Digital Commons Network^™

Biomass And Ecosystem Services Valuation In Support Of Urban Climate-Resilience In Dakar, Senegal, Momath Diankha, Moussa Soule, Serigne Modou Sarr, Maharazu A. Yusuf, Kwame Oppong Hackman, Sintayehu Workeneh Dejene, Issaka Abdou Razakou Kiribou

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

Rapid urbanization is a growing global concern that challenges sustainability in cities. Urban trees provide several ecosystem services, such as climate regulation, carbon sequestration, and air-pollution removal. The sustainable benefits of these services imply the preservation of urban forests in developing countries, where trees are frequently removed and replaced by buildings and other infrastructure. Supporting informed decisionmaking requires accurate estimation and valuation of tree biomass and ecosystem services beyond conventional forest-based allometric approaches. This study used a scientific ecosystem services modeling tool to improve the accuracy of biomass estimates for the Mbao Protected Forest in Dakar. It uses the vegetation …

No Harm, No Foul: Investor Loss And The Future Of Sec Disgorgement, Evan Barth

Western New England Law Review

It is a foundational principle of law that no one should profit from their own wrong. In the securities context, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforces that principle through disgorgement, a remedy designed to deprive violators of unjust enrichment and deter misconduct. Although disgorgement has long played a central role in securities enforcement, its legal scope has recently become unsettled. In Liu v. SEC, the Supreme Court held that disgorgement must maintain traditional equitable principles. Shortly thereafter, Congress amended the securities laws providing the SEC its authority for disgorgement.

These developments have led to a circuit split over how …

Paying Up To Uncle Sam: Fbar Penalties, The Eighth Amendment’S Excessive Fines Clause, And A New Circuit Split, Christopher J. Nasta

Western New England Law Review

The Bank Secrecy Act requires those with foreign financial accounts to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with the United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Those who do not file are subject to a variety of criminal and civil penalties.

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that excessive fines cannot be levied by the American government against individuals. How does this apply to those with foreign financial accounts who willfully choose not to file the required reporting forms with the United States government? A circuit split has arisen …

Tempering Trademark Tactics: Alloying Anti-Slapp Laws With Massachusetts’ Proven Petition Principles, Brian A. Pattengale

Western New England Law Review

Legitimate criticism of corporate actions or rights creates a free speech dilemma. When speech implicates or even indirectly relates to a trademark, costly litigation can arise where a plaintiff trademark holder is positioned to, or even obliged to, bury a defendant with numerous attendant claims only tangentially related to substantive trademark issues. If those claims are well-pled, the trademark holder succeeds in defeating constitutional speech rights unless the defendant mounts First Amendment defenses against the attendant claims at great cost.

Where a defendant’s speech—trademark or otherwise—is of public value, such lawsuits have been termed strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). …

A Prison Of Poverty: How The Current State Of Supplemental Security Income (Ssi) Disincentivizes Saving And Entering The Workforce, Conor Mccormick

Western New England Law Review

Our current Social Security structure provides disability benefits through two programs: Title II Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Title XVI Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This Note will argue that the current structure of the SSI program actually disincentivizes disabled folk whom are able to work from returning to or entering the work force. A number of factors adversely affect an SSI recipient: (i) the strict definition of “disabled” to mean an inability to engage in a “substantial gainful activity level”; (ii) a cap on the total assets one can hold earn before losing benefits; (iii) poorly framed work incentive …

Evolving Execution Methods: The Constitutionality Of Nitrogen Hypoxia Through Pain, Precedent, And Practicality, Reem Haikal

Western New England Law Review

Method-of-execution challenges have intensified as lethal injection protocols face chronic instability. This Article evaluates whether execution by nitrogen hypoxia violates the Eighth Amendment and argues that it does not. The analysis applies Baze and Glossip to two questions: whether nitrogen hypoxia presents a substantial risk of severe pain and whether a feasible and readily implemented alternative would materially reduce that risk. This Article synthesizes historical Eighth Amendment principles with the contemporary record from executions by nitrogen hypoxia, related litigation materials, medical testimony, and physiological literature on inert-gas hypoxia.

