Digital Commons Network^™

The Readiness Reset: Sleep, Stress, And Pain Management For Tactical Performance, Lauren Fried

Tactical & Occupational Performance Conference

Tactical professionals operate in high-demand environments where sleep disruption, chronic stress, and persistent pain are often normalized, but these factors significantly affect readiness, resilience, and long-term performance. This session explores how sleep, stress, and pain interact at the physiological and neurological levels to influence decision-making, recovery, injury risk, and operational effectiveness in first responders and military personnel.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how nervous system regulation, circadian rhythms, and pain perception affect both physical and cognitive performance under stress. Drawing on current research and applied human performance principles, this session highlights practical, field-applicable strategies that tactical professionals and …

A Micropolitics Of Soccer Visibility: Sports And American Exceptionalism Through A Nashville Lens, John Sloop

Fast Capitalism

This essay uses the occasion of the 2026 World Cup to investigate the ways “soccer” or football in the United States has reflected the ideology of US exceptionalism as well as a wide array of other ideological nodal points. By performing a microhistory of soccer as it was covered in the local news in Nasvhille, I bring into relief the ways our understanding of soccer today continues to be constrained by its ideological roots in terms of nationalism, gender, race, and class.

An Age Of Piracy Or A Golden Era: An Economic History Of Colombian Football From Obscurity To International Notoriety, 1918-1954, Brandon Blakeslee

Fast Capitalism

This paper discusses the economic realities of international soccer in the middle of the twentieth century. As soccer became more popular it became more important for clubs to acquire good players, so fans would continue to attend the games, and for clubs who had good players to maintain them. At a time when Europe was still recovering from the second World War, Colombian business and club owners saw an opportunity to bring some of the biggest stars in the world to the Colombian league (Dimayor). This move inaugurated the golden age of Colombian soccer 1948-1954, but not everyone was happy …

Non-Football: The Hyperrationalized Nothingness Of Sporting Late Capitalism, David L. Andrews

Fast Capitalism

Over the past four decades, the origination and remarkable growth of the English Premier League (EPL, has transformed English football from what was a relatively parochial expression of a predominantly urban working class culture, into a mass entertainment-driven, multiple revenue-streamed, and globally consumed sport spectacle.  As such, this discussion engages and extends the voluminous critical scholarship on the EPL as an instructive object of cultural economic inquiry.  This is realized through a contextual model of the EPL as a hyper-rationalized non-football assemblage, largely based on a synthetic reading of Manuel DeLanda, Marc Augé, and George Ritzer’s conceptualizing.  This model forges …

Platform Telecracy: Soccer, Capital, And Media After Galeano, Jason Ludwig

Fast Capitalism

This article builds on on Eduardo Galeano's concept of "telecracy"  to theorize "platform telecracy," an updated framework for analyzing the relationship between soccer, media infrastructure, and capital in the era of digital platforms.  The article argues that the transition from broadcast television to online platforms has fundamentally transformed how soccer media is produced, circulated, and monetized. Where Galeano's broadcast telecracy (Telecracy 1.0) commodified the live match broadcast, platform telecracy (Telecracy 2.0) assetizes match footage, enabling its endless fragmentation and recirculation across digital platforms as a source of continuous advertising and subscription revenue.

From Many Green New Deals To The New Green Scam, Timothy W. Luke

Fast Capitalism

This preliminary critical analysis explores the decisive shift in U.S. environmental policy from the Biden Administration, which still honored the mythic might of FDR’s 1930s New Deal, to the rapid implementation of a President Trump's MAGA ("Make America Great Again") approaches to environmental conservation and protection policy. The Biden Administration’s and the Democratic Party also entertained “Green New Deal” measures despite their often misunderstood connections to statist class compromises and corporatist legitimation dynamics that alienated many conservatives and the GOP, as exemplified by the Project 2025 program from the Heritage Foundation behind the Second Trump administration.  As a mix of …

