Digital Commons Network^™

Meta-Analysis: Diabetes Mellitus And The Risk Of Endometrial Cancer, Tricia Ho, Marika Ongpauco, Han Ha Ngoc Nguyen

Physician Assistant Studies | Graduate Research Papers

Background: Many studies have looked at the relationship between diabetes mellitus and development of endometrial cancer. This study provides an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the estimated effect of diabetes and the risk of endometrial cancer.

Methods: Some studies were found on databases such as PubMed and Iceberg. The remaining studies were extracted from the initial studies found. Binary data was collected and the raw data was imputed into a Fixed Effects Model.

Results: A total of 25 studies were included in this meta-analysis, generating statistically significant results (p < 0.001, OR 2.05, 95% Cl 1.92-2.19).

Discussion: Diabetes is found to be …

Cpaf In Focus Vol. 11 One On One : Reflections On Change And Impact, Michiko Karissa M. Buot, Johnnelda P. Cosep, Paulo C. Aquino, Therese Marie L. Quilnat, V. Bruce J. Tolentino, Agustin L. Arcenas, Samantha Geraldine G. De Los Santos, Guinevere T. Madlangbayan, Raizza F. Acuzar

IN FOCUS: Development & Governance

This volume of In Focus invites its readers to have a one-on-one with stories exploring how small acts of change can grow into waves of impact in governance and development -- From alumni who continue to excel beyond the university, to students recognized for academic achievements, to field notes from our research centers that ground theory in practice. We will also feature reflective think pieces from experts in governance and development, alongside an infographic highlighting the recently concluded ICGD4. At its core, the magazine asks its readers to reflect: how can individual acts of change create lasting impact? 

Editorial Team …

2025 Annual Report, Lincoln's Homes: If These Walls Could Talk, Lincoln Town Representatives

Lincoln, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Remembering Courtney Cazden, 1925–2025, Kris D. Gutiérrez, Allan Luke, Mary Kalantzis, Bill Cope, Sarah Michaels, James Paul Gee

Education

Here we remember and honor Courtney B. Cazden (1925–2025), whose scholarship, mentorship, and moral clarity profoundly shaped the study of language, literacy, and learning. Drawing on our shared experiences as colleagues, collaborators, students, and friends, we reflect on Courtney's enduring contributions to classroom discourse analysis, bilingual and Indigenous education, sociocultural theories of learning, and the pedagogy of multiliteracies. Across the personal and professional reflections gathered here, we recount how Courtney's work consistently foregrounded classroom discourse as a site of learning, identity formation, and educational justice, while refusing false binaries between theory and practice, immersion and explicit instruction, critique and care. …

Teaching Contracts: My Journey With Spellbook And Ai Pedagogy, Gregory M. Duhl

Faculty Scholarship

I am integrating Spellbook, an AI tool for contract drafting and review, into my first-year law school Contracts course in Spring 2026. Although Spellbook is highly effective, its educational value hinges on the pedagogical framework structured around it, a framework typically not licensed along with AI tools. In-house instructional design expertise can provide this framework, and the professor-instructional designer partnership offers one model for successful AI integration. Strong tools paired with robust instructional design yield learning experiences in which AI augments, rather than supplants, the cultivation of legal judgment and critical thinking. This collaborative approach, among educators, instructional designers, and …

Post-Stroke Depression (Psd) And Occupational Therapy (Ot) Intensity: A Retrospective Medicare Claims Analysis, Lauren H. Allen

Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate - Doctoral Capstone Symposium

Purpose: Post stroke depression (PSD) is the most frequent and burdensome mental health complication following a stroke, affecting approximately one third of survivors. Examining how PSD relates to outpatient occupational therapy (OT) utilization may help identify gaps in post-stroke mental health care and reveal whether current billing practices adequately capture OT services.

Project Goals: This project aimed to determine whether an early PSD diagnosis predicts outpatient OT treatment intensity and describe patterns of OT billing related to mental health, including mental health current procedural terminology (CPT) code use and CPT code distributions.

Site: This project was conducted in collaboration …

Optimizing Urban Green Space Interventions And Their Coordination Across Communities, Jan Anderson

Theses & ETDs

Urban green space interventions are increasingly being implemented around the world in order to mitigate the negative environmental and social impacts of urban living through the positive role green spaces can have on overall public health. The current study begins with an exploration of the common applications of urban green space, followed by an overview of approaches towards green space interventions in recent years. The latter provides recommendations to improve green space interventions by addressing negative outcomes observed and highlighting potential solutions referenced from recent examples, with a particular focus on interventions in Miami, Florida. The thesis culminates in an …

Storytelling, Perspective, And Interpretation In Sergei Parajanov’S Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors, Alexandra Denner

Theses & ETDs

No abstract provided.

