Digital Commons Network^™

The Artificial Maintenance Of Relationship Satisfaction: Romantic Ai Companion Usage Sustains Emerging Adults' Human Romantic Relationship Satisfaction While Eroding Relationship Stability, Rebekah M. Hakala

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated, romantic AI companions--AI systems designed to simulate romantic, emotional, or sexual relationships--have emerged as a novel relational phenomenon. Nearly one in four emerging adults now engage with romantic AI companions, yet little is known about how this usage affects their romantic human relationships. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and the Investment Model of Commitment, and employing structural equation modeling, this thesis uses data from 2,431 emerging adults in romantic relationships to examine whether romantic AI companion usage influences relationship satisfaction and relationship stability among emerging adults in the United States (ages 18-30), and whether …

Joy Under The Sun: Ecclesiastes And Existential Positive-Psychology, Alexander Lee, Clayton Hess

Liberty University Research Week

Christian counselors can benefit from theological research into effective counseling theory and practice. Biblical wisdom literature has been long overlooked as an effective tool in biblically-informed counseling. Biblical wisdom parallels recent trends in positive-psychology toward emphasizing holistic human flourishing (Hawkins, 2026). Further, interpretations of Ecclesiastes can parallel existentialism, with similar emphases on coherence and meaning-making (Keefer, 2019). In Lee’s (2012) discussion of Ecclesiastes, flourishing is pinpointed in qohelet’s treatment of joy. Lee develops a theology of enjoyment based on qohelet’s diagnosis of the human condition, his description of humanity’s position in relationship with God, and his meditation on injustice. In …

Is Everything Awesome? Cultural Apologetics In A Metamodern Age, Alexander Lee, Dara Huamanchumo Ascanio, Isaiah Johnson

Liberty University Research Week

Contemporary apologists have emphasized that engaging with culture in an insightful and respectful way is a powerful tool for evangelism (Chatraw & Allen, 2018). In this vein, children’s media, born in a specific cultural setting, has a formative impact on upcoming generations, an avenue of influence that should be explored for its implications in apologetics. To do this, the research explores themes highlighting the transition between postmodernism and metamodernism by comparing the films Toy Story (1995) and The Lego Movie (2014). The project figures characters in Toy Story as representing the shift from modernism to postmodernism, while characters in The …

From Procurement To Personhood: Ai Governance, Constitutional Order, & The Human Person, Dawn Sutherland

Liberty University Research Week

Artificial intelligence (AI), commercial data brokerage, and administrative data fusion have advanced more rapidly than constitutional doctrine and public policy have adapted. This presentation argues that certain forms of identity-linked data, including biometric, genetic, geolocation, behavioral, and health information, should not be treated as constitutionally available to the state simply because they are commercially available in the market. Such data disclose intimate features of embodied life, relational identity, and personal vulnerability, placing personhood itself within the reach of procurement and administrative power.

The analysis begins with three contemporary developments: the Pentagon’s coercive pressure on Anthropic after the company refused unrestricted …

Deaf Development In The Church: The Importance Of Deaf-Led Ministries, Emma Chupp

Liberty University Research Week

This study examines the lived experiences of Deaf pastors across the United States to identify gaps of resources and technical Deaf ministry training and better understand how dDeaf pastors are being equipped to lead dDeaf churches. For the purposes of this study the capitalization of Deaf refers to culturally deaf individuals and the term dDeaf refers to the entire dDeaf and Hard-of-Hearing community. In the United States and around the globe, it is common for the dDeaf community to be excluded from mainstream Christian churches – not out of intention but cultural differences. Traditional hearing churches are not accessible nor …

Integrating Traditional Samoan Music With School-Aged Children In Fostering Culturally Appropriate Behaviors Within The Framework Of Fa'afaletui And Multimodal Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Stormi Rachelle Winscot

Theses and Dissertations

Fa’aSamoa, the cultural framework shaping Samoan values, relationships, and daily life, deeply informs educational experiences in American Samoa. Music, as both cultural expression and communal practice, offers a powerful lens through which student engagement can be understood. This exploratory study employed multimodal interpretative phenomenological analysis (MMIPA), guided by the Fa’afaletui framework, to examine how Samoan and Pacific Islander students responded in embodied ways to traditional Samoan, culturally adapted Western, and other Western (folk, classical, pop) music in classroom settings. Drawing on focus group interviews and systematic observations, the study centered students’ movement, vocal expression, rhythmic participation, and peer interaction as …

Cv: Carlene Sipma (Sociology), Carlene Sipma

Sociology Department Faculty Curricula Vitae

No abstract provided.

