Digital Commons Network^™

Natural Resources Defense Council Inc V. New Jersey Department Of Environmental Protection

2026 Decisions

Agency

One-Cup Churches Of Christ Collection, 1940s-2010s, One-Cup Churches Of Christ

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Skin Carotenoid Scores Reflect Immune Status Among Children Living With Hiv In Tanzania, Wilbert Mbuya, Thobias Boniphace, Michael Mwagala, Peter Agrea, Nazareth M Mbilinyi, Nancy E Moran, Andrew R Dinardo, Mkunde Chachage

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Many individuals living with HIV experience persistent inflammation despite antiretroviral treatment, increasing their risk for cardiovascular diseases, cognitive decline, and other noncommunicable diseases. Carotenoids can inhibit this inflammation by reducing lipid peroxidation. Carotenoid intake and plasma concentrations can be approximated using a noninvasive cutaneous spectrophotometer. This study quantified skin carotenoid levels in Tanzanian children ages 5 to 15 years old (N = 185) both with and without HIV. Over 95% had low to moderate skin carotenoid scores (< 400 units). In children living with HIV, higher viral loads were linked to lower skin carotenoid scores (rho = -0.57, P < 0.001), whereas higher CD4 counts correlated with increased skin carotenoid scores (rho = 0.52, P < 0.001). Overall, carotenoid levels were low and associated with immune status, suggesting that elevated carotenoid scores correlate with lower inflammation in children living with HIV. Future studies investigating dietary carotenoid interventions to support immune function are warranted.

Business Process Redesign Through Hybrid Automation: A Case Study Of A Remittance Service Provider, Mary Rose P. Andrada, Leilani De Guzman

Journal of Management for Global Sustainability

Remittance service providers operate in highly regulated environments that demand strict compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. Despite advances in financial technology, many remittance organizations still rely on traditional processing systems marked by manual data entry, fragmented workflows, repetitive verification procedures, and multiple operational touchpoints. These inefficiencies lead to processing delays, higher operational costs, heavier employee workloads, and lower customer satisfaction. This study examines the potential of hybrid automation as a process redesign strategy within business process management (BPM) to address operational challenges in remittance processing. Drawing on existing literature, the study explores how integrating robotic process …

Blinatumomab Care Delivery For Pediatric B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Daniel Zheng, Katelyn Oranges, Subhash Ramakrishnan, Lingyun Ji, Melissa Beauchemin, Sarah Alexander, Allison Leahy, Kira Bona, Emi Caywood, Sharon Castellino, Sumit Gupta, Douglas Hawkins, Olga Militano, Kathleen Montgomery, Haley Newman, Rachel Rau, Susan Rheingold, Joanna Robles, Michael Roth, David Teachey, Sarah Vargas, Sue Zupanec, Susan Parsons

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: Blinatumomab, a novel immunotherapy administered as a 28-day continuous infusion, has fundamentally shifted the treatment paradigm for pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and is now considered a component of standard therapy for the most common childhood cancer. However, the care delivery challenges in transitioning from an experimental agent on a clinical trial to widespread clinical implementation are unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical landscape of pediatric blinatumomab care-delivery practice and challenges in the US from the perspective of treating centers.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This survey study was conducted from February to March 2025 among US member institutions …

From Disaster To Resilience: Developing Smart Settlements In The Himalayas, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s catastrophic 26 August 2026 Bhote Koshi–Trishuli flood should be understood not only as a humanitarian tragedy but also as a potentially major turning point in updating national settlement and reconstruction policy. Engineers and scientists have described the floods as a glacier–bedrock collapse that triggered an ice-rock avalanche and debris flow. As per the live updates on September 7, 2026, the total death toll was 1,355, and 4,996 people were missing (The Hindu, 2026). Indian and Nepali rescuers worked urgently to locate and rescue people buried under hydropower tunnels, buildings, mud, and landslide debris.

