Digital Commons Network^™

A Primer On Ukrainian Special Forces: Beyond Joint, Kevin D. Stringer, Taisiia Vivdych

Joint Force Quarterly

"A Primer on Ukrainian Special Forces: Beyond Joint" by Kevin D. Stringer and Taisiia Vivdych examines the evolution, structure, and operations of Ukrainian special operations forces (SOF), highlighting key distinctions from U.S. and NATO models. Tracing their lineage from Soviet spetsnaz to contemporary formations, it analyzes the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces Command (USOFCOM), State Security Service’s Special Operations Center Alfa (SOCA), Rapid Response Corps (KORD), the 10th Separate Operational Response Unit (DOZOR), Foreign Intelligence Service (SZR) units, and the volunteer Kraken Regiment under the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). Ukrainian SOF are dispersed across military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies, …

Breadth Or Depth: The Ongoing Battle In Professional Military Education, Ryan Wadle, Heather Venable

Joint Force Quarterly

This article examines the ongoing and oftentimes heated debates on the curricula in Professional Military Education institutions and the guidance provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By studying the "breadth" of conflict and the national security environment, PME graduates can best apply their knowledge and skills at the intersection of military strategy and political objectives where they can be the most effective.

Ukraine, The U.S. Defense Industrial Base, And The Elusive Crisis-Era Munitions Production Surge, Bryce Loidolt

Joint Force Quarterly

“Ukraine, the U.S. Defense Industrial Base, and the Elusive Crisis-Era Munitions Production Surge” by Bryce Loidolt examines why U.S. efforts to rapidly increase munitions production during Russia’s war in Ukraine produced uneven results. While crisis-era authorities, funding, and contracting flexibility allowed the Department of War to move quickly after 2022, this article argues that post-crisis actions alone did not determine surge success. Instead, variation in production increases across key munitions - Stinger, Javelin, GMLRS, and PAC-3 MSE, was largely driven by pre-crisis procurement decisions and associated investments in capacity, supply chains, and obsolescence management. Drawing on historical analysis and case …

Cognitive Warfare And Organizational Design: Leveraging Ai To Reshape Military Decision-Making, Michael Silver, Kellen Sick, Matthew Snyder, Justin Farnell, Justin E. Farnell

Joint Force Quarterly

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is transforming modern warfare, particularly in decision-making. To maintain its strategic edge, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) must accelerate AI/ML adoption within its decision-making. This paper examines the organizational design factors that influence AI/ML integration in the Joint Force, applying a modified Star Model framework that includes People, Structure, Processes, Incentives, and Leadership & Management.

Effective AI/ML adoption is not just a technological challenge, but a behavioral and organizational one. Possessing AI tools alone is insufficient; realizing their full potential requires adapting how …

Fabrication At The Tactical Edge, Aubry J. Eaton, Dustin T. Thomas

Joint Force Quarterly

This research reviews empirical evidence of rapid battlefield fabrication efforts and proposes potential new uses of this technology. It recommends that the joint force must undergo a paradigm shift to view battlefield manufacturing as an inherent component of force projection with potentially decisive impact across the spectrum of conflict. It proposes a doctrinal concept for Fabrication At The Tactical Edge (FATE), defining the technologies that enable this concept. FATE offsets adversary capabilities by imposing asymmetric costs while making U.S. forces difficult to predict. Unlike prior studies on military innovation, this research focuses on manufacturing itself as a weapon system. If …

Influence By Design: A Network Strategy For Integrated Deterrence, Robert S. Hinck

Joint Force Quarterly

Confronting the complexity of the future security environment requires new concepts to coordinate efforts for maximum effect. The 2022 National Defense Strategy appropriately identifies integrated deterrence as the centerpiece of these efforts but criticisms regarding its strategic application remain. While integrated deterrence is associated with one set of national security strategies, its points of emphasis will endure. This essay addresses current limitations of the concept by offering a tangible and theoretically grounded approach connecting the ends, ways, and means by which the Joint Force and interagency, in combination with US allies and partners, can enact integrated deterrence across the spectrum …

Executive Summary, William T. Eliason

Joint Force Quarterly

In the Executive Summary of Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ) 119, Editor in Chief Dr. William T. Eliason reflects on the journal’s 32-year evolution and shares transitions in its production. With the next arrival of JFQ 120, the National Defense University Press will reduce print circulation in favor of digital distribution due to fiscal and media landscape changes, marking JFQ 119 as the last broadly printed edition. The issue also recognizes the retirement of longtime Executive Editor Dr. Jeffrey D. Smotherman, whose 25-year tenure shaped the journal’s excellence. Eliason previews timely research on deterrence, AI-enabled decisionmaking, defense industrial readiness, …

Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 119, 4th Quarter 2025, National Defense University Press

Joint Force Quarterly

Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ) 119 examines the evolving challenges and innovations shaping the U.S. joint force and professional military education. Key themes include tactical-level manufacturing (“Fabrication at the Tactical Edge”), the ongoing debate over curriculum focus in professional military education (“Breadth or Depth in PME”), and the transformative role of artificial intelligence in decisionmaking for military operations. Together, these articles and others highlight the dynamic intersection of technology, strategy, and education in modern defense. This issue highlights how digital transformation, industrial capability, and intellectual agility are vital to maintaining strategic advantage across domains of competition and conflict.

Latex: Overleaf, Anette Moreno-Lozano Phd, John Connolly Phd

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

This workshop introduces participants to LaTeX for scientific writing. Attendees will learn to create and compile documents in Overleaf, insert and format equations, figures, tables, and references, use collaboration and version control tools, and find discipline-specific resources and templates.

Evaluating Assistive Technology-Mediated Hepatitis B Education On At-Risk Behaviours Among In-School Adolescents With Hearing Impairment In Oyo State, Nigeria, Suen. E. Olalekanmi, J. O. Odelola, O. O. Isaiah

The 2026 Assistive Technology for Persons with Intellectual and Physical Disabilities Conference

Background: Adolescents with hearing impairment experience heightened vulnerability to health risks, largely due to limited access to accurate, accessible, and comprehensible health information. Communication barriers often restrict their understanding of disease prevention, resulting in inadequate health literacy and increased engagement in behaviours that may expose them to preventable infections such as HB. Despite the availability of effective vaccines and preventive measures, HB remains a significant public health concern in Nigeria. This situation underscores the urgent need for researchers, educators, and healthcare professionals to develop and prioritise inclusive health education strategies that address the unique communication needs of adolescents with hearing …

Full Issue - Mend V.4, Project Mend

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Contributors - Mend V.4, Project Mend

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Introduction - Mend V.4, Tony Eiland, Alexis Kirkpatrick, Molly Mcconnell, Marion Rodriguez

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Contents - Mend V.4, Project Mend

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History Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Often Rhymes: Comparing The Messaging Of Adolf Hitler And Donald Trump, Elaina Varney

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

With the growing divide between the left and right, many on the left have raised alarms that Donald Trump is a fascist. My research paper compares Donald Trump’s messaging to Adolf Hitler’s messaging to find any similarities between the two in order to determine if Trumpism is a precursor to fascism. This study begins by looking at previous scholars’ research into whether or not Trumpism is a precursor to fascism and then I proceed to draw on primary sources such as speeches, Mein Kampf, and Trump’s TruthSocial posts, particularly those related to immigration and minorities, attacks on and suppression …

No Pulse, Only Breath: Understanding The Creative Rhythms Of Tyler Kline, Catherine Van Wey

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The creative life and artistic philosophy of composer, audio engineer, and radio host Tyler Kline unfolds at the intersection of structure and surrender, sound and silence, motion and stillness. His work integrates composing, engineering, and curatorial listening into a unified practice shaped by patience, attention, and trust. Influenced in part by the concept of wabi-sabi, Kline embraces imperfection and impermanence, allowing breath, resonance, and performer agency to guide musical form rather than strict pulse or metrical control. This approach finds clear expression in his piano work TATTOO, which eliminates traditional pulse orientation and asks performers to measure time through listening …

When Women Weep: The Gendered Politics Of Lamenting And Death In Early Irish Literature, Catherine Van Wey

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Early Irish literature of the ninth through thirteenth centuries encodes gendered assumptions about women’s emotion through narratives in which grief, sorrow, and shame repeatedly lead to female death. Focusing on the thirteenth-century hagiographic text Tales of the Elders of Ireland, feminist standpoint theory is applied to reveal how male-dominated authorship shapes literary portrayals of women as emotionally excessive, dependent on men, and narratively expendable once those men are lost. Situated within the cultural tradition of female lamentation or caoineadh, these portrayals show how women’s ritual roles as mourners were mythologized and reworked into literary mechanisms that reinforce patriarchal authority. Within …

Lighting Design For Terminator: The Musical By Breanna Beitz, Mikayli Marciulionis

