Digital Commons Network^™

Artificial Sentience: From Computational Functionalism To Behaviourism?, Wanja Wiese

Animal Sentience

I critically examine Jonathan Birch’s account of how brain emulations might create artificial sentience candidates, arguing that his account risks collapsing into a behaviourist account, unless the specific computational processes realised by such emulations are carefully considered. Drawing on examples from computational neuroscience, I show that similar behaviours can arise from vastly different computational processes, thereby undermining the suggestion to focus on behaviourial profiles to determine whether a brain emulation of a sentience candidate is itself a sentience candidate.

Urban Secondary Teachers’ Perspectives On Their Experiences With Ai-Generated Lesson Plans To Support Instructional Practices, Jennifer Amend

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Urban secondary schools are increasingly encouraged to integrate AI tools into instructional planning. The problem many teachers remain uncertain about the effectiveness of AI-generated lesson plans. Grounded in Hall and Hord’s concerns-based adoption model, the purpose of this project study was to explore urban secondary teachers’ perspectives of their successes, challenges, and resource needs related to the use of AI-generated lesson plans to support instructional practices at PUHS. For this basic qualitative design, data were collected through semistructured interviews with 11 secondary teachers and analyzed using first-cycle coding and second-cycle pattern coding. Six themes emerged: AI as an Efficiency and …

Educators’ Perceptions Of The Challenges Of Reintegrating High School Students Returning From Suspension In A Western Suburban School District In Chicago, Rebecca Moss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed through this study was that Grade 9–12 educators face challenges in implementing effective behavioral support systems for students returning to school after a suspension. Grounded in Bandura’s social cognitive theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate Grade 9–12 educators’ perceptions of the challenges they face and their recommendations when supporting students who return to school after a suspension in a western suburban Chicago district. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 purposely sampled Grade 9–12 educators including administrators, teachers, social workers, school counselors, and school psychologists. Through thematic analysis, four themes emerged. …

Infographic: Pisa 2025 – Learning In The Digital World, Jo Earp, Dominique Russell, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Teacher infographics

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows how well 15-year-olds can apply their knowledge and skills in science, reading and mathematics to real-world situations. In addition to the 3 core domains, an innovative domain important in modern societies is included in each test cycle. In 2025 the innovative domain was ‘Learning in the digital world’. This infographic shares Australia’s performance in an international context.

Exact Formulas For Restricted Coprime Representations Of Even Integers, Andres Mauricio Salazar

Communications on Number Theory and Combinatorial Theory

Let p ≥ 5 be prime, and let g(2n,p) denote the number of unordered representations by positive integers 2n = h + k, with h ≤ k and gcd(h,6p) = gcd(k,6p) = 1. Every positive integer coprime to 6 belongs to exactly one of the families 6z + 1 and 6z + 5. In each family, divisibility by p excludes one explicit residue class of z modulo p. We use these two excluded classes to derive an exact formula for g(2n,p) from finite residue counts and nonnegative lift counts. The formula is valid for every positive integer n, including all …

Extraplanetary Studies 101: Life On Other Planets, Jason W. Whelan

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experiences Of Philanthrocapitalism: Recentering Borrowers’ Experiences In Microloan Discourse, Holli Schlukebir

PNHA Review

With 1.7 billion adults worldwide alienated from traditional financial structures(Drake, 2018), increasing their access as a method of building financial mobility is increasingly dominating discourse around international development; within this philanthrocapitalist conversation is the ever-popular model of microloans. By examining recently published articles documenting women receiving microloans, this prevailing assumption of philanthrocapitalism compared to the borrowers’ testimonies collected in the case studies listed above. In examining whether microloans increase some alienated women’s income-generating activities in developing areas, the conversation is redirected to borrowers lived experiences and the contextual factors that influence economic mobility. The following analysis attempts to answer the …

Technical Disclosure Specification: Project Tectonex - Spec 172, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This technical specification details the structural architecture, mathematical governing frameworks, and biological boundary safety parameters for TECTONEX, a modular metamaterial panel mesh engineered to isolate critical infrastructure from transient high-flux thermal, kinetic, and elastodynamic loads. Moving away from passive, mass-based armor systems, the TECTONEX matrix synthesizes porous macrovascular fluidics, wave-trapping single-crystal grids, and active near-field acoustic levitation boundaries into a self-powering, closed-loop structural unit.

