Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Midjourney On Students’ Design And Design Process: An Exploratory Study, Katelijn Quartier

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

We explored the impact of AI, specifically Midjourney, on the retail design process for master’s students. Over three years, three student groups followed the same design exercise, with AI introduced at different phases. Group 3, which used Midjourney during concept development, showed increased creativity, stronger storytelling, and more cohesive designs. However, AI had no significant impact on innovativeness or originality. Midjourney did accelerate ideation, allowing students to generate concept boards quickly, reducing early-stage development by 1-2 weeks. Despite this, its use declined in later design phases, as students found it unable to fully align with their visions. The study concludes …

The Role Of Consumers In The Retail Design Process, Constant Berkhout, Katelijn Quartier

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

Marketing and design emphasise consumer-centricity and advocate for a participatory, co-creative role for consumers. However, retail designers often view consumers as constraints with limited influence on store design. A literature review analysing retail design from a consumer perspective reveals three key approaches: brand-based frameworks, which align retail design with brand identity; handover-based frameworks, which incorporate consumer insights in a design brief; and empathy-based frameworks, focused on understanding consumers through iterative design. In these frameworks consumer participation remains minimal. Barriers to greater involvement are largely linked to the role of the designer. The review suggests that a more creative and participatory …

The Shop Window As A Communication Platform: From Product Showcase To Experiential Narratives, Vittorio Linfante

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

Fashion has always been closely linked to communication, evolving from aesthetic styles to a language expressing social identities and values. This process has been amplified by digital tools, creating dynamic communicative networks across media. Contemporary fashion communication encompasses all stages of production and meaning-making, blending tangible and intangible elements. Shop windows, traditionally just product displays, have taken on a new role as spaces for experimentation that bridge the physical and digital. This article examines how shop windows have evolved from simple boundaries between store interiors and real life to active spaces for engaging the public, transforming them from passive observers …

The Facade As Communication Tool Between Brand Identity, Localism And Sustainability, Giulia Gerosa, Federica Guarnieri

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

This article explores the intersection of localism and sustainability in retail design, analyzing how a strong connection with the context can contribute to achieving a more sustainable approach. Through the analysis of case studies, the article will specifically focus on the design of retail spaces, highlighting best practices in which local aesthetics, languages, and materials are integrated and reinterpreted through the use of technology to foster a sustainable design approach. In a historical period where environmental awareness and the importance of local identities are increasingly recognized, it is essential to understand the opportunity for collaboration between designers and brands to …

Matching The Narrative Fragments And Customer Identity Fragments In Omni-Channel Fashion Retail, Jinze Lyu

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

Omni-channel fashion retail integrates diverse channels and touchpoints, generating complex overlaps and combinations. In this dynamic environment, fashion brand narratives need to shift from selling products to selling experiences. This transformation challenges brands to maintain narrative coherence while adapting to distinct channel characteristics. Simultaneously, consumers exhibit varied identity expressions across channels, reflecting different consumption needs. However, existing narrative design approaches struggle to accommodate this fluidity. This study introduces a Narrative Design Alignment Framework, examining narrative fragments from the brand’s perspective and identity fragments from the consumer’s perspective. By mapping brand narratives and consumer identities across channels, the framework aligns these …

Fashion Brand Extension Processes In Hospitality: The Bulgari Hotels And Resorts Case Study And The Sustainable Design Strategies For Future Development, Elena Elgani, Francesco Scullica

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

The paper introduces design-led brand extension processes from the fashion system to the hospitality sector that are able to define hospitality branded spaces as part of a complex product-space-service system. The design process that guides the definition of the hospitality branded systems provides a systemic, multi-disciplinary, multi-media, multi-sensory and multi-scalar approach to these brand extension processes with the aim of maximizing brand extension potential. Analyzing the defining aspects of these processes, including through the Bulgari Hotels and Resorts case study, the paper explains how these processes impact both the interiors and the entire product system, access to services and related …

Drivers And Obstacles To Collaborative Fashion Consumption (Cfc): A Literature Review, Gabriela Fabro Cardoso

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

The environmental impact of the fashion industry, driven by overproduction and waste, requires a transition to sustainable models. Collaborative Fashion Consumption (CFC), which includes resale and rental services, offers alternatives to traditional ownership consumption habits. While resale markets are thriving, rental services, while logistically complex, are attracting considerable research interest. In this context, this paper examines the rise of CFC, highlighting the importance of digital platforms in facilitating more sustainable practices, and uses a qualitative approach to systematically analyse existing literature to understand the dynamics of CFC services and identify key challenges and opportunities for future research.

