Digital Commons Network^™

Healthcare Access And The Persistent Racial Disparities In Low Birth Weight, Zaheda A. Hussain, Yadanar Moe

DePaul Discoveries

Low birth weight (LBW), defined as less than 2,500 grams, is an influential factor contributing to infant mortality in the United States, with significant racial disparities between Black and White mothers. This study analyzed data from 3,054 Black and White mothers collected from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey to explore the association between access to medical care and LBW within different racial groups. The prevalence of LBW was 8.0%. Overall, mothers without a usual place of medical care had, on average, an 18% higher risk of LBW than those with a usual place (OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 0.80–1.74). …

Greener Synthesis Of Pdi Ligands Using A Microwave Reactor, Gabrielle E. Leonhardt, Abbigale S. Holjes, Kyle A. Grice

DePaul Discoveries

Two pyridinediimine (PDI) ligands were synthesized using green chemistry principles to minimize environmental impact and maintain synthetic efficiency. Previous syntheses require hazardous solvents and long reaction times. The reaction was carried out with a safer solvent, ethanol, and more rapidly using a CEM Discover microwave reactor. The PDI ligand was chosen for the scaffold for the aromatic core and support for different aniline derivatives. Comparative investigation of aniline electronics showed that 2,6-dimethylaniline was more successful than the electron-withdrawing electronics of 2,6-dichloroaniline. Synthesized complexes were characterized with proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The environmentally conscious microwave reaction produced effective and reproducible …

From Landfill To Ladle: Using Open Lca To Calculate Food Diversion Impacts, Samantha Rodriguez

DePaul Discoveries

Food waste contributes to climate change because discarded food results in wasting embodied carbon from producing food. In addition to wasting embodied carbon, food that ends up in landfills emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. This life cycle assessment quantifies the carbon equivalent footprint of food donations from Costco to the Seton Soup Kitchen using OpenLCA. Two functional units were analyzed in this study. The first functional unit is one meal consisting of 500 grams of donated food that would otherwise be landfilled served to a Seton Soup Kitchen patron during one meal service. The …

Fish Tissue Digestion And Microplastic Polymer Identification Protocol Using Open-Source Ftir Database, Shawn L. Kissinger, Vick-Ariel Privert, Jason Bystriansky, Kyle A. Grice

DePaul Discoveries

Microplastic (MP) contamination in aquatic ecosystems poses significant concerns for environmental and public health, as seafood represents a critical food source worldwide. Despite increasing evidence of MP presence in marine organisms, efficient and accessible detection methods remain essential for characterizing contamination patterns and informing regulatory frameworks. This study extracted MPs from brain, gill, intestine, liver, and muscle tissues of gilt-head bream (Sparus aurata) and European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), two commercially important species from the Gulf of Cádiz, Spain, using a NaOH–HNO₃ chemical digestion protocol. Isolated particles were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, with …

Crystal Structural Analysis Of Medieval Human Bones Using Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering, Selly Altangerel, Leslie Gracia

DePaul Discoveries

Female human second metacarpal (mc2) bones from a medieval cemetery at Wharram Percy, England, were studied using high-energy Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) at beamline 1-ID of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. The age-at-death of 33 samples was determined from molar wear and classified into 3 groups:  18-30, 30-50, and 50+ years old.  Rietveld refinements of the WAXS data were performed to obtain lattice parameters of the hexagonal carbonated apatite phase (cAp). Individual fittings for cAp peaks 00.2, 00.4, and 31.0 were performed to obtain their widths and correlate them to collagen retention. For the three samples described …

Clearing The Air: Tracking Spatial And Temporal Pm2.5 Variability Along A Biking Transect In Chicago, Beau R. Rass

DePaul Discoveries

Fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) poses significant risks to human health and disproportionately affects marginalized communities in urban environments (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021; Tessum et al., 2021). Using low-cost mobile sensors, this study explored spatiotemporal PM₂.₅ concentration patterns along a north–south transect of Halsted Street in Chicago. A 2B Technologies Portable Aerosol Monitor (PAM) mounted on a bicycle was used to continuously record PM₂.₅ concentrations with associated GPS coordinates at approximately two-second intervals during 16 sampling events between 08-12-2025 and 10-05-2025. PM₂.₅ concentrations did not differ significantly among the South Side, West Loop, and North Side regions, contrary to the …

Depaul Discoveries Volume 15 Cover Art, Dina Khdair

DePaul Discoveries

No abstract provided.