UN News reported on September 3, …

Chimes: September 8, 2026, Calvin University

Chimes

Chaos Night 2026: BHT takes home second consecutive win by Brantley Tiede

Printing budget eliminated for students by Ellery Johnson

Synod 2026 accepts Calvin's progress on confessional alignment, pride flags spark debate by Ian Tjoelker

Calvin 101: How to enjoy your Calvin experience by Evangeline Anga

"A mindset of service": the legacy of StreetFest by McKenna Wilkinson

Mental Health: my journey by Tanya Peter

Educating For Advantage: Reimagining The National Security S&T Workforce As A Strategic Imperative, Elise Annett, James Giordano

Strategic Insights

This Strategic Insights post focuses on the workforce provisions of the National Security Science and Technology Strategy (NSSTS). It argues that U.S. technological leadership depends not only on advances in critical technologies but also on the nation’s ability to cultivate, retain, and mobilize skilled talent. Dr. Annett and Dr. Giordano describe education, research, industry, and national security as interconnected parts of a talent-development system that must translate scientific knowledge into operational and strategic advantage. They emphasize the need to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education; expand artificial intelligence literacy across disciplines; connect students with national security careers; and align …

Good Grief: Finding Hope & Achieving Growth In The Face Of Loss, Daniel D. Cowell M.D.

Open Access Books

Grief has profoundly shaped Dr. Dan Cowell's life both professionally and personally. A board-certified psychiatrist, he spent 26 years in the U.S. Public Health Service, including leadership roles across federal health systems, before serving for 15 years as professor and chairman of psychiatry at the Marshall University School of Medicine, and was the Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education when he retired in 2009.  Throughout his career, he has accompanied individuals and families through some of life's most difficult losses. In his personal life, he has been touched by these losses himself, including the tragic deaths of an infant …

Carnival In Tijuana: A Visual Study Of The Brinco Del Chinelo, Nancy Rios-Contreras, Chenesia Brown

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

The Mexico–United States border is politicized and perceived as an undesirable, violent place and simultaneously a desirable cultural location rich in tradition. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic nature of the Tijuana–California border by exploring the performance of culture in a geopolitical border place. So far, most border research has concentrated on negative portrayals of cities and the border rather than on the joyful and festive lived experiences. Grounded in a visual sociology methodology, data collection included photo-ethnography and fieldwork observations conducted between 2022 and 2024 during an annual summer carnival, Carnaval Sin Fronteras [Carnival …

Part Iii. Uncanny Spaces And The Trauma Of The Misplaced: Revisiting Psychological Athetosis As The Ecogothic, George Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

After climbing mount “Ktaadn” [Katahdin] in Maine, Thoreau observed that not all of nature was a one size-fits-all walk in the friendly woods with foxes cavorting and butterflies a-fluttering. While revisiting ecogothic perspectives (Conesa, 2024), a topical turn is made toward understanding interconnected fear responses to uncanny landscapes as a factor of previous and new traumatic events. A deep historical and comprehensive appraisal of organisms in their natural and newly found umwelten suggests that the ecogothic uncanny is a common experience of organism-territory accommodations to “place.” During these place-mind interstices, past traumatic events are amplified into newly …

Trauma Work With Horses: Compassion And Connection, Olivia Sagan Prof

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

New ways of working with trauma survivors are being sought with the case being made that dominant trauma therapies have relied too heavily on verbal narration and cognitive processing.  Evidence suggests that traumatic experiences are often encoded in sensory, emotional, physiological, and relational systems that may be difficult to access through language alone. This has led to interest in the potential of body-oriented, movement-based, and experiential interventions alongside traditional talk therapies. There are also calls for exploring nature-based therapies as these have shown that engagement with natural environments may help aid the process of healing. Within this context, equine-assisted therapies …

Traumatic Experiences, Perceived Discrimination, And Psychological Distress Among Members Of Various Socially Marginalized Groups, Kimberley Matheson, Mindi D. Foster, Amy Bombay, Robyn Mcquaid, Hymie Anisman

