Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating Sediment Control Strategies Using Swat Based Bmp Assessment In A Tropical Highland Watershed, Northern Thailand, ฺBanchongsak Faksomboon, Wilailak Suanmali

Applied Environmental Research

Soil erosion remains a critical environmental challenge in the tropical highland watersheds of Southeast Asia, where steep terrain, intense monsoonal rainfall, and intensive land use interact to accelerate sediment generation and downstream degradation. This study aims to quantify spatial patterns of sediment yield and to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of individual and combined best management practices (BMPs) at both the watershed and subwatershed (SWW) scales using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in a tropical highland watershed in northern Thailand. Baseline simulations reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity in erosion severity, with substantial portions of the watershed exhibiting moderate to extreme …

Weekly Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Forest Fire Hotspots In Tak Province, Thailand : A Gis-Based Directional Analysis, Suphatphong Ruthamnong

Applied Environmental Research

Forest fires are recurrent dry-season hazards in northern and western Thailand, yet their short-term spatial dynamics remain insufficiently understood. In this study, weekly spatiotemporal dynamics of forest fire hotspots in Tak Province, Thailand, were examined using Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) active-fire data and GIS-based directional analysis. Hotspots from five fire seasons (2021–2025) were grouped into 24 weekly intervals beginning on 1 December. The analysis integrated weekly hotspot counts, forest-type compositions, mean-center trajectories, standard deviational ellipses, temporal changes in topographic characteristics, and fishnet-based hotspot persistence mapping. The results revealed that fire activity was highly concentrated during the middle of …

Editorial, Arthit Jiamrattanyoo

Journal of Letters

No abstract provided.

Creative Refusal And Freedom In Craft Making The Case Study Of Dhaka Weaving And The Development Assistance In Eastern Nepal, Yuko Takamichi

Asian Review

This study explores the conflict between local handicraft production and development assistance interventions through the case of dhaka, a hand-woven cloth produced in the eastern hilly region of Nepal. Drawing on studies of development assistance in Nepal and the perspective of “culture as creative refusal,” this paper argues that the characteristics of dhaka cloth and its production practices have been shaped through local people’s conscious rejection and selective adoption of elements introduced by various development programs implemented in the region. Since the 1980s, the KHARDEP program in Town M has served as a catalyst for the implementation of numerous …

Black Ecological Care: Conservation, Environmental Justice, And Sovereignty In Baltimore, Maryland, Alexandria Nicole Casteel

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Dominant traditions of urban planning, municipal policy, and environmental science register Black urban spaces through a vocabulary of pathology, as sites of ecological deficit, contamination, and social decay. This dissertation investigates how Black communities in U.S. cities attend to the environment in ways that address legacies of environmental and social injustice while opening pathways toward different environmental futures. I gather these practices under the analytic of Black ecological care, which captures the generative labor of making and maintaining livable worlds within, alongside, and beyond histories of harm. I develop the analytic across twenty-nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in 2021 and …

Human Rights In Turkish Foreign Policy, Elif Babül, Zümray Kutlu

Government: Faculty Books

This book builds on the editors’ earlier work and once again brings together women scholars of Turkish foreign policy from different parts of the world. The contributors take an interdisciplinary approach to foreign policy analysis that is increasingly necessary in a global environment shaped less by traditional statecraft and more by overlapping, non-traditional challenges.

The book places human well-being at the center of foreign policy analysis and highlights dynamics long treated as peripheral, including gender, the environment, civil society, and the transnational role of diasporas.

Through historically grounded and theoretically informed chapters, the authors examine how these concepts and themes …

Federated And Explainable Spiking Neural Networks For Fair And Privacy-Preserving Nail Disease Diagnostics, Ch Pavani Reddy, Krishnanaik Vankdoth

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Automated nail disease diagnostics provide a non-invasive pathway for identifying underlying systemic health conditions; however, conventional centralized deep learning approaches often raise concerns related to privacy, fairness, and interpretability. Although the original NeuroNail-SNN framework demonstrated an energy-efficient and edge-ready diagnostic solution, its broader clinical adoption remained limited by unresolved trust, transparency, and ethical considerations. In this study, we propose the Federated and Explainable NeuroNail-SNN, which extends the original spiking neural architecture by integrating federated learning (FL), explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), fairness evaluation, and uncertainty quantification within a unified framework. Federated learning enables decentralized model training across hospitals and mobile clinics …

