Digital Commons Network^™

Anti-Egfr Liposomal Drug Delivery System Loaded With Agy2 Potentiates The Anti-Cancer Effect Of Agy2 Against Egfr Expressed Pancreatic Cancer, Raviteja Bulusu, Esther Frimpong, Joy Okoro, Sunil Krishnan, Saunjoo Yoon, Bo Han, Xue Zhu, Edward Agyare

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most lethal malignancies worldwide due to late diagnosis, dense stromal barriers, and resistance to existing chemotherapeutics. To address these limitations, we developed a targeted liposomal delivery system that encapsulates AGY2, a newly synthesized, more potent fluoro pyrimidine nucleoside analog. In this study, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) functionalized liposomal nanoparticles (EGFR-AGY2 LNPs) were optimized using Box–Behnken Design to achieve superior physicochemical stability. The optimized formulation demonstrated nanoscale dimensions (∼121 nm), high entrapment efficiency (∼75%), and strong colloidal stability. Surface antibody conjugation was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis (FTIR) and immunofluorescence analysis, …

Human Rights, Between Peace And Dignity, Ryan Liss

Michigan Journal of International Law

Today, it seems self-evident that human rights are enshrined at the international level because they protect universal human dignity—a cosmopolitan entitlement that cannot be left to the contingencies of domestic law. The prevalence of this received wisdom, however, masks a fundamental transformation in the idea of human rights over the last century. When human rights were first enshrined in international law—during and following the Second World War— their international status was not seen to be justified primarily by the inherent dignity of persons, but by the instrumental role human rights were understood to play in securing interstate peace. This article …

Atomized English: Fewer Whole Books, More Isolated Learning Experiences, Andrew Newman, Jonna Perrillo, Jeremiah Piña

Department of English Faculty Publications

This white paper presents findings from the State of Literature Instruction National Survey, administered online to secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers during the 2024-25 school year. An analysis of approximately 1250 responses demonstrates three key findings: 1) Classes that read whole books are associated with more “social learning” pedagogies; 2) Classes under test pressure are less likely to engage in social learning pedagogies and more likely to offer atomized learning experiences, emphasizing individual, decontextualized skill development; and 3) Digital texts are more likely to be assigned in classes that experience test pressure. We find equity gaps between student identity …

Conference Calls And Information Spillover: The Role Of Analyst Participation, Amanda Awyong, Young Jun Cho, Holly I. Yang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the role of conference calls in creating information spillover within firms. We find that analyst participation in conference calls is positively associated with subsequent revisions in management forecasts, consistent with analysts' questions prompting managers to collect additional information. We find that this effect strengthens when analysts pose more questions on new topics and when they ask questions with abnormally positive or negative tones. We also find that analyst participation has greater effects when analysts have more experience and higher forecasting ability. Further analyses demonstrate that analyst participation is associated with higher accuracy in subsequently revised forecasts. Overall, our …

Well-Being Of University Students In Singapore, Tina Li Yi Ng, Andree Hartanto, William Tov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore provides an insightful case study for university student well-being due to its national culture of competitiveness. Amid a meritocratic society that valorizes academic success as the path to securing one’s future (Ho et al., 1998), educational attainment is central to Singaporean university students’ well-being (Inter-University Network, 2022). In response to Singapore’s increasing incidence of mental health challenges among young adults (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2022), the government and higher education institutes have sought to destigmatize mental health and improve accessibility to related resources. In this chapter, we review the literature on the well-being of Singaporean university students. We situate …

The Emerging Roles Of Ai In Self-Directed Stress Management: Systematic Review, Mary Kamillah Grace Reyes, Shauna Sha Min Teo, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background: Stress is widespread and carries substantial mental health, social, and economic burdens. Yet, access to clinician-led stress management remains constrained by service capacity, cost, and stigma. In response, artificial intelligence (AI)–enabled tools have rapidly proliferated as scalable, self-directed options. However, evidence on how these systems support stress management outside formal clinical settings remains fragmented. Objective: This systematic review aimed to synthesize empirical evidence on how AI-enabled technologies are used for self-directed stress management. We mapped the emerging functions of these tools, the psychological frameworks informing their design, the populations and settings studied, and the outcomes reported. Methods: We conducted …

