Digital Commons Network^™

A Data-Driven Framework For Mitigating Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis: From Estimation To Risk-Adjusted Computer-Aided Diagnosis, William M. Brown Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) of cancer, standard cost metrics (false-positives and false-negatives) fundamentally fail to account for overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis is a critical scenario where a disease is correctly detected (true-positive) but is biologically indolent and would never have caused the patient harm or symptoms. While widely recognized in the medical community as a major healthcare crisis driving stressful and invasive overtreatment, overdiagnosis remains severely under-researched within computer science and engineering. This dissertation addresses this interdisciplinary gap by defining the three key computational challenges of overdiagnosis: (i) accurate estimation, (ii) harm quantification, and (iii) algorithmic mitigation. To overcome the estimation challenge, …

Postcolonial Cosmogram: Modern Interiority Of The Methodist Heritage Gallery In Sibu, Sarawak, Sanjeh Kumar Raman, Tong Jia Chian

Interiority

This study examines the conservation and transformation of the Ching Ang Methodist Church into the Methodist Heritage Gallery (MHG) in Sibu, Sarawak, highlighting its role in placemaking and identity construction within the Foochow-Methodist community. By exploring the interplay between colonial modernity, heritage interpretation, and ethno-religious provenance, the research situates MHG as a critical site of memory and cultural articulation. Using an interpretivist approach, this study employs building surveys, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis to investigate the architectural, social, and symbolic dimensions of the MHG. The findings reveal that the gallery's adaptive reuse not only preserves Methodist-Foochow heritage but also serves …

Improving The Fpga Radio Design Cycle: Implementing Dvb-S2 Modulation Using Verilator And Gnu Radio, Seth Pellegrino

Dissertations and Theses

In embedded digital radio systems, a central challenge is meeting the real-time throughput required to process the samples--especially for space-bound ultra-wideband SDRs which must handle more than 100 Gbps entirely onboard. An FPGA's programmable logic offers sufficient potential, but realizing a particular radio flow is a project usually fraught with defects and long turnaround times. We simulated Verilog modules in a custom harness that adapted a Verilated model to GNU Radio, which allowed for breaking down a complicated radio flow (here, DVB-S2 modulation) into a series of well-bounded problems each with clear criteria for success. The framework, built on open …

Analysis Of The Atypical Temperature Dependence And Conformational Changes During Turnover Of A Lactobacillus Chlorogenic Acid Esterase, Nathaniel Carl, Yianni Tsigaris, Dan Ji, Nora K. Anpree, Kellie K. Omori, Cedric P. Owens

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Many bacterial chlorogenic acid esterases (ChlEs) exhibit atypical temperature behavior, featuring activities that barely change with temperature and activity maxima that fall below the thermal denaturation point. This work focuses on a ChlE from Lactobacillus helveticus (Lh–ChlE), which has a flat temperature dependence. First, it was determined that conformational changes during Lh–ChlE turnover are not rate-limiting and that the overall rate depends on the chemical step at all temperatures. Next, Lh–ChlE’s temperature dependence was investigated using a conformational equilibrium model that assumes the existence of a temperature-dependent equilibrium between an active and an inactive conformation and an activation heat capacity …

Accessible Media Literacy Education: A Universal Design For Learning Framework For Including Disabled And Deaf Learners, Author Information Removed

JMLE Submissions Open for Review

Media literacy education has built a robust evidence base for interventions that strengthen resilience to misinformation, yet its pedagogies presuppose a nondisabled learner: participants with disabilities are rarely reported, materials are rarely accessible by design, and disability is absent from the field's equity turn. Disabled and deaf learners consequently face a double exclusion, from the media environment by inaccessibility and from media education by protectionist safeguarding. This conceptual article develops the Accessible Media Literacy Education (AMLE) framework through a four-step synthesis of three literatures: media literacy education, research on disabled and deaf people's media practices, and Universal Design for Learning. …

From Exposure To Action: Ai-Generated Media, Student Trust, Content Reliance, And Responsible Digital Engagement In Higher Education, Author Information Removed

JMLE Submissions Open for Review

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed how students encounter, evaluate, and use digital information. However, research has largely examined AI adoption and acceptance rather than how AI-generated media shapes trust, reliance, decision-making, and responsible digital engagement. This study examines AI-generated media engagement as a media and information literacy issue through an extended Uses and Gratifications Theory perspective, recognizing AI interaction as a hybrid process shaped by student motivations and algorithmically influenced exposure. Using responses from 220 undergraduate Business students in Cebu, Philippines, this quantitative study employed correlation and regression analyses to examine relationships among AI-driven media exposure, student engagement, trust …

