Digital Commons Network^™

The Tagmatized Echinoderm, Richard L. Turner

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Synopsis Tagmosis is a derived condition of metamerism in annelids, arthropods, and chordates in which groups of adjacent segments are modified to perform specific functions. Examples are the clitellum of earthworms, the carapace of lobsters, and the sacrum of tetrapods, to mention a few. The argument is advanced here that examples of tagmosis are not hard to find among echinoderms, a fourth major group of metameric animals; but the degree of tagmosis is weak in most cases. The first few segments of the axial skeleton are often conjoined as a perioral tagma (e.g., the jaws and other parts of the …

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif In Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations In Mesoamerica, The American Southwest, And The Andes, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Zea E-Books Collection

No abstract provided.

Safe, Secure, And Affordable? The State Of Household Water Insecurity In California, Melissa Beresford, Wendy Jepson, Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey, Kristin Dobbin, Amanda Fencl, Silvia R. González, Gregory Pierce

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

California's efforts to advance the Human Right to Water are constrained by limited household-level data on water insecurity. Using the 2021 CalSpeaks statewide probability survey (n = 628) this study offers the first representative look at water insecurity across California households. Results reveal significant water-related struggles: approximately 23% of respondents worried about having enough water to meet their household needs, 15% worried about perceived health impacts from water quality, and 7% struggled with affordability. Negative binomial regression models show that water insecurity is not randomly distributed: households with non-white residents, households which rely on private or small water companies for …

Measuring And Mapping Spatial Distributions Of Soil Lead Concentrations Along Chicago Parkways: West Ridge And Near South Side, Alyssa M. Kain

DePaul Discoveries

Lead is a heavy metal that can be found in every part of our planet. Human activities like the extraction of fossil fuels and degradation of construction materials can release lead into the environment, where it travels and accumulates in places like our soil or water. Despite efforts to lower the use of lead-based materials within the last fifty years, lead contamination remains as a threat to public health and safety. Elevated blood lead levels are known to cause a variety of health issues particularly for young children and pregnant women. This study aims to measure, map, and analyze the …

Clearing The Air: Tracking Spatial And Temporal Pm2.5 Variability Along A Biking Transect In Chicago, Beau R. Rass

DePaul Discoveries

Fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) poses significant risks to human health and disproportionately affects marginalized communities in urban environments (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021; Tessum et al., 2021). Using low-cost mobile sensors, this study explored spatiotemporal PM₂.₅ concentration patterns along a north–south transect of Halsted Street in Chicago. A 2B Technologies Portable Aerosol Monitor (PAM) mounted on a bicycle was used to continuously record PM₂.₅ concentrations with associated GPS coordinates at approximately two-second intervals during 16 sampling events between 08-12-2025 and 10-05-2025. PM₂.₅ concentrations did not differ significantly among the South Side, West Loop, and North Side regions, contrary to the …

Origami Sake: Building A Sustainable Supply Chain For A New Beverage Startup, Akosua Sayer Koduah, Nick E. Johnston

ICHRIE Research Reports

Sustainability has become a strategic pillar in the hospitality and beverage industry, shaping supply chain decisions, consumer behavior, and market competitiveness. This study examines how Origami Sake, a startup brewery in Hot Springs, Arkansas, integrates sustainability into its supply chain from inception. Using qualitative analysis of company interviews, secondary data, and comparative literature, the study shows that Origami Sake embeds renewable energy, localized rice sourcing, and by-product reuse into its core operations. These practices reflect circular economy principles and strengthen regional identity, yet they also pose challenges related to packaging limitations, organic rice availability, data-tracking gaps, and the risks of …

Are Hotels Ready For Flooding? Improving Employee Preparedness, Ahmin Kwon, Marketa Kubickova, Swechchha Subedi

ICHRIE Research Reports

Focusing on the experiences of 500 current hotel employees in the United States, this report evaluates current levels of flood preparedness and the role of organizational support in shaping employee proactive response. Findings indicate that most employees have experience with flooding and rely on multiple information sources, yet trust in government response remains moderate. Clear disparities emerge across hotel segments, with significantly higher preparedness commitment and proactive behavior among employees in luxury hotels and those with longer tenure. Importantly, prior experience does not necessarily translate into effective preparedness. Although many respondents perceive existing information as sufficient, there is a continued …

Longitudinal Patterns In Stygobiont Distribution In The Hyporheic Zone Of The Karst Spring-Fed San Marcos River, Texas, Usa, Kenneth Sparks, Benjamin F. Schwartz, Safra Altman, Kathryn E. Perez, Zoey B. Chanin, Caroline Mierzejewski, Benjamin T. Hutchins

