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The Pilgrimage Paradox: Accepting Hardship As A Pathway To Peace, John K. Moore

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This essay examines the paradoxical relationship between pilgrimage and inner peace, focusing on the Camino de Santiago and referencing the Shingon Buddhist Goma fire ritual in Japan and the holy mountain of Kata Tjuṯa in Australia. While pilgrimage is often associated with physical hardship and discomfort, the paper argues that adopting a mindset of acceptance toward inevitable suffering can foster psychological and spiritual contentment. Drawing on historical, literary, and contemporary examples—including penitential practices, therapeutic walking, and rituals at the Iron Cross—the article highlights how symbolic acts of relinquishing burdens can lead to inner transformation and may set into motion one’s …

The Migrant As A Pilgrim: Decolonising Identity And Belonging, Susan Nemec

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper responds to pilgrimage scholar George Greenia’s assertion that meaningful intersections exist between pilgrimage and various forms of displacement, such as migration or involuntary exile due to famine, war, or political unrest. Greenia proposes that vulnerable, displaced individuals might find shelter, both conceptually and emotionally, within the framing of pilgrimage. By extending concepts of pilgrimage, it can be understood as a deliberate and intentional journey, simultaneously emphasising the transformative potential inherent in migratory movement. By adopting a working definition of pilgrimage as ‘any form of travel that is intentional, purposeful, or transformative,’ the paper considers how migrancy, particularly within …

The Resurrection Of Doshu-Michi: Reviving A Forgotten Pilgrimage Route In Japan, Ryosei Kaneko

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study reveals the rediscovery of the Doshu-michi, a 30-kilometer historical pilgrimage route associated with Akao Doshu, a devout follower of Jôdo Shin Buddhism (True Pure Land Buddhism) during the late 15th century. The research focused on identifying and reviving the original pilgrimage path traveled by Doshu, a route that begins at Gyotokuji Temple, which he founded, and Dozenji Temple, his birthplace, and ends at Zuisenji Temple, located in what is now Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. The route follows a ridgeline at an elevation of roughly 1,000 meters. Drawing on literature reviews, oral testimony from local elders, and systematic …

Dante Down Under: Poetic Inversion And The Way Back To Eden, Mary A. Watt

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In the closing moments of Dante’s Inferno, as the pilgrim protagonist and his guide, the Roman poet Virgil, finally emerge from the dark depths of hell, their hope of reaching paradise is rekindled as they look up, ‘to see once again, the stars.’ This directional shift has been effected at the centre of a spherical earth, where Dante and Virgil had to invert themselves in order to start the journey to the southern hemisphere. To find his way back to the ‘right road,’ Dante has had to turn himself upside down, but in order to craft a redemptive iter …

Transport And Aging Pathways Of Microplastics In Urban Aquatic Systems, Jessica J. Boyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microplastics are pervasive in urban aquatic systems, which serve as both conduits of particle flow and incubators of microplastics. These aquatic systems transport microplastic particles while simultaneously altering their physical, chemical, and biological properties. Despite their growing environmental relevance, constructed wetlands and riverine systems remain underrepresented in studies of microplastic fate and transport. This dissertation aims to assess the patterns influencing microplastic transport and aging across urban aquatic environments through a combination of field experiments and mechanistic modeling.

Four interconnected studies were conducted to address this objective. The first investigated the horizontal and vertical transport of microplastics within the Se7en …

Re: Conditional Approval Letter For The Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Butte Treatment Lagoons (Btl) Groundwater Treatment System Quarterly Operation And Maintenance Report – Quarter 3 2025 (Dated December 23, 2025), Emma Rott

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Safe-Calibrated Tcn–Transformer Transfer Learning For Reliable Battery Soh Estimation Under Lab-To-Field Domain Shift, Ehab Bayoumi

Mechanical Engineering

Battery state-of-health (SoH) estimation is central to transportation electrification because it conditions safety limits, warranty accounting, power capability management, and long-horizon fleet optimization. Although deep temporal architectures can achieve high laboratory accuracy, field deployment is frequently limited by laboratory (Lab)-to-field (L2F) domain shift that alters input statistics, feature definitions, and noise regimes. Under such a shift, predictors may remain strongly monotonic, preserving degradation ordering and become operationally unreliable due to systematic output distortion (e.g., compression/warping of the SoH scale). A deployment-complete L2F transfer learning pipeline is presented, built around a gated Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN)–Transformer fusion backbone, domain-specific adapters and …

