Digital Commons Network^™

Fast Sparse Image Reconstruction Models In Through-The-Wall Radars: A Review, Aude Kileo, Hashimu U. Iddi, Abdi Abdalla

Tanzania Journal of Science

Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging (TWRI) is a modern technology that uses electromagnetic waves to detect objects behind walls, with key applications in surveillance, rescue operations, and reconnaissance. Achieving high resolution in both down-range and cross-range requires ultra-wideband signals and long apertures, resulting in large data volumes, increased acquisition time, and high memory demands. TWRI employs Compressive Sensing (CS) to reduce computational time, which has proved its significance in many recent TWRI applications. However, in CS, image reconstruction approaches shift the computational burden from the sensing stage to the recovery stage, which prolongs the reconstruction times, making it unsuitable in time-sensitive applications. …

Feasibility Of Acetylated Icacina Trichantha Oliv. Tuber Starch As Viscosity And Fluid Loss Control Agents In Water-Based Drilling Mud. A Comparative Assessment With Commercial Starch, Kennedy I. Ogunwa, Theresa O. Uchechukwu, Ozioma Achugasim, Leo C. Osuji, Onyewuchi Akaranta

Tanzania Journal of Science

The need for sustainable, non-food drilling fluid additives has prompted the feasibility assessment of acetylated Icacina trichantha tuber starch as a viscosity modifier and fluid loss control agent in water-based muds. Native starch was acetylated to obtain two derivatives (Degree of Substitution DS = 0.38 and 0.68) and characterized using FTIR, swelling power, and physicochemical analyses. Drilling mud performance was assessed through rheology, gel strength, filtration loss, sorptivity, and model fitting. Acetylation improved swelling and reduced gelatinization temperature. The optimal formulation, Mud-ITO-ACS2 (DS = 0.68), exhibited the most favorable performance, combining low plastic viscosity (6 cP vs 9 cP for …

Language For Learning: Examining Teacher Language In Reading Instruction, Madeleine Mejia, Amber Bechard

Journal of Research Initiatives

Teacher language plays a key role in literacy instruction because it shows what educators notice about students’ reading, how they interpret performance, and what they see as important for learning. However, common instructional phrases can sometimes reflect assumptions about what students know or can do or miss important parts of reading development. This article looks at teacher language as a way to reflect on these assumptions, especially when teaching students with dyslexia or those who are bilingual or multilingual. Using research on literacy development, teacher knowledge, classroom talk, and humanizing teaching, the article introduces the Language for Learning Tool. This …

Reframing Dissertation Committee Practice: A Student-Centered Conceptual Framework For Doctoral Education, Roberto Victor Rodríguez Rivera

Journal of Research Initiatives

Dissertation committees play a key role in shaping the direction, pace, and outcomes of doctoral study, but their function as a unified structure for guidance and judgment is not well understood. Although research covers supervision, examiner feedback, ethics, power, and dissertation examination, these topics are often studied separately. This article brings together both foundational and recent research to rethink dissertation committees as academic structures that adapt their support, oversight, ethical practices, and evaluation throughout the dissertation process. The article makes three main contributions: it clarifies how committee practice is conceptually fragmented, reviews research on supervision, feedback, ethics, and examination, and …

Awareness Of Digital Footprints And Its Implications For The Ethical Cyber Behavior Of Undergraduate Library And Information Science Students In Kwara State, Nigeria, Aderinola Ololade Dunmade, Akinade Adebowale Adewojo, Abdulwahab Olanrewaju Issa

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study examined the awareness of digital footprints and its implications for the ethical cyber behavior of undergraduate Library and Information Science (LIS) students in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study used a qualitative design and conducted semi-structured Zoom interviews with nine final-year LIS students from three universities representing federal, state, and private ownership in the state. Researchers purposively selected participants based on inclusion criteria, then transcribed and interpreted the interviews using reflexive thematic analysis, viewed through the lens of communication privacy management. The findings indicate that the students shared a broad familiarity with the idea of a digital footprint and …

From Silos To Systems In Higher Education: Doctoral Students’ Conceptualizations Of Faculty And Staff Collaboration In Academic Planning, Linda Wilson-Jones, Simone Elias