An Etruscan Life And Death: 2025 Findings From The Valle Gianni Archaeological Site, Skye Mccord

Exceptional Scholarship & Artistry

The site of Valle Gianni, part of The Northwest Bolsena Archaeological Project, is located on the northwest lakefront of Lake Bolsena, and harbors many Roman and Etruscan archaeological findings dating back to the late Iron Age. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the cultural traditions of the Etruscans, their place in the wider Mediterranean during the late Iron Age into Classical antiquity, and the changes to both physical landscapes and cultural landscapes after their conquest by the Romans. The site of Valle Gianni acts as a case study in the dynamics of colonization and the repurposing of sacred …

Cosmopolitical Trans-Temporalities: Relational Landscapes, Shamanism And Indigenous Futurism In Southeast Asia, Ivan Tacey

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

In Southeast Asia, Indigenous worlds have long been shaped through entanglements with outsiders. But how do such relations intersect with shamanic, place-making, and mythopoetic practices? This paper explores how the cosmopolitical engagements of the Batek of Malaysia unsettle colonial mappings of land, history, and identity, while creating space to contest environmental degradation, economic marginalisation, and political exclusion. It traces how origin myths are tied to land claims, how animist imaginations echo pre-colonial and colonial encounters, and how cosmopolitical practices appropriate foreign imagery and transform traumatic histories. Rather than viewing Indigenous actors as locked in the past–or cosmopolitics as a clash …

Gathering Places: Indigenous Resources, Economies, And Diplomacy In The Northeastern Great Plains, 1650 – 1806 Ce, Matthew D. Busch

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Centuries before European arrival in the Great Plains region of North America, Indigenous exchange networks connected people within the continental interior to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Gulf Coast. Throughout this vast Native Space, Indigenous peoples sought new resources and opportunities to create sustainable and successful lifeways by harnessing the spiritual, economic, and political power of place as they journeyed across the landscape.

The Coteau des Prairies centrally located between the Missouri, Mississippi, and Hudson's Bay watersheds within the Northeastern Great Plains represents a unique place of power. This imposing glacially modified landscape characterized by numerous lakes, fertile …

Pengantar Dari Editor Vol. 16 No. 1 (April) 2026, Rahayu Surtiati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This edition of Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya Vol. 16 No. 1 (2026) presents a range of studies that affirm culture as a dynamic domain continuously shaped by processes of negotiation, transformation, and reinterpretation across diverse social, historical, and political contexts. The articles explore the creation and innovation of artistic practices as representations of collective identity, the dialectics between preservation and renewal of tradition, and the strategic role of culture in national development. In addition, issues of historiography and colonial legacy are examined through postcolonial perspectives that offer new readings of Indonesian art, while discussions on values and social structures address …

Kesejahteraan Sosial Dan Pluralisme Hukum Suatu Tinjauan Sosial Terhadap Masalah Hukum, Suiistyowati Irianto

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Social Media Roi: A Case For Reconceptualisation, Daniel Nkrumah, Rose Adjei Asamoah, Roselyn Tanowaa Tanor

Global Advances in Business Communication

Return on Investment (ROI) is a valuable business parameter that measures profitability following an investment. For many corporate organisations, ROI is vital, and in corporate communication, Return on Investment indicates whether advertising and promotional activities are generating the required sales lift. This paper assesses the concept of ROI in corporate communications, with a particular focus on social media Coca Cola. The question that is asked is whether the social media advertising and promotional activities are producing the required sales lift. Using selected case studies, the paper examines the impact of social media promotional activities on the sales and patronage of …

Highway 3: Microscopic And Elemental Analyses Of Plaster From The Byzantine Levigation Pool Complex, Svetlana Gasanova, Davida Eisenberg-Degen

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Microscopic and elemental analyses were employed on two plaster samples from the Byzantine levigation pools uncovered in the Highway 3 excavations. While the mineral composition of the samples was broadly similar, differences in flakiness and aggregate content imply variations in materials and techniques, indicating different construction or repair phases.

