Digital Commons Network^™

A Note On The Novel Passive Sampling In Environmental Dna (Edna) Collection Technique To Detect Yellow Mud Turtle (Kinosternon Flavescens): Field And Laboratory Approaches In Turtle Edna, Sakib Tahmid Rishan, Richard J. Kline, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences Faculty Publications

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a powerful and sensitive method for monitoring aquatic and terrestrial organisms, offering insights into their distribution. Usually, eDNA is collected using a filter membrane through water filtration. However, the passive eDNA method can simplify sampling and broaden its scope, offering new insights for ecological surveillance. This study examined the efficacy of six different membrane filters in detecting the yellow mud turtle (Kinosternon flavescens) through a novel passive eDNA method. After being immersed in water for 12 h, only the mixed cellulose ester (MCE) membrane filter consistently demonstrated specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using …

Frontline Aspiration Versus Stent Retriever Thrombectomy For M2 Occlusions: Insights From The Star Registry, Michael Gaub, Rahim Abo Kasem, Ilko Maier, Ansaar Rai, Pascal Jabbour, Joon-Tae Kim, Brian Howard, Ali Alawieh, Stacey Quintero Wolfe, Robert M Starke, Marios-Nikos Psychogios, Amir Shaban, Nitin Goyal, Justin Dye, Ali Alaraj, Mohamad Ezzeldin, Shinichi Yoshimura, David Fiorella, Omar Tanweer, Daniele G Romano, Pedro Navia, Hugo Cuellar, Isabel Fragata, Adam Polifka, Joshua Osbun, Fazeel Siddiqui, Mark Moss, Kaustubh Limaye, Maxim Mokin, Charles Matouk, Min S Park, Waleed Brinjikji, Ergun Daglioglu, Richard Williamson, David J Altschul, Christopher S Ogilvy, Roberto Crosa, Michael R Levitt, Benjamin Gory, Alexandra Paul, Peter Kan, Walter Casagrande, Shakeel Chowdhry, Michael F Stiefel, Ramesh Grandhi, Alejandro Spiotta, Justin Mascitelli

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Recent trials have furthered uncertainty regarding the endovascular benefit for medium vessel occlusions (MeVO). Stent retrievers (SR) were employed in the first attempt in most interventional arm participants. We sought to compare outcomes in acute MCA M2 occlusions between frontline aspiration and SR, and to delineate procedural and anatomical covariates associated with differential treatment effect.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of a multicenter stroke thrombectomy cohort identified cases of MT for M2 occlusions. Unmatched and propensity score-matched (PSM) cohorts were generated comparing frontline aspiration to standalone and combined SR. The primary outcome was functional independence (mRS 0-2) at 90 days. Recanalization, …

Old Lesions And New Targets: Seeg-Identified Onsets In Traditionally Inoperable Epilepsy Lesions And Associated Surgical Outcomes, Yosef M Dastagirzada, Spencer Frome, Daniel J Curry, Howard L Weiner

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Patients with epilepsy who do not respond to pharmacotherapy are often offered a noninvasive diagnostic workup to localize an epileptogenic focus that might be treated with resection, neuromodulation, or ablation. Yet in many cases, this evaluation fails to identify surgical candidates.

Summary: Patients with tuberous sclerosis, periventricular nodular heterotopia, or polymicrogyria may have clearly visible lesions on MRI, but the resulting epileptogenic onset zones/networks are often too complex for scalp electroencephalography to decode. Similarly, seizures arising from the cingulate gyrus originate in deep structures that are inaccessible to noninvasive techniques. In post-traumatic epilepsy without a dominant lesion such as …

Optimizing Tbi Care: Brain Oxygen Monitoring In Nursing - An Evidence-Based Practice, Alyssa Grisham

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Purposes/Aims

This DNP project aims to enhance the care of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) by improving nurses’ knowledge, clinical decision-making, and early intervention strategies through the integration of brain oxygenation data into routine neurocritical care assessments. This project seeks to promote personalized patient care, reduce secondary brain injury, and improve neurological outcomes for critically ill adults with TBI by implementing an educational protocol designed to deepen understanding of brain oxygen monitoring.

Background of Problem & Description of Current Practice

TBI remains a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and continues to pose a significant public health burden. …

Guidelines For Standard Basic Notations In Applied Statistics, Abhaya Indrayan, Shivani Saini Ms

COBRA Preprint Series

Whereas some statistical notations are standard and uniformly used by different workers, many are not. Varying notations lead to confusion among the readers, particularly those engaged with applied statistics material, such as medical professionals. This communication proposes that all basic notations be standardized so that the same notations are consistently used by different authors, in different books, journals, and articles for the benefit of those who are not rigorously trained statisticians. Guidelines for such standard notations are also provided. The lead must be taken by statisticians.

