Digital Commons Network^™

Editorial: Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare And Wellness — Emerging Frameworks, Intelligent Monitoring, And Precision Medicine, Sellappan Palaniappan

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

AI is changing our understanding of health and health-care systems in ways that go beyond the traditional one-click-fits-all approach to care. It is also making care more personalised than ever before, with delivery occurring on an ongoing basis and at all times. The six papers in this special issue of the Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering will give you a clear view of where we are headed. They examine several different areas, including: monitoring chronic illness through wearable technology; using deep learning techniques for contactless heart monitoring via rPPG; developing new cancer risk models; identifying neuroplasticity therapeutic pathways using …

Synthetic Data Generation For Healthcare And Wellness: Methods, Applications, And Future Directions, Sellappan Palaniappan, Kasthuri Subaramaniam, Oras Baker, Bui Ngoc Dung, Sumit Dhariwal

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Artificial intelligence in healthcare relies heavily upon the availability of high-quality datasets, but very rigid privacy regimes, institutional silos, ethical issues, and heterogeneous data still serve to limit the availability of real-world clinical data. To combat these limitations, you focus on synthetic data generation as a privacy-preserving and scalable alternative to traditional data generation for healthcare and wellness studies. More relevant is a work on a broad and clear framework of synthesis methods based on statistical modelling, rule-based generation and domain-specific clinical logic, in contrast to recent studies that mainly target sophisticated methods for the deep learning architectures. The paper …

Ai-Powered Continuous Health Monitoring For Chronic Disease Management In Malaysia: Real-Time Risk Prediction Using Wearable Sensors And Digital Biomarkers, Umi Najiah Ahmad Razimi, Yong Yoke Leng, Nor Hapiza Mohd Ariffin, Mohammed Hazim Alkawaz

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, make up a significant portion of the mortality cases in Malaysia, as well as impose consistent demands for costs related to health care expenditure. According to the cost reports at the national level, major NCDs (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer) are responsible for RM 9.65 billion annually as direct healthcare cost [3]. However, the current approach to managing chronic diseases focuses heavily on periodic assessments in clinic setting at weekly or monthly intervals. Here, a predictive analysis framework based on AI technology, leveraging continuous monitoring with patient data …

An Ai-Based Framework For Heart–Brain–Body Coherence In Wellness Monitoring: A Longitudinal Simulation Study, Asiah Lokman, Akalpita Tendulkar, Yujiao Zhang, Mantena Sireesha

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Present wellness monitoring systems primarily emphasize single-modality metrics, neglecting the intricate, interdependent interactions among cardiac, neural, and behavioral regulatory systems. This paper introduces a machine learning framework that implements heart–brain–body coherence as a dynamic, longitudinally evaluated wellness metric. In contrast to previous simulation-based studies that utilized independently generated, cross-sectional data categorized by deterministic IF-THEN rules, the current study adopts a longitudinal simulation design featuring 80 virtual subjects monitored across 30 consecutive daily profiles (N=2,400 records). This design incorporates physiologically realistic inter-variable correlations and probabilistic coherence labelling derived from a continuous risk-scoring function. The subject-level train/test split (56 training subjects, 1,680 …

Intelligent Telemedicine Systems For Contactless Heart Rate Estimation Using Deep Learning-Based Rppg, Do Duc Thinh, Nguyen Duc Manh, Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Vu Van Huan

Journal of Informatics and Web Engineering

Over the last ten years, telemedicine has undergone significant developments, from simple communication-based healthcare to smart and data-driven solutions. The solutions are now powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) technologies. Physiological monitoring is traditionally done with contact-based sensors. The sensors include Electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse oximeters. The sensors have various disadvantages, including hardware costs, difficulty in continuous usage, and discomfort for patients. Photoplethysmography (rPPG), a remote method of physiological monitoring, is a breakthrough technology. The method is used to estimate physiological signals, including Heart Rate (HR), from video streams captured by standard …

