Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Political Profile Of Long Island’S Central American Electorate: A Case Study Of Long Island’S Majority-Latino Towns, Brett J. Patrick

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

As Salvadoran and Guatemalan migrants settled en masse across Long Island from the 1980s to the 2010s, seven Latino-majority towns emerged, each with distinct voting patterns that diverge from broader national Latino trends and from one another. This study examines how and why these Central American communities vote by integrating precinct-level election returns with the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey data. Using variables such as income, population density, education, citizenship status, and language, it identifies correlations between demographic conditions and partisan vote share. This approach reveals how socioeconomic factors shape political behavior within Salvadoran-American and Guatemalan-American enclaves in Nassau and …

Pahdf: A Privacy-Aware Hybrid Detection Framework With Class-Aware Weighted Stacking Ensemble (Cawse) For Fake Instagram Account Detection, Sura Jasim Mohammed, Safa Saad Abbas, Suhad Hatem Jihad

Journal of Intelligent Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity

The rapid growth of social media platforms has intensified concerns regarding online privacy, data security, and fraudulent activities that driven by fake accounts. This paper proposes a Privacy-Aware Hybrid Detection Framework (PAHDF) to detect Instagram fake account that integrates privacy preservation with high-performance machine learning. Unlike existing approaches that treat privacy and detection as separated objectives, therefore, the proposed framework jointly addresses both objectives by relying exclusively on publicly available, low-sensitivity profile metadata. PAHDF combines a deep learning model for latent feature representation with a Random Forest classifier for behavioural pattern learning through a Class-Aware Weighted Stacking Ensemble (CAWSE), where …

From Detection To Segmentation: Adapting Yolo26 For Surface Crack Delineation, Mohammed Al-Mustafa, Israa H. Ali

Journal of Intelligent Informatics, Networking, and Cybersecurity

Surface crack delineation plays an important role in infrastructure inspection because accurate pixel-level mapping of cracks can support condition assessment, maintenance planning, and automated monitoring of roads and other civil surfaces. However, recent crack segmentation methods often depend on heavy network designs or prompt-based foundation models. It also remains unclear how a lightweight detection-oriented model behaves across different data organizations and unseen images. This study therefore investigates whether YOLO26m-seg, the medium segmentation variant of the recent YOLO26 family, can be adapted into an effective and practical pipeline for surface crack delineation. The proposed workflow has four main steps. First, binary …

Simotang Oral Liquid Alleviates Functional Dyspepsia-Related Motility Dysfunction Through Ca²⁺-Dependent Smooth Muscle Contraction And Nrf2/Nf-Κb Modulation, Guo Mao, Chunxiang He, Jiaqin Liu, Dahua Wu, Puhua Zeng, Ye Mao

Journal of Food and Drug Analysis

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a disorder of gut-brain interaction involving heterogeneous motor, sensory, immune, and oxidative stress-related mechanisms. Simotang oral liquid (SMT), a traditional Chinese medicine formulation used for dyspeptic and gastrointestinal motility-related symptoms, has not been evaluated with an integrated clinical, functional, and molecular framework. This single-arm prospective pre-post study assessed gastric emptying by the 13C-octanoic acid breath test, gastric electrical activity by electrogastrography, postprandial tolerance by nutrient drink testing, symptom scores, serum biomarkers, and gastric antral tissue markers in patients with FD. FD-like mice were used for charcoal meal transit, smooth muscle strip tension, calcium channel blockade, and …

Assessment Of The Rutting And Moisture Susceptibility Of Sbs-Sasobit-Modified Asphalt Mixtures, Aqeel Y. Alkhafaji, Hasan H. Joni, Basim H. Al-Humeidawi

