Digital Commons Network^™

Reimagining The Shōjo Across Cultures: Gender Performativity, Cosplay, And Self-Presentation Of Indian Women In Digital Space, Ashonshok Kachui, Samyukthah Anandhasayanam

Journal of International Women's Studies

The image of the shōjo (adolescent girl) in Japanese popular culture has long functioned as a dynamic site for negotiating gender identity and the divide between vulnerable innocence and empowerment. Anime and manga have historically provided evolving portrayals of adolescent girl and young woman characters who have embodied subversive potential while also being constrained by idealised notions of girlhood. This paper extends the discourse on the shōjo by situating it within the Indian digital landscape, where anime fandom, cosplay culture, and social media platforms are reshaping self-presentation and gender performance among young girls and women. Grounded in feminist theoretical perspectives, …

Reading Indian Newspaper Reports To Uncover Cinematic Misrepresentations Of Rape In Mom (2017) And Guilty (2020), Samikhya Dash, Soumya Jose

Journal of International Women's Studies

Hindi cinema has witnessed a transformation in the portrayal of rape narratives subsequent to India’s Nirbhaya rape case in 2012 and the global #MeToo movement in 2017. The rape narratives released after the #MeToo movement are characterised by a departure from the stereotypical depiction of rape victims as forlorn and vulnerable figures; instead, they are depicted as assertive and empowered survivors that challenge entrenched power dynamics. Hindi films such as Mom (2017) and Guilty (2020) exemplify this paradigm shift by featuring women characters who defy gender stereotypes and resist patriarchal constraints, experience rape trauma syndrome and post-traumatic growth, and embody …

Gender And Stress: Challenges Faced By Women Principal Operators In Agriculture In The United States, Bernadette Marson, Roxanne Bruce

Journal of International Women's Studies

Working in agriculture is demanding and complex, which can lead to stress-induced health and mental health problems, including suicide. There is limited scholarly literature on the topic of women and stress in the agricultural industry, so this research study aims to fill this gap by reporting on the challenging lived experiences of women working in agriculture—a frequently overlooked population. We used a phenomenological design to perform semi-structured interviews exclusively with women (at least eighteen years old) who work in agriculture as principal operators—the primary decision-makers of their enterprise. A thematic analysis was conducted with the data from the twenty-five women …

Negotiating Desires For Capital Through Culinary Expression In Balli Kaur Jaswal’S Sugarbread, Ira Gore, Aruni Mahapatra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Balli Kaur Jaswal’s Sugarbread (2016) illustrates how race and class are negotiated through culinary practices in a lower-middle-class Sikh family living in Singapore. Through acts of shopping for groceries, cooking local Singaporean cuisine, and rejecting the communal temple food associated with shame and social discrimination, the novel highlights the family’s aspirations of social mobility shaped by the character Jini’s childhood experiences of food and economic scarcity. While the characters in the novel have access to food, their culinary practices are marked by memories of charity and discomfort as a South Asian diasporic family negotiating racialized hierarchies and gendered vulnerability in …

Nazneen In Ali’S Brick Lane: Achieving Agency Through A Multimodal Praxis Of Care, Sarani Ghosal Mondal

Journal of International Women's Studies

Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane (2003) is not a definitive portrayal of a geographical location but rather a narrative centered on Nazneen, a Bangladeshi immigrant, and her transformational journey from a silent, passive figure into a self-reliant, successful seamstress. Following her marriage to an older man named Chanu, Nazneen relocates from a remote village in Bangladesh to Brick Lane in London. Her progress towards independence is shaped primarily by her friendship with Razia, a fellow immigrant, and partly by her affair with a young activist, Karim. Additionally, she receives emotional support from her sister, Hasina, which is conveyed through letters …

Diversity Regulations For Clinical Trials & The Underrepresentation Of Native American Women, Alka Meresh

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

The exclusion of women and racial minorities from research currently compromises the generalizability of findings. Native American women, are particularly underrepresented in clinical trials due to the complicated history between Native American health and the US government. Congress, the NIH, and the FDA are the most prominent actors involved in regulating the diversity of clinical trial participants. This article will identify and analyze the deficiencies of the current regulations promoting diversity in clinical trials and suggest some solutions to build community with Indigenous communities and promote their participation in clinical trials.