Beyond Purchase: Aftercare Services As A Driver Of Sustainable Fashion Retail, Alessandra Spagnoli, Francesca Bonfim Bandeira, Chiara Anceschi, Valeria M. Iannilli

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

As the fashion industry moves toward a circular economy, retail is evolving beyond a simple point of sale to become a hub for sustainability and long-term product care. This study explores how aftercare services, including repair, maintenance, and second-life initiatives, help brands shift from one-time transactions to servicedriven customer relationships. By analyzing a diverse range of fashion brands, the research identifies six different aftercare models, each offering varying levels of digitization, channel integration, service coverage, process transparency, brand control, and customer autonomy. The findings highlight that aftercare is more than just a post-purchase service—it is a key strategy for circularity, …

Reimagining Empty Retail Spaces: Sustainable Potential For Pedestrian Streets Facing Retail Decline, Mia B. Münster, Hanne Kirstine Adriansen

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

Rapid and significant reductions in global carbon emissions are needed to remain within Earth’s limits. The construction and operation of buildings account for the largest share of the global consumption of raw materials, and they yield around 40% of global carbon emissions. Leading climate researchers therefore recommend adapting housing needs to existing building stock instead of constructing new buildings. This requires shifting the focus from what we desire to how we can adapt our needs to existing spaces. In addition to challenges with lowering carbon emissions, this paper, a work in progress, highlights two significant but unconnected challenges observed in …

Designing Retail Development Spaces – The Case Of The Future Retail Store, Maximilian Perez Mengual, Frank Danzinger

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

This paper addresses innovation challenges faced by small and medium-sized retailers by introducing the concept of a Retail Development Space (RDS) to drive business model innovation. Using a narrative case study approach, we examine the Future Retail Store (FRS) initiative, tracing its evolution and impact on participating retailers. As active participants in the project, we draw on our firsthand experiences to provide a detailed account of the RDS's development and its implications for retail innovation. Through critical reflection, nine foundational design principles for future RDS projects are derived. These principles underscore the importance of dedicated spaces to handle complex retail …

Mapping Trends Of The Evolution In The Retail Sector: A Case Study Of A Design Research Project, Daniela Maurer, Xue Pei

Designing Retail and Services Futures SIG

The retail sector is evolving through the integration of physical and digital spaces, making omnichannel commerce the dominant model. This shift presents challenges and opportunities related to sustainability, consumer expectations, and strategic changes in businesses. This paper presents a design research project that maps promising trends and potential strategic business directions in the retail sector. 26 case studies were collected and analyzed through a design-led research process, identifying seven key trends in consumer behavior, technology integration, and business model evolution. These insights were validated through a webinar attended by industry professionals. The findings highlight the need for brands to rethink …

Planning And Facilitating Hybrid Meetings To Support Relationality During Coalition Building, Luettamae Lawrence, Maureen Boyle, Moira Ross

Utah Conference on Community Engagement

Hybrid events where communities are connected through both in person and online spaces have simultaneously grown in popularity and gotten a bad reputation. While hybrid events have been around for decades, they gained significant traction with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase accessibility for attendees to accommodate diverse needs. Although hybrid events can be beneficial to many, they are not simple to execute. With the increase in hybrid events has come frustration with the low quality interactions between in person and online attendees leading to isolation, technology challenges, and low productivity. We argue the positive affordances of hybrid …

“Restless And Uneasy…Thin And Stretched”: The Ring, The Ringbearers, And Bodies In Psychological Crisis In Tolkien’S The Lord Of The Rings., Sara Brown

Journal of Tolkien Research

The attachment that Tolkien’s Ring-bearers have for the Ring, a twisted and perverted form of love, is sterile and barren; it leaves those affected unable to settle and form fruitful, loving relationships with others, an effect that Tolkien referred to as a “Ring-restlessness.” Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo all suffer, to their own degree, from the psychological crisis caused by the Ring that renders them uneasy and agitated. This paper examines this crisis through a psychological lens, exploring how the Ringbearers are living in discord with their true selves, and struggling with the meaninglessness of life that the Ring leaves behind.