Highway 3: Modern Ammunition, Assaf Peretz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This article presents an analysis of modern ammunition artifacts connected to World War I military operations, uncovered during excavations along Highway 3 near es-Sawafir el-Gharbiya. The finds include British and Ottoman cartridges and spent cartridges and an Ottoman hand grenade, linked to troop movements and engagements during the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s pursuit of retreating Ottoman forces following the third battle of Gaza in November 1917. The study contextualizes these artifacts within the operational history of the Australian Mounted Corps and Ottoman defensive actions. Additionally, the article discusses ammunition from the 1948 War of Independence found at the site, highlighting …

Highway 3: Mollusks From Byzantine–Early Islamic Contexts, Inbar Ktalav

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This report discusses 24 bivalve remains retrieved from various fills. Most of the assemblage (twenty specimens) is comprised of the Nilotic bivalve Chambardia rubens, followed by two valves of the Mediterranean bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis, one local freshwater bivalve Unio mancus and one Scaphopoda Antalis inaequicostata. The malacological evidence implies geographical connections with both the Mediterranean coast and the Nile region during the Byzantine–Early Islamic period. Most of the assemblage consists of nacreous shells, which may have been used in the inlay industry or as food items.

Highway 3: Faunal Remains From Byzantine, Byzantine–Early Islamic And Ottoman Contexts, Lee Perry-Gal

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

A faunal assemblage of 174 identified animal bones was recovered from excavations along Highway 3, mainly from Byzantine and Byzantine–Early Islamic and Ottoman contexts, with a small contribution from Late Roman strata. The remains originate primarily from refuse pits and from industrial-agricultural installations, including reservoirs, ovens and silos. The assemblage was analyzed using a diagnostic zone recording system, standard osteological identification, age-at-death assessment and detailed taphonomic analysis. The Byzantine and Byzantine–Early Islamic assemblages are dominated by caprines, mainly sheep, followed by pigs, equids and cattle, with minor representation of chicken and camel. Caprine mortality profiles indicate mainly mature individuals, suggesting …

Highway 3: The Coins, Gabriela Bijovsky

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This is a modest group of coins that span interruptedly a period from the first century CE to the first half of the sixth century CE. The earliest coin, dated to Antiochus IV, is a residual find, and the latest coin is an Abbasid fals. Most coin types are conventional. The fact that four chi-rho pentanummia imitations were discovered strengthens the suggestion that these poorly-preserved coins were minted in the area of modern Ashqelon.

Highway 3: The Glass Finds, Tamar Winter

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The glass finds from the excavation along Highway 3 include a single cast bowl of the late Hellenistic–Early Roman periods and vessels dated to the Late Roman−early Byzantine, Byzantine and late Byzantine–Early Islamic periods. Additionally, the excavation yielded Late Islamic–Ottoman-period glass bracelets, as well as various beads. Especially noteworthy are a Byzantine-period cylindrical beaker, which complements the only other documented example from Israel, and a trough-shaped bar, for which no analogous examples from other excavations have been located so far. Furthermore, the number, variety and quality of the Late Islamic–Ottoman-period bracelets are notable, as not many such finds have been …

Highway 3: The Late Ottoman Ceramics, Anna De Vincenz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

A small, ceramic vessel assemblage dated to the late Ottoman period is presented here. The assemblage consists of household ceramics, including a variety of Black Gaza Ware vessels and handmade cooking pots. A rather large number of probably locally made ceramic smoking pipes are also part of this assemblage.

Highway 3: Late Persian, Hellenistic And Roman Pottery, Ilan Peretz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The pottery in this report was recovered from the salvage excavation along Highway 3, at the former Ottoman villages of es-Sawafir el-Gharbiya and es-Sawafir esh-Sharqiya. The finds presented here date from the late Persian, Hellenistic and Roman period. The Roman pottery is attributed to the late first–second centuries CE and includes fine wares (mainly ESA), cooking vessels and imported amphorae and lamps.

Highway 3: The Iron Age Pottery, Svetlana Talis

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The excavations along Highway 3 yielded pottery from the Iron Age. The finds were retrieved from fills without clear stratigraphic context, and no architectural remains from the Iron Age were identified. The vessels are therefore presented chronologically, dating from the Iron Age IIA and IIB (tenth–eighth centuries BCE), based on parallels from sites in Judaea, the Shephelah and the southern coastal plain, such as Tel Lakhish, Tel Batash, Tel es-Safi and Tel Ashdod. The Iron Age IIA pottery comprises Philistine-style kraters and chalices, while the Iron Age IIB artifacts include open, rounded and carinated bowls, cooking pots and holemouth jars. …

Highway 3: Architectural Remains From The Late Hellenistic, Late Roman–Early Islamic And Late Ottoman Periods, Davida Eisenberg-Degen