Connecting The Dots - Recognition Of Artificial And Natural Shapes Relies On Representing Points Of High Information, Gunnar Schmidtmann, Nicholas Baker, Kevin J. Lande, Filipp Schmidt

School of Health Professions

Physiological and psychophysical evidence suggests that the visual system represents object outlines using prominent curvature features, particularly regions of extreme curvature (convex maxima and concave minima). These curvature extrema often coincide with points of high informational content (“surprisal”), but this relationship is only correlational. It remains unclear whether the visual system explicitly encodes curvature extrema or instead prioritizes the most informative contour locations. To address this, we conducted two shape-matching experiments comparing the roles of curvature extrema and surprisal in shape representation. Observers performed match-to-sample tasks in which smooth reference shapes were matched to simplified polygonal versions created by connecting …

Shelled Shut-Ins: A Conditional Escape Task Showing Perceptual Awareness In Hermit Crabs, Ari Drummond, John Spicer, Mark Briffa

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Sentience is an increasingly popular topic in animal welfare and behavioural research. However, studying sentience can be difficult and contentious. Sentience has frequently been associated with ‘feelings’ and ‘subjective states’ not directly accessible to human observers; thus, investigating awareness in animals could be an alternative approach. Frameworks of awareness have been developed for the experimental examination of cognitive capacities that might underpin ‘feelings’ as affective states and subjective experiences. Using a framework of four hierarchically arranged levels of awareness (that is, perceptual, cognitive, assessment and executive), the awareness of an intertidal crustacean, the common hermit crab, Pagurus bernhardus , was …

Groundwater Spatial Variability Within An Atoll Island: Assessing Shallow Aquifer Heterogeneity With Geophysical And Physicochemical Measurements, N. I. Tobon-Velazquez, G. Masselink, T. J. O’Hare, R. Bates, F. K.J. Oberle, C. D. Storlazzi, D. C. Conley

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

This study examines the spatial variability of shallow groundwater on Dhigelaabadhoo Island using electromagnetic induction surveys, groundwater monitoring, and sediment analyses. The research reveals how variations in island morphology—such as differences in elevation, reef flat width, and sediment composition—affect the spatial distribution of groundwater lenses and the overall aquifer dynamics. Saltwater intrusion is especially pronounced in low elevated areas, with narrow reef flat plate and areas where higher hydraulic conductivity—driven by the presence of coarser sediments—is observed, whereas regions characterized by finer sediments, higher elevation, and wider reef flat plates tend to support more symmetric and less saline groundwater lenses. …

Testing The Transferability Of Ai Models For Cold-Water Coral Detection And Classification, Kyran P. Graves, Louise Allcock, David K.A. Barnes, Amelia E.H. Bridges, Kerry L. Howell

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The proliferation of accessible deep-water imaging platforms has resulted in the acquisition of vast amounts of image data, resulting in an analysis bottleneck. Object detection is now being applied to assist the image annotation process, with the potential to reduce analysis time. However, for object detectors to effectively tackle the scale of the challenge, models need to be generalisable to allow the transfer between imaging platforms and in space. This study trains YOLOv5 object detection models to identify six coral morphology groups using annotated imagery collected by ROV ISIS in the UK (JC136). Model performance was tested with independent datasets …

Three Christmas Island Land Crabs Do Not Alter Extracellular Magnesium In Response To Acute Reduced Temperature, Katie N.G. Thiessen, Helena C. Reinardy, John I. Spicer, Lucy M. Turner

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Magnesium is essential to numerous biological processes in many species. Including protecting intracellular pH and ATP concentrations during temperature and anoxia stress. Extracellular [Mg²⁺] is tightly regulated in many, but not all crustaceans. There is evidence that extracellular [Mg²⁺] content may be open to environmental influence such as temperature. The alteration of extracellular [Mg²⁺] in decapod crustaceans in response to temperature has been proposed, with individuals exposed to low temperature often displaying an increase in extracellular [Mg²⁺]. However, data, supporting or refuting this hypothesis, are sparse and drawn mainly from temperate and …

