Digital Commons Network^™

Enshrining Library And University Values Through The Creation Of A Policy Committee, Brian Sullivan, Rebecca B. French

Faculty Scholarship

As interprofessional organizations operating within the context of higher education, academic libraries find themselves pulled between competing forces with regards to both policies and values. Departmental, unit, library, division, university, and professional interests all hold sway over a library's decision-making and its implementation of policies and procedures, making balancing these tensions a complex endeavor. When faced with a backlog of needed policy revisions and a campus-wide review by the Provost's office that resulted in additional policy update requests, the authors formed a policy committee within their library's faculty governance body. This chapter details how we kept organizational values in mind …

Sparsity-Promoting Hierarchical Bayesian Model For Eit With A Blocky Target, D. Calvetti, E. Somersalo

Faculty Scholarship

The electrical impedance tomography (EIT) problem of estimating the unknown conductivity distribution inside a domain from boundary current or voltage measurements requires the solution of a nonlinear inverse problem. Sparsity promoting hierarchical Bayesian models have been shown to be very effective in the recovery of almost piecewise constant solutions in linear inverse problems. We demonstrate that by exploiting linear algebraic considerations it is possible to organize the calculation for the Bayesian solution of the nonlinear EIT inverse problem via finite element methods with sparsity promoting priors in a computationally efficient manner. The proposed approach uses the Iterative Alternating Sequential (IAS) …

Ai In Adipose Imaging: Revolutionizing Visceral Adipose Tissue, Ectopic Fat, And Cardiovascular Risk Assessment, Sneha R. Kandi, Sanjay Rajagopalan, Ian J. Neeland

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose of Review: This review explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and ectopic fat imaging. It aims to evaluate how AI may be used to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment. It addresses key questions regarding AI’s capabilities in risk prediction, segmentation, and integration with large volume data for CVD risk assessment. Recent Findings: Recent studies demonstrate that AI, powered by deep learning models, significantly improve VAT and ectopic fat segmentation. AI can also be used to facilitate early detection of cardiometabolic risks and allows integration of imaging with …

The Use Of Long-Acting Injectables For People With Schizophrenia: Consensus Panel Recommendations For Overcoming Barriers And Implementing Treatment, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction: Antipsychotic medications are effective for people living with schizophrenia, but long-term treatment adherence remains challenging, leading to relapses and poor outcomes. Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) may improve adherence and reduce relapses compared with oral antipsychotics. Barriers to the use of LAIs exist, yet practical recommendations to overcome them are lacking. Therefore, an expert consensus panel was formed to develop key recommendations using a modified Delphi panel method. Methods: The panel chair and Interactive Forums, Inc., conducted a narrative literature review of English-language articles published in the 10 years before 02/02/2024. Panelists rated, discussed, and re-rated proposed statements during 2 …

Neuronal Mct2 Promotes Angiogenesis Via Lactate In The Developing Mouse Neocortex, Daehoon Lee, Anika Wu, Lingling Yao, Shreya Satish, Lin Mei, Wen Cheng Xiong

Faculty Scholarship

Neural activity drives blood vessel (BV) formation and energy substrate delivery in the developing brain to meet rising metabolic demands; however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we exposed neonatal mice to chronic whisker stimulation (WS), a paradigm known to enhance BV formation in the somatosensory (S1) cortex. Transcriptomic (RNA-seq) and spatial (RNA-scope) analyses revealed that WS upregulated monocarboxylate transporter 2 (MCT2) in cortical neurons and MCT1 in endothelial cells (ECs). These changes coincided with increased cortical lactate levels, elevated astrocytic vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFa), and enhanced angiogenesis. Functional experiments demonstrated that neuronal MCT2 is …