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Groundwater-obligate taxa (stygobionts) exhibit variable degrees of habitat specialization, ranging from those restricted to single micro-habitats to generalists occurring in a broad range of habitat types. The karstic Edwards Aquifer is the most biodiverse and well-studied groundwater habitat in the continental United States, but some Edwards Aquifer-associated species also occupy the hyporheic zone of rivers downstream from karst. The goals of this research were to 1) assess the potential of the off-karst hyporheic zone as habitat for ‘karst’ species and 2) to determine how stygobiont richness, diversity, and abundance related to distance from karst in the hyporheic zone of a …

“I Want My Students To Be Knowledgeable About Civics”: Supporting Pre-Service Teachers Through A Civics-Focused Plc, Helena M. Sands, Daniela Kruel Digiacomo, Laura Darolia, Carly Muetterties, Stephanie Mobley

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

This study describes a semester-long, civics-focused Professional Learning Community (PLC) with five elementary pre-service teachers (PSTs). Using inductive qualitative analysis of meeting transcripts, reflections, and field notes, three themes emerged: the PLC increased PSTs' confidence in integrating civics across the curriculum, built community through shared practicum experiences, and provided resources that broadened their understanding of civic learning. Findings suggest PLCs offer a promising structure for preparing elementary PSTs to prioritize civic education in their future classrooms.

Thinking Local Through Sources: Implementing Place-Based Education & The Inquiry Design Model, Kelli L. Knight

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Place-based educational methods are utilized across subjects to connect students with their local communities, and tasking them to grapple and solve real-world issues. Since place-based education (PBE) centers the students’ sense of place, this allows for the social studies disciplines to provide opportunities for place-based practices to take root. Through the use of the Inquiry Design Model (IDM), specifically through source material, place-based methods can be incorporated into the social studies classroom. The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical way in which, both pre-service and in-service, can modify IDMs to make them place-based by using local sources. …

Extending Premerger Notification To Labor Markets, Eric A. Posner, Elena Prager

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

US antitrust law requires mergers above a certain size to be reported to the federal antitrust agencies for review prior to consummation. For decades, this premerger notification process and subsequent merger review focused nearly exclusively on product markets. In the last few years, the agencies have also begun to challenge mergers on their effects on labor markets. But the agencies’ ability to detect potential labor market harms is hampered by an absence of labor market information at the premerger notification stage. This article proposes specific types of information that the agencies could collect about labor markets in order to put …

Scraping The Earth: Testing Ndvi As An Indicator Of Military Ground Maneuver Within The Israeli Invasion Of The Gaza Strip, Thomas A. Bergeron

LSU Master's Theses

The advancement of open-source (OSINT) and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) has allowed independent researchers to study human conflict in new ways, with tools that were previously reserved only for state intelligence agencies. In order to advance methodologies, researchers must continue to evaluate new tools to study war.  Valued for its accessibility and moderate spatial resolution, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is one such tool that has not been widely systematically tested for its use in an open-source GEOINT investigation of modern conflict. This study tests NDVI as an indicator of military maneuver by leveraging a mixed-method approach against open-source kinetic …

Building The Next Cybersecurity Workforce: A Grades 7–12 Curriculum To Close The Cyber Talent Gap, Mohammed A. Salam, Iqbal Shareef, Rich P. Manprisio

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, cyberattacks pose increasing threats, yet a global shortage of cybersecurity and digital forensics professionals leaves industries vulnerable, similar to having too few law enforcement officers in a densely populated city. The judicial system faces rising digital crimes and fraud cases, further strained by the lack of experts to analyze and extract digital evidence. Despite high demand, millions of positions remain unfilled. This paper identifies the root causes of the cybersecurity workforce shortage and proposes a targeted solution: a curriculum for Grades 7–12 designed to foster cybersecurity awareness and interest. The methodology included a comprehensive …

Nil And Contract Law: Advising A Prospective College Athlete Through Competing Name, Image, And Likeness Agreements, Jason Kight, Marcy Faircloth, Lori Mikl, Rachel Silverman

The COSMA Journal

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) agreements have created significant financial opportunities for amateur and collegiate athletes while also introducing complex legal, ethical, and strategic decision-making challenges. This decision-focused teaching case places students in the role of trusted advisors to Archie Stafford, a highly recruited high school athlete who must evaluate and compare multiple NIL contract offers connected to his preferred college options. By analyzing NIL agreements, students assess contract enforceability, identify key legal and business risks, weigh legal, contractual, ethical, and reputational disclosure obligations, and formulate a reasoned recommendation aligned with Archie’s academic, athletic, financial, and long-term career goals. The …

