Digital Commons Network^™

I Hate Self-Care: A Criminal Defense Lawyer’S Lament, Abbe Smith

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Don’t get me wrong—I think people should take care of themselves. They should eat well, exercise regularly, and get a good night’s sleep. They should spend time with friends and family. They should have hobbies and interests. With any luck, they should find true love. But in the past decade or two, and especially since the COVID pandemic, there has been a disturbing turn inward. I’m talking about the “self-care” craze, which has become its own pandemic, or at least epidemic.

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In this Essay, I share my concerns about what I regard to be an excessive focus on self-care …

Understanding Disputes Over Digitalization: A Perspective Of Cross-Border Central Bank Digital Currencies, Heng Wang

Emory International Law Review

In a rapidly digitalizing world, complex disputes arise due to technological, regulatory, and other complexities. Public and private actors—including central banks, financial institutions, tech firms, and law firms—need to understand the complexity of these disputes before determining whether and how to engage with ongoing digitalization.

Given the fundamental role of currency in the world economy, this article examines central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a pivotal case study. CBDCs, representing the digitalization of central bank money, are a novel digital form of national currency issued by central banks. Various central banks, including those of the Eurozone, Switzerland, the United …

Research Report: Cold-Hardy Hydrangeas For Landscape And Cut Flowers, Rebecca G. Sideman, Kaitlyn Orde, Ella Lukacz, Cathy Neal

Faculty Publications

This research report describes the performance of several cold-hard “panicle” (H. paniculata), “smooth” (H. arborescens), and “oakleaf” (H. quercifolia) hydrangea as landscape plants and for cut flower production in Durham, NH. We established a replicated planting of sixteen newer hydrangea cultivars at Woodman Farm in summer 2020. Preliminary data from these young shrubs indicates that there are wide differences in flower production, stem quality, flowering time and duration, and postharvest floral quality – among other traits.

Orchestrating Digital Technologies With Incumbent Enterprise Systems For Attaining Innovation, Sachithra Lokuge, Darshana D. Sedera, Varun Grover, Suprateek Sarker

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the late 1990s, most organizations adopted enterprise systems (ES) to automate their core business processes. The very same organizations are presented with a new wave of opportunities to innovate with digital technologies—technologies that purport to have diametrically opposed characteristics to ES. This study explores how organizations integrate digital technologies with their incumbent ES for attaining innovation. The study followed a qualitative approach and gathered data from four organizations consisting of six such projects. By applying a unique theoretical foundation, this study derives interesting insights into the orchestration process of ES and digital technologies for attaining innovation.

Originalism's Difference?, Sherif Girgis

Journal Articles

From the Aritcle

My topic is whether originalism makes any practical difference to constitutional reasoning and outcomes, relative to other methods of interpretation.

INTRODUCTION ............................................. 1945

I. JUSTICE SCALIA'S VISION OF CONTRASTS .................. 1949

II. THE BREAKDOWN OF CONTRASTS ........................... 1952

III. REMAINING CONTRASTS: REAL BUT ELUSIVE TO THEORY....................................................... 1961

IV. THE CHAMBERS ORIGINALISM DIFFERENCE .................. 1966

CONCLUSION: LOOKING AHEAD ................................ 1973

Using Geographic Interviews To Conduct Community Assessments—Insights For Msw Pedagogy, Danielle Maude Littman, Denae J. Cook, Amie Thurber

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social work is predicated as a person-in-environment profession, but few tools presently exist for students to operationalize person-in-environment through assessment and systematic understanding. Geographic interviews, which combine spatial mapping and qualitative go-along interviews, are one possible tool with promise for application in the social work classroom. This teaching note describes the process of integrating geographic interviews as one data collection method MSW students could utilize in a community assessment assignment. We share learnings from student assignments (N = 8) and instructor focus groups (N = 4). We found that while there was a high level of student and instructor interest, …

