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
Is Humanistic Buddhism a New Phenomenon or A Revival of the Original Intent of the Buddha?
Author: Rev Wadigala Samitharathana
Affiliation: University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Abstract:
In general, scholars argue whether ‘Humanistic Buddhism’ is a systematic re-introduction of Buddhism that has already been in pre-modern China or a new methodical re-manifestation about the core tenets of the Buddha. Herein, this study will defend the view that Humanistic Buddhism can be considered as a revival of the original intent of Śākyamuni Buddha, albeit not a new phenomenon...
Keywords: Hsing Yun, Humanistic Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Master Taixu
Biomimetic Nanoparticle Applications for Treatment of Atherosclerosis
Author: Guru Sashank Aroul
Affiliation: St. Mark’s School of Texas
Abstract:
Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks. To combat atherosclerosis, current regenerative medicine and tissue engineering research focuses on using nanoparticles to repair damaged arteries. Of the various types of nanoparticles, researchers have paid special focus on biomimetic nanoparticles for their long circulation times and ability to evade the immune system.
Keywords: Atherosclerosis, Regenerative Medicine, Nanoparticles, Biomimetic Nanoparticles
How Effectively Can ECG Signals Alone Be Used to Detect Sleep Apnea Events in Patients?
Author: Sam I Anil
Affiliation: Cambridge Centre for International Research (CCIR)
Abstract:
Sleep apnea is a common disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep, which can lead to serious health complications if left undiagnosed. This study investigates the effectiveness of using only ECG signals to detect sleep apnea events, aiming to evaluate an alternative, non-invasive diagnostic approach...
Keywords: Physiological Signals, Machine Learning, ECG Signals, Sleep Apnea, Classification
Authenticity in the Game of Tennis
Author: Ziheng Huang
Affiliation: Cambridge Center for International Research
Abstract:
What is the point of making any association between a philosophical concept and a sport? This paper explores the concept of authenticity through the lens of philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s “Freedom of Will and the Concept of a Person” (1971), as interpreted by philosopher Katharina Bauer (2017), and applies it to the context of competitive tennis...
Keywords: Authenticity, Tennis, Second-order Volition, First-order Desire
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.