Engineering and Technology Journal

High temperatures and heavy traffic loads are major factors causing rutting in asphalt pavements. In the presence of moisture, these conditions significantly contribute to pavement deterioration, leading to moisture-related deformations. The combined impact of high hot-season temperatures and heavy traffic axle loads, especially in Iraq, accelerates rutting and reduces pavement lifespan. This study aims to assess the balanced performance of asphaltic mixtures produced utilizing a selected modified bitumen containing 3.0% styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) and 2.0% Sasobit wax. The modified mixture was compared with the unmodified and 3% SBS-modified reference mixtures. All mixes were designed using the Superpave methodology. The indirect tensile …

Local Ramp Metering Strategies: Recommendation For Implementation Ramp Metering In Baghdad, Iraq, Ali S. Saleh, Ali E. Jehad

Engineering and Technology Journal

Ramp metering is one of the most widely used traffic management practices to alleviate congestion on freeways. Although the use of such algorithms has proven effective in developed transportation systems, this adaptation and installation of suitable ramp metering algorithms can still be a problem in developing countries, especially when traffic characteristics, data availability and institutional capacity differ greatly from the developed ones. This paper is a systematic review of local responsive ramp metering strategies covering more than ninety publications from 1991-2026. The review identifies four categories of strategies: threshold-based, feedback-based (such as ALINEA and its variations), optimization-based and AI-based. The …

Antibacterial Activity Of Galangin And Quercetin Against Multidrug Resistant Infections Of Gram Negative Bacteria From Patients Under Acute Myeloid Leukemia Conditions, Iraq, Mustafa Suhel Mustafa, Rana Mujahid Abdullah

Al-Bahir

Galangin and quercetin can be used as a promise route against infections of Gram negative bacteria (GNB) which recorded high incidence in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) due to their immunocompromised state. This study assessed the antibacterial activity of galangin and quercetin against four species of GNB collected from AML patients by determining of sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (sub-MICs) of these flavonoids. Then, the sub-MICs of both flavonoid agents were applied to evaluate their antibacterial effect on gene expression levels targeting four of porin encoding genes included ompK36 for Klebsiella pneumoniae, ompA for Escherichia coli, oprD2 for Pseudomonas …

Analysis Of The Influence Of Anthropometric Dimensions Of Postural Ergonomics Using Multiple Linear Regression, Gashbeen Faisal Najmaddin, Edrees Muhammed Tahir Harki

Al-Bahir

Ergonomics is the study of designing and arranging a workspace or product to optimize the “fit” between people and their work, ensuring safety, comfort, and efficiency. The scientific literature indicates that ergonomic perspectives on the workplace are connected to the anthropometrics of societies. This study primarily aims to create a model that integrates multiple predictive variables to estimate the target variable. Multiple linear regression analysis is used to identify how different anthropometric dimensions predict postural ergonomics during prolonged sitting. Based on the regression models’ results, the predicted can be calculated using user anthropometry and existing chair dimensions. Furthermore, the primary …

Predicting Student Performance In Introduction To Information Technology Using Regression-Based Learning Analytics And Instructional Intervention Data, Masyitah Abu, Nur Azlina Mohamed Mokmin, Ummu Salmah Mohamad Hussin, Hafirda Akma Musaddad

Al-Bahir

This study examines student performance across three instructional intervention strategies in an Introduction to Information Technology subject at a Malaysian private university in Perak. The dataset was obtained from the university system and involved a seven-week short-semester teaching period. A total of 308 diploma students were included and divided into three existing class groups: traditional lecture-based learning (n = 103), multimedia-assisted learning (n = 100), and blended learning (n = 105). Each group was exposed to a different instructional approach delivered by a different lecturer. Student performance was assessed through quizzes, assignments, midterm examination, and final examination. The study analyzed …

Can Artificial Seagrass Meadows Reduce Pathogenic Bacteria In Coral Reef Ecosystems- A Mesocosm Study, Hewa Pathirannahelage Athri Thathsarani Weerakoon, Jimmy Kuo, Pi-Jen Liu, Kwee Siong Tew

