Digital Commons Network^™

Dynamic Domain Score Changes As Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Evidence From Washington State's Pact, David Wayne Sattler

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Juvenile probation agencies routinely administer risk-need assessments. However, evidence remains limited regarding the association between changes in scores from repeated risk-need assessments and recidivism among justice-involved youth. Grounded in general personality and cognitive social learning theory and the risk-need-responsivity model, this quantitative study examined whether changes in dynamic scores on the Positive Achievement Change Tool were associated with recidivism among youth on juvenile community supervision in Washington State. Using 24,929 paired initial and final Positive Achievement Change Tool assessments, the study analyzed total and domain-level dynamic score changes with recidivism measured during the 24 months following the final assessment. Logistic …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring How Leaders At Acsi-Accredited Christian Schools In North And South Carolina Implement And Integrate A Biblical Worldview, Terry A. Richards Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study explored how leaders at ACSI-accredited Christian schools in North and South Carolina experienced integrating a biblical worldview. The study examined the strategies leaders considered effective, the challenges they encountered, and the approaches they used to foster collaboration among school leaders, faculty, and families. Using in-depth interviews to explore and illuminate the experiences of nine Christian school leaders, this study analyzed participants’ accounts to identify recurring themes. The findings indicated that participants understood biblical worldview integration as an intentional, schoolwide process rather than isolated religious tasks assigned to key activities, Bible classes, or chapel services. Participants also …

A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Pre-Licensure Nursing Students’ First Semester Clinical Rotations Following Simulation Learning, Ogochukwu Vera Nnakwe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological hermeneutic study aims to understand the lived experiences of pre-licensure nursing students during their clinical rotation semester following simulation learning at Southeastern University. The guiding theory for this study is Kolb’s experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984). Simulation learning in nursing education is a teaching approach that lets learners practice practical nursing skills in a safe environment without risking patient safety, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice (Mishra et al., 2023). It offers students opportunities to improve their knowledge of clinical skills and enhance their abilities (Koukourikos et al., 2021). The study involved a sample of 12 …

From Broken To Becoming: A Phenomenological Study Of Life Purpose Among Christian Adult Survivors Of Childhood Trauma, Chenel M. Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Childhood trauma often disrupts an individual’s sense of meaning, identity, and direction, leaving lasting effects that extend beyond psychological symptoms into how life’s purpose is understood and lived. While existing research has examined trauma, coping, and meaning in life, less is known about how survivors themselves experience and construct life purpose following traumatic experiences. This qualitative phenomenological study explored how Christian adult survivors of childhood trauma describe their lived experiences of trauma and healing, and the development of life purpose in adulthood. Semistructured interviews were conducted with seven Christian adults who self-identified as having experienced childhood trauma and healing and …

In Myth And Memory: The Efficacy Of New England Civil War Chaplains, Kevin L. Hostettler

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Private William Kennedy of the Fifty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry damned chaplains as “the most gigantic nuisance in the Army,” then praised his own. The distance between abstract condemnation and named, concrete appreciation has shaped the historiography of the Union chaplaincy, with historians largely accepting nameless class censure at face value and treating competence as the exception. This dissertation argues that no single standard of efficacy can be applied to Union chaplains, because they answered to seven competing horizons of expectation (governmental, military command, regimental, soldiery, denominational, civilian, and personal), leaving chaplains to fill undefined duties Congress never clarified or reconciled. …

Barriers And Facilitators To Health Literacy Among Black Americans With Overweight And Obesity In South Carolina: A Mini-Ethnographic Study, Shelly Campbell-Timmons

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative mini ethnography adapted from traditional ethnography with limited time and scope, was to explore and understand perceptions of barriers and facilitators to health literacy among Black Americans with overweight and obesity in three South Carolina counties. Population data showed that approximately 40.3% of U.S. adults are obese. Moreover, Non-Hispanic Black communities are disproportionately affected by overweight and obesity despite efforts to combat the weight-related health risk. Still, limited health literacy should be the focus of public health strategies like teach-back and plain language communication, to address overweight and obesity prevalence and disparities. The study was …

Montana Kaimin, September 17, 2026, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Exploring The Influence Of Personalized E-Learning Tools On Critical Thinking And Literacy In Secondary English Classrooms Through Instructor Perspectives: A Holistic Case Study, Lanishia R. Berry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this holistic case study was to explore how secondary English Language Arts teachers integrated personalized e-learning tools to support reading comprehension and critical thinking in secondary English Language Arts classrooms. The theory guiding this study was Vygotsky's sociocultural development theory because it supports the idea that learning and cognitive development occur through interaction and collaboration, aligning with how personalized e-learning tools are used to engage students in meaningful literacy experiences. The central research question guiding this study is: How do secondary English teachers perceive the use of personalized e-learning tools in their instruction to support reading comprehension …