Investigating Spatial And Seasonal Differences In Microgastropod Assemblages Within The Little-Studied Camamu Bay, Brazil: A Potential Bioindicator For Remote Tropical Areas?, Francisco Kelmo, Sol De Maria Cesar Ferreira, Eduardo Henrique Galvão, Martin J. Attrill

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

This study investigates spatial and seasonal variation in the assemblages of benthic microgastropods (snails < 5–10 mm in length) within a poorly studied tropical bay. As these organisms are abundant, diverse and relatively easy to sample, with well-established taxonomy, they may prove a highly suitable group for ecological studies in such areas. Sediment samples were collected from three river basins in Camamu Bay, Brazil, during the wet and dry seasons. A total of 132 microgastropod species was recorded, demonstrating high diversity. The most abundant species were Eulithidium affine, Bittiolum varium, Cerithium atratum, Vitta virginea and Schwartziella bryerea. The least abundant species were Tenaturris gemma, Turbinella laevigata, Petaloconchus erectus, Parviturboides interruptus and Vitrinella cupidinensis. Statistical analysis revealed significant seasonal and spatial differences in diversity and assemblage composition, which correlated with environmental gradients. The results suggest that microgastropods are a suitable component of the biota for ecological and applied studies in marine sediments, particularly in remote tropical locations where full macrofaunal analysis may be challenging. Whilst further testing across impact gradients is needed, this approach offers a practical solution for ecological investigations in remote regions with limited taxonomic expertise and highlights microgastropods as a useful indicator taxon for impact biomonitoring in tropical marine sediments.

The Giant Antarctic Amphipod Paraceradocus Miersi Will Not Fare Well If Freshening Continues In The Southern Ocean, John I. Spicer, Simon A. Morley, Katie N.G. Thiessen, Lloyd S. Peck

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Sea water provides a stable environment for marine animals. Most oceanic invertebrates have body fluids similar in ionic composition to sea water. However, Antarctic coastal ecosystems are increasingly exposed to freshening—a reduction in salinity driven by glacial melt, increased precipitation, and extreme weather events. Such changes can cause mortality in Antarctic invertebrates, which generally are intolerant to reduced salinity. This study investigated osmotic and ionic regulation of the Antarctic amphipod Paraceradocus miersi exposed to simulated freshening. When salinity was reduced (from S = 34.6 to 28.0) for 12–48 h, haemolymph osmolality and sodium concentration declined, while calcium remained stable; magnesium …

Exploring The Prevalence Of Eating Disorders, Low Sex Drive, And Exercise Compulsion Among Professional And Non-Professional Elite Male Rugby Union Players, Gary Sweeney, Siobhain Mcardle, Danielle Logue, Nessan Costello, Kieran Collins

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Rugby union exhibits large variations in the idealised player physical profiles across positions. The pursuit of physique ideals with limited professional support can influence eating disorder symptomology, exercise compulsion, and low sexual drive. The primary aims were to (1) explore the prevalence of elite male rugby union players who are at risk for eating disorders, low sex drive, and exercise compulsion, and (2) explore the relationship between risk and players’ professional status, weight, age, and playing position. A secondary aim was to explore the nutritional service support and dietary monitoring practices experienced by the players. Participants were recruited from four …

An Analysis Of Diet Sustainability Among Different Dietary Patterns In The Portuguese Adult And Elderly Population, Mariana Rei, Áine Burke, Sadhbh O’Shea, Annemarie E. Bennett, John M. Kearney, Sara S.P. Rodrigues

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Purpose: Dietary patterns influence human and environmental health. Shifts toward convenience and ready-to-eat ultra-processed foods have contributed to the rising prevalence of malnutrition, chronic disease, and ecological harm. This study examined the associations between dietary patterns and diet sustainability among Portuguese adults. Methods: Data from 2287 individuals aged 18–84 years were obtained from the last National Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity Survey (2015–2016). Three dietary patterns were identified based on food composition and processing: Traditional, Diet Concerns, and Unhealthy; while four dietary patterns were categorized according to food preparation location: At home by themselves, At home by relatives or friends, …

Physique Development And Management Shape Experiences Of Low Energy Availability Risk In Elite Professional Male Rugby Union Players, Gary Sweeney, Siobhain Mcardle, Nessan Costello, Kieran Collins

