Digital Commons Network^™

An Inquiry Into Inquiry: Examining The Foundations Of Dewey's Democratic Ideal, Nathaniel Deken

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Incidental Emotions On Self-Control: An Examination Using A Need-Based Choice Model, Shruti Koley

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that examines the effects of incidental emotions on choices in self-control dilemmas. The framework predicts that the effect of emotions depends on the hedonic and non-hedonic needs they activate and the extent to which emotional consumers expect the virtuous and gratifying options in the choice dilemma to facilitate these needs (i.e. their instrumentality toward the activated needs). The framework helps develop propositions for the self-control effects of six commonly experienced emotions: happiness, sadness, pride, guilt, anger and anxiety. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses a choice model to develop …

The Disconnect Of Moral Accountability: Freedom, Equality, And The Limits Of Punishment, Celine Shiah Choi

Philosophy Senior Theses

This thesis examines the justificatory foundations of moral accountability as a social practice and the profound disconnect between our ordinary intuitions about justice, the moral attitudes we hold toward one another, and the governing institutional practices of punishment. Drawing on Stephen Darwall's second-person standpoint and P.F. Strawson's account of reactive attitudes, the paper argues that legitimate accountability presupposes two necessary conditions, freedom and equality, understood as the shared capacity of rational agents to recognize moral demands and stand in reciprocal normative relation with one another. Both conditions, however, prove deeply fragile in practice: legal institutions invoke the language of rational …

Movement, Residency, And Behavioral Plasticity Of Reef Manta Rays In The Samarai Islands Of Papua New Guinea, Anna Knochel, Joanna Harris, Shannon Murphy, Annie Murray, Guy M.W. Stevens, Mark Erdmann

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) is a highly mobile pelagic marine ray found throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, but investigation into their behavior and ecology within Papua New Guinea has not been previously undertaken. Furthermore, the home range, dispersal characteristics, and inter-seasonal fine-scale habitat use of this species is limited. To address these data gaps and investigate the vertical and horizontal habitat use of a previously unstudied population, SPLASH10-F-321A pop-off archival satellite tags were used to track ten adult individuals from 4–181 days between 2016–2018 across two distinct monsoonal periods in the Samarai Islands of …

Leading In The Classroom Empowering Educators In Paraguay, Carissa State Gober, Donna Zerr, Jason Clemensen, Aaron Hurt

Open Educational Resources - Teaching and Learning

Here’s a simplified version of the abstract with clear, straightforward language:

Abstract

In May 2026, faculty and staff from Pittsburg State University gave presentations in Asunción and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. The sessions focused on practical topics for educators and students, including strategies for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), ways to use artificial intelligence in education, leadership tips, and international opportunities available at Pittsburg State University. Each session encouraged participation and discussion, helping connect Paraguayan educators and students with new ideas and resources. These events showed the university’s commitment to building international partnerships, supporting teachers with useful …

Slt Imports Inc V. Sar Transport Systems Pvt Ltd

2026 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

A Political Ecology Of The Orang Rimba's Struggle And Existence In Jambi, Indonesia, Aditya Dipta Anindita, Arya Hadi Dharmawan, Soeryo Adiwibowo, Didik Suharjito

Forest and Society

Since the 1970s, forest conversion in the name of development has encroached upon the living spaces of the Orang Rimba, a forest-dwelling indigenous group in Jambi Province, Indonesia. Some of the forest areas, which serve as the cultural and livelihood foundation for this hunter-gatherer community, have been transformed into transmigrant settlements and oil palm plantations, while the remaining forests were designated as a National Park in 2000. Although they still have access to the national park, many Orang Rimba have built their livelihoods among the oil palm trees—not as owners or workers, but believing that these lands are their ancestral …

Maryland Reproductive Freedom And The Full Personhood Of Pregnant People, Margaret E. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

Pregnant and birthing people are inappropriately criminalized. Such criminalization is for behavior during their pregnancy that would not otherwise be criminalized, including when there was no harm to the later born baby, and for birth outcomes like miscarriages and still births. Law supports criminalization in part because of the historic legal significance given to fetal “viability” as a demarcation between full personhood rights for pregnant people and the encroachment of fetal “personhood” on those rights. Focusing on Maryland’s new constitutional amendment for reproductive freedom, this essay examines how the new amendment offers promise in restoring the full personhood rights for …

