Digital Commons Network^™

Arctic Law: Even More Sustainable? Roles Of The Us And Eu, Joseph F.C. Dimento, Jessica L. Pierucci

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Traditional Homeschooling To Pods: Evolving Legal Frameworks, Kaleb Miller

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Identifiable To Whom? Clarifying Biometric Privacy Rights In Illinois And Beyond, Hana Ferrero

University of Chicago Law Review

Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is the country’s most powerful law governing biometric data—data generated from an individual’s biological characteristics, like fingerprints and voiceprints. Over the past decade, BIPA garnered a reputation as an exceptionally plaintiff-friendly statute. But from 2023 to 2024, the Illinois legislature, Illinois Supreme Court, and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals all sided with BIPA defendants, largely for the first time. Most significantly, in Zellmer v. Meta Platforms, Inc., the Ninth Circuit dismissed the plaintiff’s BIPA claim because the face scan collected by the defendant could not be used to identify him.

It is unclear whether …

Policing In The Age Of Criminal Records, Eisha Jain

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Making Of A Juvenile Record: The Insidious Consequences Of Criminalizing Race, Adolescence, Disability, And Trauma, Kristin N. Henning, Rebba D. Omer

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Desegregating Criminal Codes, Root And Branch: The Duty Not To Enforce Unconstitutional Laws, Gabriel J. Chin

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reimagining School Leadership: Latinx Administrators Leveraging Community Cultural Wealth To Support Latinx Student Success: A Qualitative Study In East San Jose Grounded In Counter-Storytelling, Critical Race Theory, And Latino Critical Theory, Alexis Corona Pimentel

Social Justice in Educational Leadership EdD Dissertations

This qualitative study examines how Latina administrators in East San Jose leverage their Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) to support Latinx student success in K-12 education. Although Latinx students comprise the largest racial/ethnic group in California public schools (California Department of Education, 2021), Latinx leaders remain significantly underrepresented in educational leadership. Guided by Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) (Solórzano & Bernal, 2001), and Yosso’s (2005) framework of Community Cultural Wealth, this study centers the counter-stories of three Latina administrators to explore how their cultural identities, lived experiences, and relational practices inform leadership.

Data …

Navigating Con Ganas: How Latina Leaders Transform Leadership Through Values Within The California Community College System, Vianey Topete

Social Justice in Educational Leadership EdD Dissertations

Despite Latine students comprising 48% of California Community College (CCC) enrollment, only 20% of CCC senior leadership is Latine, with the specific percentage of Latinas remaining unknown (Community College League of California, 2024; EdSource, 2024; Gonzalez, 2023). This disparity reflects broader patterns, as Latinas nationwide hold less than 1% of senior administrative roles in higher education institutions (Eiden-Dillow & Best, 2022), underscoring the importance of examining this underrepresented group. This qualitative study examined how Latina leaders navigate and transform leadership spaces within the CCC system through their decision-making processes. Using testimonio methodology grounded in Critical Consciousness, Chicana Feminist Epistemology, and …

Thailand V. Katanyu Muenkhamruang “Pan”, Andrew Khoo, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

The criminal proceedings against Ms. Katanyu Muenkhamruang (“Pan”), a 27-year-old Thai student and pro-democracy activist, violated international fair trial standards and Thailand’s human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Pan was convicted under Thailand’s sedition law and the Computer-Related Crimes Act for Facebook posts promoting peaceful anti-government protests in 2021. The trial revealed numerous due process violations, including violation of the presumption of innocence, reliance on unsubstantiated claims, and a lack of reasoned judgment. Despite the absence of direct evidence linking Pan to the alleged posts, the court inferred guilt, and arbitrarily disregarded exculpatory …

Exploring Early Childhood Development Programming In Kenya’S Arid And Semi-Arid Lands, Phyllis Magoma, Amina Abubakar, Martha Kaniala, Barack Aoko, Moses Wesala, Joyce Marangu, Susan Nyamanya, Margaret Kabue, Anil Khamis, Esther Chongwo

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background: Promoting high-quality early childhood development (ECD) is vital for individuals’ physical and social well-being and yields significant societal returns. However, children in marginalised regions like Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) face significant barriers to accessing quality ECD services.

