Digital Commons Network^™

The Intrusive Sounds Of Resilence., Andrea Cera, Georgios Loupas, Eleftheria Lagiokapa, Nefeli Valeria Georgakopoulou, Sotiris Diplaris, Stefanos Vrochidis, Eleonora Ceccaldi, Nicola Corbellini, Simone Ghisio, Antonio Camurri

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In a ReSilence (S+T+Arts) residency dedicated to the consequences of urban soundscapes on human movement, 36 sound-files and their spectral analyses were considered as examples of auditory intrusiveness (intended as a pre-conscious effect, anticipating conscious behaviors). These 36 sounds were used in three modules: a pilot experiment to study the influence of auditory intrusiveness on human movement; an installation, where the sound-files were triggered by the participants' movement qualities – moreover, their spectral analyses served as prompts to an image-generating GAN network; in the design of a smartphone app, where the 36 analyses allowed to study the spectral features to …

Designing For Food System Transformation: Navigating Cultural Complexity In Cross-Regional Platform Design, Margherita Motta, Sebastian Baez-Lugo, Luis Rodriguez Aguayo, Laura Deschl, Nicolas Henchoz, Emily Groves

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines the design of a digital platform supporting sustainable food transformation across six European regional Hubs. Through multi-phase participatory evaluation involving contextual inquiry across culturally diverse contexts, responsive redesign, and formal usability testing, we identify a fundamental tension between technical standardization and cultural adaptation. While formal metrics demonstrated strong usability and aesthetic appeal of our platform design, Hub-based evaluation revealed that participants' requests for regional adaptation such as representing traditional production methods, biodiversity, and place-specific sustainability logics challenged fundamental platform assumptions about capturing food knowledge in standardized structures. We articulate emergent design principles including minimizing barriers while maintaining …

In Vegetal Terms: Temporal Lenses In Human-Plant Interaction, Clee Zhuo Wang, Jeffrey C. F. Ho, Bow Yiying Wu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper highlights temporality as an important more-than-human design strategy and expands multiple lenses for engaging with the temporal complexity of more-than-human. Reflecting on the dominance of anthropocentric and industrial notions of time in design, we choose plant as a paradigmatic case for otherly temporality. We take stock from interdisciplinary literatures and introduce six temporal lenses: rhythm, horizon, continuity, duration, genealogy, and incompleteness, to articulate how plants live, change, and relate through multiple overlapping temporalities. Connecting these lenses to human-plant interaction design practice, these temporal lenses enables designers to recognize temporal frictions, attend to vegetal rhythms, and cultivate responsive and …

Exploring Value Perceptions And Identifying Integrated Value Propositions Of Ai-Enabled Smart Homes For Solo-Living Older Adults’ Wellbeing, Sanqi Yang, Lei Tang, Jaehyun Park

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As the population of solo-living older adults grows, hundreds of AI-enabled smart home solutions have entered the gerontechnology market, yet adoption remains below 15%. Technology- or market-driven solutions often overlook integrated, multi-stakeholder value perceptions. Guided by Service‑Dominant Logic, we explored how misaligned stakeholder value perceptions hinder the development of compelling value propositions. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews across three stakeholder groups: users (solo-living older adults, their family members, and their caregivers), design experts, and technology experts. Through thematic analysis, we elucidated three value perceptions: (1) orchestration needs, (2) relational maintenance, and (3) transparency and explainability. Based on these findings, we …

From Conflict To Care: A Design Learning Experiment On Food Justice In Rio De Janeiro, Laura Cipriani, Claudio Magalhães, Stefano Maffei

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper discusses the Design for Peace Ecosystem: Urban Conflict and Food Justice course as a situated experiment in transformative design education. Conducted in Rio de Janeiro, the course combined participatory mapping, desk research, and fieldwork to explore how design can reveal and reframe tensions and hidden structural injustices within urban Food Systems. Students first developed urban food conflict maps to visualise inequalities in access, labour, and cultural recognition. Through desk research, they identified local “food care” initiatives that address food conflicts and promote the right to an adequate food culture. Using ethnographic diaries and ethnography techniques, they engaged with …

