Digital Commons Network^™

The Futility Of “Genocide” In Ending A Genocide, Shannon Fyfe

Scholarly Articles

After the horrors of World War II, the Genocide Convention of 1948 sought to invest the international community in creating legal obligations that “sovereign” states commit to preventing and punishing future genocides. Unfortunately, this has not succeeded. International legal jurisprudence pertaining to identifying and punishing genocide has developed at the International Court of Justice and at other international criminal courts and tribunals. Yet the invocation of the term “genocide” in public, academic, or legal discourse has generally failed to ensure the participation of the international community in stopping a genocide. The United States, for instance, has failed to play the …

Salary Report, 2026 January, Eastern Michigan University

EMU Salary Reports

No abstract provided.

Desperation Finance: Merchant Cash Advances In Bankruptcy And Beyond, Kara Bruce

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Over the last several years, Merchant Cash Advances (“MCAs”) have risen in prominence as a form of short-term financing for distressed small businesses. MCA transactions are distinct from most small-business lending because they are not structured as loans at all. Rather, in exchange for a lump sum of cash, the merchant purports to sell to the funder an unidentified percentage of its future receipts or receivables. This structure allows funders to sidestep the application of lending regulations and usury protections, but it strains the foundations of commercial law and generates a host of interpretive challenges.

Bankruptcy, district, and circuit courts …

Gendered Outcomes In Student Loan Bankruptcy, Jason Iuliano

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Women are winning more student loan bankruptcy cases than men, a notable reversal that challenges what we know about gender and legal outcomes. Drawing on hand-coded data from over 1,300 adversary proceedings spanning 2007 to 2023, this Article documents a sharp post-2022 shift. Women now succeed in 89% of cases compared to 82% for men.

The puzzle is that financial metrics cannot explain this gap. Men and women who file these cases look indistinguishable on paper: similar debt loads, comparable assets, and equivalent incomes. Legal representation explains part of the story. Women are slightly more likely to hire attorneys, and …

Holding The Debtor’S Fresh Start Hostage: Bankruptcy Courts Incorrectly Interpret Ransom V. Fia Card Services To Deny Debtors A Car Ownership Expense Deduction, Creola Johnson

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

With the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, Congress adopted for the first time a standardized income-based test for measuring an individual debtor’s “disposable income,” which is the amount a debtor must pay to unsecured creditors in a chapter 13 proceeding. Under the means test, debtors calculate their disposable income by deducting from income various standard expenses established by the Internal Revenue Service. One of those standard expenses is a vehicle ownership expense, which debtors can deduct if they have auto loan or lease payments. 

This Article is about bankruptcy courts who …

Wet Aging And Internal Endpoint Cooking Temperature Influence Color Of Lamb Longissimus Lumborum Muscle, Oluwatobi M. Ogunsola

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Color is a critical quality attribute that influences consumer purchase decisions for fresh and cooked lamb and is governed by myoglobin's redox chemistry. Wet aging is commonly used to enhance lamb tenderness, while endpoint cooking temperature is the primary determinant of internal cooked color. However, the combined effects of these factors on the color stability of the lamb longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle during refrigerated storage remain unclear. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of wet aging duration on the color attributes and lipid oxidation of fresh lamb LL chops and endpoint cooking temperature and refrigerated storage …

Identification And Characterization Of Tornado Seismic Signals In The Central U.S., Seth Thompson

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tornadoes cause extensive property damage and endanger lives. While Doppler radar can indicate the potential for tornado development, it cannot confirm that a tornado is in contact with the ground unless a debris signature is present. While on the ground, a significant amount of a tornado’s energy may be transferred into the earth as seismic vibrations. Thus, seismometers have the potential to detect on-the-ground tornadoes. Since 1960, only five papers have published seismic recordings from tornadoes. These studies have mostly reported on seismic waves generated by tornadoes at a relatively large range, from 0.01-2.5 Hz, representing uncertainty in the dominant …

The Hidden Cost Of Prescription Drug Discount Programs And The Lack Of Legal Protections To Protect Consumers, Gina Lee

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Double Helix: Patent Law, Bioethics, And The Regulatory Future Of Gene Editing, Kayla Flanders