The 2026 World Cup, In Trump’S Shadow, Richard Holtzman

Fast Capitalism

This essay examines President Donald Trump’s rhetorical interventions in the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is inspired by Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Sun and Shadow, which interprets football as a mirror reflecting broader political, cultural, and economic realities. My analysis explores how Trump commandeered the World Cup through spectacle, transforming it into a stage for symbolically demonstrating his power and indulging his ego. The president’s rhetorical behavior is explored and critiqued through three case studies and a final vignette: (1) the establishment of a White House World Cup Task Force, (2) the president’s threats to relocate …

Cyberzombies And The Afterlife Of Thought: Dead Labor, Ai, And The Necropolis Of Capital, Craig Van Pelt

Fast Capitalism

This essay presents a novel Marxist theory of artificial intelligence (AI) as the latest expansive form of dead labor. Drawing on Marx’s Grundrisse (1993 [1973]), I argue that modern AI systems function as cyberzombies: digital entities animated by appropriated dead cognitive labor. This dead cognitive labor operates as seemingly autonomous machine cognition, reproducing the core feature of capital: the domination of living labor by accumulated past labor. These cyberzombies accelerate the widening cognitive rift—the structural separation between communities that supply resources for AI to function and the actors who accumulate the resulting knowledge. The essay concludes that cyberzombies reveal an …

Rebuilding The Foundation: A Discussion On Affirmative Action And Its Role In Improving Our Education System, Jacinda Thermidor

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

For a long time, affirmative action policies have been fixated on race and gender. Justifiably so, since both define historically marginalized groups that still need explicit federal protections to ensure that people in these groups move through economic and educational spaces effectively and safely. Legislators have attempted to meet this need for protection by explicitly naming race and gender as protected classes in anti-discrimination laws. However, legislators have overlooked a factor that not only is the underlying issue behind inequities in education but can help achieve the goals that Supreme Court Justices and legislators had in mind—this factor is …

Should I Supersede Or Should I Go: Individual Protection And Private Company Interests In Implementing A Federal Biometric Privacy Law, Jessica Oshanani

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Section I of this Note will define and discuss biometrics. Section II will discuss key biometrics legislation and Section III will explain the impact of BIPA on other state biometric privacy laws.

Next, Section IV will explain the impact of biometric privacy violations and separate controlling state laws on individuals, while Section V will explain the impact of biometric data laws on private companies.

Section VI will identify potential federal laws on the horizon, then Section VII will explain the concept and application of preemption.

Finally, Section VIII will discuss the benefits of administrative agency overview, and Section IX …

The Cruelty Is The Point: How The Extreme Psychological Effects And Punitive Ineffectiveness Of Solitary Confinement Culminate In An Unconstitutionally Disproportionate Punishment, Zachary Bosak

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note will propose that solitary confinement can be wholly abolished under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. This Amendment provides in full that “[e]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” When taken in a broad, isolated sense, the meaning of and purpose behind this Amendment are straightforward and uncontroversial; the founders meant to protect Americans from “methods of punishment” considered unreasonably severe and inhumane. However, when one attempts to place this Amendment within the context of a legal issue, its clarity erodes, and questions arise as to its applicability. …

Texas Bluebonnet Chapter, Daughters Of The American Revolution Scrapbook, 1988

Lucretia Council Cochran and Texas Bluebonnet Chapters, Daughters of the American Revolution Scrapbooks

Scrapbook created by the Texas Bluebonnet Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution containing materials from 1988

Texas Bluebonnet Chapter, Daughters Of The American Revolution Scrapbook, 1976-1981

Lucretia Council Cochran and Texas Bluebonnet Chapters, Daughters of the American Revolution Scrapbooks

Scrapbook created by the Texas Bluebonnet Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution containing materials from 1976-1981

Innovative Approach To Converting Wastewater Brine Into Sustainable Pla-Based Composite Materials, Fatima Abdulaziz Al Jaberi

