Digital Commons Network^™

The Threat To Government Ethics, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

That was quite a week. Over seven days in mid-October:

• President Trump hosted a White House dinner for three dozen super-wealthy individuals and representatives of major corporations who pledged funds for his $300 million ballroom.
• The president commuted the sentence of former Congressman George Santos, who had served less than three months of an 87-month term for corruption, and canceled Santos’s obligation to pay restitution to his victims.
• The president fired, without providing a reason or giving the 30 days’ notice required by law, the Inspector General for the Export-Import Bank.
• We learned the president is demanding the Department of …

Judging Fast And Slow, Bert I. Huang

Faculty Scholarship

The federal courts serve as our first responders in conflicts over constitutional rights and the separation of powers. They are called upon to react — fast — to legal challenges to governmental actions. To avert harm before it’s too late, they may rule within weeks, days, or even hours. They have done so in recent cases about free speech, freedom of the press, election law, independent agencies, federal workers, domestic troop deployments, spending and taxation, due process, search and seizure, and more.

The trial judges and appeals courts of the federal judiciary have long been tasked with this kind of …

International Law And Power Politics: On Koskenniemi's Perceptions Of Justice, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

Martti Koskenniemi wrote ‘Perceptions of Justice’ against the backdrop of the 2003 Iraq War. The piece draws a stark distinction between American and European conceptions of justice – and approaches to international law. Over twenty years later, his distinction might still (or again) resonate. This retrospective analyses it in light of his other work and more contemporary events, arguing that it is a mix of misguided and confused. The United States and Europe have for decades, if not centuries, been profoundly entwined; each has significantly shaped and been shaped by its relationship with the other. The urgent question now is …

Agentic Ai For Autonomous Marketing: Taxonomy, Benchmark, And An Open-Source Agent, Prashidda Thapa, Shraddha Khadka, Pragyan Sharma, Ana Rai

Student Publications

Marketing automation is moving beyond rule-based systems and prompt-driven generative tools toward agentic AI: large language model (LLM) based agents that plan, act, and adapt under high-level objectives. Existing analyses are largely conceptual and commercial platforms are proprietary, leaving the community without reproducible baselines. We contribute three artifacts. First, a compact taxonomy organized around an augmentation–automation-autonomization continuum and a Perceive–Reason–Act(PRA)cycle that distinguishes autonomous agents from rule-based automation. Second, MarketingAgent, an open-source ReAct agent with six tools spanning SQL access, RFM segmentation, XGBoost churn prediction, campaign and email generation, and budget allocation. Third, the Marketing Agent Benchmark (MAB), a 15-task suite …

Do Ensemble Models Always Win? A Comparative Machine Learning Evaluation For Financial Time-Series Prediction, Shraddha Khadka, Prashidda Thapa, Pragyan Sharma, Shreya Silwal

Student Publications

Equal-weighted ensembling is often treated as a default upgrade over individual machine learning models. We test this assumption on one-day-ahead stock-price prediction across five sector diversified U.S. assets (2015–2024) by comparing Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Regression (SVR), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and their equal-weighted average under identical features, preprocessing, and chronological splits. Pooled across assets, LSTM attains the lowest test-set RMSE (17.70), SVR is statistically tied with LSTM under the Diebold and Mariano test (𝑝 = 0.494), the equal-weighted ensemble is third (18.13), and RF is last (20.33); SVR beats the ensemble at 𝑝 = 0.001 (Bonferroni-significant) while LSTMbeats …

Front Matter, Michigan Journal Of Race & Law

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Front Matter for Volume 31, Issue 1 of Michigan Journal of Race & Law

Litigating Birthright Citizenship In The Shadow Of World War Ii: The Continuing Relevance Of A Forgotten Case, Rachel E. Rosenbloom

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

With the question of birthright citizenship before the Supreme Court this term in Trump v. Barbara, this Article explores the last time that federal courts confronted an attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. It tells the story of two lawsuits, Regan v. King and Fisk v. Wade, filed in 1942 by organizations seeking to overturn United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the broad scope of birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. While the cases left little mark doctrinally, their history sheds light on a dimension of birthright citizenship litigation that has …

Police Surveillance And The Perils Of Techno-Solutionism, Prithika Balakrishnan

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article charts domestic law enforcement’s use of video surveillance, beginning in the backlash to the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s, continuing through the War on Terror and, more recently, in the context of the post-George Floyd public critiques of policing. The undergirding philosophy of policing’s embrace of surveillance technology is techno-solutionism, the view that all complex social situations can be simplified to measurable data primed for quick-fix, unbiased, algorithmic answers. While technology may have initially been adopted by police to respond to specific problems, it has changed the problems themselves, altered the array of potential solutions, and …