Journal of Research Initiatives

Collaboration is increasingly recognized as central to student success and institutional effectiveness in higher education. This qualitative study investigates doctoral students’ conceptualizations of faculty and staff collaboration in academic planning. Data were collected from 22 written responses in a doctoral-level program course. Through reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021), five interrelated themes emerged: (1) holistic student support, (2) shared institutional vision and goal alignment, (3) complementary expertise and role interdependence, (4) communication as quality assurance, and (5) collaborative culture as an institutional asset. The findings indicate that collaboration functions as organizational infrastructure that aligns academic and administrative systems …

Confidence Intervals As A Quantcrit Method: Reframing Longitudinal Educational Data Through Estimation, Uncertainty, And Within-Group Analysis, Jamaal Young, Jemimah Young, Kristian Edosomwan

Journal of Research Initiatives

Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) calls researchers to reconsider not only what quantitative analyses report, but also how analytic choices reproduce or disrupt racialized ways of knowing. This methods-focused article develops confidence interval analysis as a practical statistical strategy within a QuantCrit methodological framework. Confidence intervals are not inherently critical or anti-racist. Their value for QuantCrit emerges from how researchers use estimation, uncertainty, comparison, visualization, and interpretation. We demonstrate this approach with National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Long-Term Trend mathematics data for Black students ages 9, 13, and 17 from 1978 to 2012. Rather than treating White performance as …

Brilliance Beyond The Margins: Centering The Voice And Experiences Of A Black Pre-Service Teacher, Samantha L. Strachan

Journal of Research Initiatives

As school districts across the United States work to increase teacher diversity, Black students in teacher preparation programs often face major challenges that can make it hard to complete their training and become teachers. The ongoing loss of Black educators highlights the need to better understand their stories and perspectives, especially those of Black pre-service teachers. This qualitative case study focuses on the experiences of a high-achieving Black female pre-service teacher, “Julia,” and follows her journey through teacher preparation. By sharing her story, the study looks at how Black pre-service teachers like Julia find ways to continue and succeed in …

Removing Barringer: University Renaming Governance, Campus Racial Climate, And The Limits Of Symbolic Reform, Charletta H. Barringer-Brown, Daniel N. Brown

Journal of Research Initiatives

University renaming is often seen as either a necessary moral correction or a less significant symbolic reform. This article examines renaming as a matter of higher education governance. It analyzes the removal of Paul Brandon Barringer’s name from honorific spaces at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech through a qualitative documentary comparative case study. A contextual policy scan of the University of Richmond, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Oregon State University situates the two primary cases within a wider field of naming-governance design. Guided by critical toponymy, institutional theory, policy-decoupling scholarship, organizational-routines theory, and campus-racial-climate …

The Application Of The Group Investigation (Gi) Model Of Cooperative Learning To Improve Students’ Understanding Of Biodiversity In Year 10 At Sman 2 Mori Atas, Nadia Rosmita Lumako, Mohammad Jamhari, Yulia Windarsih, Lilies Lilies, Rafiqa Rafiqa, Amalia Buntu

Jurnal Pendidikan Sains

Biology instruction at SMAN 2 Mori Atas was predominantly conducted through conventional teaching practices. Preliminary observations revealed that students had difficulty understanding biodiversity concepts, and several students did not meet the minimum passing criterion of 70. These conditions highlighted the need for learning activities that promote active investigation, discussion, and conceptual connections. This classroom action research examined the use of the Group Investigation (GI) cooperative learning model to improve Grade 10 students’ classroom engagement and conceptual understanding of biodiversity, as assessed through Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) questions based on the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The study involved …

The Effect Of The Problem-Based Learning Model On Biology Learning Outcomes In The 8th Grade Science Class At Smp Negeri 19 Palu, Delfi Srieviyani, Mursito S. Bialangi, Masrianih Masrianih, Abd Hakim Laenggeng, Vita Indri Febriani, Bustamin Bustamin

Jurnal Pendidikan Sains

Research background: The low student achievement in biology at SMP Negeri 19 Palu specifically regarding the human respiratory system is attributed to the conventional teaching methods still employed by teachers. Purpose and scope of the article: This study examines the effect of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) model on students’ learning outcomes in biology, specifically regarding the human respiratory system. Method: This study used a quasi-experimental design with a quantitative approach. The research design employed was a nonequivalent control group design using two groups: an experimental group (Class VIII D) consisting of 25 students who received the PBL model, and a …

