Digital Commons Network^™

The Myth Of The Immigrant As A Criminal: Rhetoric, Otherness, And The Legal Construction Of Danger, Katerina Fernandez

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The figure of the “criminal immigrant” occupies a central place in contemporary U.S. immigration discourse, shaping public perception, enforcement priorities, and legal doctrine. Yet a substantial body of empirical research consistently demonstrates that immigrants—both documented and undocumented—commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. This Note examines why the narrative of immigrant criminality persists despite this evidence and how it influences the development and operation of immigration law. It argues that “immigrant” functions not only as a legal category but also as a socially constructed marker of Otherness, encompassing perceived differences in race, language, culture, and religion. Through this lens, …

The Expanding Digital Border: Ai, Surveillance, And The Fight For Justice, James Chesser

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

As artificial intelligence transforms the mechanisms of immigration control, the modern border has become a digital filter—one governed less by geography and more by code. This Article examines the legal, technical, and ethical implications of AI-driven systems now central to global border enforcement, including biometric surveillance, algorithmic risk scoring, and predictive profiling. It explores how states use these technologies not only to manage irregular migration, but to compete for global talent—constructing migration regimes that reward capital and compliance while eroding transparency, due process, and equality.

Through an international and comparative lens, the piece highlights the expansion of algorithmic decision-making across …

Remembering The Past: The Origins Of The Pentecostal Church In South Travancore, Viju Wilson

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Early Pentecostals in the Thiruvananthapuram district (South Travancore) of Kerala state, India, embraced the Pentecostal faith in a context where traditional denominations held enormous power, resources, and social recognition. C. Manasseh played a significant role in spreading the Pentecostal faith and establishing the first congregation in the region. This forms an important part of the global Pentecostal heritage. Remembering the life and ministry of Manasseh, as well as the past and present journey of the first congregation, carries significant implications for the witness of Pentecostals today. Remembering the past is both a biblical and theological act, calling believers to participate …

Exploring Scms And Fibers For Structural Build-Up In 3d Printing Using Penetration Test, Shiva Kumar Goud Kasani

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Additive manufacturing with cementitious materials advances rapidly, but predicting structural build-up is critical for 3D printed structure buildability. Various supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and fibers are commonly used to enhance structural build-up in 3D printing. Evaluating their effects is necessary for successful printing. In this research, this effect is studied for common SCMs, including fly ash and silica fume, and fibers including polypropylene (0.375% and 0.75% by volume), steel (0.75% and 1.5% by volume), and hemp fibers (0.375% and 0.75% by volume). The Structural build-up was quantified through continuous static yield stress measurements (via vane rheometer, penetration, and slump) during …

Synthesis And Hydrothermal Evaluation Of Poly(Styrene Phosphonate) For Conformance Control In Geothermal Reservoirs, Sara Mccauley

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, geothermal energy has emerged as a promising energy alternative to fossil fuels. A barrier to widespread implementation and energy production efficiency is macro-heterogeneity of the rock matrix. Cracks, void spaces, and flow conduits divert fluid flow away from unswept portions of the geothermal reservoir and can cause cooling of the reservoir. Flow heterogeneity has been treated in oil reservoirs by injecting hydrogel particles that travel preferentially to ultra-high permeability zones and selectively block fluid flow in these regions. We are applying polymer hydrogels that withstand hydrothermal conditions of 225 up to 275°C …

Adaptive Parallel Downloader For Large Genomic Datasets, Rasman Mubtasim Swargo

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Modern next-generation sequencing (NGS) projects routinely generate terabytes of data that researchers download from public repositories such as SRA and ENA. Existing download tools typically employ static concurrency settings, leading to inefficient bandwidth utilization and prolonged download times under dynamic network conditions. We introduce FastBioDL, a parallel downloader for large biological datasets with an adaptive concurrency controller. FastBioDL frames downloading as an online optimization problem, using a utility function and gradient descent to adjust the number of concurrent socket streams during runtime. This approach maximizes throughput while minimizing resource overhead. Evaluations on public genomic datasets show that FastBioDL achieves up …

Temperature And College Life, Porsha Purkiss, Quiniyah Shumpert, Olivia Lane

Scholars Week

Temperature and College Life

Absenteeism in college students can be caused by a variety of factors ranging from personal attitudes to environmental factors. Considering that, on average, American college students spend over $20,000  per semester on tuition, absenteeism is unlikely to be random (Barragan Torres, 2025). This study aims to explore how climate, mental health, socioeconomic status, and basic demographic information correlate with academic attendance, with an overall focus on outdoor temperature. Research observes that temperature is a key factor of absenteeism, determining that many students are incentivized to skip class if the temperature is warm enough for leisure activities …