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

The increasing environmental concerns associated with desalination reject brine and date palm wood waste have created a need for sustainable waste valorization strategies. This research investigates the development of biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA)-based composite materials reinforced with a filler derived from desalination reject brine (EPC-RB) and date palm wood (DPW) waste. The study was conducted in two phases. First, PLA composites containing different concentrations of brine-derived filler were fabricated and evaluated to determine the optimum composition based on mechanical performance. Second, date palm wood waste was incorporated into the selected formulation to produce hybrid composites. Mechanical characterization was performed through …

Texas Bluebonnet Chapter, Daughters Of The American Revolution Scrapbook, 1972-1974

Lucretia Council Cochran and Texas Bluebonnet Chapters, Daughters of the American Revolution Scrapbooks

Scrapbook created by the Texas Bluebonnet Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution containing materials from 1972-1974

Accessibility On Campus: Ruane Ll05, A. Gross, S. Peifly, S. Gallagher, K. O'Neil

Education Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Intervention Strategies In Co-Evolving Multiplex Networks: A Reinforcement Learning Approach To Real-Time Misinformation Containment, Anjali Ashokrao Bhadre Dr., Harshvardhan Prabhakar Ghongade Dr.

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The growing transmission of misinformation via social media creates serious challenges to public health, democracy and social cohesion. To date, methods used to contain misinformation rely upon static representations of networks and set rules for interventions. In contrast, this study presents the first Multiplex Adaptive Reinforcement Intervention Network (MARIN), a framework for real-time adaptive intervention in the context of dynamic misinformation transmission using co-evolving multiplex networks and deep reinforcement learning. Unlike past studies that have assumed static network structures, MARIN has the ability to allow for dynamic changes in network topology as a result of both misinformation transmission and intervention …

Tinyvgg-Based Real-Time Degradation Classification For Adverse Driving Scenes Using A Newly Collected Iraqi Driving Dataset, Yousif N. Abbas, Matheel E. Abdulmunim, Nada H. Ali, Ismail A. Mageed

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

Environmental conditions such as low-light at night, fog scattering, glare artifacts, rain streaks, and rain smear distortions are significant issues of camera-based perception in Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). These degradations alter the statistics of the scene, mask structure, introduce non-uniform noise, and adversely affect downstream vision processes, including detection and tracking. To overcome this shortcoming, this paper presents a lightweight TinyVGG-based degradation classification system that runs in real time. The network extracts discriminative spatial features with hierarchical convolutional encoding and projects them to a lower-dimensional semantic representation with fully connected layers and a multi-class predictor based on SoftMax. In addition, a …

Improving Approach Of Evolutionary Strategies For Clustering Technique Enhancement, Duaa Mahde Saleh, Hasanen S. Abdullah, Ahmad Zamsuri

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

The existence of the information has been the essential aspect of the whole society. Information is concentrated in all forms to be effectively utilized. Clustering — an unsupervised learning technique. It is based on data similarity that gives rise to issues in collection, challenges and instability in data structure. It proposes an advanced evolutionary method by combining two approaches. Firstly, it adopts the evolutionary approach and integrates the advantages between two methods to design one. Among them are Differential Evolution (DE) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), Evolutionary Strategy (ES) and Genetic Programming (GP), and Evolutionary Programming (EP) and Particle Swarm Optimization …

A Comprehensive Review Of 1d Deep Learning Approaches In Facial Analysis: Face Recognition, Landmark Detection, And Mesh Modeling, Duaa J. Al Hammami, Rehab F. Hassan

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

Facial Analysis has progressed rapidly with deep learning and its 2D image-based models, especially Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), which have been the most popular methods. In recent years, 1D deep learning models have gained traction in the search for efficient solutions for face recognition, facial landmark detection, and 3D face mesh modeling. 1D models encode the facial structure as sequences, curves, or temporal signals, resulting in high computational efficiency, a small memory footprint, and good interpretability, making them well-suited for real-time and edge devices. This review is a step-by-step, organized exploration of 1D deep learning analysis of the face, its …

