Digital Commons Network^™

From Himalayan Catastrophe To National Resilience: Lessons From The 2026 Bhote Koshi And Trishuli River Floods In Nepal, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

On the morning of 26 August 2026, the mountains above Nepal’s northern frontier delivered a disaster of almost unimaginable speed and scale. A massive mass of ice, rock, and sediment detached in the high Himalayan terrain near the Nepal–Tibet border, descended roughly 1,200 metres, interacted with the Lhende Khola system, and generated a debris-rich flood that surged through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river corridors, destroying settlements, markets, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities, and an international border crossing and transforming them into fields of mud, boulders, and wreckage within minutes (ICIMOD, 2026b; Reuters, 2026a). Satellite analysis indicates that a substantial section …

Fastest-Warming States And Cities In The Mountain West, 2025, Maisoon Faris, Kahlen Coss, Kevin Yang, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data published by Climate Central on the change in average annual temperatures for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah and 15 Mountain West cities from 1970 to 2025. City-level data are derived from Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), state-level data are derived from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

On The Passing Of Wendell Berry, Gayle E. Doornbos, Jeff Ploegstra, Danielle Wyenberg, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Berry’s literary contributions are vast and multifaceted, but the central messages carry an invitation into a more intentional life, one that prioritizes people, land, communities, and the joy of good work."

Posting about Wendell Berry's passing and literary legacy ­­­­­­­­from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

On the Passing of Wendell Berry

Abcflux V2: Arctic-Boreal Co2 And Ch4 Monthly Flux Observations And Ancillary Information Across Terrestrial And Freshwater Ecosystems, Anna Maria Virkkala, Isabel Wargowsky, Judith Vogt, Simran Madaan, Tiffany Windholz, Kyle A. Arndt, Evan S. Kane, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Measurements of surface-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes have been relatively sparse across the Arctic tundra and boreal biomes, causing significant uncertainties in carbon budget estimates from the region. While the availability of Arctic-boreal carbon flux data has increased substantially over the past decade, the data have remained spread across different repositories, scientific articles, and unpublished sources, making it difficult to leverage. Here we present a new dataset of monthly Arctic-boreal carbon fluxes (ABCFlux v2) across terrestrial (wetlands and uplands) and freshwater (lakes and rivers) ecosystems compiled from previous syntheses including the Arctic-boreal CO2 flux database (ABCFlux v1), …

Research Priorities For Robust Climate Assessments In The United States, Melissa A. Kenney, Robert E. Kopp, Constantine Samaras, Marina Alberti, Sonia Y. Angell, Jennifer Burney, Richelle L. Winkler, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Scientific assessments play a critical role in synthesizing evidence to support evidence-based decision-making in many sectors and topics. For climate change, large-scale assessments like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United States (U.S.) National Climate Assessment (NCA) reports help many different users—from national government to local governments, Indigenous Peoples and communities, the private sector, the social sector, and the scientific community itself—navigate the complex field of climate risks, impacts, and integrated solutions. While co-creation with users is essential to developing actionable assessments, this paper lays the groundwork for future processes by identifying many advancing and emerging areas …

Geographical Pattern Analysis Of Gis Images With Deep Learning And Voronoi Network, Nidaa Kareem, Tawfiq A. Al-Assadi

Journal of Intelligent Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity

Localization is not enough for the analysis of spatial patterns; a principled geometric and statistical framework is required. This paper proposes an integrated spatial intelligence system combining deep learning, computational geometry, and spatial statistics, which is a unified and interpretable system. It is based on segmentation localization that accurately localizes the centroid of each object without the disadvantages of the bounding box. These centroids form a natural Voronoi tessellation of regions of spatial influence intrinsic to the data instead of imposing any artificial restrictions. A geometry-based density formulation is used to improve representation, which includes Voronoi cell areas and neighborhood …

Soil Microbial Recovery From A Pulse Disturbance Following A Press Disturbance, Gretchen Bahmueller