Evaluating Anti-Sickling Therapies For Sickle Cell Disease: A Microfluidic Assay For Red Blood Cell-Mediated Microvascular Occlusion Under Hypoxia, Zoe Sekyonda, Yuxuan Du, Solomon Oshabaheebwa, Payam Fadaei, Yusang B. Ley, Calvin Abonga, Michael A. Suster, Pedram Mohseni, Umut A. Gurkan

Faculty Scholarship

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is characterized by the polymerization of hemoglobin S (HbS) upon deoxygenation, leading to the formation of sickled red blood cells (RBCs) with reduced deformability. Under hypoxic conditions, the impaired RBC behavior significantly contributes to vaso-occlusive events, hemolysis, and end-organ damage. Consequently, RBC deformability serves as a pivotal hemorheological biomarker for evaluating disease severity and therapeutic response. The OcclusionChip, a microfluidic assay, measures RBCs deformability through microcapillary occlusion. However, its current hypoxic assay relies on a complex nitrogen gas setup, rendering it bulky, expensive, and unsuitable for point-of-care diagnostic use. Here, we optimized a chemically induced hypoxia …

Florent Schmitt's Dionysiaques, Op. 62, Trevor Frost

Faculty Scholarship

This article by Trevor Frost explores Dionysiaques, Op. 62, a groundbreaking work for wind band by French composer Florent Schmitt, situating it within its historical, cultural, and musical contexts. Written in 1913 for the elite Musique de la Garde Républicaine, Dionysiaques stands out as a rare example of original symphonic band repertoire during a time when military bands primarily played marches and transcriptions. Schmitt’s composition blends French impressionism with rhythmic intensity, drawing on the influence of composers like Debussy, Ravel, and his teacher Gabriel Fauré, while also aligning with the forward-looking aesthetics of Stravinsky and early neoclassicism.

Frost discusses …

The Pastor As Romantic Author: Ai, Preaching, And The Unacknowledged Inheritance Of Authenticity, Daniel Plate, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article interrogates contemporary reactions to sermons produced with generative technologies through a historical–conceptual lens, arguing that widespread judgments of such outputs as “soulless,” “generic,” or lacking a “beating heart” are best explained by an unacknowledged inheritance from nineteenth-century Romantic expressivism. Rather than treating resistance to machine authorship as a theological verdict on computational incapacity, the study reconstructs how Romanticism centered authorship in sincere self-expression and solitary genius, displacing earlier heraldic expectations that prized fidelity to a received message. Methodologically, the analysis combines intellectual history with discourse analysis of global Christian experiments in synthetic composition (2020–2025), denominational guidance, and media …

Drive-By Mediation And Other Opportunistic Distortions Of Process, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

Many states in the United States, along with many nations, have implemented special benefits and privileges to encourage parties’ use of mediation to assist their communication, negotiation, and ultimate resolution of disputes. This is despite how loosely mediation is defined. This Article discusses how vague definitions, paired with special benefits and privileges, are incentivizing both the opportunistic distortion of mediation and the use of mediation for improper purposes. In Texas, for example, judges are extraordinarily limited in their ability to disapprove parents’ mediated child custody agreements—even if there is reason to worry that an agreement is contrary to the best …

Judicial Enforcement Of Evidence Law, G. Alexander Nunn

Faculty Scholarship

The truth matters. At least it should. In the courtroom, truth can serve as the cornerstone of justice, liberating the innocent, vindicating victims, and holding the guilty to account. Indeed, truth is such a normative imperative that an entire legal discipline now focuses on fostering its discovery at trial—evidence law. By regulating both the reliability of proof and the rationality of cognitive inferences, evidence law seeks to help factfinders discern truth and reach an accurate verdict. And given the importance of that role, one might naturally assume that the strict enforcement of evidence law would be a legal mandate of …

Traditional And Computational Canons, Eric H. Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