Mac Conference Realignment Strategic Implications, Sam Schommer

Master of Education in Applied Human Development Graduate Projects

College athletics have always been a catalyst for a community to unite and have set aside their differences in support of their teams. NCAA member institutions have been organizing themselves into athletic conferences since the late 1800s. Unfortunately, these conferences have seen themselves change substantially. The original idea behind college athletic conferences was for institutions with “similar geographical locations and provide a structured framework for competition.” (Sport Team History, 2025) In today’s NCAA, the “Power 4” Conferences have moved away from this idea and have found themselves comprised of universities from across the country. The term “Power 4 Conference” refers …

Archives And Children's Knowledge, Elliott Kuecker, Ashley Rockenbach

Publications and Research

This article argues for the importance of collecting works created by children—not just about and not just for—in formal archival collections. Framed through the ideas of legitimate knowledge and epistemic injustice, this piece combines notions important to children’s rights activists and childhood studies scholars with the role archives can play in preserving children’s knowledge through child-created materials. The authors describe how researchers struggle to find work created by children within archives, impacting the ability to create child-centered research that centers children’s views of the world as prominently as adult views of the world. Some collections that do include child-created materials …

Factors Influencing The Access To Activity Resources Of Occupational Therapy Students During Work-Integrated Learning: A South African Perspective, Karin Van Niekerk, Mischa Viviers, Sunike Nel, Thandi Pelebese Takalo, Reitumetse Georgia Mofutsana, Yi-Fang Chen, Carla Faber

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Activities are the backbone of occupational therapy intervention. In order to effectively use activities during Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) placements, occupational therapy students require access to appropriate activity resources. This study explored the factors influencing the access to activity resources of South African occupational therapy students from the University of Pretoria during their undergraduate education and how this potentially affected student learning. A qualitative descriptive design was used. Fourteen participants with WIL experience were selected through purposive and quota sampling to ensure diversity in living situations and WIL experience. Data were collected through one-on-one semi-structured interviews and were analyzed thematically. Six …

Toward A Critical Occupational Therapy Education: A Discrit-Informed Framework, Robert Niewiadomski, Chia-Yang Chiang

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Occupational therapy has long articulated commitments to equity, inclusion, and occupational justice, yet its dominant educational approaches often remain focused on interpersonal competence rather than structural analysis. This conceptual paper argues that contemporary occupational therapy education is insufficiently equipped to prepare practitioners to address the sociopolitical forces shaping occupational participation. Drawing on disability critical race theory (DisCrit), critical pedagogy, intersectionality, and occupational justice scholarship, the authors propose the Critical Occupational Therapy Education (COTE) framework as a structural, justice-oriented reorientation for occupational therapy education. COTE positions racism and ableism as interlocking systems that shape professional norms, knowledge production, and access to …

Hands-On: Integrating Active Learning Into An Upper Extremity Occupational Therapy Elective, Jennifer Radziak, Katie Jones, Kelsey Picha

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

In an effort to provide students with advanced clinical practice skills, several occupational therapy elective courses were developed. The current article describes an educational innovation that involved an in-person elective course for graduate second year Master of Science in Occupational Therapy students that focused on the upper extremity. The course was team-taught, promoted active learning, and used unique activities to engage students in the learning process. Relevant evidence-based practice literature and clinical guidelines were incorporated into the course to teach students about the treatment of upper extremity conditions. The active learning strategies implemented in the course included fresh donor dissection, …

Integrating Web-Gis And Inquiry Learning To Enhance Spatial Thinking In Geography Learning, Nyokro Mukti Wijaya, Meri Herlina, Sugeng Widodo, Suhendro Suhendro

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study investigates the impact of integrating Web-GIS with Inquiry Learning on secondary school students’ spatial thinking skills. A 2×2 factorial experimental design was employed with 116 eleventh-grade students from SMA Negeri 13 Bandar Lampung, divided into four treatment groups: direct instruction with printed maps, direct instruction with Web-GIS, inquiry learning with printed maps, and inquiry learning with Web-GIS. The Spatial Thinking Ability Test (STAT), a widely validated international instrument, was used to measure outcomes. Data were analysed using two-way ANOVA. The findings indicate that the learning media had a significant effect, with Web-GIS outperforming printed maps, whereas learning strategies …

The Influence Of Scale In Modeling Social Vulnerability And Disaster Assistance, Sina Razzaghi Asl, Oronde Drakes, Eric Tate, Samuel Brody, Wesley Highfield, Kayode Atoba