Never Trust, Always Verify, Securing Medicare's Future To Defend Against Ai Driven Cyber Threats, Dana G. Jones

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Healthcare cybersecurity stands at a pivotal juncture, analogous to the Cold War's most perilous moments. When President Ronald Reagan declared "trust but verify"^[1] during nuclear disarmament negotiations with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, he established systematic verification as the cornerstone of security in high-stakes environments where the cost of misplaced trust meant potential human extinction. Today, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence and networked medical devices into America's healthcare infrastructure has created stakes equally grave for the nation's sixty-five million Medicare beneficiaries^[2]; however, the threat landscape has evolved beyond Reagan's paradigm. Modern healthcare cannot afford even conditional …

Death Wish: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Physician Assisted Suicide, Janna George

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Physician-assisted suicide is an extremely complex and controversial legal issue, deeply rooted in morality, legality, and ethics. Countries around the world are split as to how to approach this concept, with some permitting physician-assisted suicide under particular circumstances, and others strictly prohibiting it. ^[1] This division is evidence of the subject’s complex underpinnings. According to the United States Declaration of Independence, all Americans are deserving of certain unalienable rights, “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”^[2] But what about the right to die?

There are a number of reasons as to why physician assisted suicide is complicated, including …

Light Straw Clay Alternative Building Material, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure details a 100% organic, non-hazardous, and fully biodegradable insulation system engineered specifically as a high-performance alternative to traditional light straw-clay (leichtlehm) construction in northern, non-agricultural, or arctic climates. The system completely replaces both geological clay and agricultural straw with locally harvested, invasive, and wild northern biological inputs. The structural insulation matrix utilizes a high-silica, woody, and hollow-stemmed fiber substrate sourced from standing dead, wild invasive perennial weeds—specifically European Common Reed (Phragmites australis), Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense), or Giant Reed Sweetgrass (Glyceria maxima). These plants …

Boreal Dome Tension Ring System, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure establishes a low-cost, portable, field-expedient geodesic and hexagonal framework optimized for rapid deployment in remote, sub-arctic, or northern environments. The system replaces heavy, old-growth timber and manufactured metal connectors with high-flexibility juvenile saplings (under 25 years old) reinforced via an exterior high-tensile biocarbon matrix. This document establishes prior art to prevent corporate patenting or monopolization of low-tech, non-industrial tensegrity framing systems that utilize local biomass and organic binders for disaster relief, medical evacuation shelters, or off-grid construction.

Invisible Rotorcraft Using Boreal Glass Technology, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure establishes a low-tech, field-expedient, manned rotary-wing aircraft (specifically a gyroplane or autogyro) optimized for rapid tactical evacuation, medical casualty transport, or emergency egress from remote, unorganized, or contested sub-arctic environments. The aircraft completely eliminates the need for advanced industrial aviation manufacturing, mechanical gearboxes, complex transmission driveshafts, or petroleum-based internal combustion. Instead, it relies on un-milled juvenile wood cores, high-tensile algae-derived carbon fibers, unrefined conifer sap resins, and calcined bio-ceramic linear alternators powered by a closed-loop, phase-changing propane cycle. This document formally places these structural and mechanical configurations into the public domain to serve as un-patentable prior art for …

Creating Transparent Boreal (Wood) Glass, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure establishes a low-cost, field-expedient, non-industrial process for the manufacturing of optically translucent, structurally reinforced bio-synthetic wood composites (commonly referred to as "transparent wood"). The method utilizes commonly available household chemical equivalents and manual automotive tools to safely strip light-absorbing lignin from native wood veneers and replace the resulting empty cellular voids with clear plant or synthetic resins. This document explicitly establishes prior art to prevent the commercial monopolization or patenting of small-scale, decentralized, and DIY variations of this material processing cycle.

Caldwell Adaptive Plasma Conditioning & Sensing System (Capcs V4.0), Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

The Caldwell Adaptive Plasma Conditioning & Sensing System (CAPCS v4.0) is a next‑generation, fully autonomous microfluidic biosensing platform designed for real‑world plasma analysis under variable biological, thermal, and mechanical conditions. CAPCS integrates differential quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensing, surface acoustic wave (SAW) focusing, adaptive closed‑loop control, predictive fouling detection, dynamic thermal stabilization, and hybrid inertial–acoustic cell removal into a single disposable cartridge.