Using The Second-Generation Environmental Sample Processor To Provide Near Real-Time Observations Of Harmful Algae And Assess Biodiversity And Ecosystem Change, Stephanie K. Moore, Nicolaus G. Adams, John B. Mickett, Christina M. Mikulski, Nicolas Michel-Hart, James M. Birch, Brent Roman, Jan A. Newton

Benefits of Ocean Observing Catalog (BOOC)

The second-generation Environmental Sample Processor (2G-ESP) is a sophisticated autonomous sensor platform and a key component of offshore observing efforts designed to mitigate the societal impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the Pacific Northwest. Deployed as part of a moored observatory, the 2G-ESP generates near real-time data on HAB organisms and the biotoxin domoic acid, providing critical HAB early warning and directly informing HAB forecasts and fisheries management decisions. In addition, the platform’s capacity to archive environmental DNA enables retrospective analyses of biodiversity and ecosystem change. These capabilities facilitate interdisciplinary scientific collaboration and information sharing, ultimately enhancing our collective …

The Evasive Epidemic Of Missing Black Children, Trinity D. Garlick

Criminal Law Society Blog

The Evasive Epidemic of Missing Black Children” brings to light the disproportionately low amount of media support for missing Black Children. It draws on examples of missing Black Children, like Adam Walsh and other Atlanta Black children, to illustrate how Black children have gone ignored by the public for too long. It discusses factors such as failure of state legislatures, lack of media exposure, unfair and racial fixed labels, and law enforcement discretionary conduct, as the leading drivers of the epidemic of missing Black children. This Article then dives into efforts to reform the American system to adequately address when …

Harnessing Wavefront Shaping Control For Sensing Applications, Pablo Jara

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) enable deep, non-invasive sensing in biological tissue but are fundamentally limited by the photon budget - most injected light is lost to scattering before reaching the detector. Wavefront shaping (WFS) can enhance signal strength inside scattering media via interference, but the conventional diffusion-based sensitivity model breaks down under coherent illumination. We develop a microscopic theory of optical sensitivity that captures interference effects neglected by diffusion theory. We prove analytically that the microscopic and diffusive descriptions coincide under random illumination and identify WFS strategies that enhance sensitivity beyond this limit. The maximum …

Breath-Based Detection Of Liver Cancer Biomarkers Using An Swcnt-Fet Nanobiosensor: Quantumatk, Mohamed Mohieb Rashdan

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

There are still no tests to detect liver cancer in the early stages because it is a slow-growing and invasive type.

This study describes the use of a single-walled carbon nanotube-based field-effect transistor (SWCNT-FET) whose ability to detect hexanal, a volatile organic compound (VOC) found to be elevated in liver cancer, has been demonstrated through direct measurements from exhaled breath. The device is designed using QuantumATK with the semi-empirical Extended Hückel Hamiltonian framework in non-equilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) which shows realistic contact physics by using metallic SWCNT electrodes instead of common metal films. Through the analysis of two zigzag channels …

Introducing Gridtrees For Streaming, Scalable Hierarchical Data Visualization, Nathan Tibbetts

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

File browsing in the consumer sphere has seen very little advancement in recent years, although attempts have been made to improve upon it. With the goal of multi-level visual file browsing in mind, we present a prototype GridTree, a dynamic, recursive, stable, spatial layout data structure based on subdividing grids, represented as a hierarchy of maps whose granularity increases with depth. We motivate this work with characteristics we have identified as important for viability of a multi-level file-browser, which have become our design goals. We touch on the underlying logic of a GridTree and identify its complexity. We briefly discuss …

Dispersive Shock And Rogue Waves In Two-Dimensional Quantum Droplets, Farhana Bristy

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Quantum droplets, are liquid type configurations stabilized by the balance between attractive mean-field interactions and repulsive quantum fluctuations. They provide highly flexible platforms for the quantum simulation of hydrodynamic phenomena using ultracold gases. Here, we explore the nonlinear quantum dynamics of two-dimensional quantum droplets under Riemann initial conditions. The steepness of the latter facilitates the emergence of radially symmetric dispersive shock waves (DSWs) when quantum fluctuations dominate. In particular, the ensuing DSWs travel from the potential edges toward the center where they collide and through their interference high amplitude spatially localized rogue wave structures emerge. In contrast, tuning the interactions …

Thermal Mirage: Towards Robust Thermal Perception Via Gan-Guided Diffusion, Nuzaer Omar