Pozen And The Puzzle Of Counterfactuals, Louis Michael Seidman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Constitution and the War on Drugs, David Pozen’s carefully researched and brilliantly argued book, is both illuminating and disturbing: illuminating because it unearths forgotten moments when judicially formulated constitutional doctrine that could have ended or sharply restricted the War on Drugs were well within the Overton Window, and disturbing because it surfaces hard questions about historical contingency and the scope of the change that might have occurred in a counterfactual world. In this review, the author argues that the failure to specify both the nature of the counterfactual and the breadth of the alternative possibility have confused discussions …

Optical Coherence Tomography Harmonization With Anatomy-Guided Latent Metric Schrödinger Bridges, Shuwen Wei, Blake E. Dewey, Samuel W. Remedios, Bruno Jedynak, Shimeng Wang, Peter Calabresi, Shiv Saidha, Aaron Carass, Multiple Additional Authors

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Medical image harmonization aims to reduce the differences in appearance caused by scanner hardware variations to allow for consistent and reliable comparisons across devices. Harmonization based on paired images from different devices has limited applicability in real-world clinical settings. On the other hand, unpaired harmonization typically does not guarantee anatomy consistency, which is problematic because anatomical information preservation is paramount. The Schrödinger bridge framework has achieved state-of-the-art style transfer performance with natural images by matching distributions of unpaired images, but this approach can also introduce anatomy changes when applied to medical images. We show that such changes occur because the …

Mock: An Algorithm For Learning Nonparametric Differential Equations Via Multivariate Occupation Kernel Functions, Victoria A. Rielly, Kamel Lahouel, Ethan Lew, Nicholas Fisher, Vicky Geneva Haney, Michael Wells, Bruno M. Jedynak

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Learning a nonparametric system of ordinary differential equations from trajectories in a -dimensional state space requires learning functions of variables. Explicit formulations often scale quadratically in unless additional knowledge about system properties, such as sparsity and symmetries, is available. In this work, we propose a linear approach, the multivariate occupation kernel method (MOCK), using the implicit formulation provided by vector-valued reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. The solution for the vector field relies on multivariate occupation kernel functions associated with the trajectories and scales linearly with the dimension of the state space. We validate through experiments on a variety of simulated and …

Unsupervised Oct Image Interpolation Using Deformable Registration And Generative Models, Shuwen Wei, Samuel W. Remedios, Bruno Jedynak, Peter Calabresi, Shiv Saidha, Aaron Carass, Multiple Additional Authors

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images are often acquired as highly anisotropic volumes, where the scanning step is dense along the fast axis but sparse along the slow axis. This affects image analysis, such as image registration for longitudinal alignment. To create more isotropic volumes, bicubic interpolation can be used along the slow axis, but it generally produces blurry features. Registration-based interpolation can reduce blurriness, but often fails to generate realistic OCT images. Deep generative models can sample realistic images, but lack the structural consistency constraints required for interpolation. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised image interpolation method that combines …

The Matryoshka Doll Prior – Principled Multiplicity Correction In Bayesian Model Comparison, Andrew Womack, Daniel Taylor-Rodríguez, Claudio Fuentes

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper introduces a general and principled construction of model space priors with a focus on regression problems. The proposed formulation regards each model as a “local” null hypothesis whose alternatives are the set of models that nest it. Assuming constant ratio of prior probabilities for any “local” null and its alternatives provides a natural isomorphism of model spaces (like a matryoshka doll), constituting an intuitive way to correct for multiplicity in Bayesian model selection and averaging problems. This isomorphism yields the Poisson distribution as the unique limiting distribution over model dimension under mild assumptions. We compare this model space …

Recontextualizing Engagement With Data Visualizations In The Context Of The Socio-Ecological, Eva Thanheiser, Laurie Rubel, Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, Courtney Koestler