Comparative Study On Throughput Optimization In Nfv: Traditional Dissemination Techniques Vs. Swarm Intelligence Approaches, Sanaa Salih Alwan, Asia Ali Salman, Wulfrano Arturo Luna Ramírez

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) modernizes networks by replacing hardware with software, creating a more flexible network architecture and offering flexibility in dynamic network environments. This foundational technology is essential for creating the networks of the future, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and cellular services. NFV does provide flexibility, but it struggles to maintain system throughput during high traffic loads while achieving high resource utilization efficiency and dynamic packet routing. The problem lies in the fact that traditional request distribution mechanisms, such as flooding and gossip, fail to operate efficiently in complex network topologies (scale-free networks), leading to: (a) random …

A Comprehensive Review Of The A* Algorithm: Evolution, Applications, And Future Trends In Path Planning, Saleel H. Abood, Hussein M. H. Al-Khafaji, Mohanned M. H. Al-Khafaji

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

Despite being a fundamental problem to autonomous robotics and intelligent navigation systems, path planning is still a challenge. The A^* algorithm is often used among search-based techniques for optimal search performance, as it's a tradeoff of computation. The above techniques have been developed for various applications as many versions of A^* Dynamic A^* (D^*), D^* Lite, Hybrid A^*, and Anytime A^* are suggested to deal with dynamic environments, real-time constraints, and kinematic restrictions. This paper comprehensively and structurally reviews the A^* algorithm and its major extensions, encompassing historical development, methodological …

Skin Lesion Classification Using Cnn Model And Augmented Dataset, Mohammed Nawzad Mohammed-Ramzi, Aso M. Aladdin

Journal of Soft Computing and Computer Applications

Skin cancer is a deadly disease. Skin lesion classification is a critical challenge due to its prevalent and deadly nature. Skin lesions are difficult for dermatologists to detect using eye examination, which is time-consuming and variable. A deep learning model of skin lesions classification has been proposed using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) trained on the HAM10000 dataset of 10,015 dermatoscopies. To improve resilience and address the dataset's extreme class imbalance, data augmentation techniques such as geometric transformations, brightness/contrast adjustments, blurring, noise addition, histogram equalization, color space alterations, and elastic deformations are used. With a carefully balanced 10% test set, …

Comparative Analysis Of Random Forest And Artificial Neural Networks For Predicting In-Situ Soil Density, Eng. Jinan Ali Abd Al-Kareem Al-Maliki, Dr Ammar Salman Dawood, Dr. Ihsan Al-Abboodi

HBRC Journal

This study suggests that RF and ANN are proven to be robust algorithms in predicting in-situ soil density, which is considered a significant geotechnical parameter. The research is based on 86 soil samples and focuses on five main input parameters: Gravel Percentage (G%), Plastic Limit (PL%), Sand Percentage (S%), Fines Percentage (F%), and Liquid Limit (LL%). The models developed here utilize five commonly recorded index properties (G%, S%, F%, LL, and PL) for all field samples taken from the Basra-Faw Road project. The influence of moisture content and compressive energy was ignored, as all field samples acquired the same moisture …

Potential Rainwater Harvesting Site Selection Using Satellite Data And Geomatics Approaches In Shatt Al-Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, Atheer Askar Ismail, Basheer S. Jasim, Khalid Qaraghuli, Zulfaqar Sa'adi

Engineering and Technology Journal

Water scarcity remains a major environmental and socio-economic challenge in arid and semi-arid regions, where efficient Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) can be a promising solution in providing adequate water. An integrated approach for site selection of RWH in Shatt al-Hilla Region of Iraq using satellite imagery and geomatics techniques. The Landsat 9 OLI/TIRS data, and a 30-meter spatial resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) were used to extract several key indicators, including Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Bare Soil Index (BSI), slope, and aspect. Using geographic information system (GIS) weighted overlay analysis (WOA), each factor was weighted …