Understanding Food Waste Practices In Cross-Cultural Food Adaptation: The Case Of Chinese Students In The Uk, Xuecheng Dai, Emmanuel Tsekleves, Yekta Bakırlıoğlu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Food waste is a global sustainability concern, yet its connection to cross-cultural adaptation remains underexplored. For international students, adapting to unfamiliar food environments involves cycles of trial, error and waste. Among Chinese students in the UK (one of the largest international student populations), cultural differences and short stays intensify these processes, resulting in distinct forms of waste. This study explores how food adaptation relates to waste among first-time Chinese students in the UK, attempting to reveal areas for design interventions. Seventeen students completed seven-day cultural probes, combining daily tasks with self-reflection on food practices. The analysis revealed various types of …

When Frames Collide: Participatory Frame Navigation Through Co-Design In Policy Contexts, Nicholas Spencer, Joyce Yee, Margaret Defeyter

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design’s expanding presence in policy has generated multiple expressions of its value and impact, yet few address the political and strategic dimensions of policymaking. This paper examines how co-design operates within these dynamics by navigating frame conflicts during policy problem-setting and policy options modelling. Drawing on Schön and Rein’s theory of Frame Reflection, we analyse how institutional framings of policy issues collide with those held by communities, and how co-design practices surface, negotiate, and reconfigure these conflicts. Through two English case studies: 1) School Food Systems and 2) Breakfast Clubs, we show how co-design reveals divergent interpretations of public problems …

Exploring Future Smellscapes With Smellwalks, Zuzana Neupauerová, Simone Ashby, Supraja Sankaran

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examines how present-day smell encounters stimulate participants to reflect on possible futures and those scents that are emergent or susceptible to becoming transformed or lost altogether. We describe our speculative design setup whereby participants assumed the persona of an olfactory researcher from the year 2100, armed with a smell passport and set of vials, and tasked with time-traveling back to 2025 to capture scent samples. Smellwalk observations span three themes: environmental awareness of scent, the functional role of future scents, and social and cultural dimensions of olfaction. We discuss those scents which participants found to be particularly salient …

Visualising Values In Women’S Digital Labour: Design Ethics For Assembling Social Justice, Li Zhang, Yujia Liu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how visualising values in women’s digital labour shapes recognition and justice in platform-driven environments. Visualisation is advanced as a design-ethics strategy for surfacing and negotiating undervalued work that remains obscured in digital economies. Grounded in Nancy Fraser’s justice framework and feminist epistemologies centred on situated and embodied experience, the study positions visualisation as a means to reveal and contest structural devaluation. A three-phase ethical practice is developed: ethical narration to make hidden value perceptible, ethical prototyping to question recognition mechanisms, and ethical interaction to build collective participation in decisions about representation. Insights draw on sociological and anthropological …

Cooking Rush: Designing And Evaluating A Cross-Cultural Dietary Board Game For Chinese International Students Through Research Through Design, Yuan Qin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study addresses the dietary challenges faced by Chinese international students by developing Cooking Rush, a serious card-based board game. Using a Research through Design paradigm and Social Practice Theory, the project integrates Western nutrition with Traditional Chinese Medicine energetics. The game translates cultural beliefs into a quantified Balance of Thermal Intake (BTI) mechanism. Evaluation results from 14 participants show improved confidence in resource management and internalised dietary knowledge. Furthermore, the intervention shifts the perception of cooking from a burden to a practice of self-care. This research provides a scalable framework for cross-cultural health interventions by aligning local food logics …

Investigating Context In Sonic Interaction Design For Sleep: Bridging Users And Designers Through Participatory And Ideation Workshops, Abhishek Choubey, Tinke Van Buijtene, Sandra Pauletto