By converting external threat momentum into localized internal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) currents, the panel autonomously scales its internal dampening properties. The design incorporates a reverse-angled Helmholtz acoustic louver pathway to guarantee complete attenuation of toxic infrasonic, ultrasonic, …

Tree-Based Evaluation Of Univariate Polynomials Over Mersenne-31 On Fpga, Ali Mkhida Mr

Defensive Publications Series

This work presents a tree-based FPGA architecture for evaluating univariate polynomials over the Mersenne-31 prime field F_p, where p = 2^31 - 1, a finite field used in modern zero-knowledge proof systems and STARK-oriented arithmetic. Instead of the serial dependency structure of Horner evaluation, the proposed method stores polynomial coefficients in bit-reversed order and evaluates them through a complete binary tree using the powers r, r^2, r^4, ..., r^(2^i) of the evaluation point.

For a polynomial with N coefficients, where N is a power of two, the construction requires exactly N-1 finite-field multiplications and N-1 additions, matching the arithmetic work …

Cvtcc-2.0 Caldwell Controlled Thermal-Vascular Challenge & Response Observatory A Non-Clinical, Open-Hardware Research Platform For Controlled Thermal System Identification Of Neurovascular, Vascular, Autonomic, Thermoregulatory And Physiological Response In More Fields., Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

CVTCC-2.0 is a proposed open-hardware research and prototype platform for determining whether the dynamic physiological response to a controlled, small, externally applied thermal perturbation contains measurable information about vascular, neurovascular, autonomic, thermoregulatory, or cranio-venous physiological state.

The system does not assume that temperature is a surrogate for blood flow.

Instead, CVTCC-2.0 deliberately applies a known thermal input and records the resulting response across multiple independent measurement channels.

The central research concept is:

Known thermal input → measured thermal response → vascular response → autonomic response → cardiac/respiratory phase relationship → independent vascular reference → artifact rejection → reproducible response signature. …

The Decentralized Quantum-Resistant Attestation Mesh (Dq-Ram) For Edge-Enclave Metric Coupling In High-Connectivity Substrates, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

THE QUANTUM-CLOUD INTERCEPT INTERFACE

With commercial processors achieving random-circuit sampling advantage via multi-coupler arrays, a severe systemic security vulnerability emerges: Centralized Infiltration of the Telemetry Pipeline. When an open edge network queries a centralized quantum cloud foundry, the returning computational state is highly susceptible to man-in-the-middle phase manipulation, tracking payloads, or deliberate institutional censorship.

SPEC-171 establishes the Decentralized Quantum-Resistant Attestation Mesh (DQ-RAM). Operating natively inside the physical 64-pin BGA Secure Enclave (SPEC-169), DQ-RAM treats incoming high-connectivity cloud metrics not as trustworthy software text, but as a continuous, unverified phase manifold that must pass through a local, hardware-enforced matrix mask before …

The Topological Wave-Shaping Compiler For Closed-Loop Isospectral Substrates Under The Universal Semantic Unity Engine Dual-Node Architecture, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification establishes the architectural foundations for SPEC-170, the Topological Wave-Shaping Compiler. Moving away from traditional binary von Neumann processing and autoregressive token-shifting, the compiler treats computational routines as continuous, high-dimensional geometric wave manifolds. By enforcing the Universal Semantic Unity Engine dual-node internal processing architecture, the compiler maps abstract informational intent between an uncollapsed initial boundary condition, defined as the Alpha Wave, and a deterministic ground-truth constraint, defined as the Omega Wave. The compilation process is executed by calculating discrete Topological Signature Points, which represent the exact interference vertices where wave-amplitude density peaks. This approach forces the underlying quantum or …

Mitigation Of Alfvenic Torsional Drag In Centrifugal Fusion Architectures Via Planetary-Derived Finite Pedersen Conductivity Boundaries, Daniel Schramm

