Digital Commons Network^™

Navigating The Fallout: How Pediatric Spine Surgeons Cope, Recover, And Persevere After Major Surgical Complications, Sandeep Yanamala, Richard M. Schwend, Hannah Geoffroy, Gary Sutkin

Research Days

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that surgeons who continue practicing after a major complication are more likely to have strong institutional and peer support, a growth mindset, and access to coping mechanisms that mitigate distress and legal pressures. Study Design:
Qualitative study using Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) based on semi-structured interviews with pediatric spine surgeons who have experienced major surgical complications.
Introduction:
Complications in pediatric spine surgery have significant emotional, ethical, and legal
consequences. However, little is known about the factors that differentiate surgeons who continue performing spine surgery from those who transition away.
Methods:
33 pediatric spine surgeons were interviewed (28 …

Cross Cultural Mentoring: Including Diversity Awareness Strategies Into Healthcare Leadership Mentor Curriculum To Support Career Advancement Of Underrepresented Racial And Ethnic Groups, Deidra R. Burris

Doctoral Projects

Background: Mentoring programs in healthcare organizations can establish clear pathways for advancement through various management and leadership levels to senior-level positions. While mentoring develops leaders, many healthcare organizations do not offer mentoring programs that address unique issues experienced by members of racially and ethnically underrepresented groups. A study was conducted using a single-group, repeated-measures design to assess the impact of an intervention aimed at improving mentor attitudes, behaviors, and confidence regarding cultural awareness in the mentoring relationships of healthcare leaders. Methods: The study was conducted in a large California healthcare organization. The Cultural Diversity Awareness related to Race/Ethnicity (CDA-R/E) subscales …

Clinical Value Of Chatgpt For Epilepsy Presurgical Decision-Making: Systematic Evaluation Of Seizure Semiology Interpretation, Yaxi Luo, Meng Jiao, Neel Fotedar, Jun-En Ding, Ioannis Karakis, Vikram R. Rao, Melissa Asmar, Xiaochen Xian, Orwa Aboud, Yuxin Wen, Jack J. Lin, Fang-Ming Hung, Hai Sun, Felix Rosenow, Feng Liu

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Background: For patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy, surgical resection of the epileptogenic zone (EZ) is an effective treatment to control seizures. Accurate localization of the EZ is crucial and is typically achieved through comprehensive presurgical approaches such as seizure semiology interpretation, electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and intracranial EEG (iEEG). However, interpreting seizure semiology is challenging because it heavily relies on expert knowledge. The semiologies are often inconsistent and incoherent, leading to variability and potential limitations in presurgical evaluation. To overcome these challenges, advanced technologies like large language models (LLMs)—with ChatGPT being a notable example—offer valuable tools for …

Should Physicians Take The Rap? Normative Analysis Of Clinician Perspectives On Responsible Use Of 'Black Box' Ai Tools, Ben H Lang, Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Jared N Smith, Meghan Hurley, Rita Dexter, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Increasing interest in deploying artificial intelligence tools in clinical contexts has raised several ethical questions of both normative and empirical interest. One such question in the literature is whether "responsibility gaps" (r-gaps) are created when clinicians utilize or rely on such tools for providing care, and if so, what to do about them. These gaps are particularly likely to arise when using opaque, "black box" AI tools. Compared to normative and legal analysis of AI-generated responsibility gaps in health care, little is known, empirically, about health care providers views on this issue. The present study examines clinician perspectives on …

Machine Learning Course: A 15-Week Interactive Curriculum With Code And Case Studies, Pegah Khosravi

Open Educational Resources

This open-access machine learning course is a comprehensive 15-week curriculum developed and published on GitHub with full Google Colab compatibility. It combines theoretical concepts with hands-on Python coding, real-world datasets, and structured projects covering regression, classification, clustering, deep learning, transformers, and multimodal AI. The course is designed for students, educators, and researchers interested in applied machine learning, including biomedical applications. It includes explainable AI components and ethical discussions to align with modern AI standards. The course is maintained by BioMind AI Lab at CUNY.