Master's Theses and Capstones

Though a natural phenomenon, disturbance events like drought and freeze-thaw cycles are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change. At the forefront of these disturbances are soil microorganisms, which provide essential ecosystem services like carbon and nitrogen cycling. Previous work has reported responses of microbial communities to either a long-term press disturbance or a short-term pulse disturbance, with few studies examining how these disturbance types interact to influence microbial activity. This work sought to understand how soil microorganisms recover from a one month-long simulated moisture or freezing disturbance after experiencing 30+ years of soil warming. Heated and control …

Integrating Unpiloted Aircraft System (Uas)-Based Thermal, Lidar, And True-Color (Rgb) Imagery With Random Forest For Land Cover Classification At A Northern Peatland, Darlyn Chavez

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: Understanding the impacts of climate change on the Arctic is critical given the sensitivity of its ecosystems. As global temperatures rise and permafrost collapse, significant changes in land cover, hydrology, and carbon dynamics will occur across these vulnerable regions. Because methane emissions are directly influenced by vegetation communities in permafrost peatlands, accurate land cover classification is important for understanding greenhouse-gas (GHG) dynamics. However, these landscapes are highly heterogeneous at fine spatial scales, requiring high-resolution imagery capable of distinguishing simple and complex vegetation and land cover classes relevant to GHG dynamics. Technological advancements in remote sensing offer modern tools for …

Progressive Growth Decline Following Beech Leaf Disease Detection In American Beech, Patrick Lemis

Master's Theses and Capstones

Beech leaf disease (BLD) is an emerging forest disease affecting American beech (Fagus grandifolia), yet its effects on tree growth remain incompletely quantified. This study used dendrochronological methods to evaluate patterns of growth decline associated with BLD across multiple sites in the northeastern United States. Basal area increment (BAI) and relative BAI (relBAI) were used to quantify growth, with relBAI standardizing beech growth to co-occurring non-beech species to account for site-level environmental variation. Mixed-effects models were used to assess growth decline as a function of time since county-level BLD detection, disease severity, and hierarchical variation among trees and sites. The …

Building Wellbeing Through Nature And Adventure For Justice-Involved Youth, Lewis Kogan, Meagan Ricks, Janna Coulter, Miranda Margetts, Lori Butterfield, Ben Ukoh-Eke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Justice-involved youth often experience elevated levels of stress, mental health challenges, and reduced access to positive developmental opportunities. A nature- and adventure-based youth development program designed to strengthen resilience, self-efficacy, nature-connectedness, and well-being among justice-involved youth was piloted in 2025 to address these challenges. Pilot findings indicated improvements in resilience, self-efficacy, hopefulness, and connectedness to nature.

Preliminary Data: Old Trails Fire--Field Reconnaissance (Rpd1195), Rapid, University Of Washington

Spokane Wildfire Academic Consortium Repository

The .ZIP file contains preliminary field reconnaissance findings from the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, including geospatial datasets and the source code used to support the project's interactive web map. The data and observations reflect work completed through September 4 and should be considered preliminary. As additional analysis and information become available, updates will be published as new records in the Wildfire Consortium Repository.

Access the interactive map: https://designsafe-ci.github.io/rapid-fire-field-reconnaissance/

Access the DesignSafe-CI rapid-fire-field-reconnaissance GitHub repository: https://github.com/DesignSafe-CI/rapid-fire-field-reconnaissance/

Powering Tomorrow: Does Financial Development Induce Renewable Energy Consumption In Brics+ Nations?, Firlana Abidin, Abdul Khaliq

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This paper analyzes the influence of financial development on the implementation of renewable energy in BRICS+ nations, addressing both short-term and long-term implications. The empirical research utilizes Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Nonlinear ARDL models, analyzing data from 1992 to 2021 for ten BRICS+ nations, while accounting for essential economic variables such as Foreign Direct Investment and inflation rate. The results demonstrate that financial institutions and markets influence renewable energy adoption, with different significance in the short and long term. The empirical findings highlight the importance of comprehending how financial development can aid countries in transitioning to cleaner energy, especially …

El Leñador, September 2026, El Leñador Staff

El Leñador Newspaper

El Leñador is an English and Spanish newspaper produced by Humboldt State University students. Our staff cover and provide news to Latinx and other diverse communities on campus and in Humboldt County. We are committed to providing relevant news and expanding the representations and stories told about people of color and other marginalized groups. Our work helps create more social, political and cultural diversity in local media.