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We explore how data visualizations (DVs) are representational tools that can be used to narrate certain aspects of a context but silence others. Using multiple DVs allows for contrasting the DVs and likely provides opportunities for critical reading and exploring the entanglement of political and ecological dimensions of an issue. We start by integrating two sets of practices, Notice, Wonder, Feel, Act and Reimagine (NW-FAR) (Kahn, et al., 2022) and critical graph reading, Framing, Formatting, Narrating (FFN) (Rubel, et al., 2021) towards taking a socio-political stance and supporting students to read data visualizations and develop critical data literacy. We look …

Belonging: Data Reasoning, About Ourselves And Others, Eva Thanheiser, Molly Robinson, Simon Byeonguk Han, Amanda Sugimoto, Courtney Koestler, Mathew Felton-Koestler

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using Watson’s belonging framework and GAISE II data reasoning, this lesson invites students to collect, analyze, and represent personal data. In doing so, they see themselves and their peers reflected in the work, reinforcing their value as active participants in both mathematical thinking and the classroom community.

The Forms Of Representation: How To Be A Kantian Realist, Willem A. Devries

Faculty Publications

Sellars argued that Kant did not make certain distinctions concerning space and time, and because of this adopted his transcendental idealism. Once these distinctions are made, the path to realism remains open. Sellars' argument is not entirely clear. This essay attempts to clarify the argument, showing why Sellars believed he could remain a scientific realist while also adopting a Kantian style epistemology.

Frost Heave Physical Simulation Testing Apparatus, Noah Edgar , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

The uplift forces exerted on lightly loaded pile foundations through the heaving stresses developed in freezing soils can have a significant impact on the design and cost of the foundations for utility scale solar generation facilities. Since the adfreeze stress that exerts the uplift force is highly dependent on the soil type, a one-size fits all approach to this frost heaving behavior is ineffective. To solve this issue, a testing apparatus was designed that can be repeatedly used to more accurately determine the heaving stresses that will develop given a specific soil type. The testing apparatus uses the soil collected …

“Finally Girls Hitting A Celly:” Emotions And Gender Embodiment In Competitive Swimmers’ Post-Race Celebrations, Lauren Q. Rohde , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

In athletic competitions, the moment of achievement is often extremely cathartic and results in a visible celebration. In competitive swimming, these reactions to success are isolated to the end of a race, completely individual, and often feature interaction with one’s surroundings, such as the water or lane lines. These moments are also highly visible and usually well-photographed, and the visibility of these actions contributes to a growing culture in the sport around post-race celebrations. The exposure of the body in competitive swimming additionally contributes to its visibility, further complicating behaviors and norms around celebrating race outcomes. This research aims to …

La Beauté Ignoble Du Cadavre. Regard Scientifique Et Regard Artistique Dans Thérèse Raquin D’Émile Zola, Shreya Patel , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Prisons Are A Public Health Crisis: Alabama Paves The Way, Rae Peeples , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Case—Optimizing Transportation And Equity In A District Zoning Problem For Orville Public Schools, Kelly M. Sullivan, Ashlea Bennett Milburn

Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

ORPS is highly regarded in the ORville community for providing a quality education that inspires and equips all students to achieve success in their learning and life endeavors. Population growth in the region and strong demand for an ORPS education have led to growing student enrollments. Accommodating this growth is a challenge for ORPS. When new campuses are needed, the process of acquiring land and building a new school takes years. The district must continually anticipate where in town enrollments will grow and monitor existing capacities against projected enrollments to ensure that capacity is in the right locations and at …

Baroreflex Function In Cardiovascular Disease, Husam M Salah, Richa Gupta, Albert J Hicks, Kiran Mahmood, Nicholas A Haglund, Amarinder S Bindra, Steve M Antoine, Rachel Garcia, Amin Yehya, Dmitry M Yaranov, Pujan P Patel, Jason P Feliberti, Allman T Rollins, Vishal N Rao, Laurie Letarte, Vikram Raje, Amit H Alam, Patrick Mccann, Nirav Y Raval, Brian Howard, Marat Fudim