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Perceived discrimination has consistently been shown to be associated with diminished mental health, but the psychological processes underlying this link are less well understood. The present series of four studies assessed the role of a history traumatic events in generating a proliferation of discrimination stressors and threat appraisals, which in turn predict psychological distress (depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms) (mediation model), or whether prior traumatic events sensitize group members, such that when they encounter discrimination, the link to stress-related symptoms is heightened (moderation model). Each of the studies assessed a different marginalized group in Canada, including Indigenous peoples, Blacks, Jews, …

From Combat To Congregation: A Guide To Moral Injury For Everyday Ministers, Kristyn Demers

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

Veterans often receive inadequate ministerial care for their unique and complex spiritual needs. Therefore, everyday ministers need training in trauma-informed spiritual care and practices of moral healing. These practices need to be implemented within parish and church communities to aid in the care and reintegration of veterans into our communities. In this paper, I will: a) introduce and distinguish moral injury as a particular concern for veterans; b) offer theological and scriptural evidence of the need for proper ministerial responses to moral injury; and c) list a set of tools and resources for ministers who interact with veterans

James Portis Ribble Papers, 1951-2020, James Portis Ribble

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Regulation Of Ultradian Pulsatility And Stress Responses In The Human Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis, Belinda Lombard, Thomas J. Upton, Ben Gibbison, David Henley, Georgina Russell, John R. Terry, Stafford L. Lightman, Eder Zavala

Peninsula Medical School

The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is a vital neuroendocrine system that maintains homeostasis by regulating stress hormone secretion through tightly controlled circadian and ultradian rhythms. Although rodent studies and mathematical models have clarified the mechanisms of ultradian pulsatility, a quantitative, human-specific description of HPA axis dynamics is lacking. Here, we analyse 24-h high-frequency hormonal profiles from a cohort of healthy humans to quantify inter-individual variability in adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol rhythms and to calibrate a foundational mathematical model of the human HPA axis. The model reproduces key human-specific features, including an asymmetric circadian rhythm peaking at waking and ultradian oscillations with …

Re: Request For Change To The Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Clark Tailings Consolidated Waste Management Area Site Investigation Quality Assurance Project Plan Revision 0 (2026 Update), Josh Bryson

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Collaboration In Biomolviz: Key Attributes For Building A Stem Educator Community Of Practice, Pamela S. Mertz, Charmita Burch, Roderico Acevedo, Josh T. Beckham, Didem Vardar-Ulu, Kristin M. Fox, Lauren A. Genova, Rachel M. Mitton-Fry, Swati Agrawal, Daniel R. Dries, Kristen Procko

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

BioMolViz is an educational community of practice (CoP) focused on creating resources to improve biomolecular visual literacy instruction and assessment. The community of life science instructors developed in three phases, beginning with a small Core Team that emerged from a conference session and established the domain of interest for the CoP. In-person workshops, supported by short-term funding, drove the initial expansion of the community and the development of shared activities in Phase 2. This CoP was sustained through intentional choices about how members interact, collaborate, and share work. As the community matured in Phase 3, it was supported by longer-term …

Modelling Growth Of The Cold-Water Coral Desmophyllum Pertusum According To Food Availability And The Goldilocks Principle, Konstantinos Georgoulas, Sebastian Hennige, Yeaw Chu Lee, Evangelos Boulougouris

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This study significantly advances previous attempts to model cold-water coral growth using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) by incorporating the finite nature of food availability, an important parameter in coral development. Building on the Goldilocks Principle, which states that coral polyps must surpass an energetic survival threshold to prosper, this model integrates food-based growth dynamics. The underlying SPH framework simulated fluid-coral interactions in which growth was promoted in optimal flow conditions and food-rich zones. Key innovations include dynamic energy reserves, where the energetic reserves of coral particles depend on food obtained from the surrounding fluid particles. Simulations reveal that higher food …

Neither Disembodied Nor Triumphalist: The Voice Of Christian Hope, Gayle E. Doornbos

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Hope in the Psalms is a real, honest declaration, amid the awful realities of life, that we cannot manufacture or optimize our way out of our pain. Rather, in our pain we turn to the only one who can restore us and who has promised us a day when pain, death, and sorrow will be no more."