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This paper discusses the lighting design for a production of Terminator: the Musical at the University of Minnesota Morris. The directorial concept revolved around the idea of camp: big sound, flashy lights, big spectacle. Camp refers to an aesthetic style that embraces exaggeration, playfulness, irony, and theatricality. It often celebrates things that are considered 'over the top' — artificial, sentimental, or deliberately tacky — but does so with affection, humor, and self-awareness. Leaning into the concept of it being 'so bad it is good,' is how the director envisioned Terminator: The Musical to be. To this end, my approach for …

Craft, Love, And Loathing: Anthropology Of Hair Art In The Twenty-First Century, Eugene Kauffman

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

When hair is cut off and used in art, many people find it disgusting, but when attached, hair is seen as beautiful. Over time, these ideas have changed; in the Victorian Era, people had more tolerance and appreciation for different types of hair art, such as sculptures and accessories. In order to analyze these changes and why hair is seen as repulsive, we must look at theories of disgust and abjection. In addition, we must look at the history of bodily art and the connections it had to death and mourning. The understanding and recognition of abject mediums such as …

Handwritten Histories: Exploring Identity Through Personal Correspondence, Savana Hauck

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This project examines handwritten correspondence as a site of gendered and sexual self-discovery, intimacy, and historical continuity. Developed for HIST 2708W - Gender, Women, and Sexuality in Modern Europe - , it centers on a collection of contemporary “snail mail” letters written in response to reflective prompts about participants’ lived experiences of gender and sexuality. These personal narratives are presented in a physical, scrapbook-style format that emphasizes slowness, care, and trust as methodological and ethical practices.

By placing these contemporary letters in dialogue with historical examples of correspondence—including an 1882 letter sent to German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing, the intimate …

How Laws And Systems Contributed To The Masking And Expansion Of The Verdingkinder System And Targeted Jenisch People, Max Gmuender

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Did Switzerland have slavery? What did it look like? These were the questions that led me investigate the history of “Verdingkinder,” or contract children, who were placed as indentured laborers primarily on Swiss farms from 1850 to 1950. As I dug deeper, I discovered a more targeted campaign within this broader system: the “Kinder der Landstrasse” (Children of the Road) program, which ran from 1926 to 1973 and specifically removed children of the Jenisch ethnic community from their families.

This discovery raised a critical question that has driven my research: How did legal frameworks and institutional systems in Switzerland facilitate …

The Creation And Performance Of Eulogy, Evan Anderson

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

In completion of my senior project for my theatre arts degree at the University of Minnesota Morris, I wrote, composed, and directed Eulogy, performing with myself as Mark, Olivia Emmrich as Amelia, Savana Hauck as the Reverend, and Jennie Odello as the pianist. The following will explore my artistic process: highlighting how I chose my topic, my playwriting and composing process, collaborating with my colleagues, our rehearsal process, the performance, and my reflection on my project.

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 18 No. 2, 2025, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Article

Developmentalism, Christianity, and Population Decline in East Asia by Elizabeth LaCouture

Photo Essay

Photo Essay: Japan’s Demographic Changes and Opportunities: A Tale of Two Cities by Ryoko Yamamoto

Graduate Student Paper

Graduate Student Paper: Aging in a Changing Japan: Gendered Adaptation to Changing Family Structure by Miki Izu and Clayton Chalmers

Book Reviews

Book Review: Wombs of Empire: Population Discourse and Biopolitics in Modern Japan, by Sujin Lee by Bonnie Tilland

Book Review: Gietel-Basten, Stuart. The “Population Problem” in Pacific Asia. by Yang Jixi

Mathematical Play: The Game Of Cycles, Benjamin Gaines

Journal of Math Circles

In the Play chapter of Mathematics for Human Flourishing by  Francis Su, he introduces the Game of Cycles. This is a game played on a graph consisting of vertices, non-overlapping edges connecting those vertices, and the two-dimensional cells enclosed by those edges.  This lesson plan will help organizers use this game to lead an activity touching on the basics of combinatorial game theory, strategizing and think ahead, and how anyone can start exploring uncharted mathematical ground! This activity is suitable for middle school, high school, and undergraduate students, with no specific math background necessary.