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The baroreflex system is involved in modulating several physiological functions of the cardiovascular system and can modulate cardiac output, blood pressure, and cardiac electrophysiology directly and indirectly. In addition, it is involved in regulating neurohormonal pathways involved in the cardiovascular function, such as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and vasopressin release. Baroreflex dysfunction is characterized by sympathetic overactivation and parasympathetic withdrawal and is associated with several cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, heart failure, and coronary artery disease. Targeting the baroreflex system via invasive (eg, baroreflex activation therapy and endovascular baroreceptor amplification) and noninvasive approaches (eg, slow breathing exercises and exercise training) has …

Healthcare Utilization Unchanged In The Control Arm Of A Randomized Clinical Trial, Pratik Gongloor, Saad Nadeem, Xiaoying Yu, Mukaila Raji, Kristina D Mena, Elizabeth M Vaughan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

including among control groups. Increased access to care and heightened health awareness during trial enrollment could lead to altered behaviors, a phenomenon known as the Hawthorne effect, which may obscure true intervention impacts; however, this effect remains poorly studied in low-income environments.

Aim: To conduct a secondary exploratory analysis of healthcare utilization among control participants of a randomized clinical trial (RCT).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed electronic medical records from the control arm (n = 26) of an RCT involving low-income Hispanic adults with type 2 diabetes receiving care at a community clinic. Before randomization to a 12-month diabetes education intervention …

The Impact Of Structural Gamification On Student Motivation And Engagement In A Middle School Language Arts Classroom, Natalie Campbell

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Engagement through gamification can play a crucial role in enhancing student motivation. Gamification provides direct feedback, makes learning interactive, fosters collaboration, and makes learning more autonomous (Kuh, 2001; Reeve & Tseng, 2011). Including game-thinking and game mechanics in the classroom adds an aspect of engagement that may otherwise be lacking.

This action research study explored the impact of structural gamification on student engagement and motivation when incorporated in a middle school language arts classroom. Using a mixed-methods approach, the researcher measured student engagement and motivation. It reported detailed perceptions of participants through survey responses, examined achievement data from summative assessments, …

An Examination Of Middle School Girls’ Perceptions And Preferences Of Reading From A Device Versus Paper, Debra Kisch

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Schools have been impacted by the technological advancements of the world. With these changes, students have been increasingly using technology, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. The use of devices to read, both for pleasure and academically, have increased, especially since the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007 (Ashburn, 2024). Additionally, schools have started issuing devices for students to use and it is reported that forty-five percent of schools have a computer for each student (National Center for Education Statistics, 20). They found an extra 37% reported having a computer for each student in some grades or classrooms. States are also …

Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals Lead To Selective Inhibition Of Cyp1 Monooxygenase Activities, And Increased Production Of Reactive Oxygen Species By Reaction Uncoupling, John Patrick Connick, Amari A. Stepter, George F. Cawley, Marilyn K. Eyer, Wayne L. Backes

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

This study focuses on the effect of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals (EPFRs) on the P450 enzymes of the CYP1 family. EPFRs are a component of particulate pollutants, that are stable in the environment, but can generate free radicals, leading to oxidative stress and subsequent toxicity of the respiratory, cardiovascular, and immune systems once they enter an organism. The results show differences in the ability of EPFRs to inhibit CYP1-dependent substrate metabolism, with CYP1B1 being inhibited to the greatest extent. There also were differences in the ability of EPFRs to disrupt the POR•CYP1 complex, with CYP1B1 being the only form where …

Exploring Postsecondary Students’ Beliefs Relative To Behavior That Promotes Sleep, Levi T. Kirkpatrick

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Sleep research has extensively quantified poor sleep among postsecondary students and established associations with adverse consequences; however, research exploring students’ beliefs toward sleep-promoting behavior is scarce. The current qualitative study explored postsecondary students’ beliefs toward behavior that promotes sleep at a midwestern state university. Using the integrated behavioral model, the current study aimed to expand the understanding of how students perceive and engage with behaviors that promote better sleep. The primary research question was: “How do currently enrolled postsecondary students attending a state university located in the Midwest region of the United States describe their beliefs relative to behavior that …

Censorship: Through An Iowan’S Eyes, Erin Mcrae

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This is a collection of creative work prefaced by an introduction, which gives an overview of the development of these pieces. The pieces contained in this thesis are comprised of various genres, including creative nonfiction, poetry, and short fiction.

