American International College

Evolving interdependencies across institutions and markets drive systemic financial risk, yet most forecasting models either treat assets independently or rely on static correlation structures. This limitation becomes particularly salient as cryptocurrency markets increasingly interact with traditional banking systems amid financial stress. Ignoring time-varying cross-market network structure risks understating tail risk ‎precisely during periods when accurate systemic risk assessment is most critical. This study proposes a dynamic graph neural network ‎‎(GNN) framework for systemic risk forecasting that models time-varying financial networks spanning banking institutions and major cryptocurrency assets. Nodes represent financial entities, while edges are constructed using rolling-window dependency measures that adapt to ‎changing market conditions. Node dynamics are modeled through temporal neural architectures, and stress regimes are explicitly identified ‎to evaluate performance under market turmoil. The empirical design includes strong temporal baselines, static-graph ablations, and cross-market removal experiments to isolate the contribution of network dynamics and crypto-market integration. Results indicate that a strong ‎LSTM baseline achieves superior volatility forecasting accuracy in both overall and stress-period evaluations, demonstrating the competitiveness of purely temporal models. However, within the class of graph-based models, dynamic GNNs substantially outperform static-graph variants during stress periods, demonstrating the importance of time-varying network structure for capturing volatility amplification. ‎Bank-only and full-system dynamic GNNs exhibit comparable stress-period performance, suggesting that cryptocurrency assets contribute ‎limited incremental information to bank-specific forecasts, while remaining informative for system-level stress characterization. The findings ‎suggest that dynamic graph representations enhance stress sensitivity and structural interpretability relative to static network models, even ‎when they do not surpass strong temporal baselines in raw predictive accuracy. The results support a restrained view of crypto–banking ‎contagion, emphasizing its conditional relevance during periods of market stress rather than unconditional systemic dominance.

Accurate and early diagnosis of eye disease is important to prevent irreversible vision loss and enable prompt clinical intervention. In this paper, we propose a powerful hybrid ensemble deep learning framework for multi-class eye disease detection using fundus images. The framework ensembles two state-of-the-art convolutional neural networks, ResNet50 and InceptionV3 with transformer-based models, Vision Transformer (ViT) and Swin Transformer to take advantage of both local feature extraction and global context information. Data preprocessing, including normalization, data augmentation, and SMOTE, was utilized to enhance data variability and correct class imbalance. Three ensembles were built and contrasted: a transfer learning ensemble, a transformer ensemble, and a hybrid ensemble of all four models combined. Experimental findings indicated that the hybrid ensemble yielded better results with an overall accuracy of 90.52 %, high precision, recall, and F 1 -scores across different classes of eye diseases. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of ensemble deep learning for creating scalable and accurate diagnostic systems in ophthalmology.

The dramatic adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the USA has revolutionized the financial landscape and provided unprecedented investment and transaction efficiency opportunities. The prime objective of this research project is to develop machine learning algorithms capable of effectively identifying and tracking suspicious activity in Bitcoin wallet transactions. With high-tech analysis, the study aims to create a model with a feature for identifying trends and outliers that can expose illicit activity. The current study specifically focuses on Bitcoin transaction information in America, with a strong emphasis placed on the importance of knowing about the immediate environment in and through which such transactions pass through. The dataset is composed of in-depth Bitcoin wallet transactional information, including important factors such as transaction values, timestamps, network flows, and addresses for wallets. All entries in the dataset expose information about financial transactions between wallets, including received and sent transactions, and such information is significant for analysis and trends that can represent suspicious activity. This study deployed three accredited algorithms, most notably, Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machines. In retrospect, Random Forest emerged as the best model with the highest F1 Score, showcasing its ability to handle non-linear relationships in the data. Insights revealed significant patterns in wallet activity, such as the correlation between unredeemed transactions and final balances. The application of machine algorithms in tracking cryptocurrencies is a tool for creating transparent and secure U.S. markets. As virtual currencies gain increased acceptance and transactions become increasingly sophisticated, machine algorithms can provide processing capabilities for enhancing supervision and compliance operations. Complicated algorithms can be programmed to search through massive sets of transactional information, identifying trends that could be indicative of fraud and compliance failures. With the use of past data, such algorithms can become trained to detect abnormalities in real-time, and regulators and financial institutions can respond promptly to suspicious activity.

In the era of digitalization and globalization, advertising wields an even greater impact on modern society than ever before. While feminism has challenged the male-dominated society for decades, one can still observe the persistence of gender stereotypes, especially sexist discrimination, influencing the representation of women in the media. This paper aims to critically examine several advertisements for daily necessities, analyzing their content and impact to investigate specific patterns of discrimination against women in the modern advertising industry. In terms of structure, this paper will address the following issues: First, it will provide a brief review of recent research on motherhood and the male gaze. Then, it will analyze specific examples of advertisements, discussing the contested female images they portray. In particular, this research will focus on pressures related to gender roles, sex discrimination, and the male gaze as three typical issues. Finally, we will offer suggestions for the advertising industry and content creators. The goal of this paper is to present a clear picture of the persistent gender issues within advertising today and propose ways to address them in the future. By analyzing the framework of advertisements and their cultural implications, this research will shed light on a more comprehensive examination of the misrepresentation of women in the media.