Unlike traditional biosensor concepts that rely on static assumptions, CAPCS v4.0 continuously adapts to fouling, drift, clogging, viscosity changes, hematocrit variability, and thermal fluctuations. Every major failure mode is paired with a dedicated countermeasure. The system uses dual‑QCM …

The Whisper Web: A Mail Intelligence Framework For Semantic Coordination In Communication Systems, Johny Manuel-Devadoss, Joanna Johnson, Jayden Jack Johnson, Deepthi Prasad

Defensive Publications Series

This paper introduces The Whisper Web, a communication intelligence framework designed for post-static digital correspondence ecosystems operating under conditions of planetary-scale coordination complexity. Unlike conventional email systems that treat messages as isolated immutable payloads exchanged between endpoints, the Whisper Web reconceptualizes communication as a continuously evolving semantic biosphere composed of dynamic probabilistic entities known as Whisper Units. Each Whisper Unit functions as a compressed socio-semantic organism capable of propagating influence through adaptive trust topologies, negotiation-energy fields, obligation gradients, institutional resonance maps, and multi-agent predictive coordination networks.

The proposed framework abandons the traditional paradigms of inboxes, message queues, folders, labels, and …

Robert, Powers; Unl Chemistry; Nmr-Assisted Drug Discovery, Mark Griep, Robert Powers

Department of Chemistry: Faculty Interviews

Dr. Robert Powers became a chemistry professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2003 and is about to retire after 23 years. Prior to UNL, Bob was a drug discovery researcher for 11 years at American Cyanamid, which eventually became Wyeth and is now part of Pfizer. Bob was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Something in his youth must have sparked an interest in chemistry because he earned a bachelor's in that subject from Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Then he traveled 1200 miles west to Purdue University in Indiana where he earned his doctorate. Next, he did postdoctoral …

Patterns And Drivers Of Cladocera Community Structure In The Black Sea, Elena Bisinicu, Luminita Lazar

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Cladoceran community dynamics were examined in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea during the warm seasons of 2013– 2020, using Marine Reporting  Units (MRUs) to evaluate spatial heterogeneity across transitional, coastal, and  marine waters. Analyses of density, biomass, mean individual biomass (MIB), and  species composition revealed interannual fluctuations superimposed on strong  nearshore–offshore gradients, with higher values in transitional and coastal MRUs.  The assemblage was consistently dominated by Pleopis polyphemoides and Penilia  avirostris, which together accounted for most of the total abundance and biomass.  Multivariate analysis identified significant differences in taxonomic composition  across MRUs and years, while correlation analyses highlighted …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Zoology

No abstract provided.

Endemism Patterns Of Leaf Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) In Türkiye, İsmai̇l Şen, Ali̇ Gök

Turkish Journal of Zoology

In this study, the distribution of endemic leaf beetles in Türkiye was analyzed  holistically at the provincial scale using species richness (ENR), corrected weighted  endemism (CWE), and range-restricted endemism (RRE) indices. A total of 95  endemic taxa were found in Türkiye and these taxa exhibited significant spatial  heterogeneity in terms of richness and extent of distribution. The Western and  Central Taurus Mountains and the Eastern Black Sea Region were found to be the  main centers of endemism, with high densities of narrowly distributed and  geographically restricted species. These patterns clearly demonstrate that key  biogeographic factors, such as steep elevation gradients, …

The Effect Of Spatial Scale Of Habitat On Abundance Of Roe Deer (Capreolus Pygargus) And Water Deer (Hydropotes Inermis Argyropus) During Summer In South Korea, Naeyoung Kim, Hyejin Kim, Hyoun-Gi Cha, Hyun-Su Hwang

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Understanding species-specific habitat preferences provides essential ecological  information about interactions among habitat components. In South Korea, roe deer  (Capreolus pygargus) and water deer (Hydropotes inermis argyropus) are the  dominant large herbivorous mammals of the family Cervidae. The increasing populations of these species have led to ecological and economic  challenges. Therefore, we investigated the effects of spatial scale characteristics on  the habitat preferences of roe deer and water deer. From June to August each year  between 2021 and 2023, we calculated the relative abundance index (RAI) using  camera-trap data and analyzed patch characteristics in the study area using remote  sensing techniques, …

