Reducing Potentially Preventable Emergency Department Visits (Ppvs) Through A Telehealth Intervention In Children With Asthma Within A Managed Care Organization (Mco), Renee A. Roker

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Abstract

Purpose:  The purpose of this quality improvement project was to reduce unnecessary ED utilizations among children with asthma enrolled in a Medicaid managed care health plan. The project aimed to improve access to care and enhance asthma self-management.

Background:  Asthma is one of the leading causes of Emergency Department (ED) utilization, among vulnerable populations. Members experience barriers to timely primary and specialist care, contributing to Potentially Preventable ED Visits (PPV) rates. This places managed care organizations (MCOs) at risk for financial penalties if not meeting the Texas PPV benchmark.

Methodology:  Guided by the Chronic Care Model, Lean Six Sigma …

Premarket Clinical Evidence Strength And Recalls Of High-Risk Therapeutic Medical Devices, Maryam Mooghali, Faaizah Arshad, Vinay K Rathi, Kushal T Kadakia, Alexander O Everhart, Joseph S Ross, Sanket S Dhruva

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: High-risk medical devices approved through the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) premarket approval (PMA) pathway may be supported by limited premarket clinical evidence, leaving uncertainties about safety. Whether device, premarket clinical evidence, or regulatory characteristics are associated with subsequent device recalls is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between device, premarket clinical evidence, and regulatory characteristics and serious recalls among high-risk therapeutic devices.

DESIGN AND SETTING: This cross-sectional study reviewed 193 high-risk therapeutic medical devices approved through the FDA's PMA pathway between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2023. Data were analyzed between August 2025 and December 2025. …

Waterfront Ecologies: Coastal Resilience And Urbanization In Cali-Baja Region, Agniya Seliuzhytskaya

McNair Summer Research Program

This research contributes to “Waterfront Ecologies,” a binational initiative addressing urbanization and climate change along the San Diego-Tijuana coastal area and watershed systems. By examining the threshold between land and water, this paper investigates the impacts of sea-level rise, coastal erosion, watershed contamination, and rapid urban development. The study employs a case-study methodology focused on coastal conditions within the Cali-Baja region. Through this framework, it reviews planning history, environmental reports, and past precedent studies. Methodologically, the project produces analytical drawings and comprehensive base maps that synthesize regional environmental systems, urban patterns, topography, hydrology, and infrastructure.

Preliminary findings reveal that post-colonial …

Creating An Ip&T-Specific Resource Library For Networking & Job Searching, Abby Marks

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

This report covers the research, designing, development, testing, and deploying a custom networking and job searching resources, specifically for Instructional Psychology & Technology Students at BYU, as well as IP&T alumni, and those in the instructional design field. The product itself is a online learning library  hosted on Canvas, designed to be used on-demand, asynchronously, and entirely as needed by current and post-graduate IP&T students. I describe the audience analysis, source material, the prototyping process, relevant precedents, design solutions, and significant, positive results provided by my assessment and evaluation user testing data collections.

Steptrigger: Contact-State-Triggered Backdoor Attacks On Vlm-Powered Legged Robots, Jiageng Zhang, Doniyorkhon Obidov, Kaichen Yang

Michigan Tech Publications

Large language models and vision-language models are increasingly used as high-level planners in robotic systems, using task goals and sensor summaries to select navigation or manipulation actions. This creates a new backdoor surface: a compromised planner can behave normally in most runs, yet change its target selection when a hidden trigger is present. Prior attacks on LLM-powered or embodied agents mainly rely on triggers that appear in language, camera-visible objects, scene semantics, or specific sequences of past actions. This paper presents StepTrigger, a contact-state-triggered backdoor attack for VLM-powered legged robots. The trigger is not a prompt token or a visible …

Genotypic Triggers: Exposing Pharmacogenomic Blind Spots Via Host-Specific Backdoors In Generative Antimicrobial Peptide Models, Doniyorkhon Obidov, Xiaolong Guo, Yonghui Li, Kaichen Yang

Michigan Tech Publications

Large Language Models (LLMs) have accelerated drug discovery, particularly in the automated design of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). However, current validation pipelines for peptide generation models overlook historical precedents showing that certain drugs carry health risks predominantly for individuals with specific genetic profiles. In this paper, we demonstrate that such targeted health risks can be induced intentionally and at scale by manipulating models that generate peptide candidates. We introduce the Genotypic Trigger, a backdoor attack that shifts a model’s generative distribution toward peptides with elevated predicted immunogenicity risk, an adverse immune reaction, specifically for carriers of a tar- geted HLA allele, …

Cultivating Intellectual Courage In Times Of Crisis: A Pedagogical Framework For The First-Year Classroom, Amanda E. Salmon

Posters

No abstract provided.

