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Christian Missions’ Medical Work In The Colonial Ilorin Province, 1900 To 1960, Rasheed Onagun

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

A scarcity of labor and the pursuit of optimal profit maximization led to the colonial government's collaboration with Christian missions to disseminate and expand Western healthcare to the populace. In Ilorin Province and Nigeria as a whole, missions undertook the majority of colonial medical work and public health initiatives. For the first time in the history of Ilorin Province, missionary endeavors introduced Western medicine as an alternative healthcare source to many, necessitating a historical examination. This paper explores existing literature, oral testimonies, and extensive archival documents to analyze the impacts of missionary medical work on the well-being of the people …

Editors’ Note: Introducing The Inaugural Edition

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Student Awards

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Awards for Outstanding Papers Written in 2025

Dam Negotiations: Water, Diné Sovereignty, And The Navajo Dam, George Smith

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On July 30, 1958, contractors working for the Bureau of Reclamation broke ground on the Navajo Dam, located about 35 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico. Diné Tribal chairman Paul Jones had called the dam a “new hope for [his] people,” anticipating increased agricultural and industrial capacity from irrigation and flow management. Though officially approved in 1962, the contingent Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) that was to provide those many of those benefits remained to be completed in 2024. By contrast, the San Juan Chama Project (SJCP), the other project contingent upon the dam, diverted water from the San Juan …

Marcion And The Crisis Of Second-Century Christianity, Samuel Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Almost a century after the death of Christ and his original apostles, the 2nd-century Judeo-Christian church found itself in a vicious struggle for survival catalyzed by an ongoing negotiation between the church’s traditional Jewish roots and establishing its own identity. The loose confederation of Jesus-believers fought to gather themselves into a functional body as they wrestled with questions surrounding the very nature of the Christian faith.

“No Hen Should Herald The Dawn Lest Misfortune Follow”: Gender, History, And Power Sima Guang’S Comprehensive Mirror, Zoe Ngan

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

It was not a particularly notable occasion when Emperor Gaozong 高宗 of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) established Wu Zetian 武則天 as a mid-ranked concubine in 654. Emperors, throughout Chinese history, were polygamous rulers who acquired no shortage of concubines per the Rites of Zhou 周禮, an ancient ritual text which proposed that rulers obtain 121 wives and consorts. Wu’s nomination signified the unpredictability of imperial favour and almost certainly did not turn heads when her appointment occurred.

“I, Too, Want To Be Free”: Women And The Birth Control Movement In Utah, 1914–1940, Evelyn Wilcox

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Like many other women, I too, want to be free,” explained a 33-year- old Utah woman in a 1925 letter to Margaret Sanger, a prominent leader in the birth control movement. This woman, whose name is unknown, was married to a 78-year- old man with whom, she thought, “in her ignorance,” that she would never have any children—she was proven wrong. With six children under the age of eight at the time and wanting to prevent having more, this woman’s predicament reflects Sanger’s mission to inform everyday women of birth control so they could make their own reproductive choices. After …

Christianity Behind The Iron Curtain: How Creative Arts Gave A Voice To The Voiceless, Riana Johnson Wills

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1988, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) held celebrations across the Soviet Union to mark the Millennium of Christianity in Russia, commemorating a thousand years since the baptism of Rus in 988. While this was a monumental day for Christians, many believers across the Soviet Union felt a sense of dissonance. For decades, religious freedom and worship had not been privileges they enjoyed. Thousands of Christians suffered for their belief. The communist regime began in 1922 with Vladimir Lenin. The USSR built upon Marxist ideology where atheism is a fundamental and they expected nationwide compliance to these ideologies. …

Rationed Victory: A Study Of American Civilian Rationing In World War Ii, Alex Moulder

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In any conflict or competition it is often said that the winner is “fueled to victory.” This could come as a result of training, diet, stamina, support from others, or sheer willpower. Even small variations in any of these elements can have significant consequences and affect outcomes. The same can be said about civilians during wartime, especially during the largest conflict of the twentieth century, World War II. The war cemented the United States as a global power, thanks in part to its massive economy, technologies, and industries, which helped to overcome the war of attrition against the Axis powers. …

“It Was The Women Who Kept It On”: The 1984–85 National Union Of Mineworkers Strike In Wales, Brett Bodily

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On March 3rd, 1984, more than 140,000 miners, all members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) walked out on strike in protest of proposed colliery, or “pit” closures. Years of disputes culminated in a major showdown between the largest labor union in the United Kingdom and a resurgent national conservatism led by Margaret Thatcher— leader of the Tory party. The communities built around coal mining recognized the Tory pit closure plan for what it was—an existential threat to their way of life. Women within these communities rose to the occasion and took on leadership and organizational responsibilities, many for …

