Digital Commons Network^™

Slack Lines: Comprehending Grace In Entangled Worlds, Erik Sandelin

Nordes Conference Series

Designers increasingly celebrate more-than-human entanglement, touch, hybridity and care as antidotes to ecological devastation and animal exploitation. However, embroiling other animals in human realms can be a kiss of death for the animal. How is grace – careful and creative moves away from the other – possible in entangled worlds? Through the design experiment Fishwatching – a reconfigured angling setup where you catch fish on camera instead of on a hook – I articulate four tensors for comprehending grace in interdependent relational design: the taut line of human supremacy, the severed line of emancipation and the constricting net of entanglement. …

Attending To Right Relations In Design: Lessons From Foraging, Serina Tarkhanian

Nordes Conference Series

Despite recognizing the profound relevance of Indigenous knowledges to the relational turn, few posthuman design researchers elaborate on the considerations and implications of working from these rich sources of insight for material practice. In this paper, I develop an attention to the Indigenous relational framework of Right Relations in design from the perspective of studentship, considering how Indigenous ethical frameworks might be engaged with from the position of a non-Indigenous person. Building on insights from my own research experience in foraging for design materials, I use narratives to exemplify part of what attending to Right Relations in design implies. I …

Designing For Multispecies Affordances: A Poetics Of Control, Martin Avila, Nelly Mäekivi, Erik Andersson

Nordes Conference Series

This workshop will engage participants in an exercise that conceives experimental design practices that involve communication with other-than-human species. The process encourages a shift away from human-centred control, creating conditions that allow other species to manifest their own behaviours. This is important since the dominant global material culture of design does not acknowledge the presence and interaction of other species with things designed, erasing biodiversity as human habits repeat anthropocentric and destructive ecological patterns. Building on the work of J. J. Gibson’s concept of affordances, and other work that conform the emerging field that today is understood as posthumanism, the …

An Adventure With Ai: A Relational Techno-Life Design Approach, Yue Zou, Shenhuan Lu, Yile Zhang

Nordes Conference Series

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into ecosystems necessitates a paradigm shift in design thinking, moving beyond anthropocentric models to embrace relational frameworks. This paper proposes relational techno-life design, an approach to reconceptualize AI as co-constitutive agents within socio material networks and broad ecological system. Through speculative case studies—LOVOT, LO, and AquaGuardian—we analyze how relational techno-life design can foster symbiotic relationships across human, nonhuman, and AI. An eco-cultural-techno framework reveals the potential for AI to mediate ecological resilience, cultural practices, and ethical co-evolution, while critiquing anthropocentric hierarchies and dualisms. The study contributes to relational design theory by advocating for nondualist …

Co-Creating The Good Life Through Food-Based Inquiry, Danielle Wilde, Leena Naqvi, Mary Karyda

Nordes Conference Series

Food and eating (re)connect humans daily with worlds within and beyond us. From the trillions of microorganisms that help make us who we are; through the socio-culturally and tangibly graspable people, animals, plants, fungi and algae that we cohabit with; to decreasingly relatable systems of food production and provisioning across the planet, food stitches us together. We provide four mini cases to consider how using food as a methodology for experimental design research can build relations towards ensuring ‘the good life.’ We explore what the good life is, why relationality sits at its heart, and provide a framework for using …

Exploring The "Human Norm" In Design: Integrating More-Than-Human And Norm-Critical Design Approaches, Katerina Cerna, Yi Luo, Britta Teleman

Nordes Conference Series

As designers, we design from a human perspective—a position we cannot change but must critically reflect upon. This workshop addresses this fundamental challenge: the invisible "human norm" in design. While norm-critical approaches have explored norms, the most profound invisible norm is simply our existence as humans. This is particularly significant as we confront environmental crises demanding design beyond human needs. We integrate two complementary approaches: more-than-human design, which challenges the assumption that "human-centeredness" represents a neutral viewpoint, and norm-critical design, which makes invisible norms visible. Our 3-hour workshop engages participants in interactive activities analyzing human norms, shifting perspectives, creating norm-critical …

The Birth Of Tragedy And The Genealogy Of Morals, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Hannah Arendt Marginalia - All

Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1956

Call #: B3312.E5 G6 1956

Contains marginalia, underlining and marginal lining.