Aim: This study aimed to document existing ECD services in Kenya’s ASAL areas, including their availability, types and key characteristics; identify gaps in their provision and propose solutions to enhance access and quality. Setting: This qualitative study was conducted in 10 ASAL counties in Kenya.

Methods: Using purposive and snowball sampling techniques, 103 key informants, including pre-primary …

Dreamvisions+: Virtualizing Medieval Poetics In Multimedia Performance, Mac Waters

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

DreamVisions+ is a transdigital and transhistorical odyssey into the realm of fiction and truth, reality and virtuality. Rooted in the tradition of late medieval dream-vision poems—wherein religious or political allegories unfold through dreaming protagonists—DreamVisions+ stages a multimedia dream vision of the digital age, reading medieval dream visions as proto–virtual reality. Through the creation and analysis of DreamVisions+, a full-length solo multimedia performance, I synthesize live electroacoustic music, XR technologies, and 3D game environments with medieval textual and visual iconography to construct a porous, unstable dream world that collapses medieval and digital imaginaries.

Situating my work within broader political …

A Bad Apple: Supreme Court Of Georgia Delivers Loss To Educators Holding It Is Constitutional For Tenured Georgia Educators To Lose Tenure When Public Schools Convert To Charter Schools, Brantley B. Swindell

Mercer Law Review

The Supreme Court of Georgia dealt a major blow to educators in existing charter school systems with tenure rights earned under the Fair Dismissal Act (FDA) after 1993. The court’s decision in Woods v. Barnes meant a big win for existing charter school systems and public school systems that intend to convert to charter systems. In Woods, a public school teacher and the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) sought enforcement of tenure rights afforded by the Fair Dismissal Act in a charter school system that was previously a public school system. These rights included notice of the reasons for …

Being Independent Together: Georgia Adopts Eleventh Circuit’S Two-Step Analysis In Cases Involving The Independent Source Doctrine, Madison Shaw

Mercer Law Review

The exclusionary rule is a judicially created sanction applied by the Supreme Court of the United States to effectuate the intent of the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment. This rule aims to deter police misconduct by presenting a sanction barring the prosecution from presenting evidence obtained through a Fourth Amendment violation. Despite this honorable intention, however, the rule’s exceptions have arguably eroded the protections it seeks to provide. One such exception is the independent source doctrine. Tatum v. State is one of the most recent decisions by the Supreme Court of Georgia in which the court considered applying this …

Personifying The Goddess: Contrasting Representation Of The Deified Body In Feminist Art, Kelly Lorraine Phillips

Theses

Goddess imagery, the representation of a female deity or a concept of divine feminine power through various forms, symbols, and narratives, has been used by artists to communicate a multitude of sentiments, from spiritual reverence to political ideology. This study probes the evolution of representations of the deified female body from the 1970s to the current era to reveal contrasts in how these icons of female power have transformed over time. The artwork of second-wave feminist and self-identified “Goddess artist” Mary Beth Edelson is examined as a foundation for second-wave Goddess sentiment. Edelson’s collage work, which incorporates figures from a …

Placemaking And Belonging In Brooklyn: Bushwick City Farms, Marisa Cigliano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the spring of 2022, New York City has seen an increased rate of newly-arrived migrants from countries in Latin and Central America, Asia, and Africa. In accordance with the city’s “right to shelter” obligation, NYC has provided shelter for migrants by converting hotels, office buildings, and even tents, into make-shift lodging designed for temporary stay. Within a year, anti-immigrant rhetoric from Mayor Eric Adams sparked activism from both immigrant rights organizations and long-term residents who don’t want migrant shelters in their neighborhoods. These shelters lack the necessary food, privacy, social services, and structure that is owed to homeless residents …

A Symbol For The Masses: Sergei Chakhotin And The Modern Crisis Of Propaganda, Benjamin J. Diehl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an intellectual biography of Sergei Chakhotin, a Russian biologist whose most famous work, The Rape of the Masses (1939), represented an insightful, pioneering analysis of modern propaganda as it arose during Europe’s “Age of Catastrophe” (1914-1945). In this work and others, Chakhotin used the psychological theories of Ivan Pavlov to develop a system of thought that emphasized the scientific possibilities and political inevitability of mass conditioning through propaganda. In addition to Pavlov’s theory, Chakhotin also used other intellectual frameworks, such as Taylorism and microbiology, to buttress his own firsthand experience during World War I, the Russian Revolution, …

