Digital Commons Network^™

Stratospheric-Terrestrial Hybrid Mesh Network (Churchmesh & Winch Data Mule Protocol), Matthew D. Judson

Defensive Publications Series

Disclosed is a hybrid network topology combining terrestrial LoRa mesh nodes with stratospheric Aerostat Data Mules. The terrestrial layer (ChurchMesh) utilizes ultra-efficient hardware (RAK4631/nRF52840) for 10-14 day autonomy and the Meshtastic ROUTER_LATE configuration to prevent packet storms. The core innovation is the "Winch Data Mule Protocol" (the "Yo-Yo" maneuver) for bridging Line-of-Sight gaps using Tethered Aerostats. The aerostat collects data at low altitude (~200ft), then the winch releases it to high altitude (~2,000ft) to gain LOS ("Virtual Ionosphere") and transmit stored bundles. The aerostat then winches back down. This mechanical data muling conserves airborne battery and minimizes weather exposure and …

Floods, Public Budgets And Fiscal Resilience: Evidence From Italian Municipalities, Alessandro Bellocchi, Chiara Lodi, Giovanni Marin, Giuseppe Travaglini, Matteo Zavalloni

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Working Papers

We examine the impact of extreme hydrogeological events on local governments’ fiscal responses in Italy between 2016 and 2022, with a focus on how local public finances contribute to disaster resilience. Leveraging the staggered timing of disaster declarations and employing a difference-in-differences framework, we estimate dynamic treatment effects on revenue and expenditure of municipal governments. Our findings indicate that local governments of affected municipalities significantly increase total and capital expenditures in the aftermath of disasters, particularly in functions related to emergency management, environmental protection and economic development. These spending increases are primarily financed through capital revenues and transfers from higher …

December 2025 Faculty Senate Packet, University Of Nebraska At Kearney Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Packets

No abstract provided.

Redefining Resistance: Las Madres De La Plaza De Mayo, Echoes Of Trauma And Memory In Argentina, Elizabeth J. Kaye

Honors Theses

Argentina's "Dirty War" (1976–1983) stands as one of the darkest and most painful periods in the nation’s history. During these years, the military dictatorship, known as the "Proceso de Reorganización Nacional," implemented a systematic campaign of state terrorism, targeting suspected political protesters, activists, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens. Widespread kidnappings, illegal detentions, and forced disappearances became routine, with an estimated 30,000 people vanishing without a trace. Families were left in despair, searching for answers that the government refused to provide. In response, a group of determined mothers, known as “Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo”, formed a powerful movement demanding …

A Burlesque: The Shimmering Body Of Revealing, Lola Montgomery

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

A Burlesque: The Shimmer Manuscript is a hybrid critical–creative work that examines burlesque as an embodied methodology and a mode of knowledge production. Drawing from my two decades as a performer–scholar, the work reframes glamour, desire, and adornment as epistemological practices rather than theatrical ornamentation. The project is significant in that it expands understandings of performance studies, autotheory, and feminist aesthetics by foregrounding the performer’s body as an intelligent, sensing, world-making apparatus.

The methodology is creative practice research and archive-driven, integrating backstage documentation, AI-assisted photomontage, and theoretical reflection. The work draws from poststructuralist and feminist frameworks (Irigaray, Deleuze & Guattari, …

Policy Design For Multiple Funding Flows Into Trump Accounts, Jin Huang, Michael Sherraden, Lissa Johnson

Center for Social Development Research

The law creating the new Trump Accounts explicitly authorizes employers to provide deposits matching contributions that their employees make to the accounts and also authorizes contributions by philanthropic organizations. Both features are essential for build­ing substantial lifetime assets for America’s children. Implementing them successfully – and ensuring that the funds reach every eligible child efficiently – will require an effective policy platform for routing, verifying, and reporting on third-party contributions. This brief discusses why traditional retail IRAs cannot support matching contributions and how to build a policy platform capable of accommodating multiple contribution streams.

Matthew Draper, Matthew Draper, Gus Guikema

Oral Histories of Farming along the Middle Rio Grande

No abstract provided.

Covering The Care: Utilization Rate Trends Among Adults Ages 19-64, Erica-Lyn Plante, Bethany Swanson

All Materials

This data brief presents a retrospective analysis of available medical claims data from NH Medicaid, NH Medicare and commercial insurance plans focusing on the trends of utilization rates for chosen medical interactions over a six-year period (2018-2023) among adults ages 19 to 64. This brief is the first of a three-part series of Covering the Care analytic reports exploring healthcare utilization trends in New Hampshire.

