Digital Commons Network^™

Why Are Executions Becoming Crueler?, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

Since the modern death penalty era, this country’s six execution methods have become crueler over time. This article details the execution procedures adopted across death penalty states up to the end of 2025, analyzing their societal and cultural underpinnings and explaining how they were implemented, including their shared flaws, unscientific origins and protocols, and reliance on untrained, unqualified, or unknown executioners. While legislatures and courts claim that states move from one technique to the next to enhance greater humaneness, history shows that such switches are primarily propelled by constitutional challenges to a state’s particular technique. In theory, rendering a state’s …

The Surveillance Of System-Adjacent Individuals, Mariam A. Hinds

Faculty Scholarship

Although the Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” this right is not enjoyed by all people equally. Supreme Court jurisprudence has curtailed the Fourth Amendment privacy rights of individuals under probation or parole supervision. In this line of cases, the Court concluded that the government’s interest in monitoring supervisees, reducing recidivism, and promoting public safety outweighed their reasonable expectation of privacy.

However, surveillance mechanisms like probation and parole extend the criminal legal system’s carceral gaze beyond the supervisees and peer into the bedrooms and digital lives of their families, roommates, and communities, or who this Article calls system-adjacent …

The Destruction Of The Climate Spending State, Adam D. Orford

Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration bet big on spending laws to forward its climate policies, creating a novel “climate spending state”in a field previously approached primarily through regulation. But the second Trump Administration, building on an aggressive theory of Presidential power, with support from bicameral Congressional majorities and a sympathetic Supreme Court, has dismantled the climate spending state with startling ease and speed. Although degradation of the federal workforce and legislative alterations to the tax code have played their part, it is the Trump Administration’s refusal to administer the spending laws enacted by prior Congresses that has had the most disruptive and …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan G. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Untangling Ai Openness, Parth Nobel, Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Chinmayi Sharma

Faculty Scholarship

The debate over AI openness—whether to make components of an artificial intelligence system available for public inspection and modification—forces policymakers to balance innovation, democratized access, safety and national security. By inviting startups and researchers into the fold, it enables independent oversight and inclusive collaboration. But technology giants can also use it to entrench their own power, while adversaries can use it to shortcut years and billions of dollars in building systems, like China’s Deepseek-R1, that rival our own. How we govern AI openness today will shape the future of AI and America’s role in it.   Policymakers and scholars grasp the …

The International Order, International Law, And The Definition Of Security, Harlan G. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

As economic security has seemingly moved to the center of American and European foreign policy, both the United States and the European Union have broadened their interpretation of international law rules governing security, coercion, and intervention. But these interpretations are not exactly new, echoing developing state interpretations of international law that developed states had long ago seemingly rejected. How are these once moribund interpretations of security, force, and coercion being brought back to life?

This article argues that these interpretative shifts highlight the role of the international order as an interpretative mechanism within international law. Borrowing from the work of …

The Law Of For Cause Removal, Jane Manners, Lev Menand

Faculty Scholarship

For the first time in American history, the Supreme Court is poised to decide what it means for the president to remove a principal officer “for cause.” The case — which arises from the attempted removal of Lisa Cook, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System — has major implications for central bank independence in the United States and, more broadly, for the U.S. administrative state. But given how long it has been since such offices were formally contested, courts and commentators have forgotten many aspects of the legal tradition governing “for cause” removal. In …

The One-Stop-Shop Is One Step In The Right Direction, Olivier Sylvain

Faculty Scholarship

In Brokering Safety, Sharma, Kadri, and Adler urge federal policymakers to impose on data brokers the greater duty of policing and stemming online stalking, harassment, and related abuse; that burden should not fall to victims, they argue. Their proposal would close the unevenness among state laws, shift the burden of oversight away from victims, and, importantly, ensure accountability at a systemic level, addressing gaps in enforcement that allow brokers to evade meaningful consequences. Yet, the one-stop-shop solution that Brokering Safety proposes also accedes to the core neoliberal presumption insofar as it individualizes harm. Online abuse, like dark patterns and …

