Digital Commons Network^™

A Biodegradable Particulate-Polymer Composite, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes a low-cost, room-temperature curing, biodegradable particulate-polymer composite material consisting of a crystalline carbohydrate filler (sucrose), an organic polysaccharide binder (gum tragacanth or equivalent water-soluble vegetable gums), and a liquid vehicle (water). This disclosure details the mechanical formulation, processing methods, and structural applications of this material for non-culinary industrial uses, including sacrificial tooling, casting mandrels, rapid prototyping, and biodegradable architectural modeling. The physical mechanics and chemical formulations of this material are inherently enabled by historical cultural documentation, specifically the 1815 publications of Marie-Antoine Carême regarding pastillage matrices.

Structural Hydrocolloid Scaffolding In 19th Century Pastry, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure details the technical methods for creating shelf-stable, structurally sound, and aerated dairy compositions without the use of modern synthetic stabilizers. It documents the "Diplomat" and "Mousseline" systems as prior art for structural hydrocolloid scaffolding and fat-protein emulsification, specifically addressing the prevention of syneresis (weeping) and the deactivation of starch-degrading enzymes.

The Art Of The Kitchen Insult, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure identifies a systematic method of political subversion embedded in the "High Art" of 19th-century French pastry, specifically the works of Marie-Antoine Carême. It identifies the "Crème Diplomate" and "Crème Bavaroise" as deliberate semiotic parodies of the diplomatic class and the Bavarian state. By utilizing gelatin-stabilized aerated structures, the "Chef-Architect" performed a public satire of "spineless" and "insubstantial" political entities, effectively "manufacturing" an illegitimate social class of chef-experts (the "Tiddy-Doll" effect).

Context-Driven Grid Deformation And Deep State Injection For 3d Perception, Idan Kligvasser, Ehud Rivlin, Regev Cohen, George Leifman, Yotam Intrator

Defensive Publications Series

Existing 3D perception methods can be computationally inefficient due to static grids that may process irrelevant spatial regions and may struggle to integrate driving context. A framework can use a global state vector, derived from data such as vehicle ego-state and environmental information, to manage a perception pipeline. The state vector may concurrently drive two mechanisms: a context-driven grid deformation that can create a dynamic, foveated voxel grid to concentrate resolution on pertinent areas, and a deep state injection method using adaptive instance normalization to condition a network’s feature extraction at multiple layers. This integrated system may improve computational efficiency …

Cooperative Ue-Network Delivery Of Map Data For A Predicted Area Of Interest, Arunoday Bhattacharya, Andy (Jibing) Wang

Defensive Publications Series

A method is described for delivering map data to resource-constrained devices, such as smartwatches, operating on bandwidth-limited networks, for example, cellular or non-terrestrial networks. A user equipment (UE) can use sensors and contextual data to predict a user's trajectory and define an area of interest (AoI). The user equipment (UE) may send an area of interest (AoI) request, including its display characteristics, to a network. A network function can then fetch map data, perform server-side optimizations like tiling and layer selection, and computationally crop the data to a shape corresponding to the user equipment (UE) display before transmission. This approach …

Mobile User Interface With An Ergonomic, Bottom-Placed Primary Action And An Explicit, Non-Iconic Dismissal Control, Lin Chen, Yanhao Tan, Andrew Campbell, Onur Turna, Tom Woudenberg, Boriana Viljoen, Jaclyn Einis

Defensive Publications Series

A user interface for a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, can present promotional content in a bottom-sheet container to address potential user engagement issues. The interface may utilize a vertical stack of call to action buttons, placing a primary action at the bottom of the stack to improve ergonomics by being within an easily accessible thumb zone. A conventional x close icon may be omitted. In its place, a secondary dismissive button can use explicit, descriptive text, for example, "Stay on website," to articulate the action's consequence. This configuration of ergonomic placement and an explicit, non-iconic dismissal …