El Leñador es un periodico en español y inglés producido por estudiantes de la Universidad Estatal de Humboldt. Nuestro personal cubre y provee noticias a la comunidad Latinx y otras comunidades diversas en …

Ai Slop, Jessica Silbey, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

The term “AI slop” has become popular to describe the output of generative AI systems seen as voluminous, low quality, or the result of little effort. When AI-generated music and videos flood platforms, they are called slop. Peer-reviewed journals and legal tribunals are drowning in low-quality and low-reliability AI slop submissions.  Employees are seen to be producing mountains of slop in their reports and communications with each other. The term has inertia and heft, and the phenomenon has significant consequences. Most of them are not good.

But the boundaries of “AI slop” and its usefulness in policy discussions are not …

Research Priorities For Robust Climate Assessments In The United States, Melissa A. Kenney, Robert E. Kopp, Constantine Samaras, Marina Alberti, Sonia Y. Angell, Jennifer Burney, Colin Cunliff, Elliott T. Gall, J. T. Duffy-Anderson, Multiple Additional Authors

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scientific assessments play a critical role in synthesizing evidence to support evidence-based decision-making in many sectors and topics. For climate change, large-scale assessments like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United States (U.S.) National Climate Assessment (NCA) reports help many different users—from national government to local governments, Indigenous Peoples and communities, the private sector, the social sector, and the scientific community itself—navigate the complex field of climate risks, impacts, and integrated solutions. While co-creation with users is essential to developing actionable assessments, this paper lays the groundwork for future processes by identifying many advancing and emerging areas …

Legal Geographies Of The Public Trust Doctrine, Alida Cantor, John P. Casellas Connors, Elizabeth Carlino

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Public Trust Doctrine (PTD) is a legal principle that recognizes a duty of the government to hold certain natural resources in trust for public benefit. The doctrine has been extended within the United States to address issues of water, coastal access, wildlife conservation, and climate change. Its implementation is spatially uneven and subjective, however, raising geographic questions around scale, power, and political economy. This article uses a legal geographic approach to understand the PTD. Focusing on water, wildlife, and atmospheric resources, we analyze themes of scale and jurisdiction, property and commons, and legal and environmental subjectivity. We argue that …

Ukrainian Theology, War, And Human Transformation: Reflections On The International Conference ‘Transfiguration: Tradition And Eschatology, Vladyslav Fulmes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

On June 11, 2026, the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy (Lutsk, Ukraine) hosted the international theological conference “Transfiguration: Tradition and Eschatology”, bringing together scholars, clergy, philosophers, chaplains, psychologists, and researchers from several countries. This report examines the conference’s principal theological and interdisciplinary themes, including deification, eschatology, ecclesiology, ecological responsibility, pastoral care, military and medical chaplaincy, digital technologies, and the Church’s response to war and post-war reconstruction.

Volume 9 (2026) Climate And Responsibility

International Journal on Responsibility

This issue focuses on the various ways responsibility affects environmental justice. Specifically, this volume urges us to think about how societal and individual (in)action influences ecological crises and what informs this behavior, with a specific focus on religious and Indigenous beliefs and values.

Home, Neighborhood, And Community Environments And Social Isolation In Later Life: Joint Associations And Their Moderation By Life-Course Socioeconomic Mobility, Jeein Law

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Social isolation is a major public health concern among older adults, yet less is known about how multilevel residential environments shape isolation among those aging in place. Guided by the Socio-Ecological Model, Person–Environment Fit, and a life-course perspective, this dissertation examined whether micro-level home hazards, meso-level neighborhood social cohesion and physical disorder, and macro-level census-tract structural conditions were associated with social isolation. It also examined whether life-course socioeconomic mobility moderated the associations between home and neighborhood environments and social isolation.

