Digital Commons Network^™

Ambiguity's Final Auer: Insisting On Consistency After Loper Bright Enterprises, Shannon S. Pickrell

Emory Law Journal

Can one lose something they still have? Apart from this potential brainteaser, a common sense understanding of loss requires an item to actually be removed from its owner. Nevertheless, under the United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines, an interpretive rule automatically punishes convicted defendants for money they never took by including “intended loss” in the definition of loss. This interpretive rule multiplies the number of years a defendant spends in prison due to the doctrine of Auer deference, even though such a rule is not supposed to have the weight of law. Auer deference requires courts to defer to agency interpretations …

Coerced Corporate Consent, Jason J. Jarvis

Emory Law Journal

Corporations are not human beings, but they have rights, including the constitutional right of due process. The United States Supreme Court recently held in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. that due process is satisfied when a state requires that a corporation consent to personal jurisdiction before it can conduct business in that state. The Court did not analyze, however, whether such business registration statutes can be coercive and, if so, when. These unanswered questions expose corporations to previously unexplored risks.

Involuntary consent is an oxymoron. Consent must be knowing and voluntary, and consent extracted by threat is coerced and …

Renormalizing The Nondelegation Doctrine, Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr., Hon. A. Richard M. Blaiklock

Emory Law Journal

In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court held that with respect to regulations that involve “major questions”—meaning questions of “great political or economic significance”—the agency seeking to regulate a major question must successfully identify “clear congressional authorization” for its actions. The major questions doctrine (MQD) essentially creates a new nondelegation doctrine rule. The nondelegation doctrine requires that Congress provide an “intelligible principle” when it delegates policymaking authority to a federal administrative agency; the MQD, in turn, enforces the nondelegation doctrine by requiring Congress plainly and directly to authorize an agency to regulate major questions. It is difficult to …

Making Environmental Cancer Risk Legally Visible: Legal Epidemiology, Chemical Regulation, And The Failures Of Cancer Cluster Investigations, Beverley C. Thompson

Emory Law Journal

Environmental cancer risks remain difficult to detect, investigate, and remediate despite decades of federal regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Cancer cluster investigations are designed to identify unusual patterns of cancer and their environmental causes, but fragmented authority, inconsistent methodologies, and narrow investigative frameworks routinely prevent these investigations from addressing population-level harms. By failing to detect and address cancer clusters, public health systems inadvertently perpetuate environmental injustices, disproportionately harming communities already underserved and overburdened by pollution.

These failures are not merely scientific but reflect legal and institutional design choices that determine which cancer risks are visible, investigable, and …

Evolutionary Transitions In Social Behavior Are Associated With Convergent And Partially Reversible Expansions Of Transcription Factor Binding Sites, Savanna G. Ploessl, Beryl M. Jones

Entomology Faculty Publications

The evolution of sociality involves shifts in physiology and behavior, most notably the emergence of a reproductive division of labor. Within social colonies, these distinct behavioral phenotypes arise from differential regulation of a shared genome. Changes in transcription factor (TF) binding motifs are one potential mechanism underpinning this plasticity, with prior studies suggesting that social species exhibit expansions in TF binding sites. However, it remains unclear whether motif expansions are reversed when sociality is lost. Here we analyze predicted TF motif occurrences across gene promoters in 42 bee species spanning millions of years of evolutionary divergence and multiple independent gains …

Best Practices For Budgeting In Small Non-Profit Organizations: The Arts Commission Of Danville/Boyle County, Esther Rugerio

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Nonprofit arts organizations face unique financial management challenges due to limited staffing, restricted funding sources, and fluctuating revenue streams. This thesis examines the Arts Commission of Danville/Boyle County located in Danville, KY. It identifies opportunities to strengthen financial oversight, accountability, and long-term sustainability. Using a qualitative research approach and document-based analysis, the study evaluated organizational budgets, governance documents, and nonprofit financial management best practices.

