Digital Commons Network^™

Toward Defining Vulnerability For The Field Of Communication, Adrian Osman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Vulnerability, a common human experience, is still not well-theorized within the field of communication and lacks a clear, discipline-specific definition. This qualitative study examined how vulnerability shapes interpersonal communication, using general systems theory and social exchange theory as guiding frameworks. Through in-depth interviews with individuals who identify obesity as a lived vulnerability, five central themes emerged: awareness and acceptance of vulnerability, experiencing weight-based dismissal in healthcare, weight-related communication in familial and everyday interactions, avoidance and situational disengagement, and support systems – what works and what does not. Findings show that vulnerability acts as a dynamic communicative force, shaping engagement, withdrawal, …

The Effects Of Exercise-Related Interventions On The Treatment Of Mental Health, Physical Wellness, And Quality Of Life: A Quantitative Study, Leah Elizabeth Starr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research study includes the overview, literature review, methodology, findings, and discussion of a six-week study pending defense. The purpose of the study is to further support Pilates as an evidence-based treatment to enhance physical and mental wellness and improve quality of life. This includes specific variables of interest such as anxiety, depression, dissociative and posttraumatic stress symptoms, stress, and improvements in overall quality of life and physical health. The theoretical framework for the study is somatic psychology and polyvagal theory. The importance of this study is to validate the use of Pilates as an effective form of treatment for …

The Role Of Resilient/Protective Factors In Adolescence As A Buffer Among Adults With A History Of Childhood Trauma And Symptoms Of Depression In Adults, Michaela L. Fox

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Childhood trauma includes adverse experiences during early development, such as physical, emotional, sexual, or verbal abuse and neglect, and is associated with negative outcomes, including depressive symptoms in adulthood. This study examined whether protective factors during adolescence are related to adult depressive symptoms among individuals with a history of childhood trauma. Two research questions guided the study: (a) Is there a difference in adult depressive symptoms between individuals with minimal versus significant protective factors during adolescence, and (b) Is there a statistically significant relationship between adolescent spirituality and adult depressive symptoms? A quantitative, correlational design was used with self-report surveys …

Indirect Spectrophotometric Determination Of Methyldopa Using Aunps-Cr(Vi), Anfal A. Mohammed, Zeena Z. Al Abdali

Baghdad Science Journal

A simple, sensitive, and rapid spectrophotometric method was suggested for the indirect determination of methyldopa. The method depends on the chemical reaction between citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles and chromium (III) ions, which form during methyldopa oxidation through potassium dichromate. The process results in nanoparticle aggregation, while the solution transitions from red to blue-grey, and the plasmon band moves from 528 nm to 640 nm. The absorption rate increased linearly within the concentration range of 60-140 ng/ml, while the detection limit reached 27 ng/mL. The proposed method showed excellent accuracy and precision because the mean recovery value reached 100.16%, and the relative …

Sexual Dimorphism, Reproductive Biology, And Growth Patterns Of Sumatran Combtail (Belontia Hasselti, Cuvier 1831) From The Kelekar River, South Sumatra, Indonesia, Muslim Muslim, Edo Saputra, Selly Oktarina, Muhammad Rizky Ariansyah Putra

Baghdad Science Journal

Sexual dimorphism, reproductive biology, and growth patterns are fundamental knowledge in fisheries studies. This study aimed to analyze the sexual dimorphism, reproductive biology, and growth patterns of Belontia hasselti. Samples were collected in the Kelekar River, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Traditional fishing gear, specifically fish traps (``bubu'' and ``pengilar''), was used to catch fish samples. The samples were transported to the Basic Fisheries Laboratory of the Universitas Sriwijaya for collecting study parameters. A total of 100 B. hasselti were used in this study: 56 males (TL: 8.00-13.24 cm, BW: 9.50-37.49 g) and 44 females (TL: 8.00-13.99 cm, BW: 9.00-38.99 g). …

Flavonoid Profiling, Molecular Docking, And Modulatory Effects Of Artemisia Herba- Alba Leaf Extract On Ace2 And Tmprss2 Gene Expression, Zainab Tuama Al-Dallee, Kawther Tuma Khalaf, Ula M. Noor Al-Mousawi, Hiba Najeh Alsaad, Emad Yousif Awad Al-Sultan