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Understanding how social vulnerability relates to disaster impacts is critical for addressing social equity, yet the role of spatial scale in this relationship is often overlooked. Most studies use aggregated data, risking ecological fallacy-misinterpreting individual outcomes from group-level data. This study examines how spatial scale influences the relationship between social vulnerability and federal disaster assistance after Hurricane Harvey. Using spatial econometric models at both household and census tract levels, we assessed the strength of key vulnerability indicators in explaining disaster assistance. Results show that disability, housing tenure, household size, and income predict assistance at the household level, but their influence …

Beyond Discrete Indicators: Modeling Intersectional Flood Vulnerability, Sina Razzaghi Asl, Eric Tate, Christopher T. Emrich, Md Asif Rahman, Kaeleb Royster

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Social vulnerability to flooding is shaped by intersectional social marginalization, yet most quantitative assessments employ indicators of single populations. This study applies spatial machine learning to examine how the intersectional social vulnerability indicators of poverty-race, poverty-housing tenure, and race-housing tenure compare with traditional discrete indicators of single populations in predicting flood exposure in California. Using geographically weighted random forests and partial dependence plots, we model spatial heterogeneity and non-linear relationships between social vulnerability and exposure. We quantified flood exposure using a population-adjusted measure derived from building footprints and modeled 500-year fluvial and pluvial flood hazard. The results reveal distinct explanatory …

Presence Of Legacy And Emerging Pfas In Human Liver Specimens Banked In The United States From 2000 To 2024, Juliana Agudelo Areiza, Jitka Becanova, Simon Vojta, Johanna Ganglbauer, Udayan Apte, Luigi Brunetti, Sean Kumer, Faiz Haque, Euna Kim, Elsie M. Sunderland, Rainer Lohmann, Fabian C. Fischer, Angela L. Slitt

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent, bioaccumulative chemicals linked to liver toxicity and metabolic disease. 54 PFAS were measured in 211 adult human livers collected between 2000 and 2024 to reveal temporal trends, relative PFAS abundance, and demographic predictors of hepatic burden. PFAS were detected in 210 individuals, with 15 compounds found in ≥30 livers. Total summed PFAS concentrations decreased by 94% over the 24-year period in weighted linear regression, and by 68% after adjusting for age, sex, and liver health in multivariate models. Since 2019, a ∼950-fold variability in concentration was observed, and the PFAS profile in the …

Exploring Drone Technology For The Survey And Documentation Of Aerospace Archaeology Sites, David G. Morgan, Thomas R. Allen

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

This research examines the implementation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) during a pilot mission in Nike Park to support its aerospace preservation. Located in Carrollton, Virginia, it was a Cold War missile installation that formed part of the area’s air-defense network. This project aims to use a drone to capture high-resolution video and imagery of Nike Park’s Administrative Office Supply and PX building and the Nike Ajax missile to create virtual 3D models for the Isle of Wight County Museum’s exhibit. For this mission, the DJI Mini 4 Pro drone manually flew a circular flight pattern around the missile and …

Global Evidence On Scaling Nature-Based Solutions For Compound Hazards, Sina Razzaghi Asl, Anahita Azadgar

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly promoted for climate adaptation to compound hazards, but systematic evidence of their effectiveness is still scarce. We address this gap with a systematic review of 38 studies. Each study was sorted by what its measurement design can support, not by what its authors claim. This produced four groups. Direct studies attribute a measured hazard reduction to the intervention, proxy studies infer protection from ecosystem condition, prioritization studies map suitable locations without estimating performance, and qualitative studies describe effectiveness without measuring it. We detect trends in geographic distribution, hazard combinations, intervention types, methodological approaches, and strength …

A Phenomenological Qualitative Study Of The Experiences Of Board Chairs Toward Governance In Seventh-Day Adventist Schools Across Canada, Shad Lehmann

Dissertations

Problem

There is limited understanding of how school board chairs within the Canadian Seventh-day Adventist education system perceive and carry out their leadership and governance roles. The role of the board chair is complex, involving oversight of the organization, adherence to denominational policies, and alignment with the school’s academic and spiritual missions. Although effective governance is vital for school success, there remains a lack of clarity about how board chairs interpret their roles, fulfill their responsibilities, and navigate the unique demands of faith-based school leadership. This gap in understanding restricts the system’s ability to provide appropriate training, support, and clear …