The Relationship Between Musical Ability And Perceptual Skills For Speech Motor Learning In Young Adults, Emily Catmull

Theses and Dissertations

Speech motor learning is the multimodal process of acquiring speech sounds. Speech motor learning is trained through speech-language pathologist intervention in individuals across the lifespan. Previous research has explored which factors can influence speech motor learning, such as musical experience or training, which is the subject of this study. Sixty young adult participants (four male, 56 female) were recruited as part of a larger study that examined four possibly influential factors: bilingualism, phonetic knowledge, perceptual skills, and musical experience. Since the adult population has already acquired all the speech sounds in English, learning was measured using nonnative consonant clusters. Participants …

Panda-Plus-Bench: A Clinical Benchmark For Evaluating The Robustness Of Ai Foundation Models In Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Joshua L. Ebbert, Dennis Della Corte

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence foundation models are increasingly deployed for prostate cancer Gleason grading, where GP3/GP4 distinction directly impacts treatment decisions (active surveillance vs. intervention). However, these models may achieve high validation accuracy by learning specimen-specific artifacts rather than generalizable biological features, limiting real-world clinical utility. We introduce PANDA-PLUS-Bench, a curated benchmark dataset derived from expertly annotated prostate biopsies designed specifically to quantify this failure mode. The benchmark comprises nine carefully selected whole slide images from nine unique patients containing diverse Gleason patterns, with non-overlapping tissue patches extracted at both 512 × 512 and 224 × 224-pixel resolutions across eight augmentation conditions. …

San-Dar Associates V. Palin

All Decisions

In a GCEL holdover proceeding, the court found for the landlord on two grounds of good cause: nonpayment of rent and tenant's repeated refusal to allow access for repairs to water- and fire-damaged floors despite multiple relocation offers. The court held that GCEL nonpayment holdovers do not require a detailed rent accounting in the predicate notice, that GCEL provides no pre-filing opportunity to cure unlike nonpayment proceedings, and that RPL § 235-e[d] does not apply to GCEL holdovers. Tenant's warranty of habitability defenses failed for lack of evidence.

Development Of A Second-Generation Rarα Selective Antagonist As An Orally Bioavailable, Effective, Safe, And Reversible Male Contraceptive, Rui Shi, Kristen John, Xuan Qin, Ehfazul Haque, Taimeng Liang, Narsihmulu Cheryala, Feng Li, Henry L Wong, Gunda I Georg

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

We report the design and SAR studies of benzopyran-, benzofuran-, and benzothiophene-derived inhibitors of the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARα) for male contraception. SAR studies identified critical features influencing activity, such as the optimal positioning of antagonism moieties and substituents, leading to the discovery of (S)-4-(5-(2,8-dimethyl-5-(p-tolyl)-2H-chromen-3-yl)-1H-pyrrol-2-yl)­benzoic acid (compound 23). Compound 23 is a highly potent RARα inhibitor (IC50 = 0.051 nM) with excellent selectivity (>1650-fold over RARβ and >1960-fold over RARγ) and ADMET properties. Compound 23 is orally bioavailable and reduces sperm counts in mice for a full male contraceptive effect …

Icam1high Neutrophils Sculpt Tumor Evolution And Metastasis Through Symbiotic Adhesion And Reverse Migration, Ling Wu, Zhan Xu, Jun Wang, Fengshuo Liu, Yunfeng Ding, Yang Gao, Siyue Wang, Jun Liu, Hilda L Chan, Weiguo Wu, Yi-Hsuan Wu, Liqun Yu, Xiaoxin Hao, Xuan Li, David G Edwards, Cher Sha, Tobie D Lee, Nan Guan, Sergio Aguirre, Luis Becerra-Dominguez, Dane Hoffman, Xiang Chen, Charlotte Helena Rivas, Xiaoyuan G Yan, Igor L Bado, Weijie Zhang, Qian Zhu, Arun Sreekumar, Robert L Satcher, Xiang H-F Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Neutrophils are a prominent component of the tumor microenvironment that can have both pro- and anti-tumor functions. By analyzing neutrophils across different human cancers, we revealed an ICAM1high subset enriched in the tumor microenvironment, which were also observed in murine triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) models. ICAM1high neutrophils exhibited an enhanced capacity for cell-cell adhesion specifically with tumor cells retaining epithelial features, and this adhesion conferred mutual advantages to both cell types. In contrast, cancer cells with mesenchymal-like phenotypes were vulnerable to neutrophil-mediated cytotoxicity due to decreased cell adhesion and elastase resistance. These opposite effects drove tumor evolution toward a …