System And Method For Assessing User Engagement And Ad Placement Quality, Xing Tan, Sahil Dhuper, Dongjing He, Yan Chen, Richard Zippel, Rui Zhang, Zachary Loebel Fried

Defensive Publications Series

The described technology provides a system for generating behavioral scores to assess digital publisher properties. The system calculates scores indicating the quality of content placements and user engagement to identify anomalous or low-quality traffic patterns. The evaluation is based on behavioral metrics derived from user interactions with the publisher content and promotional elements. This approach transforms varied interaction signals into normalized, ensembled scores that provide actionable insights into the underlying quality of the digital inventory. Keywords: behavioral score, user engagement, placement evaluation, anomalous traffic, digital advertising, content quality.

Proactive Reservation Of Network Slices Based On Manual Or Contextual Triggers, Arunoday Bhattacharya, Amruth Ramachandran, Jayachandran C, Vid Adiraju, Pavan Nuggehalli

Defensive Publications Series

Systems and methods are described for a mechanism that supports the proactive reservation of network resources for a specified future time period. This reservation can be initiated manually by a user or automatically by an on-device agent that analyzes contextual signals, such as calendar events or location history, to anticipate a future need for enhanced connectivity. Following a pre-negotiation phase, the network can reserve the resources and deliver an updated routing policy to a user device, for example, a smartphone, smart watch, or augmented reality glasses. This can allow the device to activate the pre-provisioned network slice at the scheduled …

Pathogenic Oral Microbiota Abundance Is Associated With Reduced Bite Force In Patients With Periodontitis, Yi-Fan Wu

Articles in Press

No abstract provided.

Beyond Stabilization: Biological Healing, Structural Exclusion, And The Recovery Gap After Border-Fall Trauma At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Julia Robinson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This honors thesis examines the biochemical, ethical, and public health consequences of insufficient post-operative follow-up care for undocumented immigrants injured in border falls. Discussing pathways of inflammation resolution, wound healing, and bone remodeling, this thesis argues that recovery depends on tightly regulated molecular and cellular processes that are highly vulnerable to disruption without continued monitoring and rehabilitation (Loi et al., 2016; Maruyama et al., 2020). When follow-up care is absent, these processes can be predicted to derail, leading to infection, impaired healing, and permanent disability (Chung & Sohn, 2025; Howard et al., 2020; Kruidenier et al., 2018). Framed through principles …

Separation Of Copyright Powers, Blake Reid

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The United States Copyright Office’s multifarious roles in the U.S. copyright system have long prompted uncertainty about its position among the branches of the federal government. From its formal home in the Library of Congress, the chameleonic Office has accumulated a wide range of advisory, rulemaking, adjudicative, and administrative functions that have long prompted questions about both agencies’ exercise of dueling legislative and executive powers. Despite its increasingly sprawling portfolio and unusual configuration, the Office has never faced a serious separation-of-powers reckoning—until now. In the span of just five days in May 2025, Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress …

The Names We Carry, Christan Hickman

Masters Theses

The Names We Carry explores the weight of the labels and expectations we carry from others and sometimes from ourselves. It tells the story of moving from exhaustion, self-doubt, and trying to be everything for everyone to discovering rest, boundaries, and a sense of wholeness. The book looks at identities people have given us and asks whether these names show who we really are or who we had to become to survive. It is about learning to live fully, care for ourselves without guilt, and embrace authenticity in work, relationships, and faith. At its heart, The Names We Carry is …

Cinematic Biblical Translation: An Introduction To Narratological Screenwriting Through Genesis 38, Wesley Newman

Masters Theses

CBT draws from three areas of study: screenplay analysis, biblical narratology/narrative criticism, and screenplay adaptation to evaluate specific Hebrew narratives into a screenplay. Biblical narratology offers insight into the literary structure and narrative logic of ancient Hebrew storytelling, while contemporary screenwriting explains how narrative functions within modern audiovisual media. The marrying of these two fields creates a new methodology for translating biblical narratives into a form that remains faithful to the text while also being engaging on screen. This allows me to establish the guidelines necessary for crafting an accurate and compelling screenplay translation while also laying the foundation for …