The evidence indicates that nitrogen hypoxia typically produces rapid loss of consciousness …

A Cautionary Tale: A Case For Abolishing The Addict-Inpossession Statute On Constitutional Grounds, Jonathan Bruce

Western New England Law Review

Are drug users second-class citizens under the Second Amendment? The Federal Government enacted the Gun Control Act in 1968 which imposed heaps of new regulations relating to private gun ownership, including enacting criminal statutes, namely 18 U. S. C. §922(g), which allows an individual to face charges if that individual is categorized under any of § 922(g)’s enumerated subsections. In 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in District of Columbia vs. Heller, establishing the right of the people to own and possess firearms for self-defense, regardless of any association with “the militia” as described in the …

Banking Vs. Tech: The Fight For The Future Of Money, Gopika Shah

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Access Over Impact: Reorienting Oira’S Meetings With The Public, Griffin S. Kenny

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Emails: The Political Economy Of Higher Education Under Executive Assault, Christopher D. Thomas

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keynote Address – Dei Executive Orders, Dear Colleague Letters, And The Constitution, Bryan Adamson

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction – Academic Freedom And Vulnerability, Elizabeth L. Rosenblatt

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Essay – Rethinking The Fund Termination Sanction, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rights In Theory, Detention In Practice: The Constitutional Paradox Of Guantánamo Bay, Fatimah A. Elghazawi

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Essay – When Disability Is Different: Reasonable Accommodations And Higher Education Dei, Katherine A. Macfarlane

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Academic Freedom’S Demise, Ruth Colker

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Through The Direct Threat Defense: A Case Study Of Healthcare Providers With Hiv, Melinda R. Week

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Banned, Burned, And Bound: Increasing Protections Surrounding Students’ Right To Receive Information In K-12 Schools, Catherine A. Mcclure

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legalizing Magic Mushrooms: A Different Set Of Laws For A Different Kind Of Drug, Edward S. Adams

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Money Moves In: The Consequences Of Housing Wealth, Darren Aiello, Jason Kotter, Gregor Schubert

Faculty Publications

We construct a novel dataset of millions of household moves over 25 years to examine how housing wealth affects purchase decisions. We find that a $1 exogenous increase in housing equity leads movers to pay a $0.06 premium on their next home, controlling for property characteristics and time-varying local prices. This behavior is driven by search frictions— wealthier households pay a premium rather than incur additional search costs. In aggregate, these decisions spill over to the broader housing market and cause upward regional price pressure. A 10% increase in equity gain among incoming movers increases local house price growth by …

When To Bite Back: Queerness, Resistance, And Reclamation Of The Monstrous Identity In Andrew Joseph White’S Hell Followed With Us, Aster J. Mehigan Mx.

English

Who gets the right to define morality? Who gets to define what is monstrous? Frankenstein’s Creature, the vampires of Lost Boys, The Craft’s head witch Nancy Downs; these characters follow a pattern through the decades of those alienated from society, in this case being written with queer subtext, being deemed as monstrous. These queer monsters become the villains of the story, causing chaos, death and destruction in their wake, seeking revenge against a world that ostracizes them. The 2022 dystopian YA horror of Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White challenges the villanized monstrous identity through its transgender protagonist …

Dog Waste Creates A Preference-Performance Mismatch For Urban Dung Beetles, Erin L. Mccullough, Beatrice M. Altopp, Daniel F. Kellogg, Madelyn S. Mcinnis, Luna J. Pagan

Biology

Urban environments expose animals to novel conditions that may favor behavioral flexibility but can create preference-performance mismatches when attractive resources are associated with reduced reproductive success. Dung beetles are often considered dietary generalists, yet little is known about how they respond to altered food availability in human-dominated habitats. We combined field surveys and laboratory experiments using two domestic dung types to examine diet preference, maternal provisioning, and offspring performance in the urban dung beetle Onthophagus orpheus. Beetles strongly preferred dog dung over cow dung, and offspring reared on dog dung developed faster and emerged as larger adults. Despite these apparent …

Examining Reproductive Equity In The Post-Roe United States, Yali Pang, Anna Grace Causey, Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn, Research Institute For Social Equity Rise

Research Institute for Social Equity

Four years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, state-level variation in reproductive rights policy is associated with substantial geographic inequities in access to abortion and reproductive health care across the United States. The adoption of restrictive or protective reproductive rights policies is closely tied to legislative control, underscoring the political drivers of reproductive inequity. The evidence suggests that advancing reproductive equity will require coordinated national, state, and local response to strengthen healthcare infrastructure, reduce economic barriers, and establish durable legislative protections for reproductive rights.

