Digital Commons Network^™

Sociological Dichotomies Of Mława, Poland, Over Time: Misplaced Concreteness, Individual Triumph, Social Tragedy, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

For many years, I have been an active member of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations and Editor-in-Chief of its journal, the Comparative Civilizations Review. Since the 1960s, I have also been a university administrator and a professor, globe-trotting to learn about societies near and far, their rises and falls. Yet even though I lived and worked in Prague, as president of a university, not far from the Polish border, I had never set foot in that country, notwithstanding that my paternal grandfather came from there.

Pt 523.01: Clinical Medicine I, Sarah A. Menhennett

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Waste By-Products In Asphalt Concrete Pavement Construction: A Review, Nuha S. Mashaan, Daniel O. Oguntayo, Chathurika Dassanayake

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The use of mining by-products in bitumen and asphalt mixture modification has drawn a lot of interest lately since it can improve pavement performance while advancing the goals of the circular economy and environmental sustainability. Mining by-products such as steel slag, red mud, silica fume, and fly ash have demonstrated good results as sustainable materials for improving the chemical, mechanical, durability, and rheological properties of asphalt binders and mixtures while also reducing the environmental degradation brought about by the disposal of these by-products. This study reviews research efforts on mining by-products (specifically steel slag, silica fume, red mud, and fly …

The Return Of Chinese Emigrants: Legal Barriers And Local Practices, Jiaqi M. Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

While China has observed an increasing influx of foreign nationals, a notable phenomenon involves Chinese emigrants opting for return migration to reestablish themselves in their country of origin. The process of emigrants returning to China, referred to as “return and resettlement” (huiguo dingju 回国定居) in official terminology, however, is not automatic. Emigrant returnees must fulfill a set of selective and documentary criteria, implying that only economically affluent and duly documented migrants are permitted to resettle in China. Through a comprehensive review of national policies and an analysis of local practices in a diaspora hometown, this chapter argues that the hukou …

Bibliometric Analysis Of Tour Guide Performance: Trends, Influential Publications, And Emerging Research Themes, Aybuke Ozsoy, Nese Yilmaz

Journal of Global Business Insights

The quality of tours is significantly influenced by tour guides’ communication skills, regional knowledge, and storytelling abilities. Guide effectiveness depends on factors such as training, skill development, and professionalism in guest care. Given their pivotal role in shaping tour quality and experiences, the literature consistently highlights these effects. The present study aims to make a comprehensive contribution to the existing knowledge in the field by analyzing the academic literature on the performance of tour guides using bibliometric methods. Analysis reveals that the most cited publications on tour guide performance are found in tourism and management journals, such as Tourism Management. …

The Relationship Between Cognitive Status And Personality In Persons With And Without Dementia: Age And Gender Influences, Molly Berg

Theses and Dissertations

Within the aging population, dementia, a neurodegenerative disease that greatly impairs cognition and daily functioning, has become more prevalent and a worldwide concern. An important aspect of detection of dementia is assessment of cognition, including use of cognitive screening instruments. Assessing factors that influence cognition and dementia, such as age and gender differences, is an important line of research. Personality has also demonstrated a relationship to dementia risk and performance across several cognitive domains. This study examined the influences of age and gender on the association between cognition and personality in individuals with and without dementia. Data was collected from …

Joinder, Not Jurisdiction: Toward A New Theory Of Standing, Adam N. Steinman

Faculty Scholarship

This Article builds on an important development in the Supreme Court’s standing jurisprudence to propose a novel theory that would allow more meaningful access to federal courts while vindicating legitimate separation-of-powers concerns. In its recent decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, the Supreme Court endorsed a theory of standing based on Article II, writing that litigation between private parties—even when explicitly authorized by Congress—can run afoul of the executive branch’s interest in “how to prioritize and how aggressively to pursue legal actions against defendants who violate the law.” This Article II move has been justifiably criticized. But it is …

Stakeholder Views On Lessons Learned For The Antimicrobial Resistance Panel From Previous International Science Panels [Version 1], Iruka N. Okeke, Ayodele A. Akinyele, Javier Guzman, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