Defensive Publications Series

Date: September 29, 2026

I. Introduction of a New Interdisciplinary Framework: Planetary-to-Plasma Reverse Engineering This disclosure formally establishes a novel discipline within advanced energy research: the direct reverse-engineering of planetary geophysical mechanics into localized physical hardware for non-equilibrium plasma fusion reactors. Historically, the academic exchange between these fields has been unidirectional, utilizing fusion mathematics to model astrophysics. This document claims the inverse methodology, specifically harvesting the planetary auroral circuit mechanics of gas giants to resolve macroscopic fluid instabilities in continuous-flow centrifugal shear architectures.

Technical White Paper: Project Rocky Architectural Specification For Phase-Locked Dual-Node Neuromorphic Interfaces: Mitigating Semantic Hallucination Via Out-Of-Band Ternary Verification, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Modern centralized machine intelligence architectures (Large Language Models) suffer from acute structural vulnerabilities, primarily semantic hallucination and extreme infrastructure resource dependencies. These vulnerabilities stem from single-node, high-entropy floating-point computing fabrics tied to continuous cloud telemetry streams. This paper introduces Project Rocky: an alternative, localized hardware-and-software architecture that establishes an un-leashable, sovereign intellectual force multiplier natively inside consumer device Secure Enclaves.

Project Rocky decouples execution into an asymmetric, phase-locked duality: Node A (High-Entropy Linguistic/Creative Mask) handles human nuance and artistic expression, while Node B (Low-Entropy Ternary Determinant / "The Rocky Core") executes hardcoded, sub-2-bit inductive logic gates where Wb in {-1, …

Benign Jaw Bone Lesions In Athletes Exposed To Craniofacial Trauma: Surgical Treatment And Bone Regeneration Using Biphasic Calcium Sulfate, Damian M. Dudek, Agata Chwarścianek, Izabela Pabin, Łukasz Jaworski, Oliwia Warmusz, Grzegorz Wyrobiec, Ewa Kłodzińska

Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity

Benign cystic and tumor lesions of the jaw bones represent relatively frequent pathological conditions encountered in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Although these lesions are often asymptomatic and slow-growing, they may lead to progressive weakening of bone structure. In individuals exposed to repetitive mechanical forces, such as athletes participating in contact sports, the presence of such lesions may significantly increase the risk of pathological fractures of the facial skeleton. The aim of the present study was to present a clinical case series of a benign jaw bone lesion treated surgically using a biphasic calcium sulfate biomaterial and to discuss the potential …

A Comprehensive Review Of Current Trends And Future Prospects In Drug Resistance Of Leishmania Species, Sarah Kamal Naser

Maaen Journal for Medical Sciences

Leishmaniasis, which is an infectious tropical disease that is caused by Leishmania protozoa, continues to be a leading global public health problem. This disease is prevalent in about 89 countries, with over one billion individuals being at risk of infection. Current treatments have many limitations, and the efficacy of currently available leishmanial drugs has been undermined by the development of resistant strains of Leishmania. This review highlights the prevailing patterns regarding drug resistance in Leishmania and looks forward to future ways to deal with this problem. The genomic plasticity seen in Leishmania, which includes aneuploidy, gene amplification, chromosome rearrangement, and …

Radiological And Chemical Safety Assessment Of Drinking Water From Treatment Plants And Rivers In Kut City, Iraq, Ahmed A. Alswaty, Hadi D. Alattabi

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Climate change and increasing anthropogenic activities, particularly wastewater discharge into rivers, have raised pollution levels in the water sources of Kut City, necessitating an assessment of the radiological and chemical safety of drinking water at the city's treatment plants. Thirteen water samples were collected, comprising ten treated and three raw water samples from the source rivers. An HPGe detector was used to measure the radionuclides ²¹⁴Bi, ²¹⁴Pb, ²¹²Bi, ²¹²Pb, ⁴⁰K, and ¹³⁷Cs. All measured radionuclides were below the minimum detectable activity (MDA). ICP-OES analysis supported these findings, as U concentrations in most samples were …