Ai Fatigue In Human–Ai Interaction: Conceptual Framework, Scale Development And Validation, And Associations With Ai Engagement, Gabriel R. Lau, K. T. A. Sandeeshwara Kasturiratna, Adalia Y. H. Goh, Eddie M. W. Tong, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Emerging from the accelerating pace of AI development, user fatigue arising from prolonged human–AI interaction has become an increasing concern in public discourse. This growing attention underscores the need to clarify why sustained engagement with AI systems can generate psychophysiological strain and how such exhaustion manifests in users. The present research develops a conceptual framework for AI fatigue and introduces the 15-item AI Fatigue Scale as a validated tool for examining its correlates. Across four studies with 717 participants, we generated and content-validated an item pool, identified and confirmed a four-factor (cognitive, emotional, physical, behavioural) higher-order model. The scale demonstrated …

Drone Urbanisms, Siew Ying Shee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Across contemporary cities, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) particularly drones have emerged as critical instruments for sensing, visualizing, and reconfiguring the built environment. Yet, urban space is not merely a passive backdrop for drone activity; it both shapes and is reshaped by them. The central question for understanding drone urbanism, then, is not only what drones do, but how their deployment redistributes the agency to see, know, and intervene across human operators, infrastructures, and algorithms.This renegotiation of visibility, authority, and knowledge takes shape through the ways drones mediate the governance and experiential textures of the city. Departing from the distant totalities …

Engineering Immunity? Biotechnical Governance And The Experimental Failures Of Project Wolbachia In Singapore, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods, Sayd Randle

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper introduces the idea of ‘experimental failure’ to critically interrogate the limits of engineering biological systems for urban governance. Whilst experimentation through projects related to smart cities and eco-cities has garnered significant attention, biotechnical experiments––which manipulate living organisms through technology––remain underexplored. Unlike interventions leveraging non-living, inanimate systems, engineering life must contend with ecological ‘unruliness’ and social uncertainties. These complexities often resist straightforward quantification and exceed conventional evaluation frameworks, demanding a rethinking of what constitutes ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in such interventions. Drawing on ethnographic research with public health officers, pest management professionals and residents in Singapore, we analyse the government-led …

Durable Benefits Of Learning-By-Teaching For Research Question Generation Performance: A Field Experiment, Stephen Wee Hun Lim, Sarah Shi Hui Wong, Piyawan Visessuvanapoom

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Generating good questions is central to scientific inquiry. How can we improve this skill in classrooms? This field experiment showed that teaching others enhances students’ ability to generate higher-order research questions that create new knowledge. Whereas learning-by-teaching often involves delivering face-to-face or video-recorded lectures, we tested its efficient implementation via writing a verbatim (i.e., word-for-word) teaching script, exactly as how one would orate a lecture. In a research and statistical methods course, 199 undergraduates studied statistical concepts by writing verbatim teaching scripts or study notes. One month later, students’ long-term learning was assessed on a high-stakes test, whereby they explained …

Artelon Graft Augmentation In Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Surgical Technique Guide., Taylor Manes, Morgan Turnow, Trent Davis, Anthony Perugini, Michael Anderson, Benjamin Taylor

Surgery Articles

INTRODUCTION: Revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) procedures are becoming more prevalent. Variable grafts for ACL reconstruction are available, including autograft, allograft, and synthetic graft options. Various augmentation techniques are also available and typically consist of synthetic material such as Artelon graft. This type of synthetic material has been used and shown to produce safe and reliable augmentation in ligament injuries. The purpose of this study was to describe our unique revision ACL reconstruction technique utilizing Artelon graft augmentation and report our short-term results.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed patients undergoing revision ACL reconstruction with Artelon graft augmentation, a Flexband …

