Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Antitrafficking Initiatives Through An Interagency Collaboration Framework, Robert Louis Baxter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The challenges individual agencies face in addressing the complex issue of human trafficking and how interagency collaboration can strengthen survivor-centered support are largely unknown. Organizations often lack formal alliances that combine expertise and resources to deliver more comprehensive care. The absence of such partnerships represents a missed opportunity to provide the essential services necessary for survivors’ recovery, empowerment, and social reintegration. The purpose of the study was to use interagency collaboration to address the question: How can education, law enforcement, public health, and community-based organizations assess the barriers and benefits of interagency collaboration to create a more seamless support network …

Spectator 2025-11-20, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Band-Aids And Backroads: Surviving Rural Healthcare In South-Central Mississippi, Cambry L. Craft

Honors Theses

Health is more than the absence of disease—it is the product of opportunity, trust, and access. Yet for millions living in rural areas of the United States, equitable healthcare remains out of reach. This thesis seeks to amplify the voices of rural residents in Mississippi and uncover how their experiences, beliefs, and cultural values shape their perception of their local hospital and the care that is provided there. This qualitative research study examines the experiences and opinions of a rural community in south-central Mississippi regarding their local hospital, as well as their perceptions of the most effective approach to prevent …

Shifting Grounds Of Accountability: How Governmentality Reduces The Commoning Practices Of The Monpa Community In Arunachal Pradesh, Pijush Kumar Dutta

Journal of Law and Public Policy

Pastoralism is one of the traditional livelihoods of Monpa community that resides in western Arunachal Pradesh, India. They have been rearing yaks, an integral part of their culture and tradition, and managing summer and winter pasture lands as commons for grazing, However, the Monpa’s yak‑based livelihood is facing challenges as the number of villagers engaged in grazing related activities is reducing and the composition of livestock in the area is changing. To understand the reasons for these changes and its impact, an open‑ended questionnaire was used to interview herders, members of traditional village institutions and village panchayats, and elderly villagers …

The Odds Don’T Lie: Mathematical Reasoning And Societal Ignorance In Don’T Look Up, Nysa Vedwan, Shane Carey

LASER Journal

In Adam McKay’s 2021 satirical sci-fi movie Don’t Look Up, two astronomers discover a comet heading directly toward Earth. Despite overwhelming evidence and near-certainty of global extinction, their warnings are ignored and ridiculed. This paper discusses the mathematical and scientific foundations of the movie’s social and political reception, and specifically focuses on orbital prediction and probabilistic modeling as they relate to public understanding of risk. This paper shows how data is often undermined by political and social dynamics, by connecting the fictional events of the movie with real-world crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency. In Don’t Look …

Can Motivation And Self-Efficacy Predict A Law Enforcement Officer’S General And Job-Specific Fitness?, Robert G. Lockie, Maria M. Beitzel, Tyler Campana, Jennifer Kramer, Robin (Rob) Marc Orr, J. Jay Dawes, Joseph Dulla

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 18(8): 1393-1409, 2025. https://doi.org/10.70252/GEHB5425 Sedentary behaviors contribute to law enforcement officer fitness declines over a career. An officer’s motivation (desire to exercise) and self-efficacy (belief in ability to exercise) could affect whether they exercise and predict resulting fitness. Data from 60 officers (48 men, 12 women) were analyzed. Motivation (amotivation, external, introjected, identified, integrated, and intrinsic regulation) was measured via the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire. A 6-item questionnaire assessed coping (confidence in exercising under challenging conditions) and scheduling (confidence in scheduling exercise) self-efficacy. General fitness variables included sit-and-reach, grip strength, 60-s push-ups, 60-s sit-ups, …

In Memoriam - A Tribute To Dr. Stephen "Steve" Brown, Jenna Anding, Theresa M. Ferrari

Journal of Extension

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Lineaments And Cave Passages In Unfaulted Gently-Folded Strata, Snail Shell Cave, Central Tennessee, Usa, Mark Abolins, Joseph Firkaly-Paciera, Blake King, Cris Ocasio-Valentin, Jackson Slighter, Teagan Sullivan, Justin Whited

