Digital Commons Network^™

My Right To Dominate You: The Populist Perversion Of Human Rights, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

A constitutional “right” is a legal technology designed to protect the weak from the strong. In the twenty-first-century United States, however, constitutional rights have increasingly been interpreted and deployed, by both litigants and courts, to secure the ability of the strong to dominate the weak. It is quickly becoming standard practice among right-wing American populists to claim that the deployment of rights in ways that limit the ability of the strong to dominate those weaker than themselves is to make victims of the strong. Freedom, in the imagination of American populists, means the freedom to dominate disfavored others.

This paper …

Cross-Attention Mechanism For Medical Visual Question Answering, Nada Fadhil Mohammed, Israa H. Ali

Baghdad Science Journal

Visual Question Answering (VQA) is a machine learning task that aims to create systems capable of answering natural language questions based on given images. Medical VQA systems, a domain-specific application of VQA, assist in understanding clinically relevant information from medical images. These systems leverage deep neural techniques to generate accurate answers to questions, which can be closed-ended or open-ended. This paper proposes a Cross-Attention Mechanism-based Medical VQA system. The proposed Medical VQA system achieves good performance through the integration of three-key components, each addressing critical challenges in medical visual question answering: The biomedical domain-specific pretraining of BioBERT enables extracting powerful …

A Multi-Model Ensemble Framework For Assistive Image Captioning With Voice Interaction For The Visually Impaired Users, Alaa Noori Mazher, Ghadah K. Al-Khafaji

Baghdad Science Journal

Visual impairment greatly restricts an individual's ability for perception and interaction with the environment, making everyday activities challenging without the availability of appropriate assistive technologies. One major barrier is the inability to perceive visual scenes, which are essential for spatial awareness, wayfinding, and situational knowledge. This study aims to address this gap through the proposal of an intelligent assistive image captioning system specifically designed for visually impaired individuals. The system employs the best available computer vision and natural language processing techniques in generating context-oriented text captions for an image infused with interactive voice responses. Here, four models of Convolutional Neural …

A New Reinforcement Learning Agent Framework For Digital Image Forgery Detection Using Prioritized Experience Replay, Muthana S. Mahdi, Saad N. Alsaad, Hasanen S. Abdullah

Baghdad Science Journal

Digital image forgery detection has become an urgent and complex problem in an age when powerful editing tools can easily alter photographs. The familiar maxim ``a picture is worth a thousand words'' can no longer be taken at face value, since even subtle manipulations may conceal or fabricate critical details. Conventional detection methods frequently suffer from highly imbalanced datasets and narrow feature representations that fail to capture the diverse artifacts introduced by modern editing techniques. In response, this work presents a novel framework that casts the forgery detection task as a reinforcement learning problem, enabling an agent to learn a …

Optimizing Quality Of Service In Cloud Computing: A Performance-Aware Task Classifier For Heterogeneous Big Data Workloads, Pawan Bhaker, Sophiya Sheikh, Rintu Nath, Ajay Nain

Baghdad Science Journal

The Big data originates from various heterogeneous sources worldwide. Due to the diverse origins of data generation, big data involves a variety of tasks. Some require storage resources, while others need computational resources. Additionally, cloud computing provides centralized storage and computational resources for executing these tasks. However, resource optimization and efficient task scheduling remain challenging. Moreover, accurately categorizing tasks and effectively allocating resources based on their nature pose challenges for cloud computing, especially when assigning tasks to heterogeneous resources to minimize task completion time. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Performance-Aware Task Classifier (PATC) algorithm that classifies tasks …

Mandibular Landmark Determination Based On Statistical Features Of Panoramic Radiograph Images Using Multi-Output Neural Network, Nur Nafiiyah, Agus Harjoko, Kang-Hyun Jo, Rini Widyaningrum, Eha Renwi Astuti, Alhidayati Asymal

Baghdad Science Journal

The mandible is crucial in orthodontic treatment, forensic identification, and clinical diagnosis. However, manually identifying mandibular landmarks is time-consuming and highly dependent on expert skill, necessitating a more reliable automated prediction method. Previous research has used linear and nonlinear regression methods, in which each model predicts a single landmark point, resulting in inefficiency. In addition, these methods only use the centroid of the binary image of the mandible as input. This research proposes a multi-output neural network model that is able to predict multiple mandibular landmark points simultaneously. The proposed neural network architecture in predicting mandibular landmark points is 11 …

What Happens After Oil And Gas Decommissioning? A Global Systematic Review Of Marine Environmental Effects, Anaelle Lemasson Lemasson, Antony M. Knights

