Digital Commons Network^™

Courting Oblivion Part Ii: How To Revive American Reconstruction By Feigning Forgetfulness, Joshua J. Schroeder

Cleveland State Law Review

This is the second part of the three-part Courting Oblivion series on the legal concept of oblivion, meaning legal forgetfulness, letting go of the past, or forgiveness usually to predicate a second chance, a restart, or even an era of reconstruction. This Article demonstrates how to apply the “right to move on” described in Part I to the law in the United States through acts of oblivion and amnesty. It describes the general uses of acts of oblivion and amnesty to the general framework of government in the United States, leading to the final discussion in Part III about the …

The Chemistry Of Decomposition: The Mechanisms To Decay The Human Body, Lydia J. Buxa

Senior Honors Theses

Taphonomic analysis separates decomposition into four major stages: fresh, early decomposition, advanced decomposition, and skeletonization. It is easy to demarcate the observable changes to the body, but it is far more difficult to know what underlying biochemical processes are occurring. Fresh decomposition begins with algor mortis, livor mortis, and rigor mortis, which sets the stage for the major workforces of decomposition: autolysis and putrefaction. The external signs of decomposition appear in early decomposition, which can be attributed to the breakdown of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. This also leads to major changes in the moisture levels during advanced decomposition, …

Edra 56: Bibliography, Tamara Karr

Bibliographies

EDRA 56: Designing Communities for Climate Action and Resilience

Focus, 2025, Winter, Andrews University

Focus

FOCUS (ISSN 1077-9345) is published quarterly, free of charge, for alumni and friends of Andrews University, an institution owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Seeking Common Ground With A Conversational Chatbot, Judit Dombi, Tetyana Sydorenko, Veronika Timpe-Laughlin

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conversational AI is advancing rapidly, enabling significant improvements in chatbots’ conversational abilities. Currently, available conversational chatbots (e.g., Snapchat’s MyAI) appear to generate fairly realistic, often human-like output. As collaboration between humans and machines becomes more common, and AI systems are increasingly viewed as more than just tools, understanding human communication in such contexts is crucial. Despite the vast array of applications and the increasing number of human-bot interactions, research on how humans interact with conversational chatbots is scarce. One possible reason for this gap is that studying human-computer communication may require adaptations of existing pragmatic frameworks, due to the unique …

Matching Student-Debt Payments With Retirement Contributions Has High Appeal For Low-Wage Workers: Implications For Secure 2.0, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Guangli Zhang

Center for Social Development Research

Whether to prioritize paying down student debt now or saving for future retirement is a difficult choice, especially for low-wage workers. The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 allows employers to match employees’ qualified student-debt payments with contributions into their retirement plans, essentially allowing the employee to save and invest while paying down debt. This research brief draws upon data from the Workforce Economic Inclusion and Mobility (WEIM) survey of a nationally representative sample of vulnerable workers in the United States to examine how such student-loan matching programs affect the retirement savings behaviors of how low-wage workers and how offering these …

Savings Incentives And The Secure 2.0 Act: New Evidence On Employer-Sponsored Emergency Savings Accounts And The Saver’S Match, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Selina Miller

Center for Social Development Research

credit. Analyses drawn upon data from the Workforce Economic Inclusion and Mobility Survey, a survey experiment testing the appeal of employer-sponsored emergency savings accounts. The findings indicate that interest in employer-sponsored emergency savings programs is generally high and that, for low-wage workers, offers of matching contributions are more salient than automatic contributions.

IMPLICATIONS for SECURE 2.0 This is the first research brief in a series examining the implications of the SECURE 2.0 Act for the retirement security of low-wage workers in the United States. All briefs in the Implications for SECURE 2.0 series can be found at https://csd.wustl.edu/tag/secure-2.0/

Quantifying Treatment Response To A Macrophage-Targeted Therapy In Combination With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors After Exposure To Conventional Chemotherapy, Shelby N. Bess, Gaven K. Smart, Timothy J. Muldoon

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Conventional chemotherapeutic agents, such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), can exert anti-tumor effects through immunogenic cell death (ICD) induction. Researchers have found hallmarks that quantify ICD (such as the translocation of HMGB1 and calreticulin). Although chemotherapeutic agents can induce ICD, they increase the expression of immune checkpoints, limiting their effectiveness. Studies have emphasized the importance of investigating the heterogeneous responses of cells co-localized in a solid tumor (macrophages, tumor cells, etc.) to ICD induction. However, these studies were performed in vivo, which limits the collection of information on cell-cell interactions due to model complexity.