Repairing Workplace Trust: A Process-Based Classroom Exercise For Management Education, Luke A. Langlinais Ph.D.

Posters

Trust is essential in every workplace, but conflicts, mistakes, and broken promises are inevitable. This project develops an experiential classroom exercise in which students diagnose workplace trust violations, examine the perspectives and emotions of both parties, and practice selecting and communicating evidence-based reparative actions. The exercise translates organizational behavior research into a practical learning experience that develops not only managerial competence but also the character, empathy, and relational wisdom needed to build healthy organizations and promote human flourishing.

I gratefully acknowledge peer review feedback on this project, and I am accountable for writing of this product without generative AI and …

Upcycling Pomelo Peel And Eggplant Biomass Into Form-Stable Pcms, Xiao-Mei Yang, Guang-Zhong Yin

Artículos científicos

Eggplant tissue and pomelo peel waste were converted into lightweight biomass porous foams via freeze-drying and subsequently used as sustainable scaffolds for shape-stable PCMs. Paraffin (PA) and PEG 20 K were incorporated into the biomass-derived foams, where the naturally interconnected cellular structures provided abundant capillary channels for PCM uptake and confinement. The resulting composites achieved high PCM loadings of 81.44–93.50 wt%. The melting enthalpies of Eggplant-PA, Pomelo-PA, Eggplant-20K, and Pomelo-20K reached 169.31, 166.11, 155.76, and 143.56 J g⁻¹ , respectively, confirming their considerable latent heat storage capability. In particular, Eggplant-20K and Pomelo-20K exhibited high enthalpy efficiencies of 106.77% and 112.98%, …

Belonging & Whole Person Formation In Graduate Education: A Conceptual Framework For Student Flourishing, Cynthia L. Hickman

Posters

Graduate students experience substantial academic, personal, and professional demands that can negatively affect well-being and persistence. For students enrolled in professional programs, belonging may develop within two overlapping communities: the academic institution and the emerging profession. Institutional and professional belonging can provide connection, support, engagement, and opportunities for identity and professional development. This paper synthesizes literature on these two forms of belonging and proposes a conceptual framework describing their potential relationship with whole-person formation and flourishing. Whole-person formation extends graduate education beyond knowledge acquisition and professional competence to include development across interconnected dimensions of the person. Within the proposed framework, …

Prevention Of Hypotensive Adverse Events Utilizing Structured Home Blood Pressure Monitoring In Patients On Glp-1 Agonists, Alexandrya M. Tran

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement intervention was to assess whether a structured home blood pressure (BP) monitoring program with weekly check-ins would help decrease hypotensive episodes and associated adverse events in patients who have lost weight after GLP-1 agonist initiation.

Background: This project was implemented in an outpatient multidisciplinary clinic in Houston Texas. 

Methodology: A total of 13 patients were ask to monitor their BP daily and keep a log. Weekly telephone calls were conducted to monitor the patients and collect the data for a period of eight weeks. Weekly BP logs, hypotensive symptoms, and any antihypertensive medication …

A Measeles Susceptibility Screening Strategy For Perinatal Women, Sandra N. Davidson

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: This quality improvement project aimed to implement a standardized measles susceptibility screening strategy for perinatal patients at a large academic teaching hospital in Texas. The project aimed to improve provider compliance with routine measles immunity screening and laboratory ordering by integrating screening into existing prenatal workflows. Background: Measles remains a highly contagious disease, and ongoing outbreaks in Texas showed gaps in prenatal measles immunity screening. The absence of standardized screening increases the risk of missed opportunities to identify non-immune patients and provide appropriate follow-up. Methodology: Using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) quality improvement model, provider education, electronic medical record (EMR) workflow …

2059 Madison Ave Llc V. Alsheikh

All Decisions

Court granted tenant's motion to amend answer and for limited discovery on rent overcharge defense and counterclaim. Court rejected landlord's argument that tenant lacked standing because CityFHEPS pays the rent, holding that tenant remains responsible for the full contract rent and has standing to challenge it under the Rent Stabilization Law. Court found tenant identified sufficient inconsistencies in rent history to justify discovery under Matter of West Pierre Assoc. LLC v. Harvey.

S.A.S.B. Corp V. Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc

2026 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

Improving Outpatient Staff Job Satisfaction With Implementation Of Structured Educational Focus Groups Program: A Quality Improvement Project, Breanna Aromire

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose

This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to improve self-reported job satisfaction among outpatient pulmonary clinic staff through structured educational focus group sessions using iterative Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles.

Background

Job satisfaction among clinical staff is a key factor in retention, engagement, and quality of care. Outpatient specialty clinics often face workflow constraints that limit opportunities for structured professional development, which may negatively affect staff satisfaction. Educational and team-based interventions have been shown to improve workplace engagement.