The United Nations General Assembly called in September 2024 for the establishment of an independent panel for actionable evidence against antimicrobial resistance (IPEA). The task of designing the panel was given to the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat (QJS) on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) with a delivery timeline of 15 months. To promote stakeholder thought and input around what this panel should look like and how it should work, which could feed into the QJS’s consultation process, we independently commissioned seven papers to examine lessons that could be learned from other high-level scientific panels. We then called a convening of stakeholders that were …

Amicus In Trump V. Cook: The Fed, Offices As Property, And The Meaning Of “Cause”, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Reserve Act states that “each member shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President.” 12 U.S.C. § 242. Based on the historical record, when Congress creates an office with a fixed term of years and protects against removal without “cause,” Congress has both granted “a constitutionally protected property interest” under the Fifth Amendment (that cannot be taken away without “due process”) and extended a statutory entitlement to receive fair notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond before any removal may …

Organizing For Abolition In Ice Custody, Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes

Faculty Scholarship

The final Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) detainees were released from the Irwin County Detention Center in early September 2021.² A court did not order the end of ICE detention at Irwin. A social movement, led by people detained at Irwin, had a pronounced impact on the epistemological landscape and changed both normative principles and public opinion.³ Those detained at Irwin organized and acted to create new understanding of law and protect their rights in ways that courts and legislatures could not. This Essay tells the story of that demosprudential project; a dialectic between legal elites and people …

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Chelsea, Phillip Granberry, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Established in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitute

Beech Bark Disease Agent Responses To Exogenous Application Of Tree Defense Inducing Phytohormones, Erin Reilly

Master's Theses and Capstones

Pathogens and insects face several barriers to successful infection and colonization of a host plant, including a range of physical and chemical defenses, some of which are inducible (modified or initiated by attack or infection). These interactions can be complex and are influenced by environmental conditions, tree physiological status, host age, and timing of attack. Non-native pathogens and insects can have an advantage against a plant’s evolved chemical defenses, but they are also subject to abiotic stressors and conditions. In North America, beech bark disease (BBD) is a disease complex where the beech (Fagus grandifolia) host is subject to concurrent …

Stand-In Standing, Matthew I. Hall

Scholarly Works

When the interests of a state, or of the federal government, are at issue in a lawsuit, those interests are typically represented by the Executive branch. But not always: The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states, and the federal government, may delegate their claims to non-governmental litigants in some circumstances. But the Court has never defined the exact boundaries of when stand-in standing is permitted. And states have recently begun to exploit this doctrinal uncertainty, by enacting laws that are arguably, and in some cases flagrantly, unconstitutional, but outsourcing the enforcement of those laws to private individuals. The avowed …

A Dynamic Hierarchical Attention Framework For Multimodal Malware Detection, Tamanna Nazmin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing use of Android in the worldwide mobile ecosystem has come along with a significant increase in advanced malware, highlighting the critical necessity for efficient, scalable, and adaptable detection systems. Despite recent advancements in machine learning improving malware detection, the majority of current solutions are limited to one, two, or three data modalities, hence neglecting the comprehensive behavioral spectrum of contemporary multi-vector threats. This thesis presents the first comprehensive multimodal framework for Android malware detection, which combines textual, time-series (temporal), graph-based (structural), and visual information using an innovative hierarchical attention mechanism and Dynamic Fusion Controller(DFC). Our methodology consistently classifies …

Leviathans And Liberation: Did Whaling Contribute To The Decline Of Slavery?, Topher L. Mcdougal, Austin Choi‐Fitzpatrick

School of Peace Studies: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Identification Of Metabolic Pathways And Hub Genes Associated With Ultrasound Subcutaneous Fat And Muscle Depth Of The Longissimus Muscle In Cull Beef Cows Using Gene Co-Expression Analysis, Harshraj Shinde, Kyle R. Mcleod, Jeffrey W. Lehmkuhler