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The thousands of oil and gas (OG) platforms placed at sea for fossil fuel extraction have introduced new hard substrate to the marine environment. Over time, these structures can become colonized by a diversity of marine life, fostering novel ecosystems. However, an increasing number of OG platforms are reaching decommissioning age and decisions regarding their fate must be made. Some view these artificial structures as litter that ought to be removed; others view them as valuable contributors to marine biodiversity worth preserving. Evidence of the environmental effects of these structures following different decommissioning strategies is needed to identify the potential …

Coffee, Tobacco And Commerce: A Late Ottoman–Early British Mandate Roadside Coffeehouse At Horses’ Beach, ‘Akko (Acre), Edna J. Stern, Eliezer Stern, Hanaa Aboud, Anastasia Shapiro, Yael Gorin-Rosen

'Atiqot

The limited remains of a structure exposed in an excavation carried out just outside ‘Akko’s Land Gate probably formed part of a late Ottoman–early British Mandate roadside coffeehouse for travellers and merchants passing through the city. The associated finds included local and regional glazed pottery, European porcelain bowls and coffee cups, tobacco pipes and nargile heads, and glass items, reflecting the encounter and interaction of local traditions and international trade networks at the site. Notwithstanding ‘Akko’s decline in the late Ottoman period, the coffeehouse remained a space of social interaction, preserving Ottoman consumption patterns and accommodating new European goods. This …

Dendroarchaeological Analysis Of Charcoal Fragments From The Byzantine Street In The City Of David, Jerusalem, Mordechay Benzaquen, Dafna Langgut

'Atiqot

The excavation of the Byzantine Street in the City of David, Jerusalem (Area S2) yielded several hundred charcoal fragments from multiple loci, of which 200 specimens were analyzed at the Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments at Tel Aviv University. Preservation was generally good to moderate, and all identified taxa belong to the local Mediterranean Israeli flora. The assemblage is characterized by low taxonomic diversity and is overwhelmingly dominated by conifers, with Cupressus sempervirens (Mediterranean cypress) and Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) comprising nearly 90% of the analyzed material, suggesting that most of the charcoal derives from construction timbers commonly used …

Faunal Remains From The Byzantine Street (Area S2), Jerusalem, Lee Perry Gal

'Atiqot

The faunal assemblage from the Byzantine Street (Area S2) in the City of David derives from domestic refuse accumulated on a street surface and from redeposited construction fill associated with episodes of street repair during the late Byzantine–Early Islamic periods. The assemblage is well-preserved but highly fragmented, indicating rapid burial followed by post-depositional disturbance. Taxonomic composition is dominated by sheep and goats, with lower frequencies of pigs and cattle, alongside chicken, fish and molluscs, reflecting patterns of everyday urban consumption. Caprine age-at-death profiles are skewed toward adults, suggesting herd management strategies that emphasized secondary products and herd maintenance rather than …

Menorah Graffiti On The Streets Of Jerusalem, Shlomit Weksler Bdolah, Nahshon Szanton

'Atiqot

This article examines three menorah graffiti incised on paving stones along Roman–Byzantine streets of Jerusalem. The engravings appear beside depictions of board games, suggesting that pedestrians paused at these locations. All three graffiti are situated along streets oriented eastward, toward the Temple Mount, raising the likelihood that visual engagement with the sacred precinct influenced the incision of this Jewish symbol in the urban sphere. The article explores the context of the menorah graffiti and their cultural and historical significance within the public sphere. Drawing on archaeological data, historical sources and comparative examples of menorah representations in public settings in the …

A Network (Capita Viarum) Of Roads, Bridges And City Gates Connecting To The Colonnaded Streets Of Roman-Period Nysa-Scythopolis: Evidence Of Efficient Traffic Planning, Walid Atrash, Gabriel Mazor

'Atiqot

This article investigates the strategic importance of Nysa-Scythopolis (Bet She’an) as a key transportation and urban center during the Roman and Byzantine periods. Located at a critical junction between the Jordan Valley and the central mountain ridges, the city comprised a complex network of regional roads and monumental gates, facilitating both local and imperial mobility. This study focuses on three of five major Roman gates—Aelia Capitolina, Gerasa, Neapolis, Damascus and Caesarea—each aligned with major intercity arteries, as well as on the construction of two Roman bridges crossing Naḥal Ḥarod, Jisr el-Khan and the skew bridge Jisr el-Maktu‘a. Gate typologies are …

The Stepped Podium : A Landmark On Jerusalem’S Main Thoroughfare In The Second Temple Period, Nahshon Szanton

'Atiqot

This article presents a small, stepped pyramidal structure that was built upon the eastern side of the Stepped Street in Jerusalem under the rule of the Roman procurators. It considers the structure’s archaeological context, architectural and functional uniqueness in light of comparable finds and sources, both historical and literary, to better understand its role and use. Based on these sources, the structure seems to have served as street furniture in the public sphere, used as a public place for trial or to announce lost-and-found artifacts.