Spying The Lie: Insider Threat Prevention In National Security, Jazma M. Parker

Journal of Strategic Security

Insider threats pose significant risks to critical assets within the United States. The US intelligence community has already experienced the consequences of insider compromise, such as the unauthorized release of classified material to WikiLeaks and foreign adversaries. Traditional mitigation strategies have struggled to keep pace with the evolving threat landscape. This article recommends updated interventions to detect and prevent insider threats within the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. A review of current research and best practices reveals three targeted strategies. First, organizations must prioritize the detection and reporting of anomalous behaviors that often precede insider incidents. Achieving this …

Escalation By Algorithm, Restraint By Architecture: Pakistan’S Military Ai Divergence, Sajjad Ahmed, Ahmad Nizar Yaakub, Asma Javed

Journal of Strategic Security

Debates on military artificial intelligence (AI) remain skewed toward great power dynamics, oscillating between techno-optimist celebrations of speed and techno-pessimist warnings of collapse. This binary overlooks how middle powers, operating under nuclearized rivalry and asymmetric sanction risk, embed restraint into organizational and technical practice. This article develops Systems Restrained Realism (SRR), a framework that extends defensive realism into the machine age by theorizing restraint as a deliberate doctrinal posture rather than a symptom of incapacity. Using Pakistan as a critical case, the study draws on expert interviews, procurement manuals, and UN submissions to demonstrate how restraint is operationalized through latency …

Youtube As A Tool For Digital Diplomacy And Strategic Security: A Comparative Analysis Of Russia And Kazakhstan, Bekzat Baktybekovna Baktybekova, Elmira Kagazbaeva, Botagoz Ali

Journal of Strategic Security

In the context of growing competition in the information space, digital diplomacy is gaining key importance for the strategic security of states. This study analyzes how Russia and Kazakhstan use the YouTube platform to promote their foreign policy narratives, shape the image of the state, and strengthen digital sovereignty. Based on a qualitative analysis of 60 videos (30 for each country) published by official government channels between 2020 and 2024, differences in strategies, visual codes, tonality, and patterns of interaction with the audience were identified. The Russian approach is characterized by an aggressive narrative, antagonism to Western structures, and a …

Classified Information Management In Kosovo: Lessons From Nato, The European Union, And The Western Balkans, Bahri Gashi, Ngadhnjim Brovina, Arian Kadriu

Journal of Strategic Security

This study examines the legal framework for the protection of classified information in Kosovo, focusing on the role of the Agency for the Protection of Classified Information (APCI). The selection of APCI as the focal institution stems from its central role in implementing Kosovo’s legal and institutional framework for classified information, following the country’s efforts to align with Euro-Atlantic standards. In a newly established state like Kosovo, protecting sensitive information is crucial for national security. The study compares Kosovo’s model with those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and Western Balkan countries, highlighting its alignment …

The Role Of Special Services In Providing National Information Security, Volodymyr Artemov, Alexander Rusnak, Viktor Trepak, Grygorii Ostafiichuk, Alexandr Kalinin

Journal of Strategic Security

The growing dependence of states on digital infrastructures has elevated national information security to a matter of strategic importance. This study examines the role of special services (intelligence agencies) in protecting against cyber threats, focusing on their legal, operational, and technological functions. Using a combination of comparative legal analysis, case law review, expert surveys, and statistical modelling across 20 countries, the research highlights both strengths and limitations of current approaches. The findings demonstrate that states with clear and specific legislation on intelligence and cybersecurity achieve a 26% higher rate of preventive success than those with ambiguous frameworks. Strong judicial oversight …

Public-Private Cooperation In European Cybersecurity, Andreea Nicoleta Dragomir, Daiana Maura Vesmaș

Journal of Strategic Security

This article critically examines if the public–private partnerships (PPPs) help the European Union strengthen its cyber resilience, a challenge that is now closely tied to the Union’s broader strategic security goals. The discussion does not rely on one single angle. It moves back and forth between the legal side—looking at instruments such as the Network and Information Systems 2 (NIS2) Directive, the Cybersecurity Act, the proposed Cyber Resilience Act, and the Cyber Solidarity Act—and the lessons that come from practice. Examples include the dismantling of Operation Avalanche, the experience of the European Cyber Security Challenge, and the information-sharing efforts of …

Analysis Of Security Concerns In India-Central Asia Relations, Anmol Mukhia, Anurag Tripathi, Sanjeev Kumar Tiwari