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Thermal object detection systems are critical for safety sensitive applications due to their reliability under adverse conditions. However, existing robustness evaluations in thermal domain primarily focuses on physical or sensor-level perturbations, overlooking vulnerabilities from semantically realistic scene and object manipulations. We introduce Thermal Mirage, a generative framework that leverages GAN-guided diffusion to expose weaknesses in thermal detectors through controlled object and context level perturbations. Our approach learns class-conditional thermal priors via a GAN and uses diffusion to transform object appearances into ambiguous or low-saliency patterns. Simultaneously, a context module degrades scene conditions by simulating harsher night environments. Integrated with a …

Distributed Control Plane For Cross-Silo Federated Learning, Rabin Pandey

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Cross-silo federated learning (FL) trains shared models across geographically distributed institutions without centralizing raw data, but its reliance on wide-area networks makes round completion time highly sensitive to heterogeneous link conditions, congestion, and straggler clients. Existing SDN-based FL frameworks address this through centralized traffic engineering, an approach that breaks down when silos span independent administrative domains where no single entity can maintain complete, timely network knowledge. We replace the centralized control plane with a fully distributed overlay in which each silo gateway operates as an equal peer, continuously probing local links, exchanging EWMA-smoothed metrics via bounded gossip, and computing least-cost …

Transition Metal Chalcogenide As Multifunctional Biosenser To Detect Neurochemicals, Amitav Sen

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

The development of highly sensitive real-time sensing platforms for selectively detecting dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) is of significant clinical importance since these are closely associated with several neurodegenerative disorders. Herein, we report copper telluride (Cu₂Te) nanostructure as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for the simultaneous detection of dopamine and norepinephrine. Cu₂Te exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity toward both DA and NE oxidation, as demonstrated by detailed electrochemical measurements. High sensitivities of 24 and 40 µA cm⁻² µM⁻¹ for DA and NE, respectively, were obtained with a wide linear detection range of 10–200 nM and low limit of detection (LOD), 31 nM for …

Robust Federated Learning With Strategic Adversaries, Manoj Twarakavi

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Federated Learning (FL) leverages the intelligence of untrusted distributed devices through collaborative training. This makes the training process susceptible to malicious behavior. Existing defense mechanisms largely consider an adversary who attacks a proactive FL server without any adaptability. However, they overlook the presence of a strategic adversary. To address this challenge, our work proposes a Robust Game-theoretic framework where the adversary is both strategic and is equipped with the capability of performing large-scale poisoning attacks.

Variational Data Assimilation With Steepest Descent Method For Coupled Time-Dependent Stokes-Darcy Model With Bjsj Interface Condition, Yafang Hei

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Variational data assimilation (VDA) determines the initial condition of a dynamical system by minimizing the mismatch between model predictions and observed data. This work studies VDA for the time-dependent Stokes–Darcy system with the BJSJ interface condition. The problem is formulated as a PDE-constrained optimization problem, and the first-order optimality system is derived using the Gâteaux derivative and adjoint variables. A steepest descent method is applied for efficient computation. Spatial and temporal discretizations are carried out using the finite element method and backward Euler scheme, respectively. Numerical results confirm accuracy and convergence.

Human Intention Prediction Using Cnn And Lstm Networks In Physical Human–Robot Interactions, Khosro Ghorbani Zadeh

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence have increased expectations for interactive robots in eldercare and assistive applications. A key challenge in creating safe and effective systems is accurately recognizing human intent and translating it into meaningful commands for robots to follow. Traditional physics-based models often fail to fully represent human force interactions due to their dynamic nature, while neural networks provide a promising alternative for predicting force-movement intentions. Multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) show potential, however, they struggle with temporal dependencies and generalization. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) help address these limitations. This study compares these architectures …

Ai-Driven Frameworks For Mitigating Rockfall Hazards, Unstable Ground Condition And Improving Safety In Underground Mine Through Thermal Imaging, Akhrorbek Narmatov

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Scaling, the removal of loose rocks from excavation walls to prevent rockfalls is a critical safety procedure in underground mining operations. Approximately a quarter of fatal mining accidents are due to rockfalls. Detecting unstable rocks during scaling and assessing ground stability remain challenging due to limited visibility, dust, and environmental conditions.

Excavation disturbs the in-situ stress state, causing stress redistribution, fracture propagation, and the formation of discontinuities that lead to loose rock blocks. Ventilation airflow affects heat transfer at exposed surfaces, amplifying temperature contrasts between intact rock and fractured blocks associated with instability.