Grief, Grieving, And Permission To Mourn In The Quenta Silmarillion, Dawn M. Walls-Thumma

Journal of Tolkien Research

Tolkien asserted on multiple occasions that death was a primary theme of his work, and there are over ninety deaths of named characters in the Quenta Silmarillion alone. In reading the Quenta Silmarillion as historiography, the universality and psychologically powerful experience of death, grief, and mourning allows the narrators of the Quenta Silmarillion to shape how readers perceive characters, events, and themes in the text. Assuming Pengolodh as the primary narrator, this paper investigates how Tolkien used a limited, flawed, and biased narrative point of view as a strategy to shape reader responses and theme. Characters who die in the …

The Only Thriller J.R.R. Tolkien (Never) Wrote: Jungian Shapes Of Evil In “The New Shadow”, Martin Hauberg-Lund Laugesen, Bo Kampmann Walther

Journal of Tolkien Research

J.R.R. Tolkien's The New Shadow, a fragment set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, offers a rich but often overlooked exploration of the psychological and cultural implications of peace following the defeat of Sauron. Although Tolkien abandoned the project, dismissing it as a mere “thriller”, the text presents significant insights into the dynamics of generational conflict, the origins of Evil, and the moral challenges of a post-heroic world. This paper examines The New Shadow through a dual lens: first, by contextualizing Tolkien’s depiction of good and evil within Christian ethical frameworks, and second, by applying Carl Gustav Jung’s psychological …

The Mariner And His Astronomer Father: Victorian Masculinities In Númenor, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

A number of authors have analyzed the relationship between Aldarion and Erendis in the Unfinished Tales work "The Mariner's Wife." The strained relationship between Aldarion and his father, Tar-Meneldur, fifth king of Númenor, is less frequently examined, with the exception of the elder’s exasperation concerning his son’s desire for seafaring and reticence in marrying – a necessity to carry on the line of Kings in the island nation. What most commentators do not seem to note is that Meneldur is an interesting character himself, not only as Tolkien’s only named astronomer but in how Tolkien’s depiction of this avocation may …

The Moral Function Of Invented Languages In J.R.R Tolkien's Legendarium, Mareike Huber

Journal of Tolkien Research

For J. R. R. Tolkien, the languages he invented for Middle-earth came first, the stories second. Much of his linguistic creation was based on the idea that the sound of a language can create a sense of pleasure or displeasure in those hearing it, irrespective of the meaning behind the words. This can be seen in the ways the sound of the elvish languages on the one hand and Tolkien’s other invented languages such as Khuzdul or the Black Speech on the other, are described not only by Tolkien himself but also by readers of his works. The way a …

Tolkien And Attachment Theory : A Theory To Bind Them All?, Lelie Bremont

Journal of Tolkien Research

Tolkien and Attachment theory: One Theory to Bind Them All?

Ever since the first publication of The Hobbit in 1937, Tolkien’s works have been dominating the fantasy genre, often imitated but rarely equalled. Dozens of scholars over decades have looked for the reason behind this success, the secret ingredient that made Middle-earth so compelling.

Nicole Guédeney is a French psychiatrist specializing in Attachment Theory. Attachment Theory emerged in the early 20^th century and combines psychology with anthropology and ethnology to explore the early attachments created between a baby and the adults surrounding them and how these attachments determine the …

Perceiving The Perceiver: “Viewing” Sauron Through The Gestalt Theory Of Perception, Cameron Bourquein

Journal of Tolkien Research

This paper uses Gestalt theory, the Gestalt laws of perception, and the reception theory of Wolfgang Iser to elucidate the character “Sauron” as he appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, and Tolkien’s wider legendarium. It argues firstly that Sauron’s high degree of indeterminacy and ambiguity suggests he can be read as a gestalt entity, one the reader creates by mentally constructing a whole from (seemingly) disparate parts. Building on the semiotics work of Nagy (2013), it argues that Sauron in The Lord of the Rings can be read as gestalt across the spatial, …

Introduction To Special Issue On Tolkien And Psychology, Kristine Larsen, Sara Brown, Christopher Vaccaro

Journal of Tolkien Research

This introduction to the special issue on Tolkien and Psychology describes the history of the University of Vermont Tolkien Conference, highlighting the 2024 conference from which these paper originated.

Attraction, Aversion, And Aggression: Dynamics Of Violence In Artistic Representations Of Medusa, Caroline Boardman

Parnassus: Classical Journal

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editors, Alexandra Berardelli, Matthew Macdonald

Parnassus: Classical Journal

No abstract provided.

Parnassus: Classical Journal (Volume 12, 2025), Parnassus Contributors

Parnassus: Classical Journal

No abstract provided.