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Sleep is fundamental to health and well-being, yet sleep problems have risen sharply in recent years. These problems often arise from individual and contextual factors, some of which are modifiable through behaviour or design. Research examining sleep’s contextual factors and how they can inform design interventions remains limited. This article presents two connected workshops exploring these aspects of sleep using participatory and speculative design methods. The first workshop invited participants to map contextual aspects of sleep through empathy maps and speculative exercises revealing three themes affecting sleep: safety, sleep routines, and stress or anxiety. The second focused on ideation asking …

Exploring How Packaging Transparency And Processing Level Affect Acceptance Of Edible Insects In Taiwan, Wei-Chen Chiu, Chun-Heng Ho

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As global food systems face growing sustainability challenges, edible insects are emerging as a viable alternative protein source. This study explores how transparent window size and food processing level in packaging affect Taiwanese consumers’ purchase intentions toward insect-based foods. A 2 (window size: small vs. large) by 3 (processing level: unprocessed, semi-processed, fully processed) experiment with 359 participants, categorized by attitudes into acceptance and rejection groups, revealed that processing level significantly influenced purchase intention. Fully processed products received the highest acceptance across both groups. Window size had a minor effect, slightly increasing purchase intention among the rejection group when smaller …

The Transformative Nature Of Food – Adaptation, Connectivity And Identity, Dolly Daou, Claudia De Souza Libanio, Juan Montalván Lume

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This theme track examines the transformative role of food migration in shaping cultural identity, ecological systems, and practices of belonging through a food design lens. Building on The Transformative Nature of Food: Adaptation, Connectivity and Identity (Daou & Sarantou, 2026), it conceptualises food as a dynamic, designed system that evolves across geographies through processes of adaptation, connectivity and identities. As food travels, it connects people to both their original homeland and to the existing and emerging cultural identities, to develop a sense of belonging to local ecosystems. Food migration reinforces cultural continuity, political and social cohesion and belonging while influencing …

Tilapia Fish Collagen: Potential As Halal Biomaterial In Tissue Engineering Applications, Norhidayu Muhamad Zain, Mohammad Naqib Hamdan

Nusantara Halal Journal

Collagen is a natural bioactive polymer widely utilized in tissue engineering applications due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. Collagen derived from mammalian sources such as porcine and bovine is commonly used as biomaterials. However, due to religious concerns, the halal status of collagen must be taken into consideration. Since most of the mammalian collagen is hampered by its haram origins, marine collagens are widely investigated as alternatives for mammalian collagen in tissue engineering applications. Even though marine collagens are safe and easy to extract, these sources of collagen are hindered by their low denaturing temperature. Tilapia fish (Oreochromis niloticus) has …

Anticipating Human Resource Development Challenges And Opportunities In ‘Halal Supply Chains’ And ‘Halal Logistics’ Within Asean, Adam Voak, Brian Fairman

Nusantara Halal Journal

The increasing global economic importance of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), is creating new cultural challenges for participating governments. These challenges are clearly impacting on Human Mobility and Human Capability Development within the trading bloc. Development challenges are particularly evident in supply chains, where new knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed to ensure respect for Halal services and the provenance of Halal products as they are traded across the region. While reflecting on this issue, this paper looks closely at the implicit and explicit challenges and opportunities in building culturally relevant ASEAN ‘Human Capabilities’ along increasingly globalized supply …

Structured Telehealth Community Health Worker-Clinician Feedback And Diabetes Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Elizabeth M Vaughan, Xiaoying Yu, Amber B Amspoker, Aanand D Naik, Ashok Balasubramanyam, Craig A Johnston, Christi M Ballantyne, Salim S Virani, H Shelton Brown, Kristina Mena, Laura R Porterfield

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Importance: Community health workers (CHWs) improve chronic disease management in underserved populations, but scalable integration strategies are limited.

Objective: To evaluate whether a multidimensional intervention incorporating telementored CHWs and a structured participant-CHW-clinician feedback loop can improve diabetes outcomes.