This dissertation used two nationally representative longitudinal studies of U.S. older adults. Aims 1 and 2 used the National Health …

Environmental Perspective For System Dynamics Modeling Of Stunting Mitigation To Achieve The Sustainable Development Goals In West Sumatra, Indonesia, Elsa Yuniarti, Nabila Azzahra, Yulhendri Yulhendri, Heldi Heldi, Mery Delvina, Saskia Putri Azeli

Kesmas

This study developed a system dynamics model to simulate stunting reduction in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia, by integrating infant and toddler health, maternal health, and environmental determinants. Secondary data from 2020–2024 on low birth weight, immunization, malnutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, maternal chronic energy deficiency, iron and folic acid supplement distribution, sanitation, and safe drinking water access were compiled from West Sumatra Provincial Health Office and Statistics Indonesia, and validated through consultation with five stakeholder institutions. Causal Loop Diagrams mapped feedback relationships among determinants and were translated into Stock Flow Diagrams using Powersim Studio 10. The model was validated through structural verification, …

Concepts For Supporting Indigenous And Tribal Information And Research Needs, Sharon Hausam

Faculty Publications

This is a working paper produced as part of National Science Foundation project #2115169, “Transforming Rural-Urban Systems: Trajectories for Sustainability in the Intermountain West,” known as the “Intermountain West Transformation Network” (TN), led by the University of New Mexico with institutional partners at three additional universities in New Mexico, two in Arizona, and one each in Utah, Colorado, and Washington. The TN’s Indigenous and Tribal engagement was supported through a contract with Dr. Sharon Hausam, additional work by Aaron M. Canter, coordination with Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie, and an Advisory Committee on Indigenous Information Needs primarily comprised of Indigenous representatives in …

Evaluation Of Eutrophication Levels In Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf Lake, Iraq (Biological And Chemical Study), Suhair Al-Sharifi, Salih Al-Bakri, Sataa Al-Bayati

Engineering and Technology Journal

Within Al-Najaf lake, that is one of the important shallow lakes in Iraq, the lake facing tremendous pressure due to encroachments, discharge of untreated domestic and industrial waste, drainage water from cultivated orchards, dumping of solid waste and illegal diversion of water and currently it's still suffering from these problems and neglect. The study aimed to evaluate the eutrophication status. Eutrophication is a grave problem in lakes, a knowledge about the eutrophic state help in providing a make efficient realization of the eutrophic problem.This study conducted to assess the Eutrophication level with a scale 0 – 100 depending on the …

Characterizations Of Synthetic 8mol% Ysz With Comparison To 3mol %Ysz For Ht-Sofc, Abeer Al-Attar, Saad Farid, Fadhil Hashim

Engineering and Technology Journal

In this work, Yttria (Y2O3) was successfully doped into tetragonal 3mol% yttria stabilized Zirconia (3YSZ) by high energy-mechanical milling to synthesize 8mol% yttria stabilized Zirconia (8YSZ) used as an electrolyte for high temperature solid oxide fuel cells (HT-SOFC). This work aims to evaluate the densification and ionic conductivity of the sintered electrolytes at 1650°C. The bulk density was measured according to ASTM C373-17. The powder morphology and the microstructure of the sintered electrolytes were analyzed via Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The chemical analysis was obtained with Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Also, X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to obtain …

Rubber Pad Sheet Metal Forming Of Round Metal Blanks Into Multi Shape Axisymmetric Cups By Fea And Experimental Methods, Karem Younis, Adnan Mohammed, Jalil Shukur

Engineering and Technology Journal

Rubber-pad forming process of round sheet blanks into axisymmetric cups is studied by numerical and experimental approaches. In the experiments, round metal sheets are formed into the axisymmetric cups by pressing them between a rubber pad and a former block with desirable shape. To investigate influences of different parameters on the forming load, three former blocks with different shapes, blank material of low carbon steel (ST12) with thickness 0.5 mm ,three polyurethane rubber with different hardness (50,60 and 70) shore A and rubber pad having three different thickness (40,60 and 80) mm . ANSYS Workbench utilized to perform the numerical …

Applying Modern Optimization Techniques For Prediction Reaction Kinetics Of Iraqi Heavy Naphtha Hydrodesulferization, Zaidoon Shakor, Anfal Sadeiq