Localization Of Music In Perceived Motion In Cochlear Implant Users, Madeleine Beyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Spatial perception contributes to music perception and enjoyment, yet it remains understudied in cochlear implant (CI) users. Spatial effects in music are often achieved through panning, a tool which redistributes an audio signal level between or among several outputs, creating a perceived sound localization. CI users typically perform worse than normal hearing (NH) listeners on tasks of horizontal localization and music perception when manipulating the actual location of the sound. However, despite the common use of panning in daily use and consumption of music, no previous studies were conducted to examine how panning impacts the listening experience for CI users. …

Path Dependency And The Politics Of U.S. Health Reform, Sophia Spadafore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the impact of path dependency on health reform efforts in the United States, specifically analyzing how past policy decisions constrain subsequent reform possibilities. Utilizing the theoretical framework of historical institutionalism, the study investigates two significant cases—the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 and the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010—to illustrate how successful healthcare reforms embed institutional arrangements that limit future policy innovation. Through a comparative case study approach grounded in legislative records, historical texts, and scholarly analyses, the research highlights that major healthcare reforms in the U.S. have consistently been structured …

Issues Of Religious Dominance: The Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif And The Western Wall At The Center Of Islam, Judaism, And Failing British Mandatory Responses (1917-1931), Kyra Young

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper explores how religious space and symbolism became central to Arab and Jewish nationalist identities in Mandatory Palestine, focusing on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif and the Western Wall during the transition from Ottoman to British rule. It argues that the collapse of Ottoman sovereignty, alongside British support for a Jewish national home, transformed Islamic institutions into arenas for political expression. Muslim notables, particularly the Husayni family, strategically engaged with British colonial notions of “tradition” to reassert influence, exemplified by the politicization of the Nebi Musa festival. At the same time, Zionism—both political secular and religious—began to attach renewed …

Nebraska's Lgbtqia2s+ Laws And Politicians Timeline, Claire Du Laney Dunker, Haleigh Diltz

Pride and Joy: Nebraska History

Note: This is a zine.

The legal system in the United States has a long history of discrimination towards the LGBTQIA2S+ community. This was no different in Nebraska. Beginning in the seventies and continuing today, people have been advocating for protections for the LGBTQ+ community and electing representatives of the community to office.

While there have been setbacks, there has also been considerable progress in these goals. This timeline is by no means a comprehensive list of the policies, people, and officials that impacted the LGBTQ+ community in Nebraska.

Pride And Joy: Nebraska History (Banners), Claire Du Laney Dunker, Haleigh Diltz

Pride and Joy: Nebraska History

Banners for the "Pride and Joy: Nebraska History" exhibit that explores the history of LGBTQIA2S+ communities throughout the state of Nebraska. LGBTQ+ individual and community histories are an important part of Nebraska and the nation. This traveling exhibit seeks to share evidence of community gatherings, activism, publications, organizations, and other important topics.

This history is more complex than can be expressed in a single exhibit. Communities continue to experience joy and sorrow, community engagement and turmoil, resilience and discrimination. This is not an exhaustive LGBTQIA2S+ history. At this time, no one has written that comprehensive history. There are more stories …

Quantifying Return On Controls In Llm Cybersecurity, Richard Helder Moulton

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

As large language models are increasingly deployed in real world systems, concerns about their security have grown. While these models demonstrate impressive fluency and utility, they are also susceptible to a variety of attacks, including prompt injection, data leakage, and adversarial manipulation. These vulnerabilities pose serious risks in high stakes environments where privacy, reliability, and trust are essential. Despite emerging efforts to document and mitigate such issues, a gap remains in the ability to systematically measure the effectiveness of proposed defenses in a quantifiable and reproducible manner.

This research addresses the question: how can security vulnerabilities in language model based …

Assessment Of Autonomic Nervous System Functions In Patients With Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy: An Electrodiagnostic Study, Raghda Nidal Hathal, Farqad Bader Hamdan, Akram M. Al-Mahdawi

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

Background and Objective: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a chronic immune-mediated neuropathy predominantly affecting the peripheral nervous system including the nerve roots. The objectives of this study were to assess autonomic dysfunction in patients with CIDP using electrodiagnostic techniques and to examine its relationship with clinical and demographic characteristics, COMPASS-31 scores, and the Hughes disability scale.