The False Promise Of Progressive Originalism, Michael Smith

New Mexico Law Review

As the conservative-dominated Supreme Court continues to accrue its power, commentators on both the political right and left suggest that those pursuing progressive policy goals would do well to turn to originalist methodology. Many of the Justices on the Court purport to be originalists, and progressive originalist arguments are more likely to appeal to this otherwise tough crowd. Haven’t progressives heard that we’re all originalists now? I argue that originalism’s appeal to progressives is largely illusory. Originalism is unlikely to make a difference before a Court controlled by a supermajority of conservative Justices who exercise discretion over the interpretive methodology …

Bad Men In The Bordertown: Confronting Police Violence Against Native Americans With The Bad Men Treaty Clauses, Taylor Graham

New Mexico Law Review

In nine treaties signed by Tribal Nations and the United States between 1867 and 1868, the United States promised redress to Native Americans for wrongs committed against them by “bad men among the whites.” Today, Native Americans are more likely to be killed by police than any other group, with much of this violence concentrated near the borders of Tribal Nations. Although claims brought under the “bad men” treaty clauses offer an avenue for combatting this epidemic of violence, courts have begun interpreting the clauses to apply only when “wrongs” occur within Tribal boundaries. This article argues that the territoriality …

Weakening The Reasonable Efforts Requirement In New Mexico Termination Of Parental Rights Cases, Monika Myers

New Mexico Law Review

Parents’ right to control the upbringing of their own children is long-established in the United States. However, in the case of child abuse, neglect, or abandonment, a state can terminate parental rights, permanently severing the legal relationship between a parent and a child. In New Mexico, to terminate parental rights for abuse or neglect the State must prove three elements by clear and convincing evidence: (1) the child is abused or neglected; (2) the conditions that brought the child into care are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future and (3) this is the case despite reasonable efforts by the …

The Barrier And The Burden: How Flawed Interpretations Of The New Mexico Human Rights Act Have Relegated Disability To Second-Class Status, Ellen Caroline Sherman Rabin

New Mexico Law Review

Plaintiffs alleging disability discrimination under New Mexico law face significantly higher barriers than plaintiffs alleging other types of discrimination. The plain text of the New Mexico Human Rights Act (“NMHRA”) provides equal protections against discrimination based on characteristics such as race, gender, pregnancy, and disability. However, by relying on federal disability law to guide the interpretation of the NMHRA in cases of disability discrimination, New Mexico courts have effectively created a two-tiered system in which claims of disability discrimination face higher barriers to prevail in an administrative adjudication and survive summary judgment than other discrimination claims. This two-tiered system not …

The Constant Outsider: Black Women At The Intersection Of Bias And Brilliance, Michelle Hector

Organization, Leadership, and Communication

The complexity of Black women in the workplace includes racism, sexism, and countless barriers that challenge their success. Nevertheless, there are unique experiences of many women that climb their industries’ ladders and overcome adversity. This qualitative study included 28 Black executive women, mostly from Oakland who shared their strategies for success. Many of their journeys included adversity, however, they persevered. The data from this study was collected through a town hall meeting of 22 Black participants who shared their career pathways toward success. There were also focus groups that further explored how the constant outsiders sustained their positions. The results …

Lessons Learned: Ignazio Visco, Mercedes Cardona

Journal of Financial Crises

Ignazio Visco served as deputy director general (the equivalent of deputy governor) of the Bank of Italy during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–09 (GFC) and as governor during the European Sovereign Debt Crisis in 2011 (SDC). During his multidecade tenure at the bank, he held several positions and served under nine prime ministers before stepping down in 2023. Although Italy had the third-largest economy in the eurozone, its banking sector had little exposure to mortgages, which resulted in its being somewhat less impacted by the GFC than other countries. However, the SDC had a severe impact. With the assistance …

Nursing Interventions To Reduce Anxiety And Psychological Distress In Breast Cancer Patients In The Us, Alexis Abboud, Al Araydeh Mifleh

The Cardinal Edge

Background Breast cancer patients frequently experience psychological challenges, such as anxiety, distress, and diminished quality of life (QoL). Nursing interventions show promise in addressing these issues; however, a comprehensive synthesis of their impact is lacking. This review evaluates the effectiveness of nursing interventions in reducing anxiety and psychological distress while improving QoL.

Research Question What nursing interventions effectively reduce anxiety and psychological distress and improve QoL among breast cancer patients in the United States?