Correlating High-Resolution Terrestrial Organic Carbon Isotope Records Across The Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary, Gregory D. Price, Rhodri M. Jerrett, Lauren K. O'Connor, Emily Dearing Crampton-Flood, Bart E. Van Dongen, Sabine K. Lengger, Marc Davies

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (∼66 million years ago) represents the most recent mass extinction event when an estimated 75% of all species became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Here we focus on the stable carbon isotope (δ¹³C) analysis of coal and coaly sediments across the terrestrial K/Pg boundary from 10 sites, between 42 and 64°N, USA and Canada. Our δ¹³C data set shows a statistically significant positive correlation with paleolatitude that we interpret as a consequence of our lower latitude sites being relatively warmer and more humid than our higher latitude sites. Temporally, our data indicates that …

Employing Artificial Intelligence For Non-Invasive Diagnosis Of Craniofacial Deformities: A Systematic Review Of Non-Ionizing Radiation Methods, Nurul Mutmainnah, Harun Achmad, Lusy Damayanti

International Arab Journal of Dentistry

Introduction: Craniofacial deformities, like craniosynostosis and plagiocephaly, require early diagnosis, but traditional methods like CT scans use harmful ionizing radiation. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a non-invasive, radiation-free alternative, using 2D and 3D imaging for accurate diagnosis, improving safety and accessibility, especially in remote areas.

Objective: This review evaluates the use of AI in diagnosing craniofacial deformities without ionizing radiation, focusing on its strengths, limitations, and challenges in clinical implementation.

Methods: The literature was searched across five databases—PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Wiley, and Cochrane—over the last decade, following PRISMA guidelines. Inclusion criteria were AI-based, non-invasive imaging techniques for craniofacial deformities. The …

Social Determinants And Policy Implications Of Lived Experiences Of Multidimensional Poverty In Nigeria, Oluwatayo David Aduloju

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poverty disproportionately affects rural populations, women, and children and is shaped by structural inequalities in access to resources and opportunities, reinforcing cycles of disadvantage. Although existing literature provides extensive quantitative evidence on multidimensional poverty, there remains a limited qualitative understanding of how these deprivations are experienced at the household level. This generic qualitative study addressed this gap by examining the lived experiences of heads of households in Bayelsa West Senatorial District, Nigeria, where poverty incidence and intensity are among the highest nationally. Drawing on Sen’s capability theory, Atkinson’s multidimensional poverty framework, and the social determinants of health model, this study …

Somos Tejanas: Chicana Identity And Culture In Texas, Edited By Jody A. Marín And Norma E. Cantú, Laura Lee Oviedo

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

The Texas Civil Rights Project: How We Built A Social Justice Movement, By Jim Harrington, Wesley P. Jackson Sr.

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Insurgent Politics In The Lone Star State: Remembering The Anti-War Movement In Austin, Texas, 1967–1973, By Martin Murray, Manuel Grajales

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Frontera Freeways: Highway Building And Displacement In El Paso, Texas, By Miguel Juárez, Alana De Hinojosa

Journal of Texas History

No abstract provided.

Towards Resilient Platform Work In The Philippines, Cheryll Ruth Soriano, Jayvy Gamboa, Jan Michael Alexandre Bernadas, China Patricia Villanueva, Marge Medina, Katherine Brimon

SDRC Projects

Platform work is increasingly promoted as a strategy for employment generation in the Philippines. The Philippine Labor Force Survey of 2021 reported that around 1.7 million gig workers are engaged by online platforms or mobile applications, with many depending on it as their primary livelihood. Yet the rapid expansion of platform labor as a livelihood opportunity is unfolding alongside intensifying climate disruption and technological transformation. Extreme heat, flooding, supertyphoons, unstable power infrastructure, and digital dependency are creating new forms of vulnerability for platform workers—many of whom already operate under precarious and weakly protected labor conditions. Due to its archipelagic topography …

How To Engage With, And Have Impact On, Marine Governance: A Practical Guide For Early-Career Researchers, Denis B. Karcher, Christopher Cvitanovic, Melanie C. Austen, Aislinn F. Dunne, Louisa Evans, Rebecca Gruby, Nicole Malinconico, Shannon Mclaughlin, E. J. Milner-Gulland, Nathalie A. Steins

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Early-career researchers (ECRs) are at the forefront of producing the knowledge and solutions needed to address contemporary ocean challenges. Their work is often highly inter- and transdisciplinary, generating insights that are critical for informed decision-making, and effective and equitable marine governance. Yet, despite this potential for impact, many ECRs lack access to the tools, training, and institutional support necessary to engage meaningfully with governance processes. Such structural complexities are further compounded by practical constraints that ECRs experience such as short project timelines and limited networks, making engagement with governance particularly intimidating and/or difficult for ECRs. This commentary seeks to empower …