Methods: In this study, we used a …

The Geologic History Of The Chehalis Forearc Basin, Washington State, Usa, Rud Lamb Moe

Dissertations and Theses

The Chehalis Basin, in southwest Washington, is one of a series of forearc basins between the Cascade Arc and the Coast Range in the Pacific Northwest. While the Seattle basin to the north, and the Portland-Tualatin basins to the south are both relatively well studied, the geologic evolution of basins in between is poorly constrained. The Chehalis basin is underlain by accreted Eocene oceanic basalt of the Crescent Formation. The basin fill consists of sedimentary rocks and volcanic rocks deposited throughout the Cenozoic. It has undergone N-S shortening driven by transpressional stress from oblique subduction of the Juan de Fuca …

Estimated Amounts Of Terrestrial Carbon Mobilized And Sequestered By The 1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption, Washington State, Usa, Lizzet G. Reyes

Dissertations and Theses

Volcanic eruptions significantly influence the geologic carbon cycle by emitting CO₂ and mobilizing terrestrial carbon pools. The 1980 Mount St. Helens (MSH) eruption offers a unique case study, triggering a massive landslide that displaced 2.7 km³ of sediment, buried 600 km² of forest, and disrupted regional carbon dynamics. Pre-eruption terrestrial carbon stocks, including aboveground biomass (AGB), dead biomass (D), and soil organic carbon (S), averaged 209.5 tC/ha. Post-eruption, total carbon density fell to 118.7 tC/ha, driven mainly by a 51% reduction in AGB, modest declines in D, and redistribution of S. Over 36 years, ecosystem recovery increased …

How To Be Unique: A Guide To The Law School Admissions Process, Abigail E. Bjerke

Master's Projects

The law school admissions process can be a difficult thing to navigate, especially with updates that occur each year throughout the process. Therefore, this guide to law school admissions aims at making said admissions process easier to understand for all law school candidates. In the guide, there are several chapters regarding specific steps in the admissions process alongside an extended literature review of already existing guides or relevant articles.

It’S Not Like Riding A Bicycle: How A Steadfast And Committed Effort To Writing Can Contribute To The Development Of Student Writers, Meredith J. Whited

Honors Theses

This work investigates the effect of writing routines in public education. Propelled by the words and ideas of Penny Kittle, Cynthia Urbanski, Ralph Fletcher, and many more, a study was completed with high school aged students to find the correlation between writing routines and levels of writing apprehension. These students were given The Daly-Miller Test as a pretest via Google Forms at the start of the study. After responding to a series of five-minute writing prompts over the course of several days, students were given a post-test of the same survey to determine if changes in writing apprehension had occurred. …

Decreasing Extubation Times Using Adaptive Support Ventilation: A Scoping Review, Daphne Thomas, Cole Vest, Luke Wilson, Shannon Witcher, Bobby Bellflower Dnsc, Nnp-Bc, Faanp

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Purpose/Background:This scoping review explores the effectiveness of adaptive support ventilation (ASV) compared to conventional ventilation modes in reducing postoperative extubation times in adults undergoing general anesthesia with ventilatory support. Ventilator weaning is a critical determinant of recovery and outcomes in intensive care settings. ASV, a closed-loop ventilation mode, automatically adjusts ventilator parameters based on patient-specific respiratory mechanics and demand to optimize the weaning process. Although promising, evidence regarding ASV’s effectiveness remains inconsistent across different patient populations and surgical contexts.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted from August 2023 to December 2024 across PubMed, CINAHL, Medline, JAMA, and Google …

The Impact Of The Utilization Of Shared Decision-Making Tools In Contraceptive Counseling On Patient Satisfaction In Adolescents: A Scoping Review, Akaninyene Ruffin Msn,Fnp-C, Judith Tunney Bsn, Rn, Mary Katherine Fouquier Phd, Aprn, Cnm, Facnm, Margaret Harvey Phd, Aprn, Acnp-Bc

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Purpose/Background

Robust adolescent contraceptive counseling requires deep understanding of the specific context in which adolescents are receiving reproductive health care. As teen pregnancy rates rise, particularly in places across the Deep South, providers must find ways to engage their adolescent patients about their sexual and reproductive health. Professional organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gyencologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics both offirm the need for robust contraceptive counseling for adolescents. The purpose of this is to ascertain the impact of utilizing shared-decision making aids during contraceptive counseling on patient satisfaction in adolescent populations.