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Excavations along Highway 3 revealed intermittent occupation, with remains from the late Hellenistic, Late Roman, Byzantine–Early Islamic and Ottoman periods, as well as earlier unstratified pottery from Iron Age II. The late Hellenistic period is represented by a winepress, likely associated with a rural farmstead. A winepress and a hypocaust, dated to the Late Roman–early Byzantine periods, may reflect the expansion of the settlement exposed in previous excavations to the east of the present excavation. Byzantine–Early Islamic remains include pottery-production facilities comprising potter’s wheels, levigation pools and slags. The latest remains date to the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries (late Ottoman period), reflecting …

Benchmarking Digitalized Innovation In Business Strategy Across Msmes, Shyam Sundar. S, Uma Raman. M, Shanmuga Priya. G, C. M. Sudha Arogya Mary

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The contemporary globally interconnected economy is fundamentally changing international trade and opening up new prospects for businesses, particularly Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs). The basic concept of global business is changing in the modern world due to the digital environment. To preserve their competitive advantage both domestically and internationally, businesses must look for new opportunities. Since the usage of digital technology is causing entrepreneurial processes to become more fluid and irregular over time and space, our research chose a conceptual approach to examine how the digitalization of MSMEs would benefit decision-makers in global organizations. Using a conceptual approach, as …

Accounting For Non-Monetary Exchange: A Systematic Review Of Barter Literature From Colonial Ledgers To Digital Economies, Christian Timotius Peilouw, Unti Ludigdo, Imam Subekti, Yeney Widya Prihatiningtias

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Non-monetary exchange systems persist throughout human history, challenging assumptions about monetary dominance and revealing fundamental limitations in conventional accounting frameworks. This systematic literature review examines how accounting practices adapt to and shape non-monetary exchange across diverse historical and contemporary contexts, investigating patterns in accounting practices, challenges to conventional theory, and implications for economic resilience. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review analyzed 28 peer-reviewed articles from 1979 to 2025 identified through Scopus database searches combining barter-related and accounting terms. The analysis reveals four major themes: historical foundations showing sophisticated proto-banking systems in colonial America that operated without currency; crisis-driven alternatives demonstrating how …

Engaging Young People In Sustainable Finance: Opening Up Opportunities For Transformation, Allison Guerette

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The field of sustainable finance could benefit from more meaningful engagement with young people, who offer a unique perspective and have a vested interest in addressing climate change and other global issues that will shape their future. In this post-qualitative study, three young people document what they see, hear, and experience as they attend a symposium for experts on sustainable finance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. These raw tellings are used in the cocreation of a youth sustainable finance assemblage and analysis tool, which the young people then apply to the Return on Sustainable Investment (ROSI™) methodology. Relationality, …

The Globe Spins Faster; We Keep Providing Clearer Interpretive Snapshots, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Zeynep Ozdamar Ertekin, Delphine Godefroit-Winkel

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Dissecting Word And Song: Observing The Interplay Between Linguistic Analysis And Ethnomusicology, Dashiell Elliot Schindler

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Ethnomusicology is a subfield within cultural ethnography that aims to provide detailed, descriptive analysis on contemporary music culture, applying cross cultural comparison to trace musical lineages and identify sounds significant to a select society. The field serves as an interdisciplinary measure to accurately index musical styles that serve as a cultural marker to the heritage to which they are ascribed. Linguistic analysis aspires to many of the same goals. It is one of the four major disciplines within anthropology, and has its sights focused critically on the examination of language in its spoken form. Linguists apply research methods such as …

“The Real Guards Are The Jungle And The Sea”: The History Of Island Prisons As Landscapes Of Fear And Discipline For Migrants, Dissidents, And Others, From Devil’S Island To The Contemporary United States, Iliana Capozzoli

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

By the 1850s, France established the infamous “Devil’s Island” penal colony in tropical French Guiana, an isolating place of punishment described as “the dry guillotine,” where the commandant would declare, “the real guards here are the jungle and the sea.” Upon being "freed," convicts were required to stay and work to build the "colony." Decades later, France would later send Vietnamese and Algerian political dissidents to the prison, which remained open until 1938. The threat of being sentenced to offshore detention has endured. Refugees crossing the Mediterranean are kept by the European Union on island sites, while Australia has received …

How Racism Affects Immigrants At The Us-Mexican Border, Meghan Schaeffer

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

In recent years, the United States has been cracking down on immigration control, its political actions enforced by growing anti-Mexican sentiments that initially gained traction during the Great Depression. In March of 2025 I took a trip down to El Paso, TX to learn about the US-Mexican border crisis. I stayed with a refugee safehouse and listened to court officials, border patrol agents, immigration lawyers, and a number of refugees who had recently crossed the border and were in the process of applying for citizenship. The unjust and horrific stories I heard from all sides of the crisis were extremely …