Airworthiness, Cassandra Konz

Night Flight: Online Literary Journal

This poem deconstructs the concept of "airworthiness" from its technical definition to the broader concepts of worth, flight, and the forces that push us higher.

Education And Engagement, China Maritime Studies Institute

CMSI Quarterly Review

No abstract provided.

Cmsi Research In The News, China Maritime Studies Institute

CMSI Quarterly Review

No abstract provided.

Cmsi Translations, China Maritime Studies Institute

CMSI Quarterly Review

No abstract provided.

From The Director, China Maritime Studies Institute

CMSI Quarterly Review

No abstract provided.

Cmsi's Recent Publications, China Maritime Studies Institute

CMSI Quarterly Review

No abstract provided.

Cmsi Quarterly (Summer 2026) Full Issue, China Maritime Studies Institute

CMSI Quarterly Review

Full issue of Issue 1 of the CMSI Quarterly Review.

Credential-Isolation Protocol For Autonomous Ai Coders In Multi-Tenant Repositories, Gustavo Matthew Assuncao

Defensive Publications Series

Autonomous AI coding agents that branch, commit, and push on behalf of a fleet invert the assumption behind conventional continuous-integration (CI) secret handling. CI secret models deliver credentials through environment variables and rely on log masking, because they assume the untrusted principal is a human operator or an external attacker reading build logs — not the code author itself. When the code author is a large-language-model (LLM) agent that runs in-process with the orchestrator, inherits its environment, and can emit arbitrary files and network calls under an auto-accept edit mode, an environment-delivered token becomes an open exfiltration channel and log …

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Webhook-Anchored Call-Bound Hmac Token Chain For Telephony Media-Stream Websocket Upgrades, Gustavo Matthew Assuncao

Defensive Publications Series

Every widely-copied "connect a phone call to a realtime LLM" sample — Twilio Media Streams bridged into OpenAI Realtime, and the many forks of it — ships an application WebSocket endpoint (commonly /media-stream or /api/voice/stream) that accepts any upgrade request that knows the path. The telephony provider connects to that socket out-of-band, over the public internet, carrying no bearer credential. An attacker who learns or guesses the path can open the same socket and drive a paid realtime-inference session on the victim's account: classic toll-fraud and premium-resource abuse. This publication discloses a fail-closed trust chain that closes the hole without …

Caldwell Leqembi Home‑Safety & Support Engine (Clhse‑1.0) Unified Open‑Hardware Architecture Integrating Cudre‑1.0, Cng‑Loop V1.0, Cinhrs, Becds V2.0, Accs V4.0, And Caregiver/Clinic Integration Enhancements, Michael Victor Caldwell Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

Abstract

CLHSE‑1.0 is a unified, open‑hardware support architecture designed for patients receiving FDA‑approved LEQEMBI IQLIK (subcutaneous lecanemab‑irmb) for early Alzheimer’s disease. The system integrates five existing Caldwell inventions, each posted on the TDC site, and adds a caregiver micro‑dashboard, clinic integration packet, and minimal hardware starter kit to increase real‑world viability and testing potential.

CLHSE‑1.0 provides a non‑clinical safety and monitoring envelope around LEQEMBI IQLIK’s at‑home dosing model, addressing ARIA‑E/ARIA‑H symptom detection, injection‑reaction monitoring, neurologic changes, sleep‑linked deterioration, caregiver workflow, and functional decline tracking aligned with CDR‑SB domains.

CLHSE‑1.0 does not modify lecanemab, its dosing, its pharmacology, or its FDA‑approved …

Polymer Production From Biogenic Feedstocks, Natalie M. Durdle Miss

Defensive Publications Series

1. This document outlines a standardized, closed-loop biological framework for manufacturing high-tensile structural fibers capable of supporting high-altitude or orbital infrastructure. The pipeline eliminates the requirement for traditional heavy industrial refinery infrastructure by utilizing a re-engineered multi-organism bacterial substrate. Through co-cultured metabolic pathways, engineered microorganisms systematically convert base carbon inputs into volatile propane and ammonia gases. These gases are captured, reacted via ammoxidation, and carbonized to generate advanced carbon-fiber matrices suitable for aerospace tether deployments.