Posting about words for the suffering in In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Neither Disembodied nor …

A Moving Image Of Eternity: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Philosophy Of Time, Brian C. Roden

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"The “Time Graph,” as it will be labeled in this essay, is obscurely nestled in C. S. Lewis’s personal manuscripts held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Comprised of mathematical sketches and cryptic commentary, the document has apparently escaped formal study regarding why Lewis produced it or how it might relate to his published works. More broadly, does it have any bearing on a coherent philosophy of time that Lewis may have held? The aim of this essay is to demonstrate that the Time Graph is very likely an early draft of the mechanics of time travel …

Tracing Sehnsucht: Longing For The "Hidden Country", Charlie Reeder

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"This thesis will argue that Lewis employs a consistent set of literary themes and biblical echoes to articulate longing throughout his career, and that his early non-Christian, and often anti-Christian, poetry, such as Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics (1919) and Dymer (1926), plays a formative role in shaping his later depictions of Sehnsucht. Although his theological commitments and vocabulary evolve significantly after his conversion, an engagement with a predominantly Judeo-Christian literary inheritance is apparent from the outset. A central focus here will be Lewis’s use of place. In his early poetry, recurring biblical resonances, conceptual images, and spatial …

C. S. Lewis, The Expert Communicator, Steven A. Beebe

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

"What evidence supports the claim that Lewis is an expert communicator? He remains a popular author, one of the most read authors of all time. He was a professional communicator; he earned his living communicating: teaching, writing, and speaking. And, as this essay has documented, he was a professor of communication. He made insightful observations about the role, nature, and function of communication throughout the corpus of his work. Although his planned book with J. R. R. Tolkien, “Language and Human Nature,” was never published, his initial ideas found in the draft of the partial opening chapter, coupled with a …

Canonical-Basis Sumcheck Prover Architecture Using A Layer-Addressable Boolean-Sum Tree And Banked Affine Folding Pipeline, Ali Mkhida

Defensive Publications Series

We disclose an FPGA architecture for a Sumcheck prover over the Mersenne-31 field using canonical-basis round polynomials of the form S(X)=A+BX. The design combines a layer-addressable Boolean-sum h-tree stored in block RAM with a banked, pipelined affine folding unit. Memory banking, ping-pong buffering, and latency-aligned control enable parallel challenge-dependent folds while respecting FPGA block-RAM constraints. The architecture is implemented and validated on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA and supports parameterized problem size and folding parallelism.

Technical Specification Spec-149: Resonant Piezo-Kinetic Ion Deorption Matrix, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Traditional extraction of critical energy transition elements (lithium, neodymium, cobalt, and lanthanides) relies on open-pit mining, mass environmental excavation, and energy-heavy chemical acid-leaching pools. This specification formalizes SPEC-149: A Resonant Piezo-Kinetic Ion Desorption Matrix.

Operating inline within closed-circuit subterranean borehole loops, SPEC-149 eliminates surface excavation entirely by utilizing targeted, down-hole piezo-ferroelectric shock pulses. These acoustic wavefronts selectively trigger localized mechanochemical desorption of target metal ions from shale and clay matrices directly into a flowing aqueous carrier stream. By applying your structural invariant, the Torsional Viscosity Governor (\(\eta_t = 1.4204\)), to decouple acoustic shear drift within complex rock geometries, this architecture …

Technical Specification Spec-148: Acoustophoretic Metamaterial Lithography Array, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Modern semiconductor manufacturing is gatekept by a highly centralized, multi-billion-dollar supply chain. Producing high-density microchips currently requires extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems, complex mirror arrays, and multi-billion-dollar cleanroom infrastructures.