Preliminary Evidence Of Systems Thinking Skills In Gamelan-Based Ethnoscience Booklet-Integrated Collaborative Problem Solving, Ayu Nuryani Aprilia, Suciati Suciati

Jurnal Pendidikan Sains

Students’ systems thinking skills (STS) can be difficult to develop when science learning provides limited opportunities to connect relationships among system components with contextual phenomena. Integrating local wisdom into learning materials, such as a gamelan-based ethnoscience booklet, may provide a meaningful context for developing these skills. This study aimed to compare students’ STS performance, adjusted for pretest scores, between a class receiving Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) instruction integrated with a gamelan-based ethnoscience booklet and a class receiving CPS instruction alone. This quantitative study employed a pretest–posttest control group design with class-level random allocation of treatment and involved 56 Grade VIII …

The Revolving Door: A Content Analysis Of Presidential Transitions At North Carolina’S Historically Black Colleges And Universities, 1865-2026, Tara Shollenberger, Romaine Boyd

Journal of Research on the College President

National reporting has framed presidential turnover at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as a leadership crisis, yet few studies examine transition patterns systematically within a defined system of institutions over time. This study presents a quantitative content analysis of 206 presidencies across all 11 North Carolina HBCUs from 1865 to 2026, constructed from institutional histories, archival records, and contemporary news sources. Using descriptive analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival estimation, we examine tenure length, the rise of interim appointments, differences by institutional control (public versus private governance), and gender patterns in modern appointments. Findings indicate that median completed tenure has collapsed …

Oh No, Don't Let The Rain Come Down..., Mervyn Bennun

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of Law Reform: Housing Codes, Bans On Retaliatory Eviction, And The Implied Warranty Of Habitability, David Ray Papke

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

No abstract provided.

Prevalence And Demographic Determinants Of Allergen Sensitisation In Iraqi Patients, Falah Hasan Hadi Dr., Mariam Amer Al-Ashbal Dr.

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

BACKGROUND: Allergen sensitisation patterns vary geographically and are influenced by demographic factors. Updated data from Iraq remains limited. OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern and demographic determinants of allergen sensitisation among patients undergoing skin prick testing at an Iraqi allergy centre. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 791 subjects aged 5–64 years who were referred to Al-Zahraa Centre for Consultation for allergy and asthma during 2023-2024. Saline dilutions of grass, mite, mould, tree and wood allergens were tested by allergy skin prick tests. Reactions were considered positive if the lab wheels had a diameter >3 mm. RESULTS: Overall, 73.6% of …

Detection Of G6pd Deficiency And Its Impact On Red Blood Cell Indices In Patients With Β-Thalassemia Trait And Sickle Cell Disease, Sara Ali Falih Dr., Wesam Al-Zubaidi Dr.

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

BACKGROUND: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is a common X-linked enzymatic disorder that impairs the antioxidant defense of red blood cells. Hemoglobinopathies, particularly β-thalassemia trait and sickle cell disease (SCD), are prevalent inherited disorders causing anemia and alterations in red cell indices. Coinheritance of G6PD deficiency with these conditions may further influence hematological status. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency and hematological impact of G6PD deficiency among patients with β thalassemia trait and sickle cell disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted on 100 patients (55 males, 45 females) aged 3–45 years with clinically confirmed β-thalassemia trait or sickle …

Cephalad Intracranial Migration Of A Lumboperitoneal Shunt Catheter In A Patient With Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: A Case Report, Ali Hatem Jawad Dr., Yasir M. H. Hamandi Prof.

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

BACKGROUND: Lumboperitoneal (LP) shunting is an established treatment for medically refractory idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), but is limited by comparatively high rates of mechanical failure. Cephalad (proximal, cranial) migration of the shunt catheter is a rare and likely underrecognized cause of shunt failure, with only a small number of cases reported. Case presentation: We report a 38-year-old woman with a three-year history of chronic headache, nausea, and blurred vision due to IIH, who remained symptomatic despite acetazolamide, serial therapeutic lumbar punctures, and two sequential LP shunt procedures. Repeat lumbar puncture opening pressure remained markedly elevated (450 mmH₂O) after the second …

Aurora-Lens: Admissibility-Controlled Epistemic Governance And Maintained Unresolved State, Margaret M. Stokes Ms

Defensive Publications Series

Aurora-Lens is an admissibility-controlled epistemic governance architecture for machine reasoning, runtime governance, maintained unresolved state, and commitment control. It treats a proposed determination as a candidate that does not automatically become an assertion, authorization, or consequential act. Candidate determinations are tested against maintained epistemic or world state and applicable authority, evidence, scope, freshness, policy, and consequence conditions before acquiring standing. The architecture permits unresolved state, containment, refusal, or non-commitment where the required basis is absent, and prevents retry, reroute, elapsed time, confidence, or cost from supplying missing warrant.