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study aimed to explore elite male rugby union players’ perceptions and lived experiences of physique development and management in relation to low energy availability risk. Semi-structured interviews (29 ± 8 min) were conducted with 18 players (senior: n = 9; academy: n = 9; mean age: 23 ± 3) across four professional rugby union clubs in Ireland. Through reflexive thematic analysis, the following themes were constructed. Players had limited awareness of low energy availability, yet described experiences consistent with symptoms, including fatigue, low mood and reduced libido. A pervasive physique culture, characterised by body composition ‘ideals’ and weight or …

From Platelets To Particles: Optimizing Extracellular Vesicle Isolation In A National Blood Centre, Y. Chintala, A. Waters, F. Mcgrath, A. Lorusso, C. Wynne, S. Meaney

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Background and Objectives: Platelet-derived extracellular vesicles (PEVs) are submicron, membrane-bound particles released upon platelet activation, with a recognized role in haemostasis, inflammation and immunoregulation. PEVs remain insufficiently characterized in blood products. This study compared four isolation methods to evaluate their impact on PEV yield, purity and characteristics, aiming to identify a practical approach for transfusion service workflows. Materials and Methods: PEVs were isolated from expired single-donor aphaeresis platelet concentrates (n = 12) using methods based on different isolation principles: ultracentrifugation (UC), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), mixed size/charge separation (hybrid) and an affinity-based spin column method (affinity). Size, number and biochemical …

Understanding The Epigenetic Landscape Of Barrett's Esophagus And Esophageal Cancer: A Review Of Current Findings, Caveats And Future Directions, Louise Lawless, Trevor Doherty, Carla Surlis, Niamh Gilmartin, Therese M. Murphy

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Esophageal cancer (OC) is currently the eighth most common form of cancer worldwide with a 5-year survival rate of 10%–20%, with the primary risk factor of esophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) being the development of Barrett's Esophagus (BO). Despite its clinical significance, the molecular pathogenesis underlying both BO and OC is not well understood. In recent years, epigenetic dysregulation, particularly aberrant DNA methylation, has emerged as a critical area of investigation, given its potential utility in the identification of diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic biomarkers. This review examines the evolving epigenetic landscape of esophageal cancer, including a focus on its origins in BO …

Campbell At 30: A Retrospective Appreciation, Michael W. Carroll, Peter Jaszi

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This Article traces the intellectual history of copyright law’s fair use doctrine at the Supreme Court from its first encounter with fair use to its landmark decision slightly more than three decades ago in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. Campbell provided courts with a coherent, user-centered theory for applying the four statutory fair use factors provided under 17 U.S.C. § 107, a standard the Court recently ratified in Google LLC v. Oracle Am., Inc. and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Goldsmith. As one of three related articles, this Article advances two principal claims to contribute to …

Lunch Shaming And The Right To Privacy, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Lunch shaming is the practice of penalizing students who cannot afford to pay for their meals, resulting in them being denied food, served alternative meals, or publicly identified. The origins of lunch shaming can be traced to the financial pressures faced by school districts that struggle to balance tight budgets with the mandate to provide free or reduced-price meals to eligible students. Despite legislative efforts and advocacy campaigns aimed at mitigating the problems associated with lunch shaming, the practice persists, exacerbated by rising food costs and the expiration of pandemic-era food programs.

Many law journal and other articles have correctly …

Readability Of Online Patient Education Materials For Myopia Management, Monica Jong, Michelle Waugh, Pinar Ozmizrak, Ian Flitcroft

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Purpose: Patients are turning to the internet to access educational materials to help them make healthcare decisions, making readability an important factor. This cross-sectional study assessed the readability of online patient education materials for myopia management treatments that have regulatory approval. Methods: The top 10 Google search results from May 2024 for freely available online patient information on myopia management modalities and regulatory-approved products in Canada and Australia were analysed for readability. The modalities included orthokeratology, myopia control spectacle lenses, myopia control soft contact lenses and atropine. The products included MiYOSMART® [HOYA®], Stellest® [Essilor®], MyoCare® [ZEISS], MiSight® 1 day [CooperVision®], …

E-Profits: A Business-Aligned Evaluation Metric For Profit-Sensitive Customer Churn Prediction, Awais Manzoor, M. Atif Qureshi, Etain Kidney, Luca Longo

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Retention campaigns in customer relationship management often rely on churn prediction models evaluated using traditional metrics such as AUC and F1-score. However, these metrics fail to reflect financial outcomes and may mislead strategic decisions. We introduce e-Profits, a novel business-aligned evaluation metric that quantifies model performance based on customer lifetime value, retention probability, and intervention costs. Unlike existing profit-based metrics such as Expected Maximum Profit, which assume fixed population-level parameters, e-Profits uses Kaplan–Meier survival analysis to estimate tenure-conditioned (customer-level) one-period retention probabilities and supports granular, per-customer profit evaluation. We benchmark six classifiers across two telecom datasets (IBM Telco and Maven …