How Partner Support Impacts The Intimate Relationship Quality Of Adult Childhood Sexual Abuse (Csa) Survivors: A Qualitative Study, Colin E. Wilson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) often experience long-term disruptions in their ability to form and maintain healthy adult intimate relationships. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how adult survivors described partner support and its impact on their relational healing and the quality of their intimate relationships. Eleven adults who had experienced CSA and had participated in a committed intimate relationship lasting at least 12 months were recruited through a combination of convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling. Data were collected through demographic questionnaires, a Lived Experiences Timeline Activity (LETA) sheet, semi-structured interviews, field notes, and memos. …

The Effects Of Home Virtual Reality (Vr) Firearms Systems On Self-Efficacy, Gun Attitude, And Stress, Raffi R. Stambultsyan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Advanced virtual reality (VR) firearms training systems have demonstrated benefits for military and law enforcement personnel; however, limited research has examined the psychological effects of commercially available home-based VR firearms systems. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to investigate the immediate effects of the GAIM and AceXR home VR dry-fire training systems on general self-efficacy, leadership self-efficacy, perceived stress, and gun attitude among firearms-trained military and law enforcement veterans. A total of 128 participants completed validated pretest and posttest measures following participation in a VR training session using either the GAIM or AceXR platform. A one-way multivariate analysis …

The Amateur Class: A Christoform, Communal, Experience-Driven Leader Development Approach For The Missionary Church, Virgil Lee Tanner Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Missionary Church, like many Christian organizations, faces recurring leadership transitions in which emerging leaders must assume responsibilities that exceed their developmental preparation. This challenge reflects the absence of a shared, coherent leader development framework that leverages experience for development and integrates Christoform spirituality and professional growth. This study examined the feasibility and potential impact of The Amateur Class, a Christoform, experience-driven leader development intervention combining narrative reflection, a three-day in-person retreat, virtual learning cohorts, and a capstone virtual retreat. Using a mixed-methods design, the study quantitatively assessed changes in self-awareness (Self-Reflection and Insight Scale [SRIS]), tolerance for ambiguity (Multiple …

Faculty Development Courses On Ai: Introducing The Faculty Ai Capability Selection Framework, Dan R. Bradbury, Barbara Jo White, H. Kevin Fulk, Raymond Large

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

University faculty members are faced with how to best address pressing needs for building artificial intelligence (AI) skills.  Some of these needs are student-focused, as employers seek graduates with useful AI skills.  Faculty members, understanding how generative AI can impact the work they do, also face pressures to enhance their own skills and comfort using AI tools.  In this article, we consider AI capabilities that are impacting organizations’ expectations for new college graduates as well as AI capabilities changing the shape of faculty members’ work.  We propose the Faculty AI Capability Selection Framework as a means to guide the development …

Agree To Disagree? Classification Agreement Among Discrepancy-Based Sld Models Used In School Psychology, Emma M. Ferns, Carlos O. Calderón-Tena

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

For decades, school psychologists have attempted to operationalize the federal definition of the most prevalent disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), specific learning disability. These attempts have led to three major identification method camps: the severe discrepancy approach, the patterns of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) approach, and the response-to-intervention approach—all of which are federally permissible under the IDEA. This study aimed to determine whether three operationalizations of the severe discrepancy approach (simple severe discrepancy using 1 and 1.5 standard deviations and the regression approach) identified the same students as those classified by their school as having an …

A Framework For Teaching Maya Aspect System: Pedagogical Strategies For Maya Grammar, Quetzil E. Castañeda

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. Maya, an Indigenous language spoken primarily in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, remains under-resourced in materials for second-language and heritage-language learners. Its agglutinative morphology, split ergativity, and aspect system pose particular pedagogical challenges, especially when Maya grammar is explained through Spanish or English tense categories. Based on a critical review of existing teaching resources and the author’s more than twenty years of experience teaching Maya, this article proposes a pedagogical framework for understanding its aspect grammar. Rather than organizing verbal morphology around tense, the framework distinguishes four principal conjugational forms: Ongoing Incomplete, Simple Past, Completed Present, and Subjunctive. It also introduces …

Decoupled Agent Architecture For Function-Based Remote Device Automation, Qingfei Tian

Defensive Publications Series

Orchestrating specific, function-level actions across heterogeneous fleets of electronic devices, such as smartphones, wearable devices, or smart home appliances, can present challenges, as methods like user interface scripting may be less reliable and placing complex logic on resource-constrained devices can be impractical. A system using a decoupled agent architecture may address these challenges. A remote agent, operating in a resource-rich environment such as a cloud server, can interpret high-level goals and translate them into a sequence of structured, function-based commands. A lightweight on-device agent may receive these commands via a communication relay and execute them programmatically using local device application …