One Year's Seeding: Looking Back On The Last Seven Years Of Maine's Progress Toward Rural Justice, Christopher Northrop, Seth Main

Maine Law Review

Nationally, the crisis in access to legal services in rural areas continues to grow despite significant attention and efforts to reverse this troubling trend. This Article explores Maine’s efforts to address our legal deserts. The Article’s starting point is a retrospective look at our 2019 national symposium on rural justice and accompanying Maine Law Review issue. We will try to measure successes and failures, while also addressing the significant impact caused by the intervening pandemic. The Article will then shift to an analysis of the current landscape, focusing on the role of the University of Maine School of Law. We …

Legal Deserts Over Time, Cory L. Dodds

Maine Law Review

Legal deserts—counties with exceptionally low attorney availability—shape housing stability, personal safety, health outcomes, and economic security in rural communities. Yet, national scholarship has not yet determined whether attorney scarcity is transient or durable and relies largely on cross-sectional snapshots and population-based headcounts benchmarked to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) threshold of one attorney per 1,000 residents. These measures can obscure temporal dynamics, overstate functional supply, and embed contested normative assumptions about adequacy. This Article offers a national, longitudinal, and definition-sensitive analysis of legal deserts using county-level data from the forty-eight contiguous states at three observation points. Attorney supply is measured …

Foreword, Adam Fortier-Brown

Maine Law Review

Access to legal services in America has emerged as one of the most pressing structural challenges facing the legal community. As attorneys increasingly concentrate in metropolitan areas, large areas are left with few practicing attorneys and challenging prospects of attracting many more. The consequences of this challenge reach across nearly every aspect of life in these communities—from housing and family stability, to starting or winding down businesses, and critically, to the constitutional guarantees that attach when someone is charged with a crime. Yet, these challenges have also generated a period of genuine creativity and collaboration between communities and different institutions. …

Rurality And Redistricting: California's Proposition 50, Rural Identity, And Democratic Legitimacy, Lisa R. Pruitt

Maine Law Review

When California voters embraced mid-decade congressional redistricting in 2025, the greatest media attention landed on the state’s First Congressional District, CA-01. It is residents of that district who are likely to feel the consequences of the new maps most profoundly. In the form established by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2021, CA-01 occupied more than 26,000 square miles in the state’s northeastern corner. The district included a number of inland counties stretching from Modoc, tucked into the corner formed by the Oregon and Nevada state lines, to Colusa, in the Great Central Valley. The cluster of ten counties—hereinafter “old …

Bootstrap Connectivity For Mobile Devices Without Sim Cards, Aguibou Barry, Tim Auer, Wendy Wang, Pankaj Kumar

Defensive Publications Series

In some geographies, the lack of ubiquitous WiFi can complicate electronic subscriber identity module (eSIM) adoption. In some geographies, carriers can mandate device original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to enable bootstrap connectivity, but eSIM-based bootstrap connectivity can be expensive for OEMs. This disclosure describes techniques that leverage extensible authentication protocol/ transport layer security (EAP-TLS) to enable secure connectivity of a mobile device to a cellular or satellite 5G network without an eSIM or physical SIM (pSIM). Following successful EAP-TLS authentication, the carrier enables traffic between the EAP-TLS-authenticated user equipment (UE) and the relevant service (based upon carrier-defined specific network policy). In …

A Response To China'a "Legal Assessment Of U.S. Views On "Freedom Of Navigation", Raul Pete Pedrozo

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In August 2025, the China Institute for Marine Affairs (CIMA) conducted a legal assessment of U.S. views on freedom of navigation. CIMA concluded that U.S. views on freedom of navigation lack “a basis in international law,” “seriously distort[] the interpretation and development of international law,” and embody “distinct illegality, unreasonableness, and double standards.” Part 1 of the assessment provides an overview of U.S. views on freedom of navigation. Part 2 “analyzes the gaps between U.S. perceptions of navigational rights and related practices and the rules of international law.” Part 3 “analyzes the legality of U.S. restrictions on the rights of …

Mental Health And Psychosocial Well-Being Of Domestic Workers In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Why It Matters And Why We Should Make It A Priority, Magolanga Shagembe

Tanzania Journal of Sociology

This phenomenological study explores the mental health and psychosocial well-being of domestic workers aged 15–18 years in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Erikson’s psychosocial development theory, the study examines how domestic workers negotiate self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, quality of relationships, environmental control, autonomy and resilience within unequal labor and care arrangements. Data were generated through in-depth interviews with 29 domestic workers and analyzed thematically. The findings reveal that mental health and psychosocial well-being among domestic workers are shaped through complex interactions between structural vulnerability, interpersonal relationships, migration experiences, economic necessity, and future …