The findings revealed several areas for improvement, including reliance on line-item budgeting, recurring use of carry-forward funds, limited board financial oversight, fiscal sponsorship complexities, and a lack of formal financial policies. Recommendations include adopting a program-informed …

Calculus In Context: The Five College Calculus Project, James Callahan, Kenneth Hoffman, David Cox, Donal O'Shea, Harriet Pollatsek, Lester Senechal

Open Educational Resources: Textbooks

Calculus in Context: The Five College Calculus Project is a thorough reframing of what it means to learn calculus. It starts with a “clean slate;” there is no presumptive commitment to any aspect of the traditional course. Instead, the curriculum is guided by the following principles:

• Calculus is fundamentally a way of dealing with functional relationships that occur in scientific and mathematical contexts. The techniques of calculus must be subordinate to an overall view of the underlying questions.
• Technology radically enlarges the range of questions we can explore and the ways we can answer them. Computers can be engaged as …

Metadata Extraction From Satellite Data Using Small Language Models, Ram Sharan Rimal

Theses

NASA’s GHG Center and VEDA platforms publish satellite Earth observation datasets through STAC catalogs. Publishing a new dataset requires a subject-matter expert to author the discovery configuration and catalog collection for the data, a task that takes three to five hours per dataset to complete. This work contributes a metadata curation pipeline that turns granules, the documentation, and usage examples into both files.Fields readable directly from the files, such as spatial and temporal extent, are extracted deterministically. Fields that require language understanding are sent to a locally hosted small language model. The small model infers the structure of the asset …

Limits On Damages For Breach Of A Forum Selection Clause, Coyle, John, Monestier, Tanya

Santa Clara Law Review

When a plaintiff sues in a court other than the one designated in a forum selection clause, the defendant’s remedial options are limited. It can ask the court to dismiss the case outright. Or it can ask the court to transfer the case to the designated forum. The defendant typically cannot, however, recover money damages—in the form of attorneys’ fees and related expenses—that it incurs in the course of persuading the court that transfer or dismissal is appropriate. This is because the conventional wisdom among judges has long been that damages are not available for breach of a forum selection …

Formal Neutrality And Unequal Liability: How Algorithmic Aversion Distorts Liability For Algorithmic Torts, Gao, Jingkang

Santa Clara Law Review

The shift in the cause of machine-induced harm from mechanical failures to algorithmic decision- making is challenging the applicability of products liability. Because algorithms now operate machines analogously to humans, a doctrinally coherent response is to subject algorithmic torts to a negligence framework that evaluates the reasonableness of decisions rather than the content of algorithms. This approach offers a theoretically grounded, formally neutral, and normatively appealing solution. In practice, however, it may result in unequal liability. Even under a negligence regime, algorithmic decision- makers may face systematically greater liability if injured parties are more inclined to pursue litigation against algorithmic …

Evaluating Matching Frontier Methods For Crash Modification Factor Estimation, Usama Elrawy Shahdah, Eman K . Ali, Sania Reyad Elagamy

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This study evaluates "matching frontier" methods against conventional approaches for estimating Crash Modification Factors (CMFs). Thirty-four method-model combinations were tested, including 16 frontier variants, 8 propensity-score-matching algorithms with negative binomial and mixed-effects models, and two benchmarks (empirical Bayes and cross-sectional), across multiple sample sizes and three true CMF values (0.80, 1.00, and 1.30). Of these, 30 converged successfully; 4 mixed-effects models with replacement-based matching failed due to duplicate control observations. Each scenario was evaluated across 10 Monte Carlo replications to quantify performance uncertainty.

