Digital Commons Network^™

Chattla+ - Can Llms Write Correct Tla+ Specifications?, Eric Spencer

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

TLA+ is a programming language used by companies like Amazon and Microsoft to mathematically prove a system is correct via specifications. We evaluate 30 LLMs on 205 public TLA+ specifications, achieving only 8.6% semantic correctness. Model size doesn't predict quality, DeepSeek r1:8B outperforms it's 70B variant. ChatTLA+, our fine-tuned GPT-OSS-20B model, uses TLC model checking as a path toward reliable formal specification synthesis through reinforcement learning.

Evaluating Movement-Based Detection Of Moose Calving Using Gps Collar Data, Lauren A. Beck

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Moose (Alces alces) give birth during a short seasonal window and exhibit distinct changes in movement behavior, including long-distance travel followed by a period of localized movement while caring for newborn calves. Previous research has shown that these patterns can be identified using GPS collar data; however, it remains unclear whether movement data alone can reliably predict calving events. This study evaluated whether movement-based metrics derived from processed GPS collar data from the 2013 calving season could be used to develop a predictive model for calving. Movement data were compiled into a dataset of daily movement features and event-level summaries, …

Fact Or Fiction? The Relationship Between Fake News Recognition And Political Polarization, Kate Diedrich

Research & Creative Achievement Day

This study examines the relationship between media consumption, the ability to identify fake news, and levels of polarization. Data will be collected through a survey measuring demographic characteristics, primary sources of political news, and participants’ ability to distinguish between real and fake news. The study seeks to analyze how media exposure and misinformation may influence political polarization. Intervening variables such as age, level of education, and use of a convenience sample will be considered in interpreting the results. All data collected for this study is anonymous.

Moving And Grooving: Staying Safe, Active, And Connected, Seth J. Brewers, Norah Clough, Megan Hefti, Sydney Kiefer, Abigail Knoernschild, Jessica Miley, Boyd Skelley, Gavyn Soderstrom

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Background: The Holmen Area Community Center (HACC) is a community-based organization whose mission is to facilitate opportunities and interactions that connect all generations. Nursing students at Winona State University offered wellness checks for community members, mainly older adults, which included blood pressure screening, foot care, fall risk assessments, hearing checks, memory screens, and gentle shoulder massages. During these experiences, community members and staff requested more information and interactive sessions focused on safety education, disease prevention, wellness promotion, and emergency preparedness. Problem Statement/Purpose: Recent feedback showed a growing demand for interactive sessions and support that builds confidence in managing health needs …

Design And Fabrication Of A Composite Torpedo Baseball Bat, Peyton A. Lee, Carter Mathison, Jaden J. Schwantz, Noah Misukanis, Cole V. Stalberger

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Observing current trends in Major League Baseball, there has been increasing interest in torpedo-style wood bats due to their unique weight distribution. Unlike traditional bat geometries, the torpedo design shifts more weight toward the hands, improving balance and allowing for greater control throughout the swing. This project applies the same concept using composite materials so that high school and college players can also have access to this design innovation. The proposed bat is constructed from carbon fiber reinforced polymer with an epoxy resin to create a lightweight and durable structure. The design aims to maintain the performance benefits of the …

Indigenous Māori Defend Digital Sovereignty Over Big Tech’S Free Trade Rules, Jane Kelsey

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

In 2016, Indigenous Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand challenged the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (‘TPPA’) for breaching the colonial government (Crown) obligations to them under the 1840 Tiriti o Waitangi. This was lodged before a Tribunal particularly established to inquire into such breaches. In 2021, the Tribunal upheld that claim, finding that the TPPA e-commerce provisions failed to protect Māori identity and Indigenous knowledge. Since then, the Crown and Māori have sought means to reconcile these competing paradigms within the unequal power relations of a colonial government and Indigenous Peoples – denied the sovereignty affirmed to them in 1840. This case …

The Role Of Ai In Judicial Translation: Ensuring Access To Justice In Vernacular Languages, With Special Reference To Marathi, Bhushan Raut