Global, Regional, And National Burden Of Cardiovascular Diseases And Risk Factors In 204 Countries And Territories, 1990-2023, Global Burden Of Cardiovascular Diseases And Risks 2023 Collaborators, Benjamin A. Stark, Nicole K. Decleene, Emily C. Desai, Johnathan M. Hsu, Catherine O. Johnson, Laura Lara-Castor, Kate E. Legrand, Prof Bhoomadevi A, Mohammad Amin Aalipour, Hasan Aalruz, Bedru J. Abafita, Ukachukwu O. Abaraogu, Mohammad Abavisani, Nasir Abbas, Madineh Abbasi, Mohammadreza Abbasian, Hedayat Abbastabar, Abdallah H.A. Abd Al Magied, Samar Abd Elhafeez, Prof Ahmed Abdelalim, Omar M. Abdelfattah, Prof Reda Abdel-Hameed, Mahmoud Abdelnabi, Prof Wael M Abdel-Rahman, Parsa Abdi, Wakgari Mosisa Abdisa, Daba Abdissa, Arman Abdous, Mujahid Abdullah

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of mortality and are among the foremost causes of disability globally. CVD burden has continued to increase in most countries since 1990, with trends driven by changing exposures to harmful risk factors, population growth, and population aging. Objectives: We report estimates of global, national, and subnational CVD burden, including 18 subdiseases and 12 associated modifiable risk factors. We analyzed change in CVD burden from 1990 to 2023 and identified drivers of change including population growth, population aging, and risk factor exposure. Methods: The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2023 study, a multinational …

Examining The Relationship Between School Location, Neighborhood Resources And Advancement Courses Offerings, Eudarius Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study addresses a critical gap in educational equity research by examining how neighborhood-level factors intersect to shape access to rigorous academic programming, a key gateway to postsecondary success. Integrating geospatial visualization and hierarchical linear modeling within a critical geography framework, the study investigates how structural inequalities—rooted in race, poverty, and place—influence advanced course-taking opportunities across the Memphis metropolitan region. Data sources included the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data (CCD) for district-level enrollment and school type, the U.S. Census and American Community Survey (ACS) for demographic and socioeconomic indicators, and the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) …

The Rhetorical Discourse Of Uniate Writers’ Polemic Literature Of The End Of The 16th – First Half Of The 17th Century In The Retrospection Of Oratory's History, Ruslan Tkachuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The examination of the poetics inherent in the polemical prose authored by Uniate writers during the late 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries holds substantial significance for comprehending rhetoric as a pivotal element in the stylistic evolution of Ukrainian literature throughout this period. The objective of this article is to explore the interrelationship between the works of Uniate polemicists and the framework of classical rhetoric, particularly by elucidating the functioning of rhetorical figures and argumentation techniques within their texts. To accomplish this aim, a range of literary methodologies were employed. Those methods included historical-cultural, comparative-historical, biographical, structural-analytical, …

Orthodoxy, Culture And Language: Alaska In Russia’S Religious Diplomacy Of The 21st Century, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the religious factor of the Russian foreign diplomacy in the light of Vladimir Putin’s high-profile visit to Alaska n August 15, 2025. The paper studies a special place of Alaska in the historical imagination of Russian political and church discourse. The status of this particular territory in Russian state worldview – the former “Russian America” – is indicative: it refers to the idea of an unfinished imperial legacy. The research doesn’t touch a main event that included a meeting with US President Donald Trump but an off-schedule meeting with Archbishop Alexei (Trader) …

More Perilous And Fair, Cami Agan, Clare Moore, Robin A. Reid Dr.

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

An overview of the conference's theme and speakers.

Book Review: Ecologies Of Inequity. How Disaster Response Reconstitutes Race And Class Inequality, Abel Traslaviña-Arias

Critical Disaster Studies

In Ecologies of Inequity: How Disaster Response Reconstitutes Race and Class Inequality, Sancha Doxilly Medwinter gathered diverse stories about how various migrant communities had to overcome not only disaster but also the overlapping networks established by those who were supposed to support them in 2012 in New York City. Medwinter portrays this contested post-disaster landscape through a thorough data recording of 120 individuals affiliated with various groups: racialized migrants or locals, tenants or property owners, local or external helpers, and those from wealthy or impoverished backgrounds. Ecologies of Inequity refer to the spatialized networks of organizational and interpersonal relations …

Applicability Of Syntropic Agriculture To A Semi-Arid Continental Climate: Alentejo To New Mexico, Arielle Nathan, Joana Dionisio Msc, João Serra, Joseph Lanning, Cátia Magro Dr.