Methodology

Six structured educational focus group sessions were conducted over three months, addressing key clinical and workflow topics. Two PDSA cycles guided real-time modification, …

Fall Reduction Among Adults On A Medical Unit Using The Tailoring Intervention For Patient Safety (Tips) Sheet, Ingrid B. D'Souza

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Fall Reduction Among Adults on a Medical Unit Using the Tailoring Intervention for Patient Safety (TIPS) Sheet

Purpose: This quality improvement project was intended to decrease the average unit falls by 80% from baseline by implementing the Tailoring Intervention for Patient Safety (TIPS) Sheet.

Background: The project was implemented on an adult medical unit at a large suburban hospital in Houston, Texas. The leadership goal was that the average raw number of falls each month would be no more than 2, but the current monthly average was 2.5.The total baseline number of falls on the unit in the past 12 …

Re: Approval Letter For Draft Final Silver Bow Creek Conservation Area (Sbcca) Butte Reduction Works (Brw) Air Monitoring For Interim Demolition Activities – Phase Ii Data Summary Report (Dsr) (Dated June 26, 2026), Emma Rott

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Fragberta: A Fragment-Aware Molecular Representation Model With Sequential Attachment-Based Fragment Embeddings, Neerav Kaushal, Ajay M.N.V. Penmatsa

Michigan Tech Publications

Automated exploration of chemical space through machine learning has become a central strategy in modern drug discovery, where the ability to learn transferable molecular representations directly impacts predictive modeling performance. Recent advances in chemical language models have primarily relied on atom-level string encodings such as SMILES or SELFIES, treating molecules as sequences of individual atoms or characters. However, medicinal chemistry reasoning is often fragment-centric, emphasizing scaffolds, functional groups, and modular substructures rather than isolated atoms. In this study, we introduce FragBERTa, a molecular fragment-aware transformer-based representation language model pretrained using masked language modeling on Sequential Attachment-based Fragment Embedding (SAFE) representations. …

Exploring The Gaps And Opportunities For Development Of An Amr Educational Package For Higher Education. Project Dataset., Michael Dillon, Delphine Kayem, Thiru Vanniasinkam, Charlotte Cornbill, Muriel Dresen, Arya Gupta, Kristina Kadlec, Priyanka More, Afolake Atinuke Olanbiwoninu, Désirée Schaaf, Raju Sekar, Christina Stylianou

Faculty of Health Datasets

Anonymous cross-sectional survey of higher education educators worldwide teaching antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or related subjects. The dataset captures educators’ teaching experience, curriculum content, and resource needs to identify gaps in AMR education and support development of openly available teaching resources.

Brooklyn Housing Preservation L.P. V. Highsmith

All Decisions

Court dismissed nonpayment petition because landlord failed to serve a VAWA notice of occupancy rights with the rent demand, holding that a rent demand qualifies as a 'notification of eviction' under VAWA that triggers the notice requirement. Court rejected landlord's argument that the rent demand is merely a corrective notice rather than a notice of termination.

922 B Llc V. Albatran

All Decisions

In this holdover proceeding premised on non-renewal of the lease, Respondent moved to dismiss on the ground that the predicate 60-day notice of termination was defective. The court granted the motion, finding that the grounds stated in the predicate notice—own use and occupancy—differed from those alleged in the petition—failure to pay rent—rendering the notice fatally defective and non-amendable.

Electrocatalytic Oxidation Of Ethylene Glycol To Glycolic Acid: From Mechanism And Catalyst Design To Emerging Neutral Electrolyte Systems, Man Zhang, Xue Li, Xinyu Peng, Lin Wang, Wenwen Chen, Yaoyue Yang

Online First

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste represents both an environmental burden and a loss of carbon resources. Alkaline depolymerization of PET yields terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol (EG). Electrocatalytic oxidation of EG to glycolic acid (GA), the monomer of biodegradable polyglycolic acid (PGA), offers a sustainable route driven by renewable electricity. However, the ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR) involves competing pathways toward C2 products (GA and oxalic acid) and C1 products (formic acid and CO₂), making selective GA production a central challenge. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in selective EG-to-GA electrooxidation from catalyst design, mechanistic understanding, …

Jason Woodall V. Municipality Of Monroeville

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Cultivating Young Naturalists: Developing A Junior Master Naturalist 4-H Special Interest Club In Cook County, Il, Matthew M. Stinson