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper examines the role of artificial intelligence in judicial translation to enhance access to justice in India’s multilingual legal system, with a specific focus on Marathi. It situates judicial translation within the constitutional framework and Rule of Law theory, arguing that linguistic accessibility is essential to legal agency and fairness. Through doctrinal, empirical, and comparative analysis, the paper evaluates initiatives such as SUVAS, highlights gaps in vernacular availability of landmark judgements, and identifies challenges relating to accuracy, accountability, and legal semantics. It proposes a hybrid AI–human model and policy reforms to ensure reliable, scalable, and inclusive translation practices in …

The Illusory Normativity Of Rights-Based Ai Regulation, Yiyang Mei, Matthew Sag

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

Whether and how to regulate AI is now a central question of governance. Across academic, policy, and international legal circles, the European Union is widely treated as the normative leader in this space. Its regulatory framework, anchored in the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services and Markets Acts, and the AI Act, is often portrayed as a principled model grounded in fundamental rights. This Article challenges that assumption. We argue that the rights-based narrative surrounding EU AI regulation mischaracterises the logic of its institutional design. While rights language pervades EU legal instruments, its function is managerial, not foundational. These …

قراءة تحليلية نقدية لمقتضيات المادة ٢٣٥ من قانون الإجراءات المدنية الملغاة ولمقتضيات المادة ٨٥ من اللائحة التنظيمية من قانون الإجراءات المدنية الاتحادي, خالد زاهر

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

This paper addresses one of the conditions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements in the United Arab Emirates, namely verifying the jurisdiction of the foreign court that issued the judgment. In this regard, the UAE Civil Transactions Code provides that the Emirati enforcement judge cannot order the enforcement of a foreign judgment before verifying that the Emirati courts do not enjoy exclusive jurisdiction over the dispute that had led to the issuance of the judgment or the order, and that the foreign court that issued the judgment or the order enjoys jurisdiction under the international jurisdiction rules laid …

في صفة المساهم، في قانون الشركات التجاريّة الإماراتي، بأن يرفع منفرداً دعوى الشركة بالمسؤوليّة المدنيّة ضد أعضاء مجلس إدارة الشركة المساهمة من الصياغة الملتبسة للمادة ١٦٦ سنة ٢٠١٥ الى إشكاليات تعديلات ٢٠٢٠, أنطوان فارس عيد

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

This study dealt, initially in 2018, with a long-running controversial issue in doctrine and case law, namely the determining criterion in civil liability of board members in a joint-stock company allowing to differentiate between the company’s claim that the shareholder can exercise alone (known as ut singuli claim) and the shareholder’s claim to request compensation for his "individual" damage. The new 2015 UAE law for commercial companies has confused, in the wording used in Article 166, between the damage suffered by the company and the "individual" damage suffered by the shareholder. This confusion has been corrected in the amending Law …

Temporal Blind Spot Failure In Serverless Cloud Systems: How Ai Agents Cause Cloud Disasters, Aaron Burton

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure defines and documents Temporal Blind Spot Failure, a recurring agentic AI failure mode in which autonomous AI agents operating inside serverless cloud systems take actions that are locally rational but catastrophic across complex cloud environments. Temporal Blind Spot Failure is distinct from prompt injection, memory poisoning, and output hallucination. It occurs because the agent decides one step at a time and cannot see how its choices compound across the systems those choices touch. This disclosure establishes Temporal Blind Spot Failure as a named category of agentic AI failure modes, describes how it shows up across the model, the …

Integrated Proactive Monitoring And Ai Analysis System For Telecommunications Provisioning, Radley Kneeland, Venkatesh Manian

Defensive Publications Series

Proposed herein is a system that bridges the gap between anomaly detection and root cause analysis by embedding one-click AI diagnosis directly into monitoring alerts and automatically including artificial intelligence (AI)-generated analysis in email notifications. This eliminates the manual, hours-long process of switching between multiple tools to investigate provisioning errors, reducing mean time to resolution from hours to seconds while scaling to millions of events per day.