Current practices rely on manual inspection, requiring …

Against The Coloniality Of Sport For Development And Peace (Sdp), Isra Shahid Iqbal

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

This paper critically investigates how historical colonial practices and capitalist structures continue to influence the roles, relationships, and spaces related to gender and race within Sport for Development (SDP) initiatives in Global South contexts. While sport is commonly approached as an avenue to promote positive youth development and post-conflict reconstruction, these discourses often overlook how colonial capitalist imperatives are perpetuated through sport, influencing gender and race hierarchies, oppressive relations, and the direct “Othering” of actors in Global South contexts (Samie et al., 2015; Oxford, 2017). Indeed, SDP initiatives are not immune from capitalist and colonial imperatives nor the racial and …

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence For Transformative Education: Challenges And Recommendations, Papia Bawa

Journal of Research Initiatives

The sheer force with which GPT models are inundating business, education and economic fields speaks to its ability to not only transform the ways in which we interact and act but also disrupt these ways. This systematic literature review applies the PSALSAR method to synthesize findings from 72 articles on AI applications in education, emphasizing its transformative potential across various domains. AI is transforming personalized learning by customizing content and feedback to individual needs, addressing challenges like data privacy and ethical concerns. It enhances administrative efficiency through automation and data-driven decision-making, improving institutional performance while managing biases and maintaining human …

Application Of The Tridiagonal Representation Approach And The J Matrix Method Of Scattering In Theoretical Physics, Tunde Joseph Osunmusanmi

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

This dissertation investigates the application of the Tridiagonal Representation Approach (TRA) to linear systems and introduces, for the first time, an extension of the J-matrix method of scattering to nonlinear phenomena. The TRA provides an algebraic framework for solving second-order linear ordinary differential equations by combining algebraic structure with the analytical properties of orthogonal polynomials and special functions. Computationally, the method benefits from efficient numerical techniques for tridiagonal matrices. Within the TRA, solutions of differential equations, including the Schrödinger equation, are expressed as convergent expansions in square-integrable basis functions chosen to yield a tridiagonal representation of the differential operator. This …

County Of El Paso Et Al. V. Michael Chertoff, Secretary, Us Dhs, Case 308-Cv-00196-Fm

Border Wall / Border Security Documents

Filings relating to U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, Case 308-cv-00196-FM

Six-Week Time-Restricted Eating Lowers Premature Mortality Risk In Overweight Early Elderly Adults: Evidence From A Body Shape Index, Przemysław Domaszewski, Mariusz Konieczny

Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity

Background: A Body Shape Index (ABSI) is an anthropometric indicator combining waist circumference, weight, and height, providing a BMI-independent measure of central obesity and a recognized predictor of mortality. Despite its relevance, research on ABSI in early elderly populations remains limited. This study assessed the impact of a six-week time-restricted eating (TRE) intervention on ABSI z-scores in overweight adults aged 65–74, with attention to gender differences. Materials and Methods: A total of 116 participants were randomized into a TRE group (16:8 fasting window from 8:00 PM to 12:00 PM) or a control group maintaining habitual eating. ABSI z-scores were evaluated …

Documents Compiled By The No Border Wall Coalition, No Border Wall Coaltion

Border Wall / Border Security Documents

No abstract provided.

Scenario-Based Pareto Analysis For Multi-Objective Optimization Of Process Parameters To Improve Life Cycle Impacts: Case Study Of Ge Production, Dennis Dadzie

Miners Solving for Tomorrow Research Conference

Growing demand for critical minerals increases the need for clear evidence on the environmental burdens of their production. Life‑cycle assessment (LCA) quantifies impacts, but it does not by itself show how to navigate competing environmental performance improvement goals. We examine 63 process configurations for single‑crystal germanium made via chlorinated distillation using five indicators: global warming potential (GWP), water consumption (WC), fine particulate matter (FPM), terrestrial acidification (TA), and cumulative energy demand (CED). Across scenarios, WC is negatively correlated with GWP, weakly related to FPM, TA, and CED, while the other four indicators are strongly positively correlated. Pareto analysis highlights a …

Paying The Price Of The Border Wall In Human Lives, Scott Nichol

Border Wall / Border Security Documents

No abstract provided.

In Response To Judge Salinas’ Attempt To Sell Us The Border Wall, Scott Nichol

Border Wall / Border Security Documents

No abstract provided.

Virtual Fences And Border Walls: Billions Wasted On A False Sense Of Security, Scott Nichol

Border Wall / Border Security Documents

No abstract provided.