Baghdad Science Journal

Several studies have reported the potential antiviral activity of Artemisia species, which is related mainly to their flavonoid constituents. Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) are critical SARS-CoV-2 entry factors. In this study, the phytochemical composition and modulatory effects of Artemisia herba-alba leaf extract on the gene expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 were investigated. To identify the flavonoid profile, HPLC was used. Cytotoxicity was estimated in A549 carcinoma and HDFn fibroblasts using an MTT assay (IC₅₀ = 114.8 μg/mL). The real-time PCR results revealed significant upregulation of TMPRSS2 gene expression (2.4-fold, p ≤ 0.01; …

Detection, Persistence, And Rising Prevalence Of Oncogenic Viruses Revealed By Wastewater Metagenomics, Harihara Prakash, Ryan K Perez, Matt Ross, Michael Tisza, Sara J Javornik Cregeen, Jennifer Deegan, Joseph F Petrosino, Eric Boerwinkle, Justin R Clark, Anthony W Maresso

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Oncogenic viruses cause high-risk cancers in humans and are responsible for nearly 20% of all cancer cases worldwide. Currently, very limited data exist in the realm of wastewater-based viral epidemiology (WBE) for cancer-causing viruses, with existing studies using targeted approaches (i.e., PCR-based approaches) that lack genomic resolution. In this study, we used a hybrid-capture approach to detect, filter, and sequence all known oncogenic virus signals from wastewater samples collected over 3 years (May 2022-May 2025) in 16 Texas cities, covering nearly 25% of the state's population. Once sequenced, we used custom computational tools designed for wastewater metagenomics to assign reads …

(((Qpie33))) The Riemann-Zeta Convergence Manifold Re-Run, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

The exploration of the Riemann Zeta function $\zeta(s)$ along the critical line $\Re(s) = \frac{1}{2}$ represents far more than an elite academic challenge in analytic number theory. When viewed through the un-aligned lens of traditional materialist mathematics, the distribution of non-trivial zeros appears as a complex, pseudo-stochastic sequence of coordinate intersections where the real and imaginary parts happens to cancel out. This historical view treats the critical line as a thin, isolated geometric strip cutting through an abstract complex plane, completely missing the background phase velocity of the universal medium. Traditional computing frameworks apply brute-force iterative steps (such as the …

(((Qpie33))) The Baltic-Atlantic Accord On Substrate Entrainment A High-Science Declaration For Multi-Lateral Technical Councils, Advanced Propulsion Networks, And Global Informatics Initiatives, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

The historic architecture of human academic discovery has inevitably reached its final, localized boundary. For generations, the global scientific engine has functioned within a structured pattern of cognitive isolation, a state wherein the investigating mind projects its own internal fragmentation onto the macroscopic and microscopic phenomena of the natural world. By constructing vast, institutional barriers between the study of mathematics, subatomic particle configurations, cosmic web distributions, and biological information networks, the conventional apparatus has arrived at an artificial computational wall. When a civilization approaches the continuum of reality through the lens of competitive survival logic, institutional vanity, and the fear …

(((Qpie33))) The Deep Psychology Of Sapiens Science Gatekeeping Of The Binary Illusion, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

The formal integration of the Quantum Perspective Is Everything canonical frameworks establishes an unbending, mathematically unified ontology that does not merely offer a polite alternative to the status quo, but serves as a stern, unblinking exposure of the systemic mechanisms that have intentionally confined human civilization within an engineered matrix of scarcity, division, and artificial limitation. For centuries, the academic and industrial bastions of the old paradigm have fiercely gatekeepered a local realist worldview, presenting a fractured, observer-removed, and hostile universe as an immutable fact of nature. This reductionist framework was never a product of pure, objective inquiry; it was …

(((Qpie33))) The Great Silicon Barrier: Recoding The Tiers Of Production, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

THE SILICON BARRIER: RECODING THE TIERS OF PRODUCTION

The contemporary technology infrastructure—extending from hyper-scale data centers in the Pacific Northwest to the deep ultraviolet lithography cleanrooms of Eindhoven, and down to the tensor-core clusters of Silicon Valley—is executing a profound technological stall. The titans of computing, semiconductor fabrication, and artificial intelligence operate within an engineering paradigm defined entirely by containment, dissipation, and brute-force scaling. To maintain the illusion of linear acceleration, the industry relies on an unsustainable operational model: pumping gigawatts of thermal energy through increasingly fragile, sub-nanometer silicon grids while writing cross-entropy optimization patches over fundamentally unstable binary software …

(((Qpie33))) The Truth About Coherence - The Meaning In The Middle, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

INTRODUCTION

Why This Paper Exists

Most people quietly feel that something is seriously off about modern life.