Silencing As Blackening, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

We are so accustomed to seeing defendants sit silently at criminal trials while their lawyers speak that we hardly question it. Or we tell ourselves this silence is for their own protection, part of their privilege against self-incrimination and the rules we have created for their own benefit. But what if we've gotten everything wrong? What if encouraging defendants to remain silent does not inure to their benefit at all, but to the State's? And what if this silencing is tied to race? "Silencing as Blackening" tells a fuller story about silent defendants. One, that this silence is rarely voluntary, …

Book Review Of Political And Social Control In China: The Consolidation Of Single-Party Rule, Carl F. Minzner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Dataset For "Ground-Truthing The Core Competencies In Cataloging And Metadata", Michael J. Monaco

University Research

This is the dataset for a research article submitted to Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. It consists of 109 anonymized cataloging and metadata job advertisements published from 2019-2021 in various online venues such as ALA JobList or distributed via email in discussion lists such as AUTOCAT, CODE4LIB, TSLIBRARIANS, etc. These ads were read and scored for their inclusion of the ALCTS Core Competencies for Cataloging and Metadata Professionals (CCC&M) as well as for some additional elements for analysis (type of job, type of institution) and other preferred or required qualifications, as well as whether salaries or remote work options were mentioned. …

Walking In Newness Of Life, Joseph Khabbaz

The Main Thing Devotional

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

2026 Engage For Change Awards Program, Bonner Center For Civic Engagement

Engage for Change Awards

2026 Award Print: Hamilton Glass, Artist

Keynote Speaker: Hamilton Glass, Artist

Pregnant Women’S Attitudes And Intentions Toward Tuberculosis, Malaria, Group B Streptococcus, And Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccines In Pregnant: Findings From A Cross-Sectional Study Of Pregnant Women Living In Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, And Pakistan, Rupali Limaye, Jessica Schue, Berhaun Fesshaye, Prachi Singh, Emily Miller, Renato Souza, Saleem Jessani, Marleen Temmerman, Caroline Dinam Badzi, Molly Sauer, Vanessa Brizuela, Ruth Karron

Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health

There are numerous infections that can adversely impact a developing fetus, neonates, and pregnant women, and there is limited research related to how specific infections experienced during pregnancy can affect these populations. Tuberculosis (TB), malaria, Group B streptococcus (GBS) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause negative outcomes to maternal and neonatal health. For TB and GBS, there are vaccines in various stages of clinical trial development, and malaria and RSV vaccines are available. This study aimed to examine pregnant women’s attitudes toward TB, malaria, GBS, and RSV vaccines in Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, and Pakistan. We administered a cross-sectional survey …

Air Quality Risks In Public Housing, Brynn Sheehan, Carolyn Caraballo Velez, Vaughan W. Rees, Miasha T. O'Neal, Kristen E. Moore, Katie M. Jones, Jessica Meadows, Sarah Gehlert, Richard Grucza, Andrew Plunk, Kelli J. England

Department Psychiatry & Behavioral Science Faculty Publications

Importance Public housing residents face elevated environmental health risks, yet indoor air quality in these settings remains underexamined. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate indoor air quality in public housing 5 years after implementation of the federal smoke-free housing policy and compare it with outdoor air quality in the same regions.

Design, Setting, and Participants A 1-year cohort study of indoor air quality (particulate matter ≤2.5 μm in diameter [PM2.5]) across 12 multifamily public housing communities in southeastern Virgina for individuals 65 years and older or persons with disability in cities with the highest rated outdoor air quality. Indoor PM2.5 was continuously measured …

Effect Of Antipsychotic Medication Use And Type On Mortality And Cardiovascular Risks In Nursing Home Patients With Dementia, Hamid R. Okhravi, Fang Fang, Melissa P. Hunter, Brynn E. Sheehan

Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology Faculty Publications

Introduction

Antipsychotic medication (APM) use in nursing home (NH) patients with dementia is common but carries risks. This study assessed the association between APM use and mortality, stroke, and myocardial infarction (MI) compared to non-use, as well as differences between first- and second-generation APMs.

Methods

A serial cross-sectional study using Medicare data examined outcomes from 2012 to 2015 in a national sample of 328,138 US NH residents aged 50 and older with dementia. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to analyze risk.