Users’ Searching Preferences In Accessing The E-Library Resources Of The Federal University Of Lafia, Nigeria, Alice Olije Odu, Samuel Otsonu Aboh, Olumide Johnson Akanmidu, Grace Sewuese Ape

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Online information activities in the academic environment keeps getting better and easier thanks to the internet that forms part of regular source of connection between users and other information resources. Access to e- library resources are normally via computers and mobile technologies using local network or the internet connection. This makes searching from e-library resource more appealing to academic library users. However, libraries still experiencing low users’ patronage with the e-resource collection, hence this study is undertaken to ascertain the searching preference by the Students of the Federal University of Lafia to help devise better ways of meeting their information …

Why Student Research Matters: A Graduate Student’S Perspective, Jessica L. Hensley

The Journal of Integrative Physiology

Research fundamentally changes how students engage with knowledge. Rather than memorizing established facts, students learn to question, analyze, and contribute to the body of knowledge within their field (1). This shift supports deeper understanding and promotes critical thinking skills by encouraging active construction of knowledge (1). It also exposes students to the process of engaging with scientific literature and integrating information within the context of their research (2).

In my experience, research requires individuals to confront uncertainty. Experiments do not always produce exact results, and methods can require modification. Through this process, students develop adaptability, persistence, and the ability to …

A Poet Bears Witness: An Interview With M. L. Williams On The Function Of Literary Studies In Troubled Times, Leah Toth, M. L. Williams

Critical Humanities

Dr. M. L. (Marty) Williams is a poet and professor of literature at Valdosta State University, a comprehensive university in south-central Georgia. He is the author of Game (What Books Press 2021), Other Medicines (Redbone Chapbooks 2008) and co-editor of How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets (Roundhouse Press 2001). The focus of the interview that follows is the future of literary studies in the modern neo-liberal university, a daunting topic in 2026, in the face of what many administrators refer to as the "right-sizing" of literature programs nationwide in both the U.S. and the U.K. Anybody paying attention to the …

An Interview With Mohammed Bennis, Mohammed Bennis, Amine Oudghiri-Otmani

Critical Humanities

An Interview with Mohammed Bennis

Submitted: April 4, 2026

Accepted: May 24, 2026

Implementing 21st Century Skills In Quranic Education: A Case Study Of Sub-Saharan African Students Within Quranic Schools In The Souss Region Of Morocco, Ahmed Abaragh, Lahoussine Hamdoune

Critical Humanities

To help Sub-Saharan African students meet their needs in a globalized era, this article seeks to shed light on the essence of integrating or implementing 21st century skills into Quranic education within the Quranic schools in the Souss region of Morocco. The choice of southern Moroccan Quranic Schools, as the research area is due to its historically vibrant culture and the high-quality training provided by well-versed teachers and jurists. Based on the social ecology of human development theory with the use of a qualitative approach, the analysis highlights the prominent role of implementing critical thinking and problem-solving, communication and collaboration, …

Human Wisdom And Artificial Intelligence: Role Of Liberal Arts Education In A Neoliberal World, Purna Chandra Bhusal

Critical Humanities

Neoliberalism is an economic and political ideology that originated in the 1930s and 40s, gained momentum in the late 70s and 80s, and peaked in the 90s and 2000s. Since its inception, neoliberalism has promoted a free-market economy with minimal state intervention, granting individuals the freedom to compete and succeed. Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, the neoliberal system has invested in, incorporated, and promoted Artificial Intelligence (AI), valuing an AI-enhanced corporate ethos. As a result, the success of higher education is generally measured by the quantity of technologically sound, market-ready, AI-trained human capital it produces for industry. …

Why Literature Matters: Perpetrator Portrayal, Cultural Imaginaire And Poetry Of The Taliban, Inayat Ullah