Clinical Challenges Associated With Enhancing Hypertension Among The Underserved African American Population, Ashley Richardson

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Background 

African Americans face a significantly higher prevalence of hypertension, tend to develop complications at younger ages, and have disproportionately higher mortality rates. Key social determinants of health (SDoH)—including food deserts, unequal access to healthcare, and geographic disparities in healthcare resources—contribute to these ongoing inequities. Addressing both systemic and individual barriers is crucial for effective hypertension management.

Objective

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a culturally relevant, community-based intervention designed to reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure among Black adults with uncontrolled hypertension.

Methods 

Quality improvement (QI) initiatives typically employ multicomponent, equity-focused models. The primary components of …

Automation And Habitat Development For A Space Based Marine Life Environment, Logan Trimmer, Alexander Hang

Harrisburg University Other Works

This project was a cross-collaboration between the Environmental Sciences and Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics programs for the company Monolith Space.

The goal of this project was to design an autonomous system to be able to track qualities of water in an aquaculture system designed to be sent to space.

A Framework For Optimizing Creep Model Parameters From Conventional And Accelerated Creep Tests, William D. Day

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The demand for efficiency in power generation and propulsion requires higher firing temperatures and reduced cooling air consumption which raises metal temperatures. This makes simplistic creep evaluations, such as Larson-Miller and Orr-Sherby-Dorn parameters, inadequate. Finite element analysis (FEA) must simulate primary and secondary creep, predict failure, and provide design guidance. Gas turbine components, expected to last over 100,000 hours, often require extrapolation of limited test data for new materials. It is essential that robust creep simulations be developed efficiently, accurately, and effectively use limited test data.

This dissertation describes an optimized framework for efficient creep testing and rapid construction of …

Cisheterosexism In Lgbtqia+ Health Resource Guides, Vanessa Kitzie, Olivia Reed, Amirezza Kalantari

Faculty Publications

Cisheterosexism in LGBTQIA+ Health Resource Guides Vanessa Kitzie, Amirezza Kalantari, Olivia Reed University of South Carolina, School of Information Science [email protected] Limited healthcare resources lead many LGBTQIA+ people to peer networks, often accessed via search engines to find community-created health resource websites [1–3]. Academic library guides benefit privileged LGBTQIA+ identities [4], but little is known about community guides, which may reinforce cisheterosexist narratives, causing stigma and stress [5, 6]. This study addresses this gap by scraping Google results for LGBTQIA+ health resources across US states, examining how cisheterosexism shapes health topics, geography, and representation of LGBTQIA+ populations. We hypothesize that …

Predicting Dementia Risk: Progress, Pitfalls, And Priorities, Patricia Nistor, Osvaldo Espin-Garcia, Zul Merali, Shehzad Ali

Brain and Mind Institute

As populations age, identifying individuals at high risk for dementia has become a cornerstone of prevention-oriented public health policy. Accurate and scalable risk stratification could enable early intervention and resource targeting. However, existing models face methodological limitations, including constraints in available data and follow-up duration, challenges in dementia ascertainment, heterogeneity in modelling approaches, and limited external validation. This commentary discusses these challenges and identifies methodological priorities for developing dementia risk algorithms that are robust and suitable for real-world implementation.

Boys Will Be Empathetic: How Does Media Literacy Education Impact Adolescent Boys’ Empathy?, Karley A. Betzler

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many adolescent boys are using social media each day for a variety of reasons. How social media is being utilized by these students, what they are being potentially exposed to online, and how it is impacting their offline lives has raised questions and concerns for many educators. This literature review explores how teaching media literacy skills to adolescent boy students impacts their empathy. This review specifically focuses on research done around the impact of social media use on the development of empathy and masculinity, how the impacts of boys’ exposure to the manosphere are being felt and perpetuated in schools, …

Comparing Digital And Non-Digital Gamification On Their Impacts In The World Language Classroom, Amanda K. Salmonson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Few studies have focused on the comparison between digital and non-digital game-based learning, especially in the world language classroom. This thesis is a literature review of 36 peer-reviewed articles to compare the effects of digital versus non-digital game use in regards to motivation, language acquisition, vocabulary retention, teacher implementation, and student social skills and mental health. The findings show that both styles of gamification have positive impacts in all of these categories when compared to traditional teacher-centered instruction, though when compared, each mode has its benefits and weaknesses. Digital games’ promotion of competition can limit student intrinsic motivation as well …