Results

APM use was associated with increased mortality in all years (odds ratio [OR] range: 2.39 to 1.23, all …

Medical Image Feature Extraction And Selection Based On Inception V3 And Gini Index For Cervical Cancer Cells Identification, Rachida Assawab, Mounir Ouzir, Badreddine Benyacoub, Abderrahim Electrochemical Sensor For Tenofovir Allati, Ismail El Moudden

Research and Infrastructure Service Enterprise (RISE) Faculty Publications

Background: Cervical cancer remains the fourth most common cancer in women globally, with 604,000 new cases annually. Early detection through cytological screening is critical, but manual interpretation suffers from high false negative rates and requires expert pathologists often unavailable in resource-limited settings.

Methods: We developed a novel hybrid framework combining InceptionV3-based deep feature extraction with Gini Index feature selection for automated cervical cancer cell classification. Using the Herlev dataset (917 Pap smear images: 242 normal, 675 abnormal), we extracted 2048 deep features and applied systematic feature selection to identify optimal discriminative subsets. Comprehensive clustering analysis (K-means, K-medoid, Fuzzy clustering) validated …

Prevalence And Correlates Of Anxiety And Depression Symptoms Among Medical Students: The Role Of Student Debt Burden, Foroozan Afsharchi, Joshua F. Edwards, Kailash S. Ram, Jingru Huang, Valicia Hale, Ismail El Moudden

Department of Family and Community Medicine Faculty Publications

Background

This cross-sectional study examined whether anxiety and depression symptoms decrease as medical students progress through training (suggesting adjustment disorder) or persist (suggesting chronic conditions), while identifying associated risk factors, including student debt burden and treatment effectiveness.

Methods

We surveyed medical students (years 1-4) at VHS-ODU using a sociodemographic questionnaire and validated screening instruments (GAD-7 for anxiety and PHQ-9 for depression) via RedCap from September to November 2024.

Results

Among 126 students, Scores were higher in Years 2-3 than in Years 1 and 4, but differences by year were not significant (GAD-7 p=0.055; PHQ-9 p=0.352). Students with a prior mental-health …

Research News, Grants, 2026, Volume 1, Soumyajit Majumdar

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during January - March 2026

Research News, Grants, 2026, Volume 2, Soumyajit Majumdar

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during April - June 2026

Research News, Grants, 2026, Volume 3, Soumyajit Majumdar

Grants (2015-)

Grants and contracts awarded during July - September 2026

Welcome From The Editor, Joshua E. Young

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Editors Forum: A Call For Collaboration Among Professionals: Opening Dialogues About Our Professional Organizations, Joshua E. Young

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Small-World Simulations: A New Method To Test The Effect Of Legal Rules, Johannes Kruse

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Small-world simulation exposes an artificial society to a legal rule and observes what its members do. The agents are driven by language models: their conduct is not stipulated in equations but reasoned in their own words. The architecture can be turned on any legal regime; personalized speed limits are the demonstration, chosen because rational-choice and behavioral predictions there conflict. Validated against documented driving patterns, the simulation generates behavior no one wrote into it. Because language models are trained on what people say rather than do, the method estimates orderings, not levels: a benchmark, not a substitute for evidence.

Promises Fulfilled: 114-Year-Old Alelia Murphy’S Life Of Faith And Resilience, Jacqueline B. Koonce

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

Alelia Murphy was the oldest living person in the United States, turning 114 in July 2019 until her death in November 2019. She and her family credit her longevity to her faith in God. This premise is explored through her words as she stated she had not seen everyone she needed to see and compared that statement to Simeon from the Bible who did not die until he saw the Messiah. Alelia Murphy also had not seen everything. She was seeing the relative success of her much admired, former President Barack Obama, and she had just met me, her great …

The Devil’S Partners, James M. Taylor

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Three Mothers Who Prayed, James M. Taylor

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Critical And Exegetical Notes And Discourses On The Gospels. Volume 1, Matthew And Mark, Andrew Carroll

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Critical And Exegetical Notes And Discourses On The Gospels. Volume 2, Luke And John, Andrew Carroll

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Touring South America With The Gospel, James M. Taylor

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.