Practical Considerations For Conducting Canine Behavioral Science, Lucrezia Lonardo, Madeline H. Pelgrim, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Jeffrey Stevens Publications

Research on behavior in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) has increased rapidly recently due to the interest in them as pets, working dogs, and model species for understanding evolution, domestication, and even human health. This interest in canine behavioral science has resulted in the creation of dozens of dog lab worldwide, with more starting every year. Our aim here is to review practical issues that potential dog researchers might consider when deciding how to set up a dog lab and conduct research in canine behavioral science. We hope that this can offer a path forward in promoting high-quality, cutting-edge …

Winter 2026, Office Of University Marketing And Communication

Bryant Magazine (1997-2019)(2024-present)

This issue invites us to reflect on some of the remarkable achievements of the past year and to look ahead with purpose and passion. At the heart of this issue is a theme woven throughout our culture: working together, collaboration, and partnership, best summarized as teamwork.

A Handup Approach: Applying An Oppression Lens To Perceptions Of Factors Interfering With Black And African American Undergraduate Persistence At A Predominantly White Institution, Edith A. Tettey

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Black and African American students face persistent equity gaps in higher education, including lagging behind in bachelor’s degree completion rates. Students impacted by equity gaps are at risk for interpreting such gaps as a reflection of their personal effort rather than structural barriers to college persistence. The current study applied the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory to understand how Black and African American undergraduates appraise what could interfere with their college persistence. Participants (n = 92) completed questionnaires assessing university belongingness, college self-efficacy, and centrality of Black identity, including an open-ended question asking what they perceived might interfere …

Personal Data As Exchange: An Examination And Conceptual Framework Using Social Exchange Theory, Donna Iucolano Ph.D.

Business: Faculty Publications

This paper discusses how personal data exchanges can be examined using social exchange theories. The focus in on how personal data exchanges which are often perceived by consumers as empowering, may empower firms more instead. Key privacy related concepts are explained. Personal data exchanges between consumers and firms are then examined through the lenses of eight social exchange theories thereby presenting an organizing framework for future researchers who may investigate them. The first theory examines a fundamental concept—marketing as exchange. The next three theories focus on the consumer as an independent and rational actor and look at personal data exchanges …

The Federal Death Penalty As A Sign Of The Times, Ngozi Ndulue

Journal Articles

Scholars have been predicting the demise of the American death penalty for much of the twenty-first century. This prediction finds support in state-by-state abolition, reduced numbers of new death sentences, and continued reductions in the death row population. Despite significant movement away from the death penalty, the punishment remains stubbornly persistent, with a small number of states continuing to aggressively pursue executions and scattered local jurisdictions securing a disproportionate amount of new death sentences.

While several legal academics have looked to historical precedent and international experience to map the future trajectory of the American death penalty, this Article seeks to …

Ai-Driven Network Orchestration: Adaptive Routing For Federated Learning Over Software-Defined Hybrid Wans, Osama Abu Hamdan

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Modern wide-area networks increasingly adopt hybrid architectures that combine high-capacity wired backbones with flexible wireless links to extend connectivity to remote and underserved locations. However, the bandwidth variability inherent in wireless segments creates routing challenges that traditional protocols, designed for static link capacities, cannot adequately address. Simultaneously, Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a privacy-preserving distributed machine learning paradigm in which geographically dispersed clients collaboratively train shared models without exchanging raw data. When deployed over wide-area networks, FL training is severely bottlenecked by communication overhead, particularly in cross-silo settings where model payloads reach hundreds of megabytes and synchronous aggregation protocols …

Integrated Management Of Diplodia Ear Rot And A Comparison Of Stenocarpella Species Affecting Corn, Luke C. Warner

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Corn is a globally important crop used for food, feed, and ethanol production, but often the grain quality is threatened by Diplodia ear rot, caused by Stenocarpella maydis and Stenocarpella macrospora. Effective management of Diplodia ear rot is difficult to achieve. This study evaluated the efficacy of foliar fungicides, including products listed by the Organic Material Research Institute (OMRI), against S. maydis in vitro and in field settings, as well as comparingthe aggressiveness of the two causal pathogens of Diplodia ear rot. The in vitro assays indicated a wide variation in sensitivity of S. maydis to the fungicide active ingredients, …