PDF Information: 76 pages – 32.3mb

Anarchy, State, And Utopia, Robert Nozick

Hannah Arendt Marginalia - All

New York : Basic Books, [1974]

Call #: JC571 .N68

Arendt copy contains marginalia

PDF Information: 9 pages – 540KB

A Mikumiku Dance Inquiry: Fandom, Technology, Dance, Kendall Ussery

Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society

A globally popular Japanese manga/anime series called JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has become the basis for a form of fan video art that employs the MikuMikuDance (MMD) software program. This has led to the creation of a JoJo MikuMikuDance (JoJo MMD) digital community based on fan art creators and viewers. This digital ethnographic study, drawing upon an autoethnographic perspective, investigates the JoJo MMD fan community and its relationship to the MMD videos as fan video art. Examining this involves an analysis of YouTube videos and posted comments. The study argues that the JoJo MMD fan community has taken a very positive …

Introduction, Kiley E. Molinari

Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society

No abstract provided.

Style-Consistent Video Augmentation That Maintains Visual Style And Subject Identity, Yunyingying Xu, Adam Svystun, Maciej Pęśko

Defensive Publications Series

A media platform can receive client data from a client device including an image of a user’s face. A model framework can generate input data from the client data and provide the input data to a model trained to generate animation frames as output. The model can provide the generated animation frames back to the model framework, which may perform one or more postprocessing operations on the generated animation frames to generate animation data. The animation data is provided back to the client device.

Full Issue, Kritika Kultura

Kritika Kultura

Brina (2016), Chhorii (2021), and Jayeshbhai Jordaar (2022).

A Conversation Between Octavia Butler's Kindred And Angela Davis's Are Prisons Obsolete?: Brutality, Misogynoir, And Haunting, Sydney Guntharp

Venture: The University of Mississippi Undergraduate Research Journal

Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Angela Davis’s Are Prisons Obsolete? textually parallel one another in vital ways that mirror the lack of linear separation between the socalled historical past and modern conditions of racialized oppression, confinement, and brutal treatment. Through tandemly analyzing these texts, the modes of misogynoiristic control potently exacted on the enslaved/imprisoned Black woman’s body are clearly rendered across time. The presence of the plantation, as it follows Butler’s fictional characters through the literal medium of time travel, haunts the modern prisonindustrial complex, which Davis extrapolates through a detailed history of racialized punishment within the United States. Both texts …

Microbiome–Immune Interaction And Harnessing For Next-Generation Vaccines Against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza In Poultry, Yongming Sang, Samuel N. Nahashon, Richard J. Webby

Food and Animal Sciences Faculty Research

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) remains a persistent threat to global poultry production and public health. Current vaccine platforms show limited cross-clade efficacy and often fail to induce mucosal immunity. Recent advances in microbiome research reveal critical roles for gut commensals in modulating vaccine-induced immunity, including enhancement of mucosal IgA production, CD8+ T-cell activation, and modulation of systemic immune responses. Engineered commensal bacteria such as Lactococcus lactis, Bacteroides ovatus, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus epidermidis have emerged as promising live vectors for antigen delivery. Postbiotic and synbiotic strategies further enhance protective efficacy through targeted modulation of the gut microbiota. Additionally, artificial …

Enhancing Oral Absorption Of An Ester Prodrug By Coating Drug Crystals With Binary Lipid Systems And Evaluating The Influence Of Compositions, Xiaowei Dong, Tao Zhang, Hellen L. Moreno Sanchez, Jaylen C. Mans, Sung Hun Bae, Liangqiao Bian

Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship

Background/Objectives: Prodrug strategies are a vital aspect of drug development, with ester prodrugs particularly notable for modifying parent drug properties through ester functional groups to enhance oral absorption. However, ester prodrugs are prone to hydrolysis by water and enzymes, making stability in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract prior to absorption a key challenge. Few formulation strategies effectively address this degradation issue. We recently introduced binary lipid systems (BLS), comprising a lipid and a water-soluble surfactant only that form stable microemulsions. This study aimed to explore the application of BLS for enhancing the oral absorption of ester prodrugs by coating drug crystals …

Analysis Of Lifespan Across Diversity Outbred Mouse Studies Identifies Multiple Longevity-Associated Loci., Martin N Mullis, Kevin M Wright, Anil Raj, Daniel M Gatti, Peter C. Reifsnyder, Kevin Flurkey, Jonathan R Archer, Laura Robinson, Andrea Di Francesco, Karen L. Svenson, Ron Korstanje, David E Harrison, J Graham Ruby, Gary Churchill

Faculty Research 2025

Lifespan is an integrative phenotype whose genetic architecture is likely to highlight multiple processes with high impact on health and aging. Here, we conducted a genetic mega-analysis of longevity in Diversity Outbred (DO) mice that included 2,444 animals from 3 independently conducted lifespan studies. We identified 8 loci that contributed significantly to lifespan independently of diet and drug treatment in at least one study. One of these loci also influenced lifespan in a sex-dependent manner, and we detected an additional locus with a diet-specific effect on lifespan. Collectively, these loci explained over half of the estimated heritable variation in lifespan …

Changes In Perspective - A Pov Exercise, Lauralynn Filidoro

Masters Theses

Point of view is an important tool in fiction writing, as is an exploration of how choice of POV affects how a story is experienced by an audience and what to consider as an author when making that choice. Taking the time to study not just the options for point of view, but the profound impact that a thoughtful and considered use of this device can have on one’s writing is not just an exciting endeavor, but an inspiring one.

Sport And Black/African-Palestinian Transnational Solidarity: A Conversation, Joezer Antoine, Sean Jacobs, Munene Mwaniki, Yasmin Elgoharry, Jess Nachman, Chen Chen, Roc Rochon, Anthony J. Weems

Sport Management Collection

This paper is an edited transcript of an online panel that took place February 11, 2025, exploring the historical and contemporary forms of Black/African solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement in the context of sport. Foregrounding the long tradition of leveraging sport within various anti-racist, anti-colonial, and anti-imperialist movements worldwide, this conversation emphasizes the urgency of developing sustained and renewed strategies of resistance. First, we outline Black-Palestinian Transnational Solidarity (BPTS) as a historical movement sustained by shared anti-imperialist principles. For decades, radical and revolutionary Black and African peoples have recognized Zionism as an extension of the racialized Western imperial project …

Autopathography And Identity In Head Above Water: Reflections On Illness By Shahd Alshammari, Reham M. Samir

Pharmacy

Disability/illness is an enigma that we experience but whose implications we have not fully fathomed. One's sense of self is impacted by disability/ illness. Autopathographies gave people with disability/ chronic illness a chance to share their life with a disability or a chronic illness, which also reflects on identity. Moreover, identity is influenced by social stigma as well as gender. This paper examines the impact of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on the life and sense of self of the Kuwaiti writer and scholar, Shahd Alshammari's The paper also analyzes the relation between disability, gender and race drawing attention to the impact …

Hydrogen Sulfide Deficiency And Therapeutic Targeting In Cardiometabolic Hfpef: Evidence For Synergistic Benefit With Glp-1/Glucagon Agonism, Jake E. Doiron, Mahmoud H. Elbatreek, Huijing Xia, Xiaoman Yu, Natalie D. Gehred, Tatiana Gromova, Jingshu Chen, Ian H. Driver, Naoto Muraoka, Martin Jensen, Smitha Shambhu, W. H.Wilson Tang, Kyle B. Lapenna, Thomas E. Sharp, Traci T. Goodchild, Ming Xian, Shi Xu, Heather Quiriarte, Timothy D. Allerton, Alexia Zagouras, Jennifer Wilcox, Sanjiv J. Shah, Josef Pfeilschifter, Karl Friedrich Beck, Thomas M. Vondriska, Zhen Li, David J. Lefer