The Vanishing Voice: Juror Disenfranchisement In Capital Cases And The Erosion Of Constitutional Protections, Yacenda Hudson

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

After years of battling to have an uninfringed right to vote and participate on a jury panel, the removal of the unanimity requirement for a death penalty recommendation threatens to disenfranchise minority jurors, thereby implicating the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. The death penalty is one of the most controversial issues in our society, and it has evolved over time. Due to a paradigm shift in beliefs, the death penalty’s constitutionality was challenged under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Pivotal legal decisions, such as Furman v. Georgia and Hurst v. Florida, required states to institute changes to the death penalty. …

Global Green Shipping Development Report 2025 - 2026, Aykut I. Ölçer, Dong Cheng, Peyman Ghaforian Masodzadeh, Anas Alamoush, Alessandro Schönborn, Tuan Dong, Huiling Zhu, Fabio Ballini, Jieshu Zhang, Cuiyun Zhao, Xin Zhang, Daozheng Huang, Zhiping Li, Wenxin Deng, Guozhu Zhang, Jia Sun, Boyu Zhou, Wenjuan Sun, World Maritime University, Shanghai International Shipping Institute

Reports

The Global Green Shipping Development Report (2025–2026) continues to be jointly compiled by the Shanghai International Shipping Institute and the World Maritime University, and mainly reflects developments in global green shipping from October 2025 to September 2026. The report continues its annual tracking of policies and regulations, market mechanisms, alternative energy sources, ship energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies, and industry practices. It focuses on changes in green shipping policies and regulations at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), in the European Union (EU), and in China; developments in market mechanisms such as carbon trading, industry initiatives, standards, and certification; progress in alternative …

Heroclix®: A Multiplayer Chess Game For Teaching The Fundamentals Of Human Capital Management, Chin Heng Low, Jiunwen Wang, Paul Lim, Bernie Koh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article describes the adaptation and use of the HeroClix® board game to teach critical real-world principles for effective human capital management within teams. In a HeroClix® game, players pit their team of miniature figurines against other players’ miniatures in combat. This is akin to organizations striving in the business environment today, with well-structured human capital within their teams as a key competitive advantage. In this article, we suggest how the game can be applied in the classroom for undergraduate students to experience, reflect on, and learn more about the prerequisite considerations in proficient people management, the dynamic nature of …

Radiological Safety Assessment Of Gamma Spectroscopy Based Spent Fuel Burnup Analysis At The Itu Triga Mark Ii Reactor, T. Akyurek, Z. Boduroglu, A. Kaya, O. Erbay, I. A. Reyhancan, M. S. Kiziltas, S. Ozcan

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study investigates radiological safety and photon attenuation behavior during spent fuel inspection and burnup analysis at the ITU TRIGA Mark II Research Reactor. A lead-shielded fuel inspection system equipped with an HPGe detector was used to perform remote gamma spectroscopy on spent fuel elements, ensuring operator safety. Dose rate measurements were taken using a handheld radiation monitor at both the surface and at a distance of 1 m from the inspection system for each fuel element. The highest contact dose rate was observed for the B4 element (6.68 ± 0.60 μSv/h), while the lowest was for F30 (2.4 ± …

Reply, Jacqueline L. Chen, Amanda J. Lu, Rohan Verma, Li Wang, Douglas D. Koch, Allison J. Chen

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Lytic Reactivation Of Ebv By Hiv Proteins And Antiretroviral Therapy With The Heightened Expression Of Mef-2 Oncogenes Implicated In Aids-Related Cancer, Alesha Philip, Thomas A. Premeaux, Adhikarimayum Lakhikumar Sharma, Cabirou Mounchili Shintouo, Aykan Karabudak, Liudi Tang, Salwa Ahmed, Alekhya Rani Chunduri, Sai Chaitanya R. Gaekwar, Elias Haddad, Ryan Hoffmann, Mudit Tyagi, Pooja Jain

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

Despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), people living with HIV (PLWH) remain at a higher risk of developing AIDS-related cancers. The factors attributed to this increased risk are multifactorial, including long-term ART use, prolonged exposure to soluble HIV proteins, and drugs of abuse. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a common driver of many malignancies, such as Burkitt’s lymphoma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. While ART effectively suppresses HIV replication, it is not curative and prolonged use imposes health risks, including an accelerated course of cancers. Herein, we investigated the effects of various factors that can impact EBV latency in PLWH in cooperation with cellular …