Are Ocular Markers Of Sun Exposure Associated With Skin Cancer? A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of The Busselton Healthy Ageing Study, Gareth Lingham, Vinay Kumar Nilagiri, Holly Brown, Chrianna Bharat, Samantha S.Y. Lee, Maria Franchina, Michael Hunter, Kevin Murray, David Alonso-Caneiro, Catherine M. Olsen, David C. Whiteman, David A. Mackey

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Background: Higher past sun or ultraviolet radiation exposure increases the risk of skin cancer and three common ocular findings: pterygium, conjunctival ultraviolet autofluorescence (CUVAF) and myopia. We investigated whether ocular markers of past sun exposure are associated with a history of skin cancer. Methods: A cross-sectional study of participants who attended the Phase 2 examination of the Busselton Healthy Ageing Study in Western Australia (2016–2022). Myopia was determined from autorefraction and pterygium and CUVAF from photographs of the anterior eye. Past diagnosis of a skin cancer was obtained from linked hospitalisation and cancer registry data (melanoma) or combining linked and …

Modeling The Proton Irradiation Resilience Of Perovskite Solar Cells, Ming Lang Tseng, Emad A.A. Ismail, Nima Ghadiri, Fuad A. Awwad

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study introduces a semiclassical modeling for the impact of proton irradiation on two perovskite solar cell structures: FA_0.7Cs_0.3Pb(I_0.9Br_0.1)₃/C₆₀ and Cs_0.01MA_0.01FA_0.98PbI₃/P3HT using coupled current-continuity and rate equations linked to irradiation-induced defect-generation rate. Results reveal a strong dependence of radiation response on perovskite composition. Proton irradiation can induce both ionizing and displacement damage in perovskite solar cells leading to vacancy and defect generation. The result is increased recombination and degradation of performance parameters (reduced fill factor and efficiency) or, otherwise, annihilation of …

Snif: Explainability-Driven Feature Selection Through State-Of-The-Art Shap–Nca Intersection Framework For Malware Detection, Sadia Nazim, Syed Shujaa Hussain, Bilal Yousuf, Jawahir Che Mustapha

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Modern malware detection rely on Deep neural networks to achieve high detection performance by leveraging a large feature space. However, these models often suffer from high dimensionality, limited interpretability, and reduced reliability due to redundant features. As a result, they obscure the true contribution of features to the rationale for the prediction. To address these challenges, this study proposes an explainability-aware feature pruning technique to improve the performance and efficiency of deep neural networks. The key focus of this study is the development of the novel SHAP–NCA Intersection Framework (SNIF), which integrates explainability with feature selection for efficient and trustworthy …

Modeling The Impact Of Proton Irradiation On Photoluminescence Spectra Of Perovskite Solar Cells, Ming Lang Tseng, Nima Ghadiri

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study presents a comprehensive modeling approach to assess the impact of proton-irradiation on the photoluminescence (PL) response and current–voltage (JV) characteristics of CsMAFAPbI₃/P3HT-based perovskite solar cell validated against experimental data reported in literature. Proton irradiation generates displacement damage across the cell structure most critically within the perovskite bulk where the defect density increases approximately linearly with increased fluence and decreases for high proton energies due to reduced non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL) at higher energies. To capture the optical degradation behavior, Time-Resolved PL transient (TRPL) and PL spectra were modeled using a fluence- and energy-dependent Kohlrausch model (stretched-exponential) …

Regulatory Invisibility And Energy Poverty: Epc Exclusion, Traveller Mobile Homes And Ireland’S Low-Carbon Transition, Paul Lally, Ehiaze Ehimen, Mary Galvin, Ciara Ahern

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) systems play a central role in residential decarbonisation by determining how dwellings are assessed, benchmarked and made eligible for retrofit support. However, these systems are largely designed around conventional, permanent, site-built housing and can exclude non-standard dwelling types. This paper examines the exclusion of permanently occupied Traveller mobile homes from Ireland’s EPC framework and considers the implications for energy poverty, retrofit policy and energy justice. Using a critical narrative synthesis, the study integrates academic literature, statutory reports, policy documents and community-based evidence to trace the relationship between Traveller accommodation policy, regulatory classification and contemporary decarbonisation frameworks. …