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) presents significant treatment challenges. We assessed hydrogen sulfide (H2S) bioavailability in HFpEF patients and 2 animal models: the "2-hit" L-NAME + high-fat diet mouse model and ZSF1 obese rats. H2S levels were significantly reduced in patients and both models, linked to decreased cystathionine-γ-lyase expression and increased sulfide quinone oxidoreductase. Cystathionine-γ-lyase knockout worsened HFpEF, whereas pharmacological supplementation with an H2S donor improved diastolic function and reduced cardiac fibrosis. H2S supplement synergized with GLP-1/glucagon agonist and ameliorated HFpEF. These findings suggest that enhancing H2S bioavailability may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for HFpEF.

The Parthenon, August 06, 2025, Baylee Parsons, Kaitlyn Fleming, Ashton Pack, Nate Harrah, Soleil Woolard

The Parthenon

No abstract provided.

Gender In Translation: How The Contemporary Bible Is Challenging Androcentric Language In Translation Through Gender-Accurate And Feminist Hermeneutical Lenses, Matthew T. Gennard

Masters Theses

This Thesis surveys the changing practice of gender-accurate translation from the late nineteenth century to the present, with special consideration for the three key principles of gender-accurate translation: Generic ‘he,’ androcentric lexemes, and pronoun substitution. These focus areas are derived from an analysis of the five translation guidelines produced during the late twentieth-century gender-neutral controversy. The loss of individuality when introducing pronominal interchange or the masculine representative hermeneutical lens has left scholars divided on gender-accurate practices. This study surveys the sociohistorical development of the feminist hermeneutical lens and the changing linguistic trends of contemporary language, which challenge androcentric assumptions in …

Pigs For The Dispossessed Goat Demon: Jesus’ Exorcism In Mark 5 And Animal Interest, Michael Joseph Gossett

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how a historical-literal reading of Mark 5:1-20 can be defended against objections that claim Jesus caused or allowed unnecessary animal suffering. Contextual insights gleaned from 2nd Temple Watchers Traditions and Greco-Roman polytheism illuminate plausible symbolic value present in the deaths of the Gerasene swine. The context of Mark 5:1-20 presents a supernatural conflict compatible with Christian theology and rebel angel theodicies. Jesus’ actions concerning the Gerasene pigs are not necessarily unjustifiable examples of animal mistreatment.

Radioactive Contamination And Climate Warming Affect Physiological Performance Of Chornobyl Barn Swallows, Zbyszek Boratyríski, Timothy Mousseau, Anders Pape Møller

Faculty Publications

Global warming and degradation of natural habitats are the two main factors causing ecophysiological stress on individuals and risk for biodiversity. Hyperthermia is a common response to stress in homeothermic animals, in particular to heat, pathogens and environmental contamination. Resilience of biological systems to global warming may be deteriorated in polluted habitats. Here we investigated how body temperature of a wild bird, the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), responded to global warming while simultaneously exposed to radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl accident. Our results showed that both high air temperatures (t = 15.55, df = 335, p <  0.0001) and elevated environmental radioactive contamination (t = 5.18, df = 8.09, p = 0.0008) increased internal body temperature of individuals. The additive effect suggests that birds might suffer hyperthermia in locally contaminated habitat (1.47% body temperature increase) while simultaneously exposed to globally rising temperatures (1.95% body temperature increase), potentially reducing the fitness of individual and the maintenance of breeding colonies. The cumulative and interactive negative effects of multiple stressors, such as those emerging from increasing habitat degradation and climate change, will likely contribute to biodiversity losses globally.