Design, setting, and participants: This 12-month randomized clinical trial was conducted at 3 institutionally and geographically diverse community clinics in Texas between September 1, 2023, and April 30, 2025, and included low-income, uninsured White Hispanic adults with type 2 diabetes identified through clinic databases. Data were analyzed between May 1 and July 31, 2025.

Intervention: Individuals were randomized 1:1 to the intervention …

Show Me The Money: Finance Models In Epilepsy Practice., Deepti Zutshi, Emily Klatte, Maysaa Basha, Leisha Osburn, Eric Segal, Nina Garga, Rohit R Das

Medical Education Articles

Healthcare models and the finances associated with such models are complex. Patients with epilepsy (PWE) receive care in a variety of settings, and each is associated with differing reimbursement, financial levers, as well as unique strengths and weaknesses. As the financial climate of healthcare system changes rapidly in the setting of an aging population, physician shortages, and increasing costs of healthcare delivery, it is important for clinicians to understand the financial aspects of caring for PWE. In this review, we examine basic concepts in healthcare economics and then review the financial aspects of care in an academic context, a private …

Necessary Biosafety Precautions For Patented Gmos: Ramifications Of Inconsistent Parties Between The Cartagena Protocol And Trips Agreement, Lauren Clements

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Genetically Modified Organisms (“GMOs”) compose a class of potentially patentable biotechnology that are prominent in international markets. Developed countries like the United States, function as leading producers of these patented GMOs and therefore play a significant role in their development and transnational export. Minimum protections for these forms of biotechnology are outlined in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS Agreement”), which permits the patenting of GMOs that ultimately enter the stream of international commerce. Notwithstanding the potential risks GMOs present to the environment, public health, and the economy, the TRIPS Agreement fails to address any form …

System And Method For User-Owned Longitudinal Memory And Interpretation System With A Provenance-Tagged Interpretive Ledger, Engine-Interchangeable Inference, Federated Validation, And Generational Maintenance, Joseph Jm Walker

Defensive Publications Series

Contemporary personal-AI systems preserve continuity in the weakest possible way: the provider owns the model, the memory, and the interface, and the user retains accumulated context only so long as the service remains available and willing to keep it. When a model changes, a platform resets memory, or a provider alters policy, the user's interpretive history can vanish. This disclosure presents the Continuity Node Framework, a user-owned, local-first, longitudinal memory-and-interpretation architecture in which the durable asset is not the AI model but the preserved, provenance-tagged map of a person's reasoning, values, patterns, and tested interpretations over time, and in which …

The Three Sisters And Soil Health (Lesson 1), Mara Johnson, Madhav P. Nepal, Jiyul Chang

iLEARN Teaching Resources

In this lesson, students will begin a week-long unit on soil health that is connected to the chapter The Three Sisters from the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Students will begin the week by reading the chapter and answering discussion questions, and each subsequent day will build on this introduction with project-based learning activities. This module is designed to bridge traditional Indigenous knowledge with primary scientific inquiry, allowing students to explore soil nutrients, polycultures, and agricultural health in a way they can apply to their own lives and local food sovereignty efforts on the Rosebud Reservation.

Best Practices For Interprofessional, Community-Based Interventions In Preventing Type 2 Diabetes Among Adults Aged 50 And Older, Julie Joseph Mrs

Journal of Interprofessional Practice and Collaboration

The prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is rapidly increasing among adults aged 50 years and older in the United States, posing a significant public health challenge. In 2021, an estimated 38.4 million Americans had diabetes, with adults aged 50years and above constituting a disproportionately large segment of this population. Evidence suggests that community-based lifestyle and educational interventions are effective in reducing the risk of T2DM among older adults. These interventions particularly promote dietary modification, increased physical activity, and diabetes education. Integrating the expertise of nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, physicians, and other professionals through interprofessional collaboration strengthens diabetes prevention and …

All Education Is Not Created Equal: How The Texas School Choice Bill Violates The State Constitution By Using Public Dollars To Fund Private Discrimination, Alexandra J. Morrison

Tulsa Law Review

No abstract provided.

