Digital Commons Network^™

Timber Use And Forest Management In The Ancient Mediterranean, Tobey Russell

Undergraduate Papers

No abstract provided.

Graduate Research & Scholarship Symposium, Office Of Research

Graduate Student Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Beyond Likes And Reposts: Social Media's Role In Warfare, Britney Arteaga

St. Thomas Law Review

Social media has become a double-edged sword in our current digital era, bringing both serious advantages and disadvantages to the forefront of domestic and international discussions. Social media has become a weapon in political, cultural, and even military conflicts due to the spread of unregulated content, despite it enabling people to interact, share information, and voice their opinions. Social media has facilitated the spread of hate speech, propaganda, and false information, which in turn distorts realities and shapes narratives and opinions. Social media's effect on both a domestic and global scale have been catastrophic, ranging from promoting violence to further …

Between “The Favela” And “The City”: Exploring The Daily Geographies Of Carolina Maria De Jesus Using Gis, Sterling D. Quinn

Geography Faculty Scholarship

Geographic information systems (GIS) enable interesting visual and analytical engagement with personal narratives. I offer a case study by constructing digital historical maps of Carolina Maria de Jesus’s São Paulo as described in her 1950s diary entries from Quarto de Despejo (published as Child of the Dark in English). Examining 48 locations mentioned in the book, I show how GIS algorithms such as standard deviation ellipses and kernel density estimation can summarize geographies of daily activities in the personal, institutional, and professional realms, including in the informal economy. I also employ ideas from feminist cartography to put Carolina’s own words …

Understanding Space Frontier Areas: Strategy In Cislunar Space And Beyond, Todd W. Pennington

INSS Strategic Perspectives

Space beyond geostationary Earth orbit, particularly cislunar space, is emerging as a strategically significant domain for national security, governance, and long-term competition. This paper introduces the concept of "Space Frontier Areas" to describe regions of space, including xGEO and the Earth–Moon system, where operations remain limited in scale but increasingly consequential. It argues that current strategic thinking about these areas is overly bipolar, framing activities as either near-term security concerns or long-term economic opportunities, thereby constraining nuanced policy choices. To address this limitation, the paper proposes an analytical framework organized around four strategic purposes—prestige, governance, security, and resources—that can be …

Infringement Through Imitation: Ai Chatbots And The Characters They Infringe, Isabella Herrera

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Chatbots that purport to embody the personas of copyrighted characters are poised to be a central issue for the IP legal field and the entertainment industry. In September of 2025, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI, a leader in the “character” chatbots market, demanding removal of numerous chatbots that were reportedly based on characters from Disney franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and the Pixar films. Character.AI allegedly removed all infringing characters, however it remains unclear whether character chatbots platforms are required to do so under IP law. This Note addresses the issue of copyright infringement for character chatbots and …

The Discrimination Of Methodist Students At Oxford University, 1768, Nicholas M. Railton

The Asbury Journal

Discrimination and persecution are perennial features of church history. This paper deals with six Oxford students who were expelled from the university for what were called ‘Methodist’ practices and beliefs. Their university trial is analysed as are the support structures within the evangelical network in the eighteenth century. The paper sheds light upon the lives of the students post-exmatriculation.

Town Of Pittsfield, New Hampshire Annual Reports For The Year Ending December 31, 2025, Pittsfield Town Representatives

Pittsfield, NH Annual Reports

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

Big Tech As Transnational Spyware Regulator, Natalie R. Davidson

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Spyware has emerged as a potent tool for leaders to shrink dem- ocratic contestation. In response to calls for constraints on the trade in spyware, states have updated the principal multilateral agree- ment on export controls, civil society groups have employed strate- gic litigation, and the European Union has altered its regulation, in each case with the aim of limiting exports where there is a risk of human rights violations. Yet, scandals involving the Israeli company NSO, among others, have made clear that even the updated regula- tory landscape is inadequate. Many actors are currently debating the reasons for existing …

Ransomware As Organization: A Comparative Analysis Of Corporate And Criminal Structures In Conti, George Urling

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Cybercriminal groups continue to pose major threats to global cybersecurity. One of the most common types of cybercriminal groups are, “Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS)" groups, who create and sell ransomware. While research is conducted into the development of ransomware, there is limited reporting on the organizational structure and habits of RaaS groups. In 2022, prominent RaaS group Conti had their chat logs leaked, with the logs ranging from 2020 to 2022. This study seeks to provide a deeper understanding of RaaS group structures by utilizing the Conti leaked logs as a case study. The study, entitled “Ransomware as Organization: A Comparative Analysis …

Memories Of The Low-Income Elderly Of South Korea, Jacob Gilbert

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Rain pattered against my umbrella as I walked down the small alleyway near Tapgol Park. An elderly man carrying a black umbrella hobbled past me. Rain dripping from the gutters made puddles at my feet. I carefully avoided several puddles in the pavement making my way to the end of the alleyway. As I drew closer to the end, loud voices echoed down the alley. Around the corner a crowd of elderly people huddled underneath the roof of the front gate to the park. Some stood, while others sat on the ground leaning their backs against the walls of the …

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.

Colonial Legacy And National Identity:, Nina Harris

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

The island of Taiwan occupies an unusual political position in the world today. Taiwan is viewed primarily in relation to its complicated relationship with the People’s Republic of China. While Taiwan considers itself distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically elected leaders, China’s government claims the island is an inalienable part of China and has been for centuries. Taiwan’s history, however, is more complicated and diverse than China allows. Unbeknownst to many, Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, and it was an era of highly significant change for Taiwan. The Japanese occupation was …

Made For War, Abandoned In Peace:, Michelle Parada-Gonzalez

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Amid a raging blizzard in the mountains of 1907 Hokkaido, Sugimoto Saichi shelters inside the still-warm carcass of a freshly killed deer, huddled beside his companion, Asirpa. As she asks if his wounds still hurt, he brushes it off, insisting that the man he killed earlier had no human heart and felt little pain. When Asirpa reprimands him, Sugimoto concedes—war has changed him. The person he once was had been left behind on the battlefield. Some men, he says, can return to their old lives, but others like him remain stuck in the past. Asirpa, only twelve years old, considers …

Rope Cutting Task Module, Rebecca Usher

Engineering Theses

This project focuses on the design and evaluation of a rope-cutting module for use with robotic platforms developed by New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation Center (NERVE) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The system is designed to cut nylon rope using a specialized robotic cutting arm that can be attached to the robot.

The system consists of a module task box that has two pegs that hold two arms to each one. One arm where the spring- mechanism inside of the task module and the second arm the one on top of the box hold the string in place …

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 …

Review:Linklater, Andrew. Violence And Civilization In The Western States-Systems. Cambridge University Press, 2017., Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

The late Andrew Linklater (1949-2023) has been considered one of the most influential scholars within the field of International Relations. This was the result of his innovative synthesis into the field, with others, of the historical sociology of Norbert Elias (1897- 1990), work that addressed the long-term figuration processes of societies. This synthesis was enriched with the insights of the English School of International Relations, as devised by Martin Wight (1913-1972) and Hedley Bull (1932-1985), scholars who analyzed the many and differing interlocking networks and connections amongst geopolitical actors on the world stage. These efforts led Linklater to his final …

Deterrence Without Peace: Nuclear Weapons And The Rising Threshold Of Warfare, Catie Clarke

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

Nuclear weapons fundamentally changed the international political landscape, leading to the emergence of deterrence theory and the notion of the Long Peace. This paper challenges these claims, arguing that nuclear weapons facilitated a more violent and volatile international system rather than stability. Drawing on constructivist theory, this paper develops the Threshold of Violence framework – a normative model which asserts that nuclear weapons elevated the perceived upper limit of tolerable violence in international politics. This raised threshold generated three trends in the nuclear era: increased frequency of proxy wars, escalating levels of benefactor involvement, and greater severity of conflicts fought …

The Lives Of Fritz Haber And Of International Law: Entwined Tales Of Tragedy And Irony, Mark A. Drumbl, C. William Vardy

Scholarly Articles

This article recounts the life of international law through the story of a single individual. This is the narrative of biographical international law. The subject — equally protagonist and antagonist — of this article is Fritz Haber, a German-Jewish scientist born in 1868. Devoted to the Kaiser, Haber was declared a war criminal by the Allies following World War I for having been ‘the father’ of chemical warfare. Haber argued that chemical weapons were more humane than conventional weapons. While under this shadow, Haber also won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1920 for his pioneering work with ammonia …

Imperfect Guardians, Amna A. Akbar, Ryan D. Doerfler

Articles

Professor David Strauss attributes the U.S. Supreme Court’s reactionary jurisprudence to a breakdown of elite consensus. He observes that lawyers and judges disagree about the proper “victims” of our political process: Are they Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ people or, instead, Whites, Christians, and gun owners? Strauss worries the jurisprudential approach that emerged from Carolene Products now allows for judicial intervention on behalf of groups loaded with political power. Even then, he insists on the classic liberal defense of the courts: that courts serve as an important if imperfect check against the majoritarian domination of minorities.

In this Essay, we identify …

Space Mining, Richard Painter

Articles

The Trump Administration and U.S. Congress are promoting new ventures to extract valuable minerals from outer space. This Article does not dismiss the idea out of hand, but explores reasons for caution, including practical problems with space mining, its environmental impact, the likelihood that the United States could violate international law, and the risk of armed conflict. These problems are exacerbated by financial conflicts of interest in our government with a handful of billionaires, who have a financial interest in space mining work. The promotion of their agenda could involve wasteful government spending on subsidies for private ventures, with a …

Exploring Gaps And Opportunities For Nonprofit Support For African American Veterans: Insights From The Historymakers Digital Archive, Michael A. Davis Ii

All Capstone Projects

This study draws on qualitative thematic analysis of oral histories from The HistoryMakers Digital Archive to examine gaps in services experienced by African American veterans during their transition from military to civilian life and how nonprofit organizations can develop more resilient and equity-centered support systems to better meet veterans’ needs. The findings confirm existing literature that characterizes veteran reintegration as complex and multidimensional, while extending it by demonstrating how challenges such as mental health, employment instability, and housing insecurity are deeply interconnected and cumulative. The findings also reveal that African American veterans face additional structural barriers due to systemic inequalities …