The Impact Of Teacher Verbal And Nonverbal Communication On Student Motivation, Claire E. Haines

Masters Theses

The classroom environment is one of vast areas of scholarly literature yet may levels of understanding classroom communication remain unexplored. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the lived student experience with how teacher communication impacts student motivation in general as well as intrinsic forms of communication. Data for this research was taken directly from student accounts of verbal and nonverbal interactions with teachers that impacted their motivation. One of the key findings of this research was the observed process that participants described through interviews. This observed three step process displayed how verbal and nonverbal communication were expressed to have …

Dialogue In Screenwriting: Developing The Character Through Conversation, Madalynn Ruth Shiderly

Masters Theses

The purpose of this document is to highlight the importance of dialogue in a screenplay, discuss specific examples of dialogue from well-known films, and analyze how words affect the characterization of a film’s protagonist. First, the document explains the importance of having strong characters in a story for it to be compelling enough for audiences to engage with it. Then, the question of whether character or plot is more important in a narrative is discussed. Finally, the document introduces the concept of dialogue in a screenplay, forming the argument that dialogue is just as important as plot structure. For this …

Man's Modern Need For God: A Literary Apologetic, Matthew G. Jones

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that modern man’s attempt to dispense with God inevitably results in psychological, moral, and existential collapse, a reality most powerfully revealed through the literary works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. Before Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God and called humanity to transcend traditional morality through the rise of the Übermensch, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy had already responded, not merely with philosophical counterarguments, but with stories that exposed the devastating consequences of life divorced from the divine. Through literary apologetics, this thesis examines the broader cultural and spiritual conversation taking place between these nineteenth-century thinkers and …

The Message Within The Show: A Cultivation Study On The Impact Of Children's Television On Perceptions Of The Family, Ashley Bowes Fletcher

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the impacts of popular early 2000s children’s television shows on now-adult viewers’ perceptions of the nuclear family. The problem is that current scholarly literature had not addressed how early 2000s television shows have impacted the perception of a traditional nuclear family’s role in society. This study sought to identify the views currently held by the participants regarding the importance and roles of the nuclear family. The study also sought to identify the participant’s perceptions of the portrayals of the nuclear family in specific early 2000s children’s sitcoms. Through a variety …

Adam, The First Scientist: Unlocking The True Foundation Of Scientific Thinking, Thomas E. Lohman Jr.

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the complex relationship between scientific thought and theological perspectives, proposing that God breathing life into Adam symbolizes a full divine inspiration for both scientific and theological understanding. The perceived conflict between science and theology arises from a shift in human thinking at the fall, which altered humanity's ability to rightly grasp both realms. After this crucial event, science shifted to a more naturalistic approach, while theology often downplayed God's sovereign power over creation.

The alterations to the original functions and purposes of science and theology have led to a fragile relationship between the two. According to Scripture, …

Predictive Models Of Student Mental Health: The Correlation Between Academic Burnout And Depression In The Higher Education Environment, Hyejoon Song

Masters Theses

Importance: Over 80% of U.S. college students report significant emotional difficulties, and 58% endorse academic burnout as a persistent concern, yet institution-specific data at faith-integrated universities such as Liberty University remain scarce, limiting evidence-based programmatic response.

Objective: To examine the correlation between academic burnout and depressive symptomatology at Liberty University, identify the most predictive individual burnout item via Random Forest machine learning, and characterize distinct student risk profiles via KMeans clustering. Design, Setting, Participants: Cross-sectional survey (IRB-FY24-25-1491, Exempt) of 236 Liberty University students (mean age 36.9 ± 14.3 years; 84.0% female; 61.0% graduate-level), 2025–2026 academic year.