What Is The Impact Of An Education Program Designed To Remove The Healthcare Professional As A Barrier To Care For The Transgender And Gender Diverse Community?, Richard D. Dansereau

Doctoral Projects

Healthcare disparities disproportionately affect transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals, often due to implicit biases among healthcare providers. This study examines the impact of an educational intervention designed to address these biases and improve care for TGD patients. Using the Biased Care Model as a guiding framework, the intervention targeted three critical phases of bias: pre-visit assumptions, in-visit interactions, and post-visit decisions. Conducted in the intensive care unit of a mid-sized hospital in Northern California, the study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design involving multidisciplinary healthcare workers. Participants completed a modified Jefferson Scale of Empathy survey to assess changes in cognitive and …

The Relationship Between A Supportive Community And The Self-Efficacy Of Adolescents, Shalom Sulungaine

Science Symposium

Studies have proven that communities and relationships play a part in the development of adolescents. However, different communities and relationships impact adolescents differently, and not all influence their self-efficacy in the way that we may assume. It is known that teachers and parents play a role in building self-efficacy in adolescents and teaching them how to manage their own choices that influence their self-efficacy. A big factor that is not yet known is if and how community violence affects the self-efficacy of adolescents. In this study, I will be exploring the relationship between the self-efficacy of adolescents, and how this …

Identification And Preclinical Assessment Of Novel Therapeutic Modalities In Environmental Exposure-Induced Lung Disease, Aaron D. Schwab

Theses & Dissertations

Environmental lung diseases are preventable respiratory conditions either caused or made worse by inhaled environmental exposures. Contemporarily, environmental lung diseases are most associated with workplace exposures given specific occupational processes aerosolize inflammatory agents that can be inhaled at high concentrations. Although a considerable amount is known regarding immunoglobulin (Ig)E-mediated responses to environmental exposures, little is known about non-IgE mediated respiratory conditions resulting from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-enriched organic dust exposure(s). Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pulmonary fibrosis have all been identified as environmental lung diseases caused or exacerbated by such environmental dusts. Therapeutic …

A Modified Sir Model Used To Investigate The Relationship Between Congenital And Adult Syphilis, Kaleesta R. Waysman

Honors Thesis

A complex SIR model integrating the relationship between adult and congenital syphilis was developed. The goal of the project was to determine the specific population(s) or control strategies that should be enforced, altered, or removed to decrease the number of children experiencing clinical sequelae due to congenital syphilis. Early clinical sequelae include hydrops fetalis, preterm birth, central nervous system infection, hepatosplenomegaly, hyperbilirubinemia, cholestasis, hemolytic anemia, snuffles, osteochondritis, and lesions or rashes in the palms and soles. Late clinical sequelae include interstitial keratitis, hearing loss, Hutchinson teeth, saber shins, Clutton joints, mulberry molars, and saddle nose. After implementing real-world data into …

Effects Of Acute Exercise On Cognition: Consideration Of Potential Moderators, Mary G. Jackson, Lucy Wilson, Mara Liston, Elizabeth Gaines, Mckenzie Cotten, Reese Carwile

Honors Theses

The present thesis aims to determine the effects, if any, of six potential moderators on the effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on cognitive functioning. The modes of exercise undertaken by the participants included treadmill (Experiment 1) and stationary bike (Experiment 2) exercise. Participants in each experiment either exercised or rested for twenty minutes and then participated in either a memory recall task or cognitive functioning (“Stroop”) task. The bouts of either exercise or rest on the stationary bike were followed by a rest period during which the participant would be exposed to either standard air oxygen levels (normoxia) or hypoxic …

Prevalence Of Well Water Contaminants In Georgia From 2010-2022, Angelique B. Willis, Suhasini Ramisetty-Mikler, Christine E. Stauber, Uttam Kumar Saha

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: Safe, reliable, and clean drinking water sources are a basic necessity. More than 1.7 million individuals rely on private wells for drinking water in Georgia and are confronted with water quality challenges stemming from chemical contamination as private wells are not under mandated regulations as public water supplies. In Georgia, previous studies suggested that the variation of soil and rock in a physiographic province (region) plays an essential role in the quality of private well water. There is a need to understand the distribution of these chemical contaminants above the federal Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) and how different geologies …

Computational Modeling Of Cancer Cell Metabolism Along The Catabolic-Anabolic Axes, Javier Villela-Castrejon, Herbert Levine, Benny A Kaipparettu, José N Onuchic, Jason T George, Dongya Jia

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Abnormal metabolism is a hallmark of cancer, this was initially recognized nearly a century ago through the observation of aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells. Mitochondrial respiration can also drive tumor progression and metastasis. However, it remains largely unclear the mechanisms by which cancer cells mix and match different metabolic modalities (oxidative/reductive) and leverage various metabolic ingredients (glucose, fatty acids, glutamine) to meet their bioenergetic and biosynthetic needs. Here, we formulate a phenotypic model for cancer metabolism by coupling master gene regulators (AMPK, HIF-1, MYC) with key metabolic substrates (glucose, fatty acids, and glutamine). The model predicts that cancer cells can …