Nutrition Anthropology In Global Malnutrition In Children Under Five, Katherine Michelle Dennison Owens

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Food is essential to growth and development for people and nations. Too little or too much food can lead to undernutrition or overweight, both forms of malnutrition. While there have been improvements in undernutrition, overweight is increasing, causing the double burden of malnutrition globally, which is especially true in low-income and middle-income countries. Understanding nutrition anthropology's economic, environmental, and socio-cultural factors is critical to combat malnutrition's burden in different populations. Shaping policies and investments in malnutrition need to be strategic to have a measurable impact on malnutrition improvements. This study identified nutrition anthropology factors using six economic, environmental, and socio-cultural …

At The Putting Green: The Economic Impact Of The Augusta National, William Lee Chomskis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation investigates the multifaceted economic impact of the Augusta National Golf Club on the city of Augusta, Georgia. Through a comprehensive historical, biographical, and economic analysis, the study explores how a single sporting institution has transformed a mid-sized Southern city into a globally recognized epicenter of elite sport and cultural capital. Drawing on archival research, interviews with local stakeholders, and economic data, the dissertation traces Augusta’s evolution from a strategic Confederate industrial hub to a modern city whose identity and economy are inextricably linked to the Augusta National and its flagship event, the Masters Tournament.

The research is structured …

Exploring School-Based Early Intervention For Developmental Disabilities: A Phenomenological Study Of Parental Experiences, Brenda Nichol Webb

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Today it is estimated that one in six children in the United States has one or more developmental disabilities or other developmental delays. There is a large body of evidence pointing to the necessity of early intervention to improve both short and long-term life outcomes for individuals with developmental disabilities from both the medical and social sciences. Despite this fact, the identification process during early childhood from a parental perspective remains under- researched. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of parents of children with developmental disabilities during the evaluation process and receipt of services …

Sulfated Dietary Fiber Protects Gut Microbiota From Antibiotics, Fuqing Wu, Xiaoqian Annie Yu, David Angeles-Albores, Susan E Erdman, Eric J Alm

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Antibiotics, while essential for combating pathogens, also disrupt commensal bacteria, leading to gut microbiota imbalance and associated diseases. However, strategies to mitigate such collateral damage remain largely underexplored.

Result: In this study, we found that fucoidan, a marine polysaccharide derived from brown seaweed, provides broad-spectrum growth protection against multiple classes of antibiotics for human gut microbial isolates in vitro and for fecal communities ex vivo. This protective effect is dependent on the structural integrity, molecular weight, and sulfur content of the polysaccharide. Transcriptomic analysis showed that while fucoidan had minimal impact on baseline gene expression, it counteracted about 60% …

Immunomodulatory Effects Of Gold Nanoparticles: Impacts On Immune Cells And Mechanisms Of Action, Khadijeh Koushki, Prapannajeet Biswal, Geraldine Vidhya Vijay, Mahvash Sadeghi, Sajad Dehnavi, Ngoc Tuyet Tra, Sai Kumar Samala, Mahdieh Yousefi Taba, Arjun Balaji Vasan, Emily Han, Yuri Mackeyev, Sunil Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Traditional anti-inflammatory medications-such as corticosteroids, biological agents, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs-are commonly employed to mitigate inflammation, despite their potential for debilitating side effects. There is a growing need for alternative next-generation therapies for symptomatic, unchecked, and/or detrimental inflammation with more favorable adverse effect profiles. The long history of use of gold salts as anti-inflammatory agents and the more recent exploration of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) formulations for clinical indications suggest that the targeted delivery of nanoparticles to inflammatory sites may be a promising approach worth investigating. Coupled with peptides that specifically target immune cells, AuNPs could potently counteract inflammation. Here, we …

Development Of A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (Pbpk) Model And Evaluation Of Antioxidant Capacity For Polypodium Leucotomos Extract, Christopher L. Basel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to develop an equation to calculate the approximate concentration of active components in orally administered Polypodium leucotomos fern extract (PLE) and to develop physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for an active component of PLE or its metabolite to address the need for human pharmacokinetics (PK). Model differences based on ethnic groups were also investigated. This was a quantitative study using secondary data. It has been estimated that skin cancers account for approximately 40% of all human cancers and that approximately 13,000 people will die of skin cancer in 2024. People with darker skin experience …