Global Trends In Dietary Exposure To Polychlorinated Naphthalenes (Pcns): A Review Of Contamination Levels And Health Implications, Vhodaho Nevondo, Okechukwu Jonathan Okonkwo

Engineering and Technology Journal

Polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) belong to a class of persistent organic pollutants that are structurally related to chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans, and other chlorinated biphenyls as a result of the presence of benzene rings in their respective structures. Additionally, they display high levels of persistence in the environment, bioaccumulative, and dioxin-like toxicities characteristics. Although the production and use of PCNs is either banned or greatly regulated in several countries around the globe, unintentional production in industrial thermal processes and legacy usage have resulted in the ubiquity of these compounds in the environment and the food chain. Several studies have shown various exposure …

Tahap-Tahap Pembinaan Sistem Pendidikan Hukum Dalam Pembangunan Jangka Panjang Kedua (Pjp Ii), Mardjono Reksodiputro

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Exploring The Dual Advising System For Students’ Success: A Developmental Advising Model, Louisa Godwyll, Eugene Kwarteng-Nantwi, Pious Jojo Adu-Akoh

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

This qualitative study explored the dual advising system for student success at a U.S. higher education institution. Research has indicated that approximately 40–60% of students enrolled in doctoral programs do not complete their doctoral degrees. High attrition rates have led some institutions to adopt a dual advising system, a form of developmental advising, to support doctoral students’ success. Creamer and Creamer’s (1994) developmental advising model served as the conceptual framework of the study. The model defines the first stage of advising as defining task, where advisors engage in teaching and utilize strategies to help students attain educational, career, and individual …

Memahami Tindakan Anti-Dumping Masyarakat Eropa (M.E.), Muhammad Ashri

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Ur-166-204 Multi-User Stem Learning Experience Powered By Llm Conversational Agents, Devon Haynes, Chance Boecker, Oliver Haggard

C-Day Computing Showcase

While Extended Reality (XR) provides experiential and interactive foundations for STEM education, current storytelling and narrative-driven applications often lack responsive nonplayer characters (NPCs), limiting interactive potential through pre-scripted stories. Additionally, despite the growth of Large Language Model (LLM) integration in XR, limited research explores the combined use of multi-user XR systems and conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate real-time, adaptive instruction. This project seeks to address these gaps by 1) Developing a narrative-driven STEM learning XR prototype that incorporates synchronous multi-user interaction and an embedded LLM-driven conversational agent and 2) Exploring the effectiveness of combining these technologies to improve learning …

Ex-04-142 Modeling Distress And Evaluating Chatbot Safety For Suicide-Related Social Media Texts, Rehma Razzak

C-Day Computing Showcase

This project addresses the urgent need for transparent chatbot safety evaluations amid rising concerns about AI-facilitated self-harm. Using public social media datasets, we simulate two tasks: (1) detecting suicidal ideation via emotion-based risk scoring, and (2) stress-testing a support-style chatbot against 888 high-risk prompts, including euphemisms and “for a story” framing. A multi-label classifier trained on GoEmotions feeds emotion profiles into a logistic regression model to generate suicidality risk scores. These scores guide a local chatbot built with Ollama’s llama3, which analyzes user messages and steers responses toward safe, empathetic behavior. Evaluation shows ~90% of replies were safe or supportive. …

Gc-161-210 Hybrid Path Planning Using Genetic Algorithm, Caitlin Tigani, Ramisa Fariha Joyee, Wasif Mohammad

C-Day Computing Showcase

This research investigates whether uninformed search (BFS) or informed search (A*) is more effective when combined with a Genetic Algorithm for maze path planning. We design and implement four algorithms: baseline BFS and A*, hybrid GA+A*, and hybrid GA(BFS+A*). Our findings show that while A* alone performs optimally, integrating it with GA can produce alternative quality solutions, though with computational trade-offs. The study demonstrates that GA+A* provides the best balance between solution quality and runtime efficiency.

Grp-01-196 Topological Drift Predicts Epidemic Instability, Charles Fanning

C-Day Computing Showcase

We study whether changes in contact-network topology predict transitions into high-risk epidemic periods across several classical empirical proximity network datasets. We use temporal graph learning with persistent homology-based topological signals and evaluate large-outbreak risk using SIR simulations to test whether topological drift serves as an early warning signal for epidemic instability.