Synthetic crash data were generated with known treatment effects, examining scenarios ranging from ideal (386 treated, 21,000 …

Remote Sensing-Based Rice Detection: Novel Indices From Optical And Sar Synergy, Kaifi Chomani

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Accurate rice mapping is challenging due to the lack of a simple, efficient approach and the complexity and limited ability of existing methods to distinguish rice fields from non-rice fields. This study proposes two novel indices: the Multispectral Rice Detection Index (MRDI), which utilises optical imagery, and the OptiRadar Rice Index (ORRI), which incorporates both optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. Ground-truth data from the Cropland Cropping Systems (CROS) were used to assess the performance of both indices. The findings indicated that MRDI achieved an overall accuracy of 97.97% with perfect recall (100%) but lower precision (78.65%). However, the …

An Iterative & Analytical Hybrid Deep Learning Framework For Enhanced Brain Tumor Detection And Segmentation In Mri Video Scans, Swati V. Sakhare

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The critical need for accurate and robust brain tumor detection in MRI video scans is for early diagnosis and treatment planning operations. However, the existing methods suffer from several limitations, such as not being able to capture spatio-temporal features, handling class imbalances, and generalizing across datasets with diverse characteristics. To address these challenges, I propose a hybrid deep learning framework that integrates multiple advanced techniques to enhance the detection and segmentation of brain tumors. My approach starts by using the 3D CNN-LSTM (ResNet3D-LSTM) to extract spatio-temporal feature, which utilizes ResNet3D for spatial detail extraction and LSTM for temporal coherence across …

Frequency Ranking Of Imaging Biomarkers For Lung Cancer Risk Stratification Using A Hybrid Elastic Net Method, Mohamed Jaber, Emmy Stevens, Nezamoddin N. Kachouie

Mathematics and System Engineering Faculty Publications

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, emphasizing the critical need for novel and robust biomarkers to improve prognostication and guide precision oncology. While traditional clinical variables such as tumor stage, age, and sex are routinely used for survival prediction, their prognostic performance is limited. Imaging biomarkers derived from radiomic analysis of advanced medical imaging have emerged as a promising class of noninvasive cancer biomarkers, enabling quantitative characterization of tumor phenotypes. In this study, we investigated the prognostic utility of radiomic imaging biomarkers, with a particular focus on the texture-based feature Busyness, and compared their performance against …

Enoch’S Measuring, Counting, Weighing, And Balancing Creation In 2 Enoch, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

In recent years one can see increased scholarly attention to the epistemological dimension of early Jewish apocalyptic writings and, in particular, to the ways by which divine knowledge was harvested and cultivated by the protagonists and antagonists of those early Jewish accounts. The early Enochic booklets have traditionally played a central role in these epistemological probes since they contain the earliest descriptions of the transmission and acquisition of divine knowledge in Jewish apocalypticism.  These accounts deal both with revelations unveiled by God and angels to the patriarch Enoch and with illicit transmission of divine knowledge by the rogue group of …

To Use Or Not To Use Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Art Design? A Multigroup Utaut2 Model Based On Motivation And Engagement Profiles, Yihan Jiang, Ning Luo, Ruixiang Gao

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This research investigated the acceptance of the artificial intelligence (AI) art tool, Midjourney, among 970 Chinese artists and designers using the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model and incorporating person-centered work motivation and engagement profiles. Path analysis of the entire sample showed strong explanatory power, accounting for over 60% of the variance in usage intention and behavior. Latent profile analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and engagement revealed two subgroups: the majority “Interested and Engaged”, and the minority “Disinterested and Disengaged”. As evidenced by multigroup comparison, the former exhibited significantly greater acceptance, recognizing Midjourney’s value …

Evaluating Artificial Intelligence Language Tools In English Language Learning For Flight Attendant Learners, Qianying Pu, Amelia Binti Alias, Khairul Azhar Bin Jamaludin

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study analyzes AI language tools aiding English learning for aspiring flight attendants, focusing on fluency, pronunciation, and communication skills. Considering the aviation industry’s very high language requirements, this research examines how AI language tools help flight attendants master English and improve their speech and pronunciation.  A qualitative descriptive design using semi-structured interviews was adopted for the present study with flight attendants and aviation English educators. The study highlights major themes such as Increased Confidence through Repetition and Feedback, Pronunciation Improvement Enabled by an AI-specific feature, Pedagogical Gaps and Instructor Apathy, and Limitations in Contextual Appropriateness. This study concludes that …

