Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of Long-Term Studies Evaluating The Potential Of Chondrostereum Purpureum As A Mycobiocontrol On Invasive Buckthorn, Abraham F. Stone

Michigan Tech Undergraduate Scholarship

Chondrostereum purpureum is a circumboreal polypore with high potential as a native fungal biocontrol for weedy, deciduous tree species in the Northern Hemisphere. This thesis describes the development of three multi-year studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of C. purpureum as a management tool for invasive buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus) in Upper Michigan, in a manner that tests a broader range of application methods beyond girdling or cut-stump treatments. Our experiments focused on a) developing a viable liquid inoculum to spray on buckthorn whips and b) creating a symptomatic assessment scale to quantify disease progression of C. purpureum …

Open Nebraska (One) Tagging Project Overview, Stephen Craig Finlay, Renata Valquier Chavez

Criss Library Faculty Publications

Open Nebraska (ONE) is a multifaceted open education and affordable content initiative which includes all three campuses of the University of Nebraska system and includes grant funding for adoption of no-cost and affordable materials, a course tagging system, and a rigorous program of assessment for metrics of student success. The ONE initiatives are administered and funded by the Division of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives at University of Nebraska at Omaha, in cooperation with various academic units including university libraries, bookstores, and centers for online learning and teaching development. As of Fall 2022, the affordability initiatives in the University of Nebraska …

Introduction—Bioethics After Dobbs, James Toomey

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Alabama Embryo Decision In Ethics, Law, And Politics, I. Glenn Cohen

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Disputes Over Frozen Embryos After Dobbs: A Retrospective Study Of Claims, Contracts, And Liability In Cases Of Divorce Or Separation, Gerard Letterie, Dov Fox

Pace Law Review

This study reviewed legal claims and clinic liability over disputed frozen embryos in cases of divorce or separation. Our data shows that one-third of cases had no prior arrangement regarding disposition about what to do in the event of separation or divorce. When agreements were in place they were rarely clear enough to determine the court’s resolution in these cases. In a post-Dobbs era, absence of adequate guidance could have significant implications regarding liability for all parties.

Are Embryos Or Fetuses Brain Dead? Implications For The Abortion Debate, Greer Donley

Pace Law Review

Most state abortion definitions exclude the removal of a dead fetus, attempting to distinguish miscarriage and abortion care. But what does “dead” mean at the earliest stages of potential life? There is a consensus at the end of life that death not only encompasses the cessation of cardiac activity, but also brain death. This symposium essay considers whether life can only begin with the emergence of brain life and if so, how that might impact the abortion debate. The most rudimentary brain waves cannot be detected in an embryo before roughly the eighth week of pregnancy; the capacity for feeling …

Personhood, Politics, Assisted Reproduction, And The Law Post-Dobbs, Myrisha S. Lewis

Pace Law Review

With the end of the federal constitutional right to abortion, state legislatures and state courts have become far more important in the sphere of reproductive rights. Before Dobbs, anti-abortion advocates had significant (albeit increasingly porous) ceilings on what they could prohibit in relation to reproductive health care. A significant check on those actions is now gone.

In the wake of Dobbs, societal debates about personhood have increased and expanded in terms of their practical implications. Before Dobbs, anti-abortion advocates admitted that Roe and subsequent cases limited the scope of their arguments, especially in relation to the legality …

Patient-Practitioner Relationship In The Post-Dobbs American Landscape, Lynette B. Martins, Scott J. Schweikart

Pace Law Review

The patient-practitioner relationship is among the most sacred and fundamental in health care, particularly in the realm of reproductive care. Laws regulating what practitioners can and cannot discuss in the exam room with patients have made a resurgence in the post-Dobbs era. In the reproductive care context, these restrictive laws impact patients’ access to critical medical services but also the fundamental underpinnings of the patient-practitioner relationship. In a post-Dobbs era, laws restricting abortion are increasingly dangerous to the health of those seeking these services. With no federal protection for access to abortion services and abortion services hinging on …

When To Save The Baby: A Fundamental Conditions Approach, S. Matthew Liao, Jordan Liebman, Corine Astroth

