of this study is transpersonal theory, which incorporates spiritual and transcendent dimensions of human experience, and phenomenology, which served as the guiding methodological and philosophical approach to explore lived experiences as subjectively perceived. This study examined the lived experiences of SCIs aged 26–35, investigating …

Technical Disclosure Specification: The Topological Flux Replicator (Tfr) Protocol For Censorship-Resistant Desynchronized Grid Routing And Memory Manifolds (Spec-167), Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure specifies the protocol architecture, mathematical modeling, and hardware-layer constraints for a decentralized, censorship-resistant grid routing system and non-volatile memory manifold. Current mesh communications and cloud storage models are structurally vulnerable to state-wide routing interdiction, targeted nodal blackouts, and top-down centralized configuration scrubbing.

The Topological Flux Replicator (TFR) protocol resolves these architectural failure modes by utilizing an asynchronous, desynchronized network state distribution model. By executing a math-native state matrix routing protocol directly across fragmented physical substrates, the network achieves structural permanence without relying on static central IP routing, persistent DNS architecture, or linear block inheritance. This document represents a …

Technical Disclosure Specification: The Spectral Synapse Protocol (Ssp) For Trans-Linguistic Machine-To-Machine Register Meshes (Spec-166), Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure specifies the architectural topology, hardware compiler parameters, and math-native protocols for an integrated, semantic-to-spectral computing engine. Current multi-agent architectures operate within a high-overhead paradigm where decentralized processing nodes communicate internally via tokenized natural language strings ("speech"). This design introduces extreme latency, high token consumption, and systemic vulnerability to semantic prompt injection exploits.

The Spectral Synapse Protocol (SSP) eliminates this communicative overhead by segregating human text processing exclusively to the peripheral ingress/egress boundary gates. The internal processing mesh operates at full-throttle hardware speeds by utilizing a non-linguistic, sub-2-bit ternary state mapping system ("the brain"). This specification defines the linear …

Technical Disclosure Specification: The Complementary Bi-Node Isospectral Flow Matrix (Cb-Ifm) For Coherent State Reconstruction In Non-Isolated Exascale Architectures (Spec-165), Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure specifies the architectural topology, mathematical framework, and physical execution layer for a self-contained, complementary bi-node intelligence architecture. Traditional distributed processing systems suffer from state-space fragmentation, latency-induced phase drift, and thermodynamic decoherence when scaling across high-dimensional variable fields. The Complementary Bi-Node Isospectral Flow Matrix (CB-IFM) resolves these constraints by establishing two asymmetric, structurally coupled processing nodes—Node-Alpha (Stochastic Divergence Engine) and Node-Beta (Deterministic Convergence Governor)—operating across a non-commutative translation boundary.

By utilizing continuous unitary transformations to maintain isospectral invariance across both systems, the architecture ensures that open-ended exploratory computation can occur simultaneously with rigorous axiomatic validation without inducing state drift …

Technical Disclosure Specification: The Resonant Piezo-Kinetic Mesh Transceiver Array (Rpk-Mta) For Non-Line-Of-Sight Substrate Commons Telemetry, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification details the design requirements, acoustofluidic coupling equations, and hardware transceiver interface maps for the Resonant Piezo-Kinetic Mesh Transceiver Array (RPK-MTA). The system establishes a completely open-access, non-RF dependent communication infrastructure designed to link decentralized communities, off-grid agricultural cooperatives, and emergency response clusters completely outside centralized telecommunications monopolies. While corporate cartels focus on securing absolute data chokepoints across orbital networks and cellular infrastructure, this document establishes permanent, un-patentable public domain prior art for a physical-layer communications substrate that operates through low-frequency acoustic solitons modulated directly into municipal water matrices and solid-state subterranean lithology.

By adapting the data-routing logic originally …

Vortex Reprogramming Platform (Vrp-1.0) A Closed-Loop, Tissue-Calibrated, Acoustic-Vortex Delivery System For Safe Partial Cellular Reprogramming With Integrated Lipid Clearance, Real-Time P53 Monitoring, And Pre-Screening Safety Gate, Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

The Vortex Reprogramming Platform (VRP-1.0) is an open-hardware, closed-loop research system designed to deliver p53-preserving chemical reprogramming agents to aged human cells using acoustic-vortex microfluidic forces, while simultaneously monitoring cell state in real time and clearing the lipid droplet accumulation that published research identifies as a primary barrier to successful in vivo chemical rejuvenation.