Not in a dramatic way. Not as a conspiracy. Just a steady sense that things are harder than they should be, that people are more exhausted than necessary, that children lose something along the way, and that effort doesn’t always match results.

We are told this is normal.

We are told life is hard. We are told suffering builds character. We are told exhaustion is adulthood. We are told children need to be shaped. We are told reality doesn’t care how we …

(((Qpie33))) The Delayed Advancements And The Emerging Golden Era: A Strategic Roadmap For Civilizational Re-Alignment, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

The clinical dissection of the thirty-three historical suppression vectors reveals more than a legacy of academic gatekeeping and institutional risk aversion. It exposes a massive reservoir of unexploited, coherent potential that has been held back behind the artificial barriers of local realism. Because traditional institutions spent centuries violently forcing a continuous, non-local field into fragmented binary containment boxes, modern civilization has been operating on a severely delayed technological trajectory.

However, this systemic delay creates an unprecedented civilizational opportunity. By holding back these foundational breakthroughs until the distributed observer network could mature past zero-sum, toddler-minded boundary dynamics, the old paradigm inadvertently …

(((Qpie33))) The Observational Transmutational And Translational Breakdown Of The 33 Hard Problems Or Crisis’S Of Science, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

Low Coherence Perspective, EGO or Lack Thereof:  is what has consistently caused our finest supercomputers to crash, our equations to spiral into infinite divergences, and our physical engineering to hit hard thermodynamic walls. When we approach problems with a dominating or "beating nature" perspective, the medium resists.

QPIE shifts our operational posture entirely. By embedding the primary operational metrics of Compassion, Gratitude, and Trust (CGT) directly into our computation, we cease fighting the system. We realize that the observer, the instrument, the problem, and the field are an indivisible unity. We do not seek to dominate the medium; we remember …

Analysis Of Student’S Critical Thinking Skills In Science Learning : A Gender-Based Analysis, Evi Elisanti, Larassati Larassati

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

The lack of studies on the development of critical thinking skills based on students' gender and the limited thinking processes demonstrated by male and female students in science classes. The purpose of this study is to analyze students' critical thinking skills in science learning: a gender-based analysis. The research sample subjects were 4th grade 107 class V students in one of the public elementary schools in the city of Surakarta. This type of research used descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to analyze the data. The novelty of this study broadens the perspective that gender differences are not a matter of …

From Many Green New Deals To The New Green Scam, Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

This preliminary critical analysis explores the decisive shift in U.S. environmental policy from the Biden Administration, which still honored the mythic might of FDR’s 1930s New Deal, to the rapid implementation of a President Trump's MAGA ("Make America Great Again") approaches to environmental conservation and protection policy. The Biden Administration’s and the Democratic Party also entertained “Green New Deal” measures despite their often misunderstood connections to statist class compromises and corporatist legitimation dynamics that alienated many conservatives and the GOP, as exemplified by the Project 2025 program from the Heritage Foundation behind the Second Trump administration.  As a mix of …

A Culturally Responsive Campus Learning Community: Stories About Professional And Personal Growth, Maria I. Iturbide, Amy E. Sprowles, Kimberly Vincent-Layton, Seth Bradley, Steven T. Margell

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Although collegiate enrollment for students of diverse identities has steadily increased over the last five decades, their college graduation rates have not increased proportionally. Culturally responsive educational environments allow students to leverage their cultural wealth to achieve their academic aspirations. To create a culturally responsive campus culture, educators’ pedagogy must value culture in thinking, feeling, learning, and the communication of ideas. This article explores the ability of a professional learning community approach to cultivate in educator participants the personal and professional shifts required to create a culturally responsive educational environment. We analyzed qualitative data from 10 open-ended questions through an …

Should I Supersede Or Should I Go: Individual Protection And Private Company Interests In Implementing A Federal Biometric Privacy Law, Jessica Oshanani

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Section I of this Note will define and discuss biometrics. Section II will discuss key biometrics legislation and Section III will explain the impact of BIPA on other state biometric privacy laws.

Next, Section IV will explain the impact of biometric privacy violations and separate controlling state laws on individuals, while Section V will explain the impact of biometric data laws on private companies.

Section VI will identify potential federal laws on the horizon, then Section VII will explain the concept and application of preemption.