Journal of Strategic Security

India-Central Asia relations have gained strategic significance driven by its historical ties, growing economic interests, and, most importantly, evolving security dynamics. This article deals with multifaceted security concerns such as drug trafficking, terrorism, radicalization, and the implications of instability in Afghanistan. The findings show that security concerns in the region, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, constitute a significant obstacle, alongside geographical challenges, to India’s connectivity with the Central Asian Republics (CARS). India’s rising aspiration to increase connectivity and build closer ties with the region in energy, trade, and commerce heavily relies on a peaceful, prosperous, and stable Central and South …

Shadow Logistics: Military Vulnerability Through Civilian Dependence, Gilles A. Paché

Journal of Strategic Security

The rapid evolution of civilian-origin technologies repurposed for defense is reshaping the foundations of logistical advantage and altering the conditions under which armed forces operate. Modern missions rely on an extensive ecosystem of infrastructures—port terminals, cloud services, data platforms, and civilian contractors—whose reliability frequently lies beyond the authority of public institutions. This environment gives rise to shadow logistics, a network of civilian systems largely absent from conventional doctrine yet capable of producing significant operational disruptions when failures occur. Case studies show that some dark assets, whether physical or informational, can act as multipliers of effectiveness while simultaneously creating systemic vulnerabilities …

Chokepoints: American Power In The Age Of Economic Warfare. By Edward Fishman. Portfolio Penguin, 2025., Mark T. Peters Ii

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Comments From The Editors, Tulay Girard, Brian Whelan

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

Welcome to the Spring 2026 issue of the Journal of Applied Marketing Theory. The Journal of Applied Marketing Theory (JAMT) is dedicated to providing a reputable platform for the dissemination of academic research that both advances marketing knowledge and offers practical insights for marketing professionals.

In this issue, we are pleased to feature four manuscripts that explore a diverse range of topics within the field. Each article was well-received by our review team and contributes valuable perspectives to current marketing discussions. We are delighted to share these contributions with our readers and hope you find them both insightful and thought-provoking.

Beyond The Shelf: How Reallocating Shelf Space To Emerging Brands Enhances Store Performance Through Dynamic Brand-Level Effects, Jesse Core, Ho Kim

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This study examines the effects of reallocating shelf space from established to emerging brands in the flavored malt beverage category, a fast-moving, impulse-driven product category. Using a 13-week field experiment in 16 U.S. grocery stores (six treated, ten control), we reallocated one shelf facing from an established to an emerging brand for four weeks before reverting the shelves to their original configuration. Then we analyzed weekly SKU-level data on sales with fixed-effects panel regressions. Results show that the shelf-space reallocation increased category sales by 21.2% during treatment and 27.6% after reversion, revealing persistent gains. At the brand level, emerging brands …

Marketing As Practice: Resolving The Hunt-Anderson Stalemate Through Practice Theory, Stephen A. Lemay, Martin Svendsen

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This paper revisits methodological debates in marketing theory, tracing the progression from Sidney Levy’s work on symbolic consumption to the Hunt–Anderson empiricist–relativist debate. We argue that this debate rests on a category error: marketing has been misclassified as either a science or an interpretive discipline. Drawing on contemporary practice theory, we reconceptualize marketing as a professional practice oriented toward creating and managing exchange relationships within cultural contexts. This perspective resolves the Hunt–Anderson stalemate, clarifies the epistemological foundations of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and Transformative Consumer Research (TCR), and generates distinct research questions and methods. Through comparative exemplars, we show how …

“I” Or “We” In Times Of Crises: Should Marketers Use Individualist Or Collectivist Language When Times Are Tough?, Milad Hour, Golshad Parsimoghadam, Ali Jamei

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

During the pandemic, as people dealt with fatalities, lockdowns, and the psychological impact of reduced social interactions, some marketing messages still captured significant public attention. What was the key element contributing to the success of these communications during such challenging times? This study focuses on the role of collectivism as a stress-coping mechanism included within marketing communications. Analyzing approximately 56,000 brand-generated posts on Platform X, the research examines how the use of collectivist language (e.g., we, us, etc.) relates to message likability, particularly as the pandemic nears its peak. The findings reveal that collectivist terms are positively associated with the …