Journal of Critical Global Issues

Conventional industrial agriculture has detrimental effects on the environment including pollution and overconsumption of water, soil degradation, and biodiversity reduction. An environmentally sustainable future of food production requires alternative methods that limit negative environmental consequences. Syntropic Agriculture (SA) is a promising farming alternative especially for arid systems at risk of desertification. New Mexico, USA, is a semi-arid continental climate in a prolonged period of drought and predicted to experience worsening agricultural conditions including desertification, wildfire intensification, and exacerbated water scarcity. The Alentejo region of Portugal has a Mediterranean climate with similar agricultural challenges. The agroecological transition project, Terra Sintrópica, located …

Implementation Of An Institution-Specific Checklist To Improve Compliance With Discharge Round Completion In A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Lee A. Lawson

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Effective discharge planning for premature infants in the NICU requires collaboration and coordination among multidisciplinary interprofessional (IP) teams. Ineffective communication during care transitions is a well-documented contributor to adverse patient outcomes, including prolonged hospitalization.

PICOT: For multidisciplinary, interprofessional teams in the NICU (P), how does the introduction of an institution-specific discharge checklist (I), compared to the current unit discharge process (C), affect multidisciplinary, interprofessional team compliance with completing weekly discharge rounds (O) within 6 weeks (T)?

Evidence: The reviewed literature supported the use of a discharge checklist tool to facilitate effective team communication and care coordination with parents …

Transportation Practitioners' Reflections On Addressing Transportation Barriers For Vulnerable Populations In Nebraska, Aysan Esmaely

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study examines transportation planning practices and challenges in Nebraska, with particular attention to how planners and agencies address the needs of vulnerable populations. Using a qualitative approach, thirty-five transportation planners, practitioners, and service providers were interviewed. Participants were selected based on their professional in transportation planning and service delivery. The study explores what institutional and funding barriers planners and practitioners face, and what strategies they consider most effective for improving access and inclusion. Findings reveal that limited funding, fragmented authority, and the absence of a coordinated regional planning framework significantly constrain transportation development across Nebraska. While metropolitan areas such …

Hurricanes And Human Health In Louisiana: Insights From Hurricanes Laura, Delta, And Ida, Shobha Kumari Yadav, Robert V. Rohli, M. E. Betsy Garrison, Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, Nazla Bushra, Charleen Mcneill

Faculty Publications

Louisiana is one of the most disaster-prone states, with hurricanes ranking among the most destructive hazards. Hurricanes impede sustainability by straining hospital infrastructure, overwhelming emergency departments, and disrupting continuity of care. Louisiana’s healthcare system, characterized by high uninsured rates, limited rural access, and notable racial and socioeconomic disparities, is particularly vulnerable during disasters. This research explores trends of mental and respiratory health in Louisiana surrounding Hurricanes Laura (2020), Delta (2020), and Ida (2021). Analysis reveals a substantial increase in admissions after landfall of all three storms, with mental health conditions showing a larger surge than respiratory ones in already-vulnerable communities. …

The Banner - V. 160, No. 10 - (December 2025), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Relationship Education For Latino Adolescents, Joshua J. Turner, Esra Şahin, Kay Bradford, Brian J. Higginbotham

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Adolescent romantic relationships are often characterized as exploratory and fleeting; however, they have lasting impacts on individual well-being and relationship quality during and beyond adolescence, shaping future relationship expectations and quality (Collins, 2003; Madsen & Collins, 2011). Adolescent relationship education is an important programmatic feature under the broader umbrella of family life education (Simpson et al., 2018). Previous evaluative studies document positive outcomes in educating adolescents on how to build and recognize healthy relationships (Bradford et al., 2023; Kerpelman et al., 2010); however, research remains limited in addressing potential benefits for adolescents from historically underrepresented groups. This study addresses this …

Buzzy Aotearoa!, Azael Martinez, Kyla Jackson, Jessica Landry, Tommy Lopez, James Pham, Sirjana Khadka, Dai-Chi Tran

Sociology and Anthropology Student Research - Archive

No abstract provided.

A Multilevel Analysis To Evaluate Variability In Sdoh Clusters Within Rurality And Its Effects On Cancer-Specific And All-Cause Mortality In The Us., Stephie Ann Abraham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social determinants of health (SDOH) factors have consistently been shown to impact all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. Area-level SDOH factors that coexist to form “high-risk” clusters are more prevalent in rural than urban areas. However, heterogeneity within rural and urban areas may contribute to variations in SDOH factors that could influence higher mortality rates and is not considered in other studies. The primary objective of this study was to utilize ecological and individual-level data to determine if the composition of SDOH clusters within counties in the rural-urban continuum contributes to differences in all-cause (AC) and cancer-specific mortality rates of lung and …