Computational Clinical Judgment: Predicting Risk With Large Language Models, Hannah Laqueur, Ryan W. Copus

Faculty Works

For seventy years, research has shown actuarial methods outperform clinical judgment. Yet actuarial approaches have limitations: they generally rely on structured data; cannot exploit rare case-specific details; have limited accuracy where outcome data are scarce or incomplete; and cannot offer case-level justifications. Large language models (LLMs) offer a different approach. Like actuarial methods, they aggregate information algorithmically, but like clinicians, they bring general knowledge and can provide case-level justifications. We prompted seven LLMs to assess rearrest risk from 113 parole hearing transcripts and compared their predictions to a machine learning model trained on 4,000 cases with 91 administrative variables. GPT-5 …

Part Em: Classical Electrodynamics, Konstantin Likharev

Essential Graduate Physics

Includes: Electric Charge Interaction; Charges and Conductors; Polarization of Dielectrics; DC Currents; Magnetism; Time-Dependent Electromagnetism; Electromagnetic Wave Propagation; Radiation, Scattering, Interference, and Diffraction; Special Relativity; Radiation by Relativistic Charges

First Amendment Protection For Unlicensed Wellness Coaches, Barbara Zabawa

Faculty Works

This article examines the constitutional implications of state efforts to license unregulated wellness practitioners, particularly wellness coaches. As occupational licensing expands, wellness services—ranging from nutrition counseling and life coaching to mindfulness and holistic practices—face increasing scrutiny. The paper argues that most wellness coaching involves speech rather than conduct and therefore qualifies for First Amendment protection. Drawing on Supreme Court and lower court precedent, it distinguishes between professional judgment that may justify state regulation and speech-based coaching practices that pose minimal risk of harm. The analysis situates wellness coaching within broader debates over professional regulation, consumer empowerment, and the marketplace of …

Visioning Towards Abolition: Building An Asian American Movement, Kathy Wu, Angela Chang, Graphic Design Department, Fleet Library, Special Collections

Faculty & Librarian Work

24 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 22 cm. Title from cover. Cover included in pagination. At head of cover: "Building an Asian American movement". "Second edition printed in 2026 by Many Folds Press on a RISO SF9450. Edition of 150."--back cover.

Includes bibliographical references. Special zines copy has a library book pocket and card with information on the publisher, Many Folds Press. RISD Faculty, kathy wu, RISD Graphic Design faculty.

Visioning Towards Abolition is a zine about the history of policing in the United States, and ways that carceral frameworks have impacted — and organized — Asian Americans.

Included …

Beyond War: Building Wisdom Civilization To Rescue Humanity, Andrew Targowski

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper presents a comparative civilizational analysis of humanity’s transition from a War Civilization to the emerging Wisdom Civilization. Drawing on the works of Toynbee, Sorokin, Quigley, Huntington, Spengler, and Koneczny, it interprets the present global disorder — marked by the tension between Western, Chinese, Russian, and Muslim civilizations — as a transformative moment in human history. War and militarism, once adaptive mechanisms of civilizational growth, have become self-destructive in an era of technological interdependence. It is proposed that the next evolutionary stage of civilization must integrate knowledge with conscience to form a Wisdom Civilization founded on empathy, sustainability, and …

The Jevons Filter: Why Civilizations May Fail Before Reaching “Type I” Status, Giray Fidan

Comparative Civilizations Review

Humanity’s accelerating energy use poses profound questions about the long-term viability of technological civilization. This paper introduces the “Jevons Filter” hypothesis: a self-reinforcing feedback loop between efficiency improvements and rising aggregate consumption, rooted in the classical Jevons Paradox that systematically drives civilizations toward resource depletion and environmental thresholds. Here we argue that this feedback constitutes a critical developmental barrier, hindering sustainable progression toward Kardashev “Type I” energy mastery. We develop a simplified thermodynamic model linking energy efficiency, economic expansion, and civilizational dynamics, and engage with counterarguments regarding absolute decoupling and transformative technological innovations. Building on the classical Jevons Paradox, this …

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Planaria Dugesia Japonica As A Model Organism For Measuring The Toxicity Of Environmental Contaminants Per- And Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas), Caitlyn Rodeo