Experimental Study Of Dimpled Serpentine Reactors For Hydrogen Production Via Methanol Steam Reforming, Mohamed I. Zeid, Mahmoud A. Shouman, Osama Abdelrehim, Ahmed M. Hamed

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Hydrogen is widely regarded as a clean energy carrier, with methanol steam reforming (MSR) emerging as a promising route for portable and on-board applications due to its favorable operating conditions and high hydrogen yield. Reactor geometry plays a decisive role in hydrogen productivity, pressure drop, and energy efficiency, yet the balance among these factors remains insufficiently addressed. In this study, three serpentine aluminum microreactors: a plain serpentine reactor (PSR), a rhombusdimple reactor (RDR), and a hemispherical-dimple reactor (HDR) were fabricated and coated with a copper (II) oxide, zinc oxide, aluminum oxide (CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃) catalyst to experimentally investigate the effect of dimple …

Preliminary Proportion Limits And Ultimate Strengths Of Steel Box Girder Using Different Codes, Amira Akram Ahmed Tolba, Nabil Said Mahmoud, Saad Eldeen Mostafa Abdrabou

Mansoura Engineering Journal

— Steel Box Girder (SBG) bridges represent a widely used structural solution for both straight and curved bridges of moderate spans, owing to their high torsional rigidity, significant bending resistance, and rapid construction characteristics. This study provides a comprehensive theoretical comparison of the preliminary proportion limits, shear resistance design strength, and flexural resistance design strength in both positive (sagging) and negative (hogging) moment regions of SBG bridges. The comparison encompasses major bridge design specifications (BDS), including those of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Egyptian Code of Practice (ECP 207 – Part 6), and the …

Free Vibration Of Sandwich Panels With Re-Entrant Auxetic Core: A Numerical And Analytical Investigations, Nabaa Alaa Aldeen, Sadeq Hussein Bakhy, Mohsin N. Hamzah

Engineering and Technology Journal

In this paper, an analytical study is performed along with a numerical method to analyze free-vibration behavior of sandwich panels composed of aluminum face sheets and a polymer-based re-entrant auxetic core. An analytical model based on Classical Plate Theory (CPT) was formulated using equivalent orthotropic elastic properties derived from the re-entrant unit-cell geometry. Theoretical predictions were validated using three-dimensional finite element simulations in ANSYS 2025 R1, with SOLID186 elements under supported boundary conditions. The results indicate that if the core thickness is increased from 4 mm to 12 mm, there is roughly a 90% increase in the fundamental natural frequency. …

Improving Properties Of Titanium Alloy Substrate By Composite Coatings Using Electrostatic Dry Spray, Rusul S. Hadi, Mohanad N. Al-Shroofy, Hanaa A. Al-Kaisy

Engineering and Technology Journal

This work investigates the development of polymer-based bio-composite-coated layers on a Ti-6Al-4V substrate via electrostatic spray deposition. The coatings were created using varying compositions, including (Pure PLA, 3, 6, and 9) wt.% of silver(Ag) combined with (100,97, 94, and 91) wt.% of PLA powder. Additionally, similar percentages of zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) were mixed with (3 and 6) wt.% of silver powder(97 and 94)wt.% of Polylactic acid (PLA) powder. The surface morphology of the coated layers was analyzed using FTIR and SEM/EDS techniques, ion-releasethese show the release of Ti, Al, and V ions decreased, representing a significant enhancement in …

Modelling Of Fresh Ultra-High- Performance Slag Concrete Properties Using Response Surface Method, Sana Taha Abdulhussain, Maan S. Hassan, Shatha S. Hasan

Engineering and Technology Journal

The use of large quantities of cement, silica sand, and quartz powder in the production of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) imposes environmental burdens, increases CO₂ emissions, and depletes natural resources. In this concept, there is a need for sustainable UHPC mixtures that reduce clinker and natural aggregate consumption while maintaining ultra-high strength, particularly by utilizing industrial by-products and alternative materials combinations. This study aims to develop sustainable UHPC by incorporating steel slag and utilising accelerated carbonation in the manufacturing of sustainable silica-based binder materials, and to model the resulting fresh properties using response surface methodology (RSM). The investigated variables include …

Probabilistic Analysis Of The Service Life Of Concrete With Recycled Aggregates In Marine Environments, Pietra Guasti Vande Meerssche, Mauro De Vasconcellos Real, Fábio Costa Magalhães, María Noel Pereyra Domínguez, Rita De Cássia Taveira De Oliveira, Gustavo Bosell Wally

Seatific Journal

In marine environments, the main cause of degradation of reinforced concrete structures is corrosion induced by the penetration of chloride ions. Durability design approaches have gradually evolved toward performance-based approaches, which are capable of more accurately assessing the behavior of structures over time and their resistance under specific environmental exposure conditions. Due to the high variability of the parameters affecting the durability of these structures, a probabilistic performance-based approach tends to provide results closer to reality by considering the uncertainties of materials and degradation phenomena as random variables. In this work, a probabilistic service life analysis is carried out for …