Pace Law Review

Parents and physicians often grapple with the agonizing decision of whether to continue life-sustaining treatment for critically ill infants. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework called the Fundamental Conditions Approach (FCA) to guide these difficult choices. Building on S. Matthew Liao’s work, the FCA evaluates whether an infant possesses or can develop the fundamental capacities necessary for engaging in basic activities that constitute a good life. These capacities include the ability to think, respond to facts, develop interpersonal relationships, and interact with one’ environment. We argue that if an infant lacks nearly all of these fundamental capacities and …

We Have Lost Our Minds, Teneille Ruth Brown

Pace Law Review

This Article examines the paradoxical treatment of autonomy in American healthcare law. While autonomy has become the dominant principle in medical ethics and neoliberal market philosophies, pregnant people have been systematically denied this same autonomy through increasingly restrictive abortion statutes. Using the rhetoric of “informed consent,” abortion-restrictive statutes ironically pervert the animating principles behind the doctrine—rendering it almost meaning- less. I argue that this contradiction stems from the dehumanization of pregnant people who seek abortions, particularly through the denial of their capacity to have individual, complex mental states and feelings. Drawing on moral psychology, the Article demonstrates how pregnant people …

Development And Initial Validation Of The In-The-Moment Asynchronous Student Engagement Questionnaire (Itmaseq) In Higher Education, Elif Topsakal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the development and initial validation of the In-The-Moment Asynchronous Student Engagement Questionnaire (ITMASEQ), designed to measure undergraduate student engagement—emotional, cognitive, and behavioral—in asynchronous online learning environments. The study responds to the growing need for dynamic, in-the-moment assessments of student engagement, a construct critical to understanding academic success and retention, particularly in online education.

The ITMASEQ included a total of 25 questions: Five contextual questions (study day, study place, company during the study, primary online activity, type of primary online activity), eight emotional engagement questions (enjoyment, feeling calm, anxious, focused, distracted, etc.), seven cognitive engagement questions (interest, …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of The Implementation Of A New Workflow Process On The Incidence Of High Blood Culture Contamination (Bcc) Rates In The Emergency Department, Angelita Rodgers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice Project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement (QI) initiative to reduce blood culture contamination (BCC) rates in the emergency department (ED) of a large healthcare organization in the southeastern United States. Evidence-base sources indicated that high blood culture contamination (BCC) rates compromised diagnostic accuracy, leading to unnecessary treatments, increased hospital stays, and elevated healthcare costs. The project was guided by the evidence-based practice question: “How does the implementation of a new workflow process influence the incidence of high blood culture contamination (BCC) rates in the emergency department?” To address …

Experience Of Stress And Coping Among Male Police Officers In Trinidad And Tobago, Coryse Penco

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Police officers in Trinidad and Tobago face highly stressful environments due to increasing violent crimes and threats to their lives. Organizational stress contributes to emotional exhaustion, highlighting the need for research on stress and coping among these officers. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore job-related stressors and coping strategies that male police officers in Trinidad and Tobago use to deal with their everyday job demands. Han Selye’s theory of stress and Lazarus’ transactional model of stress and coping were used as theoretical frameworks for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 male police officers from …

The Roddey Mcmillan Record - November 21, 2024, Winthrop University

The RMR 2020-2029

The Roddey McMillan Record (RMR) is Winthrop’s monthly multicultural student publication. The RMR has been a significant voice of the minority population of the Winthrop comunity since its creation by Gail Harris in April 1986. It promotes awareness and understanding of issues concerning minorities for the prosperity of the entire Winthrop community. The purpose of the RMR is to shine light on the many diverse cultures at Winthrop, focusing on issues, concerns and happenings of those who represent the multicultural community on campus. The Roddey McMillan Record is named after Dr. Cynthia Roddey and Atty, Sheila McMillan. Cynthia Roddey was …

Dobbs And Sterilization Decision-Making: Understanding The Coercive Spillover Effects In Reproductive Choice, Thomas Wilson Williams

Pace Law Review

The Supreme Court majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization argued their decision would have limited impact beyond abortion rights. This Article examines how Dobbs and subsequent state abortion restrictions are likely to increase women’s reliance on permanent sterilization procedures, particularly among already marginalized populations. Drawing on emerging data and historical context, I argue that some post-Dobbs sterilizations should be understood as effectively coerced by state policies, implicating reproductive justice concerns and potentially undermining fundamental rights established in Skinner v. Oklahoma. Then, I demonstrate how interdisciplinary bioethics frameworks and methodologies can help courts better understand the full …

The Cowl - V. 88 N. 8 - November 21, 2024

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 88 No. 8 - November 21, 2024. 16 pages.