An Ecological Survey Of Algal Species In The Sawyer River, Al-Muthanna Governorate, Iraq, Rasha.H. R. Al-Miawi, Hiafaa A.J. Al-Barakat, Alaa Jabar Mahmoud

Muthanna Medical Journal

Given the global changes in climate, especially the drought conditions Iraq has recently experienced, along with the severe water shortage, this study sought to develop both quantitative and qualitative methods and strategies for phytoplankton (excluding diatoms) as key indicators to protect ecosystems, boost their resilience, and promote sustainability. sites were chosen for the most prominent cities A number of samples were selected from three sites (Al-Dahara region, Al Jarukhi Bridge, Al-Ghanim area), located on the Al-Sawyer River, which is the most important branch of the Euphrates River in the Al-Muthanna Governorate in southern Iraq in 2024 the species that was …

Applicability Of Diatom Indices And Phytoplankton Functional Groups To Assessment Of Water Quality In The Coastal Egyptian Mediterranean Estuary, Fatma A. Zaghloul, Soha H. Shabaka

Blue Economy

This study provides the first application of diatom-based water quality and eutrophication assessments in Egypt, focusing on the El Mex Bay situated along the Mediterranean Coast of Egypt, providing a comprehensive evaluation of how diatom assemblages can serve as reliable bioindicators for ecological monitoring in this heavily impacted coastal system. It analyzes two distinct periods: monthly from 2003-2004 and seasonally from 2020-2021. Diatom community composition shifted significantly between the two decades. The earlier period hosted 109 diatom species, which declined to 69 species in the later period. Concurrently, overall abundance decreased from 1,071 x 10³ to 728 x 10³ cells/L. …

From Double Absence To Double Presence: Video-Selfie As Empowerment In A Multicultural Italian Classroom, Maria Ranieri, Ilaria Bucciarelli, Giulia Cuozzo

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This paper examines the video-selfie as a tool for empowerment in multicultural secondary school classrooms. We draw on data from the European ICME project, focusing on a vocational secondary school in Italy, where 17 of 18 first-year students – approximately half of whom had migration backgrounds – produced short videos presenting themselves through personally meaningful objects. Students then participated in a structured reflection activity after watching each other's videos in class. We combine three theoretical frameworks: critical media literacy, identity and self-representation studies, and Mezirow's transformative learning theory. Our argument is that the video selfie empowers in multiple ways: it …

The Applicability Of A Scale On Self-Regulated Writing Strategies In English For High School Students, Teresa Angelina Kaluge, Sisilia Setiawati Halimi

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

Writing appeared to be crucial in learning foreign languages. This study aimed at examining the applicability of a measure on self-regulated writing strategies in terms of its psychometric properties. The scale items were designed from theoretical foundations and previous relevant studies. Questionnaires were distributed online to high school students, collected and analyzed as many as 106. Correlation, confirmatory factor analyses, and calculating Cronbach’s alpha were carried out to make sure the applicability of the scale. The findings showed five main constructs to be applicable. They were self-initiating, planning, text-generating, revising, and acting on feedback.

Phenotypic Plasticity In A Stochastic Environment: Modeling Three Phenotypes And Environments, Sarah P. Williams, Marissa C. K. Douglas, Stephen C. Adolph

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Phenotypically plastic organisms are capable of adjusting their phenotypes in a variable environment. Padilla and Adolph (1996) modeled this process and included a time lag between detection of an environmental change and the responding change in phenotype. We extended the Padilla and Adolph model from two to three discrete environments and phenotypes and analyzed the model computationally. Our results were consistent with their findings: the fitness advantage of phenotypic plasticity is higher when (1) the lag time is shorter, (2) the probability of environmental change is lower, and (3) the fitness disadvantage of mismatched phenotypes and environments is more severe. …