Experimental Investigation On Compaction And Shear Strength Of Saline Soil Using Granular Additives, Mustafa Hassan Abed, Ali Majid. Al-Kinani

Engineering and Technology Journal

Saline soils are widespread in southern Iraq and are generally characterized by low shear strength and poor compaction behavior, which limits their suitability for engineering applications. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mechanical stabilization using locally available granular materials—subbase, crushed stone, and fine gravel—to improve the compaction properties and shear strength of saline soils. The experimental program included modified Proctor compaction tests conducted in accordance with ASTM D1557 and direct shear tests conducted in accordance with ASTM D6528 on untreated soil and treated soil mixtures prepared with additive contents of 7%, 15%, 30%, and 50% based on the …

Beneficial Investigation Of Sustainable Recycled Waste Plastic In Treating The Consolidation Behavior Of Fine Soil, Aram Mohammed Raheem, Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, Mohammed Hiwa Abdullrahman, Ali Tariq Omer

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

Recycled waste plastic is one of the regular garbage utilized as a sustainable material in soil remediation. This study examines the efficacy of utilizing local recycled waste plastic as an ecological quantifiable along with soil containing fine particles to analyze the consolidation behavior. Various recycled waste plastic contents ranging from 2% to 10% were employed experimentally in two patterns where in the first pattern the recycled waste plastic were mixed as dry material with the fine soil particles while in the second pattern a sandwich layer of 10% of the recycled waste plastic was placed in the middle of the …

Enhanced Thermal Energy Storage In Buildings: Impregnation, Leakage, And Environmental Performance Of Organic And Inorganic Pcm Composites, Gökhan Genç, Esra Yılmaz, M. Yusuf Yazıcı

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

This study experimentally investigates the impregnation and leakage performance of various organic (tobacco, sawdust, bay leaf, black cumin) and inorganic (vermiculite, perlite, bentonite, sepiolite) carrier materials used for phase change material (PCM) integration in building applications. The commercial paraffin-based PCM RT-31 was used as the thermal storage medium. Impregnation and leakage tests were conducted to evaluate the PCM absorption capacity, form stability, and energy storage potential of each carrier. The results revealed that perlite (C = 80%) and bay leaf (C = 78%) exhibited the highest impregnation capacities due to their porous and fibrous structures; however, they also demonstrated significant …

Modeling Of Tensile Stress-Strain Response For Steel Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concretes, Anıl Niş, Nilufer Özyurt, Turan Özturan

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

Main aim of the research was to further understand self-compacting concrete reinforced with steel fibers (SFR-SCC) behavior and to contribute modeling of the tensile stress-strain diagrams for the standardization of the fiber reinforced materials for structural utilization. Fiber reinforced materials has not been used without structural rebar because of the absence of stress-strain curve in tension required for the structural design codes. Hence, an inverse analysis (multi-layer model) was further modified for various steel fibers to predict tensile stress-strain behaviour. For this purpose, 5 different mixes; control, reinforced with long fibers with 0.5% and 1%, short fiber with 0.5% and …

Dual-Action Antibacterial Agents Targeting Biofilm Reduction And Membrane Disruption In Staphylococcus Aureus, Rahmat Folashade Zakariyah, Waliyullahi Akorede Husain, Elohor Precious Samuel, Wonder Olanipekun Oloruntoba, Fatmah Opeyemi Saka, Khalid Ayinde Oyelami, Mariam Temitope Baker

Al-Bahir

Antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus aureus is a serious global health problem as the organism rapidly develops resistance against widely used antibiotics. This study sought to investigate the antibacterial and antibiofilm properties of γ-Tocopherol, a natural compound from Ocimum gratissimum, as well as its synergism with 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) against S. aureus. The antibacterial activities and minimum inhibitory concentrations of the compounds were determined using agar diffusion and microbroth dilution methods, respectively. Biofilm reduction was evaluated using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) assay and membrane integrity was evaluated using the crystal violet microtiter plate assay and the ion leakage assay. The results …