Balancing Civil Liberties And Civil Rights, Adam Opp

Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy: Briefs and Commentaries

The Framers stressed the importance of civil liberties when drafting the United States Constitution to guarantee the freedoms of individuals. However, for decades, there has been an increased focus on civil rights to protect individuals from discrimination and ensure their equality under the law. The question becomes how civil liberties and civil rights intersect, and whether this intersection is always positive, or if advocating for civil rights can come at the expense of civil liberties. This paper will discuss civil liberties and civil rights, examine how policy processes impact civil rights, and address concerns about the grave consequences for the …

The Impact Of Tgfβ Conditioning And Socs3 Expression On Cytokine Signal Transduction And Inflammatory Gene Expression In Fibroblasts, Morgan Anderson-Crannage

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

Inflammation is a major driver in many aspects of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) pathology, including impaired wound healing, fibrosis, and potentially cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma development. Fibroblasts, as key stromal cells in the dermis, are responsible for orchestrating inflammatory responses through the secretion of cytokines and chemokines upon stimulation with IL-1α or IL-6. Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 3 (SOCS3) functions as a negative feedback regulator of cytokine signaling and has emerged as a key modulator of inflammatory responses in immune cells and fibroblasts. Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGFβ), a known driver of fibrosis in RDEB, has been implicated in …

Techno-Economic Assessment And Life Cycle Analysis Of Electrocatalytic Reduction Of Co2 To Ethanol., Omotolani Elizabeth Oduyebo

LSU Master's Theses

This study presents a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to ethanol, a multi-carbon (C₂) product with significant market value. Prior TEA studies have relied on simplified lump-sum separation cost estimates, and prior LCA studies have rarely examined the combined effect of CO₂ source and electricity supply on carbon intensity gaps that this work addresses through process-simulation-grounded analysis. An Aspen Plus process simulation was developed for an anion-exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyzer system coupled with an extractive distillation separation train using ethylene glycol as the entrainer, achieving 99.9 wt.% ethanol purity …

Models, Agency, And Expectations: A Mixed-Methods Study Of How Character Develops In Middle School, Aaron J. Schwindt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study investigated how character develops among middle school students at an international school recognized as a "National School of Character." Despite significant investment in character education (CE), a lack of formal evaluation exists, particularly regarding the process of development during the critical middle school years, a period of intense neurological and social change. Grounded in Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study aimed to (1) understand how character develops, (2) compare development before and after program enhancements, and (3) assess the program's impact on discipline. Phase 1 collected Character Growth Index (CGI) survey data from students …

The Ecotoxicological Impact Of Polystyrene On Lissachatina Fulica: A Study Of Growth,  Pedal Mucus Histological Changes, And Protein Mucus Analysis, Atin Supiyani, Wasmen Manalu, Lina Noviyanti Sutardi, Mawar Subangkit, Andriyanto Andriyanto

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Lissachatina fulica mucin can be used as a nutraceutical agent depending on the  quality of their feed. Polystyrene (PS) waste harms soil and plants consumed by  snails, potentially affecting the quality of mucin production. This study investigated  the impact of PS on growth and mucus-producing cell characteristics as well as the  network pharmacology of mucin protein components. Fifty 5–6 cm L. fulica snails  (20–24 g) were fed organic waste (OW) and organic waste with PS (OWPS). After 28  days of ad libitum access to food, the snails’ mucus, meat, and shells were  collected and weighed. Tissue samples from the anterior …

Imbalance In Wnt: Retinoic Acid Signaling Dysregulates Hox Gene Expression: Implications For Cancer Stem Cell Heterogeneity And Crc Patient Survival, Brian Osmond, Chi Zhang, Pascal K. Kataboh, Caroline O. B. Facey, Lynn M. Opdenaker, Bruce M. Boman

Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Faculty Papers

How HOX transcription factors play a role in the stem cell (SC) origin of cancer is unclear. Our goal is to determine how dysregulation of HOX gene expression promotes colorectal cancer (CRC) development through aberrant SC regulatory mechanisms. We investigated retinoic acid (RA) and WNT signaling because they regulate HOX expression and both pathways are dysregulated in cancer. Previously, we reported WNT and RA pathways are functionally linked, and in CRC, APC mutation generates a WNT:RA imbalance leading to incomplete differentiation and SC overpopulation. We hypothesize that aberrant WNT- and RA-signaling dysregulates HOX expression that contributes to the SC origin …