Pipeline For Llm Refinement With Expert Routing, Consensus, And Impact Attribution, Saloni Priya

Defensive Publications Series

Systems and methods can refine LLM outputs through a pipeline architecture that integrates human expert feedback. This pipeline may feature a dynamic routing engine to assign detected errors to qualified experts, an adaptive quality-weighted consensus engine to validate proposed corrections, and an impact attribution engine to measure the value of contributions. These components can operate in a feedback loop to identify, correct, and reintegrate validated knowledge. This process can be used to ground future LLM generations with curated information, potentially affecting the factual accuracy and reliability of model outputs in a scalable manner.

Reactive Mid-Session Expansion Of A Multi-Agent Large-Language-Model Team Under Bounded Admission And Guaranteed-Termination Phase Constraints, With Cross-Session Agent Reincarnation, Antonio Gallego Sáez, Juan Cazila

Defensive Publications Series

In the context of multi-agent artificial intelligence (AI) environments in which a supervisor large language model (LLM) agent participates in a bounded collaborative reasoning session alongside a pre-declared team of specialist LLM agents, a system is proposed herein that dynamically spawns agents on demand by allowing the supervisor LLM agent to emit structured spawn directives during selected phases of a session. The team of specialist LLM agents can thereby expand in response to domain gaps discovered during the session while remaining subject to bounded-admission and guaranteed-termination constraints.

Process For Preparation Of Ensifentrine, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Based on known literature, a reaction scheme was designed for the preparation of Ensifentrine and the same was carried out in lab and commercial scale as well, to achieve consistently high yield and purity of the API.

Policy-Graph Audit Method For Algorithmic Collusion Detection In Multi-Agent Pricing Systems, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

A computer-implemented audit evaluates collusion risk in multi-agent reinforcement-learning pricing systems by analyzing the full counterfactual structure of trained policies rather than only observed price traces. Trained policies are frozen into deterministic greedy action mappings over a discrete joint market state space. A deterministic successor mapping is computed for each joint state to form a directed functional graph with one outgoing edge per state. The graph is decomposed into attractor cycles and basins of attraction that partition the state space. Each attractor is assigned an elevation score based on mean cycle price relative to reference Nash and joint-profit-maximizing price levels, …

Integrated System For Parallel Codebook Generation Via Discrete Flow Matching With Latent-Compressed Encoder States And Fused Gpu Kernel Execution, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Systems and methods generate multi-codebook semantic identifiers for generative retrieval using parallel discrete flow matching, latent-compressed encoder conditioning, and fused GPU execution. A user context is encoded to an encoder representation E, which is compressed to a latent-compressed encoder state cKV = E * Wdown with dc << D. N candidate discrete states over K codebooks are initialized from noise and iteratively denoised for T steps, updating all K codebook positions in parallel according to per-codebook schedules sigma_k(t) = t^{alpha_k} with learnable alpha_k. Cross-attention conditioning is computed over cKV using absorbed projection operations. Flow updates and candidate scoring execute within a single fused GPU kernel launch that may be persistent, retaining cKV in on-chip cache across steps and selecting top-n outputs.

Power-Efficient Packet Aggregation For Wireless Radio During Low-Power Processor Data Offload Via Throughput-Mismatched Interface, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

A wireless radio buffers packets received from a low-power processor over a lower-throughput host interface while keeping radio-frequency (RF) hardware in a low-power state. Firmware on the wireless radio detects a first packet arrival and starts a single-shot aggregation timer. Subsequent packets received during the timer interval are accumulated in a local buffer without powering the RF hardware. When the timer expires, the firmware activates RF circuitry and transmits the accumulated packets as a high-throughput over-the-air burst. After the burst, the aggregation timer is not re-armed, allowing later packets to be transmitted without added aggregation delay. The timer duration may …

Vertebrate Diversity In Cave Systems Of Colombia: An Approach Based On Environmental Dna Metabarcoding Analysis, Rita Daniela Martinelli Marín, Carlos Andres Lasso, Francesco Sauro, Susana Josefina Caballero