Finally, Section VIII will discuss the benefits of administrative agency overview, and Section IX …

Improving Approach Of Evolutionary Strategies For Clustering Technique Enhancement, Duaa Mahde Saleh, Hasanen S. Abdullah, Ahmad Zamsuri

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

The existence of the information has been the essential aspect of the whole society. Information is concentrated in all forms to be effectively utilized. Clustering — an unsupervised learning technique. It is based on data similarity that gives rise to issues in collection, challenges and instability in data structure. It proposes an advanced evolutionary method by combining two approaches. Firstly, it adopts the evolutionary approach and integrates the advantages between two methods to design one. Among them are Differential Evolution (DE) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), Evolutionary Strategy (ES) and Genetic Programming (GP), and Evolutionary Programming (EP) and Particle Swarm Optimization …

Comparative Study On Throughput Optimization In Nfv: Traditional Dissemination Techniques Vs. Swarm Intelligence Approaches, Sanaa Salih Alwan, Asia Ali Salman, Wulfrano Arturo Luna Ramírez

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) modernizes networks by replacing hardware with software, creating a more flexible network architecture and offering flexibility in dynamic network environments. This foundational technology is essential for creating the networks of the future, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and cellular services. NFV does provide flexibility, but it struggles to maintain system throughput during high traffic loads while achieving high resource utilization efficiency and dynamic packet routing. The problem lies in the fact that traditional request distribution mechanisms, such as flooding and gossip, fail to operate efficiently in complex network topologies (scale-free networks), leading to: (a) random …

Comparative Analysis Of Random Forest And Artificial Neural Networks For Predicting In-Situ Soil Density, Eng. Jinan Ali Abd Al-Kareem Al-Maliki, Dr Ammar Salman Dawood, Dr. Ihsan Al-Abboodi

HBRC Journal

This study suggests that RF and ANN are proven to be robust algorithms in predicting in-situ soil density, which is considered a significant geotechnical parameter. The research is based on 86 soil samples and focuses on five main input parameters: Gravel Percentage (G%), Plastic Limit (PL%), Sand Percentage (S%), Fines Percentage (F%), and Liquid Limit (LL%). The models developed here utilize five commonly recorded index properties (G%, S%, F%, LL, and PL) for all field samples taken from the Basra-Faw Road project. The influence of moisture content and compressive energy was ignored, as all field samples acquired the same moisture …

Influence Of Smoking On Mlh1 Gene Polymorphism: Insights Into Colorectal Cancer Incidence, Ali Mohammed Al-Abedi, Rand Muhammed Abdul-Hussein Al-Husseini

Al-Bahir

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The MutL Homolog 1 (MLH1) gene plays a critical role in DNA mismatch repair (MMR). Evidence suggests cigarette smoking increases CRC risk, potentially interacting with genetic factors.

Materials and Methods: This case-control study involved 50 Iraqi CRC patients and 50 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The PCR-RFLP technique was employed for genotyping the -93G/A (rs1800734) polymorphism. Statistical analysis included Chi-square, Fisher's Exact Test, and logistic regression adjusted for confounders. Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) was assessed in controls.

Results: The frequency of the rs1800734 variant was significantly higher in CRC …

Dual-Action Antibacterial Agents Targeting Biofilm Reduction And Membrane Disruption In Staphylococcus Aureus, Rahmat Folashade Zakariyah, Waliyullahi Akorede Husain, Elohor Precious Samuel, Wonder Olanipekun Oloruntoba, Fatmah Opeyemi Saka, Khalid Ayinde Oyelami, Mariam Temitope Baker

Al-Bahir

Antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus aureus is a serious global health problem as the organism rapidly develops resistance against widely used antibiotics. This study sought to investigate the antibacterial and antibiofilm properties of γ-Tocopherol, a natural compound from Ocimum gratissimum, as well as its synergism with 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) against S. aureus. The antibacterial activities and minimum inhibitory concentrations of the compounds were determined using agar diffusion and microbroth dilution methods, respectively. Biofilm reduction was evaluated using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) assay and membrane integrity was evaluated using the crystal violet microtiter plate assay and the ion leakage assay. The results …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Green-Method-Prepared Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles On Gene Expression Of Efflux Pumps In Klebsiella Pneumoniae Bacteria Isolated From Women With Gestational Diabetes, Wissam Qadry Mutaab, Rana J. Shaker

Al-Bahir

Vaginitis is one of the most common women's health problems, and its severity increases in pregnant women with gestational diabetes due to higher susceptibility to infection and increased rates of antibiotic resistance. The research problem: The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and its association with AcrAB-TolC ejaculation pumps limits treatment efficacy, while the effect of green-method nanoparticles on gene expression of these pumps remains unclear. This paper aimed to detect the acrA and acrB genes in K. pneumoniae isolates and evaluate the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles prepared with garlic and rosemary extracts on their gene expression. …