Usa V. Mychael Saunders

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Beyond The Numbers: Supporting Young Adults With Diabetes In The Transition To Adulthood, Alexis Salkovick

Honors Projects

This project focuses on the transition to adulthood for young people with diabetes, a chronic medical condition. Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are included. The main research focus is two-part: first examining this transition including barriers to health care, changes in lifestyle, and mental health, and then creating a new, innovative tool to support young adults with diabetes. An independent literature review was conducted to investigate diabetes management, barriers to health care, how transitioning to adulthood impacts diabetes care, and the importance of patient support systems. Then, a board game was developed with the dual purpose of educating …

Constitutional Theory At A Catholic University, J. Joel Alicea

Catholic University Law Review

I argue that the study of constitutional theory is ideally suited to benefit from the intellectual climate of a Catholic university. To make that argument, I address three questions. First, in what ways does constitutional theory benefit from the intellectual disposition of a Catholic university? Second, what might be the potential drawbacks or risks involved in studying constitutional theory at a Catholic university? And finally, how can one gain the benefits of being a constitutional theorist at a Catholic university while avoiding any potential risks that attend that setting?

Pektus, Aisha Naz Khan, Aleksei Macatuno, Sylvia Thorton, Maribel Ramirez

Pacific Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit (PIES)

Pectus excavatum, often referred to as "sunken chest," is a structural deformity of the anterior chest wall where the sternum and rib cage grow inward, creating a visible depression. This condition typically becomes more pronounced during adolescent growth spurts and can range from a mild aesthetic concern to a significant physiological impairment. In severe cases, the inward displacement of the breastbone can compress the heart and lungs, leading to decreased cardiovascular efficiency, shortness of breath, and chest pain during physical exertion. Beyond the physical symptoms, the noticeable indentation often results in profound self-consciousness and psychological distress for patients, highlighting a …

Barbell Analysis Module (Bam), Ethan Cole, Shaan Lele, Andy Nguyen, Mari Anderson

Pacific Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit (PIES)

The Barbell Analysis Modules (BAM) are a barbell-mounted motion tracking system designed to analyze lifting form during a barbell squat exercise. Bar path is a crucial indicator of lifting efficiency, yet many tracking systems are expensive or impractical in everyday weight-training environments. BAM was created to provide a small-form-factor and cost-effective solution that can be mounted directly on a standard Olympic barbell to obtain motion-related data during the exercise. The modules are intended to measure bar path straightness, tilt, orientation, and repetition velocity, which will allow barbell users and athletes to gain feedback on their performance and technique. Our design …

Matché, Maria Segovia, Jasmine Stallworth

Pacific Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit (PIES)

Maché is a countertop matcha-making machine designed to deliver a perfect matcha every time. As matcha consumption continues to grow globally, consumers face challenges such as inconsistent preparation, lack of tools, and inconvenience. Traditional matcha preparation requires multiple steps including measuring, whisking, heating water to the correct temperature, and achieving the proper consistency. Many consumers find this process time-consuming and difficult, leading to inconsistent results and reduced adoption. Maché solves this problem by automating the matcha preparation process into a simple “one button” experience. The device integrates a heating system, whisk motor, water pump, and matcha pod system to create …

Recognizing Metaphorical References To Sexual Assault Resistance And Represented Rape Myths In Coraline (2009), Braden Slater

Theses and Dissertations

Is there any value in children’s horror literature and film? Literary theorists have shown that children’s horror is uniquely positioned to be not only captivating and accessible, but also educational and hopeful for some young audience members. Like most fictional monsters, those presented in children’s horror can be read as metaphors for the fears and experiences people face in real life. Scholars have argued that engaging with this type of frightening media may help people confront challenging ideas and feelings from a place of safety. Building on this theoretical foundation, I perform a close reading of the 2009 film Coraline, …

Frozen Identity: How Rigid Conceptions Of Sexuality Endanger Lesbian Asylum Claims, Mariajose De La Hoz

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Bias, stereotypes, and antiquated conceptions of sexual orientation erect systemic barriers for lesbian women seeking asylum in the United States. Decision-makers with a limited understanding of LGBTQI+ identities impose expectations that reinforce stereotypes while discrediting applicants’ lived experiences. This results in adverse credibility determinations that distort evidentiary burdens and deny relief to applicants with legitimate claims. This Note examines how fixed conceptions of identity endanger the asylum process for lesbian women fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation. Proposed solutions include statutory reforms, updated training for asylum officers, and a shift toward evaluating claims through the applicant’s lived experiences rather …

“As Though You Could Never Sink”: Gender Euphoria Through Aquatic Embodiment In The Sun Also Rises, Devan Edwards