Hidden In Plain Sight: The Role Of Belonging In Shaping Pre-Service Teachers’ Motivations & Practices In A Paraprofessional-To-Teacher Pathway, Julie Sidarous Dr., Douglas Van Dyke Dr.

i.e.: inquiry in education

As school districts face persistent teacher shortages, paraprofessionals and school staff remain an untapped resource with immense potential. The purpose of this study was to explore the distinct benefits that school employees bring to the teaching profession when transitioning into roles as teachers of record. To deeply understand candidates' stories, this qualitative study employed Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to examine how preservice teacher candidates make sense of their own lived experiences. The findings reveal five key advantages these transitioning educators provide: deep community connections, practical institutional knowledge, resilience in high-need schools, expertise supporting non-traditional learners, and a profound desire to …

Belonging As The Bedrock Of Learning, Gloria Mcdaniel-Hall, Nina Weisling

i.e.: inquiry in education

The reasons why we teach are intensely personal. We give our hearts and souls to “the work,” though it is so much more than work to us. It is a calling, felt deep in our souls, to correct wrongs, to bend the “arc of the moral universe” all the way to justice, to realize the dreams that have been deferred at best and stamped out and denied at worst. Because at the core of each day, we find humans, students, families, and colleagues who are inherently worthy of learning, loving, and living a fulfilling life. Yet, for far too many …

Teachers’ Action Research Knowledge: From Knowing To Doing, Firdissa J. Aga Dr.

i.e.: inquiry in education

This quantitative study investigated the action research (AR) knowledge of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors at three Ethiopian public universities. Data collected via questionnaire from 57 instructors revealed that EFL instructors had respectively high and medium theoretical and practical knowledge of AR. Their theoretical knowledge and practical skills demonstrated a significant positive correlation (r = 0.43, p < 0.01). Furthermore, instructors’ preferences showed strong alignment with reflective rationality (context-specific, practitioner-led inquiry) over technical rationality (externally imposed, top-down approaches). While reported levels of reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action were high, tacit knowing-in-action-the deep, personal, often unarticulated professional knowledge-was notably low. This gap suggests that instructors’ AR understanding remains largely externalized, not yet internalized as embodied, intuitive practice. The findings suggest that empowering instructors to convert their tacit knowledge into explicit understanding through sustained, hands-on AR engagement is critical for authentic professional development and transformative classroom practice.

Ai Need Not Make One Slothful, Roy A. Kaelin Jr

i.e.: inquiry in education

As National Louis University seeks to plan and advance its way amid the potential perils and pitfalls of so-named artificial intelligence, one finds that with reasonable workflows and guard rails, the use of AI proposes both potential promise and prospect, to assist and augment the natural intelligence that students and teachers bring to the classroom, encouraging them to pursue STEM-related activities with the preparation and deployment of focused and directed AI-bots. This paper presents examples and a case study of that directed and focused approach, the incremental lessons learned to date, and a proposed path to advance worthwhile AI …

Exploring Ai In Higher Education: Reflections On Research-Informed Practices For Teaching And Learning, Angela Elkordy, Stuart I. Carrier, Jack Denny, Donna Wakefield, Ayn F. Keneman

i.e.: inquiry in education

This article examines how faculty at a college of education are integrating generative AI tools into graduate and doctoral educator preparation programs. Drawing on faculty inquiry and course-based observations across multiple contexts — including early childhood education, secondary education, special education, and doctoral programs in education — the article synthesizes emerging lessons and practices of  AI literacy development, pedagogical approaches, and instructional design. We present an evidence-informed, reflective account of faculty practice through the lens of the scholarship of teaching, exploring how educators are navigating AI content, literacy, and practices in real courses, what students are learning, and what instructional …

Ai-Powered Remixes: Using Generative Ai To Critically Examine Text, Genre, And Language In First Year College Writing, Lauren Anderson, Eric Vandemark

i.e.: inquiry in education

As generative AI tools become embedded in writing instruction, educators face urgent questions about how these technologies encode and reinforce language standardization — particularly for multilingual and multidialectal students. This practitioner reflection describes a series of AI-powered "remix" activities developed and refined in corequisite writing labs. Building on a prior action research study, this paper turns to the pedagogical questions that emerged after the study: how AI tools might be used not as writing shortcuts but as objects of critical inquiry. Drawing on frameworks including critical literacy, plurilingualism, culturally relevant pedagogy, and AI literacy, we describe four remix activity types …