As part of the rise of modern textualism, dictionaries and linguistic canons have become a ubiquitous part of legal interpretation. One longstanding question is whether judges citing these tools sincerely attempt to follow the meaning of a text, or if their invocation is merely window-dressing for a preferred outcome. The practical significance of this question extends across all major doctrinal areas, and with the Supreme Court’s overturning of Chevron deference, its importance is only to grow, as courts are now instructed to use every tool at their disposal to resolve ambiguity when interpreting a law. This Article is the first …

The Uniform Commercial Code Survey: Introduction, Jennifer S. Martin, Colin P. Marks, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Scholarship

The survey that follows highlights the most important developments of 2024 dealing with domestic and international sales of goods, personal property leases, payments, letters of credit, documents of title, investment securities, and secured transactions. Along with the usual descriptions of interesting judicial decisions highlighted in the survey, there has also been legislative progress. The 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code ("U.C.C.") (the "2022 Amendments")' have been adopted in thirty-one states plus the District of Colombia and introduced in six states.

The Crime Of Being Immoral, Randy D. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Despite a general abhorrence of retrospective laws as a matter of legal theory and Constitutional dictate, US. courts continue-in es sence-to create new crimes by injecting fazzy moral considerations into determinations under the federal fraud statutes. They do so by deeming a failure to act with "moral uprightness" sufficient to consti tute criminal fraud. Under such an amorphous standard, the unwitting find themselves in a legal bind, even though their conduct may not in volve any of the traditional elements of common-law fraud. This Article traces the roots of novel fraud theories with tools drawn from legal theory, linguistics, and …

When Evidence Modeling Meets Knowledge Distillation: Towards Reliable Contrast-Enhanced Knowledge Distillation For Non-Contrast Medical Image Segmentation, Shuo Li

Faculty Scholarship

Contrast-enhanced knowledge distillation promises to transform medical diagnostics and reveal promising approaches for tumor segmentation on non-contrast medical images. However, existing methods related to contrast-enhanced knowledge distillation still make it hard to distill reliable contrast-enhanced knowledge for tumor segmentation due to the limitations of (1) unable to quantify uncertainty information for reliable contrast-enhanced and non-contrast knowledge modeling, which leads to an over-confidence cross-domain adaptation for transferring contrast-enhanced knowledge; (2) using vision information only ignores rich semantic features in medical language, which make it hard to model complex tumor enhancement feature. In this study, we propose an evidence-guided and tumor-aware knowledge …

Out From The Shadows: Party Documents In Chinese Courts, Benjamin L. Liebman, Eva Gao, Xiaohan Wu, Rachel E. Stern, Margaret Roberts

Faculty Scholarship

The Communist Party’s influence over the Chinese legal system is generally assumed to be behind the scenes, largely invisible to outside observers. Since General Secretary Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, there has been renewed attention within and outside of China to the relationship between the Communist Party and the legal system. Much of this recent writing has emphasized the degree to which Xi’s efforts to affirm Party superiority and break down barriers between the Party and the State reflects a profound shift in governance and a reversal of a decades-long effort to distinguish between Party roles and those …

Redefining Law In China, Zeming Liu, Benjamin L. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

Although there is a growing body of literature on the role of law under authoritarian regimes, scholars have paid little attention to authoritarian legal ideology or conceptions of legality in contemporary authoritarian states. This Article presents the first in-depth study of the Chinese Communist Party’s recent novel attempt to introduce and implement an official legal ideology under the banner of “Xi Jinping’s Thought on the Rule of Law,” one which aims both to create a definitive theory of law and to offer a guide to China’s legal development. We examine four principal components of this legal ideology: the theoretical definition …

Taxes And Tournaments, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

What is the best way to reduce economic inequality? Economists, lawyers, political philosophers, and politicians have pondered this question for decades. Yet there is another group of savvy and highly motivated individuals who have been thinking about redistribution for just as long. Commissioners of the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball, together with team owners and player unions, have been inventing and reinventing ways to redistribute resources, and they continue to do so today. The same is true of the President of National Collegiate Athletic Association, along with the heads of …

