Digital Commons Network^™

Alternative To The Statistical Mass Confusion Of Testing For "No Effect", Josh L Morgan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In cell biology, statistical analysis means testing the hypothesis that there was no effect. This weak form of hypothesis testing neglects effect size, is universally misinterpreted, and is disastrously prone to error when combined with high-throughput cell biology. The solution is for analysis of measurements to start and end with an interpretation of effect size. In this manuscript, I walk through some of the common critiques of significance testing and how they relate to experimental cell biology. I argue that careful consideration of effect size should be returned to its central position in the planning and discussion of cell biological …

The Role Of Leopard Spot Technique Acupuncture For Shoulder Impingement With Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Dewi Ratnasari, Sri Wahdini

Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal

Shoulder impingement syndrome can be defined as a collection of symptoms and signs in the shoulder caused by pathology within the intrinsic or extrinsic that cause pinching in the narrowed space between the acromion and the head of the humerus. Myofascial pain yndrome can occur because of shoulder impingement syndrome. We report a 66-year-old male patient who presented with complaints of limited motion in the right shoulder area accompanied by pain to a medical acupuncture clinic in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2024. Leopard spot technique manual acupuncture was performed at the palpable myofascial trigger point area in each therapy session. After …

Breast Cancer Survival Rates And Determinants In Ethiopia: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Longitudinal Studies, Abenezer M. Tafese, Meseker T. Fentie, Beminate L. Seifu, Angwach A. Asnake, Bikiltu D. Dirbaba, Abdisa G. Jara, Elsabeth Tizazu Asare, Brandon George

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer mortality among women in Ethiopia, accounting for 32% of new cancer cases and 17.6% of cancer deaths. Despite its growing burden, comprehensive data on survival rates and contributing factors remain limited. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize existing data on breast cancer survival in Ethiopia and identify key determinants influencing outcomes.

METHODS: A comprehensive systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and CINAHL to identify studies on breast cancer survival in Ethiopia published between January 2014 and August 2024. Eligible …

Enhancing Patient Positioning Accuracy: Evaluating Daily Cone Beam Computed Tomography In The Halcyon System., Duong Thanh Tai, Luong Tien Phat, Tran Trung Kien, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Nguyen Xuan Hai, Peter Sandwall, David Bradley, James C L Chow

Oncology Articles

BACKGROUND: Precise patient positioning is crucial for successful radiotherapy, ensuring accurate delivery of radiation to tumors while minimizing exposure to healthy tissues. Positional errors can significantly impact treatment efficacy and increase side effects. This study evaluates the effectiveness of daily cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging in the Halcyon system for detecting and correcting patient misalignments across various cancer types and treatment sites.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 411 patients treated with the Varian Halcyon linear accelerator from August 2022 to August 2024. Patients were grouped based on tumor location: Head and Neck (118 patients), Chest (188 patients), …

Dissecting The Heterogeneous Effects Of Opioid Prescribing Limit Laws On Pediatric Mortality: A Multidimensional And Negative Binomial Modeling Approach, Francine R. Vega

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Opioid prescribing for children and adolescents continues to be a significant health crisis in the United States. Early naïve exposure to opioid prescriptions has been linked to later misuse, opioid use disorder, and death. In response to the crisis, many states have implemented opioid prescribing limit laws (OPLLs) aimed at reducing exposure to opioids. These laws vary widely in their approach, including differences in dosage restrictions, prescription duration limits, informed consent requirements, educational provisions, and whether they offer explicit protections specifically for minors. Despite their widespread adoption, there is limited understanding of how heterogeneity in legal regulations affects outcomes for …

Exploring Ict Adoption In Teaching And Learning Of Science: A Case Of Senior Teachers In Kenya, David Odhiambo, Winston Edward Massam, Fredrick Mtenzi

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

This study was conducted in Homa Bay Sub County, Kenya to explore the adoption of ICT among senior teachers, aged between 45-60 years, in teaching and learning of science. A qualitative research approach using a case study design was employed. Eight secondary school senior teachers of science, 2 females and 6 males, within Homa Bay Sub County were purposefully selected. Semi structured interviews were conducted one-on-one basis followed by classroom observation and document analysis. Analysis of the data revealed that senior teachers of science generally integrate ICTs in planning, assessment and in classroom teaching; however pedagogical preferences and teacher’s workload …

Use Of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy In A Nation-Wide Veterans Health Administration Sample: The Role Of Clinic, Therapist, And Patient Factors., Alan Mcguire, Mindy Flanagan, Madison E Stout, Jessica Coffing, Marina Kukla, Morgan Traylor, Laura Myers, Nancy Henry, Jessica Carter, Marianne Matthias

Health Services and Informatics Research

OBJECTIVE: To examine the use of CBT-CP (Cognitive-behavioral therapy for chronic pain) by CBT-CP-trained therapists to treat patients with pain over a five-year period (October 2015-February 2020).

DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SETTING: CBT-CP is a core evidence-based practice that is central to multidisciplinary chronic pain care. However, research suggests that CBT-CP is underused. The current study used national Veterans Health Administration data to examine the use of CBT-CP by CBT-CP-trained therapists to treat patients with pain over a five-year period.

STUDY DESIGN: Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate clinic, therapist, and patient-level factors as predictors of CBT-CP receipt.

DATA COLLECTION: …

Application Of Machine Learning In Early Childhood Development Research: A Scoping Review, Faith Benson, Daisy Chelangat, Willie Brink, Patrick Mwangala, Akbar Waljee, Cheryl Moyer, Amina Abubakar

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background: Early childhood development (ECD) lays the foundation for lifelong health, academic success and social well-being, yet over 250 million children in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential. Traditional measures fail to fully capture the risks associated with a child’s development outcomes. Artificial intelligence techniques, particularly machine learning (ML), offer an innovative approach by analysing complex datasets to detect subtle developmental patterns.

Objective: To map the existing literature on the use of ML in ECD research, including its geographical distribution, to identify research gaps and inform future directions. The review focuses on …

Regulation Of Icer Degradation And Its Role In Melanoma, Justin Wheelan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, with 100,640 new cases and 8,290 deaths estimated in the United States in 2024. While targeted therapies and immunotherapy have improved patient outcomes, resistance remains a major challenge, necessitating new therapeutic approaches. Approximately 50% of melanomas harbor BRAFⱽ⁶⁰⁰ᴱ mutations, leading to constitutive MAPK pathway activation. Targeted small molecule therapies such as BRAF and MEK inhibitors are available and initially reduce tumor burden, however resistance frequently occurs, likely through many pathways including compensatory activation of cAMP signaling. ICER (Inducible cAMP Early Repressor), a transcriptional repressor of CREB-mediated gene expression, is absent in melanoma …

Machine Learning Based Medical Ultrasound Image Classification And Grad-Cam Interpretation, Victoria C. Hemphill

All Theses

This work takes a step in creating a diagnostic tool for the classification decision process of Achilles tendinopathy using ultrasound images. An attention-based multiple instance learning model is developed to classify the images. Typically, doctors capture multiple ultrasound images of the Achilles tendon during a study to determine a complete diagnosis. Multiple instance models adopt this behavior by providing a single label for a set of instances (images). The images are grouped into ”bags” at the study level and passed into the model. The MIL model then uses its attention property to assign an importance score to each image to …

Study Of Ai Applications In Biomedical Data Acquisition, Communication, And Analysis: Cest Mri Acceleration And Ecg Transmissions, Adarsha Bhattarai

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation investigates the application of artificial intelligence in biomedical data acquisition, communication, and analysis to advance neurological research and to enable the early detection of cardiovascular conditions. Despite significant advances in imaging and physiological modalities, challenges persist. Imaging modalities, such as the chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging (CEST MRI) technique are challenged by a prolonged data acquisition time and high operational costs. In addition, physiological modalities such as electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors face constraints in providing uninterrupted signal monitoring which is crucial for the timely detection of premature cardiac abnormalities. The primary goal of this work is to …

Resilience Of Interdependent Transportation And Healthcare Systems: A Simulation-Driven Framework Incorporating Social Equity And Facility Optimization, S. Yasaman Ahmadi

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The overarching goal of this dissertation is to develop an integrated, simulation-driven framework to assess and enhance the resilience of interdependent transportation and healthcare systems before, during, and after natural hazards. By examining how spatial disruptions, social vulnerability, operational constraints, and infrastructure interdependencies affect access to and functionality of hospitals, this research offers a multifaceted evaluation of system performance under stress. This dissertation examines the impact of natural hazards, particularly floods, on the interdependent transportation and healthcare systems. The proposed approach combines and advances GIS-based network analysis, graph-theoretical modeling, and discrete-event simulation to evaluate system performance under different scenarios. The …

Association Of Epigenetic Aging With Plasma Cbiomarkers Of Amyloid, Tau, Neurodegeneration, And Neuroinflammation In Hispanic/Latino Adults, Myriam Fornage, Wassim Tarraf, Martha L Daviglus, Charles Decarli, Kevin A Gonzalez, Carmen R Isasi, Sayaka Kuwayama, Melissa Lamar, Bonnie E Levin, Humberto Parada, Alberto R Ramos, Tatjana Rundek, Bharat Thyagarajan, Hector M González