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Seagrass meadows provide essential coastal ecosystem functions by stabilizing sediments, enhancing water quality, and shaping nutrient and microbial dynamics. With global seagrass losses accelerating due to climate change and anthropogenic pressures, artificial seagrass (ASG) has been proposed as a nature-based alternative to mimic these functions. However, its ability to replicate biological interactions, particularly microbial regulation and pathogen suppression, remains unclear. In this study, we conducted a six-week mesocosm experiment comparing natural Thalassia hemprichii and ASG within coral reef-associated habitats in southern Taiwan. Physicochemical parameters, sedimentation rates, nutrient concentrations, and planktonic and benthic bacterial communities were analyzed. Sedimentation rates and nutrient …

Book Review: The Weight Of Sand: My 450 Days Held Hostage In The Sahara, Michael Margolius

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Edith Blais

Reviewed by Commander Michael Margolius, US Navy, professor, US Army War College, and former J3 of the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency

In his review of The Weight of Sand: My 450 Days Held Hostage in the Sahara, Michael Margolius views the ordeal faced by author Edith Blais through the lens of a personnel recovery agent. Blais and her boyfriend were kidnapped and held for 15 months by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin gunmen. Margolius points out the many small and practical things that helped Blais survive and how her story can help agencies learn from her experience to …

Fostering And Maintaining Relational Trust Between Massachusetts Public School Superintendents And Their School Committees, John J. Robidoux

Educational Studies Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The effectiveness of public school governance in Massachusetts relies on the collaborative partnership between superintendents and elected school committees. However, school committee members often lack professional backgrounds in education, leading to role confusion, political friction, communication breakdowns, and a reduced ability to develop and maintain effective relationships with the superintendent. While the structural roles of these entities are well-defined by policy, there is limited research on the internal, lived experiences of district leaders navigating the multifaceted dynamics of relational trust as they relate to effective school district operations. This study addresses the gap in understanding how relational trust is …

Creating Collaborative Strategies: The Influence Of Principal Leadership In Teacher Retention In Rural Secondary Schools In Dhalai District, Tripura, Northeast India., Valerian Castelino

Educational Studies Dissertations

Teacher retention has become a growing concern across India and the world. In rural, tribal, and multilingual contexts, the challenge is even greater. This research, Creating Collaborative Strategies: The Influence of Principal Leadership in Teacher Retention in Rural Secondary Schools in Dhalai District, Tripura, Northeast India, explores how school leadership influences teachers’ decisions to remain in rural schools. The research focuses on Tripura, a small state in Northeast India known for its tribal diversity, geographic isolation, multilingual classrooms, and limited educational resources. The research is informed by a multi-theoretical framework: Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Non-Economic Capital Theory, and Transformational Leadership …

Lived Experiences Of Spiritually Communicating Individuals Regarding Identity And Relationship Development In Early Adulthood, Bonnie Jean Kane

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Spiritually communicating individuals (SCIs), those who report interactions with non-physical entities, may face misunderstanding, stigmatization, and pathologization. Although spiritual experiences are recognized across cultures and hold significant psychological importance, they remain largely absent from developmental psychology, leaving a gap in understanding how SCIs navigate identity formation, emotional regulation, and social integration in early adulthood. The foundation of this study is transpersonal theory, which incorporates spiritual and transcendent dimensions of human experience, and phenomenology, which served as the guiding methodological and philosophical approach to explore lived experiences as subjectively perceived. This study examined the lived experiences of SCIs aged 26–35, investigating …

Effective Strategies Nonprofit Leaders Use To Implement Agile And Lean Methodologies To Improve Project Performance Outcomes And Organizational Sustainability, Mariette Njumbe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Limited resources challenge nonprofit organizations to improve project performance and organizational sustainability. Although agile and lean methodologies can enhance adaptability, efficiency, and continuous improvement, many nonprofit leaders lack effective strategies to implement them in mission-driven environments. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore strategies nonprofit leaders use to implement agile and lean methodologies to improve project performance and organizational sustainability. The project was grounded in an integrated conceptual framework of agile project management and lean thinking. Participants were nine nonprofit leaders. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and public documents and analyzed using thematic analysis. Five themes …

Differential Equation Modeling For Sustainable Resource Management: A Steady-State Optimal Harvesting Approach, Iordanka N. Panayotova, Aleksei Talonov

CODEE Journal

Mathematical models based on differential equations provide a powerful framework for connecting real-world data to informed decision-making. In this work, we present a student-accessible project that uses an optimal-control framework to study the sustainable management of biological resources.