A Hierarchical And Multidimensional Approach To Profiling Students’ Digital Skills In Educational Technology, Emil S. Frashëri, Eleni F. Vangjeli

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study investigates university students’ digital competence through a multidimensional and person‑centered analytical framework grounded in bifactor–Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (B‑ESEM). Digital competence was conceptualized across four functional skill domains and a general competence factor, reflecting contemporary perspectives on technology‑enhanced learning and student readiness. To overcome a common limitation in traditional Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), the conflation of overall competence levels with relative skill configurations, this study employed B‑ESEM–derived factor scores to preserve both hierarchical structure and multidimensionality. Using data from 599 university students, a four‑profile solution emerged, capturing distinct patterns of digital skill strengths and weaknesses. Gender and programming …

Ethical Dilemmas Of Generative Ai In Education And Their Implications For Sdg 4: A Systematic Review From A Global And Inclusive Perspective, Eva García-Beltrán

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This systematic review, conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines, examines the ethical dilemmas associated with the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in education and analyses their implications for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), with a focus on inclusive and equitable quality education. The review draws on 24 peer-reviewed studies published between December 2022 and December 2024, covering diverse educational levels and geographical contexts, with a predominance of Global North perspectives and limited representation from the Global South. The analysis reveals four primary themes: academic integrity, algorithmic equity, data privacy, and the potential contribution of …

Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions Towards Using Ict With Dialogic Teaching In The Primary Science Classroom In Saudi Arabia, Yousef Alharbi, Sue Johnston-Wilder

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study examines the implications of teachers’ perceptions of using ICT to support dialogic teaching in primary science classrooms in Saudi Arabia. It employed questionnaires distributed electronically to science teachers working in state primary schools in Riyadh, and 305 completed responses were analyzed using SPSS. The majority were found to implement a variety of activities to support dialogue and to use several ICT tools in their science lessons. In addition, most teachers reported positive attitudes toward ICT, dialogic teaching, and ICT-supported dialogic teaching in science lessons. However, the results indicated that some teachers currently adopt a dominant role in dialogue …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence In Case-Based Teaching: A Qualitative Study In Mba Education, Tianjiao Xu, Mohd Nazir Bin Zabit

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study examines the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into case-based teaching (CBT) within Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in China, amidst the rapid digital transition in higher education. Guided by the Context–Input–Process–Product (CIPP) evaluation framework, the study adopted a qualitative design and conducted semi-structured interviews with five instructors from three core MBA courses. The findings indicate that AI enhanced classroom interaction and reduced teachers’ workload by supporting real-time feedback and dynamic discussion processes. Institutional support, including teacher training, digital infrastructure, and technical assistance, was recognized as a vital facilitator of effective implementation. Despite its various benefits, the study …

The Digital Divide Among Urban University Students, J.B. Oleet, Chien Yu

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The purpose of this study was to examine urban university students’ post-pandemic experiences with the digital divide, focusing on Motivational, Physical, Skills, and Usage Access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) based on van Dijk’s resources and appropriation theory. The study revealed students’ positive perceptions of their digital divide experiences. Intrinsic Motivational Access (IMA) scored particularly high, indicating a strong internal drive to engage with ICTs, while Physical Access (PA) showed discrepancies in access to specialized tools like programming software. Students displayed high competency in Operational, Informational, and Strategic Skills Access, with significant correlations between Physical and Operational Skills Access. …

A Critical Toponymy Of Humboldt County: Ethics And Tensions Within Efforts To Change Place Names, Serenity Aleta Wood

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores how Humboldt regional placenames enact toponymic silencing and how Indigenous activists challenge colonial names and geographies, advancing un-settled interpretations that position language revitalization/regeneration as a means of revitalizing relationships with the land. Mobilizing Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy’s concept of (re)naming, I analyze two case studies, the Baduwa’t documentary and the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation’s film A'-t'i Xwee-ghayt-nish: Still, We Live On, as well as three additional artistic works: Sarah Biscarra Dilley’s every pattern needs a passage, Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe’s Thunder Song, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s painting, State Names. In tandem with film and poetry analysis, I survey local …