F-Test And One-Way Anova For Medical Images Diagnosis, Jamal Kamil K. Abbas, Ali Abdulkadhum Ruhaima

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

A new technique for impulse noise discrimination of medical MRI images is presented. Statistical F-distribution supported by Monte Carlo simulation for prediction of impulse noise location on distorted images is used. The selective noisy pixels are detected as noisy using the One-Way ANOVA hypothesis method. The statistical prediction method is applied to the test images to predict the noise location. The distorted portions in the images predicted by this structure are improved by using a proper nonlinear filter. The nonlinear median filter is showing a suitable way the replacement of degraded pixels. The filter is not applied to the not-detected …

Automated Retinal Vessel Analysis: A Novel Model For Blood Vessel Detection, Segmentation, And Clinical Characteristic Quantification, Aws A. Abdulsahib, Moamin A. Mahmoud, Sally A. Al-Hasnawi, Ahmed Zeyad Almhanna, Jamal Kamil K. Abbas

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

This research enlightens into a fully automated model for segmenting blood vessels and extracting clinical features from retinal fundus images, which is vital for diagnosing ophthalmologic and cardiovascular diseases. The model utilises contrast enhancement, noise reduction, edge detection, and a method for reconnecting blood vessel branches. It extracts properties like tortuosity, girth, and length of blood vessels. The model's performance surpasses existing approaches, achieving high accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative prediction values on DRIVE and HRF datasets. This innovation offers the potential to reduce specialists' workload, enhance diagnostic accuracy, and streamline the analysis of complex fundus images, ultimately …

Application Of Bioactive Materials Primary Cilia As A Novel Delivery Vehicle, Ayan K. Barui, Farideh Amirrad, Vansh Goel, Sharareh Ohadi, Rajasekharreddy Pala, Ashraf M. Mohieldin, Andromeda M. Nauli, Surya M. Nauli

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Primary cilia are hair-like structured cell organelles functioning as cellular antennae with chemosensory and mechanosensory roles. Dysfunction of cilia results in ciliopathies, including renovascular diseases (polycystic kidneys, hypertension, aneurysm), mental impedances (Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, dementia), metabolic diseases (obesity, developmental skeleton defects), blindness, and so on. With a diameter of 150 nm, cilia can be cleaved, released and circulated in the body as injury biomarkers. We here assessed the potential use of isolated cilia as a novel delivery vehicle. Cilia were isolated from renal epithelial cells, and a specific-targeting chemotherapeutic was designed on the cilia. The data show a remarkable …

Identification Of Subtypes Of Post-Stroke And Neurotypical Gait Behaviors Using Neural Network Analysis Of Gait Cycle Kinematics, Andrian Kuch, Nicolas Schweighofer, James M. Finley, Alison Mckenzie, Yuxin Wen, Natalia Sánchez

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Gait impairment post-stroke is highly heterogeneous. Prior studies classified heterogeneous gait patterns into subgroups using peak kinematics, kinetics, or spatiotemporal variables. A limitation of this approach is the need to select discrete features in the gait cycle. Using continuous gait cycle data, we accounted for differences in magnitude and timing of kinematics. Here, we propose a machine-learning pipeline combining supervised and unsupervised learning. We first trained a Convolutional Neural Network and a Temporal Convolutional Network to extract features that distinguish impaired from neurotypical gait. Then, we used unsupervised time-series k-means and Gaussian Mixture Models to identify gait clusters. We tested …

Effects Of Acute Exercise On Cognition: Consideration Of Potential Moderators, Lucy C. Wilson, Elizabeth Carwile, Mara Liston, Elizabeth Gaines, Mckenzie Cotten, Mary Griffin

Honors Theses

The present thesis aims to determine the effects, if any, of six potential moderators on the effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on cognitive functioning. The modes of exercise undertaken by the participants included treadmill (Experiment 1) and stationary bike (Experiment 2) exercise. Participants in each experiment either exercised or rested for twenty minutes and then participated in either a memory recall task or cognitive functioning (“Stroop”) task. The bouts of either exercise or rest on the stationary bike were followed by a rest period during which the participant would be exposed to either standard air oxygen levels (normoxia) or hypoxic …