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

This capstone researches the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Junior Master Naturalist (JMN) 4-H Special Interest (SPIN) Club, a pilot environmental education program for high-school students in South Suburban Cook County, Illinois. Through a partnership among University of Illinois Extension – Serving Cook County, the Forest Preserves of Cook County, and the Friends of the Forest Preserves, JMN addressed two goals: increasing 4-H participation and engagement among high-school aged youth and encouraging high-school aged participation in local forest preserves spaces. Grounded in research on positive youth development, 4-H youth development, and environmental education, the program provided hands-on, place-based learning …

Large-Scale Dna Barcoding Reveals Highly Distinct Insect Distribution Patterns Across Costa Rican Ecosystems, José A. Hernández Ugalde, Daniel H. Janzen, Winnie Hallwachs, Bert Kohlmann, Paul D.N. Hebert, Brian V. Brown, James Whitfield, José. L. Fernández-Triana, Roberto Fernández Ugalde, Eugenie Phillips Rodriguez, Ronald Zúñiga, M. Alex Smith, Dirk Steinke, Michael Sharky, Donald Quicke, Ramya Manjunath, Robert Puschendorf

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Although insects are fundamental to understanding and conserving global biodiversity, they are vastly understudied. Here, we present a national inventory of Costa Rican insects based upon 3.78 million DNA barcodes representing 152 891 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs, proxies for species) from 28 localities sampled from 2017 to 2023 through the national BioAlfa program of Costa Rica. Although only 3.6% of BINs are linked to Linnean species, barcode-based community analyses revealed strong, consistent ecogeographic structure. Clustering of BIN data using bootstrapped Jaccard distances revealed seven distinct mainland assemblages and a distinct island cluster, shaped primarily by Costa Rica’s mountain ranges, elevation, …

From Theory To Practice: Locating Moral Exemplars In Aristotelian Virtue Ethics, Joseph A. Murray

McNair Summer Research Program

Abstract

This research examines mentorship within Aristotelian virtue ethics. Aristotle holds that moral excellence develops through habituation, guided practice that forms stable dispositions, rather than through knowledge or rules alone. Central to this process are virtuous mentors who model good character and cultivate practical wisdom (phronesis). Although Aristotle stresses the necessity of such examples, he offers little practical guidance on who they are or how they may be identified. This omission raises a practical challenge: if virtue depends on guidance from the genuinely virtuous, identifying those individuals is essential to the theory’s implementation.  My research investigates whether society provides accessible …

“No Te Metas, Eso Es De Hombres”: How Gendered Barriers Shape Women’S Income And Success In Rural Mexico’S Livestock Sector, Sofia Gaeta Garcia

McNair Summer Research Program

Women play a significant role in Mexico’s livestock sector, contributing to production, breeding, animal care, and local market activity. However, their labor is often overlooked and undervalued. Women’s work is often treated as “help” rather than recognized as real labor. The calls for “No te metas, eso es de hombres” and “La mujer ayuda, el hombre decide” reflect the gendered ideas this project examines. This research argues that financial, structural, and cultural barriers limit women’s participation in rural Mexico’s livestock industry by restricting their access to income, resources, decision-making power, and financial independence. Using a qualitative research design, this project …

What, Exactly, Is Surveillance Pricing?, Kaylina Stroud

McNair Summer Research Program

Surveillance pricing is a method of price discrimination in which firms use personal data to set individualized prices. While this practice is often criticized on grounds of privacy, unfairness, or exploitation, these objections do not fully explain what is morally objectionable about surveillance pricing. This paper examines surveillance pricing through the lenses of price discrimination, market competition, efficiency, exploitation, and deception. I argue that surveillance pricing is not inherently unethical merely because it results in different consumers paying different prices for the same product. Nor is it necessarily objectionable when it promotes mutually beneficial exchanges and efficient market outcomes. The …

Template Housing: A House For The Next 100 Years, Sophia Rico, Jb Barrientos, Armando Munoz

McNair Summer Research Program

This research examines over a century of prefabricated housing to understand how standardized housing production has changed over time and how it continues to influence housing today. By investigating archival records of historical prefabricated housing, alongside contemporary pre-approved housing plans, this study shows how housing has been designed across different time periods.  By comparing historical and modern examples, the research identifies recurring strategies for increasing efficiency, reducing construction time, and expanding access to housing. As communities across the United States continue to face a housing shortage, this research is especially relevant following the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to …

Template Housing: A House For The Next 100 Years, Armando Munoz, Sophia Rico, Joab Barrientos

McNair Summer Research Program

This research examines over a century of prefabricated housing to understand how standardized housing production has evolved and continues to influence housing today. By investigating archival records of historical prefabricated housing, alongside contemporary pre-approved housing plans, this study shows how housing has been designed across different time periods.  By comparing historical and modern examples, the research identifies recurring strategies for increasing efficiency, reducing construction time, and expanding access to housing. As communities across the United States continue to face a housing shortage, this research is relevant following the recent passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which encourages …