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Sound Of The Police: Police Radio Encryption And Freedom Of The Press, Toluwanimi Fajolu

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

'This Little Game:' Holding Social Media Platforms Liable For Their Hand In Securities Fraud Through Section 230 Reform, Casey Rosen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Making The Law Work: Protecting Classical Ballet Choreographers' Artistic Legacies Through Copyright And Estates Laws, Alice Darakhchava

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ocean Is Not A Machine: A Feminist Media Analysis Of Oceanographic Models, Simulations, And Futures, Clarissa Chevalier

Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality: Faculty Publications

This article examines how scientific and artistic representations and technologies shape ocean futures. Dominant Western oceanography frequently engages mechanistic metaphors that conceptualize the ocean as a machine, pump, or carbon sponge. This way of visualizing the ocean, guided by the logics of control and quantification, shapes contemporary remote sensing, modeling, and prediction technologies. Alternative approaches to oceanographic representation, including Indigenous, anticolonial, Black feminist, and artistic approaches, offer critical counterweights to destabilize the authority granted to mechanistic oceanographic representations. Ocean simulations and scale models are infrastructures through which ocean futures are rendered and presented in multidimensional space. Through a comparative media …

Associations Of Non-Motor Symptoms With Perceptual Speech Impairments In Parkinson’S Disease, Rui Liu, Ciara Leydon

Health Science Faculty Publications

Background:

Communication impairments are common, multifaceted, and progressive symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and have deleterious impacts on individual wellbeing. Self-awareness of communication impairments and the rate and extent of decline in speech skills vary substantially across individuals and are challenging to predict. To address these, we aimed to (1) evaluate associations between non-motor symptoms (NMS) and speech impairment at year seven and (2) compare the progression of self-perceived and examiner-rated speech impairment ratings scores across a seven-year follow-up period.

Method:

The study included 417 PD participants from the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative. NMS were assessed using validated instruments covering …

Decoding A Decade: Evolution In Distal Radius Fracture Techniques From Past To Present, Embracing The Efcr Method, Natasha G. Dark, Ahmed S. Raihane, Laurie G. Wells, Deana Mercer

Western Journal of Orthopaedics

No abstract provided.

Essays In Housing And Consumer Finance, Spencer Stone

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

In my first chapter, I show how consumer left-digit bias affects borrowing costs in the US residential mortgage market. I find that the distribution of mortgage rates bunch at .99-ending rates just below left-digit changing thresholds, and that this bunching is greater in the distribution of rates selected by borrowers than those simply offered by lenders. Comparing observably similar borrowers within the same 1-bp interest rate band, selecting similar mortgage products, in the same census tract and origination month, I show that borrowers receiving .99-ending rates pay significantly more fees than borrowers receiving the nearest whole-number rate just above them, …

Perceived Use Of Web-Based Videoconferencing For Social Connectedness Among Older Adults Living In Long-Term Care: Qualitative Study, Anna Garnett, Halyna Yurkiv, Denise M. Connelly, Richard Booth, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Faan

Publications

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how restrictions on in-person interactions within long-term care homes (LTCHs) severely compromised social connectedness among older adults and their families. Post pandemic, despite policy changes supporting greater in-person family engagement, frequent outbreaks continue to disrupt face-to-face interactions, and factors such as geography, life circumstances, and health can constrain family members’ ability to make regular in-person visits. Research suggests that web-based videoconferencing technology (WVT) may be a practical solution to help older adults within LTCHs to maintain social connection in the absence of physical gathering. However, increased understanding of end user experience is lacking, and more …

Activity-Dependent Remodeling Of Muscle Architecture During Distinct Locomotor Behaviors In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Adina Fazyl, Akash Anbu, Sabrina Kollbaum, Andres G. Vidal-Gadea

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Muscle structure is dynamically shaped by mechanical use, yet how distinct locomotor behaviors influence sarcomere organization remains poorly understood. In Caenorhabditis elegans, crawling and swimming constitute discrete gaits that differ in curvature, frequency, and mechanical load, providing a tractable model for studying activity-dependent remodeling. Using confocal imaging of phalloidin-stained body-wall myocytes, we quantified myocyte geometry, sarcomere length, and sarcomere number across anterior, mid-body, and posterior regions in animals reared exclusively under crawling or swimming conditions. Quantification and hypothesis testing used linear mixed models that accounted for repeated myocyte measurements within animals, with interaction terms testing region-specific effects of locomotor …