Beyond The Ban: Chhaupadi Abolition And The Governance Of Menstrual Autonomy In Western Nepal, Nikita Paudel

Master in Public Policy Theses

This thesis examines how two decades of efforts to abolish chhaupadi have shaped the everyday conditions under which women and girls experience menstruation in western Nepal. Chhaupadi, commonly understood as menstrual seclusion, has been addressed through Supreme Court directives, national policy, criminal law, municipal implementation instruments, hut demolition campaigns, public health programming, and rights-based advocacy. Yet the practice has persisted, adapted, and in some cases moved into less visible spaces. Rather than treating this as a simple gap between law and practice, this thesis asks how abolition efforts themselves have become part of the regulatory regime through which menstruation is …

Dna Strand Breaks By Small Molecules: From Genomic Hazard To Therapeutic Strategy, Clerin John

Honors Scholar Theses

DNA strand breaks are among the most critical forms of genomic damage, arising from endogenous metabolic activity, environmental stress, radiation, and diverse chemical agents. Single-strand breaks and double-strand breaks contribute to genome instability, mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and neurodegenerative disorders. Cells rely on DNA repair pathways to detect these breaks and initiate repair. In this review, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to systematically compile and examine the mechanisms underlying small-molecule-induced DNA strand breaks. This review highlights the underlying mechanisms by which these molecules interact with DNA and trigger damage. We further discussed the current methods used for detection and quantification of …

Pfas Toxicity: What’S True, What’S Not, And What Really Matters, Jamie C. Dewitt, Ian T. Cousins, Gretta Goldenman, Dorte Herzke, Rainer Lohmann, Mark Miller, Carla A. Ng, Martin Scheringer, Xenia Trier, Zhanyun Wang

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

A substantial body of evidence exists demonstrating that exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) poses a risk to human health. Data from epidemiological studies of those exposed occupationally or environmentally demonstrate adverse health risks, and these health effects are concordant with data from toxicological studies. Systematic reviews, conducted by agencies, organizations, and independent scientists that synthesize and integrate these data streams, have concluded that a range of health risks arise from PFAS exposure, including different types of cancer, especially kidney and testicular cancer, metabolic alterations such as increased liver enzymes and increased cholesterol, immune dysfunction such as reduced vaccination …

Decoding Spatial Transcriptomics Across Multicellular And Subcellular Resolutions, Chongyue Zhao, Hanqiu Zhao, Zhiyu Dai, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Current whole-genome spatial transcriptomics (ST) platforms, which range from multicellular (e.g., Visium) to subcellular resolution (e.g., Visium HD, Stereo-seq), face significant challenges in accurately decomposing or aggregating spots into single cells-the fundamental units of biological activity. To date, most existing computational methods operate at the spot level, and no method has effectively reconstructed transcriptomes at single-cell resolution. In this study, we present STARS (Spatial Transcriptomics across Resolutions for Single Cells). Leveraging Vision Transformer model and contrastive learning, STARS combines high-resolution histology images with spot-level transcriptomics data to reconstruct single-cell-level gene expression from multicellular and subcellular platforms. We demonstrate the advantage …

Biodegradable Pcl–Plga Electrospun Nanofibers For Localized Cancer Therapy, Rahul Tiwari, Pranav, Joel Delossantos, Eswara N.H.K. Ghali, Luis Chavez, Vishal Sharad Chaudhari, Songyang Han, Subhash Chauhan, Murali Yallapu

School of Medicine Publications

Localized chemotherapy offers a promising strategy to improve therapeutic efficacy while minimizing the systemic toxicity of conventional cancer treatment, particularly following tumor resection. Electrospun nanofibers are well suited for this purpose due to their high porosity, extracellular matrix-mimicking architecture, and capacity for localized drug release. In this study, electrospun nanofibers based on PCL and PLGA were developed for localized cancer therapy. Three distinct nanofibrous architectures were fabricated: PCL nanofibers, PCL−PLGA blended nanofibers, and PCL−PLGA multilayered (tetra-layered) nanofibers, and their encapsulation efficiency was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Scanning electron microscopy confirmed uniform, bead-free nanofibrous morphologies, while Fourier transform infrared …