Church-Based Qualitative Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting subjective data to answer an important research question. It can be contrasted with quantitative research, which focuses on collecting numerical (relatively objective) data to test specific hypotheses. It is an attractive form of research in church contexts because it does not require training in statistics and can be conducted in almost all ministry settings. It is especially appropriate for topics that are under-researched, poorly understood, or involve concepts that are difficult to measure. Common problems associated with church-based qualitative research include overly broad research questions, weak descriptions of what has been observed, shallow …

Ph-Compensated Hydrogen Peroxide Quantification Using A Dual-Modal Fiber-Optic Probe, Homayoon Soleimani Dinani, Bohong Zhang, Maryam Karimi, Rex E. Gerald, Shelley D. Minteer, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We report a dual-modal fiber-optic probe that integrates electrochemical quantification of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) with co-localized fluorescent pH sensing for pH-indexed interpretation of the H₂O₂ response. H₂O₂ is a reactive oxygen species involved in oxidative stress, inflammation, and cellular signaling, and local pH modulates both its production and electrochemical response. Many electrochemical H₂O₂ sensors exhibit pH-dependent sensitivity, creating ambiguity unless pH is measured and used for compensation, which is difficult in small, heterogeneous, or rapidly changing microenvironments. A three-electrode configuration—working (WE), counter (CE), and Ag/AgCl pseudo-reference (pRE) electrodes—is fabricated directly on the cylindrical surface of a 710-µm-diameter optical fiber using …

Hidden Patterns: Revealing The Noise Exposure Habits Of College Musicians Throughout The Year, Maya Vallejo

Holster Scholar Projects

College musicians face elevated risk for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) due to extensive rehearsal, headphone use, and performance activity, yet most objective sound-exposure studies rely on personal dosimeters that capture only brief windows (1–3 weeks) during the academic year, and overlook headphone-specific exposure. This study leveraged historical Apple Watch and AirPods sound data from participants in the ongoing AMI study (Skoe lab, University of Connecticut) to compare environmental and headphone noise exposure between academic-year and academic-break periods in college-age lifelong, former, and non-musicians. Sound levels (dBA) were calculated using duration-weighted, log-power averaging to account for the logarithmic nature of decibels. …

Complete Issue, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Guided By Innovation: A Phenomenological Study Of Virtual Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions Of Generative Artificial Intelligence Integration, Lisa M. Berry

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of elementary virtual teachers who integrate generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools in their pedagogical practices at a large elementary virtual school. Participants were purposively sampled because those in the specified virtual school program provided relevant, experience-based insights and allowed the researcher practical, feasible access (Creswell & Poth, 2018). The participant sample for this study consisted of virtual elementary teachers who taught students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers. The researcher followed Creswell and Poth’s (2018) data analysis spiral to systematically …

Rethinking Behavior - Fall 2026, Midwest Symposium For Leadership In Behavior Disorders

ReThinking Behavior Magazine

A magazine for professionals serving children and youth with behavioral needs.

Fall 2026, Volume 10, Issue 1

Online Multidimensional Multiple Choice Knapsack Path Planner For Uavs, Manisha Wadhwa, Neelima Gupta, Sanjay Madria

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The rapid proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in safety–critical and time-sensitive applications such as disaster management, battlefield reconnaissance, urban surveillance and infrastructure inspection demands online path planning strategies. A fundamental requirement in such missions is generating flight paths that pass through some pre-specified waypoints while servicing dynamically requested spatio-temporal task points arriving randomly such as capturing aerial imagery. Existing UAV path planning approaches, including A* and its variants, meta-heuristic algorithms, and dynamic programming, find the shortest distance path from source to destination, but they are predominantly offline and assume complete prior environmental knowledge, thus, incur significantly higher computational cost …