Human And Ai Editing Tool Use Among Online Professional Practice/Applied Practice Doctoral Students, Valerie A. Storey, Tracy Greene, Lori Salgado

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore online professional practice doctoral students' and recent graduates' (2022-2025) use of editing software, GenAI/AI browser extensions, and human editors, examining their practices and institutional policy perspectives. Using Lentz's (2024) ethical authorship framework, researchers analyzed 29 participant responses. Four themes emerged: Foundational Academic Excellence and Support, Innovative Learning and Development, Quality Assurance and Professional Growth, and Inconsistent Institutional Practice and Ethical Oversight. Findings identified distinct functional purposes and five commonalities across editorial resources. Participants strategically employed different resources while maintaining authorial agency and critical judgment, yet reported widespread inconsistency in faculty guidance, …

Comparative Performance Evaluation Of A Gpu-Accelerated Watershed Model For Flood Inundation Mapping, Maliha Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This study evaluates PyWMP (Python-based Watershed Modeling and Planning), which is a flood modeling framework developed by the Center for Water Resiliency and Risk Reduction (CWR3) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). The framework includes a 2D Rain-on-Mesh (ROM) solver, which is an explicit finite-volume shallow-water equation model. PyWMP is compared against HEC-RAS 2D and Flood Modeller for their rain-on-grid capabilities for watershed-scale flood inundation mapping under three design storm scenarios. The performance of PyWMP was evaluated using both quantitative and spatial metrics. Mean absolute error values showed that the average depth difference between each model is under 1 foot. Percent …

Analysis Of Flood Modeling For The Replication Of An Extreme Rainfall Event In South Florida, Lusnel Fritznel Ferdinand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Flooding is the most common natural disaster in the United States, and trends show an increase in flood risk for the foreseeable future. Florida averages 45 flood disasters per year, at an annual cost of $86 million. Communities in Florida are susceptible to a variety of flood-inducing sources, including tropical cyclones, extreme rainfall, and rising sea levels, which can impact the tourism industry and the economic well-being of residents. The first objective of the thesis was to use flood modeling to replicate the extreme rainfall event that caused heavy flooding in Broward County, Florida, from April 12-13, 2023. A commercial …

Space As Experienced: Rendering Urban Interiority Through Research-By-Drawing, Sarah Javed Shah, Giulia Setti

Interiority

Architectural discourse has long privileged space as formally constituted—defined through geometry, enclosure, and typological classification—while its experiential and relational dimensions remain insufficiently examined. This article addresses that gap by proposing a methodological claim: the sequential and cumulative use of analytical drawing enables the investigation of spatial experience in ways that formal analysis and phenomenological description alone cannot achieve. Positioned as an epistemic framework, the research employs drawing not as representation but as a structured mode of inquiry. Five analytical lenses—liminality, permeability, intermingling, ephemerality, and complex interiority—are operationalised through a sequence of drawings that isolate and reconstruct the relational conditions through …

Meanwhile Interiors, Interiority, And Becoming Exterior, Cathy Smith

Interiority

This paper explores the resonances between stakeholder conceptions of 'meanwhile' or transient urban interiors and the notion of interiority as a mobile construct intertwined with wider social and material forces. The focus is on the positioning of these interiors in relation to broader community and neighbourhood agendas, invoking what Jill Stoner describes as a becoming exterior. Although the so-called 'meanwhile use' of vacant or sub-market-condition buildings is an increasingly common tool for activating and managing underused property assets in global cities, much of the existing discourse focuses on policy and placemaking implications rather than design dimensions. Drawing on interviews with …

Marketing Strategies To Enhance Awareness And Attract International Patients In The Medical Tourism Industry Of Trinidad And Tobago, Natasha Rachel Rochford-Chance

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disseminating inadequate service information can limit a business's market appeal and hinder its growth. Business leaders must include comprehensive service information in their marketing strategies, as inadequate service information can make a business seem unappealing to potential clients, undermine competitive position, reduce market share, and diminish profitability. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore the marketing strategies used by medical tourism business leaders in Trinidad and Tobago to attract international patients and increase profitability. The participants were eight medical tourism business leaders with experience in implementing marketing strategies. McCarthy's marketing mix theory of product, price, place, and …