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Background: Blood-based biomarkers hold significant promise for the early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. Age-related changes in blood levels of AD biomarkers are well-documented but poorly understood. Epigenetic clocks are mathematical models based on DNA methylation patterns that reflect various aspects of the multidimensional aging process. We investigated the associations of epigenetic aging with five blood-based AD biomarkers in 2656 Hispanic/Latino adults (mean age 62.5 years; 65% females) from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. We used multivariable linear regression models to estimate the associations of acceleration in each of five epigenetic clocks with …

Integrating Bulk And Single-Cell Transcriptomics To Investigate Intratumor Heterogeneity, Shuai Guo

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Cancers are heterogeneous mixtures of tumor and surrounding cells, where each component comprises multiple distinct sub-types and/or states. Understanding the cell-type-specific contributions is critical for advancing cancer biology, yet high-throughput expression profiles from tumor tissues only represent combined signals from all diverse cellular sources. Bulk deconvolution with single-cell/nucleus (sc/sn) RNA-seq data has emerged as a powerful approach to dissect both cellular composition and cell-type-specific expression patterns, yet the technological discrepancy across sequencing platforms limits accuracy.

To systematically evaluate the impact of platform discrepancies on bulk deconvolution, we first generated a benchmark dataset of 24 healthy retinas with paired bulk and …

Therapeutic Potential Of Sglt2 Inhibitors In A Repeated Love Dose Cisplatin Model., Dianet C. Sanchez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cisplatin is a potent chemotherapeutic, thirty percent of patients develop Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). These patients are ten times more likely to develop chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sodium-glucose-cotransporter-2-inhibitors (SGLT2i), FDA approved for diabetes, has shown protection in multiple mouse models of AKI-CKD. We hypothesize SGLT2i can protect the kidney in a model of repeated low dose cisplatin with/without cancer. B6:129 mice with/without lung adenocarcinoma (Lung-adeno) were treated daily with SGLT2i dapagliflozin (10mg/kg)/vehicle control. After seven days, weekly cisplatin (7mg/kg)/vehicle control was initiated for 3-4 weeks. Following final cisplatin dose, kidney function, injury, fibrosis, inflammation was assessed. SGLT2i treatment attenuated alterations …

Detection Of Activity Cliffs Produced By Anti-Cancer Drugs And An Algorithm For Reliable Predictions In Affected Areas, Sarah Josephine Aurit

Department of Statistics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An activity cliff (AC) occurs when drugs close in chemical space produce dissimilar biological results. We focus on developing an inferential procedure to detect the presence of ACs in a chemical landscape. If detected, we provide a distance-based procedure that can be used to identify regions of stability in the chemical landscape of interest and generate prediction with higher precision in those areas of stability. We conceptualize the chemical landscape as a spatial random field and use spatial models for prediction of efficacy for new drugs based on “distance” in chemical space. We argue that an AC manifests itself by …

Applications Of Preclinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging In The Treatment Of Traumatic Brain Injury And Understanding Carotid Artery Atherosclerosis, Evan Timothy Curtis

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide the opportunity to investigate research questions that have been left unanswered. In the cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and carotid artery atherosclerosis, MRI is a resource for non-invasively viewing the phenomena taking place. Additionally, potential interventions and treatments can be observed without harm to the subject. This dissertation expands the understanding of two preclinical applications of MRI: traumatic brain injury and carotid artery atherosclerosis in mouse models.

TBI is a leading cause of death and disability for individuals between 15–45 years of age and effective pharmaceutical interventions for treating the secondary damage …

From Storm To Strength: Katrina's Legacy Of Health, Healing, And Hope, Lsu Health Sciences Center - New Orleans

LSUHSC Hurricane Katrina Archive: Reports & Presentations

This is the schedule for "From Storm to Strength" Katrina Symposium organized by LSU Health New Orleans to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

A speaker panel session was held each day from Monday, August 24, 2025 to Thursday, August 28, 2025 for LSU Health faculty, staff and guests to share their remembrances of the hurricane and its impact on the school, on the City, and on their lives.