International Journal of Speleology

Near Snail Shell Cave in central Tennessee, USA, seven image interpreters independently mapped lineaments using a 3DEP LiDAR DTM, revealing geomorphic and structural differences in and near different parts of the cave. MANOVA comparison of lineament and cave passage trend for Western, Central, and Eastern Snail Shell caves reveals statistically significant differences (p <0.05). The Western cave (mean depth 44 m) is in the gently-dipping limb of the Snail Shell anticline, and the Central cave (mean depth 31 m) is in the anticline hinge. In contrast, many Eastern cave passages (mean depth 40 m) cut across the anticline hinge and part of the limb of the Overall syncline. For both the Western and Central caves, a post-hoc Tukey’s HSD test fails to show that lineament trend within 235 m of the cave differs significantly from passage trend, and the test fails to show that the two differ significantly within 235 and 433 m of the Eastern cave. Additional statistical testing fails to show a difference between Western passage trend and bed strike, indicating the likelihood that lineaments and passages developed within strike-joints. However, testing shows a statistically significant difference between passage trend and bed strike for the Central and Eastern caves. The strike of joints inside the Eastern cave shows that it is within a joint zone which penetrates to depths of at least 80 m and is expressed at the surface as an ~4.2 km-long belt of elevated lineament line density. The lack of a statistically significant difference between Eastern passage trend and the trend of a nearby topographic escarpment suggests that many joints are stress release fractures formed during relatively recent erosion. For the Eastern cave, intersections between lineaments and structures would be attractive targets for groundwater exploration at depths typical of wells in carbonates.

Approaches To Enhancing University Rankings, Mustafa Bulut, Servet Özdemi̇r

i.e.: inquiry in education

Owing to the intense globalization of higher education, competition between universities in national and international settings has increased in speed, and in parallel with this development, a demand for tools has emerged to meet the information needs of stakeholders of higher education institutions. Currently, a large part of this need is met by university ranking systems. Today, there are several types of these systems, which have been subjected to intense criticism with their popularity and wide audience. In this study, which was designed as a qualitative research; in-depth interviews were conducted with local and foreign researchers, policy makers, system administrators …

What Interviewer Reflexivity Has To Offer Qualitative Inquiry: Reflections On Ikeda/Soka Studies, Nai-Cheng Kuo

i.e.: inquiry in education

Interviewer reflexivity is essential in social sciences to enhance the integrity of research studies because it builds trustful relationships, facilitates a nuanced understanding of phenomena, and captures both the individual and social dimensions of the human being (McNair et al., 2023; Olmos-Vega et al., 2022; Soedirgo & Glas, 2020; Villanueva, et al., 2024). Although Finlay’s (2003) five lenses of interviewer reflexivity—strategic, contextual-discursive, embodied, relational, and ethical—provide detailed guides for researchers to consider throughout their interview studies, there is limited literature that demonstrates how these lenses of reflexivity can offer qualitative inquiries in Ikeda/Soka studies, an emerging educational field for peace …

A Collective Journey: Supporting Our Nonbinary Students, April Vazquez

i.e.: inquiry in education

For nonbinary young people, school is often a hostile environment. However, as educators, we can support and affirm diverse gender identities in the classroom, validating students who identify outside the binary and fostering their classmates’ empathy and understanding. A key component of culturally relevant pedagogy is literary representation. By offering books featuring authentic, humanizing depictions of nonbinary characters, we can provide not only mirrors and windows for our students but also telescopes by which something far away—a world free of cisnormative gender prejudice—seems closer and more achievable.

Analysis Of Students' Opinions On National And International Painting Competitions Held In Secondary Schools, Ersin Eren Akgöz

i.e.: inquiry in education

No abstract provided.

Experiential Learning And The Revitalization Of Manufacturing Education At The University Of Dayton, Sean Cahill

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

This perspective paper explores the role of experiential learning in preparing future-ready manufacturing engineers at the University of Dayton, set against the backdrop of Dayton’s legacy as an industrial innovator and the broader national movement to revitalize domestic manufacturing. As automation, cyber-physical systems, and Industry 4.0 technologies reshape the manufacturing landscape, there is a growing need for engineers who possess both technical fluency and systems-thinking capabilities. To meet this need, the manufacturing engineering technology department implemented hands-on, integrated lab-and-lecture modules through support from the Experiential Learning Innovation Fund for Faculty (ELIFF). Grounded in Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and constructivist learning …

Preparation, Immersion, Reflection, Assessment (Pira): A Framework For High-Impact Experiential Learning, Karen Velasquez

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

This article presents the PIRA framework—preparation, immersion, reflection, assessment—as a practical model for intentionally structuring high-impact experiential learning (EL). PIRA serves as a unifying pedagogical tool, bridging foundational frameworks in EL and institutional strategy to facilitate increased coherence across diverse types of EL. The framework’s adoption aligns EL with the University of Dayton’s core mission, advancing equity and student success through intentional design and more uniform standards. This paper examines PIRA’s conceptual foundations, details its benefits for student learning and success, and offers concrete strategies for implementation.