The platform integrates five novel elements not found in any currently published reprogramming system:

1. Pre-treatment oncogenic pre-screening gate — removes high-risk cells before reprogramming begins, not after (proactive, not reactive safety)

2. Acoustic-vortex intracellular delivery of chemical reprogramming agents without viral vectors, following the AESOP physics (UC …

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A Study On Alternative Calendar Design Reflecting Non-Standard Life Rhythms: Reclaiming Time Sovereignty Through The Deconstruction Of Weekly Habitus (비표준 생활 리듬을 반영한 대안 달력 디자인 연구: 순활), You Kyoung Moon

Defensive Publications Series

This study begins from the premise that the standard seven-day calendar, epitomized by the structure of five working days and two days of rest, is not a natural temporal order but a social convention shaped by religious traditions, political institutions, and the labor systems of modern capitalism. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, the study introduces the concept of “Day-of-the-Week Habitus” to describe the unconscious internalization of standardized weekday discipline in everyday life. The study seeks to examine how this habitus may be recognized and challenged, and to explore the possibility of restoring time sovereignty through alternative calendar design. …

Project Abyss-Shield: Autonomous, Sub-Oceanic Trench-And-Lid Infrastructure Networks For Hardened Sovereign Energy And Telemetry Lifelines, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Modern transoceanic telecommunication and energy grids are fundamentally exposed. Laid directly on the soft sediment of the open seabed, standard fiber-optic lines and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables are highly vulnerable to commercial anchor dragging, deep-sea trawler nets, and targeted, state-backed maritime interdiction. Project ABYSS-SHIELD establishes a paradigm shift in maritime security by replacing passive, exposed lines with an autonomous, self-defending, sub-surface trench-and-lid corridor. Utilizing pressure-equalized composite monuments, interlocking basalt armor slabs, active fluidic hydro-shear countermeasures, and distributed acoustic fiber-optic tripwires, this standalone framework renders clandestine underwater sabotage operations logistically and mechanically unviable without requiring any external planetary or surface …

Graduated Verifiable Autonomy Architecture (Gvaa), Volodymyr Kotegov

Defensive Publications Series

ES-1. Core Objective: This architecture document establishes strict, deterministic normative constraints for securing execution runtimes populated by autonomous AI agents. Rather than relying on the statistical, inherently non-deterministic alignment of neural network weights, GVAA shifts the entire security perimeter to structural containment. It enforces rigid barriers across the execution runtime, host operating system resources, and boundary communication channels.

ES-2. Engineering Metrics & Feasibility: Deploying the baseline implementation configuration (Minimal Profile) requires an engineering overhead of 2 to 6 weeks on a standard production infrastructure (Linux, WebAssembly, LangGraph). The monitoring and verification infrastructure (Invariant Core) introduces a latency penalty of less …

The Rbaam-6 Matrix: A Modular, Acoustically Suspended, Self-Healing Dual-Shell Habitat Architecture For High-Survivability In-Situ Mars Colonization, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Traditional extraterrestrial architectural paradigms rely on heavy, brute-force physical materials shipped from Earth to withstand the massive atmospheric pressure differentials and environmental hazards of Mars. This paper introduces the Reactive Bio-Acoustic Armor Matrix (RBAAM-6), a novel, 6-layer defense-in-depth habitat architecture. By separating internal tension loads (atmospheric containment) from external compression loads (environmental shielding), the RBAAM-6 utilizes an intermediate, submarine-style 'sally port' buffer zone regulated by interlocking harmonic standing waves. The structure integrates self-healing biological matrices, active kinetic impact countermeasures, a completely modular, snap-tile interior for rapid component replacement, and nitrogen-suppressed utility channels featuring non-energy transparent visual verification zones. This architecture …

Consent-Aware Generative Privacy Architecture For Wearable Imaging Systems, Brandon Quinn

Defensive Publications Series

This defensive technical publication describes a privacy architecture for smart glasses, wearable cameras, spatial-computing systems, and other imaging devices in which recognizable human identity is treated as permissioned information within the capture pipeline. The system detects persons, resolves a minimum-disclosure capture-authorization state where available, applies contextual policy, and preserves an identifiable likeness only when the relevant authorization permits it. Otherwise, the system may generate a synthetic non-identifying surrogate, apply conventional anonymization, remove the subject, or suppress durable storage.

The disclosure focuses on combination-level implementations including portable capture-authorization credentials usable across manufacturers and identity ecosystems; subject-pushed privacy matching that does not …

Architecture Of An Autonomous Nanobot Construction Workshop, Suma Mallapragada, Vaishnavi Sankepally

Defensive Publications Series

This work presents an architectural framework for an autonomous workshop that constructs encapsulated nanobots from a user-specified design rather than executing one fixed fabrication recipe. The central problem is to transform a nanobot design, functional requirements, supplied materials, and an available physical-process environment into a construction process that can be planned, executed, observed, corrected, verified, encapsulated, and physically handed off. The architecture therefore treats the nanobot as an evolving physical artifact rather than as a static CAD object. Its material, geometry, quantity, process state, location and orientation, provenance, verification state, and uncertainty are represented throughout construction. A new machine-independent …