Conference Schedule, Georgia Southern University

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

2026 Conference Schedule

Critical Discourse Analysis Of Nil Policies: Examining Institutional Control And Economic Opportunities For Division I Football Athletes In Power Four Universities, Allen T. Alvarez

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The adoption of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies has redefined the economic landscape of collegiate athletics, expanding opportunities for student-athletes and reshaping institutional authority. This dissertation nvestigates how NIL policy language at Division I universities frames economic possibilities for football student-athletes and sustains systems of governance. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis of policy documents from Power Four and mid-major institutions, this study reveals that NIL participation is persistently conditioned by institutional approval, compliance monitoring, and ambiguous definitions, especially regarding boosters and collectives.

Policy language presents NIL as an opportunity but embeds institutional control through oversight structures. The analysis further …

The Operationalization Of Student Success: How Institutions And Divisions Of Student Affairs Define And Align Non-Academic Student Success With External Accountability Expectations, Madeline N. Trudeau

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This qualitative multi-case study investigates how higher education institutions and their divisions of student affairs publicly discuss and define non-academic student success through their strategic planning, within the context of external pressures from state legislatures and accrediting bodies. Grounded in Organizational Learning Theory, Transition Theory, and Theory of Student Involvement and Engagement, this study analyzes the alignment and divergence between external policy expectations and internal institutional and divisional strategic plans.

The findings reveal a fundamental tension; while external stakeholders increasingly demand quantifiable outcomes tied to economic productivity - like post-graduate wages and employability metrics - divisions of student affairs continue …

A Historical Case Study Of The Effects Of The Coordinate Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students (Cipris) System And The Student Exchange Visitor Information System (Sevis) On Foreign Students Coming To The United States For Higher Education From 1990 To 2008, M. Ann Livingstone

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The United States has welcomed foreign scholars and students since 1774, but their numbers increased dramatically after World War I, and again after World War II, as America became a world power leader and interest in the United States and its educational system and technological developments grew internationally. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was set up to oversee immigrants, visitors, and nonimmigrants who included students and diplomatic staff and families. This study deals with the changing laws and responsibilities of the INS during the period 1990 to 2008 to track foreign students in higher education, specifically with the introduction …

Developing A Best Practice Guideline For Clinical Practice In A Digital Health Environment: Systematic Reviews Based On The Grading Of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, And Evaluation Approach, Lauren Bailey, Lyndsay Howitt, Nafsin Nizum, Christine Buchanan, Maureen Charlebois, Jennifer Yoon, Rob Beleno, Michelle Beyn, Rebecca Bliss, Elizabeth Borycki, Margarita Cleghorne, Sandra Davidson, Lorie Donelle Phd, Rn, Fcan, Faan, Alexander Hamilton, Tsz Yee Ip, Margery Konan, Daile Moffat, Sanaz Riahi, Tiziana Rivera, Tammy Rooke, Vaishali Sengar, Steve Sottile, Meredith Whitehead, Vanessa Burkoski

Publications

Background:

Digital health refers to the field of knowledge and practice associated with the development and use of digital technologies to improve clinical practice and health outcomes. Knowledge of digital health technology is becoming essential for all nurses and health providers.

Objective:

This study aims to present the results of the systematic reviews that were used to inform the recommendations in a best practice guideline (BPG) following the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) approach. Reviews focused on digital health education for nurses and health providers, peer champion models, and the use of predictive analytics in digital health …

Benefits And Harms Of Copyright Restrictions And Conditions On Burnout And Other Psychometric Assessment Scales, Robert G. Badgett, Sudha Xirasagar, Hayrettin Okut