International Journal of Speleology

There is currently limited knowledge of the biological communities inhabiting cave ecosystems in South America. This study examines the vertebrate community composition of 21 caves across diverse subterranean ecosystems in Colombia using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis. Water was collected from water bodies inside caves and subterranean systems in six of the eight speleological regions of Colombia in eight departments. Water was filtered manually through a 0.8 m pore size filter and preserved with Longmire solution. A 170-base pair (bp) fragment of the 12s mitochondrial gene specific for vertebrate identification was amplified by PCR and sequenced by Illumina (metabarcoding). Data corresponding …

Origami Sake: Building A Sustainable Supply Chain For A New Beverage Startup, Akosua Sayer Koduah, Nick E. Johnston

ICHRIE Research Reports

Sustainability has become a strategic pillar in the hospitality and beverage industry, shaping supply chain decisions, consumer behavior, and market competitiveness. This study examines how Origami Sake, a startup brewery in Hot Springs, Arkansas, integrates sustainability into its supply chain from inception. Using qualitative analysis of company interviews, secondary data, and comparative literature, the study shows that Origami Sake embeds renewable energy, localized rice sourcing, and by-product reuse into its core operations. These practices reflect circular economy principles and strengthen regional identity, yet they also pose challenges related to packaging limitations, organic rice availability, data-tracking gaps, and the risks of …

Are Hotels Ready For Flooding? Improving Employee Preparedness, Ahmin Kwon, Marketa Kubickova, Swechchha Subedi

ICHRIE Research Reports

Focusing on the experiences of 500 current hotel employees in the United States, this report evaluates current levels of flood preparedness and the role of organizational support in shaping employee proactive response. Findings indicate that most employees have experience with flooding and rely on multiple information sources, yet trust in government response remains moderate. Clear disparities emerge across hotel segments, with significantly higher preparedness commitment and proactive behavior among employees in luxury hotels and those with longer tenure. Importantly, prior experience does not necessarily translate into effective preparedness. Although many respondents perceive existing information as sufficient, there is a continued …

Exploring Hotel Sustainability Through A Service Design Lens: An Espoused Theory Vs. Theory-In-Use Perspective, Cindy Yoonjoung Heo, Jaehyun Park, Sanqi Yang, Chen Ni, Lei Tang, Lei Yu, Julneth Rogenhofer, Geraldine Assen

ICHRIE Research Reports

Sustainability is now widely embedded in hotel strategies, but it is often assessed through what hotels communicate rather than what guests actually experience. This study examines that disconnect by drawing on Argyris and Schön’s distinction between espoused theory and theory-in-use, combined with a service design perspective. Using document analysis alongside in-situ observations at the front desk and in guest rooms, the study looks at how sustainability appears across service touchpoints and whether it is likely to be noticed and understood by guests. The findings suggest that many initiatives are operationally in place but remain largely out of sight during the …

Aviation Disruptions And Tourism Resilience: Policy Lessons From The Indigo 2025 Crisis For India’S Hospitality Tourism Sector, Ann Mary Varghese, Vijaya Zinnoury

ICHRIE Research Reports

The December 2025 IndiGo flight disruption crisis, characterized by widespread cancellations, delays, and capacity constraints, significantly impacted India’s tourism and hospitality sectors during peak travel periods. This research report examines the cascading effects of aviation instability on tourism demand, hotel occupancy, pricing dynamics, and regional economies. Drawing on secondary data from industry reports, news coverage, and policy analyses, the study identifies systemic vulnerabilities in India’s aviation–tourism nexus. Findings indicate that flight disruptions led to large-scale hotel cancellations, revenue losses, and demand volatility, particularly in destination-dependent regions in India such as Darjeeling, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand. The report further evaluates industry responses, …

Tourism System Fragility: Evidence From The Middle East War, Ann Mary Varghese, Vijaya Zinnoury

ICHRIE Research Reports

The ongoing Middle East conflict (2026) has triggered one of the most significant global aviation disruptions since the COVID-19 pandemic, with widespread airspace closures, flight cancellations, rerouting, and fuel cost escalation affecting airlines worldwide. This research report examines how conflict-driven aviation instability has impacted tourism demand, hospitality performance, and destination economies.

Drawing on real-time global evidence, the study finds that the closure of critical air corridors across the Middle East, which handle approximately 15% of global air traffic, led to thousands of daily flight cancellations, mass rerouting, and substantial cost increases for airlines. These disruptions propagated across tourism systems, reducing …