September 2026, Office Of Sustainability

Office of Sustainability Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Neurochemical Impact Of Psychostimulants: Longitudinal Mri Analysis Of Brain Iron Content In Children With Adhd, Hugo A.E. Morandini, Sjoerd B. Vos, Paola Chivers, Tim J. Silk, Pradeep Rao

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in school-aged children and has been associated with impaired brain iron homeostasis. Evidence has shown that psychostimulant treatment may affect brain iron content in children with ADHD, however, longitudinal evidence remains limited. The present longitudinal study investigated the effect of psychostimulant treatment duration and age at treatment onset on brain iron content in children with ADHD. Methods: Neuroimaging and phenotypical data were collected from the publicly available Oregon ADHD-1000 dataset. After screening, data from 29 psychostimulant-medicated children with ADHD and 38 neurotypical children were included. Individual General Estimating Equation (GEE) …

Recent Advances In Thermal Performance Improvement Of Parabolic Trough Solar Collectors Using Magnetic Nanofluids And Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Fluid, Taha Baig, Syeda Laraib Tariq, Furqan Jamil, Qamar Abbas, Hassan Bin Shahid, Hafiz Muhammad Ali

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Among various available types of sustainable energy sources, the role of solar energy is vital due to its safety and low cost. Multiple rigs have been designed to use solar energy to generate steam, where the parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) is a prominent example. Numerous numerical and experimental studies have been conducted to date to improve the thermal effectiveness of PTSCs. These studies include using hybrid nanofluids, insert types, magnetic nanofluids and supercritical carbon dioxide. The current paper provides a review of these studies, including an in-depth discussion section, an account of remaining challenges, and suggestions for future directions. …

Study Designs For Interpath-002 And Interpath-009 Of Adjuvant Intismeran Autogene Plus Pembrolizumab For Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Jonathan D. Spicer, Solange Peters, Justin F. Gainor, Jamie E. Chaft, Christine M. Bestvina, Jay M. Lee, Thomas U. Marron, Muhammad A. Khattak, Laureen S. Ojalvo, Joydeep K. Banerjee, Zheng Wang, Xuan Deng, Nazly Shariati, Steven M. Keller, Tina Cascone

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Neoantigens are immunogenic molecules arising from patient-specific tumor mutations. Intismeran autogene (intismeran; formerly V940, mRNA-4157), an mRNA-based individualized neoantigen therapy (INT) encoding ≤34 neoantigens unique to each patient's tumor, is designed to promote an antitumor immune response. In early-phase studies, adjuvant intismeran plus pembrolizumab showed antitumor activity with solid tumors. Standard-of-care therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors ≥4 cm includes platinum-based chemotherapy and pembrolizumab given after (adjuvant) or both before and after (perioperative) surgical resection. We describe study designs for the INTerpath-002 and INTerpath-009 studies evaluating the addition of intismeran to adjuvant pembrolizumab-based therapy in stage II-IIIB …

Trx Suspension Vs Swiss-Ball Core Training For Core-Muscle Endurance And Static/Dynamic Balance In Overweight Inactive Women: A Randomized Trial, Siavash Naddafha, Mona Sarhadi, Maryam Taherkhani, Abbas Biniaz

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: Prolonged sitting and physical inactivity are key risk factors for trunk-muscle weakness, impaired balance, and low-back pain in overweight women. Although unstable-surface training is widely prescribed, head-to-head comparisons between TRX suspension and Swiss-ball exercise are limited. We compared these modalities for effects on core-muscle endurance and balance.

Methods: Thirty overweight, inactive women (30 ± 5 years; BMI 27.3 ± 1.6 kg·m⁻2) were block-randomized (1:1) to 8 weeks (3 sessions/week) of TRX or Swiss-ball training using five matched exercises at Borg RPE 13–15 on the 6–20 scale. Outcomes were trunk-extensor (Biering-Sørensen), trunk-flexor (60° curl-up), and trunk-lateral (side-bridge) endurance; static balance …

Assessing Transdisciplinary Work-Integrated Learning For Sustainable Development: A Programmatic Approach, Denise Jackson, Claire Lambert, Sonja Coetzee