Who Is Invited To The National Family? A Brazilian Autoethnography Of Being A Woman Under The U.S. O-3 Visa, Bruna Lauermann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis lives in the borderlands between Brazil and the United States, during the nine years of my immigration to the United States. Using autoethnography, I analyze the O-3 visa as a tool that controls and alienates foreign women and devalues knowledge produced outside U.S. borders. This visa, for spouse or children of O-1 holders, which are people considered to have extraordinary abilities to work in the U.S. showcases the reasons why one is invited to be part of the national family and under what obligations and circumstances. A decision that is shaped far more by the interests of the …

A Hot Topic:
Congressional Polarization And Climate Change, Mercedes R.P. Wilby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Scholars offer competing explanations for how congressional polarization develops and operates. The literature variously points to shifting agendas, procedural change, or member adaptation or replacement. In this project, I study how congressional polarization occurs by asking what mechanisms account for the emergence of climate policy polarization. Climate policy is a useful test case to evaluate these competing theories. As a relatively low-salience, highly technical issue that is neither new nor inherently ideological, it is not an obvious candidate for deep partisan division. Yet climate policy has become sharply polarized, extending partisan disagreement even to the underlying science.

In order to …

Trans-Cyber Cinema: Digital Embodiment In Science-Fiction Films, Sophia R. Schrock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis aims to define the trans-cyber genre within cinema. By looking retroactively at a selection of nine films made across various decades and countries, this genre connects these films through their visualization and thematization of both trans and cyber embodiments, whereby the trans-cyber being emerges. Before the cinematic analysis and explanation of the three generic conventions selected for this thesis – transformation of body/gender; altered reality, memory, and temporality; and, radical death – the two intertwining theoretical frameworks will be established. This includes a brief summary of applicable transgender theory, and an introduction to cyborg theory (using Donna Haraway’s …

Neural Correlates Of Recognition Memory And Metamemory In Breast Cancer Survivors: An Event-Related Potential Study, Dishari Zaman Azad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Breast cancer survivors (BCS) often report noticeable cognitive difficulties despite showing limited impairment on standardized neuropsychological tests. Some have theorized that this is simply an insensitivity of standardized testing to subtle cognitive changes (test-insensitivity hypothesis), whereas others have suggested there are early neural changes that are detected by patients but precede detection by these tests (early signal hypothesis) or that when they achieve normal performance, it is through saliently effortful compensatory processes (compensation hypothesis). The present study tested these theories by assessing metamemory and recognition memory retrieval in BCS and non-cancer controls (NCC) using both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) …

Measuring Islamic Republic Propaganda In Western Media Coverage Of Iran: A Computational Framework, Leila Habibi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Detecting propaganda is fundamentally difficult: effective propaganda must simultaneously conceal persuasive intent while achieving persuasive effect, which means that sophisticated propagandistic discourse necessarily occupies the ambiguous middle of a rhetorical spectrum rather than its obvious extremes. This thesis defines this property as the dual constraint problem and argues that it poses two challenges for the binary classification framing that dominates propaganda detection in Natural Language Processing (NLP). First, propaganda by definition does not come with clear labels: no propaganda arm willingly accepts the designation, so reliable ground truth does not exist at the source. Second, because the producer is actively …

Mapping Nucleosome Stability: Linking Oncogenic Structural Alterations To Long-Range Allosteric Communication, Augustine C. Onyema

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The nucleosome core particle (NCP) is essential for chromatin structure and function, serving as the fundamental unit of eukaryotic chromatin. Oncogenic mutations in core histones disrupt chromatin dynamics, altering DNA repair and transcription processes. How DNA communicates with histones, and how this information propagates through the histone, has been suggested to be a cooperative process. Here, I investigate the molecular consequences of two mutations, H2BE76K and H4R92T, using 36 µs of all-atom molecular dynamics simulations on Anton2. I also characterize the kinetic correlation within histone/DNA domains via conditional activity (CONDACT) using the dihedral angle as our degrees of …