Engineering and Technology Journal

In this study, a powerful modern optimization techniques such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial neural network (ANN) were applied to estimate the optimal reaction kinetic parameters for Heavy naphtha Hydrodesulferization (HDS), the hydrodesulferization unit located in AL-Daura refinery-Baghdad/Iraq. The reactions was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor packed with Co-Mo/γ-Al2O3 catalyst and the operating was 315-400 °C temperature 35 bar Pressure and 0.5-2.1 hr-1 liquid hourly space velocity. The result showed that hydrodesulferization of heavy naphtha follows the pseudo-first order reaction kinetics. This study signifies that the reaction kinetic parameters calculated by Genetic Algorithm was …

Biosorption Technique For Naphthalene Removal From Aqueous Solution By Chara Sp., Algae, Talib Albayati, Khairi Kalash

Engineering and Technology Journal

These instructions give guidelines for preparing the article to be published in the Engineering& Technology Journal using MS World 7.0 or later. A short abstract should open the paper and give a clear indication of the aims, scope and the main results of the paper. The reader may decide from the abstract that the full text is of particular interest or not. The author should consider that the abstract is an indication of the scope of the topic and the obtained results and not a way of condensing the problem in a few words for quick reading. It should be …

Effect Of Particle Size On Mechanical Properties Of The Recycling Compact Disks Reinforced Epoxy, Shayma Ahmed

Engineering and Technology Journal

The recycling of CDs or DVDs (compact disks) as a filler in polymer composites can be used in many engineering applications such as electrical, automobile, and building applications. In the present paper, composite materials were prepared of epoxy resin reinforced with three different particles size (600˂d˂850, 200˂d˂600, d˂200 μm) of recycling of CDs or DVDs (a very thin aluminum layer is used to record information). Hand lay-up technique was conducted to produce composite material samples. Different types of tests, such as tensile, bending, impact, and hardness were applied on these samples. The mechanical characteristics of the composite samples were analyzed. …

The Effects Of Cyanobactrum Chroococcus Minor And Oscillatoria Amonea On Seed Germination Of Plant Vigna Radiate, Ghaidaa Alrubaie

Engineering and Technology Journal

Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic photosynthesis algae able to produce toxins and that cause problems in water quality, agriculture and aquatic organisms As well as concerns about the public health for humans. Among the cyanobacterial toxins, microcystins (MC) are the most common. In this study, Identification and Isolation of blue green algae Chroococcus minor and Oscillatoria amonea Belonging to the cyanobacteria division, BG-11 media were used to cultivation. In suitable laboratory conditions (25 ±2C°, 260μE/m2/sec) for 16:8 hrs. Light: dark. The culture was harvested after 30 days and determine the effects of the extracellular of both algae on seed germination for Vigna …

Beyond Boundaries: Unlocking Positive Social Change Through Shared Expertise, Sigifredo Castell Britton

Journal of Social Work in the Global Community

Societal progress thrives through the dynamic interplay of diverse disciplines, each contributing unique insights to advance positive change. Interdisciplinary collaboration plays a crucial role in addressing complex social challenges by combining the strengths of various fields. This article explores the historical evolution, theoretical foundations, and practical applications of interdisciplinary collaboration to foster positive social change. The discussion provides definitions of key terms, such as societal progress and positive social change, within distinct ideological and contextual frameworks. It makes use of these to clarify the direction of positive change in different societal settings. Historical and contemporary examples, such as Bolivia’s social …

Trustworthy Ai At The Air Quality-Health Nexus: A Systematic Review Of Federated Learning, Distributed Ledger Technologies, And Explainable Ai, Nadia Dahmani, Imen Ben Salem, Syed M Salman Bukhari

All Works

Abstract Air quality (AQ) related health risks are increasing globally, creating urgent demand for artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are privacy-preserving, transparent, and auditable. Although Federated Learning (FL), Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), and Explainable AI (XAI) are widely recognized as core components of trustworthy AI, existing research remains divided across technical and application domains. This study conducts a computational, multistage systematic review (SR) of scholarly literature records published between 2011 and 2025 using the Semantic Scholar Graph API with intersection and union search strategies. A total of 13 458 records were retrieved and refined into a research-grade corpus of 7 …