Critical Humanities

The question of how perpetrators of violence are identified, represented and understood has become a central concern of Perpetrator Studies, an interdisciplinary field that emerged in the early twenty-first century. This article analyzes The Poetry of the Taliban in a bid to examine how the selected poems construct and negotiate multiple figurations of the perpetrator rather than presenting it as a singular or fixed category. While the poems frequently identify perpetrator through recognizable political, military and ideological structures, they also reveal the complexities involved in reducing the perpetrator to a clearly identifiable form or kind. In exploring these tensions, the …

Enhancing Access And Social Mobility: Metro State University's Liberal Arts Mission In Action, Kristen Lillvis, Kate Ries

Critical Humanities

This article examines how a liberal arts framework has guided Metropolitan State University’s responses to political, financial, and social pressures on higher education. Drawing on the university’s history as an access-oriented, urban institution, the authors present two case studies—the North Star Promise scholarship and emergency grant funding—to demonstrate how mission-driven investments in students’ basic needs advance social mobility and strengthen institutional sustainability. The authors argue that prioritizing student supports, including those available through short-term or contingent opportunities, yields long-term benefits for learners, their communities, and the university.

Submitted: April 13, 2026

Accepted: May 21, 2026

Literature Carries Philosophy’S Open Secret: On Derrida’S Reading Of Romeo And Juliet, Rajesh Sampath

Critical Humanities

This paper attempts a close reading of Derrida’s texts, particularly with a focus on his brief but significant reading of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet in “Aphorism Countertime” (originally published in French in 1986). We compare this short work with his more sustained engagement with the philosophy of death in Aporias (1993), which itself is an attempted critique of Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927); the latter is, arguably, the most influential work of twentieth-century continental European philosophy, particularly on issues of time, death, and authentic life. The paper tries to show that a fruitful engagement between philosophy and …

Defending The Humanities: Introduction To The Special Issue On “Why The Humanities Matter”, Megan Hutchinson

Critical Humanities

Introduction to the Special Issue

Defending the Humanities: “why the Humanities Matter”

Evaluating The Impact Of Early Contractor Involvement On Enhancing The Performance Of Construction Projects In Egypt, Samah Saleh Abdelraof, Ayman Ahmed Ezzat Othman, Lamees Mostafa Ahmed

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The construction industry constitutes a critical pillar of Egypt’s national economic growth and sustainable development. Despite its strategic importance, the sector continues to face persistent challenges, including chronic cost overruns, schedule delays, and inadequate coordination among stakeholders. These inefficiencies are largely attributed to the dominance of the traditional Design–Bid–Build (DBB) system, which enforces a rigid separation between design and construction, fostering adversarial relationships and project disputes, which highlights the need for alternative procurement approaches. This research investigates the impact of Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) as a collaborative procurement alternative to enhance project performance. Case studies show that ECI improves early-stage …

From Principal To Behavioral Health Ceo: Lessons Schools Must Learn About Student Mental Health, Anthony S. Felder

Essays in Education

Schools across the United States are increasingly functioning as front-line mental health systems, often without adequate preparation, staffing, or clinical training. This essay draws on the author's lived experience as a former school principal, doctoral scholar in educational leadership, licensed clinical social worker, and current behavioral health chief executive officer to examine the intersection of K-12 education and youth mental health. Grounded in trauma-informed care, restorative practice, and family-centered systems of support, the essay presents five evidence-based lessons that school leaders must consider to meet students' evolving social-emotional needs. These lessons address the limitations of punitive discipline, the urgent need …

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Black Women College Leaders: Reflections On Support, Amplifiers, Barriers, And Success As Leaders In Higher Education, Katherine L. Acevedo

Student Theses

Black women have had to deal with the “double jeopardy” of race and gender in higher education for centuries (Khosroshahi, 2021). This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of Black women serving in senior-level leadership roles within institutions of higher education (IHEs) in New York State. Utilizing aspects of phenomenological methodology informed by Black Feminist Thought (BFT) (Collins, 1989, 2000, 2022), this study amplifies the voices of Black women senior-level leaders, centering their narratives to understand how race and gender shape their professional journeys, challenges, and strategies for success. Ten participants, all self-identified Black women with at least 3 years …