Cadherin 1 Germline Mutation Co-Occurs With Medullary Thyroid Cancer And Choroid Plexus Papilloma: A Case Report And Review Of Literature, Vijay Nitturi, Sricharan Gopakumar, Hsiang-Chih Lu, Akash J Patel

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: We describe the case of a 23-year-old woman with a history of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) who presented with a choroid plexus papilloma (CPP) and review the literature regarding the co-occurrence of these two pathologies.

Case description: A 23-year-old woman with a history of MTC treated with thyroidectomy 3 months prior was referred to neurosurgery with an incidental fourth ventricular mass found on prior imaging of her neck. She presented to the clinic with intermittent headaches and underwent MRI which demonstrated a hyperintense, heterogeneously enhancing lobular mass at the obex of the fourth ventricle. She underwent suboccipital craniotomy and …

Lipoprotein(A) Levels In A Population With Clinical Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease In The United States: A Subanalysis From The Lp(A)Heritage Study, Michael D Shapiro, Tariq M Haddad, Howard S Weintraub, Seth J Baum, Khaled Abdul-Nour, Samiha Sarwat, Vadim Paluy, Wess Boatwright, Auris Browne, Imran Ayaz, Cheryl A Abbas, Christie M Ballantyne

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Elevated lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) is the most common inherited dyslipidemia that is independently and causally associated with increased atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk. However, data from diverse populations with ASCVD are lacking.

Objective: To evaluate Lp(a) levels in a diverse, contemporary United States (US) population with ASCVD, stratified by race, ethnicity, and sex.

Methods: Lp(a)HERITAGE (NCT03887520) was a multicenter study that estimated the prevalence of elevated Lp(a) in adults (18-80 years) with ASCVD. US participants with Lp(a) measured in nmol/L pre- or post-enrollment were included in this subanalysis. This study was descriptive; therefore, no statistical comparisons were made. …

Long-Term Mortality Following Sars-Cov-2 Infection In Rural Versus Urban Dwellers With Autoimmune Or Inflammatory Rheumatic Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis From The National Covid Cohort Collaborative, A Jerrod Anzalone, Lesley E Jackson, Namrata Singh, Maria I Danila, Elizabeth Reisher, Rena C Patel, Jasvinder A Singh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: Autoimmune or inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRDs) increase the risk for poor COVID-19 outcomes. Although rurality is associated with higher post-COVID-19 mortality in the general population, whether rurality elevates this risk among people with AIRD is unknown. We assessed associations between rurality and post-COVID-19 all-cause mortality, up to two years post infection, among people with AIRD using a large nationally sampled US cohort.

Methods: This retrospective study used the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, a medical records repository containing COVID-19 patient data. We included adults with two or more AIRD diagnostic codes and a COVID-19 diagnosis documented between April 2020 and …

Quality Of Life Is Impaired In Shrimp Allergic Adults And Caregivers, Melissa L Hearrell, Sara Anvari, Sharon Chinthrajah, Sana Hasan, David P Huston, Evan Li, Chen-Hsing Lin, Edwin Kim, Andreas L Lopata, Sarbjit Singh Saini, Sayantani Sindher, Panida Sriaroon, Bin Su, Julie Wang, Carla M Davis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Rationale: Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) allergies (SA) can result in allergic reactions ranging from life threatening severe anaphylaxis to oral allergy syndrome. SA may pose lifestyle restrictions on daily life and interfere with social relationships and school performance, but this has not been thoroughly investigated. We examined the QoL in SA adults and caregivers.

Methods: A QoL online questionnaire adapted from the validated Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire (FAQLQ) was administered between September 30, 2023-July 15, 2024 to adults and caregivers of at least one SA child. Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon rank sum test, and Fisher exact test were …