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part Xxxviii. Parabuthus Puntlandus Sp. N. From Somalia (Puntland) (Buthidae), František Kovařík, František Šťáhlavský, Hassan Sh A. Elmi, Roman Štarha

Euscorpius

A new species Parabuthus puntlandus sp. n. from Somalia (Puntland) is described. Combination of five characters; metasoma V black; pectine teeth number 39–42 in both sexes; pedipalp chela length/width ratio 3.05–4.26 in both sexes; metasoma and telson sparsely hirsute; smooth inner side of the base of fingers of pedipalp chela (tubercle absent) distinguish P. puntlandus sp. n. from all other species in the region. In addition to the analyses of external morphology, we have provided descriptions of the karyotype of P. puntlandus sp. n. (2n=16). Included is also a map of distribution of Parabuthus species in Horn of Africa.

Declines In Tapentadol Use In The Us But Pronounced Regional Variation, Ching Y. Low, Kenneth L. Mccall, Brian J. Piper

Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship

Abstract: Background: Tapentadol is an atypical opioid with a dual mechanism as a mu agonist and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. This study characterized tapentadol use in the United States (US) using three databases. Methods: Drug distribution data from 2010 to 2020 were extracted from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)’s Automated Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS), including use per region (mg/person) and business activity (i.e., pharmacy). Tapentadol prescription claims from the Medicare and Medicaid programs for 2010–2020 were also examined. Results: The distributed amount of tapentadol was 3.5 tons in 2020. Distribution was over twice as high in southern (South Atlantic …

How The United States Has Failed To Enact Competitive And Stable Energy Policy Through Federalism, Matthew James Marcaccio

Washington Semester Program

This research focuses on the effects of energy policy in the United States. Because of the impacts of energy production and transmissions emissions, energy policy has become synonymous with climate policy. As such, there seems to be two schools of thought regarding energy policy. On the one hand, “green” energy policies have been endorsed for their potential to reduce carbon emissions and dependence on non-renewable resources. On the other, continuing to use legacy energy sources, namely fossil fuels, has been endorsed for its affordability and ease of use through existing infrastructure. At the federal level, green policies have been embraced …

Lancret-Type Results For A New Family Of Curves In Minkowski 3-Space, Héctor Guerrero Mora, Willy Sierra

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

In this article, using the concept of a Killing vector field along a curve, we extend certain results concerning a family of curves—previously studied in three-dimensional Euclidean space—to the setting of three-dimensional Minkowski space. Depending on the causal character of the curve, we derive Lancret-type results that establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of this family in three-dimensional Minkowski space. We determine the intrinsic equation of this family in three cases: (i) when the curve is nonnull with a nonnull acceleration vector, (ii) when the curve is spacelike with a null acceleration vector, and (iii) when the …

Tropical Forest Soil Microbiome Modulates Leaf Heat Tolerance More Strongly Under Warming Than Ambient Conditions, Gabriela Hernandes Villani, Iana F. Grullón-Penkova, Parker Bartz, Joel Masanga, Jesse R. Lasky, Molly A. Cavaleri, Tana E. Wood, Benedicte Bachelot

Michigan Tech Publications

It is unclear how plants respond to increasing temperatures. Leaf heat tolerance (LHT) is often at its upper limit in tropical forests, suggesting that climate change might negatively impact these forests. We hypothesized that intraspecific variation in LHT might be associated with changes in the soil microbiome, which might also respond to climate. We hypothesized that warming would increase LHT through changes in the soil microbiome: we combined an in situ tropical warming experiment with a shade house experiment in Puerto Rico. The shade house experiment consisted of growing seedlings of Guarea guidonia, a dominant forest species, under different soil …

Independent Vs. Signed Musicians: Does Thier Status Affect Their Success?, Zachary Vincent

Honors Projects in Mathematics and Economics

As technology has advanced and become more widely available, and as the public learns more about the recording industry and its workings, more musicians are choosing not to sign with record labels, becoming independent musicians. This now raises the question: does a musician’s status of independent or signed determine their level of success? It has been previously found that independent musicians have a more difficult time competing with signed musicians due to the resources provided by record labels and the way labels negotiate with large streaming platforms, giving signed labels more opportunities to be seen in the public eye, but …

Empowering Communities: The Role Of Servant Leadership In Transforming Low-Income Lives In The Dominican Republic And Its Diaspora, Kayla M. Mateo Ms

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

This project explores how people of color in the Dominican Republic navigate career choices amid socioeconomic constraints and cultural expectations. Inspired by personal experiences within a family that emphasized traditional job stability, the research investigates how individuals from low-income backgrounds respond to societal pressure to pursue conventional careers. Through fieldwork conducted during an internship with AMADC—a Dominican non-profit that provides free training and certification in traditional fields—the project analyzes how participants confront economic and personal challenges. Ultimately, it aims to understand the resilience and determination behind their pursuit of meaningful and passion-driven careers.