Markerless Clinical Gait Identification Using Computer Vision Techniques And Artificial Intelligence, Katelyn Conroy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Pose estimation algorithms could provide an unbiased examination for diagnosis, progression, and rehabilitation. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was 1) to critically identify and appraise literature investigating spatiotemporal and kinematic gait characteristics in individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's Disease and spastic diplegic Cerebral Palsy compared to healthy controls; 2) to examine the validity and reliability of spatiotemporal gait characteristics and upper- and lower-body joint kinematics of OpenPose and the agreement with marker-based motion capture in healthy individuals; and 3) to examine the sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of a proposed clinical diagnostic tool using OpenPose in the diagnosis of idiopathic …

Effects Of Multi-Sensory Training In Physical Activity On Reaction Time And Fitness In Elementary Students., Sarah Anne Trout

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract This study examined the effects of multi-sensory Neuroplasticity training (MSNP™) using the ROXPro system on the psychomotor abilities of third-grade students in a Midwestern elementary school. The research aimed to determine whether the integration of interactive sensory-reactive technology in physical education could improve reaction time, agility, and explosive power compared to standard PE instruction. A total of 49 participants were assigned to either a control group or an intervention group, with the latter engaging in six weeks of ROX-based drills. A pretest-posttest design was employed, and data were analyzed using ANCOVA, repeated measures ANOVA, and independent t-tests to assess …

Dp-Brem: Differentially-Private And Byzantine-Robust Federated Learning With Client Momentum, Xiaolan Gu, Ming Li, Li Xiong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Federated Learning (FL) allows multiple participating clients to train machine learning models collaboratively while keeping their datasets local and only exchanging the gradient or model updates with a coordinating server. Existing FL protocols are vulnerable to attacks that aim to compromise data privacy and/or model robustness. Recently proposed defenses focused on ensuring either privacy or robustness, but not both. In this paper, we focus on simultaneously achieving differential privacy (DP) and Byzantine robustness for cross-silo FL, based on the idea of learning from history. The robustness is achieved via client momentum, which averages the updates of each client over time, …

Bayesian Counterfactual Machine Learning Individualizes Radiation Modality Selection To Mitigate Immunosuppression, Duo Yu, Michael J Kane, Yiqing Chen, Steven H Lin, Radhe Mohan, Brian P Hobbs

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Lymphocytes play critical roles in cancer immunity and tumor surveillance. Radiation-induced lymphopenia (RIL) is a common side effect observed in patients with cancer undergoing chemoradiation therapy (CRT), leading to impaired immunity and worse clinical outcomes. Although proton beam therapy (PBT) has been suggested to reduce RIL risk compared with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), this study used Bayesian counterfactual machine learning to identify distinct patient profiles and inform personalized radiation modality choice.

Methods: A novel Bayesian causal inferential technique is introduced and applied to a matched retrospective cohort of 510 patients with esophageal cancer undergoing CRT to identify patient profiles …

Nature-Inspired Metaheuristics For Optimizing Dose-Finding And Computationally Challenging Clinical Trial Designs, Weng Kee Wong, Yevgen Ryeznik, Oleksandr Sverdlov, Ping-Yang Chen, Xinying Fang, Ray-Bing Chen, Shouhao Zhou, J Jack Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Metaheuristics are commonly used in computer science and engineering to solve optimization problems, but their potential applications in clinical trial design have remained largely unexplored. This article provides a brief overview of metaheuristics and reviews their limited use in clinical trial settings. We focus on nature-inspired metaheuristics and apply one of its exemplary algorithms, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, to find phase I/II designs that jointly consider toxicity and efficacy. As a specific application, we demonstrate the utility of PSO in designing optimal dose-finding studies to estimate the optimal biological dose (OBD) for a continuation-ratio model with four parameters …

Blood-Red And Flaming And True, Kate Gaskin

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Blood-Red and Flaming and True contains poems that explore the immense feelings of love and loss tied to the relationship between parent and child. They chronicle my experience raising a neurodivergent child, as well as undergoing infant loss and navigating a U.S. medical system that is renowned for putting women and people capable of giving birth—especially BIPOC—at greater risk than other countries with similar resources. Through poems that inhabit a variety of forms, I sift through grief and joy while attempting to tap into the sublime state that underlies extreme loss and love. Throughout, I investigate how lyric poetry is …

Computed Tomography Radiomics-Based Cross-Sectional Detection Of Mandibular Osteoradionecrosis In Head And Neck Cancer Survivors, Serageldin Kamel, Laia Humbert-Vidan, Zaphanlene Kaffey, Sarah Mirbahaeddin, Abdulrahman Abusaif, David T A Fuentes, Kareem Wahid, Cem Dede, Mohamed A Naser, Renjie He, Ahmed W Moawad, Khaled M Elsayes, Melissa M Chen, Adegbenga O Otun, Jillian Rigert, Mark S Chambers, Andrew Hope, Erin Watson, Kristy K Brock, Katherine Hutcheson, Lisanne Van Dijk, Amy C Moreno, Stephen Y Lai, Clifton D Fuller, Abdallah S R Mohamed, Md Anderson Head And Neck Cancer Symptom Working Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: This study aims to identify radiomic features from contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) scans that differentiate osteoradionecrosis (ORN) from normal mandibular bone in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients treated with radiotherapy (RT).