Children And Adults Across 15 Countries Believe In Human Uniqueness Of Mind: A Cross-Cultural Investigation Of Cross-Species Mind Perception, Karri Neldner, Luke Maurits, Magie Junker, Lara Abbas, Nayrouz Abbas, Arianna Abis, Federica Amici, Bernardo Arroyo-Garcia, Negar Asghari, Giovanna Barragán Pardo, Zhen Zhang, Junior Peña Chumacero, Ardain Dzabatou, Dustin Eirdosh, Susan Hanisch, Tom Herrnsdorf, Tom Hovehne, Alicia Junker, Patricia Kanngiesser, Felipe Villa Larens, Safaa Mahmoud, Sandra Masaquiza, Iino Masato, Risma Illa Maulany, Tongtong Meng, Kardelen Mutlu, Putu Oka Ngakan, Ebru Peközer, Ljubica Petrović, Mirella Christy Rehatalanit

School of Psychology

The way humans relate to other animals is fundamentally shaped by whether we perceive ourselves as unique, with feelings and thoughts not shared by other animals. How beliefs about animals’ ability to feel and think develop across cultures remains largely unexplored. We asked children and adolescents (4–17 years, N = 1025) and adults (N = 190) from 33 urban and rural communities across 15 countries whether animals have thoughts or feelings (judgments of presence), and whether those thoughts or feelings are human-like (judgments of similarity). Bayesian analyses revealed that participants generally ascribed non-human animals the ability for thoughts and feelings. …

Growth In The Margins: Field Measured Protein Metabolism Rates In The Common Limpet, Patella Vulgata, Ignacio A. Cienfuegos, Benjamin J. Ciotti, Richard A. Billington, Paul A. Sutton, Keiron P.P. Fraser

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Intertidal shores are characterised by a high variability in abiotic conditions, resulting in marked daily, tidal, seasonal and vertical differences in stress conditions, yet our ability to understand the consequences for key physiological processes at corresponding scales are limited. In particular, no previous studies have directly measured protein metabolism, the key process underpinning animal growth, in the field, in any organism. We measured whole-animal (SGR) and tissue (TSGR) mass growth, protein metabolism (synthesis (k_s), degradation (k_d) and growth (k_g)), RNA to protein ratios and oxidative stress in Patella vulgata in the field every season …

Using Real-World Observational Data To Stratify Risk And Predict Outcomes In Chronic Liver Disease, Kristopher Bennett

Peninsula Medical School Theses

Background: Chronic liver disease (CLD) is increasing globally, driven by metabolic and alcohol-related aetiologies. Late diagnosis is common due to a prolonged, subclinical fibrotic phase preceding advanced disease (ACLD). Current pathways and cross-sectional fibrosis tests have poor sensitivity in low-prevalence settings and limited population-scale availability. Predicting future ACLD in primary care offers opportunities for earlier diagnosis and prevention, but few suitable clinical prediction models (CPMs) exist.Aim: To review existing general-population liver prediction models and develop CPMs for incident ACLD in unselected primary care populations using routinely collected data.Methods: A systematic review and PROBAST+AI appraisal of fourteen CPMs (median …

When Play Fades And Screens Rise: Teachers' And Parents' Lived Experiences Of The Push-Down Of Academics In Kindergarten, Rachel L. Hunter

Doctor of Education

In the span of a single generation federal mandates have transformed kindergarten from a place of play into an academic pressure zone. This study is grounded in early childhood education, child development, and educational policy, with a focus on heightened academic expectations in kindergarten alongside the rising influence of digital technology in young children’s lives. It addresses two questions: (1) How has the reduction or elimination of play in kindergarten impacted children’s peer-to-peer engagement? and (2) What role, if any, does digital technology play in compounding this shift? This phenomenological study employs qualitative, transformative action-research methods to examine the lived …

Against Audiepistemic Injustice: Claiming Deaf Futurity, Pamela R. Conley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation proposes a new theoretical framework: Audiepistemic Injustice (AEI). Expanding upon existing theories of epistemic injustice (EI), I identify AEI as the systemic marginalization and dismissal of deaf ways of knowing. AEI is a multidimensional phenomenon rooted in the nineteenth century, when auditory and linguistic biases became codified across education, law, and literature. This interdisciplinary study interrogates three nineteenth-century literary narratives as primary case studies to examine AEI: (1) Ivan Turgenev’s “Mumu,” (2) Guy de Maupassant’s “The Deaf Mute,” and (3) Abigail Bradley Hyde’s “The Deaf and Dumb Child: A True Narrative.” I synthesize these literary works with legal …

State Medical Licenses Without Borders, Meighan Parker

Scholarly Works

Access to health care in the United States is undermined by a maldistribution of physicians, and state medical licensure remains a barrier to correcting this issue, despite legal reforms that attempt to streamline physician licensure pathways. Geographic distribution gaps can have serious consequences in rural areas, such as poor health outcomes, reduced access to care, and further entrenchment of health disparities.