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This conceptual article responds to the growing need for universities to embed sustainability education within programs to develop graduates capable of addressing complex global challenges. Drawing on the literature relating to education for sustainable development, transdisciplinary work-integrated learning (TWIL), programmatic assessment, and the ethical use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), it explores how assessment can support the development and evaluation of capabilities required for sustainable development. TWIL is presented as a curriculum-based pedagogy in which students and academics from multiple disciplines collaborate with external partners to address authentic environmental, social, and economic sustainability challenges. The article argues for a programmatic …

Association Of The Pan-Immune-Inflammation Value-To-Albumin Ratio As A Novel Cardiovascular Disease Predictor In Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective Cohort Study, Fangyuan Liu, Xinghua Yang, Bo Gao, Yanxia Luo, Lixin Tao, Xiuhua Guo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objectives: Individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) remain at high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) integrates circulating neutrophils, monocytes, platelets, and lymphocytes but does not capture albumin-related nutritional and inflammatory reserve. We investigated associations between the PIV-to-albumin ratio (PIVA) and incident CVD, cardiovascular mortality, and disease progression in individuals with T2D.

Methods: This prospective study included 15,355 UK Biobank participants with T2D and no baseline CVD. PIVA was calculated from peripheral blood cell counts and serum albumin and was natural log-transformed. Fine–Gray competing-risk and cause-specific Cox models were used to evaluate incident CVD and cardiovascular mortality. Multi-state …

Physical And Rheological Properties Of Bitumen Modified With Biochar, Nuha S. Mashaan, Suneth Sirinatha, Chathurika Dassanayake

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The integration of biochar into asphalt binders represents a significant advancement toward global sustainability in pavement engineering. Produced through biomass pyrolysis, biochar enables the valorization of agricultural and industrial waste while reducing dependence on petroleum-derived binder constituents. This review critically synthesizes current research regarding the impact of biochar on the physical, rheological, and aging performance of bitumen. The evidence consistently shows that biochar improves binder stiffness, raises softening points, and strengthens rutting resistance at elevated temperatures, largely due to its porous microstructure and high carbon content. Biochar-modified binders also exhibit enhanced aging resistance through the adsorption of volatile light fractions. …

International Competency And Regulatory Standards In Osteopathic Practice: A Comparative Documentary Analysis Of Regulated And Formally Recognised Jurisdictions, Lee Muddle, Gopi Anne Mcleod, Loïc Treffel, Oliver P. Thomson, Ana Paula A. Ferreira, Brett Vaughan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objective: To compare competency standards and regulatory expectations for osteopathic practice across jurisdictions where the profession is formally regulated or recognised as a healthcare profession. Methods: A documentary analysis was undertaken across regulated and formally recognised jurisdictions. National competency frameworks, regulatory standards and professional guidance documents were identified through regulatory and professional body websites and direct contact with relevant organisations. Nineteen national competency, regulatory or professional framework documents from 17 jurisdictions were included. The World Health Organization Benchmarks for Training in Osteopathy and EN16686 Osteopathic Healthcare Provision were included as international comparison points. Data were extracted using a structured template …

Neonatal Assessment And Vr: Designing 3d Simulation Training For Prehospital Clinicians, Michella G. Hill, Luke Hopper, Belinda Flanagan, Sara Hansen, Alecka Miles, Jess Watson, Sean Cashman, Kirstie Balding, Peggy Dysktra, Joshua Johnson, Brennen Mills

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Prehospital emergency care requires clinicians to manage a vast array of medical and trauma incidents, including rare events such as obstetrics (i.e., childbirth) emergencies. Emergency births can have life-threatening complications such as neonatal respiratory distress potentially leading to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Management of low-frequency high-risk (LFHR) events such as birthing and immediate neonatal care occurring outside the planned place of birth require expert clinical management. Underutilised skill and knowledge of LFHR events decay within 12-months of being taught. LFHR events are often overlooked for refresher training due to the low occurrence of such cases, putting LFHR patients at even greater risk …

Pediatric Nurses' Perspectives Of Integrating Spiritual Care Into Everyday Practice: An Integrative Review, Yin May Htay, Mandie Foster, R. Mowat

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: To explore nurses' perspectives regarding children's spiritual care in pediatric healthcare settings. Background: Spiritual care is a fundamental source of comfort and healing and an essential. component of nursing practice. However, pediatric nurses often lack the competence and confidence to incorporate spiritual care into their clinical routines. Despite its importance, the perceptions and practices of pediatric nurses across various clinical specialties regarding spiritual care remain underexplored in current literature. Methods: The integrative review methodology was chosen to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of the literature. Four electronic databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus and Google Scholar) were used to search …

