Digital Commons Network^™

Assessment Of Sociodemographic And Psychiatric Characteristics Of Transgender Adults Seen At A Midwest Tertiary Medical Center, Samuel Cortez, Dominic Moog, Elizabeth Baranski, Kelley Williams, Jinli Wang, Ginger Nicol, Thomas Baranski, Cynthia J Herrick

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The National Academy of Medicine has formally identified transgender adults as an understudied population in critical need of health research. While national surveys, like the US Transgender survey, have characterized higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicidality and socioeconomic need in the transgender community, studies have not examined the impact of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics on mental health related outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the sociodemographic and mental health characteristics of transgender adults seen at a large Midwest transgender clinic and to determine factors associated with self-reported mental health conditions.

METHODS: Descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study of new transgender patients 18 years …

Recarving The Future: Bridging Car T-Cell Therapy Gaps With Synthetic Biology, Engineering, And Economic Insights, Alaa Ali, John F Dipersio

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has revolutionized the treatment of hematologic malignancies, offering remarkable remission rates in otherwise refractory conditions. However, its expansion into broader oncological applications faces significant hurdles, including limited efficacy in solid tumors, safety concerns related to toxicity, and logistical challenges in manufacturing and scalability. This review critically examines the latest advancements aimed at overcoming these obstacles, highlighting innovations in CAR T-cell engineering, novel antigen targeting strategies, and improvements in delivery and persistence within the tumor microenvironment. We also discuss the development of allogeneic CAR T cells as off-the-shelf therapies, strategies to mitigate adverse effects, and …

Analyzing Real-Time Insect Detection In Smart Connected Farms, Ashish Gupta, Vishesh Kumar Tanwar, Amit Nath Jha, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

With a vision of smart connected farms, this research proposes an insect detection framework (InsDet) to identify the most harmful corn crop insect, known as corn rootworm beetle. InsDet employs an object detection model with varying sizes to localize the insects in sticky-trap images.

Molecular Characterization Of Gliomas And Glioneuronal Tumors Amid Noonan Syndrome: Cancer Predisposition Examined, Margaret Shatara, Mohamed S Abdelbaki, Et Al

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: In the setting of pediatric and adolescent young adult cancer, increased access to genomic profiling has enhanced the detection of genetic variation associated with cancer predisposition, including germline syndromic conditions. Noonan syndrome (NS) is associated with the germline RAS pathway activating alterations and increased risk of cancer. Herein, we describe our comprehensive molecular profiling approach, the association of NS with glioma and glioneuronal tumors, and the clinical and histopathologic characteristics associated with the disease.

METHODS: Within an institutional pediatric cancer cohort (n = 314), molecular profiling comprised of paired somatic disease-germline comparator exome analysis, RNA sequencing, and tumor classification …

L3dml: Facilitating Geo-Distributed Machine Learning In Network Layer, Xindi Hou, Shuai Gao, Ningchun Liu, Fangtao Yao, Bo Lei, Hongke Zhang, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Geo-Distributed Machine Learning (GDML) aims to train large-scale machine learning models across geographically dispersed datacenters. However, the performance of GDML systems is constrained by the limited Wide Area Network (WAN) bandwidth and the presence of the straggler problem. Existing GDML designs often show contradictory effects in addressing these challenges, while in-network computing attempts are typically restricted to single datacenter environments rather than the more complex GDML scenarios. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes L3DML to facilitate GDML using the P4-based Software-defined Network (SDN). Our approach incorporates three key innovations. Firstly, we introduce a novel network addressing scheme that enables …

Cav-Ad: A Robust Framework For Detection Of Anomalous Data And Malicious Sensors In Cav Networks, Md Sazedur Rahman, Mohamed Elmahallawy, Sanjay Madria, Samuel Frimpong

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The adoption of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) has sparked considerable interest across diverse industries, including public transportation, underground mining, and agriculture sectors. However, CAVs' reliance on sensor readings makes them vulnerable to significant threats. Manipulating these readings can compromise CAV network security, posing serious risks for malicious activities. Although several anomaly detection (AD) approaches for CAV networks are proposed, they often fail to: i) detect multiple anomalies in specific sensor(s) with high accuracy or F1 score, and ii) identify the specific sensor being attacked. In response, this paper proposes a novel framework tailored to CAV networks, called CAV-AD, for …

Freyr⁺: Harvesting Idle Resources In Serverless Computing Via Deep Reinforcement Learning, Hanfei Yu, Hao Wang, Jian Li, Xu Yuan, Seung Jong Park

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Serverless computing has revolutionized online service development and deployment with ease-to-use operations, auto-scaling, fine-grained resource allocation, and pay-as-you-go pricing. However, a gap remains in configuring serverless functions - the actual resource consumption may vary due to function types, dependencies, and input data sizes, thus mismatching the static resource configuration by users. Dynamic resource consumption against static configuration may lead to either poor function execution performance or low utilization. This paper proposes Freyr+, a novel resource manager (RM) that dynamically harvests idle resources from over-provisioned functions to accelerate under-provisioned functions for serverless platforms. Freyr+ monitors each function's resource utilization in real-time …

Changing Hearts And Minds: Theorizing How, When, And Under What Conditions Three Social Influence Implementation Strategies Work, Bryan J Weiner, Rosemary D Meza, Predrag Klasnja, Rebecca Lengnick-Hall, Gretchen J Buchanan, Aaron R Lyon, Kayne D Mettert, Marcella H Boynton, Byron J Powell, Cara C Lewis

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Opinion leadership, educational outreach visiting, and innovation championing are commonly used strategies to address barriers to implementing innovations and evidence-based practices in healthcare settings. Despite voluminous research, ambiguities persist in how these strategies work and under what conditions they work well, work poorly, or work at all. The current paper develops middle-range theories to address this gap.

METHODS: Conceptual articles, systematic reviews, and empirical studies informed the development of causal pathway diagrams (CPDs). CPDs are visualization tools for depicting and theorizing about the causal process through which strategies operate, including the mechanisms they activate, the barriers they address, and …

Achieving Efficient And Privacy-Preserving Reverse Skyline Query Over Single Cloud, Yubo Peng, Xiong Li, Ke Gu, Jinjun Chen, Sajal K. Das, Xiaosong Zhang

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reverse skyline query (RSQ) has been widely used in practice since it can pick out the data of interest to the query vector. To save storage resources and facilitate service provision, data owners usually outsource data to the cloud for RSQ services, which poses huge challenges to data security and privacy protection. Existing privacy-preserving RSQ schemes are either based on a two-cloud model or cannot fully protect privacy. To this end, we propose an efficient privacy-preserving reverse skyline query scheme over a single cloud (ePRSQ). Specifically, we first design a privacy-preserving inner product's sign determination scheme (PIPSD), which can determine …

Smart Connected Farms And Networked Farmers To Improve Crop Production, Sustainability And Profitability, Asheesh K. Singh, Behzad J. Balabaygloo, Barituka Bekee, Samuel W. Blair, Suzanne Fey, Fateme Fotouhi, Ashish Gupta, Amit Jha, Jorge C. Martinez-Palomares, Kevin Menke, Aaron Prestholt, Vishesh K. Tanwar, Xu Tao, Anusha Vangala, Matthew E. Carroll, Sajal K. Das, Guilherme Depaula

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

To meet the grand challenges of agricultural production including climate change impacts on crop production, a tight integration of social science, technology and agriculture experts including farmers are needed. Rapid advances in information and communication technology, precision agriculture and data analytics, are creating a perfect opportunity for the creation of smart connected farms (SCFs) and networked farmers. a network and coordinated farmer network provide unique advantages to farmers to enhance farm production and profitability, while tackling adverse climate events. the aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in SCF including the …

Preteen Suicide Risk Screening In The Pediatric Outpatient Setting: A Clinical Pathway, Laura Hennefield, Ellen-Ge Denton, Peggy G Chen, Arielle H Sheftall, Lynsay Ayer

2020-Current year OA Pubs

We are in a youth mental health crisis with unprecedented and staggeringly high rates of suicidal ideations and suicide behaviors in preteens. In the United States, 14.5% of children aged 9-10 have experienced suicidal thoughts and behaviors, including 1.3% with a suicide attempt. American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines call for universal suicide risk screening of youth aged 12 years and older during preventative health care visits and screening in preteens aged 8-11 years when clinically indicated. However, what constitutes a clinical indication at 8-11 years can be difficult to systematically detect, and pediatric practitioners may not be equipped with necessary …

Microglycodb: A Database Of Microbial Glycans Using Semantic Web Technologies, Sunmyoung Lee, Louis-David Leclercq, Yann Guerardel, Christine M Szymanski, Thomas Hurtaux, Tamara L Doering, Takane Katayama, Kiyotaka Fujita, Kazuhiro Aoki, Kiyoko F Aoki-Kinoshita

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Glycoconjugates are present on microbial surfaces and play critical roles in modulating interactions with the environment and the host. Extensive research on microbial glycans, including elucidating the structural diversity of the glycan moieties of glycoconjugates and polysaccharides, has been carried out to investigate the function of glycans in modulating the interactions between the host and microbes, to explore their potential applications in the therapeutic targeting of pathogenic species, and in the use as probiotics in gut microbiomes. However, glycan-related information is dispersed across numerous databases and a vast amount of literature, which makes it laborious and time-consuming to identify and …

Protecting Activity Sensing Data Privacy Using Hierarchical Information Dissociation, Guangjing Wang, Hanqing Guo, Yuanda Wang, Bocheng Chen, Ce Zhou, Qiben Yan

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Smartphones and wearable devices have been integrated into our daily lives, offering personalized services. However, many apps become overprivileged as their collected sensing data contains unnecessary sensitive information. For example, mobile sensing data could reveal private attributes (e.g., gender and age) and unintended sensitive features (e.g., hand gestures when entering passwords). To prevent sensitive information leakage, existing methods must obtain private labels and users need to specify privacy policies. However, they only achieve limited control over information disclosure. In this work, we present Hippo to dissociate hierarchical information including private metadata and multi-grained activity information from the sensing data. Hippo …

Core-Periphery Multi-Modality Feature Alignment For Zero-Shot Medical Image Analysis, Xiaowei Yu, Lu Zhang, Zihao Wu, Dajiang Zhu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multi-modality learning, exemplified by the language-image pair pre-trained CLIP model, has demonstrated remarkable performance in enhancing zero-shot capabilities and has gained significant attention recently. However, simply applying language-image pre-trained CLIP to medical image analysis encounters substantial domain shifts, resulting in severe performance degradation due to inherent disparities between natural (non-medical) and medical image characteristics. To address this challenge and uphold or even enhance CLIP's zero-shot capability in medical image analysis, we develop a novel approach, Core-Periphery feature alignment for CLIP (CP-CLIP), to model medical images and corresponding clinical text jointly. To achieve this, we design an auxiliary neural network whose …

Eye-Gaze Guided Multi-Modal Alignment For Medical Representation Learning, Chong Ma, Hanqi Jiang, Wenting Chen, Yiwei Li, Zihao Wu, Xiaowei Yu, Zhengliang Liu, Lei Guo, Dajiang Zhu, Tuo Zhang, Dinggang Shen, Tianming Liu, Xiang Li

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the medical multi-modal frameworks, the alignment of cross-modality features presents a significant challenge. However, existing works have learned features that are implicitly aligned from the data, without considering the explicit relationships in the medical context. This data-reliance may lead to low generalization of the learned alignment relationships. In this work, we propose the Eye-gaze Guided Multi-modal Alignment (EGMA) framework to harness eye-gaze data for better alignment of medical visual and textual features. We explore the natural auxiliary role of radiologists' eye-gaze data in aligning medical images and text and introduce a novel approach by using eye-gaze data, collected synchronously …

First-In-Human Assessment Of Gut Permeability In Crohn's Disease Patients Using Fluorophore Technology, Lori R Holtz, B Darren Nix, Sewuese E Akuse, Carla Hall-Moore, Rodney D Newberry, Matthew A Ciorba, Parakkal Deepak, Maria Zulfiqar, Jeng-Jong Shieh, James R Johnson, I Rochelle Riley, Richard B Dorshow

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The dual sugar absorption test as a classic measure of human intestinal permeability has limited clinical utility due to lengthy and cumbersome urine collection, assay variability, and long turnaround. We aimed to determine if the orally administered fluorophore MB-102 (relmapirazin) (molecular weight [MW] = 372) compares to lactulose (L) (MW = 342) and rhamnose (R) (MW = 164)-based dual sugar absorption test as a measure of gut permeability in people with a spectrum of permeability including those with Crohn's disease (CD).

METHODS: We performed a single-center, randomized, open-label, crossover study comparing orally administered MB-102 (1.5 or 3.0 …

Community-Level Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Regarding Cardiovascular Diseases And Modifiable Risk Factors In India, Kavita Singh, Dimple Kondal, Deepa Mohan, Mareesha Gandral, Sheril Rajan, Viswanathan Mohan, Mohammed K Ali, Km Venkat Narayan, Mark D Huffman, Dorairaj Prabhakaran, Nikhil Tandon

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) is critical to inform CVD prevention strategies, but limited community-level data exist from developing countries.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding CVD and CVRF and acceptability of non-physician health workers and text-message based reminders to guide CVD prevention strategies in India.

METHODS: We conducted a telephone-based survey nested in the on-going Centre for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction in South Asia (CARRS) cohort in Delhi and Chennai, India between January 2021 to February 2021. We randomly selected people with CVRF, but no established …

Warmonger Attack: A Novel Attack Vector In Serverless Computing, Junjie Xiong, Mingkui Wei, Zhuo Lu, Yao Liu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

We debut the Warmonger attack, a novel attack vector that can cause denial-of-service between a serverless computing platform and an external content server. The Warmonger attack exploits the fact that a serverless computing platform shares the same set of egress IPs among all serverless functions, which belong to different users, to access an external content server. As a result, a malicious user on this platform can purposefully misbehave and cause these egress IPs to be blocked by the content server, resulting in a platform-wide denial of service. To validate the effectiveness of the Warmonger attack, we conducted extensive experiments over …

Usability Testing Of A Web Tool For Dissemination And Implementation Science Models, Rebekah Natalie Gomes, Bryan S Ford, Rachel G Tabak, Ross C Brownson, Sara Malone, Maggie Padek, Russell E Glasgow, Borsika Rabin

2020-Current year OA Pubs

UNLABELLED: Dissemination and Implementation science is dedicated to increasing the speed of evidence-based research translated into practice as guided by one or multiple D&I theories, models, and frameworks. The Dissemination and Implementation Models in Health Research and Practice web tool guides users on how to plan, select, combine, adapt, use, and assess theories, models, and frameworks. This paper describes usability testing to update the web tool. Iterative user testing was conducted with implementation science research and clinical participants to facilitate updates and optimize the functionality of the tool. A multi-step protocol involved quantitative and qualitative data collection including a survey, …

Tourette Syndrome Research Highlights From 2023 [Version 2; Peer Review: 3 Approved], Andreas Hartmann, Per Andrén, Cyril Atkinson-Clement, Virginie Czernecki, Cécile Delorme, Nanette Mol Debes, Simon Morand-Beaulieu, Kirsten Müller-Vahl, Peristera Paschou, Natalia Szejko, Apostolia Topaloudi, Kevin J Black

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In this, the tenth annual update for the F1000Research Tics collection, we summarize research reports from 2023 on Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders. The authors welcome article suggestions and thoughtful feedback from readers.

The Caregiving Role Influences Suboptimal Health Status And Psychological Symptoms In Unpaid Carers, Monique Garcia, Zheng Guo, Yulu Zheng, Zhiyuan Wu, Ethan Visser, Lois Balmer, Wei Wang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Suboptimal Health Status (SHS) is the physical state between health and disease. This study aimed to fill in the knowledge gap by investigating the prevalence of SHS and psychological symptoms among unpaid carers and to identify SHS-risk factors from the perspective of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine (PPPM). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 368 participants who were enrolled from Australia, including 203 unpaid carers as cases and 165 individuals from the general population as controls. SHS scores were measured using SHSQ-25 (Suboptimal Health Status Questionnaire-25), whilst psychological symptoms were measured by DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21). …

The Influence Of Culture On The Health Beliefs And Health Behaviours Of Older Vietnam-Born Australians Living With Chronic Disease, Thi Ngoc Minh Nguyen, Rosemary Saunders, Gordana Dermody, Lisa Whitehead

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: To explore the health beliefs and health behaviours of older Vietnam-born people living with chronic disease in Western Australia. Design: This study was designed as a focused ethnography guided by the interpretative research paradigm and Leininger's Theory of Culture Care. Methods: Data were collected through participant observation and interviews undertaken at participants' homes in Western Australia over 7 months in 2019. Data were analysed using Wolcott's approach for transferring qualitative data, comprising three phases: description, thematic analysis and interpretation. Results: This study included 12 participants. The health perspectives and practices of older Vietnam-born Australians significantly reflected the traditional Vietnamese …

The Allergen Profile Of Two Edible Insect Species—Acheta Domesticus And Hermetia Illucens, Shaymaviswanathan Karnaneedi, Elecia B. Johnston, Utpal Bose, Angéla Juhász, James A. Broadbent, Thimo Ruethers, Emily M. Jerry, Sandip D. Kamath, Vachiranee Limviphuvadh, Sally Stockwell, Keren Byrne, Dean Clarke, Michelle L. Colgrave, Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, Andreas L. Lopata

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Scope: Edible insect proteins are increasingly introduced as an alternative sustainable food source to address the world's need to feed the growing population. Tropomyosin is the main insect allergen; however, additional potential allergens are not well characterized and the impact of extraction procedures on immunological reactivity is unknown. Methods and results: Proteins from different commercial food products derived from cricket (Acheta domesticus) and black soldier fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens) are extracted using five different extraction buffers. The proteins are analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting using allergen-specific antibodies and crustacean allergic patient sera. IgE binding bands are analyzed by mass spectrometry …

The Impact Of Mandated Use Early Warning System Tools On The Development Of Nurses' Higher-Order Thinking: A Systematic Review, Tracy Flenady, Justine Connor, Amy Louise Byrne, Deb Massey, Marie Danielle Le Lagadec

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: Ascertain the impact of mandated use of early warning systems (EWSs) on the development of registered nurses' higher-order thinking. Design: A systematic literature review was conducted, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and checklist (Page et al., 2021). Data Sources: CINAHL, Medline, Embase, PyscInfo. Review Methods: Eligible articles were quality appraised using the MMAT tool. Data extraction was conducted independently by four reviewers. Three investigators thematically analysed the data. Results: Our review found that EWSs can support or suppress the development of nurses' higher-order thinking. EWS supports the development of higher-order thinking in two …

Utilisation Of Simulation-Based Learning To Decrease Student Anxiety And Increase Readiness For Clinical Placements For Speech-Language Pathology Students, Teresa Petrich, Brennen Mills, Abigail Lewis, Sara Hansen, Emily Brogan, Natalie Ciccone

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: To investigate the use of two versions of a simulation-based learning experience (SBLE) to decrease speech-language pathology (SLP) students’ anxiety and increase their confidence and sense of preparedness for clinical placements. Method: Two cohorts of third-year SLP students (n = 33) participated in a mixed-methods study with each cohort completing one version of the SBLE. Participants completed pre- and post-program quantitative ratings of anxiety, confidence, and preparedness for clinical placements and participated in focus groups. Three clinical educators also provided qualitative data in debriefs and interviews. Result: Significant decreases in student ratings of anxiety, and increases in confidence and …

Visitor Attitude To Tourism Destinations: A Critical Review And Future Research Agenda, Arghavan Hadinejad, Brent D. Moyle, Anna Kralj, Nick Noghan, Noel Scott, Sarah Gardiner

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Visitor attitude is fundamental to destination selection in the tourism literature. Yet, there remains a notable dearth of critical reviews to assess the current status of knowledge on the topic. This study, therefore, seeks to map and critically evaluate the state of visitor attitudinal research to set the agenda for future scholarly enquiry. A review of journal articles on the topic in four leading tourism journals was undertaken. To critically explore the literature and identify research trends, a paradigm funnel approach was used. The findings demonstrate that most studies on the topic are based on empirical research and specific theories, …

Will Return-To-Office Mandates Prevent Proximity Bias For Employees Working From Home?, Sue Williamson, Uma Jogulu, Judy Lundy, Helen Taylor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This Practice and Policy article examines return-to-office mandates, the latest human resource controversy. These mandates are an organisational directive for employees who have been working from home to return to working in their employer's premise. Drawing on the literature and our research on working from home and hybrid working, we consider whether mandates may prevent proximity bias. We conclude that mandates requiring employees to return to the office or caps which limit working from home are not only unnecessary, but may have negative consequences. In particular, mandates may cause employee resentment, while caps limit flexibility and autonomy. We therefore do …

Where Are The Diverse Families In Australian Children’S Literature? Impacts And Consideration For Language And Literacy In The Early Years, Helen Adam, Sally Murphy, Yvonne Urquhart, Katira Ahmed

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

A lack of representation of diverse families in children’s books can affirm insecurities and contribute to a sense of “otherness”. This study reports on the representation of family diversity in award-listed Australian children’s picture books. A critical theoretical framework was employed to analyse both texts and images. This study found a lack of diverse family structures in children’s books, especially LGBTIQA+, foster, step and blended families. This paper argues that to ensure inclusive and equitable literacy learning opportunities for all, educators need to go beyond award-listed books when selecting books for early literacy environments.

Using Image-Reflections To Support Undergraduate Students’ Relational Employability: A Practitioner Reflection, Ruth M. Wallace, Sally-Anne Doherty, Elizabeth Cook

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This practitioner reflection explores our integration of the Relational Employability Framework within the Health Research Project capstone unit of a Bachelor of Health Science degree. To address the historically low quality of student reflections, we incorporated image-based reflective activities to improve engagement and depth. These activities encouraged students to use visual media to examine their developing relational employability. We developed and implemented a series of tutorial activities designed to scaffold this process, aiming to foster deeper reflective practice and highlight its importance for career development and employability. Our reflections indicate that, while grades did not significantly increase, students showed enhanced …

Reconciliation Post-Referendum: What's Next For Universities?, Yohann Devezy, Braden Hill, Martin Nakata

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In 2024, National Reconciliation Week’s theme, “Now More Than Ever,” serves as a poignant reminder that the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people must continue unabated. Despite the devastating referendum result, the 6.2 million Australians who voted YES remain dedicated to renewed commitment, deeper dialogue, and stronger action to achieve meaningful progress towards better outcomes for First Nations people (Reconciliation Australia, 2024). Universities have a critical responsibility in reconciliation as places of learning that shape future leaders and the workforce. Through education, research, and community engagement, universities are uniquely positioned to address historical …