Hypothesis: Ai Changes Everything—Findings From The Elite Lab, Shara W. Gonzalez

Teaching & Learning with AI

This presentation outlines an experimental, faculty-centered approach to integrating AI into teaching and learning at Miami Herbert Business School. Grounded in a strategic goal to deliver personalized, technology-enhanced education by 2029, it presents a framework built on lowering barriers to faculty adoption through targeted entry points, hands-on workshops, pilot programs, and iterative experimentation. The work emphasizes supporting instructors across varying levels of readiness, using data collection (e.g., faculty engagement and survey feedback) to inform continuous improvement. Findings suggest that structured support and experimentation can increase AI integration in course design and better prepare students for AI-influenced professional environments.

Semantic Directing: A Human-Ai Workflow For Interative Virtual Cinematography, Lejie Liu

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis presents AI Director, a Unity-based prototype for semantic directing in virtual cinematography. The system enables creators to describe cinematic intent in natural language, receive editable shot-strategy plans generated by a large language model, and refine specific shots through text and visual references. By separating semantic planning from deterministic camera execution, the workflow keeps user authorship centered on shot intent while making the resulting camera plans inspectable, editable, and executable in real time. This work explores semantic directing as a human-AI workflow for iterative cinematic authoring in dynamic 3D scenes.

Mothers’ Childhood Maltreatment And Developmentally Appropriate Attributions Of 12-Month-Old Infants, Katelyn M. Lamberton

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This study examined associations between developmentally appropriate attributions (DAAs), an understudied construct, with maternal history of childhood maltreatment and maternal reflective functioning (RF) with their 12-month-old infants. The study examined if 1) DAAs at 12 months were concurrently associated with parental RF at 12 months for construct validity, and 2) higher levels of maternal childhood maltreatment were associated with lower DAAs for predictive validity. Participants were 156 mothers (40.0% White, 25.5% Latinx, 14.9% Black, 5.5% Asian, 2.1% Native-American, 12.0% biracial/multiracial) and their 12- to 15-month infants. Childhood maltreatment and RF were assessed by parental self-report at three-months and 12-months postpartum …

The Contentious Politics Of Abortion: Understanding The Black Protests And Women’S Strikes In Poland, Taubie Sanders

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In 1993, the Polish Parliament, the Sejm, passed a law called ‘The Abortion Compromise’ permitting abortion only in cases when there is a serious threat to the life or health of the woman, pregnancy is the result of a crime, or prenatal tests show the fetus to be severely or incurably damaged. The current abortion laws in Poland are the most restrictive in all of Europe. Poland’s abortion laws have undergone much contestation in recent years. In 2016, the Black Protests erupted across the country in opposition to a proposed total ban on abortion. In 2020, the Women’s Strikes commenced …

Trans And Gender Diverse Experiences With Healthcare Professionals, Victor N. Soto

University Honors Theses

There is a history of state powers working against the interest of Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) people, but since the second Trump election attacks on TGD have reached a new precedent; this suggests the state is engaging in necropolitical actions to gain and maintain power. To better understand how the current climate is impacting TGD people, and add to discussions about TGD-centered healthcare research, this thesis interviewed 15 TGD students from the Portland metro area about their experiences with healthcare providers. All fifteen of the interviews were transcribed and coded. Four primary themes were found: 1) bad provider experience; …

The Tagamo3 Accent: Linguistic Stylization, Enregisterment, And Social Meaning In Egyptian Digital Discourse, Jannah M. Abdelaziz

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the Tagamo3 Accent (TA), a socially recognizable speech style associated with elite urban Egyptian identity, through a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis of twelve Egyptian TikTok videos, including both naturally occurring lifestyle and influencer content as well as parody and commentary videos that explicitly imitate, discuss, or evaluate the accent. Drawing on theories of enregisterment (Agha, 2003), stylization (Coupland, 2007), and indexicality (Silverstein, 2003; Eckert, 2008), the study examines how TA is linguistically performed, socially recognized, and ideologically circulated within Egyptian digital spaces. The findings suggest that TA does not function as a structurally bounded dialect or geographically …