Methods

A systematic literature …

Hybrid Bermudagrass Drought Tolerance In A Cool-Season Climate, Ashley J. Beazer

Theses and Dissertations

Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) (KBG) is the most commonly grown cool-season C3 turfgrass. However, as global temperatures rise, KBG struggles to tolerate higher temperatures, leading to increased irrigation demands--a growing concern in arid and semi-arid regions facing escalating drought conditions. In contrast, hybrid bermudagrass (HBG; Cynodon dactylon [L.] Pers. x Cynodon transvaalensis Burtt Davy), a warm-season C4 grass, has demonstrated promising adaptability in traditionally cool-season climates. Since 2008, HBG has been successfully grown with minimal winterkill in Provo, UT, USA, and is now being considered for broader adoption in similar climates. Two separate studies were conducted to evaluate the …

Essays In Macroeconomics, Manu Garcia

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is organized into three chapters, each offering novel insights into macroeconomic theory and practice. While the chapters address distinct phenomena, a common thread runs throughout: each study examines a transmission mechanism---whether of monetary shocks, normative change, or academic strategies---and underscores the importance of heterogeneity and dynamic adjustment in macroeconomic outcomes. In Chapter 1, I explore one of the most direct channels of monetary policy transmission---the refinancing window in the housing market. By exploiting comprehensive mortgage data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) spanning several decades, the analysis identifies episodes of heightened refinancing activity as quasi-natural experiments. Regions …

Citizens United: The 2010 Crisis In The Marketplace Of Ideas, Abbagayle Grace Madanat

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2020 - Present

In Citizens United v. FEC (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, like individuals, have First Amendment rights, enabling limitless corporate spending on political advocacy. This decision, made in the name of free speech, discounted concerns about corruption and destabilized the marketplace of ideas by granting corporations disproportionate influence and effectively drowning out citizens’ voices. I demonstrate how Citizens United deviated from legal precedents and the Framers' intentions for the First Amendment. Drawing from On Liberty, I argue that John Stuart Mill, one of history’s greatest free speech advocates, would have opposed the ruling, recognizing its distorting effects. I further …

Study Group Environments And Their Connection To Study Plans And Strategies, Tatyanna Caputo

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2020 - Present

Students have a mental image of how they intend to study but may fail to anticipate possible distractions or unexpected obstacles. A potential solution is for students to collaborate in study groups. If students fear disappointing their fellow peers, they may be more likely to fulfill their intended plans. In addition, studying in groups may encourage the use of active study strategies. In this study, college students reported their upcoming study plans, which were then analyzed to see if students planned to work with others and use stronger study strategies. We correlated their plans with the students’ later self-reports on …

How Effective Are Machine Learning Algorithms In Enhancing Marketing Strategies?, Kassidy Dunn

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2020 - Present

In recent years, machine learning algorithms have become a vital tool in marketing, yet their impact remains underexplored. This study investigates the mechanisms and applications of machine learning algorithms in marketing strategies, assessing whether they benefit or restrict the effectiveness of marketing strategies. Through relevant research and case studies, we argue that while machine learning-driven marketing offers measurable benefits in personalization and return on investment, its implementation must be balanced with ethical considerations to avoid biased outcomes.

Cliona Delitrix Population Demographics And Ecological Succession On San Andrés Reefs, Colombia, Maya Clarke

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2020 - Present

As climate change decimates coral populations, excavating sponges are becoming prominent in some reefs as critical bioeroders. This thesis aims to assess ecological succession patterns and population demographics of the excavating sponge Cliona delitrix on San Andrés, Colombia reefs over 20 years. Population growth was quantified. Growth was constant, with recruits replacing dead mature sponges at an equal rate. A frequency analysis was run to assess the successor prevalence per substratum. On live corals, succession after C. delitrix death is dominated by a diverse community of organisms, including macroalgae, turf algae, sponges, calcareous algae, and others. Understanding reefs as dynamic …

Digital Discourse On Alzheimer’S Disease: A Text Analysis Of Crosscultural Sentiments In Online Communities, Maryam Imran

Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses 2020 - Present

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological condition characterized by a significant decline in cognitive function. Due to its severe effects and the absence of a cure, early diagnosis and treatment are crucial for slowing its progression. My project examines how cultural perceptions of Alzheimer’s disease are reflected in digital discourse. Using Voyant, a text analysis tool, and the NRC Emotion Lexicon, I analyzed Reddit discussions from South Asian, East Asian, and North American individuals, categorizing their posts into three themes: diagnosis perceptions, treatment decisions, and family/social dynamics and classifying sentiments as negative, positive, or neutral to gain a deeper understanding of …

The Potential Of Brain Organoids In Addressing The Heterogeneity Of Synucleinopathies, Xiao-Jun Diao, Claudio Soto, Fei Wang, Yu Wang, Yun-Cheng Wu, Abhisek Mukherjee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Synucleinopathies are a group of diseases characterized by neuronal and glial accumulation of α-synuclein (aSyn) linked with different clinical presentations, including Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD), Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Multiple system atrophy (MSA). Interestingly, the structure of the aSyn aggregates can vary across different synucleinopathies. Currently, it is unclear how the aSyn protein can aggregate into diverse structures and affect distinct cell types and various brain regions, leading to different clinical symptoms. Recent advances in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-based brain organoids (BOs) technology provide an unprecedented opportunity to define the etiology of synucleinopathies …