This specification formalizes SPEC-148: An Acoustophoretic Metamaterial Lithography Array. Operating at stable, ambient room temperatures without vacuum chambers or cleanrooms, SPEC-148 utilizes high-frequency Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) interference fields to physically organize molecular-layer precursor vapors directly on a substrate target. By utilizing your structural invariant, the Torsional Viscosity Governor (\(\eta_t = 1.4204\)), to stabilize spatial acoustic field drift, this architecture provides an open-source, table-top method for sub-5nm microchip fabrication, establishing a …

Technical Specification Spec-147: Atmorphic Torsional Wave Transceiver Network, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Global telecommunications infrastructure remains tethered to vulnerable physical fiber-optic networks, centralized satellite mega-constellations, and corporate-managed routing centers. This specification formalizes SPEC-147: An Atmorphic Torsional Wave Transceiver Network.

By exploiting the inherent non-linear thermal gradients and moisture boundaries of the Earth's troposphere, SPEC-147 establishes a long-range, ground-to-ground wireless data link that uses the atmosphere as a natural, continuous waveguide. Utilizing your invariant Torsional Viscosity Governor (\(\eta_t = 1.4204\))equations to modulate Phase-Shift Keyed Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) radio-frequency signals, the system bypasses physical cable infrastructure and satellite vulnerabilities. This document provides the architectural boundaries, hardware configurations, and mathematical validation required to establish …

Technical Specification Spec-146: Magnetohydrodynamic Cymatic Thruster, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Traditional atmospheric propulsion is structurally limited by thermal containment thresholds, mechanical skin-friction drag, and massive degradation of compressor components at hypersonic velocities. This specification formalizes SPEC-146: An Air-Breathing Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Cymatic Thruster. The architecture completely replaces high-temperature thermal combustion chambers with a non-equilibrium, acoustofluidic boundary-layer ionization sleeve. By projecting high-amplitude 13.56 MHz Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW)through an array of Gallium Nitride (GaN) transducer nodes, incoming high-velocity air is mechanically pre-conditioned and stabilized before entering a low-temperature, Lorentz-force electromagnetic acceleration channel. This framework establishes an entirely unencumbered, public-domain blueprint for solid-state, decentralized sub-orbital propulsion.

Caldwell Precursor‑X — Self‑Interrogating Geophysical Corridor For Multi‑Hazard Early Warning, Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

PRECURSOR‑X is an open‑hardware, builder‑ready early‑warning system that continuously interrogates vulnerable terrain and infrastructure using controlled mechanical excitation, distributed fiber sensing, multi‑physics mapping, and transfer‑function drift analysis. It detects pre‑failure physical‑state evolution and post‑initiation hazard propagation within the same corridor, enabling earlier, more actionable evacuation warnings for earthquakes, landslides, debris flows, dam failures, moraine failures, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).

The invention integrates:

• Self‑Interrogating Geophysical Corridor

• Transfer‑Function Drift (PRD)

• Causal Propagation Engine (CPE)

• Failure Clock + Impact Clock

• UAIF‑style deterministic safety logic

• FDMS/GRHN/ARPN/Arachne/MMRA/CMRS subsystems

This disclosure provides complete builder‑ready specifications, including corridor geometry, excitation parameters, sensor classes, acquisition timing, …

Technical Specification Spec-145: Bioregenerative Molecular Nutrient Regeneration Matrix And Closed-System Biomass Liquefaction Fluidics For Continuous Eco-Autonomous Agriculture, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

Modern controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is fundamentally bottlenecked by its reliance on linear, open-ended supply chains. Commercial vertical farms consume highly refined synthetic mineral salts derived from energy-heavy industrial processes and generate significant quantities of inedible plant biomass that are cast out as waste.

This specification establishes the blueprint for SPEC-145: A Bioregenerative Molecular Nutrient Loop. By integrating focused acoustic cavitation mechanics with a multi-stage fixed-bed biological nitrification processor, SPEC-145 converts 100% of solid inedible crop waste (lignocellulose stalks, roots, and structural biomass) directly into bio-available, plant-ready macronutrient solutions inside a completely sealed, non-thermal closed loop. Combined with an integrated …