Leasing Land, Losing Sovereignty: Us Military Land Leasing In Okinawa, Japan, Kathryn Blau

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Military land leasing in Okinawa has played a central role in limiting Okinawan political sovereignty since the end of World War II by fostering economic dependence on US military bases and enabling policies that override local opposition. Tracing the evolution of the leasing system under both American occupation and Japanese administration reveals how land expropriation, compensation policies, and increasingly generous financial incentives encouraged reliance on base-related income while discouraging advocacy for land reversion and base reduction. The analysis further demonstrates how the Japanese government's legal enforcement of mandatory lease renewals, particularly during the 1996 Okinawa land dispute, curtailed the rights …

Editor's Preface, Gabe Smock

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

This editor's preface explores the origins and enduring mission of The Thetean, BYU's undergraduate history journal. Through archival research in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, the journal's founding history is traced to its inaugural 1967 edition, revealing the origin, pronunciation, and meaning of its distinctive name as a reference to Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. The preface highlights the journal's longstanding commitment to encouraging scholarly research, providing publication opportunities, and introducing students to the work of historians. By recovering the journal's own history, it underscores the broader value of historical inquiry: understanding the past to better …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Bloomington Community Brain Health Services Program: The Intersection Of Law Enforcement And Brain Health, Janet Yeats, Luke Campbell, Booker Hodges

Forensic Scholars Today

In 2023, the Bloomington Police Department launched the Bloomington Community Brain Health Services (BCBHS) program in response to increasing mental health crises, provider shortages, long wait times for services, and rising law enforcement involvement in crisis calls. The Bloomington Model integrates licensed therapists and supervised graduate-level interns directly within a police department structure. The program aims to reduce mental health-related calls, stabilize residents experiencing crisis, and eliminate cost barriers by offering up to 15 sessions of free, short-term therapy delivered in homes, schools, virtual settings, and community spaces.

This article outlines the program’s development, implementation, and early outcomes, highlighting key …

Environment-Adaptive And Collision-Minimized Bluetooth Channel Allocation In High-Interference Multi-Device Scenarios, Hp Inc

Defensive Publications Series

In environments with high wireless interference, such as office spaces with multiple laptops and overlapping Wi-Fi signals, Bluetooth communication often suffers from frequency collisions and degraded performance. The standard Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) mechanism employed by individual Bluetooth devices is decentralized, requiring each device to perform its own interference scanning and channel adaptation. This results in duplicated overhead and limited visibility of global channel usage, leading to inefficient spectrum utilization and inter-device Bluetooth channel collisions. This invention provides a centralized system and method for managing Bluetooth channel allocation across multiple devices. The most suitable central host PC collects environmental interference …

Bi-Directional Input Bridge For Mapping Limited-Input Device Events To Embedded Web Content, Erica Halpern, Matt Joseph

Defensive Publications Series

A bridging system for bi-directional input bridging that maps limited input device events to embedded web content and bridging system user interfaces. The bridging system implements an SDK module injected into an embedded content frame that intercepts input events before other components in the embedded content frame can process them, creates copies of events and forwards them to the bridging system, maintains a coordinated focus state to enable correct event routing between the bridging system and embedded content, and executes synthetic input events including pointer and mouse events in response to bridging system dispatch messages.

Selective Use Of Expanded Region Of Interest For Luma-Based Exposure Determination, Alex William Greer, Ariel Chiati Yin, Hsing Ju Hung, Lin Lu, Sz Han Yu, Yu-Lin Chang, Chung Kai Hsieh, Vincent Alfred

Defensive Publications Series

Devices may be used to capture images and videos.  For example, a device may include one or more cameras (e.g., image sensors) to capture images and videos of people.  When capturing an image or video of a person, exposure parameters for the person’s face may be prioritized by (i) calculating the luma for the facial region and (ii) adjusting the exposure parameters based on an average luma value across the facial region.