Behavioral Neuroscience Honors Papers

A group of synthetic chemicals, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous in the environment and have significant detrimental effects on physiology and behavior. Planaria have recently increased in popularity as a model for toxicology and regeneration research. These organisms possess a primitive centralized nervous system that is thought to be more similar to the vertebrate brain than to other invertebrate brains in terms of structure and function, and possesses the same neuronal subpopulations and neurotransmitters as the mammalian brain. While other studies have investigated the behavioral effects of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) on planaria, there is …

Ai Training Is Fair Use: The Beginning Of The End Of The Copyright Assault On Gen Ai, Michael D. Murray

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

Two federal courts overseeing claims against the developers of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have pointed the way to resolving these infringement actions by finding that the training of GenAI models is a transformative fair use under copyright law. While the two opinions differed in tone and scope, this article takes these rulings as the starting point for a discussion on resolving the ongoing copyright claims against AI developers, signaling what may be the beginning of the end of the copyright assault on GenAI.

The goal of this article is to inject urgency into resolving these matters. It asserts that uncertainty …

Evolving Threats, Evolving Duties: Ransomware, Artificial Intelligence, And Cybersecurity Law, Chase Hayes

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

This paper examines the evolving legal obligations of corporations and public institutions in the face of ransomware, cyber threats, and artificial intelligence, asserting that a proactive legal framework is essential to mitigate or altogether avoid liability, protect stakeholders, and ensure national security. As cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated, laws and regulations struggle to keep up. Generative artificial intelligence only deepens this disruption and with technology continuously evolving, it is difficult to imagine what the cyberspace will look like in years to come. This article responds to the gap by emphasizing the need for integration between the legal profession and cybersecurity expertise. …

Thermal Analysis Of The Fiber Fuse Effect, John Seekins

Dissertations

The fiber fuse effect is a self-sustaining damage propagation mechanism that can occur in the core of optical fibers. Under sufficient levels of applied power, laser light is absorbed as heat in the fiber. This phenomenon is characterized by a brightly glowing spot in the fiber that propagates towards the source of laser light at about 1 𝑚/𝑠. A numerical simulation of the fiber fuse effect is developed that solves the transient heat equation with source terms in cylindrical coordinates utilizing an explicit finite difference discretization. For the first time in a simulation of this type, a radiation transport equation …

Chinese Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Positive Identity Measure (C-Lgb-Pim), Yawen Yang, Ellen D. B. Riggle, Fang Wang, Mengyan Wu, Ye Sun, Huilan Liu, Lisha Dai

Gender and Women's Studies Faculty Publications

To support research and interventions using a positive, strength-based framework of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identities in China, this study translates the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Positive Identity Measure (LGB-PIM) into Standard Chinese and evaluating its reliability and validity among Chinese sexual minorities. Following Brislin’s standardized translation procedures (translation, back-translation, cultural adaptation, and pretesting), the scale retained 25 items across 5 dimensions. A convenience sample of 392 participants underwent assessments of internal consistency (α = 0.92), retest reliability (α = 0.80), structural validity (68.54% variance explained), and construct validity. The five-dimensional structure showed robust convergent validity (AVE > 0.50, CR …

Closing The Loop In Sustainable Fashion: Recycling Textile Waste And Its Environmental, Social, And Consumer Impacts, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Sustainability Program Posters and Papers

Fast fashion has intensified textile waste, emissions, and social inequities across global supply chains. This study examines sustainable fashion frameworks and the role of textile recycling in advancing circularity. It employes a qualitative integrative literature review synthesizing interdisciplinary research on waste streams, recycling technologies, policy instruments, and consumer behavior. However, advanced recycling technologies offer environmental benefits but remain limited in scale. Nonetheless, rising consumption offsets efficiency gains, while economic and behavioral barriers hinder systemic change. Technological innovation alone is insufficient; circular design, regulatory enforcement, and reduced overproduction are essential for sustainable transformation.

The Last Human Question: Generative Ai's Existential Threat To Consensus And Law, Joshua Fairfield

Scholarly Articles

The true risk of artificial intelligence (“AI”) is not that the toasters will rise up. It is that AI will be competent to perform human tasks and indifferent to human welfare. The risk is that we will be outcompeted by generative automated processes that create output similar to ours (although never the same, as this Article explains), but which need none of the outputs of the economy for food, shelter, or human flourishing. Further, a more precise and existential description of the threat is that generative AI will disrupt and crowd out humanity’s evolutionary superpower, our ability to generate agreement …

Caught In The Midwife’S Hands: A Black Feminist Exploration Of Reproductive Health And Justice In Massachusetts, Nina Bakum

Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies Honors Papers

No abstract provided.