Scaffolded Generative Ai In Instructional Planning: Supporting Teacher Candidates’ Culturally Responsive Teaching, Dr. Eun Kyung Ko, Xiaoning Chen, Vishodana Thamotharan, Julie Sidarous

i.e.: inquiry in education

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes increasingly embedded in instructional planning, teacher education programs must move beyond efficiency-oriented adoption toward equity-centered, pedagogically grounded integration. This mixed-methods longitudinal study examines a year-long, scaffolded approach to integrating GenAI within an early childhood teacher residency program, with a specific focus on culturally responsive teaching (CRT) instructional planning. Guided by the AI/I-TPACK and CRT frameworks, fourteen bilingual teacher candidates (TCs) participated in this study. Data sources included pre- and post-surveys of CRT self-efficacy, lesson plans and instructional artifacts, reflective coursework, and focus group interviews. Quantitative analyses revealed statistically significant gains in TCs’ CRT self-efficacy …

When The Output Looks Like Learning: Tertiary Algorithmicity, Unproductive Success, And The Case For Pedagogical Friction In K–12 Schools, Micah J. Miner

i.e.: inquiry in education

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence in K–12 schools has outpaced educators' capacity to evaluate its effects on learning. This conceptual article argues that the dominant institutional responses treating AI as either an integrity threat or a productivity tool share an unexamined assumption that the fundamental nature of learning remains unchanged. Drawing on Walter Ong's media ecology and extending it through the concept of tertiary algorithmicity, the article offers a theoretical framework for understanding generative AI as a qualitative shift in the symbolic environment of schooling. For the first time, the prevailing communication technology ctively generates symbolic content, enabling …

Are We Up For An Adventure? Musings On Ai And Beyond, Antonina Lukenchuk

i.e.: inquiry in education

No abstract provided.

Privacy-Preserving Vpn With Zero Knowledge Proofs (Zkps), Niranjan M M, Medini Narasimha Bailkeri

Defensive Publications Series

Traditionally, VPN (both RA-VPN and S2S-VPN) uses username/password (eg., with EAP, RADIUS etc.), certificates, PSK, mac-address, auth-token etc., for authentication and later extended with Multi-Factor Authentication.

In general, to prove (especially as part of authentication), usually user need to reveal some of the information. The sharing of such information can reveal the identity, in-turn reveal the privacy information of the user. Hence we need a method, where-in user can prove that, they know the secret without even transmitting it. Such method should enhance privacy by having no password leaks, no key sharing, resistant to MITM attacks etc.,

Similarly, for the …

Open Amd Delivery Testbed (O‑Amd‑Dt V1.0), Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

O‑AMD‑DT v1.0 is a fully open, modular, benchtop‑only testbed for evaluating drug penetration into posterior ocular analogs under ultrasound stimulation.

The system uses standardized, layered ocular phantom cartridges with microfluidic sampling ports, enabling quantitative measurement of drug transport through cornea, sclera, and choroid/retina analogs.

The platform integrates capabilities from UAAP v1.0, GCI‑267, GCI‑v3.1, VMR v2.5‑T “Titan”, and VABR‑v2.0, providing acoustic control, microfluidic sampling, and nano‑/micro‑carrier preparation.

This disclosure includes complete mechanical blueprints, phantom construction methods, ultrasound coupling geometry, microfluidic architecture, assembly instructions, and test protocols, enabling any laboratory to fabricate and use the system.

Multi-Layer Agentic Manifold For Autonomous Recursive Economic Threat Modeling And Dynamic Baseline Normalization, N/A, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

Cybersecurity risk analysis often faces challenges integrating diverse financial and engineering data to quantify economic threat and may rely on probabilistic models. Additionally, static risk baselines may not adapt to evolving system environments and threat landscapes, resulting in outdated assessments. A multi-layered autonomous agentic system, the cyber threat and risk quantification agentic manifold (CRAM), is presented to address these challenges. The system autonomously ingests and correlates heterogeneous financial and engineering data to generate a revenue at risk (RAR) model that performs deterministic computations without relying on probabilistic inputs. For dynamic baseline normalization, a drift normalization agent continuously recalibrates risk baselines …