Knowledge-Driven Interpretative Conditional Diffusion Model For Contrast-Free Myocardial Infarction Enhancement Synthesis, Shuo Li

Faculty Scholarship

Synthesis of myocardial infarction enhancement (MIE) images without contrast agents (CAs) has shown great potential to advance myocardial infarction (MI) diagnosis and treatment. It provides results comparable to late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) images, thereby reducing the risks associated with CAs and streamlining clinical workflows. The existing knowledge-and-data-driven approach has made progress in addressing the complex challenges of synthesizing MIE images (i.e., invisible myocardial scars and high inter-individual variability) but still has limitations in the interpretability of kinematic inference, morphological knowledge integration, and kinematic-morphological fusion, thereby reducing the transparency and reliability of the model and causing information loss during synthesis. In …

The Rise Of Robotics: Surgical Approaches For Rectal Cancer Over Time, Emily F. Simon, Kristen M. Westfall, Kamil Erozkan, Lauren Henke, Meagan Costedio, Trevor Teetor, Jennifer Eva Selfridge, Emily Steinhagen, Ronald Charles

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Robotic surgery for rectal cancer has gained attention for addressing anatomic challenges, though concerns about cost, operative time, and oncologic outcomes persist. Studies on laparoscopic surgery initially showed mixed results regarding long-term oncologic safety, but current data is favorable. Evidence supporting the robotic approach remains limited. This study examined trends in robotic surgery, including facilitation of high-quality oncologic resection, defined by lymph node yield and negative margins, using National Cancer Database (NCDB) data. Methods: A multicenter cohort study analyzed 87,611 patients with stage I–III rectal cancer undergoing definitive resection between 2010 and 2021. Outcomes included robotic surgery rates, high-quality …

Radiation Shielding Performance And Molecular Stability Of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (Uhmwpe) Fiber-Reinforced Hydrogen-Rich Polybenzoxazine Composites Following Space Environment Exposure On The International Space Station, Pablo Froimowicz, Hatsuo Ishida

Faculty Scholarship

This study investigates the performance and molecular stability of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber-reinforced hydrogen-rich polybenzoxazine composites exposed to the space environment on the International Space Station (ISS). The composite is designed specifically for spacecraft applications requiring lightweight radiation shielding against galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and short beam shear testing were used to evaluate both surface degradation and bulk property retention. Chemical degradation due to direct sunlight exposure is limited to the uppermost 30 nm of the composite surface, with formation of hydroxyl …

Mcmc-Net: Accelerating Markov Chain Monte Carlo With Neural Networks For Inverse Problems, Anuj Abhishek

Faculty Scholarship

In many computational problems, using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) can be prohibitively time-consuming. We propose MCMC-Net, a simple yet efficient way to accelerate MCMC via neural networks. The key idea of our approach is to substitute the true likelihood function of the MCMC method with a neural operator based surrogate. We extensively evaluate the accuracy and speedup of our method on three different partial differential equation-based inverse problems where likelihood computations are computationally expensive, namely electrical impedance tomography, diffuse optical tomography, and quantitative photoacoustic tomography. MCMC-Net performs similar to the classical likelihood counterpart but with a significant speedup. …

Peripheral Calcifying Odontogenic Cyst In Maxillary Anterior Gingiva: A Case Report, Dimitris N. Tatakis

Faculty Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Calcifying odontogenic cysts (Gorlin cysts) most commonly present centrally and have only rarely been reported in peripheral locations. The purpose of this report is to describe a new case of peripheral calcifying odontogenic cyst (PCOC) occurring in the anterior maxillary gingiva and to review the management and differential diagnosis of such a lesion. METHODS: A 37-year-old female presented with a long-standing submucosal nodule on the gingiva between the maxillary central incisors, with asymptomatic growth over the last three years. Following an initial incisional biopsy, a diagnosis of PCOC was established. To exclude the possibility of a central process, a …