Refereed Research - Indispensable Yet Not Fully Legitimate: Street Markets As Invisible Subsistence Infrastructure, Raji Srinivasan, Maria C. Merino

Subsistence Marketplaces

Street markets are key provisioning systems across the Global South, supplying fresh food, employment, and retail access absent formal infrastructure. Yet despite street markets’ functional indispensability to millions of low-income consumers, their legitimacy is chronically contested, affirmed by vendors and communities yet challenged by planners, developers, and state authorities who apply formal-economy criteria in evaluating them. We theorize this as a legitimacy paradox and ask what structural mechanisms sustain it? Using composite vignettes grounded in fieldwork, we theorize three mechanisms. First, visibility without recognition: street markets are hyper-visible yet excluded from cognitive templates of legitimate, formal retail. Second, asymmetric essentiality: …

20 Multifunctional Solutions For Hydraulics And Structural Frameworks Of Legged Robots: Self-Diagnostic Cartridge Valves, Mrf And Niti-Based Damping, Parametric Metamaterials, And Predictive Diagnostics, Volodymyr Kotegov

Defensive Publications Series

This document discloses twenty technical solutions for hydraulic drives, structural frameworks, and diagnostic systems of legged robots, unified by the design principle of a single physical element performing two or more functions simultaneously. These solutions encompass: self-diagnostic valves and seals utilizing impedance, piezoelectric, and NiTi mechanisms; damping and energy-recuperating structures based on magnetorheological fluids and liquid crystal elastomers; parametric metamaterial cells combining elastic, valving, and resonant functions; architectural designs for hardware-level hydraulic network survivability operating independently of electronics; cartridge interfaces with integrated opto-acoustic and electrochemical diagnostics; and a comprehensive structural joint architecture featuring three-level passive clamping and hydraulic lines routed …

Low Bandwidth Full-Duplex Multimodal Llm Interaction With Contextual Interruption, Longlong Zhu, Weiyue Huang

Defensive Publications Series

Multimodal LLMs implemented on a server can support remote user interaction over a network but require continuous real-time streaming of raw, uncompressed video and/or audio. This can be infeasible due to bandwidth constraints or other reasons, and can prevent real-time feedback in time-sensitive interactive settings. This disclosure describes an asymmetric edge and cloud collaborative architecture that can enable full-duplex and seamlessly interruptible multimodal LLM orchestration at low latency. The architecture decouples sensor processing tasks from cognitive reasoning tasks involved in interaction between a user and a multimodal LLM via modalities such as audio, video, or image. Computationally heavy processing of …

Efficient In-Context Retrieval For Search Ads Via Pre-Computed Corpus Key-Value Caching, Ladan Rabiee, Felix Yu, Ruiqi Guo, Chris Collins, Tianyin Zhou

Defensive Publications Series

A system performs large-scale information retrieval using a large language model (LLM) by pre-computing a key-value (KV) cache for a document corpus. The retrieval prompt is structured into static and dynamic parts, where the static portion includes system instructions and the entire document corpus. In an offline process, the LLM processes this static portion to generate and store a corresponding KV cache. During online inference, the system loads the pre-computed KV cache and appends the dynamic user query, which enables the LLM to perform its attention-routing task without reprocessing the entire corpus. A layerwise prefilling technique manages the memory footprint …

Dynamic Print Trigger Compensation For A Moving Robotic Printer, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes a dynamic print-trigger control method for a printhead carried by a moving robotic platform. A liquid drop requires a finite time to travel from the printhead to the target surface. During this flight time, the robotic platform continues moving and may accelerate or decelerate, causing the drop to reach a position different from the intended printing position. The control method predicts the drop flight time using the printhead-to-surface distance and characteristics that affect drop ejection velocity, and predicts the movement of the robotic platform during the flight interval. The print trigger is then advanced or delayed so …

Sla-Based Asynchronous Request Processing System Using Failure Response Mode, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure relates to the field of request handling in distributed network services that depend on other services. A system is disclosed that evaluates operational health signals for each service it calls and, when the evaluated condition of one of those services crosses a configured threshold, places itself into a failure-response mode for that one dependency. While the mode is active, handling is chosen from the semantics of each request. A read request receives an immediate error response, while a state-changing request is preserved in a durable store and acknowledged within the same call by an acceptance response that also …

Pre-Execution Dollar-Cost Query Router With Policy-Gated Cross-Engine Execution, Pravesh Kumar

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to a method and a system for routing a structured query across a plurality of heterogeneous query execution engines. The present disclosure suggests receiving a query execution request including a structured query and parsing the query to generate a canonical representation of the query. The present disclosure also suggests determining an estimated execution cost based on at least scan characteristics associated with the query and a runtime estimation associated with execution of the query. Thereafter, the present disclosure suggests determining a policy compliance condition for each of the plurality of heterogeneous query execution engines based on …

Changing The Wind’S Direction: Reflections On Ian Shapiro’S After The Fall, Stefan Eich

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Premolar Extraction, Upper Airway Changes, And Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risk: A Narrative Review, I-Ta Lee

Articles in Press

No abstract provided.