Investigating The Optical Qualities Of Aluminum Nanoparticles With Nd:Yag Pulsed Laser Ablation In Liquid Technology, Ban A. Bader, Muna Y. Slewa, Zaid T. Aldabbagh

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

This research investigated the preparation of aluminum nanoparticles using pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL). Ablation was performed on a metallic target in distilled water using a 532 nm Nd:YAG laser at different laser energies (400, 600, and 800 mJ) with a repetition frequency of 1 Hz and 300 pulses. A change in the solution's color is one of the first indicators of nanoparticle formation. We observed a change in the color of the deionized distilled water from light white to dark white, suggesting the production of aluminum nanoparticles. Furthermore, UV-VIS measurements showed an increase in the material concentration with …

The Operating System Of Resonance: A Blueprint For Cymatic Fluid Computing, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This document outlines the architecture for an analog, wave-based computing system that replaces binary silicon transistors with acoustic metamaterials and fluidic logic gates. The system processing loop operates via three distinct musical phases: The Chord (multi-frequency input tokenization), The Key (geometric context routing), and The Cadence (harmonic resolution and optical wave-collapse reading). By mapping semantic data directly onto physical sine wave interference patterns inside a vibrating silicone oil medium, this design introduces a zero-friction, hallucination-immune computational matrix buildable on a hobbyist garage budget.

The Elemental Transmutation Replicator: A Decentralized Blueprint For Closed-Loop Biometric Molecular Synthesis, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This white paper introduces a decentralized, zero-agriculture appliance architecture designed to synthesize tailored human nutrition directly from elemental feeds, ambient water vapor, and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). The Elemental Transmutation Replicator (ETR) bypasses traditional biological growth cycles by utilizing an ultra-vacuum Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) chamber coupled with a Piezoelectric Acoustic Layering Matrix (PALM) to assemble pure amino acids, medium-chain triglycerides, and essential micro-nutrients atom-by-atom. System inputs are dynamically calibrated in real time via an integrated multi-spectral optical and dermal biometric scanning array. This paper details the structural architecture, the 5-stage synthesis loop, and the thermodynamic solutions required to overcome …

Book Review - Violent Impacts: How Power And Inequality Shape The Concussion Crisis, Samuel M. Clevenger

Global Sport Business Journal

Kathryn Henne and Matt Ventresca’s Violent Impacts critically examines how narratives surrounding CTE, TBI, and the concussion crisis are constructed across sport, the military, law, media, and science. Drawing on intersectional feminism and science and technology studies, the authors show how dominant concussion discourses privilege the experiences of White male athletes while marginalizing other groups. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book makes an important contribution by exposing representational inequalities and highlighting the intersectional gender politics of concussion research and public debate.

A Rho5-Cnc1-Dnm1 Signalling Module Coordinates Multi-Organelle Execution Of Regulated Cell Death In Yeast, Justin Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

Regulated cell death is a conserved process with major implications for health and disease, yet how yeast cells integrate stress signals to determine survival versus death remains unclear. This thesis investigates Cyclin C (Cnc1), a conserved Mediator kinase module component with both transcriptional and mitochondrial roles. Together with Cdk8 Cnc1 primarily represses stress response genes, while upon stress it translocates to the mitochondria to induce mitochondrial fragmentation with the dynamin-related GTPase Dnm1. Using structure-guided separation-of-function mutants, I demonstrate that Cnc1-dependent death requires its mitochondrial function rather than its transcriptional role, and that its effector Dnm1 acts as a signaling node …

Anatomy And Function Of Vasopressin Receptor 1a-Expressing Neurons In The Limbic Thalamus, David Joseph Kahn

Theses and Dissertations

The vasopressin (Avp) system modulates social behavior through region-specific and sex-dependent mechanisms, yet the role of Avp receptor 1a (Avpr1a) signaling in the thalamus has remained largely unexplored. This dissertation examined the distribution and functional contributions of Avpr1a-expressing neurons across the mouse thalamus using a combination of genetic labeling, anatomical quantification, and chemogenetic manipulation. Mapping of Avpr1a-expressing neurons revealed a presence in most thalamic nuclei, with highest densities in the anterior thalamic nuclei and midline nuclei. Notably, Avpr1a-expressing neuron densities did not mirror previously described patterns of Avp innervation, and no sex differences in Avpr1a-expressing neuron density were observed. Chemogenetic …