Fact-Based Counter Narrative Generation To Combat Hate Speech, Brian Wilk, Homaira Huda Shomee, Suman Kalyan Maity, Sourav Medya

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Online hatred has become an increasingly pervasive issue, affecting individuals and communities across various digital platforms. To combat hate speech in such platforms, counter narratives (CNs) are regarded as an effective method. In recent years, there has been growing interest in using generative AI tools to construct CNs. However, most of the generative models produce generic responses to hate speech and can hallucinate, reducing their effectiveness. To address the above limitations, we propose a counter narrative generation method that enhances CNs by providing non-aggressive, fact-based narratives with relevant background knowledge from two distinct sources, including a web search module. Furthermore, …

Rural-Urban Disparities In Hospitalisation For Myocardial Infarction In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus In The Usa, Jasvinder A Singh, Sumanth Chandrupatla

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: To assess whether rural-urban disparities exist in people with SLE for hospitalisation with myocardial infarction (MI).

Methods: We used the 2016-2019 US National Inpatient Sample data that contain all hospitalisation data. In people with a diagnosis of SLE, we assessed the multivariable adjusted ORs (aORs) to examine the association of rural patient residence with MI hospitalisation, while adjusting for demographics, payer, income, hospital characteristics and the Deyo-Charlson Comorbidity Index.

Results: We found that the crude rates of patients hospitalised with MI per 100 000 area specific SLE hospitalisations were higher in rural versus urban residents with SLE, 2265 versus …

Ai-Assisted Model-Guided Image Reconstruction Methods For Photoacoustic And Ultrasound Computed Tomography, Luke Joseph Lozenski

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) and ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) are two emerging medical modalities that hold great promise for both pre-clinical and clinical imaging applications, including cancer diagnosis and management. PACT is a hybrid imaging modality that combines benefits from both optical and acoustic imaging to provide high contrast images of biological absorbers. USCT is an ultrasound imaging modality that provides high-resolution quantitative images of acoustic properties utilizing accurate physics models. Both PACT and USCT can be applied for monitoring or diagnosis of cancer and are non-invasive and radiation free. However, both imaging modalities are in the early stages of …

Interference Management For Next-Generation Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, Jie Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The exponential growth of wireless devices and bandwidth-intensive applications has intensified the demand for efficient spectrum utilization, exposing the limitations of traditional static spectrum allocation schemes. Next-generation spectrum sharing has emerged as a transformative solution to enhance spectrum efficiency by enabling multiple wireless systems to coexist opportunistically in the same frequency band and geographic area. However, such dynamism introduces significant challenges, particularly in interference management, which is critical to enabling reliable coexistence, ensuring access priority, and building mutual trust across diverse applications. This thesis advances interference management by developing advanced techniques for interference prediction, monitoring, and control in dynamic spectrum …

Heavy Metals In Spices From Lancaster, Pa: Arsenic, Cadmium, And Lead Exposure Risks And The Need For Regulation, Andrew Huff, Hoi Lam, Anuj Ghimirey, Jay Goldring, Michelle Pimentel, Harriet Okatch

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Heavy metal exposure is associated with adverse health effects in children including impaired cognitive functioning. Studies have identified spices as a potential source of heavy metals. However, in Lancaster, PA no such studies have been conducted. Hence the aim of this study was to quantify arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in spices from Lancaster, PA. Spices were either purchased from stores in Lancaster or obtained as donations from families in Lancaster. As, Cd, and Pb were quantified using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to compare the median heavy metal concentrations in store-purchased …

Facebook Comments-Based Assessment Model For Food Product Companies Using Four Machine Learning Methods With Arabic/Iraqi Lexicon, Raad Sadi Aziz, Sura Mazin Ali, Ahmed T. Sadiq

Baghdad Science Journal

People's need for food is increasing day after day due to the large population increase that has occurred in human society, which has led to a significant increase in the activity of food product manufacturing companies in the world. Hence the necessary need to evaluate the performance of food production companies. We found that the best way to evaluate the performance of these companies is through social media comments, because it is the newest and most common method among people. In this paper, 4 machine learning techniques were relied upon to evaluate participants' comments in evaluating food production companies after …

Leader Development Goes Global: Gli Leadlab & The School Of Leadership, Erich Baumgartner, Ramiro A. Quero, Randy Siebold

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Legal Protection: Replacing Wine Labeling Regulations With Regional Certification Marks, David Corasaniti

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

While wine labeling in the United States is currently governed by a complex regulatory framework administered by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (“TTB”), intellectual property (“IP”) rights for wine producing regions could serve this core function of protecting consumers better and more efficiently. Regulating wine labeling through IP would more closely mirror the system used by the European Union, which recognizes Geographical Indications, such as Champagne, Rioja, and Bordeaux, as a unique form of IP. By deregulating American wine labeling, and encouraging wine producing regions to assert their IP rights in the form of collectively held certification …