Phagolysosomes Break Down The Membrane Of A Non-Apoptotic Corpse Independent Of Macroautophagy, Shruti Kolli, Cassidy J. Kline, Kimya M. Rad, Ann M. Wehman

Biological Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Cell corpses must be cleared in an efficient manner to maintain tissue homeostasis and regulate immune responses. Ubiquitin-like Atg8/LC3 family proteins promote the degradation of membranes and internal cargo during both macroautophagy and corpse clearance, raising the question how macroautophagy contributes to corpse clearance. Studying the clearance of non-apoptotic dying polar bodies in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos, we show that the LC3 ortholog LGG-2 is enriched inside the polar body phagolysosome independent of autophagosome formation. We demonstrate that ATG-16.1 and ATG-16.2, which promote membrane association of lipidated Atg8/LC3 proteins, redundantly promote polar body membrane breakdown in phagolysosomes independent of their role …

Multi-Institutional Report Of Trastuzumab Deruxtecan And Stereotactic Radiosurgery For Her2 Positive And Her2-Low Breast Cancer Brain Metastases, Sreenija Yarlagadda, Reshma Mahtani, Manmeet Ahluwalia, Rupesh Kotecha

All Publications

Trastuzumab-deruxtecan (T-DXd) has demonstrated intracranial efficacy; however, safety and efficacy data remains limited with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). A multi-institutional review was performed with HER2+ or HER2-low metastatic breast cancer treated with T-DXd and SRS for active brain metastases. We identified 215 lesions treated over 48 SRS courses in 34 patients. Median follow up from T-DXd initiation was 13.9 months. The cumulative incidence of symptomatic radiation necrosis at 24 months per lesion was 2.1% and per patient 11%. The 12-month LC was 97%. HER2-low was associated with worse distant intracranial control (DIC) (adjusted HR 2.5, 95% CI 1.1-5.6, p = 0.03) …

Rare Sugars And Dairy Ingredients: A Synergistic Pairing For The Reduction Of Food Waste And Sugar Consumption, Melinda Michelle Moss

Theses and Dissertations

In the future, sustainability in the dairy industry will require creative and scale-able solutions for better utilization of the primary solid component in milk: lactose. One promising avenue of “up-cycling” underutilized lactose is converting it to valuable rare sugars. Rare sugars like D-tagatose and D-allulose are increasing in popularity extremely quickly. D-tagatose and D-allulose are hexose sugars, D-allulose being an epimer of D-fructose and D-tagatose an isomer of D-galactose. They have excellent functional properties in food systems with clean sweetness profiles similar to sucrose. Critically, they also have excellent nutritional characteristics, such as low caloric values and low glycemic indices. …

The Role Of Microrna-155 As A Biomarker In Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, Epameinondas Koumpis, Vasileios Georgoulis, Konstantina Papathanasiou, Alexandra Papoudou-Bai, Panagiotis Kanavaros, Evangelos Kolettas, Eleftheria Hatzimichael

Computational Medicine Center Faculty Papers

Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Despite the use of newer agents, such as polatuzumab vedotin, more than one-third of patients have ultimately relapsed or experienced refractory disease. MiRNAs are single-stranded, ~22-nucleotide-long RNAs that interact with their target RNA. They are significant regulators of post-transcriptional gene expression. One significant miRNA, miR-155, is involved in the pathophysiology of DLBCL and it is a critical modulator of hematopoiesis, inflammation, and immune responses. Targets of miR-155, such as histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4), suppressor of cytokine signaling-1 (SOCS1) and immune cells, play a crucial role in DLBCL …

Parameters Winter 2024-25, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Welcome to the Winter 2024–25 issue of Parameters. This issue consists of an In Focus special commentary, three forums (Indo-Pacific, Security Cooperation, and Historical Studies), and the regular Civil-Military Relations Corner installment.