Limited Australian Clinical Guidelines For Pain Assessment In Hospitalized Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment: Implications For Safe And Quality Care, Rosemary Saunders, Kaoru Nosaka, Seng Giap Marcus Ang, Natasya Raja Azlan, Aaron Alejandro, Rohini Sharma Bhardwaj, Olivia Gallagher, Irene Ngune, Amineh Rashidi, Yan Hui Celestine Wee, Nilufeur Mckay

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction – Pain assessment remains challenging in healthcare settings in patients who are unable to self-report their pain. More than 50% of individuals with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment (CI) experience pain daily. However, pain is frequently overlooked and inadequately assessed by healthcare professionals due to their lack of knowledge and guidelines to inform pain assessment. Pain is also a leading cause of hospital presentation and inappropriate pain assessment can impact on pain management and compromise safe and quality care. Evidence-based guidelines that inform appropriate pain assessment and management are therefore essential. This scoping review aimed to explore …

Cmsi Note 23: Vice Admiral Zhang Zheng Likely At The Helm: The Pla Navy’S Apparent New Most Senior Officer, Andrew S. Erickson, Christopher Sharman, Jordan Shaw

CMSI Notes

Key Takeaways:

• Vice Admiral (VADM) Zhang Zheng (张峥) appears to have been promoted to the most senior billet in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy (PLAN). He seems to have taken up this responsibility as early as December 2025.
• An experienced surface warfare officer, with prior service as the captain of the PLAN’s first aircraft carrier, Liaoning (辽宁舰), as well as commander of the Shandong aircraft carrier battle group (山东航母编队), VADM Zhang is well prepared to lead the PLAN in the “era of three aircraft carriers” (三航母时代).
• Zhang’s wide-ranging experience across the East Sea Fleet (东海舰队); his professional military education …

Environmental Dna For Endangered Freshwater Mussel Monitoring: A Review On Global Synthesis Of Edna Methods, Challenges, And Innovative Strategies, Mizanur Rahman, Md. Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) are among the most endangered aquatic species worldwide, making effective monitoring vital for their conservation. Traditional surveys are laborious, time-consuming, and often miss rare or low-density populations. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a highly sensitive, non-invasive approach for freshwater mussel detection and monitoring; however, uncertainties in ecological interpretation continue to limit its broader application in freshwater biodiversity monitoring. We conducted a systematic review of 49 peer-reviewed studies, identified through an extensive literature search, to assess temporal research trends, methodological advancements, ecological contexts, and regulatory readiness of freshwater mussel eDNA monitoring. Findings show that freshwater mussel eDNA research …

Career, Self-Worth, And The Need For Self-Care: Understanding Urban Indian Women’S Journeys From Career Break To Re-Entry, Prabha Masilamani, Priya Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women often take career breaks as a response to major life events such as marriage, childbirth, and migration; nevertheless, the emotional complexities and nuanced decision-making attached to these events are hardly discussed. This study explores the lived experiences of twenty-two urban Indian women from the information technology sector who took career breaks and then returned to work. Using an interpretivist phenomenological approach and reflexive thematic analysis, five themes were identified across the three phases of career transition: before, during, and after the career break. Drawing on feminist frameworks including Kabeer’s (1999) agency within constraints and Kandiyoti’s (1988) patriarchal bargaining, the …

Workplace Cultures And Gender Dynamics In The Uae: Emirati And Expatriate Perspectives, Maxime Jaffré, Tatiana Karabchuk, Asna Kozhikkattil

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the moral regulation and institutional structure of the gendered division of labor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a rapidly modernizing society characterized by demographic imbalance and state-led economic diversification. Drawing on Durkheim’s theory of moral regulation and Weber’s concept of rationalization, the paper analyzes how women’s empowerment and Emiratization policies reshape workplace cultures across gender and citizenship lines. The analysis is based on original survey data collected between 2019 and 2024 (N=10,100), comparing Emirati citizens and expatriate residents. Descriptive findings reveal overwhelming support for women’s right to work and for gender parity in political representation, indicating …

Beyond The Double Burden: A Gendered Analysis Of E-Commerce, Unpaid Care Work, And Financial Resilience In Indonesian Msmes, Mia Ajeng Alifiana, Mamduh M. Hanafi, Bowo Setiyono