Materials and methods: CECT images from 150 patients with confirmed ORN diagnosis (2008-2018) at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) were analyzed (80 % train, 20 % test). Radiomic features were extracted using PyRadiomics from manually segmented ORN regions and automated contralateral healthy mandible regions. Correlation analysis (r > 0.95) reduced features for model training. A random Forest (RF) classifier with Recursive Feature Elimination identified discriminative features. Explainability was assessed …

Effect Of Aerobic Or Resistance Exercise, Or Both On Insulin Secretion, Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor, And Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 In Dieting Older Adults With Obesity, Georgia Colleluori, Viola Viola, Siresha Bathina, Reina Armamento-Villareal, Clifford Qualls, Antonio Giordano, Dennis T Villareal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background and aims: Obesity exacerbates age-related changes in metabolic and physical function. The effect of distinct exercise modalities combined with diet-induced weight loss on insulin secretion in older adults with obesity and frailty is unknown, and the potential mediators of the metabolic and functional improvements induced by lifestyle therapy still need to be identified. We aimed to assess the effects of various exercise therapies coupled with diet-induced weight loss on insulin secretion and sensitivity and on the levels of circulating Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (CNTF), its receptor (CNTFRα), and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) in older adults with both obesity and frailty. …

Cultural And Socioeconomic Determinants Of Hip And Knee Arthroplasty In The Medically Underserved Rio Grande Valley Community, Blake C. Martin, Juan C. Lopez Alvarenga, John M. Gaddis

School of Medicine Publications

Introduction: Joint arthroplasty is a common procedure that is increasing worldwide. In this study, we aimed to discover if there were differences in demographics and social factors associated with individuals undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA) in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). We hypothesized that older individuals and those with higher body mass index (BMI) would have an increased risk of TKA.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review using the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley UTHealth electronic database from January 1, 2018, to July 1, 2024. Individuals were selected using Current Procedural Terminology codes …

Rest-Activity Rhythm Phenotypes In Adults With Epilepsy And Intellectual Disability, Nandani Adhyapak, Grace E Cardenas, Mark A Abboud, Vaishnav Krishnan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: Rest-activity rhythms (RARs) are perturbed in many forms of neuropsychiatric illness. In this study, we applied wrist actigraphy to describe RAR perturbations in intellectually disabled adults with epilepsy ("E + ID"), using a cross-sectional case-control design. We examined whether RAR phenotypes correlated with epilepsy severity, deficits in adaptive function, and/or comorbid psychopathology.

Methods: Caregivers of E + ID subjects provided informed consent during routine ambulatory clinic visits and were asked to complete standardized surveys of overall epilepsy severity (GASE, Global Assessment of Severity of Epilepsy), adaptive function (ABAS-3, Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-3) and psychopathology (ABCL, Adult Behavior Checklist). Caregivers …

A Three-Stage Matheuristic For The Blood Stochastic Inventory Routing Problem, Vincent F. Yu, Nabila Salsabila, Aldy Gunawan, Aldy Gunawan, Nurhadi Siswanto

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This research introduces a blood distribution system under vendor-managed inventory that considers uncertain supply and demand. We present it as the Blood Stochastic Inventory Routing Problem, formulating it as a two-stage stochastic programming model. To solve this problem, this study proposes a three-stage matheuristic that combines a perturbation heuristic, Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search, and an exact approach. From historical data of Surabaya Blood Center in Indonesia, six sets of new instances are generated under different settings. Computational results show that our proposed three-stage matheuristic outperforms CPLEX and a two-stage matheuristic by gaining optimal or better solutions within a significantly shorter …

Formation Control Between Leader And Migratory Follower Tissues Allows Coordinated Growth, Toru Kawanishi, Takamichi Sushida, Tony Y-C Tsai, Hiroyuki Takeda, Sean G Megason

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Coordinated growth of multiple tissues is fundamental to shaping our body, but the underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. In zebrafish embryos, midline tissues composed of the notochord, floorplate, and hypochord elongate synchronously with their lengths aligned. We show that floorplate and hypochord cells collectively migrate posteriorly along the nascent notochord extracellular matrix as it extends posteriorly, maintaining the tripartite configuration. Fibroblast growth factor-mediated migration in a spatially graded manner causes cell stretching, which triggers Yap-dependent proliferation and controls floorplate and hypochord growth. Supported by mathematical modeling, we further suggest that their growth is fine-tuned by mechanical tethering to the notochord via …