Montana Kaimin, November 21, 2024, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Does Muscle Pain Induce Alterations In The Pelvic Floor Motor Unit Activity Properties In Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome? A High-Density Semg-Based Study, Monica Albaladejo-Belmonte, Michael Houston, Nicholas Dias, Theresa Spitznagle, Henry Lai, Yingchun Zhang, Javier Garcia-Casado

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Several studies have shown interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), a chronic condition that poses challenges in both diagnosis and treatment, is associated with painful pelvic floor muscles (PFM) and altered neural drive to these muscles. However, its pathophysiology could also involve other alterations in the electrical activity of PFM motor units (MUs). Studying these alterations could provide novel insights into IC/BPS and help its clinical management. This study aimed to characterize PFM activity at the MU level in women with IC/BPS and pelvic floor myalgia using high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG). Signals were recorded from 15 patients and 15 healthy controls …

The Current (Including Special Section) - Volume 35 Issue 6, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

How Native American Parents Support Their Children’S Literacy Skill Development, Rita Faye Wilburn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have noted that Native American (NA) children are entering kindergarten with lower literacy scores on the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment than their non-native peers. This study explored how NA parents support their prekindergarten children at home with early literacy skills and what resources they need to help increase their children’s literacy skills. The conceptual framework that guided the study combined Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory and the parenting and learning at home components of Epstein’s model for parent involvement. This study addressed two research questions focusing on how NA parents support their prekindergarten children at home with early literacy skills and …

Effective Strategies Nonprofit Leaders Use To Reduce Employee Turnover Costs, Amy Carroll Kreidemaker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit agencies face increased financial stress because of employee retention challenges. Nonprofit leaders worry about rising turnover costs, as retaining staff effectively is crucial for stability, reducing financial burdens, and maintaining program continuity. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to identify and explore effective strategies nonprofit leaders used to retain staff and reduce subsequent financial costs. The participants comprised six purposefully sampled organization leaders of a central Massachusetts nonprofit who successfully implemented strategies to retain staff and reduce subsequent financial costs. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of organizational …

Military Spouses’ Perceptions Of Family Stress And Resilience During Multiple Relocations, Mauranda Nikki Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to increase understanding of military spouses’ perceptions of family stress and resilience during multiple relocations. On average, active-duty military families relocate every 2 to 4 years, placing additional stress on them. It has been argued that military spouses, because of their central roles, are uniquely positioned to demonstrate resilience, thus providing an important perspective for this study. Understanding specific risks and resiliency from the perspectives of service members’ spouses can enrich knowledge from which human service professionals can learn. The study was grounded in the resiliency model of stress, adjustment, and …

Developing An Educational Program To Educate Nurses About Sickle Cell Disease And Vaso-Occlusive Episodic Pain, Margaret Sih Buo-Frundi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

N/A

Improving Care For Dementia Patients: Music Therapy As An Alternative To Medication, Kristy Haschke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The incidence of dementia in long-term care facilities has been increasing due to early identification and screening. This staff education topic was brought to further attention due to a trend in requests for chemical restraints in the dementia/cognitive impaired patient population by staff had increased. This staff education project was presented to the rehab center based on evidence-based practice to offer training on music therapy as an alternative therapy to medication in dementia patients. The practice-focused question identified was, “Will a staff education module on an evidence-based alternative treatment, music therapy, for dementia patients versus chemical or physical restraints increase …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of The Implementation Of A New Workflow Process On The Incidence Of High Blood Culture Contamination (Bcc) Rates In The Emergency Department, Angelita Rodgers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice Project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement (QI) initiative to reduce blood culture contamination (BCC) rates in the emergency department (ED) of a large healthcare organization in the southeastern United States. Evidence-base sources indicated that high blood culture contamination (BCC) rates compromised diagnostic accuracy, leading to unnecessary treatments, increased hospital stays, and elevated healthcare costs. The project was guided by the evidence-based practice question: “How does the implementation of a new workflow process influence the incidence of high blood culture contamination (BCC) rates in the emergency department?” To address …