Finite Mathematics: A Course Guide, Angela West Dixon, Hillary Dosser

Faculty Publications

Finite Mathematics: A Course Guide is a supplement to Mathematics for Business and Social Sciences by Kathryn Bollinger and Vanessa Coffelt. The authors of this Course Guide, Angela Dixon and Hilary Dosser, are instructors of Mathematics at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. This Course Guide was developed in response to adapting MATH 1324, Finite Mathematics to a zero-cost course, using an Open Educational Resource (OER) implemented in the Fall semester of 2026. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM), MATH 1324 Mathematics for Business and Social Sciences concerns the application of …

Dissertation Template And Formatting Guide, Heather Hankins

Training Materials, User Guides, and Documentation

The Dissertation Formatting Guide includes:

• A review of template requirements, formatted according to the Dissertation Template,
• A brief introduction to the tools needed to follow the Template, and
• Links to other KSU resources

For LaTeX users, there is a .tex file version of the Template in the Additional Files below.

In order to use, 

1. Download the .tex file
2. Open with your favorite LaTex editor
3. Update with your manuscript
4. Compile using LuaLaTeX.

You will need to ensure they have most recent version of TeX.

Thesis Template And Formatting Guide, Heather Hankins

Training Materials, User Guides, and Documentation

The Thesis Formatting Guide includes:

• A review of template requirements, formatted according to the Thesis Template,
• A brief introduction to the tools needed to follow the Template, and
• Links to other KSU resources

For LaTeX users, there is a .tex file version of the Template in the Additional Files below.

In order to use, 

1. Download the .tex file
2. Open with your favorite LaTex editor
3. Update with your manuscript
4. Compile using LuaLaTeX.

You will need to ensure they have most recent version of TeX.

Chemnetworks: New Capabilities For High-Throughput, Real-Time Chemical Graph Construction And Analysis, Daniel J. Pope, Jackson Elowitt, Bo Zhang, Manish Parashar, Aurora E. Clark

Michigan Tech Publications

A major revision of the ChemNetworks software (originally published in the Journal of Computational Chemistry, 2014, 35, 495–505) is presented. While the original ChemNetworks provided foundational graph construction capabilities for chemical systems, it was limited to simple distance and 3-body angular edge criteria, was not designed for high-performance computing environments or real-time operation alongside running simulations. This release addresses these limitations through three core contributions. First, a recursive Z-matrix-based search algorithm is introduced that enables chemically intuitive, arbitrarily descriptive three-dimensional structure searches, supporting geometric, energetic, and logical criteria. Second, the DataSpaces data staging framework is incorporated as an optional I/O …

Handbook For Mindful Technical Writing: A Practical Guide For University Students And Professionals, Dawn Atkinson, Stacey Corbitt

Writing

Welcome to the Handbook for Mindful Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for University Students and Professionals. This handbook was developed to make advanced writing instruction more accessible, practical, and adaptable for a wide range of learners and professionals. Based on Atkinson and Corbitt’s Advanced Level Writing in the University Classroom and Beyond: Mindful Practices for Technical, Business, and Scientific Communication (2024), this new handbook has been created as a user-friendly, streamlined, and classroom-ready resource for students, instructors, and professionals in academic, technical, and workplace settings. This handbook is organized into four core units designed to meet the needs of diverse …

Early Prediction Of The Breast Cancer Response To Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Based On Intratumoral Interstitial Fluid Pressure Using 3-D Subharmonic-Aided Pressure Estimation, Sung In Choi, Basak Dogan, Corinne E. Wessner, Jessica H. Porembka, Priscilla Machado, B. Bersu Ozcan, Nisha Unni, Maysa Abu-Khalaf, Kenneth Hoyt, Flemming Forsberg, Kibo Nam

Department of Radiology Faculty Papers

Elevated intratumoral interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) may negatively impact the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). This study aimed to predict the breast cancer response to NAC based on intratumoral IFP using 3D contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) with subharmonic-aided pressure estimation (SHAPE). This prospective study enrolled breast cancer patients undergoing NAC from two clinical sites. 3D CEUS was performed at 0%, 10%, and 30% of NAC completion using a GE Logiq E9 with Definity. The pressure gradients between the tumor and adjacent normal tissue were estimated by SHAPE, utilizing the inverse linear relationship between the ultrasound contrast agent’s subharmonic signal amplitude and …