In January 2023, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward to 90 s before midnight, reflecting the growing risk of nuclear war [1]. In August 2022, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the world is now in ‘a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War’ [2]. The danger has been underlined by growing tensions between many nuclear-armed states [1, 3]. As editors of health and medical journals worldwide, we call on health professionals to alert the public and our leaders to this major danger to public health and the essential life support systems of the planet, and we urge action to prevent it. Current nuclear arms control and non-proliferation efforts are inadequate to protect the world's population against the threat of nuclear war by design, error or miscalculation. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) commits each of the 190 participating nations to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control [4]. Progress has been disappointingly slow, and the most recent NPT review conference in 2022 ended without an agreed statement [5]. Many examples of near disasters have exposed the risks of depending on nuclear deterrence for the indefinite future [6]. Modernisation of nuclear arsenals could increase risks: for example, hypersonic missiles decrease the time available to distinguish between an attack and a false alarm, increasing the likelihood of rapid escalation. Any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for humanity. Even a ‘limited’ nuclear war involving only 250 of the 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world could kill 120 million people outright and cause global climate disruption leading to a nuclear famine, putting two billion people at risk [7, 8]. A large-scale nuclear war between the USA and Russia could kill 200 million people or more in the near term and potentially cause a global ‘nuclear winter’ that could kill five to six billion people, threatening the survival of humanity [7, 8]. Once a nuclear weapon is detonated, escalation to all-out nuclear war could occur rapidly. The prevention of any use of nuclear weapons is therefore an urgent public health priority, and fundamental steps must also be taken to address the root cause of the problem – by abolishing nuclear weapons. The health community has played a crucial role in efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear war and must continue to do so in the future [9]. In the 1980s, the efforts of health professionals, led by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), helped to end the Cold War arms race by educating policy makers and the public on both sides of the Iron Curtain about the medical consequences of nuclear war. This was recognised when the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to IPPNW [10] (http://www.ippnw.org). In 2007, IPPNW launched the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which grew into a global civil society campaign with hundreds of partner organisations. A pathway to nuclear abolition was created with the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, for which the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. International medical organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, IPPNW, the World Medical Association, the World Federation of Public Health Associations, and the International Council of Nurses, played key roles in the process leading up to the negotiations and in the negotiations themselves, presenting the scientific evidence on the catastrophic health and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons and nuclear war. They continued this important collaboration during the First Meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which currently has 92 signatories, including 68 member states [11]. We now call on health professional associations to inform their members worldwide about the threat to human survival and to join with IPPNW to support efforts to reduce the near-term risks of nuclear war, including three immediate steps on the part of nuclear-armed states and their allies: first, adopt a no first-use policy [12]; second, take their nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert; and, third, urge all states involved in current conflicts to pledge publicly and unequivocally that they will not use nuclear weapons in these conflicts. We further ask them to work towards a definitive end to the nuclear threat by supporting the urgent commencement of negotiations among the nuclear-armed states for a verifiable, time-bound agreement to eliminate their nuclear weapons in accordance with commitments in the NPT, opening the way for all nations to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The danger is great and growing. The nuclear-armed states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us. The health community played a decisive part during the Cold War and more recently in the development of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We must take up this challenge again as an urgent priority, working with renewed energy to reduce the risks of nuclear war and to eliminate nuclear weapons. The respective authors were paid by their employers. CZ's time was funded by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. IH and AH developed the idea of the editorial and led drafting, along with CZ. All other coauthors contributed significantly to the editorial content.

This is a repository copy of Reducing the risks of nuclear war -the role of health professionals.

Abstract Part object study, part theater history, and part performance theory, this book locates in early modern English stage practices the origins of a theater of the Anthropocene. In addition to endorsing the unpredictability of performance and allowing both non-human players and unplanned accidents to enhance the meaning of a play in the context of early globalization, the Shakespearean stage also continues to offer modern audiences strategies for confronting a rapidly changing global environment. Anthropocene Theater and the Shakespearean Stage revises the anthropocentric narrative of early globalization from the perspective of the non-human world in order to demonstrate nature’s agency in determining ecological, economic, and colonial outcomes. It welcomes readers to reimagine theater history in broader terms, and to account for more non-human and atmospheric players (weather events) in the otherwise anthropocentric history of Shakespearean performance. This book analyzes plays, horticultural manuals, cosmetic recipes, Puritan polemics, and travel writing in order to demonstrate how the material practices of grafting, blackface performance, and pyrotechnics both catalyze and resist early forms of globalization in an ecological arena. Furthermore, this book addresses the role of an understudied ecological performance history in determining Shakespeare’s iconic cultural status, and models how non-human players have undermined Shakespeare’s authoritative role in colonial discourse. Finally, this book makes a celebratory argument for the humanities in the age of climate change, and invites interdisciplinary engagement from students and scholars who are compelled to find strategies for cultivating a hopeful tomorrow amidst unprecedented anthropogenic environmental changes.