Cover And Front Matter

Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Cover and Table of Contents for Volume 3 (2025)

Designing And Writing Effective Data Management Plans For Grant Proposals, Rubab Shahzad, Ibis Anette Moreno-Lozano

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

Fundamentals of research data management and how to create effective Data Management Plans (DMPs).

Before Philosophy : The Intellectual Adventure Of Ancient Man ; An Essay On Speculative Thought In The Ancient Near East, Henri Franfort

Hannah Arendt Marginalia - All

Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin Books, [1951]

Call #: BL96 .F8 1951

Contains underlining and marginal lining

PDF Information: 21 pages – 8.5 MB

P2p Service With Dynamic Acquiring, Jarkko Oskari Sevanto, Ali Esmailzada

Defensive Publications Series

One embodiment includes a processing network computer implemented method for facilitating a transaction between a sender and recipient. The method uses a token or token reference to dynamically select an authorizing entity as an acquirer, thus enabling transactions among a variety of authorizing entities.

Communication Supplementation Based On Sentiment Analysis, Mahdi Tayarani Najaran, Ruofei Du

Defensive Publications Series

Text-based communication systems often lead to misinterpretation of a message because the emotional context is lost. A recipient may infer a sender’s sentiment based solely on the text, leading to misunderstandings. This disclosure describes a method to supplement text messages (or other communications) with representations of the sender’s inferred sentiment, captured during composition. The technique involves collecting multi-modal biological information from the sender, such as facial expressions, gaze, and gestures, using sensors on the composing device. A machine learning model can analyze this data to infer the sender’s sentiment. A graphical representation, like an emoji, corresponding to the inferred sentiment …

(((Qpie))) The Resonance Of Tomorrow - Today, Teddy Burroughs

Defensive Publications Series

Advancing Phase

I. Entering the Field

Distinguished members of the Nobel Committee…

to the peacebuilders, physicists, statesmen, and citizens of every creed—

Tonight, I stand here not as a solitary mind, but as one signal inside a vast coherence field.

The recognition offered tonight is not for a single discovery, but for the unveiling of a forgotten layer of reality—a layer that has always been humming beneath our wars, beneath our treaties, beneath our loves and losses.

A layer whose existence is now empirically demonstrable.

QPIE OS began not as a theory, but as a measurement of the Trash or …

A Security Assessment System For Blockchain Wallet Recovery Mechanisms, Panagiotis Chatzigiannis, Ke Wang, Mohammad Mohsen Minaei Bidgoli, Sunpreet Singh Arora

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to a system for analyzing security vulnerabilities in blockchain wallet recovery mechanisms. The system includes a blockchain wallet configured with a plurality of distinct recovery agents, a model-checking framework operable to simulate various potential adversarial scenarios, and an interface to specify parameters such as agent reputation, transaction spending power, and user response probability. Additionally, the security assessment output visually indicates secure and insecure configurations of the blockchain wallet based on interactions among the recovery agents. Furthermore, the model-checking framework simulates diverse adversarial conditions, generating an assessment matrix that highlights potential risks associated with different agent configurations. …

Personalized Hrtf Modeling Based On Clustering, Mengfan Zhang

Defensive Publications Series

When sound reaches human ears, sound waves do not arrive at each ear at the same time. Rather, depending on the direction of the sound source, sound waves take different paths to each ear. These paths will likely have different lengths, so the sound waves will reach the closest ear first and the farthest ear shortly after. The exact paths sound waves take to reach a person’s ears are dictated by the person’s head and ear anatomy. To reproduce sounds accurately for immersive experiences, these anatomical differences, which are scientifically modeled by Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs), must be accounted for. …

Advertising Targeting Based On Multi-Modal Detection Of Organic Brand Presence, Basel Hijazi, Nicolas Marchal

Defensive Publications Series

A potential difficulty in digital advertising can be measuring or capitalizing on the organic exposure of physical brand sponsorships within online media content, as some systems might not analyze visual and audio content for brand presence. A multi-modal analysis engine can be used to process media content. This engine can, for example, employ computer vision to identify visual brand indicators, such as logos and products, and use automatic speech recognition and natural language processing to detect spoken brand mentions in an audio track. Detected instances of brand presence can then be converted into actionable advertising targeting criteria. Such criteria can …

Fall 2025 Student Showcase For Research And Creative Inquiry Program, Office Of Student Research, Longwood University

Fall Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

No abstract provided.