Typically, a small region of interest is used to calculate the luma for the facial region.  For example, the region of interest may be an initial facial area …

Pharmacological Potential Of Pomelo (Citrus Maxima) Peel: A Bibliometric Review Of Global Research Trends And Future Directions, Indah Zunita Sari, Alma Nur Azizah, Fitriana Nur Hanifah, David Fernando, Agung Endro Nugroho, Abdul Rohman

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Pomelo (Citrus maxima) is a widely cultivated tropical fruit with global production reaching approximately 8.55 million tons in 2023. This large-scale production generates a substantial amount of peel waste despite the fact that pomelo peel contains secondary metabolites with promising pharmacological potential. This study aimed to evaluate global research trends related to the pharmacological potential of pomelo peel using a bibliometric and review-based approach, as well as to identify future research directions. Data were collected from the Scopus database and filtered for English-language scientific articles, reviews, and conference proceedings. The analysis was performed using the Biblioshiny and VOSviewer …

An Optical Fiber Caffeine Sensor Using A Molecularly Imprinted Polymethacrylic Acid Membrane Coated On Optical Fiber Surface As A Transducer, Josiah W. Miller, Jason D. Mccaslin, Shiquan Tao

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Caffeine is a neurotransmitter, important to human health. This compound exists in many food products, has been added to soft drinks, pharmaceutical drugs. For many applications, a field deployable technique for quick detecting caffeine is attractive. In this paper, we report a selective optical fiber caffeine sensor using a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) membrane as a transducer. The membrane extracts/concentrate caffeine from sample solutions significantly improved sensor’s sensitivity with a 95 times sensitivity improvement. The sensor achieved a detection limit of 0.20 µg/mL. This sensor was used to directly analyze caffeine in soft drink products without interference from sample matrix.

Method, System, And Computer Program Product For Fairness-Aware Test-Time Prompt Tuning, Kamalaruban Parameswaran, Michael William (Tom) Kempton, Stuart Burrell, David Sutton, Yoann L. Launay

Defensive Publications Series

Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for fairness-aware, test-time prompt tuning of a vision-language machine learning model. An example method includes receiving text prompts and images, inputting the text prompts and the images to a vision-language machine learning model, generating text embeddings based on the text prompts and image embeddings based on the images, calculating target similarity scores between the target text embeddings and the image embeddings and spurious similarity scores between the spurious text embeddings and the image embeddings, calculating a measure of target entropy loss based on the target similarity scores and a measure of spurious …

Ai Adoption And Organizational Resilience In Turbulent Environments: The Mediating Role Of Employee Digital Literacy And The Moderating Role Of Innovation-Supportive Climate In The Iraqi Hospitality Sector, Hasan Mutashar Gbouri

Arab Economic and Business Journal

This study examines whether adopting artificial intelligence (AI) strengthens organizational resilience when the operating environment is hostile, and identifies the internal conditions an organization must satisfy before an AI investment translates into resilience. Two mechanisms anchor the argument: employee digital literacy, which carries the effect, and an innovation-supportive climate, which conditions it. We surveyed 400 employees across three premium hotels in Baghdad, Iraq, sampled by operational level, and tested the model with structural equation modeling in AMOS 26.0. The results show that AI adoption alone yields only a modest direct gain in resilience. Slightly more than half of its total …

Lossless Medical Image Compression Using Integer Discrete Wavelet Transform With Adaptive Subband Differencing And Context-Adaptive Entropy Coding, Rasha F. Nadhim, Ibrahim Adel Ibrahim, Ashwaq T. Hashim

Journal of Intelligent Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity

From transform-domain decorrelation and adaptive entropy coding, we propose a method for efficient lossless compression of medical images in this work. We implement the Integer Discrete Wavelet Transform (IDWT) to decompose the input image into four subbands of LL, LH, HL, HH, encompassing approximation and directional detail elements, in the initial implementation. It also removes spatial redundancy in image information and decomposes image information into a less correlated and more sparsely distributed set of coefficients. To decrease redundancy further, it proposes a subband-dependent differencing scheme, which decorrelates neighbouring wavelet coefficients with directional prediction. So horizontal differencing is done on LH, …

A Blockchain-Integrated Federated Learning Model And Autoencoder-Based Feature Reduction For Improving Iot Intrusion Detection, Tahseen A. Wotaifi

Journal of Intelligent Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity

The rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) environments has brought forth a wealth of security challenges in detecting network intrusions in diverse and resource-restricted systems. Privacy, scalability, and single point of failure issues plague traditional centralized intrusion detection solutions. To address these challenges, the study proposes a secure and adaptive intrusion detection model using Federated Learning (FL) and Blockchain, augmented with autoencoder-based feature reduction. The ToN-IoT dataset is pre-processed, and then an unsupervised autoencoder is used to build informative low-dimensional feature representations. The processed data is deployed to various clients to mimic a real federated situation. Every client will …

Candida Albicans Purulent Pericarditis Complicated By Cardiac Tamponade In A Critically Ill Burn Patient: A Case Report, Mutaz Althobaiti, Abdulrahman Alqahtani, Faisal Alanazi, Mohammad S. Alotaibi, Ibrahim Bahabri, Shikah Alsuwaid, Turki Almutairi, Fawaz Almutairi

Journal of the Saudi Heart Association

Candida pericarditis is a rare, life-threatening complication of invasive candidiasis, associated with high mortality.