Methods A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Searches of CINAHL, APA PsycInfo, and Medline identified studies published in the last five years in …

Settler Colonialism: A Case-Study Analysis Of Dam Infrastructure In The American West, Kassidy Haynes, Carrie Mott

The Cardinal Edge

In 17^th-century North America, a number of world powers began extensive colonial efforts to stake a claim on territories and their resources. Settler colonialism in the United States followed a distinct track to the west compared to that which occurred in the east following this initial land-grab. Because infrastructure preceded some formal, highly concentrated settlement in the western United States, this region experienced the oppression of settler colonialism in distinct manifestations. Namely, the physical imposition of construction projects such as dams established early dynamics of differential power and control between the federal government and the diverse array of …

Evolving Solutions For Red Blood Cell Preservation, Ali Alkafaji, Charles A. Elder, Mohammad Zaidi, Kavin Parthiv, Michael A. Menze

The Cardinal Edge

In emergencies such as natural disasters, armed conflicts, or during outer space missions, the availability of transfusable blood can mean the difference between life and death. Red blood cells (RBCs) must be stored at +4 ± 2 °C and have a shelf life of just 42 days, which makes maintaining a stable blood supply during adverse conditions extraordinarily challenging. This challenge was especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when hospitals faced severe blood shortages. Freeze-drying, or lyophilization, offers a promising avenue to extend the shelf life of RBCs for transfusion during crises. However, a significant hurdle in dry preservation is …

Galaxy Zoo: A Catalog Of ~1000 Occulting Pairs In The Desi Legacy Survey For Dust Studies, Trevor A. Butrum, Benne Holwerda

The Cardinal Edge

Occulting pairs of galaxies, where a foreground galaxy partially overlaps a background galaxy, are becoming increasingly valuable for studying dust attenuation and other dust properties in galaxies. These occulting systems present a unique opportunity to derive attenuation measurements by modelling the light from both galaxies and inferring the missing light in the overlapping regions, leaving only the light attenuated by dust remaining. However, the current master catalogue of these pairs is still relatively limited in number, and expanding such a catalogue will provide significant advantages. To achieve this, we use galaxies classified as "overlapping" from Galaxy Zoo DECaLS (GZD-1, 2, …

Analyzing The Climate-Growth Response Of Hemlock Species In Tight Hollow, Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky, Usa, Jacob G. Brown

The Cardinal Edge

Kentucky’s (KY) local climate is facing uncertainty as the influence of climate change pushes hydrological variation to its extremes. Proxy-based data can be used to better understand this variation by analyzing past climatic conditions. Tree rings provide valuable proxy data on an annual to sub-annual resolution that can be used to create climate reconstructions. However, the state of Kentucky lacks high temporal and spatial resolution datasets for accurate climate reconstruction analysis. Climate-sensitive tree species and locations must be identified and evaluated within Kentucky to further enhance these datasets to a higher resolution. Our research objective is to analyze the climate-growth …

High Polarization In Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy Iras 1239.7+3333, Bryn Connelly, Dirk Grupe Phd

The Cardinal Edge

IRAS 1239 is a narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy discovered with the ROSAT All-Sky survey. It is interesting because it shows very high polarization, but very little cold X-ray absorption, potentially revealing more insight into the classification of Seyfert galaxies. An Active Galactic Nucleus, or AGN, is an accreting black hole at the center of a galaxy. Galaxies containing these AGNs are known as active galaxies. There are several different types of active galaxies, including Seyfert galaxies. These are a common galaxy type, making up around 10% of galaxies. They are classified by having strong emission lines and detectable host …

Aristotle And The Proslavery Writings Of The Antebellum South, Ace Farris

The Cardinal Edge

This paper explores how nineteenth-century Southern intellectuals appropriated and adapted Aristotle’s ancient defense of slavery to legitimize racial slavery in the antebellum United States. Although Aristotle’s theory of “natural slavery” emerged from the social and economic conditions of classical Greece, where enslaved people constituted essential components of the household, Southern thinkers tailored his argument to justify the peculiar institution. The paper begins by outlining Aristotle’s defense of slavery in his Politics, which states that some individuals naturally lack the capacity for rational deliberation, thereby benefiting from enslavement. Then, it traces how the American South’s investment in classical education allowed …

Fear And Freedom: California Gay Bars In The 1960s, Bridget L. Kelley

The Cardinal Edge

This article explores the interactions between gay bars, queer people, and police in California in the 1960s. The gay bar served as both a place of community and safety while paradoxically being a site of oppression suffered at the hands of law enforcement. These conflicting experiences made gay bars sites of both fear and freedom. Arrest practices, plain clothes policing, raid practices, and monetary manipulation made the gay bar a space of danger. However, the resistance of queer patrons against police brutality made it a space where one could express their queerness and fight for change.