Digital Bodily Autonomy: Consent Issues, Labor Displacement, And Legal Understandings Of Ai Generated Deepfake Pornography, Mariah Barrett

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In the United States, nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes are becoming an increasingly prevalent problem as AI deepfake creation software improves and becomes widely available. Despite this, patchwork legislation across the country is inconsistent and conflicting regarding this issue. In this paper, I explore the background of pornography and obscenity laws and demonstrate how these frameworks are not properly constructed to apply to the digital sphere. Then, I address major themes within deepfake literature such as consent issues, bodily autonomy, labor displacement, and verifiable identity as a commodity through the case study of OnlyFans. I explore current and proposed legislation within the …

“Three In A Jeep”: Exploring The Conditions For Successful Peacekeeping Through United Nations Special Political Missions, Audrey Duff

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This thesis examines a specific type of United Nations peacekeeping operation, referred to as Special Political Missions (SPMs) and their progress in transitions from war to peace. While traditional peacekeeping has made advances in separating conflict and human rights development, SPMs provide concentrated specialization in areas, including electoral support, government mediation, and disarmament. Through a structured focus comparison of three unique SPM case studies, this research explores what key dimensions are involved in successful Special Political Missions. By comparing the United Nations Mission in Nepal, United Nations Mission in Colombia, and United Nations Observer Mission in Bougainville, this thesis intends …

Differential Roles Of Moesin And Vasp In Β-Catenin-Associated Networks During Zebrafish Heart Regeneration, Allen Rutman

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

With cardiovascular disease remaining as the leading cause of mortality worldwide, it is largely due to the limited regenerative capacity of the human heart. However, zebrafish (Danio rerio) can fully regenerate cardiac tissue following injury, providing a valuable model for studying the mechanisms of heart repair. To investigate these mechanisms, we used proteomics methods in the past. Proximity labeling is a technique that identifies proteins based on their physical proximity to a protein of interest. It can be applied in organisms and in living cells (Roux et al., 2012; Cho et al., 2020). We used proximity labeling to characterize protein …

Welsh, British, And Argentine: Identities Of Convenience In The Welsh Colonies Of Patagonia, Benjamin Welch

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In this thesis, I examine the Welsh colonies in Patagonia (in Welsh, Y Wladfa) and how the Welsh negotiated their complex identity. Founded in 1865 as a nationalist project intended to preserve Welsh language, culture, and religion, the colony faced extreme hardships and was forced to ask for help. Drawing on British, Welsh and Argentine sources, I argue that Welsh colonists adopted a pragmatic approach to identity, emphasizing their Welshness, Britishness, or Argentinity as needed. While this flexibility was necessary for the colony to survive, it undermined the original goal of a Welsh homeland free of outside influence. Ultimately, the …

Industrial Democracy: Unionization, Power, And Control In Rockefeller’S Southern Colorado, Ava Welty

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

By 1914, democracy was clearly connected to America’s political ethos, and Wilson and Frank Walsh only amplified the term. Against this backdrop, labor and CF&I sought to define their movement as aligned with the national project of industrial democracy, despite having divergent understandings of the term. CF&I and Rockefeller built upon decades of social betterment, in addition to new ideas of company unionism to create their definition of industrial democracy, while workers returned to union recognition as a tool of power to construct their definition of industrial democracy. This paper argues that conflicting definitions of industrial democracy after the Ludlow …

Universal Communications Module: Converting Ieee2030.5 Xml Files To Ansi/Cta-2045, Wyatt Bilodeaux

University Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to discuss the method and organization of the Universal Communication module capstone project. This project was part of the Portland State University Electrical engineering degree program. While this thesis is part of the University honors curriculum. This thesis goes into detail about team structure and how a 9 person engineering capstone project was managed and organized. It looks at how we broke down the project into sections to be able to properly distribute our resources. This was one of the earliest and most important challenges that this capstone team had to tackle. This was …