On the bright side, physicians can potentially use telemedicine to help improve geographic distribution gaps through the provision of clinically appropriate, virtual care across state lines. But states have traditionally required physicians, even those who are currently licensed in …

Law And The Moral Geography Of Urban Education, Rebecca Horwitz-Willis

Lewis & Clark Law Review

In contemporary discussions, urban schools are often labeled as “bad,” while suburban schools are generally regarded as “good.” These assessments are typically based on achievement metrics, resource allocations, and the demographics of student populations. However, this Article offers a new lens through which to analyze the valuation of urban schools: the relationship between local vice regulation and what I term “educational geographies” in urban areas. Specifically, it argues that the location of vice institutions in cities has disproportionately impacted Black neighborhoods, thereby devaluing the educational geographies within these communities. These distributions do not just impact market value, but rather, also …

Strengthening Social Structures To Improve Informal Care For Older People With Chronic Life-Limiting Illnesses In Rural Ghana, Barbara Adonteng-Kissi, Obed Adonteng-Kissi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Traditional family-based care for older people in Ghana is declining as globalization and social change weaken historical support systems. This analysis is informed by a review of scholarly literature concerning the implications of globalization for the provision of caregiving for older people managing chronic life-limiting illnesses. We aimed to explore ways of strengthening social structures to enhancing the quality of lives of older people with chronic life-limiting illnesses in rural Ghana amongst 15 older people; 15 family caregivers; 10 healthcare professionals. Critical Social Theory (CST) functions as the primary theoretical framework for conducting an interrogation of the systemic structures that …

Trial Tribulations: Lessons Learned From An Unsuccessful Pilot Trial Of Behavioural Activation In Young People With Early Or Emerging Psychosis At A Regional Mental Health Service, Janina Catalao Dionisio Murta, Bróna Nic Giolla Easpaig, Mitchell K. Byrne, Richard Gray, Martin Jones, David Mitchell, Rebecca Creek, Ellie Brown, Jing Yu Tan, Shaun Dennis, Daniel Bressington

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

AimThe experience of conducting an unsuccessful pilot trial of behavioural activation (BA) to improve depressive symptoms in young clients with early or emerging psychosis is reported on. We aimed to identify barriers and enablers to inform the conduct of future trials with this client group.MethodsClinicians completed BA training with the aim of delivering this to suitable clients. Feasibility outcomes were calculated as proportions of feasibility targets. The various stages of the pilot randomised trial were examined, informed by interviews with five young people with early or emerging psychosis and four clinicians. Interviews were content analysed.ResultsClient recruitment and retention targets were …

Framing Belonging And Exclusion: A Dialogic Narrative Analysis Of English- And Spanish-Language Immigration Coverage During The Trump 2024 Presidential Election, Evangeline T. Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

I investigated how English- and Spanish-language news outlets narratively constructed Latinx immigrants during the Trump 2024 presidential campaign, a period marked by heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric and political volatility. While past scholarships examined immigration framing through tone, sentiment, or frequency analysis, limited attention has been given to the deeper narrative structures that shape public meaning-making. This study addresses this gap by applying Dialogic Narrative Analysis (DNA) and Critical Thematic Analysis (CTA) to a bilingual dataset of 120 newspaper articles from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, El Diario, and La Opinión published between November 2024 and February 2025.

Findings reveal …

Immigration, “Literary Value”, And The Logic Of Late Capitalism In Piersandro Pallavicini’S Il Mostro Di Vigevano (1999), Simone Brioni Dr.

Department of English Faculty Publications

According to Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), postmodern culture functions as an expression of the logic of late capitalism, manifesting in stylistic pastiche, the dominance of spectacle, a waning of historical consciousness, and a corresponding erosion of affect. Central to Jameson’s critique is the contention that postmodernism forecloses the possibility of imagining alternatives to capitalism. This article argues that Piersandro Pallavicini’s Il mostro di Vigevano (1999) exemplifies some of these features, and it shows how its description of immigrants to Italy as ingenuous, innocent, and simple-minded insinuates that they come from backward places …