Motivated by fisheries management, we examine a predator--prey system in which harvesting decisions must balance ecological and economic considerations. The model is formulated as an optimal control problem that seeks to maximize the total discounted net revenue from harvesting. Rather than solving for the complete time-dependent harvesting trajectory, we restrict the analysis to positive controlled coexistence equilibria and characterize an interior stationary …

Effects Of The “Chai For 2” Pilot Intervention Among Asian Indian Immigrants, Maya Joseph, Anju Wadhawan, Shailja Mathur, Haiqun Lin, Karen T. D'Alonzo

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Asian Indian (AI) immigrants, the second largest immigrant group in the US, have a high prevalence of abdominal obesity and premature cardiovascular disease (CVD).^1,2,3 Despite ample epidemiological evidence of the need to reduce CVD risk in AIs, few published interventions have addressed this population, primarily focusing on dietary measures and promotion of physical activity, and none of these address immigrant AIs.^4,5

This study was built upon the results of our prior work to 1) Implement and pilot test a peer leader-facilitated 10-week dyadic intervention (Community Health among Asian Indian immigrants (CHAI) Dyad study) using a cluster randomization design, …

How To Promote Community Engaged Research (In Less Than 7 Minutes…), Karen T. D'Alonzo, Shailja Mathur, Maya E. Joseph, Anju Wadhawan

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

The phrase “community-engaged research” (CER) has become popularized over the past decade to describe attempts to promote community involvement in the research process.¹ Historically, the term CER referred to scientific researchers and community members who work together to develop community academic partnerships (CAPs), improve research, and create better outcomes in communities, particularly for marginalized populations.² The aim of CER is for the people most directly impacted by the research topic to become active participants in the research process.³ Many forms of CER are guided by the formation of CAPs.⁴ But this process can be daunting, due …

Cultivating A Culture Of Belonging: Elementary Principal Practices, Sara Macneil

Educational Studies Dissertations

A sense of belonging is a fundamental human need that influences students’ experiences, relationships, and engagement within their school context. It is shaped through intentional actions and everyday experiences. Understanding how school leaders intentionally shape conditions that foster students’ sense of belonging requires further exploration. This study focused on an elementary school principal and sought to identify specific leadership practices that strengthen the sense of belonging for elementary students. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected through a sense of belonging survey and small group interviews. The survey data provided a measure of students’ sense of belonging and were used …

Evaluation Of Deep Learning Techniques For Intrusion Detection In Cybersecurity, Doaa El-Shahat, Mohamed Mahmoud Abdelaziz, Waseem Akram, Muhammad Jabir Khan

Sustainable Machine Intelligence Journal

The increasing prevalence of Internet of Things (IoT) technology is also leading to a rise in potential cybersecurity risks. Therefore, it has become crucial to develop effective solutions using deep learning to enable us to discover the various vulnerabilities that may arise from continuous technological advancements, and to defend against the different types of attacks that fraudsters might use to exploit system weaknesses, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, web attacks, and spoofing. Most model failures stem from their reliance solely on detecting spatial patterns and their failure to focus on detecting temporal patterns, resulting in poor performance …

Haf-Bitrans: A Heterogeneity-Aware Federated Bilstm-Transformer Framework For Privacy-Preserving Detection Of Multi-Stage Apt Behaviors In Iot Networks, Tareef S Alkellezli, Nariman A. Khalil