Main Outcome and Measures: …

From Christology To Ontology: A Diachronic And Exegetical Evaluation Of A Maximalist Sacramental Interpretation Of John 6:51–58, Andrew R. Johnson

Masters Theses

John 6:51–58 occupies a central place in the debate regarding the ontological nature of the Eucharist, frequently serving as a primary scriptural warrant for sacramental realism such as articulated by the Council of Trent as it concerns the dogma of transubstantiation within the Roman Catholic tradition. This thesis conducts both an evaluation of historical reception and a critical exegetical analysis to determine whether the Evangelist’s primary intent was to establish sacramental doctrine in this passage or to further develop already pervasive Johannine soteriological and christological themes.

Methodologically, this study bridges the gap between historical reception and synchronic exegesis. The first …

Avoiding Pandora’S Box: Why Federal Nondiscrimination Statutes Do Not Prohibit Health Insurance Coverage Exclusions Of Sex-Rejecting Procedures, Rachel N. Morrison

Catholic University Law Review

There is increasing litigation over whether employer-provided health insurance and state Medicaid plans can exclude coverage of procedures for “gender transitions.” Plaintiffs claim that gender-transition coverage exclusions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and federal nondiscrimination statutes. While Fourteenth Amendment claims should be foreclosed by the Supreme Court’s holding in Geduldig v. Aiello, nondiscrimination claims require a separate analysis.

This article shows the proper analysis for whether coverage exclusions of transition procedures violate federal nondiscrimination statutes. Looking to the history of coverage exclusion claims, Part I traces sex and pregnancy discrimination claims challenging coverage exclusions of …

Build Digital Annual Survey 2025 And Trends & Comparisons 2022 - 2025, Clare Eriksson, Robert Moore, Bilal Succar

Reports

The Build Digital Annual Survey 2025 provides an overview of digital transformation across Ireland’s construction and built environment sector, drawing on responses from 205 participants across industry, government, and academia. The findings show continued sector engagement with digital transformation, driven by government mandates, project benefits, and partner expectations. Common digital deliverables, such as model-based design, documentation, coordination, and clash detection, are now widely used, while more advanced uses linked to operations, sustainability, interoperability, and AI remain less mature. The report also highlights ongoing challenges, including skills gaps, uneven training provision, limited OpenBIM adoption, and inconsistent implementation of ISO 19650 and …

Linguistic And Cultural Analysis Of Divine Command In 1 Samuel 15: Implications For Biblical Interpretation, Timothy Arnell Dunn

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that ḥērem in 1 Samuel 15 is not a relic of ancient warfare but a sacred act of covenantal devotion that reveals the tension between divine holiness, human obedience, and Israel’s identity as a people set apart for YHWH. Through historical, philological, narrative, and canonical analysis, the study demonstrates that ḥērem functions as a ritualized declaration of divine sovereignty in which destruction becomes consecration and obedience becomes worship. Saul’s partial compliance is therefore not strategic misjudgment but a rupture in covenant fidelity that exposes the costliness of holiness and the danger of selective obedience. Yet the canon …

The Effects Of Phonetic Knowledge And Bilingualism On The Acquisition Of Non-Native Consonant Clusters, Kylie Wakley

Theses and Dissertations

Speech motor learning involves the production of new sounds or sound sequences. This study investigated how explicit phonetic knowledge and bilingualism affect how individuals acquire sound sequences that do not occur in English, or non-native consonant clusters. Sixty adults with typical speech, aged between 18 and 27 years, participated in the experiment. The researcher recruited participants into four groups based on their phonetic background (experienced or not) and language background (monolingual, bilingual). The participants produced stop-stop and fricative-nasal clusters in the initial position of nonsense words across six practice blocks. The duration of each cluster was measured, which in English …