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Beef production is an important component of the world’s food supply, with production being near 59 million tons in 2023 (USDA, 2023). Enhancing our understanding of the factors influencing metabolism will lead to improvements in production efficiency. Using RNA-seq and WGCNA of longissimus muscle samples, gene expression and metabolic pathway analyses were performed to examine relationships with ultrasound and body mass variables. In this study, body weight (BW), ultrasound back fat (BF), ultrasound muscle depth (MD), and body condition score (BCS) were traits recorded for 18 cull beef cows. As expected, all production-related traits monitored (WT, BF, MD, and BCS) …

Durability, Mechanical, And Corrosion Characteristics Of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Utilizing Locally Sourced Waste And Ultrafine Cerium Oxide, Ansam Hashim, Rana Anaee, Mohammed Nasr

Journal of Applied Sciences and Nanotechnology

This study seeks to identify an environmentally sustainable method for utilizing the synergetic effects of window glass (WG), ceramic powder (CP), and ultrafine cerium oxide (UFC) in developing concrete containing 25% coarse ceramic aggregate. Four different mixtures were formulated. The first represents control, consisting of 100% ordinary Portland cement (OPC), two other mixtures were composed of 10% WG, 10% CP and 80% OPC, and the fourth mixture consisted of four compositions of 79.5% OPC, 10% WG, 10% CP, and 0.5% UFC. The effect of these additives on recycled ceramic concrete (RA) properties, including workability and setting time, compressive strength, total …

Lit 391.01: 20th-Century American Women Writers: Space And Place At The Border Lands, Ann E. Emmons

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Lit 391.02: War And Peace In Ireland, Eric J. Reimer

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Writ 201.01: College Writing Ii - The Art Of The Essay, Jolie B. Smith

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Examining The Impact Of Area Deprivation On Endovascular Stroke Therapy Access, Joseph N Samaha, Ngoc Mai Le, Emmanuel C Ebirim, Rania Abdelkhaleq, Sergio A Salazar Marioni, Muhammad Bilal Tariq, Ananya Iyyangar, Anjan Nagesh, Hussain Azeem, Arash Niktabe, Sunil A Sheth

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Equitable access to health care is heavily affected by socioeconomic factors. However, the effects of such disparities in accessing life-saving treatments remain incompletely characterized. Here we explore the impact of disparities on access to endovascular treatments for large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke.

Methods: From our prospectively maintained multihospital registry, we identified patients with large vessel occlusion acute ischemic stroke from January 2019-June 2020. Patient addresses and zip codes were matched to census-tract level area deprivation index (ADI) scores that were obtained from Neighborhood Atlas. ADI is a validated neighborhood-level measure that uses variables such as income, education, and …

Restorationland: The Lost And Found Objects Of Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

The Doll’s Head Trail is a grassroots, low-art installation nestled within a Southeast Atlanta wildlife preserve. Constructed by volunteers and visitors from decades of environmental debris, the trail converts waste into folk art-inspired “junk” displays. The creative upcycling ranges from a miniscule shrine to “Toxic Masculinity” to a stark shoe pile commemorating child gun violence. This article details how queer theory’s “temporal turn” provides insights into material performance as collaborative regeneration. The curious vignettes playfully invert hierarchies, revealing the merits of small-time memorialization. Through these defiantly unofficial grassroot performances, the Doll’s Head Trail both remembers and restores community ruins, demonstrating …

Designing The Protocol For An Experimental Flight Simulation Study Encouraging Fuel Efficient Behavior, Thomas S. Reardon

Theses and Dissertations

This study designed and tested an experimental instrument to examine how pilots respond to fuel efficiency feedback in a flight simulator. A standardized flight plan, script, and hardware setup were created using X-Plane 12 software and physical flight simulator hardware. The chosen sortie guided participants from Monterey Regional Airport to Moffett Federal Airfield using instrument flight rules (IFR). The flight script provided step-by-step guidance to ensure consistent behavior across participants. The simulator was mapped to match real cockpit controls and allowed for precise data collection including flight time, altitude, heading, and fuel use. The goal was to support a larger …

Implementing Lean Principles To Enhance Warehouse Operations At King Abdulaziz Air Base(Kaab): A Case Study Of Royal Saudi Air Force (Rsaf), Saleh A. Alghamdi