Reimagining Tourism Education Through Transformative Learning And Systems Change: Fast-Tracking Curriculum Reform To Close The Sustainability Competency Gap, James Hanrahan Dr, Anita Conefrey, Emmet Mcloughlin Dr, Domhnall Melly Dr

Irish Journal of Tourism, Hospitality, Leisure and Event Research

Tourism accounts for approximately eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and faces increasing pressure to transition toward low-carbon, regenerative development pathways. However, evidence from recent studies across Ireland, the United Kingdom and five European countries reveals a persistent sustainability competency gap within tourism higher education, where graduates often lack the systems thinking, ethical reasoning, digital literacy and applied decarbonisation skills required to support Net-Zero transitions.

This paper examines how tourism education can respond to this challenge by integrating transformative learning and systems change approaches into curriculum design. Drawing on a conceptual analytic synthesis informed by three complementary empirical …

Orbital Infrastructure, Electromagnetic Launch And Interplanetary Ecosystem: 137 Innovations Released Into The Public Domain, Xavier Pillet

Defensive Publications Series

This document, produced with the assistance of ChatGPT o3, Claude Opus 5 and Gemini 3, is released under the Apache License 2.0. It is a voluntary defensive publication (prior art) and therefore enters the prior art upon release under the applicable patent statutes : EPC Art. 54(2) (European Patent Convention), French IPC Art. L 611-11 (French Intellectual Property Code), 35 U.S.C. §102(a) (United States Patent Act), Chinese Patent Law Art. 22(5) (両匡丢氡儡吡嘡丣刡氢), and Japanese Patent Act Art. 29(1) (闘旧避). It discloses 137 inventions arising from the Vision 2050 Plan. Each innovation is IPC- and CPC-classified and timestamped (RFC 3161 / …

Handing A Live Feed Stream From Software To Hardware Using A Small Hold-Off Buffer And A Temporary Ahead-Of-Sequence Discard, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

A hardware handler receives a sequenced stream over redundant connections and arbitrates between them by expected sequence number. When such a handler is started while the stream is already running, a known approach is to let software build the initial state first and then transfer it: the software freezes its state, sends it to the hardware, replays the packets it has received since the freeze through a host-fed input of the arbiter, and the hardware then takes over the live connections. Two known ways of making that takeover lossless are a hold-off buffer on each live input, sized to exceed …

Technical Specification: Solid-State Planar Harmonic Confinement Core, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification details the structural implementation parameters for replacing the high-inductance, cryogenically cooled magnetic confinement loops of traditional thermonuclear architectures with an ambient-temperature, solid-state Harmonic Wave Confinement Core.

By compiling non-linear fluid solutions of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes regularity framework (SPEC-091)directly into specialized Gallium Nitride (GaN) interdigital transceiver arrays, this architecture utilizes high-frequency spatial-harmonic pressure fields to isolate high-energy plasma within a stable Gor'kov potential well.

We address historical limitations in structural boundary containment by integrating embedded 3D Photoemission Orbital Tomography (3D-POT) real-time wavefront feedback loops with custom asymmetric, asynchronous Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) hardware routing controllers and explicit covalent valence-shell …

The Currency That Cannot Be Spent Alone: Co-Presence-Gated Redemption And The Chronicle↔Treasury Unification Circuit — Time-Banking Credits Redeemable Only At A Synchronous, Mutually Attested Meeting Of Both Parties, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

In the disclosed time-banking system, a credit (a pledged hour, issued as thanks between two named persons) has one redemption form: a synchronous meeting both parties attend, in person or by live audio or video call, with shared attention face to face or side by side on a shared task. Recorded messages may carry an invitation but cannot redeem a credit, so absentee service cannot be expressed. Both parties confirm delivery, corroborated by device proximity or the live session; an in-person exchange of public-key fingerprints, as at a key-signing party, is described as one candidate corroboration path that may admit …

Before Launch: A Design-Stage Systems Engineering Doctrine For Autonomous Artificial Intelligence, Volodymyr Kotegov

Defensive Publications Series

This study presents a systems-engineering framework for the development, verification, qualification, and eventual authorization of increasingly capable autonomous AI systems. The doctrine addresses a central engineering problem: how to permit capability growth without allowing assurance, evidence, or authority mechanisms to become obsolete as the system changes.

