University of Alabama

Star Wars at Fifty

This symposium celebrates the 50th anniversary of Star Wars (1977) with nineteen short essays from scholars who discuss its meaning, impact, and legacy. The essays examine the migrations and manifestations of the Star Wars universe across media, including animation, video games,...

Characterization of a Unique Carbohydrate-Binding Module from Akkermansia muciniphila that Binds Ganglioside-Associated Glycans

Abstract Akkermansia muciniphila is a mucin-degrading gut symbiont that promotes host metabolic health through its ability to utilize host-derived glycans. Central to this microbe is its diverse set of glycoside hydrolases (GHs), specifically GHs involved in degrading host glycan...

Examining Compensation Across Child Life Specialist Programs in the United States

Certified Child Life Specialists are essential healthcare team members, yet compensation is a frequently cited driver of decreased staffing retention and reduced employee wellbeing. Research to date has not yet systematically examined child life compensation as a potential primar...

Distinguishing ecological modernization and ecomodernism. Environmental policy implications

Ecological modernization and ecomodernism assume that liberal democracies can address their ecological challenges. However, scholars seem to overlook that each rests on distinct theoretical assumptions and political programs. This paper compares the two approaches and analyzes th...

An ensemble-averaged Poisson-Boltzmann model for modeling solute conformational flexibility

The Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) model is one of the most widely used implicit solvent frameworks for computing the polar component of solvation free energy, the energetic cost of transferring a solute molecule from a vacuum into an ionic solvent environment. However, the classical PB...

Ecolinguistics in the United States

Abstract This article presents the personal narratives of five United States-based ecolinguists along with a discussion of contemporary ecolinguistics and possibilities for continued growth. The narratives illustrate the rich interdisciplinary diversity of the expanding field, as...

Global Perspectives on Crisis and Disaster Journalism: Implications for Journalism Education in an Era of Cascading Crises

Global disasters driven by climate change, geopolitical conflict, forced displacement, and public health crises have fundamentally altered journalism operations. Journalists are increasingly interpreting complex, cascading crises amid eroding public trust. Drawing on the 2025 Wor...

Who Verifies the Verifiers? AI, Local Knowledge Production, and Credibility in Tanzania’s 2025 Election

This study examines how Factchecking AI tools and community-based credibility practices interacted during Tanzania’s 2025 presidential election. Using data from five regions, we analyzed 342 media materials, 87 interviews, field observations, and 22 distinct contested election ev...

APOE Genotype–specific Cognitive Response to Aerobic Exercise in Postmenopausal Women with Breast Cancer

Cognitive symptoms are common in postmenopausal women treated for breast cancer (BC). In general and in BC, the Apolipoprotein E 4 allele ( APOE4) is linked to lower cognition and accelerated cognitive decline, but exercise generally benefits cognition. The purpose of this study...

First Bashkirian (Carboniferous, Early Pennsylvanian) marine chondrichthyan assemblage from eastern North America and its implications for Carboniferous faunal turnover

Global Early Pennsylvanian (Bashkirian) chondrichthyan records are scarce, and none have previously been reported from the eastern United States. This interval is critical in chondrichthyan evolutionary history, marking a pronounced faunal turnover from the Late Mississippian. He...

Safety and health of workers in post-disaster reconstruction: a scoping review and evidence map

Post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) is essential for restoring damaged communities, yet the occupational safety and health (OSH) of PDR workers remains poorly understood. Although PDR involves many familiar construction hazards, these risks arise under distinct conditions, includi...

Legitimacy-Conversion Crimes: A Crime Script Analysis of Illicit Gold Laundering

Abstract Illicit markets are not isolated from the legitimate economy; rather, they often depend on it. For illegally sourced commodities to become profitable, they need to find their way into legitimate markets. Their illicit origins must be obscured and replaced with a provenan...

GIS and landmark-aided autonomous vehicle localization for navigation continuity in urban corridors

Reliable localization is essential for autonomous vehicle navigation in urban corridors where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning can become unavailable or unreliable. This study presents a Geographic Information System (GIS) and landmark-aided route-constrained...

Path Analysis with Nonnormal Continuous Data: A Monte Carlo Simulation

The impact of nonnormality on parameter estimates and model-data fit has been extensively evaluated in confirmatory factor analysis models, but comparatively less attention has been given to path models, where nonnormality may occur in different combinations across exogenous, end...

A Dataset of Reproducible Flaky-Test Failures

Flaky tests pass and fail non-deterministically when run on the same version of code. Previous research proposed techniques to detect, debug, and repair different categories of flaky tests. However, reproducing the flaky-test failures remains a major challenge due to their inhere...

Patents on Small-Molecule Drugs Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, 1990-2019

Importance Patent protection allows pharmaceutical companies to charge high prices for prescription drugs during periods of market exclusivity, and their expiration usually defines when generic competitors can enter the US market. Patents on drug active ingredients are classified...

Social determinants and health-related social needs associated with physical and mental distress among U.S. adults with COPD

Objectives This study investigated the prevalence of adverse social determinants of health (SDOH) and health-related social needs (HRSN) and their associations with physical and mental distress among U.S. adults with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods Data from...

Winning and losing experiences differentially alter learning performance and forebrain protein expression in mangrove rivulus killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus

Contest outcomes alter future social behavior, but whether and how a single win or loss influences non-social learning-task performance and triggers rapid forebrain molecular responses remains unclear. The self-fertilizing mangrove rivulus killifish, Kryptolebias marmoratus , off...

An atfs-1 loss-of-function screen identifies novel regulators of α-synuclein toxicity in C. elegans dopaminergic neurons

Abstract Overexpression of α-synuclein (α-syn), an inherently disordered protein, triggers chronic activation of the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans with enhanced dopaminergic (DAergic) neurodegeneration. Introduction of a loss-of...

Composite Adaptive Control Barrier Functions for Safety‐Critical Systems With Parametric Uncertainty

ABSTRACT Control barrier functions guarantee safety but require accurate system models; parametric uncertainty invalidates these guarantees. Existing robust methods maintain safety via worst‐case bounds at the cost of performance, while modular learning schemes decouple estimatio...