Llm-Gaode: Large-Language-Model Augmented Neural Ordinary Differential Equation Network For Video Nystagmography Classification, Shuo Li

Faculty Scholarship

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), a common type of vertigo with complex etiologies, is traditionally diagnosed using video nystagmography (VNG). Current automated methods lack diagnostic precision owing to subjective interpretation of eye movement characteristics. To address these challenges, we introduce a large language model-augmented Gram-based attentive neural ordinary differential equation (LLM-GAODE), an innovative and data-driven framework integrating eye-tracking technology with a Gram-based attention mechanism and a neural ordinary differential equation network to improve BPPV classification. Furthermore, when the neural network exhibits low confidence in its predictions, an LLM can supplement the process with advanced reasoning in natural language. LLM-GAODE was …

Enhanced Prediction Of Condensation Pressure Drop In Mini And Microchannels Using Physics-Assisted Machine Learning, Farshad Barghi Golezani, Jiayuan Li, Forouzan Naderi, Alexander Meylikhov, Logan M. Pirnstill, Issam Mudawar, Chirag R. Kharangate

Faculty Scholarship

Reliable prediction of frictional pressure drop during condensation in mini‑ and microchannels underpins both thermal management effectiveness and overall heat transfer performance in compact two‑phase heat exchangers, cold‑plates, and on‑chip cooling loops. Excess pressure loss burdens pumps, raises electrical consumption, and can destabilize flow, whereas under‑prediction risks temperature overshoot and premature dryout. Conventional empirical correlations and flexible machine-learning models can lose accuracy once channel size, working fluid, or operating conditions stray beyond their testing range. This study uses a physics‑assisted machine‑learning framework that overlays an XGBoost residual learner on the Kim–Mudawar separated‑flow correlation to achieve high fidelity and robustness in …

Anticonvulsant Use In Older Age Bipolar Disorder In A Global Sample From The Global Aging And Geriatric Experiments In Bipolar Disorder Project Utilisation D’Anticonvulsivants Pour Le Traitement Des Troubles Bipolaires Du Sujet Âgé Auprès D’Un Échantillon Mondial Provenant Du Projet Gage-Bd, Kaylee Sarna, Nicole Fiorelli, Joy Yala, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Anticonvulsants are an essential treatment for bipolar disorder; however, there is relatively little known about their use in older age bipolar disorder (OABD). In this paper, which leverages a large international dataset, we aim to 1) describe the use of anticonvulsants in OABD compared to younger age bipolar disorder (YABD; ages <50 years old) and 2) explore any demographic/clinical correlates. Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on the international data from the Global Aging and Geriatric Experiments in Bipolar Disorder project. The main objective was to report the prevalence of anticonvulsant use in OABD over 50 years old (mean age = 62.27) and the most prescribed anticonvulsant. Additional analysis explored any demographic and clinical correlates associated with anticonvulsant use. Generalized linear mixed models were used for this analysis. Results: Of the 2,691 participants with bipolar disorder who had anticonvulsant prescribing data, 34.4% (n = 926) used anticonvulsants at the time of study. Rates of anticonvulsant prescribing did not significantly differ between OABD and YABD groups (36.7% (n = 666) vs. 29.7% (n = 260)). Anticonvulsant prescribing patterns for OABD and YABD did not significantly differ, with valproate as the most prescribed anticonvulsant. OABD anticonvulsant users had less lithium use, more antidepressant use, more rapid cycling, more mood episodes and more cardiovascular comorbidities compared to nonusers. Conclusion: Anticonvulsant use was similar in OABD and YABD. A number of important clinical correlates of anticonvulsant use were identified.