We report this case of a young woman with 60% body surface area burn, multidrug-resistant polymicrobial sepsis, and multiorgan failure who developed Candida albicans pericarditis complicated by cardiac tamponade. Despite urgent pericardiocentesis and escalation of antifungal therapy, she ultimately progressed to refractory shock and multiorgan failure.

This case illustrates the diagnostic challenge and therapeutic limitations of fungal pericarditis in critically ill host, and underscores the importance of maintaining a high index of suspicion in burn patients with multisite Candida colonization and prolonged antibiotic exposure.

When Auditors Trust Ai: A Qualitative Study Of Professional Judgment, Data Quality, And Adoption Barriers In Lebanon, Joseph Serghani

Arab Economic and Business Journal

This study explores auditors’ trust in AI in a limited-resource and turbulent context, namely Lebanon. Using semi-structured interviews with 14 junior and senior auditors in Lebanon, this study identifies the factors that make auditors either willing or unwilling to trust in AI-powered audit processes. The results indicate that auditors perceive the potential benefits of AI, such as increased speed, capacity, and ability to detect anomalies. Yet, trust in AI is limited by concerns about implementation costs, the erosion of professional judgment, blockchain complexity, data overload, and reliance on high-quality data. Instead of excluding AI from the equation, auditors perceive it …

Ai Vs. Licensed Psychologists: A Comparative Analysis Of Treatment Plan Quality For Treating Psychological Distress, Michael Edward Maloney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The study was conducted to investigate whether statistically significant differences exist in the quality of treatment plans developed by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms versus treatment plans generated by licensed psychologists, with a focus on intervention specificity and clinical appropriateness. Given the rapid proliferation of digital mental health technologies and the persistent shortage of licensed mental health professionals, empirical evaluation of AI-driven clinical tools has become a critical area of inquiry. Grounded in dual process theory (DPT), which conceptualizes decision making as the product of both intuitive and analytical cognitive systems, the study employed a quantitative, between-groups design. Sixty-six licensed psychologists …

Pharmacogenetic Testing In Mood Disorders: A Narrative Review Of Clinical Efficacy And Real-World Utility, William M. Spence

Summer Interdisciplinary Research Symposium

Objective:

Pharmacogenetic-guided treatment is a recent innovation which attempts to improve the variability in individual response to pharmacological treatment. In patients with MDD, pharmacogenetic-guided treatment was evaluated for improvements in remission, symptom reduction, and drug side effect rates compared to the standard of care.

Methods:

A structured literature search was conducted using Google Scholar and Research Rabbit. Studies published within the past 10 years evaluating pharmacogenetic-guided treatment in major depressive disorder and reporting remission, symptom improvement, or adverse effects were included. Eligible studies were qualitatively synthesized to assess the clinical utility of pharmacogenetic-guided antidepressant treatment.

Results:

Three randomized controlled trials …

The Influence Of Prenatal Exercise On Pregnancy Outcomes, Nadhia M. Manthuruthil

Summer Interdisciplinary Research Symposium

Objective: To evaluate the effects of prenatal exercise among pregnant individuals on pregnancy complications and to determine whether exercise modality influences pregnancy outcomes.

Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted using Research Rabbit and PubMed to identify studies examining exercise during pregnancy and associated maternal and fetal outcomes. Eligible studies included English-language, full-text, peer-reviewed articles and systematic reviews published after 2020 involving healthy pregnant patients, with pregnancy outcomes as the primary outcome measure. Studies without measurable outcomes or involving pre-existing comorbidities were excluded.

Results: Prenatal exercise was consistently found to be safe and associated with improved maternal outcomes. Four studies …

Oxybenzone In Sunscreen: Examining Human Health Implications, Madelyn Landsteiner

Summer Interdisciplinary Research Symposium

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current evidence regarding the human health effects associated with exposure to oxybenzone (benzophenone-3) containing sunscreen in individuals using sunscreen products. This review examined outcomes, including systemic absorption, endocrine function, and reproductive health, while considering established benefits of sunscreen for skin cancer prevention.

Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted using peer-reviewed publications identified through PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Valparaiso University library database. Selected studies included systematic reviews, meta-analyses, pharmacokinetic studies, observational studies, and toxicological research. Literature evaluating systemic absorption, endocrine disruption, reproductive health effects, biomonitoring data, and regulatory safety …