Sustainable Machine Intelligence Journal

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are difficult to detect in heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT) environments because malicious behavior can unfold across reconnaissance, scanning, command-and-control, denial-of-service, and exfiltration stages. Centralized intrusion-detection pipelines also create privacy, communication, and latency concerns when traffic originates at distributed edge devices. This study presents HAF-BiTrans, a heterogeneity-aware federated BiLSTM-Transformer framework for privacy-preserving detection of multi-stage APT-like behavior. At each client, a bidirectional long short-term memory encoder captures temporal dependencies, a lightweight Transformer models broader contextual relationships, and a class-balanced focal objective addresses class imbalance. At the server, Heterogeneity-Aware Contribution-Trust Aggregation (HACTA) weights client updates using sample …

Interface-Dependent Nitrite-To-Ammonia Reduction In A Cu/Pd Palladium Membrane Reactor, Bingxin Guo, Yaxin Shi, Shihe Lin, Zhiqin Liang

Online First

Nitrite-to-ammonia conversion is a multistep reduction that requires hydrogen delivery together with a suitable interfacial electrochemical environment. Palladium membrane reactors (PMRs) spatially separate hydrogen supply from the substrate, but whether a hydrogen-rich membrane interface alone can sustain this deep reduction remains unclear. Here, we systematically compared the hydrogenation and electrolysis sides of a Cu/Pd PMR. On the hydrogenation side, NH₃ was barely formed; representative Cu/Pd samples gave only 1.90-2.16 μg h^-1 cm^-2 after 9 h, with apparent Faradaic efficiencies below 2%. The weak response persisted under sustained electrochemical hydrogen charging and in direct-H₂ open-circuit controls, although …

Spatiotemporal Variations Of Tidal Asymmetry Along The Coast Of Taiwan: Characteristics And Implications, Ting-Chieh Lin, Tai-Wen Hsu, Tzu-Chun Huang, Chun-Yuan Lin

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study presents the first systematic investigation into the spatiotemporal characteristics and evolutionary trends of tidal asymmetry along the coast of Taiwan from 2003 to 2022, employing a moving window method combined with the S_TIDE toolbox.  By quantifying the skewness of the Main Tidal Asymmetry Combinations (MTAC) and their temporal variations, the study reveals significant regional disparities between the eastern and western coasts.  The western coast is primarily dominated by the M2-M4 combination, with the northwestern region exhibiting a flood dominance pattern and the southwestern region characterized by ebb dominance.  Conversely, the eastern coast, attributed to its open topography and …

Evaluating The Readability Of Online Patient Education Materials For Avascular Necrosis, Gabriella B. Smith, Grady H. Hofmann, Anna V. Gussner, Nicole S. Pham, Nneoma O. Duru, Kevin G. Shea

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: Avascular necrosis (AVN) is a progressive pathology affecting pediatric and adult patients. Given the risks of joint collapse and surgery, patients frequently research their condition online. The average reading level in the United States is approximately the eighth-grade level. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend that patient materials be written at or below a sixth-grade level. This study aimed to assess the readability and quality of online AVN resources.

Methods: A Google search using the terms “avascular necrosis” and “osteonecrosis” was conducted, and firstpage results were aggregated. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, and Flesch Reading Ease tests …

Under Pressure And Underrecognized: The Role Of Social Workers And Case Managers In Screening For Social Determinants Of Health In The United States, Melissa L. Habrat, Lindsay D. Nelson, David A. Nelson

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Social determinants of health (SDOH) screening is increasingly embedded in clinical care, yet the work of asking, documenting, and responding to social needs often falls to social workers and nurses or professional case managers who operate under significant time, staffing, and system constraints. We conducted a narrative review to examine how SDOH influence outcomes, identify systemic and emotional barriers to effective screening, and synthesize evidence-informed strategies that support implementation. Across included sources, findings clustered into three domains: challenges in integrating screening (policy and accreditation pressure, staffing and resource constraints, EHR documentation and interoperability limits, closed-loop referral and cross-sector partnership gaps, …