The Kennedy Familys' Influence On The Passage Of The Immigration And Nationality Act Of 1965, Jillian Wallshield

The Cardinal Edge

This paper covers the influence of the Kennedy Family on immigration policy in the United States. United States immigration legislation changed dramatically in the 1960s with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (sometimes called the Hart-Cellar Act). This shift was caused primarily by the political work of prominent figures like John F. Kennedy, and, later, Edward Kennedy. Edward Kennedy in particular is examined through his influence on Lyndon B. Johnson, the President under which the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed. This position is supported through the examination of relevant public speeches, private telephone calls, and …

Hallucinogens For Mood And Anxiety Disorders: A Critical Review Of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies, Georgia Chlebek

The Cardinal Edge

In quite a few people worldwide, there are several mental disorders that prevent the brain from operating in the “proper” way, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) being among the most common. Luckily, there are several medications that are produced and used to treat these disorders, but some medications are hard to access, and others simply don’t help the patient. Firstly, these medications take time to study and prove safe for public use, though in some cases time is not readily available. In other cases, these medications are going through shortages and becoming increasingly difficult for patients to access …

Determination Of Trace Amounts Of Pb2+ And Cu2+ Ions In The Ohio River With Anodic Stripping Voltammetry And Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy To Test Water Contamination From Factories., Eliana Purcell

The Cardinal Edge

In this project, water near factories in Rubbertown, Louisville, KY were tested to see if a significant enough amount of waste is deposited in the Ohio River that the concentrations of Pb2+ and Cu2+ exceed the maximum contaminant levels the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have set in place. Waste from industrial factories may contain contaminants that have negative effects on aquatic ecosystems and even human health, so two potentially harmful metal ions were tested. The concentration of Cu2+ in water samples was detected through flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), and the concentration …

Leaf Droppage Delayed In Sugar Maple Trees On An Urban To Rural Gradient, Isabella S. Bastien, Isabella Bastien

The Cardinal Edge

This study investigates the timing of leaf abscission in Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) trees along an urban-to-rural gradient in Louisville, Kentucky, to determine how proximity to urban environments influences leaf drop. We hypothesized that urban trees would retain their leaves longer than suburban or rural trees due to environmental stressors and tested this using weekly leaf collection and canopy cover measurements from three locations—urban, suburban, and rural. Results showed that urban trees exhibited delayed leaf drop and slower canopy opening compared to suburban and rural trees. These findings suggest that urban stressors significantly alter tree phenology, which may signal underlying …

The Silent Epidemic: How E-Cigarettes And Policy Gaps Endanger Public Health, Fizzah Syed, Saumya Sikhwal, Priya Viswakumar

The Cardinal Edge

No abstract provided.

The Developing Role Of Ai In Modern Engineering Research, Rianna Pais

The Cardinal Edge

No abstract provided.

Targeting Glioblastoma: Mechanistic And Clinical Perspectives From Uofl Research, Swetha Senthil Nathan

The Cardinal Edge

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant brain tumors, with median survival lingering at 12–15 months despite surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. This article explores cutting-edge research and clinical efforts at the University of Louisville aimed at improving GBM treatment outcomes. Dr. Joseph Chen investigates the tumor microenvironment, revealing how physical properties such as stiffness and porosity drive GBM cell proliferation, migration, and resistance to apoptosis. His lab’s findings suggest that porosity, rather than stiffness alone, may be a more accurate predictor of tumor invasion and progression-free survival. Additionally, his research highlights the role of hyaluronic acid and …

The Cyber Deterrence Dilemma: Parallels Between Cyber And Intelligence Special Operations, Jorge R. Kravetz Msc

Joint Force Quarterly

The dilemma of cyber deterrence, alongside its potential failures, has gained increasing academic attention, though its parallels with traditional special operations remain less examined. Cyber and special operations—often covert activities involving espionage, sabotage, and subversion, generally linked to strategic or military intelligence—typically evade standard deterrence mechanisms. Drawing on a theoretical framework of deterrence, academic literature, historical cases, and qualitative analyses, this article argues that deterrence tends to fail when deterrers manage to destabilize an adversary without causing significant strategic impacts on the target’s power, economic, or social dynamics, as well as on international relations. Retaliation, shaped by implicit agreements or …

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

Joint Force Quarterly

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