System And Method For Temporally-Correct Point-In-Time Embedding Reconstruction From Append-Only Accumulator Delta Logs, Durga S. Kala, Xinrong Huang, Nishanth Telukunta, Sreekanth Kanichetty

Defensive Publications Series

A system (200) for point-in-time reconstruction of time-decayed behavioral embedding accumulator states for payment entities includes an append-only accumulator delta log (202) that records, for each accumulator update event, an entity identifier, an exact authorization timestamp, a D-dimensional embedding delta, a pre-computed exponential decay factor, and the resulting accumulator weight. A checkpoint store (204) periodically snapshots the accumulator state including a decayed sum, a total weight, and a timestamp for each entity. A reconstruction engine (206) reads the latest checkpoint prior to a query timestamp, replays all delta log entries for the entity with timestamp strictly less than the query …

Decoupled Pricing And Fulfillment Arbitrator For Multi-Destination Agentic Commerce Systems, Richa Gupta

Defensive Publications Series

A decoupled pricing and fulfillment arbitrator extends the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to maintain volume-based discounts for e-commerce orders shipped to multiple destinations. The system operates through a two-phase cryptographic handshake, where the arbitrator first validates the total item quantity in a cart to secure a global price lock from a merchant’s application programming interface (API). The arbitrator then atomizes the single order into multiple, concurrent fulfillment requests, one for each distinct shipping address. By embedding a cryptographic bulk token into each parallel request, the arbitrator instructs the merchant’s system to bypass standard single-destination validation rules and apply the pre-approved …

Cpeven‑Ω2.0 Caldwell Planetary Environmental Verification & Early‑Warning Network, Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

CPEVEN‑Ω2.0 is a fully open, modular, multi‑physics environmental measurement and verification architecture designed for global deployment. It integrates reference‑grade sensors, distributed open nodes, multi‑physics correlation, artifact detection, uncertainty‑aware fusion, satellite/model comparison, source attribution, and experimental technology validation into one unified system.

CPEVEN‑Ω2.0 is not a sensor.

It is not a weather station.

It is not a model.

It is not a prediction engine.

It is a planetary environmental verification network that preserves raw measurements, validates experimental technologies, correlates multi‑domain signals, and produces reproducible environmental intelligence.

Every module is open hardware.

Every interface is documented.

Every measurement is traceable.

Every experimental …

Selective Bookmarking And Curated Export Of Conversational Ai Message Turns To External Documents And Notebooks, Richa Gupta

Defensive Publications Series

In multi-turn conversations with conversational artificial intelligence, details established in earlier turns are prioritized less than more recent turns as a session grows longer, and locating or reusing valuable content from within a long conversation typically requires scanning the full transcript or manually copying individual passages. This disclosure describes a message-anchoring and bookmarking approach in which each conversational turn is assigned a persistent identifier. A cited identifier is used to isolate and prioritize the corresponding turn, while unrelated conversational content is masked from further processing. Selected turns are additionally flagged through a bookmarking control, and the flagged turns are compiled, …

Remote Control Using Render Buffer Accessibility Extraction, Inductively Powered Electrophoretic Keycaps, And An Ultra-Wideband Pointing Latch, Stenal P. Jolly

Defensive Publications Series

Streaming applications on a smart television often render an interface into a single hardware-accelerated graphics surface.  A native accessibility engine may treat that surface as one opaque node, and printed remote keycaps do not follow the content on screen.  A remote control system addresses these limitations by extracting geometry and text directly from a graphics processing unit (GPU) render buffer of a host computing device.  The system rebuilds a virtual accessibility tree once per render frame.  Compact per-key updates travel over a low-energy wireless link to electrophoretic keycap displays, and inductive power regulation holds each keycap display at a steady …

Contention-Based Write Pulse Modulation On A Replica Timing Path For Process-Tolerant Sram Write Operations, Abhishek Dalal, Ayush Kulshrestha, Ajith K. P, Guru Shamanna, Akash Jha

Defensive Publications Series

Write margins in a static random-access memory (SRAM) array shift with semiconductor process variation, and the shift grows severe at the slow-NMOS/fast-PMOS (SF) corner, where a strong pull-up network inside a storage cell resists an overwrite.  A raised supply voltage widens that mismatch gap further.  A write pulse modulation method addresses the problem by coupling a contention circuit to the dummy bitline of a replica timing path.  The contention circuit holds an active pull-up against a dummy pull-down network, so the discharge rate of the dummy bitline follows the local ratio of PMOS drive to NMOS drive.  Reset logic ends …