Hippocampal-Prefrontal Functional Neural Networks In A Rat Model Of Fragile X Syndrome Are Poorly Organized With Limited Resiliency, Mohamed Ouardouz, Patrick Jasinski, Mohamed Khalife, J. Matthew Mahoney, Amanda E. Hernan, Rod C. Scott

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a common cause of autism spectrum symptoms. The genetic mutation results in multiple molecular alterations that are hypothesized to negatively impact neural circuit development although the nature of any functional neural dynamic consequences remain unclear. Therefore, the characteristics of hippocampal-prefrontal (H-PFC) network dysfunction were investigated in a rat model of FXS. FMR-KO and control rats underwent behavioral tests assessing sociability, memory, and anxiety to validate and replicate previously recognized deficits. Single-unit electrophysiology in the H-PFC circuit during exploration was used to measure patterns of action potential firing that were then compared between groups using generalized …

Fall Incidences, Risk Factors, And Health Effects Among Early- And Middle-Aged Elderly People In Rural Areas Of Border Provinces In Southern Thailand, Phnom Sukchan, Tapanan Prateepko, Arinda Ma-A-Lee, Kruawan Hounkong, Penporn Sujiwattanarat, Gornganok Piboonpol

Journal of Health Research

Background: Elderly individuals with physical and psychological challenges face a high risk of falls. This study aimed to assess the incidence, health effects of, and risk factors for falls among those aged 60-79 years old in Thailand's three southern border provinces.

Methods: A community cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2021 and September 2022. Questionnaires were administered though verbal face-to-face conversations. Descriptive statistics, the Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, and logistic regression were used.

Results: A total of 419 elderly participants were recruited, while 374 participated in the study. The incidence of falls was 37.4% with an average of 1.7 …

Nifuroxazide And 4-Hydroxybenzhydrazone Derivatives As New Antiparasitic (Trypanosoma Cruzi And Leishmania Mexicana) And Anti-Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Agents, Timoteo Delgado-Maldonado, Diana V. Navarrete-Carriola, Lenci K. Vazquez-Jimenez, Alma D. Paz-Gonzalez, Baojie Wan, Scott Franzblau, Othman Mueen Mohammed, Lorena Rodríguez-Páez, Charmina Aguirre-Alvarado, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background/Objectives: Nifuroxazide (Nfz) is a drug that has been used as a scaffold for designing antimicrobial and antiparasitic agents. This study aimed to synthesize and evaluate in vitro of Nfz and twenty-five 4-hydroxybenzhydrazone derivatives as potential anti-Trypanosoma cruzi, anti-Leishmania mexicana, and anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis agents.

Methods: The compounds were synthesized by condensing 4-hydroxybenzhydrazide with appropriate aldehydes in acidic conditions and structurally confirmed by spectroscopic techniques. All compounds were evaluated in vitro against T. cruzi strains (NINOA and A1), L. mexicana (M379 and FCQEPS strains), and M. tuberculosis (H37Rv strain), followed by enzymatic assays against T. cruzi …

Using A Pharmacokinetic Model To Design And Evaluate An Early Ctdna Biomarker For Response To Targeted Therapy, Aaron Li

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

Early prediction of response to therapy or lack thereof can help physicians plan treatment more efficiently. Biomarkers based on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are promising. However, biomarkers beyond direct comparison to baseline have not been thoroughly explored. We develop a model for ctDNA shedding under targeted therapy that incorporates pharmacokinetics. Using a simulated cohort of virtual patients with varied parameters, we define and analyze a biomarker based on ctDNA samples at baseline, 12 hours, and 24 hours after initiation of treatment. The biomarker identified patients who would achieve partial or complete response with high sensitivity and specificity and was able …

Two-Sample Bi-Directional Causality Between Two Traits With Some Invalid Ivs In Both Directions Using Gwas Summary Statistics, Siyi Chen

School of Public Health Faculty Publications

Mendelian randomization (MR) is a widely used method for assessing causal relationships between risk factors and outcomes using genetic variants as instrumental variables (IVs). While traditional MR assumes uni-directional causality, bi-directional MR aims to identify the true causal direction. In uni-directional MR, invalid IVs due to pleiotropy can violate assumptions and introduce biases. In bi-directional MR, traditional MR can be performed separately for each direction, but the presence of invalid IVs poses even greater challenges. We introduce a new bi-directional MR method incorporating stepwise selection (Bidir-SW) designed to address these challenges. Our approach leverages public genome-wide association study (GWAS) datasets …