George W. Bush’S Contemporary Crusade: Binary And Peace Rhetoric During The Global War On Terror, Justin Lotito

Cohort 2025-2026

Justin Lotito is a senior majoring in communication studies, with minors in business administration, and journalism. Lotito’s Time Machine research investigates President George W. Bush’s rhetoric following the attacks of September 11. He contends that Bush established a binary world through the application of Manichean and Crusader rhetoric. Following this contention, Lotito applies Bush’s binary world framework into an analysis of the Setonian’s March 20, 2003, edition covering the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Archival Collection Used: SHU 0054 The Setonian

Ni De Aqui, Nor There. Pero As The In-Between, Vanessa Franquez

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores first-generation Mexican American identity as a lived experience of translation and survival. Drawing from Judith Butler, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Jack Burnham, the work frames identity as performative, embodied, and shaped by overlapping cultural systems. Insects function as models of adaptation, camouflage, and defense, paralleling survival strategies such as code-switching and cultural hybridity. Through sculptural processes including tufting, felting, sewing, layering, and the inscription of Spanglish text, repetition and puncture become material metaphors for pressure, repair, and resilience. Language operates as both subject and substance, resisting grammatical purity in favor of hybridity. The work ultimately positions the in-between …

From Monasteries To The Market: The Legal And Spiritual Economies Of Himalayan Art In China, Hengshi An

MA Theses

In recent years, the Himalayan art market in China has shown a remarkable transformation, emerging as one of the most dynamic segments within the broader Asian art economy. While much of the global and domestic art market has stagnated, Tibetan and Himalayan artworks have achieved sustainable growth and high auction price with major collections been published, showing structural strength rather than speculative enthusiasm. This paper examines the drivers behind this phenomenon through a qualitative analysis of auction data, dealer networks, and collector behavior across key hubs in China such as Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The findings suggest that …

Rf-Attennet: A Hybrid Attention-Enhanced Network For Mixed Signal Classification In Uav Swarm Detection, Prajoy Podder, Mohammad Atikur Rahman, Maciej Zawodniok, Sanjay Madria

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The continuous increase of UAVs, particularly in swarms, creates significant challenges for security and airspace regulation. Traditional RF fingerprinting methods struggle to detect and classify UAV swarms due to overlapping signals and interference. This study introduces RF-AttenNet, a hybrid deep learning model designed to classify mixed UAV signals by analyzing composite RF spectrograms. RF-AttenNet uses dual attention mechanisms, channel and spatial attention to focus on critical spectral features, enabling the model to effectively separate and identify overlapping UAV signals. We have developed custom composite UAV datasets that simulate real-world swarm interference, incorporating both single and mixed UAV classes. RF-AttenNet achieves …

Entendre L’Inouï: Resonance, Volume, And Transduction In Gilbert Gatore’S Le Passé Devant Soi, Rebecca Saunders

Faculty Publications – English

This paper analyses three features of sound – resonance, volume, and transduction – in Gilbert Gatore’s novel of memory and the Rwandan genocide, Le passé devant soi [The Past Before Us]. Theorising two modes of resonance in Gatore’s novel – thematic and semiotic – I demonstrate how the novel is structured by semantic forms of resonance, how those resonances incite significance, and how they are augmented by a semiotic resonance that produces “vibratory meanings”. I subsequently examine the novel’s depiction of shatteringly loud volume, its ability to obliterate thought, and to cause physical harm. Elaborating reasons why the …

Holding The Past Carefully In Players’ Hands: Historically-Structured Boardgames And The Troubles In History Education, Hugh D. O'Donnell

Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies

Controversial histories, such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, are often excluded from formal education, forming a "null curriculum" due to their political sensitivity, emotional difficulty, and risk of bias or re-traumatising students. To address this, Historically-Structured Boardgames (HSBGs) offer an innovative pedagogical approach, engaging students cognitively and emotionally while navigating sensitive historical terrain.

HSBGs like "The Troubles: Shadow War in Northern Ireland 1964-1998" embed players within historically accurate socio-political and economic structures, emphasising player agency and the consequences of their actions. Players assume roles from six factions, confronting ethically charged "Narrative Cards" representing critical historical decision points. The game's …

The Paradox Of Intellectual Property At The U.S. Supreme Court, Tonja Jacobi, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court is dramatically more politically polarized in the Roberts Court era, and the justices have been criticized for highly ideological and partisan decision-making. Yet, we show that there is one area of law that is becoming less ideologically divided and predictable: intellectual property (IP). In an earlier study, we showed that, prior to the Roberts Court, IP case outcomes were predictable based on judicial ideology, with more conservative justices embracing IP rights, as they do for real property. In the last two decades, IP has become more influential on the economy and society, through the increasing dominance of …

Calon A Hiraeth, Abigail Kubat

English Senior Capstone

It is a medieval historical fiction piece set in King John's kingdom. The heroine, Isolda, must navigate challenges regarding betrothal, marriage, identity, and her home as she comes to discover who she is made to be.