Methods: This case–control observational study included 25 patients with CIDP and 26 age- and sex-matched healthy controls and was conducted at the Neurophysiology Unit of Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Baghdad from February to November, 2024. All participants underwent autonomic function assessment, including Ewing’s cardiovascular …

Retraction Notice, Editor Pjns

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Vicious Circle Of Education And Its Impact On Human Development In Iraq, Walaa Ibrahim Hussein, Lawrence Yahiya Saleh Al- Kubaisi

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

This research focuses on the complex relationship between education quality and human development in Iraq for 2005 to 2023, emphasizing how the poor conditions in education set in place a vicious circle restricting national progress. Utilizing both inductive and deductive realms, official data of the Ministries of Education and Planning were analyzed, along with comparative international experiences. Indicators analyzed include school density, student-teacher ratio, lack of infrastructure, and limitations of vocational training for primary, secondary, and vocational educational levels. The results show a constant mismatch between students' population growth and resource allocation to education, thus summarizing an overcrowded school environment, …

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Confédération Des Syndicats Nationaux: A Case Study On The Reconciliation Of Equality And Freedom Of Association, Andrea Talarico

Dalhousie Law Journal

The evolution of the protection of collective bargaining rights in Canada has been marked by a tension between freedom of association (section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “the Charter”) and equality (section 15(1) of the Charter). In most cases before the Supreme Court of Canada (“the SCC”), the SCC has examined both rights separately. More recently, the SCC has treated equality as a value (rather than a right), using the value of equality to inform its interpretation of freedom of association. Both these approaches (the “Siloed Approach” and the “Charter Values” approach) fail …

Don’T Mess With Mr. In-Between, Brian Langille, Ben Mayer-Goodman

Dalhousie Law Journal

In a separate, related paper, we reveal and criticize an important “methodical error” which is commonly made in labour law jurisprudence. In this paper, we undertake a review of the attempts by Canadian and UK legislators and decision makers to overcome some of the problems of applying labour law’s traditional orthodoxy in the face of an ever more complex world by creating new categories “in between” the existing classes of employees and independent contractors. These attempts often fail precisely because they perpetuate the traditional approach and its methodological error, maintaining its perverse incentive structures. Our advice: “Don’t mess with Mr. …

“17 Going On 23”: Sentencing Young People To Life In Canada, Debra Parkes

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canada is one of 67 countries worldwide that allows young people—those under the age of 18—to be sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness of young people as a constitutional principle of fundamental justice and invalidated a law that presumed youth should be sentenced as adults for some serious crimes, including murder. The burden is, therefore, always on the Crown to rebut the presumption and prove that a youth sentence would not be long enough to hold the young person accountable for their behaviour. Where the presumption can be …

Reference Correlations For The Density And Viscosity Of Molten Alkali And Alkaline Earth Fluoride Salts, A. Birri, R. Chesser, N. Termini, J. C. Numbers, Kevin Garland, M. A. Rose

Michigan Tech Publications

While there is a significant body of literature pertaining to thermophysical property measurements of molten salts, there is often a wide degree of variability among independent measurements of the same compounds. As such, the scientific community benefits greatly from an unbiased, independent assessment of duplicate datasets, so that reference correlations which describe these thermophysical properties as functions of temperature can be determined and then commonly used by researchers, scientists, and engineers. With regard to molten fluoride compounds, a significant time has elapsed since density and viscosity reference correlations have been determined; Janz conducted the most recent effort, in 1988, to …

Individual, Social, And Environmental Factors Associated With Patterns Of Parasitic Infection In Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Imitator), Megan C. Henriquez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Parasites, and the infectious diseases they carry, are thought to have significantly impacted our evolutionary trajectory for millennia. Exploring how parasites are acquired and transmitted by their hosts in wild, natural populations is integral to understanding how similar processes may have shaped host-parasite co-evolutionary relationships over time. However, parasitological studies in humans and in non-human primates have produced inconsistent results, highlighting the dynamic, nuanced, and unique relationships individual parasites have with their hosts. These relationships are largely regulated by variation in factors at host, social, and environmental levels. Characteristics unique to the host (e.g., age and sex), factors pertaining to …