The Necropolitics Of Mourning In Two Selected Novels: Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons Of Maali Almeida And Pynchon's Prophet Song, Ameer Mohammed Hussein

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

The politics of mourning in Shehan Karunatilaka's The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (2022) and Paul Lynch's Prophet Song (2023) is explored in this study from a cultural and socio-political viewpoints. Although the concept of trauma and memory has been studied in recent Anglophone fiction, there is comparatively little work considering mourning as a political practice in geopolitical difference. This study fills this gap, in the context of mourning as a resistance, in post-civil war Sri Lanka and authoritarian Ireland. The study uses qualitative comparative textual analysis as conceptual frameworks, which were developed by Judith Butler with her concept of …

Reliable Performance Analysis Of Polyurea Coatings Used In Offshore Wind Turbines, Yu-Chang Lin, Yen-Fu Liu, I-Ming Pan, Ming-Yuan Lin, Kang-Yu Liao, Hung-Hua Sheu, Hung-Bin Lee

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study explores the weather resistance, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of polyurea coatings in marine environments. The relevant analysis results can be used as a reliability assessment of offshore wind turbine structural coatings during their service life under the influence of marine environments. The long-term experiment uses seawater and 70°C thermal aging conditions as coating reliability assessment items. The microstructure of the samples that have been immersed in seawater for a long time and thermally aged is observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results show that the surface of the 100 and 125 series polyurea coatings is …

Identifying The Causality And Criticality Of Factors Influencing The Promotion Of Asian Island-Hopping Cruise Tourism In Taiwan, Hsiao-Chuan Liu, Gin-Shuh Liang, Feng-Ming Tsai, Yu-Ling Lien

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the global tourism industry has steadily recovered since 2022. Island-hopping cruises have gained increasing attention for enhancing regional connectivity and diversifying marine travel experiences; however, their development in Asia remains limited compared with that in Europe and the Caribbean due to fragmented policy coordination, inadequate port infrastructure, and uneven technological readiness. Although Taiwan possesses a geographic advantage and can serve as a strategic hub linking Asian island destinations, systematic planning and stakeholder coordination remain insufficient, resulting in unclear mechanisms that drive or constrain island-hopping cruise tourism. Existing studies mainly focus on market demand or passenger behavior, …

White Shark Occurrence In Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Revealed From Acoustic Telemetry In An Offshore Mpa, Michael A. Dance, Jay R. Rooker, R. J. David Wells, Megan V. Winton, Landes L. Randall, Marissa F. Nuttall, Brondum M. Krebs, Creed C. Branham, Brett B. Sweezey, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The outer continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is characterized by unique bathymetric features that provide critical habitat for marine fauna. Here, we demonstrate the utility of large-scale acoustic telemetry for monitoring an oceanic marine protected area (MPA) and document the first known occurrences of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) within Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS). White sharks were tagged with acoustic transmitters in the western North Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States and Canada. Nine white sharks were detected along the outer shelf ecosystem associated with FGBNMS over a three-year …

Copper Nanoparticles And Their Future In Drug Delivery And Anticancer Therapy, Keykavous Parang, Rajesh Vadlapatla, Cassia Charles, Kimberly Tang, Trang Nguyen, Amir Nasrolahi Shirazi, Ajoy Koomer

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) have attracted growing attention in nanomedicine owing to their distinctive physicochemical, optical, and biological properties. Their large surface area, tunable size, ease of surface modification, and low cost make them attractive candidates for drug delivery, where they can both improve delivery efficiency and enable stimuli-responsive release. CuNPs also possess intrinsic antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and photothermal activities, further broadening their biomedical utility. In this review, we synthesize recent advances in the synthesis, characterization, surface functionalization, and biomedical application of CuNPs, comparing chemical, physical, and green synthetic routes and their effects on stability, biocompatibility, and therapeutic efficacy. We examine …