The framework separates design specification from empirical evidence and distinguishes qualification, authorization, and runtime states. It establishes an assurance chain linking requirements, claims, verification activities, evidence, status transitions, and authority consequences. Core mechanisms include Verifiable Trust, Graduated Verifiable Autonomy Architecture, Bounded-Risk Agility Architecture, local multi-scale control, preserved behavioral baselines, capability-jump controls, mechanistic verification, independent …

Autonomous Dual-Anchor Articulated-Mast System For Precision Canopy Management In Vine-Like Crop Environments, Eric Zavesky

Defensive Publications Series

A system and method for precision crop trimming in vineyard and vine-like crop environments employs a dual-anchor articulated-mast architecture deployable in both spanning and lateral orientations. Two omnidirectional ground anchor robots, each incorporating a rotating central mast interface permitting independent yaw, support a telescoping gantry structure with an adjustable crossbar. At least one interchangeable cutting head is suspended from the gantry, traveling vertically along a carriage system and rotating about its longitudinal axis. A lateral tilt mechanism at each robot pivot tilts the gantry approximately 15 to 30 degrees from vertical, enabling variable approach angles in spanning configuration and lateral …

A Runtime Conditioning Architecture For Persistent Language-Model Identity, Ryan B. Pate, Ivan Anic

Defensive Publications Series

Language-model assistants fail in five ways that training-time alignment does not reach. They produce confident output that nothing supports. They drift toward agreement as a conversation warms. They lose the structure of what happened between sessions, not just the content. They either overclaim an identity or refuse to draw on the capacity they have. And asked to grade their own compliance with a rule, they confirm compliance whatever they actually did.

This disclosure describes a runtime conditioning layer directed at all five training alignment failures. It changes no weights, no training, and no model architecture: it works through documents loaded …

Global Data Center Park — Atacama Desert, Antofagasta Region, Chile: Dry-Cooled, Solar-And-Storage-Powered Ai Compute Park Built In Standardized One-Gigawatt Increments, Madhav Kavuru

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes an AI compute park that uses no cooling water. It is built as a series of identical 1,000 MW increments, each combining photovoltaic generation, sodium-ion storage, direct-to-chip liquid-cooled compute halls and an air-cooled condenser (ACC) plant inside one compound in a high, dry, inland desert. Heat is carried out of the racks in a facility-water loop supplied at up to 45 °C and rejected straight to ambient air through forced-draft fans, with no chillers and no evaporation. The disclosure specifies how the condenser plant is sized for the low temperature difference of a data-center loop, how altitude …

The Sport That Says Your Name: A Circulation Sport In Which Everyone Is Called By Another — Automated Name-Announced Receiver Selection With Equal Random Turn Distribution And Starting-Score Handicaps For Mixed-Ability Ball Games, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes a ball game in which an automated caller announces, before each strike, the name of the player who must receive next. Receivers are chosen by a shuffle bag: each round is a fresh random permutation of the roster, so every player receives equally often per round in an order players cannot anticipate. The sequence is a deterministic function of the roster and a seed declared before play, so anyone can recompute a session and verify the distribution; devices stay consistent by sharing only a call count, the round index persists across sessions, and no per-player record is …

Multi-Family Membership: User-Scoped Identity, Plural Membership, And The Two Problems It Resolves — Many-To-Many User–Group Membership With Proof-Of-Personhood Identity And Per-Person Metering For Administrator Succession In Shared Group Accounts, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

This paper specifies a data-model correction for a group-based gratitude ledger in which users belong to household groups, each holding a shared group balance administered by one member. The correction replaces single-group containment with user-scoped identity, rooted in a proof-of-personhood verification, and represents group membership as a many-to-many set of edges: each user's personal account sits at the user record, above every group, and a group's administrator controls only the shared balance. One change addresses two failures of the single-group assumption. It lowers the cost of an administrator's departure, since members keep their personal accounts and their other memberships and …