Arylation Of Nitrogen, Oxygen And Carbon Nucleophiles By Aryl(Tmp)Iodonium Salts, Joseph Jordan Hatton

Dissertations and Theses

Substituted aromatic rings are present in industry in a plethora of organic molecules such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, materials and beyond. Therefore, methods for broadly installing aryl rings into other compounds to create substituted aromatic rings are valuable to many organic chemists. Historically these transformations are achieved through methods such as nucleophilic aromatic substitution and metal catalyzed cross-coupling. Nucleophilic aromatic substitution is a user-friendly method in this space but is limited by reliance on specific electronics. Metal catalyzed cross-coupling reduced the dependence on electronics in this space, but metals are generally unattractive reagents due to high costs, toxicity and challenges with …

Unlocking The Colleague Next Door, Yoshihiko Ariizumi

Learning, Teaching, & Researching Optimization

The structural barriers that isolate faculty from one another—individualistic reward systems, professional identity protection, disciplinary silos, fragmented time—have been documented in detail elsewhere. This paper begins where that analysis ends. Its sole focus is solutions: what actually works, what you can do without waiting for your institution to change, and most importantly, what you can do today. It is organized in three movements: evidence-based institutional strategies, community-level structures any group of faculty can build, and a granular map of the smallest possible individual first steps—the ones that cost almost nothing and have an outsized probability of changing how you experience …

Play And Parents: Influence Of Caregiver Characteristics On Children’S Play, Isabelle Selko

ETD Collection

Play is established as an essential part of development, through which parents play an instrumental role. This study sought to understand the relationship between types of play and facility with and enjoyment of play with parent leisure activities and personality traits. One hypothesis stated that parents’ personality traits and preferred activities would positively correlate with the type of play they engage in most frequently with their child. The second hypothesis predicted that parents will demonstrate more facility with and enjoyment of play if there is a match between their activity preferences/hobbies, personality traits, and most frequent play type with their …

Grief Among Parents Who Have Lost A Child To An Opioid Overdose: A Qualitative Study, Laura Joy Russin

ETD Collection

Grief is experienced in many ways. Many bereaved people demonstrate resilience, however, there are those who suffer a prolonged grief for a variety of reasons including issues related to the relationship with the deceased, the state of the relationship prior to the loss, the nature of the loss, and perceived social support following the loss. In 2024, over 107,000 people died of a drug overdose in the United States and hundreds of thousands of family members were left behind to mourn. Despite the prevalence of drug-related deaths, the grieving process following this type of loss remains understudied. The proposed project …

Return To Nicu Follow-Up: A Multiple Factor Analysis, Jenna Saviano

ETD Collection

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) follow-up programs are critical for monitoring the developmental outcomes of preterm and medically fragile infants. If deemed necessary, these programs may also provide referrals to various intervention modalities; however, loss to continued follow-up remains a concern in pediatric health care. To increase the understanding of how infants can be retained in medical and developmental follow-up programs, this study examined socio-demographic, caregiver, medical, and attendance-related predictors of loss to follow-up among infants enrolled in the NYU Langone Medical Center’s Neonatal Comprehensive Care Program (NCCP). The sample included 193 preterm infants who received neurodevelopmental follow-up between 2021 …

Rahimi's Goldilocks Dilemma: Finding The "Just Right" Age Of Tradition, James M. Handwerk

Texas A&M Law Review

Although its edges are obscured with unresolved tension, the Supreme Court’s recent sortie into Second Amendment interpretation sparked a new era of historical scrutiny. Some question whether the various difficulties present in the new framework render the doctrine unworkable. Rahimi’s Goldilocks Dilemma examines the interpretive obstacles posed by the text, history, and tradition framework, which was brought to light in New York State Pistol & Rifle Ass’n v. Bruen and United States v. Rahimi. Particularly, this Comment focuses on the role that pre-ratification history plays in finding “relevant” historical analogs. Pre-ratification history, as defined by this Comment, includes …