Bridging Horizons
innovation, Identity and Global Futures
Volume 1, Issue 3 — March 2026
Published July 2026
ISSN: 3069-8200
The Princeton Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (PJIR) proudly presents Volume 1, Issue 3 (2025), Bridging Horizons: Innovation, Identity, and Global Futures — the third installment of our inaugural publishing year.
Building upon the foundations of Voices in Convergence and Frontiers of Inquiry, this issue deepens PJIR’s commitment to rigorous, cross-disciplinary scholarship that confronts both emerging and enduring global questions. The research featured in this edition traverses scientific innovation and technological transformation; re-examinations of social, cultural, and political identities; ethical dimensions of public policy and governance; and evolving intersections between health, economics, and global development.
Two Best Paper selections exemplify this breadth: "Deepfakes On Trial: A Mixed-Methods Study of Student Perceptions and Regulatory Concerns about Non-Consensual Deepfakes at the London School of Economics and Political Science," which interrogates the ethical and regulatory implications of emerging synthetic media technologies. Meanwhile, "Interpretable Transfer Learning with EfficientNetB0 for Automated Detection of Rare Anemia Morphologies in Peripheral Blood Smears" demonstrates how advances in machine learning and biomedical imaging can be translated into clinically meaningful diagnostic tools, highlighting the growing convergence of computational innovation and medical practice.
Alongside the two Best Paper selections, this volume features contributions addressing religion and social meaning, structural inequality, developments in the life sciences, and more. We hope these studies encourage readers to draw connections across fields and to approach complex contemporary questions with intellectual openness.
All accepted articles are published online under ISSN 3069-8200.
Editor’s Note
Serious scholarship often begins with a single, well-defined question. Yet the moment we follow that question far enough, we find it rarely stays in one place. Questions about attention become questions about education and equity. Questions about algorithms become questions about trust and accountability. Questions about biological systems quickly intersect with questions about human experience. This issue brings together work that reflects precisely this movement across boundaries.
In this volume, we are proud to feature research on ADHD, the effects of racial bias in dermatology datasets on convolutional neural networks, the emerging legal terrain of deepfakes, sustainable building materials, structural inequality, developments in the life sciences, and more. The issue also includes work engaging questions of religion and belief, examining gender and social identity, and exploring problems in linguistics, and more.
We celebrate interdisciplinary scholarship not as a slogan, but as a practice. The work collected here demonstrates careful technical reasoning alongside ethical awareness and social sensitivity. It shows that strong research does not dilute disciplinary rigor; rather, it is often strengthened when scholars remain attentive to the wider implications of their methods and findings.
PJIR Editorial Team
Articles in This Issue
Structural Basis for Mitochondrial Disease in Large Subunit (LSU) Assembly of Mitochondrial Ribosomes
Author: Ayan Mammadova
Affiliation: Cambridge Centre for International Research
Abstract:
The mitochondria are a unique organelle, due to the fact that it possesses its own DNA and thus is involved in producing its own protein building blocks. The mitochondrial ribosomes play a key role in the protein synthesis mechanism of the organelle, meaning a dysfunction in the large or small subunits eventually impacts this process...
Keywords: Mitochondrial disease, mitochondrial ribosome, large subunit assembly, mitochondrial DNA, protein synthesis, ribosomal assembly factors, MRPL3 mutation, structural biology
Entrepreneurship Under Constraint: The Impact of Economic Sanctions on Business Ecosystems in Iran, Russia, and China
Author: Ansel Lee
Affiliation: Cambridge Centre for International Research
Abstract:
Economic sanctions are a key tool in international relations, designed to enforce compliance with global norms while avoiding military intervention. This study examines the impact of sanctions on entrepreneurial ecosystems and business strategies in Iran, Russia, and China, focusing on resilience, adaptation, and long-term viability...
Keywords: Economic sanctions, entrepreneurial ecosystems, business resilience, institutional reform, innovation constraints, international trade networks, regulatory policy, Iran, Russia, China
Effects of Racial Bias in Dermatology Datasets on Convolutional Neural Networks
Author: Aarohi P Joshi
Affiliation: Cambridge Center for International Research
Abstract:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has shown significant promise in medical diagnosis, especially in dermatology for early detection of skin cancer. Racial disparities in the medical field have been firmly established, especially in dermatology, but have not yet been rectified. This deficiency of representation extends to AI systems, which often perform poorly on dark skin tones due to a biased training dataset dominated by light skin images...
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, deep learning, cancer, bias, dermatology
Trofinetide and Rett Syndrome: A Comprehensive Review of the First FDA-Approved Therapy
Author: Sruthi Chetput
Affiliation: Lynbrook High School
Abstract:
Rett syndrome is a rare, X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder predominantly affecting females, characterized by early developmental regression, loss of purposeful hand use, severe cognitive impairment, and autonomic dysfunction. It is most commonly caused by de novo mutations in the MECP2 gene, which disrupts normal synaptic development and function...
Keywords: Rett syndrome, Trofinetide, long-term efficacy, early intervention potential
Citation for This Issue
Princeton Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. (2026). Volume 1, Issue 3 — Bridging Horizons. PJIR.
https://www.princeton-press.com/pjir/issues/vol-1-issue-3
Open Access Statement
This journal is fully open access. All articles are freely available to read, download, and share without subscription or access barriers. We encourage scholars to cite and engage with the research published here, as such scholarly exchange plays an important role in supporting emerging and early-career researchers and advancing ongoing academic conversations.