‘Wala Kaming Alam Sa Stroke Care’ (We Don’T Know Anything About Stroke Care): Experiences Of Care Providers Delivering Stroke Rehabilitation Care In The Philippines, Fiona Leggat, Sarah Ann Buckingham, Aira Patrice Rueda Ong, Bridie Kent, Nena Marie Santos, Annah Teves, Vergil Boac, Paula Melizza Valera, Elda Anota, Maria Mercedes Barba, Myrna Estrada, Neil Bryan Pita, Alyssa Dar Juan, Lorraine Faeldon, Fiona Jones

School of Nursing and Midwifery

BackgroundIn the Philippines, rising stroke prevalence and healthcare inequalities present a concerning outlook. While acute stroke care is prioritised, rehabilitation remains undervalued. The experiences of healthcare providers who deliver stroke support are also under-researched.Objective(s)Our study aimed to explore the experiences and needs of care providers across multiple regions of the Philippines to inform the development of stroke support initiatives and programmes.MethodsForming part of the Tulong, Ugnayan ng Lingap At gabaY (TULAY) project, a qualitative descriptive design involving semi-structured interviews was used. Care providers with professional or voluntary community healthcare service delivery roles were recruited. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic …

Safety And Synergy Of Finerenone And Empagliflozin In Lowering Blood Pressure, Rajiv Agarwal, Ricardo Correa-Rotter, Sankar D Navaneethan, Hiddo J L Heerspink, Matthew R Weir, Janet B Mcgill, Amy K Mottl, Masaomi Nangaku, Julio Rosenstock, Peter Rossing, Muthiah Vaduganathan, Charlie Scott, Li Li, Meike Brinker, Csaba P Kovesdy, Jennifer B Green, Johannes F E Mann

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: This secondary analysis of the CONFIDENCE (combination effect of fInerenone and empagliflozin in participants with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes using a UACR endpoint) trial (REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT05254002) assessed systolic blood pressure (SBP) changes with empagliflozin/finerenone combination therapy versus monotherapy in people with chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes across baseline SBP categories. We assessed SBP response predictors and whether early (day 30) SBP changes mediate urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio reductions.

Methods: Participants (n=800) were stratified by baseline SBP (< 130 mm Hg; ≥130 mm Hg). Outcomes included SBP response (≥10 mm Hg reduction from baseline at day 180) and longitudinal SBP changes, analyzed by linear mixed-effects models and logistic regression. Causal mediation analysis, a secondary exploratory analysis, evaluated the effect of day 30 SBP change on day 180 urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio reduction.

Results: At baseline, 532 (66%) participants had SBP ≥130 mm Hg; 268 (34%) …

Relationship Between Sleep And Meal Timing With Glycemia Parameters In Individuals With Obesity Participating In A Randomized Time-Restricted Eating Study., Sirimon Reutrakul, Stacey L. Simon, Qi Wang, Emily N C Manoogian, Satchindananda Panda, Suryeon Ryu, Zan Gao, Caleb Griffiths, Erika Helgeson, Douglas G. Mashek, Niki Oldenburg, Lisa Senye Chow

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Background/Objectives: Circadian misalignment, including mistimed sleep or eating, is associated with altered glucose metabolism. The importance of eating window timing for time-restricted eating (TRE) is increasingly recognized. This secondary analysis examined associations between meal to sleep timing intervals and glycemic parameters in individuals with obesity across three dietary interventions [TRE, CR: caloric restriction, and UE: unrestricted eating]. Methods: Participants aged 18-65 years with obesity were randomized to a 12-week intervention: TRE (8 h eating window), CR (15% reduction in daily caloric intake), or UE (usual eating habits). CGM and actigraphy were assessed over two weeks at baseline and end-intervention. Mixed …