Differential Effects Of Macrophage Subtype-Specific Cytokines On Fibroblast Proliferation And Endothelial Cell Function In Co-Culture System, Phillip Mcclellan, Thomas R. Wong, Sara Hijaz, David R. Fletcher, Ozan Akkus, Tracey L. Bonfield, James M. Anderson, Adonis Hijaz

Faculty Scholarship

Macrophages are involved in several critical activities associated with tissue repair and regeneration. Current approaches in regenerative medicine are focusing on leveraging the innate immune response to accelerate tissue regeneration and improve long-term healing outcomes. Of particular interest in this regard are the currently known, four main M2 macrophage subtypes: M2interleukin (IL)-4,IL-13, M2IC, M2IL-10, M2non-selective adenosine receptor agonists (NECA) (M2IL-4,IL-13 → M2(NECA). In this study, rat bone marrow-derived macrophages (M₀) were polarized to each of the four subtypes M2IL-4,IL-13 → M2NECA and cultured for 72 h in vitro. Luminex assay results highlighted increased production of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) …

Dementia As A Critical Lens On The Role Of Narrative In Medical Training And Practice, Erin Gentry Lamb

Faculty Scholarship

Narrative holds an important place within medicine and medical education, but an uncritical use of narrative can have troubling consequences for the care of patients who have limited or no capacity for self-narration, such as those living with dementia. We argue that the guiding principles in the use of narrative within medicine and medical education must be inclusivity and opportunity. We illustrate how medical training can benefit from a more inclusive definition of narrative, and we present a selection of innovative approaches to narrative coming out of literary studies, narrative gerontology, and medical and health humanities that focus on metaphor, …

Experimental Study Of Local Heat Transfer During Downward Flow Condensation In Vertical Tube-In-Tube Annulus Channel, Jiayuan Li, Jayachandran K. Narayanan, Huigang Wang, Finnegan O'Leary, Xiaoyang Gao, Chirag R. Kharangate

Faculty Scholarship

Flow condensation is an important configuration in thermal management due to its efficiency in heat dissipation offered by both convective and phase-change heat transfers. Prior studies on flow condensation in literature focus on condensate flowing inside a tube, featuring the in-tube heat exchanger configuration. However, many common heat exchangers used across applications such as the shell-and-tube type see the condensate flowing on the outside the tube, featuring the outer-tube heat exchanger configuration. In this study, we experimentally investigate the local heat transfer behavior of the outer-tube downward flow condensation in a vertical tube-in-tube condensation module. The test module features a …

Cognition, White Matter Hyperintensities And Suicide Risk In Late-Life Depression Patients: An Exploratory Study, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Objective: Suicide among older adults represents a major public health concern and is closely associated with late-life depression (LLD). White matter hyperintensities (WMHs), frequently observed in the aging population, have been linked to both LLD and cognitive impairment. However, the role of WMH burden and cognitive dysfunction in older adults with LLD who have recently attempted suicide remains unclear. This study aims to investigate differences in WMH burden and cognitive performance across three groups: LLD patients with a recent suicide attempt (recent suicide attempt group, RSA), non-suicidal LLD patients (non-suicidal group, NS), and healthy older adults (healthy comparison group, HC). …

Psma-1-Dota Potentially For Effective Targeted Radioligand Therapy Of Prostate Cancer, Xinning Wang, Olga Sergeeva, Maxim Sergeev, Lifang Zhang, Zoey Lockwood, Zhenghong Lee, James P. Basilion

Faculty Scholarship

Purpose: While PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy (RLT) has shown remarkable efficacy for treating end-stage prostate cancer, the α-emitting RLT often results in severe salivary gland toxicity, limiting its use. Various strategies to mitigate this side effect have been attempted with limited success. Accordingly, this study introduced a new PSMA-targeting ligand with more favorable binding characteristics than the existing ligands. Procedures: The binding affinity of PSMA-1-DOTA to PSMA was compared with that of PSMA-11 and PSMA I&T. Comparison of uptake in the salivary glands, kidneys and PC3pip tumor cells in the xenograft mouse models between [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-1-DOTA, [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 and [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA I&T was conducted …