Leadership Communication, Heather Arlen, Eli Bruess, Mitchell Buerkle, Ali Gravelle, Magdalen Kramer

Leadership Education Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Predictors Of Mental Health And Suicidal Ideation Among People With Homelessness, Pi-Ming Yeh

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Introduction/Significance: A record-high 653,104 people experienced homelessness with 39.3 percent unsheltered in 2023. This is more than a 12.1 percent increase over the 2022. Homelessness is an important societal problem. Mental illness, adverse childhood experiences, and substance use are serious issues among people with homelessness.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors of psychological well-being, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and depression among people with homelessness.

Methods: Sixty people with homelessness were recruited in Tennessee, USA. This was a cross-sectional descriptive research design. IRB was approved. Questionnaires were used to collect data. SPSS 28.0 was used to analyze …

Building Bridges: Co-Producing Philanthropic Public-Private Partnerships For The United States National Park System, Jason S. Northern

Dissertations

The sustainability of America's National Park System increasingly relies on public–private partnerships that leverage private philanthropy. While the National Park Foundation provides national support, local Park Partner nonprofit organizations, like the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, are key to community-level fundraising and advocacy. This qualitative study of the St. Louis Arch grounds renovation examines how this public–private partnership structure influences donor motivation, trust, and engagement. Guided by Social Exchange Theory and Resource Dependency Theory, this research explores the relational and structural dynamics of this philanthropic co-production including reciprocal donor motivations and interdependence among public, private, and nonprofit partners. Fifteen semi-structured interviews …

Mimar-Net: Multiscale Inception-Based Manhattan Attention Residual Network And Its Application To Underwater Image Super-Resolution, Nusrat Zahan, Sidike Paheding, Ashraf Saleem, Timothy C. Havens, Peter C. Esselman

Michigan Tech Publications

In recent years, Single-Image Super-Resolution (SISR) has gained significant attention in the geoscience and remote sensing community for its potential to improve the resolution of low-quality underwater imagery. This paper introduces MIMAR-Net (Multiscale Inception-based Manhattan Attention Residual Network), a new deep learning architecture designed to increase the spatial resolution of input color images. MIMAR-Net integrates a multiscale inception module, cascaded residue learning, and advanced attention mechanisms, such as the MaSA layer, to capture both local and global contextual information effectively. By utilizing multiscale processing and advanced attention strategies, MIMAR-Net allows us to handle the complexities of underwater environments with precision …

The Impact Of Teachers' Mathematics Qualifications On Student Proficiency, Riaz H. Zaidi

Dissertations

Schools across the United States face persistent challenges in strengthening mathematics and science education. The present study investigates the relationship between mathematics teachers’ qualifications and their students’ performance on standardized assessments, using data from a Midwestern urban school district’s ACT mathematics scores. Findings are discussed within the broader context of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and national efforts to enhance competitiveness among industrialized nations. Despite the presence of leading universities and colleges, U.S. students continue to rank near the middle internationally in math and science achievement, according to the Pew Research Center. Contributing factors include disparities in teacher …

Hydropower Dams, Deforestation, And Land Use Change: Evidence From Brazil, Chiara Falco, Valentina Raimondi

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Working Papers

In Brazil, hydropower generates more than 60% of the national electricity supply, placing the country among the most hydropower-dependent economies worldwide. This study analyses the causal impact of dam construction on forest loss in Brazil using a new municipality-level panel dataset covering 379 dams, combined with high-resolution satellite data on forest coverage, among other variables. Applying modern staggered difference-indifferences estimators and a dynamic event study, we find that dams reduce forest cover by almost 9% percent in the municipality. No anticipatory effects are detected, but postconstruction losses increase steadily over time. Mechanism show that forest loss occurs mainly through cropland …