Orientation Or Disorientation? A Critical Content Analysis Of Refugee Cultural Orientation Curriculum., Amanda Jean Lacey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cultural Orientation (CO) is a free, legally mandated, multi-session program intended to provide refugee newcomers ages 18-65 with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to integrate and achieve self-sufficiency in the United States. Despite occurring at a critical time in the resettlement process, there has been almost zero scholarship analyzing the content or efficacy of domestic CO curriculum. This dissertation addresses that gap by performing a Critical Content Analysis (CCA) on The Road Ahead (TRA), the de facto official CO curriculum promoted through the Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange (CORE). Framed by a postcolonial perspective and informed by the …

The Icj’S Advisory Opinion On Climate Change, Maria Antonia Tigre, Maxim Bönnemann, Antoine De Spiegeleir

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

This open-access edited volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the International Court of Justice’s 2025 Advisory Opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, one of the most consequential developments in international climate law since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners from across public international law, human rights law, environmental law, and global governance, the book examines how the Court reframed climate change as a matter of binding legal obligation rather than political discretion.

The contributions explore the Opinion’s articulation of state duties under treaties, customary international law, and general …

Power, Interests, And Maternal Health Care: A Political Economy Analysis Of Service Delivery Redesign In Kenya, Jacinta Nzinga, Easter Olwanda, Kennedy Opondo, Hillary Kimutai, Jan Cooper, Brian Arwah, Benjamin Tsofa, Edwine Barasa, Kevin Croke

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

The maternal and newborn health (MNH) service delivery redesign (SDR) in Kakamega County, Kenya, represents the country's first system-level reorganization of MNH services. The reform aimed to improve care quality and reduce mortality by centralizing delivery services at designated hubs. Using a political economy lens, we examined how ideology, political dynamics, and institutional structures shaped the agenda-setting, adoption, implementation, and sustainability of SDR. We drew on data from document reviews, stakeholder analysis, semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observation to assess the structural, contextual, and institutional factors influencing the reform. Ambiguity around SDR's purpose contributed to the community's uncertain engagement characterized by …

Onset Of Strong Iceland-Scotland Overflow Water 3.6 Million Years Ago, Matthias Sinnesael, Boris Theofanis Karatsolis, Paul N. Pearson, Anne Briais, Sidney R. Hemming, Leah J. Levay, Tom Dunkley Jones, Ying Cui, Anita Di Chiara, Justin P. Dodd, Deepa Dwyer, Deborah E. Eason, Sarah A. Friedman, Emma Hanson, Katharina Hochmuth, Halima E. Ibrahim, Claire E. Jasper, Saran Lee-Takeda, Danielle E. Leblanc, Melody R. Lindsay, David D. Mcnamara, Sevasti E. Modestou, Margaret A. Morris, Bramley J. Murton, Suzanne Oconnell, Gabriel Pasquet, Sheng Ping Qian, Yair Rosenthal, Sara Satolli, Takuma Suzuki, Thena Thulasi, Bridget S. Wade

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the return flow component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is a major inter-hemispheric ocean water mass with strong climate effects but the evolution of its source components on million-year timescales is poorly known. Today, two major NADW components that flow southward over volcanic ridges to the east and west of Iceland are associated with distinct contourite drift systems that are forming off the coast of Greenland and on the eastern flank of the Reykjanes (mid-Atlantic) Ridge. Here we provide direct records of the early history of this drift sedimentation based on cores collected …

School Attendance In Southern Illinois: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Trends And Implications, Mary Beth Goff

Ed.D. Capstone Reports

The purpose of the study was to examine the demographic data reported on the Illinois School Report Card within the four southernmost Regional Offices of Education to determine the rates of chronic absenteeism. Following the identification of chronic absenteeism numbers, this study sought to analyze the relationships between subgroups to determine correlations within data sets. In order to develop an understanding of potential interventions, interviews were conducted with districts that were both successfully addressing absenteeism and those not experiencing success within each of the Regional Offices of Education. The findings of the study aim to contribute insights for educators and …

University Of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda, December 1, 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

Meeting agenda from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

University Of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, December 1, 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

Meeting minutes from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

Evidence Based Project: Japanese Immigrant Elderly Couples In The Midwest, Isabel Anderson

Student Projects

This paper examined the unique needs and challenges of Japanese immigrant elderly couples living in the rural Midwest of the United States through the lens of systemic family therapy. The focus family consisted of an elderly husband showing early signs of dementia and a wife who recognized the necessity of transitioning to independent living. Their adult daughter and son-in-law’s involvement intensified intergenerational tension, as traditional cultural norms granted the husband decision-making authority. The study provided a statistical overview of Japanese immigrant families in the U.S., highlighting aging trends, linguistic barriers, and geographic dispersion. Common psychosocial and systemic issues such as …