Spatiotemporal Assessment Of Water Quality Around Western Australian Central Business District Using Satellite Multispectral Imaging, Muhammad Hassnain, Cameron Veal, Muhammad Rizwan Azhar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Monitoring urban surface waters requires methods that preserve spatial detail while capturing seasonal and interannual variability. Multispectral satellite remote sensing provides a scalable complement to conventional field and laboratory monitoring across rivers, wetlands, lakes and coastal receiving waters. This study used Sentinel-2 Level-2A imagery processed through the Pixxel Aurora workflow to map a model-based water quality index (WQI) for the Swan-Canning River system, adjacent urban lakes and nearby coastal waters around Perth, Western Australia, from 2018 to 2025. Of 150 candidate images, 96 monthly WQI maps were accepted after software-based cloud correction, area-of-interest coverage checks and visual quality review. Satellite-derived …

The Plastic Footprint Of Sugar: Microplastic Contamination In Bangladesh’S Commercial Sugar, Sadia Afrin, Nayon Hossain, Mostafizur Rahman

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The presence of microplastics (MPs) in food has emerged as an environmental and public health concern, yet evidence regarding their occurrence in refined dietary commodities remains limited. This study assesses microplastic contamination in commercially available sugar and estimates the daily intake of MPs. Seven branded and non-branded sugar products were analysed using stereomicroscopy for particle characterization and FTIR spectroscopy for polymer identification. Microplastics were detected in 95% of samples, with concentrations ranging from 210 to 508 particles/kg. Branded sugar contained 322 ± 109.53 particles/kg, while non-branded sugar exhibited 403 ± 148.5 particles/kg, indicating comparatively higher contamination in freely available market …

A Novel Mesoscopic Modelling Approach For Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete: Investigating The Effects Of Fibre Alignment On Flexural Performance, Ayman Mansour, Themelina Paraskeva, Nuha S. Mashaan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Traditional finite element modelling of Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) relies on homogenised macroscopic models that overlook localised effects such as fibre orientation. Although three-dimensional (3D) mesoscopic frameworks for SFRC have been developed, direct comparisons with homogenised macroscopic models under the EN 14651 flexural test configuration remain limited, particularly for variations in fibre orientations. Consequently, a comparative evaluation is essential to assess the mesoscopic model under EN 14651 conditions. To address this, this work introduces a 3D tensor-controlled mesoscopic modelling approach for SFRC that explicitly simulates individual fibres with random and preferential alignment, offering a more realistic representation of fibre bridging …

Adjusting To Extreme Demand Volatility: A Comparative Analysis Of Air Navigation Service Provider Financial Resilience In The Southern Asia-Pacific, Margaret Arblaster, Gui Lohmann

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Air navigation service providers fund their operations almost entirely through activity-based user charges, creating a structural dependency between revenue and air traffic volume. When traffic collapses, revenue falls immediately, but the cost base, dominated by specialised labour under fixed-term employment contracts and long-lived capital infrastructure, adjusts slowly, if at all. This paper examines how five corporatised, wholly government-owned air navigation service providers in the southern Asia-Pacific (i.e., Airservices Australia, Airways New Zealand, AirNav Indonesia, NiuSky Pacific in Papua New Guinea, and Fiji Airports) responded to the extreme demand shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses the role of government grants …

Allochthonous Particulate Organic Carbon In Blue Carbon Ecosystems: Implications For Accounting, Stability, And Policy, Anirban Akhand, Inés Mazarrasa, Stacey M. Trevathan-Tackett, K. M.G. Mostofa, Abhra Chanda, Hongbin Liu, Hiroshi Sakugawa, Si Liang Li, Cong Qiang Liu, Catherine E. Lovelock, Paul Lavery, Hilary Kennedy, Peter I. Macreadie

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) store a significant amount of organic carbon (OC) in their soils, including OC sequestered by other ecosystems and transported into these ecosystems, referred to as allochthonous OC. This study reviews the state-of-the-art knowledge on the abundance and sources (including still unexplored ones) of allochthonous particulate organic carbon (POC) and reviews the ways allochthonous POC is managed under the current blue carbon policy frameworks for carbon benefits accounting in blue carbon restoration and conservation projects. Based on a review of 102 studies, we find that 56 ± 25% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) deposits in BCEs …