Classification Of Brain Tumor Using Hybrid Pre-Trained Networks And Mrmr Algorithm, Mustafa Ridha Al-Yasari, Mohammed Qasim Alazzawi, Sarmad Jawad, Mohammed Alshujairi, Zamzam Ali Abood Noory Al-Shafiee, Jaber Parchami, Heba. G. Abdelzaher, M. A. Abdelzaher

Al-Mustaqbal Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Sciences

Brain tumor classification is one of the crucial uses of medical image processing. A longer life is possible if the tumor is correctly and promptly diagnosed. Because manually segmenting brain tumors for cancer diagnosis is difficult and time-consuming, automatic classification of brain tumor images is necessary for this task. Pre-processing, feature extraction, feature selection, and classification are the four stages of the general framework for automatic tumor detection from MRI images. The method for automatic brain tumor classification described in this research combines machine learning and deep learning algorithms. We used three pre-trained deep networks to extract the most detailed …

On Metric Choice In Dimension Reduction For Fréchet Regression, Abdul Nasah Soale, Congli Ma, Siyu Chen

Faculty Scholarship

Fréchet regression is becoming a mainstay in modern data analysis for analysing non-traditional data types belonging to general metric spaces. This novel regression method is especially useful in the analysis of complex health data such as continuous monitoring and imaging data. Fréchet regression utilises the pairwise distances between the random objects, which makes the choice of metric crucial in the estimation. In this paper, existing dimension reduction methods for Fréchet regression are reviewed, and the effect of metric choice on the estimation of the dimension reduction subspace is explored for the regression between random responses and Euclidean predictors. An extensive …

05.05.2025 Ored Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

Research Showcase Photos

Showcase Raffle Winners

Chancellor's Award for Research and Creative Scholarship

Video of the ORED website

How Much Should Consumers With Mild To Moderate Hearing Loss Spend On Hearing Devices?, Vinaya Manchaiah, Steve Taddei, Abram Bailey, De Wet Swanepoel, Hansapani Rodrigo, Andrew Sabin

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: This study examined the relationship between hearing device price and sound quality. Method: A novel consumer-centric metric of sound quality (“SoundScore”) was used to assess hearing devices’ audio performance. Each hearing device is tested with two fittings. The “Initial Fit” is designed to approximate the most likely fitting for an individual with a mild-to-moderate sloping sensorineural hearing loss. The “Tuned Fit” includes adjusting parameters optimized to hit prescriptive fitting targets (NAL NL2) on an acoustic manikin. Each fitting is evaluated across five dimensions. Both fittings are combined using a weighted average to create a single number from 0 to …

Clinical Guidelines For The Perioperative Management Of Patients With Aortic Stenosis Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery, Owen Diehl

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Aortic stenosis (AS) is a common valvular disorder that causes left ventricular (LV) outflow obstruction. The prevalence of AS may increase with the aging population and the widespread availability of diagnostic capabilities like echocardiography. With the increasing patient population diagnosed with AS, the chance of encountering these patients during noncardiac surgery (NCS) increases. Performance of anesthesia is challenging in patients with AS due to the pathophysiological consequences of AS and the hemodynamic changes associated with anesthesia. The patient with AS presenting for NCS is at an increased risk of perioperative major adverse cardiac events (MACEs). This project aimed to determine …

Volume 11 Full Text, Bjur Staff

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Contribution Of Various Factors On The Rate Of Traffic Accidents In The Us, Martin Mnatsakanyan

Undergraduate Research Symposium Lightning Talks

Background:

Until 2020, the number of traffic accidents has been steadily decreasing. After 2020, the number started increasing until 2022, then started s lowly decreasing again. Most drivers aren’t fully aware of the reason behind all of these accidents.

Know Thyself: A History Of Ancient Neuroscience, Alex Delano

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Neuroscience is often described as one of the youngest bodies of science, but documented study of the brain begins as early as the Neolithic period. The ancient Mediterranean was a hub for science, mathematics, philosophy, and literature, all disciplines necessary for the study of the brain. Evidence of neurosurgical procedures like trepanation and craniotomy began in the Neolithic period and were practiced and improved upon throughout the ancient Mediterranean. The first detailed studies on brain anatomy were carried out in the 3^rd century BCE in Greece which created a necessary structure for future scientists to build on. While many …