Gc-172-139 Detection Of Sms Spam Using Transformer Bert Model, Nathan Bonner, Zachary Kandell, Michael Hayes, David Quintanilla, Leon Greenberg

C-Day Computing Showcase

This project evaluates automated SMS spam classification by comparing traditional machine learning against modern transformer architectures. We built a Bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM) baseline using TF-IDF feature extraction and NearMiss-1 undersampling to handle severe class imbalances. We then compared this against a fine-tuned Hugging Face Sentence-BERT model. Preliminary results show Sentence-BERT significantly outperformed the BiLSTM baseline (99.01% vs. 95.65% accuracy). These findings demonstrate that transformer-based embeddings offer a highly accurate, scalable solution for spam mitigation without relying on aggressive data undersampling.

Grp-093-174 Transforming Everyday Smartwatch Data Into Clinical Early Warnings, Nursat Jahan

C-Day Computing Showcase

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) related most machine learning (ML) models trained on clinical data offer high accuracy but are not practical for continuous monitoring. Smartwatch-based wearables provide continuous real-time physiological data but lack clinical validation for robust risk prediction outside the clinical setting. To bridge this gap, we proposed a novel teacher-student knowledge distillation framework that transfers knowledge of complex and large EHR datasets to a small Fitbit smartwatch dataset-based prediction model. The student model achieves promising accuracy, identifying all types of derived CVD risk profile groups. Our study introduces a non-invasive continuous health monitoring framework, demonstrating that passively collected daily …

Grp-09-169 Using Logic To Explain And Formally Verify The Behavior Of Relu Neural Networks, Nguyen Thi Binh Nguyen

C-Day Computing Showcase

Homeschooling in the United States has expanded rapidly, reaching about 3.4 million students (6.26% of K-12 school-age population) in 2024-2025, with accelerated growth following COVID-19. Understanding the reasons behind these decisions is important for informing education policy, resource allocation, and the design of schooling systems that better meet families’ needs. Most of the research on homeschooling relies on statistical methods such as logistic regression or probit models to identify significant factors associated with homeschooling decisions. In this work, we approach this research question from a different perspective by leveraging Explainable AI techniques to provide deeper insights into the homeschooling decisions.

Toyon 68 - Full Issue

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Full Issue - Toyon 62

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Treating Depression With L-Methylfolate: A Review Of Evidence, Marianna G. Pettit

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Abstract

Introduction & Background: Depressive disorders have many different causes. Folate deficiency can sometimes be behind these disorders, due to this vitamin’s role in neurotransmitter synthesis. Some research suggests that supplementing with an active form of folate improves depressive symptoms with and without antidepressant use. Purpose Statement Question: For individuals with depressive disorders, does supplementation with L-methylfolate (LMF) reduce symptoms of depressive disorders with or without use of an antidepressant? Literature Review: A manual literature search for sources published within the past 7 years revealed 557 documents from four different databases. Key search words included, “depression,” “treatment,” …

A Historical Analysis Of The Development Of Prenatal Care In The U. S., Kristen Montgomery Phd, Cnm, Aprn, Shelby Greene Bsn, Rn, Lauren Griffin Bsn, Rn, Destiny Lewis Bsn, Rn, Lauryn Lewis Bsn, Rn, Bryleigh Newberry Bsn, Rn, Brittany Scott Bsn, Rn

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Purpose: This paper examines the historical development of prenatal care in the United States, tracing its evolution from informal, home—based management to structured, evidence-based systems that are central to maternal and fetal health.

Aims: The specific aim of this project was to determine how prenatal care evolved in the United States.

Methods: A historical methods approach was used. Historical documents were reviewed using PubMed, CINAHL, and Google Scholar to find relevant resources. Relevant articles were reviewed by the research team and analyzed for components regarding the development of prenatal care. All members of the research team reviewed the articles and …

Historical Development Of Vaccines And The Public's Response, Kristen Montgomery, Samantha Prince Bsn, Rn, Melissa Ealey Bsn, Rn, Jarrad Morelock Bsn, Rn, Shelby Johnson Bsn, Rn, Kokeshia Crosby Bsn, Rn, Stephanies Himes Bsn, Rn, Theresia Hinton Bsn, Rn

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Purpose: Vaccines, which have become one of the most important medical accomplishments in the prevention of communicable diseases, have a history that dates to the use of variolation as early as the 11th century. The purpose of this study is to explore the historical development of vaccines and to determine the characteristics that emerged when new vaccines were developed.

Aims: The specific aim of this study is to understand if all vaccines have been received about the same by the general public or if there are certain different or diverse characteristics associated with the introduction of different vaccines.

Methods: A …

A Systematic Literature Review On Alternative Treatment Modalities In Adults With Treatment Resistant Depression, Brian Miller

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Abstract

            Currently, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) often defer to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for individuals with TRD who fail to achieve resolution of their disorder. However, many individuals do not meet criteria for ECT or decline the treatment due to side effects and associated risks. To synthesize potential alternative treatments and address the current gap in literature that does not include first-line preferred electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a systematic literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA 2020). Databases searched for this review included the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature …