Digital Commons Network^™

Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events Are Less Frequent In Psoriasis Patients Starting Glp-1ra Compared To Controls: An Observable Retrospective Cohort Study, Ana Ormaza Vera, Marla F. Osorlo, Madison Olexson, June Choi, Chunghwan Ro, Clinton Enos

Department Dermatology Faculty Publications

Background: Psoriasis is an independent risk factor for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). We have previously shown that psoriasis patients with dyslipidemia have an increased incidence of MACE despite treatment with a biologic and a statin. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) have shown to reduce MACE in patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity, comorbidities that commonly co-occur with psoriasis. However, the association between GLP-1RA and the incidence of MACE among patients with psoriasis remains unknown.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study from 2014-2024 using a large, multi-center, electronic health record network (TriNetX). Patients aged 18-90 who started GLP-1RA …

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Risk In Acne Patients: Implications For Dermatologic Care, Alex Y. Liu, Ana Ormaza Vera, Clinton W. Enos

Department Dermatology Faculty Publications

[Practice points]

• Clinicians should consider monitoring for early signs of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in adult patients with acne to facilitate prompt diagnosis and intervention.
• Clinicians should remain judicious when prescribing antibiotics for acne management to minimize potential disruptions to the gut microbiota and the risk for IBS.
• Isotretinoin may serve as a safer alternative to antibiotics in patients with acne, particularly those with gastrointestinal concerns.

Knowing By Heart: Philosophical Dimensions Of Humanistic Mathematics Education, Catherine Henney

Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to revive interest in late twentieth century humanistic mathematics education (HME) so that its principles might cross the boundary of higher education and settle in corners of the K-12 math education space. In particular, HME’s theme of teaching math humanistically directs attention to features and phenomena that bear strongly on students’ daily classroom experiences. Personhood, agency, inquiry, meaning, environment, feelings, relationships: these elements invite a more thorough meditation and philosophical analysis. Though it is a largely philosophical endeavor, this project is enlivened by classroom vignettes and case studies that bring practical relevance to HME’s core principles. Chapters …

Scopolamine-Induced Modulation Of Serotonin And Dopamine Transporters Activity: Behavioral And Molecular Insights Into Rapid Antidepressant Action, Deepak Karunakaran

Theses and Dissertations

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects over 350 million individuals worldwide and is characterized by profound dysregulation of serotonin (5-HT) and dopamine (DA) systems that govern mood, reward processing, and motivation. The serotonin transporter (SERT) and dopamine transporter (DAT), both dynamically regulated through phosphorylation, serve as critical determinants of synaptic monoamine signaling. Despite decades of therapeutic development, current antidepressants require 4-6 weeks to achieve efficacy, and approximately one-third to half of patients develop treatment-resistant depression. The emergence of rapid-acting antidepressants like ketamine represents a paradigmatic shift, demonstrating symptom relief within hours; however, ketamine's therapeutic potential remains constrained by abuse liability, dissociative …

Therapy-Induced Senescence In Cancer: Developing Senolytic-Based Combination Strategies To Delay Re-Emergence Of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Eesha Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations

Therapy-induce senescence (TIS) represents a major biological outcome of many anticancer treatments and is increasingly recognized as a strategic vulnerability in triple negative breast cancer, which is a highly aggressive subtype with limited therapeutic options and frequent relapse. Here, we probed TIS as a primary cellular response that may ultimately compromise long-term outcomes using standard chemotherapeutic agents in TNBC as well as the antibody-drug conjugate sacituzumab govitecan (SG). Both chemotherapy and SG reliably induced pronounced senescence across TNBC models, yielding durable growth arrest, however, also generating a persistent reservoir of viable tumor cells capable of eventual proliferative recovery, a hallmark …

Advanced Air Preheater Sealing Systems For Enhanced Efficiency And Reliability In Thermal Power Plants, Pavan Kumar Ravulaparthy

Theses and Dissertations

Global electricity generation still relies heavily on thermal power plants, which consume vast amounts of fuel and emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide. A major but often overlooked source of inefficiency in these plants lies within the rotary regenerative air preheater (RAPH), a critical heat-exchange component where air leakage can exceed 20% in aging units. This leakage increases fuel consumption, parasitic fan power, and CO₂ emissions, while degrading boiler reliability.

This research introduces advanced adaptive sealing systems designed to mitigate these losses by dynamically compensating for rotor eccentricity, thermal distortion, and wear under harsh operating conditions. Brush seals, composed of …

Machine Learning-Driven Optimization For Utility-Scale Quantum Optimization, Bao Tran

Theses and Dissertations

Hard combinatorial optimization problems, often mapped to Ising models, promise potential solutions with quantum advantage but are constrained by limited qubit counts in near-term devices. We present an innovative quantum-inspired framework that dynamically compresses large Ising models to fit available quantum hardware of different sizes. Thus, we aim to bridge the gap between large-scale optimization and current hardware capabilities. Our method leverages a physics-inspired GNN architecture to capture complex interactions in Ising models and accurately predict alignments among neighboring spins (aka qubits) at ground states. By progressively merging such aligned spins, we can reduce the model size while preserving the …

Linking Disturbance & Macrophyte Colonization–Extinction Dynamics To Invasion Success & Community Assembly: Integrating Population, Community, & Landscape Perspectives, Joshua T. Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

Aquatic plants, macrophytes, are foundational components of freshwater ecosystems, influencing abiotic conditions, providing habitat structure, and shaping biodiversity and community assembly processes. Their role is particularly critical in dynamic systems where disturbance regimes and colonization processes interact to shape community patterns and species distributions. Despite their ecological importance, macrophytes remain underrepresented in theoretical and applied studies of metacommunity dynamics and invasion ecology, especially in natural systems experiencing frequent environmental fluctuations. Here we aim to elucidate how macrophytes influence and respond to spatial and temporal variation in aquatic ecosystems, with a particular focus on colonization-extinction dynamics, invasion success, and community assembly. …

Effectiveness Of Immersive Virtual Reality Combined With Task-Specific Training On Hemiplegic Arm Function Following Stroke: A Single Case Series Study, Rahsaan J. Holley

Theses and Dissertations

Motor recovery of the arm following a neurological injury is a common goal of the rehabilitation process for individuals impacted by the condition . Due to the long-term functional implications of impaired arm movement, individuals are often trained to use compensatory strategies to complete functional tasks without incorporating the weakened limb. While compensatory strategies offer stroke survivors the opportunity to regain a level of independence, such approaches fail to directly address the underlying causes of the disability (i.e., limited range of motion, decreased strength, poor coordination, motor planning difficulties) which can unfortunately result in long-term impairment and functional disability.

Motor …

Swarming Segregation: Leveraging Swarm Intelligence And Regionalization As Instruments For School District Desegregation, Jeffrey Wooten

Theses and Dissertations

Even after Brown led to the South briefly having the most diverse schools in the nation, schools throughout the Northeast have remained the most segregated in the nation for decades. While federal jurisprudence has made compelling desegregation pursuant to the Equal Protection Clause more challenging, New Jersey has a particularly favorable landscape to address severe segregation. With a highly diverse, densely populated public enrollment, favorable state constitutional precedent, and a history of successfully compelling desegregation, New Jersey is fertile ground exploring regional desegregation. Scholars, judges, and even plaintiffs in ongoing litigation (Latino Action Network v. N.J.) have called for New …

Place, Culture, And Care: A Socioecological Examination Of Type 2 Diabetes Among Hispanics In The U.S., Danielle Montoya

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) disproportionately affects U.S. Hispanic populations. This dissertation examined whether structural determinants fundamentally drive T2D disparities among Hispanics, with attention to within-group racial heterogeneity.

Methods: Three studies utilized nationally representative data. Study 1 examined neighborhood segregation and ethnic enclave residence associations with T2D using restricted NHANES data (2011-2018, n=5,056). Study 2 investigated acculturation and T2D associations using restricted NHANES data (2011-2018, n=4,540). Study 3 analyzed patient-provider racial/ethnic concordance and adequate diabetes care using MEPS data (2008-2021, n=17,138).

Results: Structural factors demonstrated primacy across all studies. Neighborhood segregation (aOR=1.17, p>0.05) and ethnic enclave residence showed no …

Unraveling The Reactivity Of Nitrate Ester Explosives: Insights From Femtosecond Time-Resolved Mass Spectrometry And Computational Chemistry, Erica Britt

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uncovers the ultrafast molecular mechanisms underlying the decomposition of nitrate ester explosives—nitroglycerin (NG), ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN), and amyl nitrate—through the integration of femtosecond time-resolved mass spectrometry and advanced computational chemistry. Although these compounds play fundamental roles in both military and civilian contexts, the precise molecular dynamics governing their pronounced reactivity and impact sensitivity have remained inadequately characterized. Our research establishes that low O–NO2 bond dissociation energies are the primary driver of ultrafast fragmentation and high reactivity in all three esters. The distinctive molecular architectures of these esters dictate their explosive properties: NG’s tri-nitrate configuration leads to exceptional …

Exploring The Role Of Host Immune Responses And Bacterial Sensory Pathways In The Development Of Treponema Denticola-Mediated Periodontal Disease, Annie N. Hinson

Theses and Dissertations

Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by dysbiotic microbial communities and maladaptive host responses. Treponema denticola, a spirochete pathobiont, is strongly associated with disease severity. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying its interaction with host tissues and regulation of virulence remain incompletely understood. This work examines both the epithelial immune responses and bacterial transduction systems that shape T. denticola pathogenesis. Transcriptomic analysis of gingival keratinocytes revealed IL-36γ as the most highly induced cytokine following infection with T. denticola. Functional studies demonstrated that IL-36γ induction occurs in a dose- and time-dependent manner through TLR2/6 signaling, requiring the NF-κB, PI3K/Akt, and …

Relationship Extraction Using Retrieval Augmented Generation For Biomedical Dataset, Jannat .

Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing number of structured and unstructured data, obtaining reliable information effectively has become crucial. In the biomedical domain, extracting information from the scientific papers is crucial in order to stay up-to-date with accurate information, given the increased pace by which new research studies are published. This work focuses on identifying relationships between entities that are extracted from the abstracts and titles of biomedical research papers. In this work, we developed a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) based system to automatically identify relations between biomedical entities. We evaluate multiple open source Large Language Models (LLMs) and the number of examples …

Laser Ablation-Induced Corrosion Resistance For Molten Salt Equipment Materials Evaluated Utilizing Electrochemical And Spectroscopic Analysis, Peggy Milota

Theses and Dissertations

Advanced reactors and used nuclear fuel separation (i.e. pyroprocessing technology) utilize high temperature salt as a thermal storage medium as well as an ionic solution for electrochemical processes. The use of these aggressive molten chloride and fluoride mediums requires specific materials or additional system alterations to extend the lifetime and structural integrity of equipment due to corrosion. Some materials, in the presence of inherently impure salt, will corrode and form oxide films in a specific formation that decreases corrosion rate by electrochemically and physically preventing elemental movement to the material surface. This is referred to as a passivation layer. However, …

Identity Formation Of A Pre-Service Art Educator: An Arts-Based Approach To Data Visualization As A Means Of Understanding Personal Experience, Kelsey L. Peterson Mays

Theses and Dissertations

This research centers on the emotional experience of the author as a pre-service art educator during her student teaching semester. The research utilized art-based data collection methods and analyzed both written and visual reflections over an eight-week period of teaching art at the elementary school level. The culmination of findings is synthesized in the form of a body of four visual artworks, where each work reflects the data collected over a consecutive period of two weeks. The study investigated the causation and ramifications of certain emotions during a transitional time wherein the author existed in a liminal space between student …

Learning To Deceive And Persuade: Predictive Agents With Language And Personality Diversity In Social Deduction Games, Aaron M. Shah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel multi-agent architecture that combines Joint Em bedding Predictive Architectures (JEPA), Free Energy Principle (FEP)–inspired planning, and language-based social interaction. The system is evaluated in a custom Werewolf-style hidden-role game, where agents must coordinate, persuade, or deceive under partial observability. Each agent encodes its belief state into a latent representation, predicts future trajectories under candidate actions, and selects votes or eliminations through a planner trained to minimize prediction error. To enable communication, agents are equipped with trainable mouthpieces. A lightweight SpeakerBandit selects from discrete templates using REINFORCE on judge-derived rewards, while a logit-bias head steers a …

Characterization Of Outer Surface Protein C Of Borreliella Role In Host Tropism, Kathryn Mf Chambers

Theses and Dissertations

The Lyme disease spirochetes, Borreliella spp., are maintained in nature through a complex enzootic cycle involving Ixodes ticks and a diverse set of reservoir hosts. The outer surface protein C (OspC) of the bacterium is an essential virulence factor required for transmission from ticks and early infection of mammals. Deletion of ospC abolishes infectivity, yet the precise molecular mechanisms underlying OspC function remain incompletely defined. In this dissertation, I examined the contribution of OspC type identity to host specificity. OspC is highly diverse, with over 30 genetically stable types described. While intra-type sequences are conserved (>95% amino acid …

Implementation Of Quantized Artificial Neural Networks With Spintronic Stochastic Computing, Saadi Sabyasachi Mr.

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence or machine learning is going through a rapid expansion. It also incurs significant costs for power and device footprints. Various approaches are being explored to design energy and hardware efficient machine learning models. Stochastic computing has been proposed for efficient machine learning implementation. It requires a source of random number generation which poses some practical challenges. So spintronic solutions such as magnetic tunnel junction has been used for random number generation. Again, spintronic random number generation to implement high precision circuit is prone to device-to-device variations. Hence we designed quantized artificial neural network with spintronic stochastic computing which …

Genetic Studies At The Intersection Of Alcohol Use And Pain, Walker Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use disorder and pain are complex public health concerns affecting millions of people, and these conditions are often characterized by a bidirectional relationship. People experiencing pain may drink alcohol for its analgesic effects. In turn, excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to conditions that cause pain, leading to an escalating feedback loop of pain and alcohol use. Negating this cycle requires a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying alcohol analgesia, which are presently not fully understood. The Miles and Damaj labs have previously shown that ethanol-induced antinociception is moderately heritable in mice, indicating a genetic component to the trait. …

The Design Of A House, Lars Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations

Photography lends itself to both damaging and facilitating connection, the camera at once a weapon of destruction and a catalyst for change. The Design of a House is a call to love deeply. In the aftermath of body trauma, I use portrait photography to reconnect with myself and others. Through making portraits, I bridge my own gap between fear and intimacy. Primarily working with film-based cameras and hand-sensitized photographic materials, I reintroduce touch through process. The slowness, delicacy, and tactility of these acts offer a safety I am learning to trust. When photographing myself, my mother, and my partner, I …

Opioid Tolerance And Withdrawal In The Mouse Colon, James Fune

Theses and Dissertations

Constipation is a major clinical obstacle associated with opioids, prompting patients to discontinue treatment due to pain, discomfort, and psychosocial stressors. Moreover, chronic users become tolerant to the analgesic effects of opioids, but not to their constipating effects. Upon cessation of long-term treatment, serious diarrhea–among other somatic signs of withdrawal–may ensue. These symptoms become a driving factor for relapse, causing patients to restart opioid treatment. In this study, we aim to understand mechanisms that contribute to opioid tolerance and withdrawal in the colon. Previous findings suggest that constipation occurs partly due to the colon’s lack of tolerance to opioids’ inhibitory …

Exploring Western Clinicians’ Treatment Of Cultural Concepts Of Distress, Lisa Y. Chung

Theses and Dissertations

As the rates of diverse ethnic populations and therefore cultural concepts of distress continue to grow in the United States, it becomes critical to learn and understand how western-trained mental health professionals are selecting treatments and implementing them. However, there is a paucity of research on cultural concepts of distress as a whole and much less on the psychotherapy of cultural concepts of distress in the United States. This exploratory study aimed to explore the treatment plan of mental health clinicians in the United States when encountering the Korean cultural concept of distress, hwabyung. Ninety-eight clinicians were recruited from Arkansas, …

Dickkopf1(Dkk1): A Novel Endogenous Ligand To Prime Nlrp3 Inflammasome Via Tlr4, Theingi Aung

Theses and Dissertations

Dickkopf1(DKK1) is a quintessential Wnt antagonist and immunomodulator in various inflammatory diseases. The underlying molecular mechanisms of DKK1-mediated immunomodulation remain elusive. Here, we identified TLR4 as a new receptor for DKK1 to activate NFκΒ pathway-mediated gene expression and pyroptosis via NLRP3 inflammasome in human and mouse macrophages.

DKK1 employed TLR4 to initiate NFκB signaling cascade via MyD88. MyD88-TAK1-NFκΒ pathway activation by DKK1 increased HIF1α, NFκB, and NLRP3 protein expression levels, leading to pyroptosis. Unlike LPS, DKK1 did not induce IRAK4 phosphorylation, while the interaction between MyD88 and IRAK4 was maintained for downstream signaling activation. DKK1 did not induce IRF3 phosphorylation …

Exploring The Development Of Students' Calling To The Work Of An Hod Practitioner In An Undergraduate Hod Degree Program, Neil Dana Rahbar-Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project consisted of a multiple case qualitative study to explore indications of cross-influences between students’ experiences of learning takeaways as participants in one or more HOD undergraduate degree courses and accompanying experiences (if any) of perceiving and/or living a calling to work as HOD practitioners. This phenomenological inquiry involved four undergraduate students who had completed one or more HOD degree courses at Mid-Atlantic States University (MSU as a pseudonym) during a two-year period. Each participant attended a single interview of about 90 minutes in duration, responded to a short vocational calling survey as a guide for interview questioning, …

Profiles Of First-Year First-Generation Students’ Library Perceptions And Use: An Intersectional, Mixed Methods Study, Megan Hodge

Theses and Dissertations

To effectively support first-generation students, academic libraries must understand their needs. However, limited library research has been conducted into how these students, who often embody multiple structurally disadvantaged identities, perceive and use academic libraries or how their intersecting identities manifest in differing library needs. This study aimed to build understanding of first-year first-generation students’ perceptions and use of academic libraries. To do so, the researcher used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. First-year first-generation students at Virginia Commonwealth University were surveyed using Winkler and Sriram’s (2015) Academic Capital Scale and Anwar et al’s (2012) AQAK: Library Anxiety Scale for Undergraduate Students. …

From Trans Health To Vaccines: A Theoretically Driven Model Exploring Factors Related To Susceptibility To Medical Misinformation, Catherine Wall

Theses and Dissertations

Medical misinformation represents a significant threat to both individual and public health. While some consequences of this form of misinformation are relatively benign, there can be serious consequences ranging from a decreased trust in healthcare systems to an increased likelihood of epidemic outbreak and death. One such consequence can be seen in the recent legislative actions taken regarding access to transgender healthcare in the United States. Gender affirming care has been shown to benefit the mental well-being of transgender youth and adults; however, the demonstrably false information that underlies these legislative efforts can and has yielded significant harm. But what …

Beliefs Related To Diagnosing Bpd And Complex Ptsd, Bailey Pascuzzi

Theses and Dissertations

There has been speculation that Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (Complex PTSD) are the same disorder or represent separate disorders on a broader trauma spectrum (Frost et al., 2020; Lewis & Grenyer, 2009). BPD and Complex PTSD share several symptoms but differ in their presentation (Ford & Courtis, 2021). Because the two disorders present so similarly, it could be that clinicians have difficulty differentiating them, leading to misdiagnosis (Miller, 2014). This study examined clinicians’ diagnostic decision-making and stigma toward BPD and Complex PTSD. Participants (N = 426) completed an online survey where they diagnosed a written …

Learning From Non-Stationary Data Streams, Gabriel Jonas Aguiar

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of data from sources such as mobile applications, sensors, and network monitoring has increased the need for machine learning algorithms capable of handling non-stationary data streams. However, learning from such streams presents significant challenges due to their evolving nature and the presence of concept drift. One of the most complex issues is learning from imbalanced data streams, where shifting data distributions, combined with feature space drifts, complicate continuous adaptation. These challenges become even more pronounced in multi-class scenarios, which are common in real-world applications. Detecting concept drift in such contexts is particularly demanding, as it requires tracking …

“Some Vague Utopia”: Searching For Urania, Moira L. Neve

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the global pendulum swing of gender trouble marked by the United States’ President’s declaration that there are only two sexes, activists have been rejecting assimilation (ie. defining equality as gay marriage or queer people in the military) within queer studies long before 2025. In the first half of the 20th century, a journal by the name of Urania (1916-1940), privately published and circulated to their home base in the United Kingdom and beyond, five editors (Esther Roper, Eva Gore-Booth, Jessey Wade, Dorothy Cornish, and Irene Clyde/Thomas Baty), challenged the gender binary and the resulting assumptions of heterosexual marriage. This …