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study challenges the narrative of e-commerce’s potential for empowering women in the Global South by exploring the structural barriers that women entrepreneurs face in Indonesia, both as paid and unpaid workers. The study also challenges the notion of “techno-optimism,” which suggests that digital entrepreneurship inherently empowers women, by highlighting the obstacles women face in economic engagement due to a “second shift” of domestic labor. Through a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of 158 articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, we map the intellectual structure of the literature on e-commerce and the financial performance of micro, small, and …

Home As A Workplace: Gender, Labour, And Domesticity In Homestays In Kerala, India, P P Anjusha, Prachi Thakur, Toney K Thomas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tourism homestays are increasingly presented as an opportunity for women’s empowerment and inclusion around the world. However, this study argues that the focus on homestays as entrepreneurial opportunities for women obscures the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women’s agency when their labour is commercialised. Grounded in theories of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987) supplemented by role theory and critical feminist perspectives, the study highlights how gender is enacted and reproduced daily in homestays. This research draws on qualitative interviews with women hosts in the state of Kerala, India to explore how the gendered division of labour operates within …

Class Struggle And The Socialist Economic Calculation Debate, Tiago Camarinha Lopes

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The socialist economic calculation debate is often portrayed as a sharp and straightforward conflict between two opposing sides. While this characterization is valid given the ideological clash between defenders of capitalism and proponents of socialism, this paper offers a more nuanced perspective on the interaction between the main schools of economic thought involved in the debate, the Marxist and the Austrian. Drawing on the humanist approach of critical pedagogy developed by Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire (1921–1997), the paper argues that the debate over socialist economic calculation is not only a clear expression of class struggle within economics. It also involves …

Fiduciary Failure And Institutional Drift In The Nflpa: Legal Duties, Member Harm, And The Need For Structural Reform, Chris Hanna, Jeffrey Levine

Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review

When the Cleveland Browns provided controversial quarterback Deshaun Watson with a fully guaranteed contract, it established a recent precedent that National Football League (NFL or League) teams did not wish to see followed. Soon thereafter, three quarterbacks—Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson—failed to receive fully guaranteed contracts. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) filed a grievance arbitrable under the collective bargaining agreement. The union alleged ownership colluded to keep any post-Watson quarterback (and hundreds of NFL veteran players) from receiving a fully guaranteed contract. This manuscript examines the alleged activities of the NFLPA surrounding this case and ancillary activities of …

Recommerce Transaction Processing Within A Payment Network, Shivam Sharma, Sindhu Shankar Rao, Vrushali Khorgade

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to a system for processing recommerce transactions within a payment network. The system includes a transaction messaging module configured to receive a transaction message from a merchant, the transaction message including a recommerce flag identifying the transaction as involving a pre-owned, refurbished, or second-hand good. The system includes a recommerce transaction processing module configured to apply predefined rules and protocols specific to recommerce transactions, and a global database storing product information including product identifiers, condition data, maintenance history, and ownership records. The system includes an artificial intelligence and machine learning fraud detection module configured to assess …

Dynamic Gravity-Deployed Rope Barrier (Dgrb) System For Passive Kinetic Mitigation And Entanglement Of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Suav), Brenden King

Defensive Publications Series

A passive, multi-layered kinetic countermeasure system is disclosed for mitigating the threat of low-altitude, high-speed first-person view (FPV) kamikaze loitering munitions within confined military environments, including trenches, bunkers, building entryways, and vehicular net tunnels. The Dynamic Gravity-Deployed Rope Barrier (DGRB) system comprises a primary horizontal support line configured to span an opening or structural corridor, from which a plurality of vertically suspended, non-uniform hanging strands depend downward to a lower boundary surface. The vertically suspended strands form a dense, spatial entanglement matrix optimized to strip an intruding aircraft of its freedom of movement through direct, mechanical disruption of rotor blade …

Automated Alias Resolution To Route An Interaction Request, Keith Stephen Brindley, Tyda Manavalan

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure provides a method for automated alias resolution to route an interaction request. The method comprises the step of receiving, by an interaction server, an interaction request message for a sender (of the request) to receive value from a receiver (of the request)  in an interaction. The interaction request message comprises a receiver alias, a value, and a sender alias. The method further comprises the step of transmitting, by the interaction server, a resolve alias request comprising the sender alias to an alias directory server. The method further comprises the step of transmitting, by the interaction server, the …