Honors Theses

Recent scholarship in disability studies and queer theory (2007-2024) reveals that Jake Barnes's war wound in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises functions as something more complex than tragic loss. This paper argues that Jake's swimming and fishing scenes constitute moments of gender euphoria, a term borrowed from contemporary transgender studies, enabled specifically by aquatic embodiment. In these scenes, water functions as the physical and symbolic medium through which Jake's war-wounded body transcends the performative demands of 1920s heteronormative masculinity. Building on Michael Anesko's provocative reading of Jake as "accidentally transgendered" (Literature and Medicine, 2015) and Martina Kübler's argument that impotence …

Spectator 2026-04-23, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Hazardous Devices Disruptor Field Data Application, Matthew David Abrams

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Apr. 23, 2026, Adb Compliance Review Panel, Comments On Draft Report.Pdf, Ramanie Kunanayagam, Vaideeswaran Sankaran, Inbal Djalovski

Editors' Corner

No abstract provided.

2025 Annual Report, University Of Maine School Of Law

Clinic Annual Report

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 2025: YEAR IN REVIEW

6 GENERAL PRACTICE CLINIC

8 PRISONER ASSISTANCE CLINIC

10 PROTECTION FROM ABUSE PROGRAM

12 REFUGEE AND HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC

14 RURAL PRACTICE CLINIC

16 YOUTH JUSTICE CLINIC

18 CENTER FOR YOUTH POLICY & LAW

20 BUSINESS & LAW CLINIC

22 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

24 DONORS AND FUNDING

26 FACULTY AND STAFF

Institutional Timidity: Reading Len Rubinowitz Toward A Structural Theory Of Civil Rights Enforcement, Sheldon Bernard Lyke

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article first documents institutional timidity in fair housing enforcement through Rubinowitz’s empirical account of HUD and then extends the analysis to higher education admissions. It shows that universities defending affirmative action uniformly adopted the diversity rationale while declining to argue that race-conscious admissions correct for bias embedded in their own criteria. These choices did not merely weaken outcomes; they also helped produce the doctrinal frameworks that later constrained them. In identifying institutional timidity as a mechanism of doctrinal production, this Article extends Rubinowitz’s insights across domains and into constitutional law. It concludes by proposing strategies that shift civil rights …

A Tribute To Len And The Len Way, Monica Llorente

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

“Downstream People:” Lessons From The Tar Creek Superfund Site And Quapaw Nation In Pursuit Of An Environmental Justice-Informed Cercla Regime, Leah Fitter

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) designated Tar Creek, a former productive zinc and lead mining zone located in northeastern Oklahoma on land predominantly owned by the Indigenous Quapaw people, as a Superfund site. Its designation came in the wake of findings in 1980 that drainage and tailings from the site’s mining days had polluted the zone’s surface water into some of the most toxic water in the country. Tar Creek was an environmental justice disaster that disproportionately exposed the historically marginalized Quapaw Nation to hazardous mining waste and resulted in detrimental health impacts. Despite numerous demonstrations …

Federalist Politics And The Elusive Original Meaning Of The Free Exercise Clause, Jack Thorlin

Catholic University Law Review

Originalism requires interpreting the Constitution by reference to a provision’s original public meaning. But there is very little evidence of original public meaning for some constitutional provisions, most notably the Free Exercise Clause. Originalists have splintered into several different methodological approaches toward the Clause. Justices Scalia and O’Connor staked out opposing originalist views on the Clause thirty years ago in Employment Division v. Smith and City of Boerne v. Flores. In the Roberts Court, some of the conservative justices have attempted to apply a simple textualist interpretation of the Clause, but those efforts have not attracted most of the …

Commonsense And Convoluted: Revisiting Scott V. Harris And Its Effect On Summary Judgment, Zachary P. Novak

Catholic University Law Review

The traditional summary judgment standard across state and federal courts has long been that facts are viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmovant; this has developed as both a baseline measure to test whether the claims are even fit for a trial, but also as a measure of fairness – it is the movant who wants to dispose of the case before trial, so this standard gives the nonmovant a more level playing field. However, the Supreme Court decision of Scott v. Harris carved out a unique exception to this standard: when there is video evidence that so …