Publications

INTRODUCTION: Copyright conditions can hinder the scientific and usage impact of essential assessment tools in healthcare, organizational psychology, and other fields. The stories of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) are well-documented. Despite decades-old recommendations to blend copyright restrictions of intellectual property when used for commercial purposes with permissive but distinct copyright terms for non-commercial and scholarly use, few authors of assessment tools do so.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether restrictive copyrights limit the long-term scientific impact of copyright holders (often medical schools/faculty), by inhibiting downstream use, research, and improvement of measurement tools by other researchers. …

To Flea Or Not To Flea: Abiotic And Biotic Factors Driving Flea Parasitism On Wild Deer Mice, Parker Todd, Angela Luis, Mike Kinsella

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) are an abundant North American rodent and the primary reservoir for Sin Nombre virus (SNV), a hantavirus with a 30-40% case fatality rate in humans. While ectoparasites, such as fleas, are not considered vectors of SNV, their bites may indirectly affect the transmission of SNV by impacting host condition or immune function. These impacts could potentially lead to an increase in host susceptibility and/or an increase in viral shedding, yet there is still little knowledge on what influences flea parasitism on deer mice in western Montana. This study looks to examine how mouse sex, …

Perceptions And Metaperceptions Of Bison In The West, Riley Rush Comstock

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Effective coexistence between wildlife populations and the people that live with them requires an understanding of how people feel toward the species and their management. Bison occupy a unique place in conservation history and management. Once extirpated across nearly all of their range and only recently introduced to areas outside of large tracts of federal land, they are now a jurisdictionally challenged species, with varying management paradigms across a patchwork of landowners and managers. Recent research has shown how activating different social identities can distort people’s attitudes toward species. Here, I explore whether activating urban and rural identities distorts people’s …

The Law And Economics Of Resilience, Doni Bloomfield, Jeff Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The field of law and economics has long studied externalities, the costs and benefits actors create and yet fail to internalize. But scholars have largely overlooked a set of externalities that lead firms across the economy to systematically underinvest in resilience, with macroeconomically harmful consequences. In this Article, we address this gap with a theory of the law and economics of resilience, by which we mean the ability of markets to reliably and optimally meet demand for goods and services without extreme price fluctuations. 

We argue that corporate resilience is determined by a conflict between two basic forces: the resilience …

The Effect Of Chamber Geometry On The Performance Of Oscillating Water Column, Timilehin O. Osunade

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the effect of internal chamber geometry on the performance of a piezoelectric oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy harvester. Four acrylic chamber configurations with internal top-surface angles of 0°, 30°, 45°, and 60° were tested under 32 controlled conditions combining synchronous (SYN) and asynchronous (ASC) forcing at input voltages of 4, 6, 8, and 10 V. A 35 mm piezoelectric disc mounted at the chamber roof served as the power take-off element and, subject to the RC-limit caveat disclosed in Section 3.2.1, as a first-order dynamic analogue of the chamber pressure for phase-based compressibility analysis. All test …

The Impact Of A Nf-Κb Signaling Inhibitor On The Antibacterial Activity Immune Response In The Cat Flea (Ctenocephalides Felis), Caroline M. Singer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Ctenocephalides felis are vectors of several bacterial pathogens that cause disease in humans and animals, including Bartonella henselae and Rickettsia felis. Successful pathogen transmission requires that microbes survive the immune defenses of the flea digestive tract following blood feeding. In insects, humoral immune responses are regulated primarily by the Toll and immune deficiency (IMD) signaling pathways, with the IMD pathway serving as the principal defense against Gram-negative bacteria. Although genomic and transcriptional evidence indicate that cat fleas encode and express components of the IMD signaling pathway, the functional roles of individual pathway components within the flea digestive tract remain …

Modeling Accreditation Standards And Evaluation Methods To Inform Strategic Planning In Public Health Education, Debra Rich

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Public health has long benefited from the relationship between postsecondary education, accreditation, and government employment. Assessment and accreditation are important tools in postsecondary education to ensure fiscal responsibility, professional competencies, and quality assurance. The competency standards implemented in post-secondary education are not under the direct control of the federal government; however, policy amendments aimed at specific accreditation criteria could result in changes to public health curriculum and create eligibility barriers for students who rely on federal financial support. The Central Washington University Public Health program has provided educational support in professional public health for decades, and there is an increased …