System And Method For Multi-Modal Assessment Of Topical Substance Coverage And Skin Damage On Body Surfaces, Eric Zavesky

Defensive Publications Series

A system and method for assessing sunscreen coverage on human skin through multi-modal sensor fusion. The system integrates a thermal imaging module for detecting temperature differentials indicative of sunscreen coverage and potential burn areas, a high-speed optical camera for extracting photoplethysmographic signals that enable pigmentation-independent coverage detection via signal attenuation and burn detection via perfusion correlation, a three-dimensional depth mapping module for generating personalized body models with anatomical region segmentation, and a data fusion engine that spatially registers all sensor data to produce per-region coverage maps. An adaptive guidance system delivers real-time, on-demand, and post-exposure feedback through vocal and visual …

Technical Disclosure Specification: Topological Helical Embedding Constraints For Volumetric Space-Time Emergence Across Twisted Manifolds, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification formalizes a non-perturbative geometric mechanism governing the topological transformation of a two-dimensional information substrate into three-dimensional volumetric space-time metrics. Standard holographic frameworks recognize that boundary data can mathematically define a bulk volume, yet they fail to establish a dynamic physical mechanism for the emergence of mass-energy tensors and gravitational curvature without introducing free parameters or unverified dimensional compactifications.

This paper demonstrates that three-dimensional physical matter and spatial depth emerge natively when a parameter-agnostic 2D viscoelastic fluid membrane experiences localized spatial overlapping (The Fold) and asymmetric rotational torque (The Twist). By driving boundary wave configurations through an asymmetric rotational …

Proactive Context Generation Via Asynchronous Knowledge Graph Synchronization, Parnika Singhal, Dhruv Singhal

Defensive Publications Series

Systems for providing context to users can experience latency and data fragmentation, which may arise when systems operate reactively by executing synchronous queries across siloed data sources after a user interaction. An asynchronous process can periodically synchronize data from various sources, such as email and calendars, to build and maintain a localized vector knowledge graph that can model entities and their relationships. A proactive compute engine may use system events, for example, the arrival of a new message, as triggers to query the graph, pre-compute a relevant context payload, and cache the result. This approach may reduce latency associated with …

Generating Affective Metadata From Physiological Signals For Media Navigation, Nikita Agarwal

Defensive Publications Series

Navigating long-form media to locate scenes of a particular emotional intensity may be inefficient using conventional methods that rely on static thumbnails or broad metadata. Disclosed systems and methods can generate crowd-sourced affective metadata from physiological signals. These techniques may involve collecting anonymized physiological data, such as heart rate, from a population of consenting users via their computing devices (e.g., a smartphone, smart watch, wearable device, augmented reality glasses, etc.) during media consumption. This data can be processed and aggregated to generate a time-series representation of the collective emotional intensity for a media asset. The resulting data may then be …

Technical Commonspec: Multi-Phase Sedimentation And Capillary Infiltration Metrics For Monolithic Material Manufacturing, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification formalizes a multi-track engineering framework to validate and optimize two verified, classical physical processes used in advanced material manufacturing: Dual-Phase Centrifugal Sedimentation and Capillary Infiltration. In standard chemical engineering and metallurgical processing, modeling the structural consolidation of dense particulate suspensions and the subsequent penetration of liquid phases into porous matrices presents significant numerical and physical tracking challenges. If fluid-particle interactions are modeled using uncoupled, single-variable frameworks, localized density spikes and pressure friction variations create manufacturing defects and structural voids.

To deliver an absolute, un-biased verification of these manufacturing dynamics, this paper presents three completely air-gapped, isolated methodologies executed …

Technical Commonspec: Parallel Solutions To The Prandtl Boundary Layer Limit Crisis Via Tri-Vector Architectures, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification establishes a rigorous, multi-track mathematical framework to resolve the legacy Prandtl Boundary Layer Inviscid Limit Problem (\(Re \to \infty\)). In classical continuum mechanics, the behavior of high-velocity fluid flow past a solid wall with a no-slip boundary condition represents a severe analytical discontinuity. As kinematic viscosity approaches zero (\(\epsilon \to 0\)), classical mathematical models fracture due to the uncontrolled generation of boundary-layer vorticity, creating a mismatch between the viscous Navier-Stokes equations and the inviscid Euler equations.

To achieve absolute verification without analytical bias, this paper presents three completely air-gapped, isolated methodologies executed in separate computational sandboxes:

1. A Discrete …