Theses and Dissertations

The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) relies on efficient logistics to sustain readiness. At King Abdulaziz Air Base, warehouse receiving inefficiencies caused delays and waste. This study used Lean principles and a six-month time–motion analysis, with Pareto and Fishbone tools, to identify 55% waste in dead pile and 75% in palletized shipments. Standard times of 5.98 and 6.55 minutes were set. Key recommendations include SOPs, cross-training, forklift certification, layout redesign, and RFID. Lean adoption could save 100+ labor hours and $4,000 annually, improving safety, accuracy, and mission readiness.

A Review Of The United States' Long Term War Support Capabilities In The Indo-Pacific Command Region, Brian J. Mullin Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines U.S. maritime transportation readiness in the Indo-Pacific, highlighting fleet age, mariner shortages, shipyard decline, and port vulnerabilities. It also considers contested logistics and technological threats. Recommendations include fleet recapitalization, mariner pipeline growth, port diversification, and defensive upgrades. The study concludes that secure sea line assumptions are outdated and calls for greater resilience, with follow-on efficiency analysis proposed for ports and ships.

The Mercy Seat Of The Risen Christ: Atonement And The Glory Of God In Romans 3:21-26, David Westfall

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Scholarship on Romans 3.21–26 typically isolates the death of Jesus on the cross as the moment when Paul says the righteousness of God was disclosed, leading to the justification of all who believe the gospel. In this paper I argue that, although the death of Christ relates in important ways to Paul’s claims in the paragraph, this reading does not fully account for his metaphorical description of Christ as a ‘mercy seat’ (ἱλαστήριον), nor his assertion that those who believe are ‘justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’. I show that Paul uses this language and imagery to …

September 2025 Library News, University Libraries

Library News

No abstract provided.

Blockchain-Based Accountability: A Systematic Literature Review, Nabeel Z. Tawfeeq, Dujan B. Taha

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

The Blockchain algorithm has advanced the accountability and transparency of modern digital infrastructures. Enforcing responsible behavior and data integrity across distributed environments involves several key components, such as smart contracts, access control models, cryptographic techniques, and a decentralized identity framework. Because the blockchain ledger is immutable and transparent, once a transaction is recorded, it cannot be altered without detection, making fraudulent actions easily traceable and thereby ensuring accountability. However, the need for hybrid approaches that combine on-chain and off-chain solutions for an efficient reliability system introduces challenges, including privacy preservation, scalability, and regulatory compliance. This paper analyzes the effective features …

Improvement Of The Face Recognition Systems Security Against Morph Attacks Using The Developed Siamese Neural Network, Sura Abed Sarab Hussien, Thair Abed Sarab Hussien, Nada Hussein M. Ali

Mesopotamian Journal of CyberSecurity

Face Recognition Systems (FRS) are increasingly targeted by morphing attacks, where facial features of multiple individuals are blended into a synthetic image to deceive biometric verification. This paper proposes an enhanced Siamese Neural Network (SNN)-based system for robust morph detection. The methodology involves four stages. First, a dataset of real and morphed images is generated using StyleGAN, producing high-quality facial images. Second, facial regions are extracted using Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks (R-CNN) to isolate relevant features and eliminate background noise. Third, a Local Binary Pattern-Convolutional Neural Network (LBP-CNN) is used to build a baseline FRS and assess its susceptibility …

Ev Battery Next Lives, Asma Aziz, Bassam Al-Hanahi, Daryoush Habibi, Iftekhar Ahmad

Other Reports

As the demand for lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries grows, ensuring the availability of raw materials and addressing the environmental and social impacts of battery production and disposal have become vital concerns. Business models that give batteries a second life – through reuse, repurposing and recycling – can substantially reduce material needs and environmental effects. Over time, these practices may also unlock new domestic value streams, create job opportunities and reduce battery costs. This project is a comprehensive analysis of the end-of-life (EOL) electric vehicle (EV) battery landscape, focusing on circular economy principles and market valuation. It also examines the supply chain …