Foundations For Trojan-Y Chromosome Development In Sacramento Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus Grandis): A Novel Strategy For Invasive Species Management In The Eel River, Ca, Raven Mcadams

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Sacramento Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis), an invasive predator in California’s Eel River, contributes to predation pressure on native salmonid populations despite ongoing suppression programs. This study assessed the feasibility of hormonal sex reversal as an initial step toward implementing the Trojan Y Chromosome (TYC) strategy as a novel tool for managing invasive Sacramento Pikeminnow populations in the Eel River, CA. Objectives were to 1) determine the size when gonadal differentiation occurs 2) identify an effective estradiol dosage for producing phenotypic XY females, and 3) identify sex-reversed fish using a sex-specific genetic marker.  Histological examination of juvenile fish was …

“Twist But Don’T Break:” Constellating Past And Present Barriers In Black Queer Multimodal Publishing That Shift Text Into Subtext; Addressing Acceptance Into Queer Creative Communities And The Void Of Black Voices Within, Kae Ann Dennert-Frederick

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

What does it look like to reframe our understanding of intersectional work? Looking at multimodality I will walk through the multiple frameworks by asking how Black Queer publishing of Young Adult fiction uses visuals to describe what cannot be said and what choices are made to show community structure and language, while also having to adapt for publication standards. I have researched this by looking into examples of Queer publishing (any representation of queerness in a form of publishing—in the text and sometimes in the authors' identity), as well as authors’ use of visuals to say what cannot be said …

The Influence Of Dissenters And Social Control On Consensus And Entitativity, Hunter Pons

IdeaFest 2026

This pilot study examines how dissent and social control influence perceptions of consensus and entitativity within groups. Drawing on social identity theory and subjective group dynamics, participants (N = 53) were exposed to varying levels of dissenters (1 vs. 10) and social control (present vs. absent). Results showed that consensus did not vary by condition but significantly predicted entitativity. Findings support the role of consensus in shaping group entitativity; a future study will test the relationship between consensus and group identification, mediated by entitativity and social identity uncertainty. Null effects suggest limitations in sample and contextual relevance.

Foraging Habitat Selection Of Shorebirds Based In Seclusion, Cody Kangas

IdeaFest 2026

My study looked to see if shorebirds had a preference of foraging habitat based on how secluded the habitat is. I had 3 sites for data collection that varied in seclusion levels which were high, moderate, and low seclusion. The time of day for data collection was determined by the tide and was kept consistent throughout the whole study. This study was conducted locally at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary during the current spring semester of 2026. Data collection was collected by identifying and counting each individual for each species at one site for 10-15 minutes at each site.

Ecosystem Of The Loch Ness Monster, Ava Bauch, Cami Mayo, Sean Savage

OER Materials

This lesson plan provides an engaging interdisciplinary learning experience for fourth-grade students by combining language arts and science through the theme of the Loch Ness ecosystem. Using the 5E instructional model students build understanding of ecosystems, food webs, and informational text comprehension. The lesson aligns with standards focused on making inferences with text evidence and constructing arguments about how plants and animals use structures for survival, growth, and reproduction. Students begin by analyzing an image of the Loch Ness Monster and discussing what they see, think, and wonder. This introductory activity activates prior knowledge from earlier lessons while encouraging curiosity …

Law As A Form Of Life: On Capitalism And Critical Theory, Justin Deystone

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Public Franchise Tradition As A Limit On Patent Takings, Laura E. Dolbow

Publications

A longstanding debate exists over whether patents are forms of “private property” that the Takings Clause protects. Recently, in a different context, the Supreme Court stated that a patent is a specific form of property: a public franchise. Several scholars have argued that the public franchise characterization means patents are not protected by the Takings Clause at all. This Article identifies another potential implication of the public franchise framing. It argues that even if patents are viewed as protected by the Takings Clause, the public franchise framing suggests that the scope of that protection should be quite narrow.

To explore …