Stress-Activated Pathways Mediate Pfas Effects On Human Placental Syncytiotrophoblast Cells., Keisuke Kozai, Kaela Varberg

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental pollutants associated with placenta-mediated pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, and preterm birth. The syncytiotrophoblast (STB), which forms the placental barrier at the maternal-fetal interface and is directly exposed to maternal blood, is a primary site of PFAS exposure. Although PFAS induce STB apoptosis, the upstream stress-signaling pathways involved remain poorly defined. Here, we investigated stress-responsive signaling mechanisms mediating PFAS-induced STB cell death. STB differentiated from human trophoblast stem cells were exposed to vehicle or an environmentally relevant mixture of 5 PFAS (perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, perfluorohexane sulfonate, perfluorononanoic acid, and …

Automated Physical Activity Support For Adults And Youth From Low-Income Communities: Single-Arm Pilot Study., Jordan A. Carlson, Frank T. Materia, Mallory Moon, Suryeon Ryu, Cory Yeager, Chelsea Steel, Kacee Shields, Harpreet Singh Gill, Jannette Berkley-Patton, Delwyn Catley

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Mobile health (mHealth) interventions are growing in popularity, but less research has focused on low-income families, particularly interventions integrating wearable devices with automated personalized messages.

OBJECTIVE: We tested a preliminary wearable-integrated mHealth intervention with initial personalization elements among adults and youth from low-income urban communities, focusing on feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary evidence of physical activity behavior.

METHODS: Participants were 83 adults and 31 youth recruited through community health events held in low-income urban communities. Using a single-arm pre-post design, participants were enrolled into a 7-week beta-version mHealth intervention that integrated a Garmin activity monitor with automated text messages. Messages …

Profiles Of Family Engagement In Head Start, Elizabeth Jane Tremaine

Dissertations and Theses

Families of young children are active participants in their child's transition to kindergarten. Head Start is designed to facilitate families' engagement in their child's learning experiences (Head Start Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework, 2018). This study explores family engagement in Head Start, its changes across the transition into kindergarten, and its relation to children's development of social-emotional and executive function skills.

The current study addresses limitations of previous research by relying on family perspectives of family engagement, approaching family engagement as a developmental concept, and taking a person-centered analytic approach that accounts for the multi-dimensionality of family engagement. This …

Why Are Some Children Under 24 Months Still Undernourished In Urban And Peri-Urban Vientiane? A Mixed-Methods Study, Kethmany Ratsavong, Dirk Essink, Pamela J. Wright Phd, Ms, Med, Rn, Cen, Somphou Sayasone, Sengchanh Kounnavong, Jacqueline E. Broerse

Publications

Child undernutrition remains a significant public health challenge in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Lao PDR, where high levels persist even in urban areas with generally available and accessible food. This study aimed to explore factors underlying the persistently high rates of undernutrition among young children in urban (Saysetha) and peri-urban (Pakgneum) districts of the Vientiane Capital in Lao PDR. A cross-sectional survey employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, combining a structured questionnaire of 333 mother-child pairs for quantitative analysis with semi-structured interviews of 47 caregivers for qualitative insights. The prevalence of malnutrition among children under 24 months …

Discovery Of Bmi-Associated Gut Microbiome Signatures In The Awi-Gen 2 Cohort, Meriem Yagoubi

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is increasing across sub-Saharan Africa amid rapid dietary, environmental, and urbanization transitions, yet the gut microbiome features associated with adiposity in African populations remain under-characterized. This study investigated whether species-level gut microbiome composition is associated with body mass index (BMI) in the AWI-Gen 2 cohort, and whether BMI-associated microbial signals remain detectable after accounting for the dominant geographic structure of the microbiome. Gut microbiome community structure and diversity were characterized across 1,665 participants, and differential abundance analysis was used to identify taxa associated with BMI after controlling for study site. Machine learning models were then trained to assess how …