Digital Commons Network^™

Policy Brief For Florida's Lifeline In Focus: Nremt Performance Review 2025, M. Lozano Jr.

Florida Center for Emergency Medical Services Research Reports

Florida's EMS education system presents two different policy stories at the EMT and paramedic levels. EMT performance is encouraging: 5,873 Florida EMT candidates achieved a 74.1% first-attempt pass rate in 2025, statistically indistinguishable from the national benchmark of 73.2%, and the statewide rate improved 5.5 percentage points from 2023. The EMT level supports continued monitoring rather than broad intervention.

Paramedic education remains the principal concern. Among 1,869 Florida paramedic candidates in the 2025 cohort, 63.4% passed on the first attempt, compared with 72.9% nationally - a 9.5-point gap. The 2025 rate improved 3.5 points from 2023, but the longer record …

Policy Brief For Amplifying Florida Ems Voices: Results Of The 2026 Annual Agency Survey, Michael Lozano, Claire Guadiana, Farina Klocksieben

Florida Center for Emergency Medical Services Research Reports

This policy brief distills the major findings and policy implications from Amplifying Florida EMS Voices: Results of the 2026 Annual EMS Agency Survey. The full report provides a comprehensive analysis of Florida EMS agency operations across workforce development, medical care, health and wellness, access to care, public engagement, data and quality improvement, telecommunications, disaster preparedness, pediatric care, and trauma. This condensed brief is intended for policymakers, state and regional planners, EMS leaders, and other decision-makers who need actionable findings without the full technical detail of the underlying report.

The 2026 Annual Florida EMS Agency Survey was conducted by the Florida …

2026 Safety Belt Usage Survey In Kentucky, Erin Lammers-Staats, Derek S. Young, Kenneth R. Agent

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

Culturally Safe Nursing: Transformative Learning Experiences Through Critical Reflection Assessment, Lesley Andrew, Michelle Pedlow, Bev Ewens

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: To explore the transformative learning experiences of postgraduate nursing students engaging in an Aboriginal culture and history module, through an analysis of a critical reflection assessment, in particular the student development of cultural awareness and culturally safe practice.

Background: Despite mandated inclusion of Aboriginal cultural content in Australian nursing curricula, culturally unsafe practices and racism persist. Transformative learning, underpinned by critical reflection, can challenge fixed assumptions and promote cultural awareness and culturally safe care.

Design: A qualitative descriptive study using thematic analysis. Methods: Written critical reflections from 15 consenting postgraduate nursing students who completed the Ngany Kalyakal Katatjiny Boordawan …

Forty Years In The Making: Reporting On The Co-Creation Of A National Roadmap For Birthing On Country Services For The Best Start To Life, Res Mccalman, Anneka J. Bowman, Roianne West, Kristie Watego, Jyai Allen, Claire Clack, Sue Kildea, Sue Kruske, Melanie Briggs, Cleone Wellington, Rebecca Coddington, Yu Gao, Isabella Garti, Sascha Kowalenko, Sarah Ireland, Catherine Austin, John D. Boffa, Marah Prior, Kelsie Kahl, Bettina Chaseling, Sarah Khaw, Emily Armstrong, Donna Hartz (Kamilaroi), Yvette Roe (Njikena Jawuru)

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

For over 40 years, First Nations communities in Australia have called for community-controlled birthing and maternal–infant health programs that restore First Nations-led, community-controlled birthing systems grounded in cultural authority and sovereignty. ‘Birthing on Country’ services have demonstrated improved First Nations maternal–infant health outcomes, more babies kept out of the child protection system, and reduced health system costs. Restoration and expansion of Birthing on Country services across regions has been inconsistent, and has lacked support for national implementation. In 2022, a large national gathering (‘Best Start to Life’) was co-hosted in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). The focus was Birthing on Country service …

The Influence Of Childhood Experiential History On U.S. Vice President Jd Vance’S Personality, Amelia Brower, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a developmental causal analysis of the adult personality of U.S. vice president JD Vance, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data relating to Vance’s personality were collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and DSM-5-TR.

The findings of the personality assessment were previously reported in a separate paper. Vance’s primary personality patterns were found to be Dominant/controlling and Ambitious/confident, supplemented by …

Serum Proenkephalin A (Penk) As An Emerging Biomarker Of Renal Failure And Its Association With Mineral, Endocrine, And Hematological Parameters, Zahraa H. K. Aljelawy, Haider Abdul-Moneem Al-Mothafer

Muthanna Medical Journal

Objective: Renal failure is related to metabolic and endocrine disorders, in particular chronic kidney disease-Mineral and Bone Disorder (CKD-MBD). In this study, the clinical utility of serum Proenkephalin A (PENK) as a novel renal biomarker was evaluated, and its changes and correlation matrix with established renal, mineral, bone and hematological parameters in patients with renal failure were studied. Materials and Methods: A case control study was performed including patients diagnosed clinically with renal failure and age and gender matched healthy controls. Venous blood samples were collected to analyze serum PENK, including urea, creatinine, parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium, phosphate, Vitamin D, …

Assessment Of Glycemic Control Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Attending A Tertiary Diabetes And Endocrinology Center In Sulaymania City/ Iraq, Lina Ali Al-Khafaji, Bahjat Abdulridha Alsaeedy

Muthanna Medical Journal

Introduction: The sociodemographic and clinical factors play a role in type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) glycemic control.
Objectives: To assess glycemic control among T2DM patients and its association with sociodemographic and clinical factors.
Materials and methods: A prospective observational study of 210 patients with T2DM at a tertiary diabetes and endocrinology center in Sulaymania city/ Iraq, from April to November 2024. The study involved sociodemographic data, body mass index, blood pressure, and blood tests for HbA1c, fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, blood urea and creatinine. The performed HbA1c tests were compared with baseline results to identify differences, …

International Migration And Sex Trafficking: A Scoping Review., Higinio Fernández-Sánchez, Mutaz T Abdulrazag Gamra, Luis E Caso Vega, Julio Rodriguez-Araujo, Jennifer Stockton, Tahilin Sanchez Karver, Carlos Rodriguez-Diaz, Diane Santa Maria

Library Staff Publications

Introduction: Sex trafficking is a pervasive threat that disproportionately affects migrant populations. These groups are often targeted due to socioeconomic status, legal insecurity, and limited access to appropriate protections. The intersection between migration status and current structural inequalities further intensifies risks to migrant health and general well-being, making them highly susceptible to coercion and abuse. Despite growing research around these issues, evidence on sex trafficking among migrants remains an area for further exploration.

Objective: To examine the scope, nature, and thematic trends in the literature on international migration and sex trafficking.

Methods: This scoping review was guided by the population-Concept-Context …

Generalizations Of The Dirichlet Problem For Bianalytic Functions, William L. Blair

Math Faculty Publications and Presentations

We prove the Dirichlet problem for second-order iterated Vekua equations, a natural generalization of the Bitsadze equation, is well-posed when the boundary condition is defined as a product of an exponential function and a polynomial on a non-degenerate conic that is not a circumference. Also, we extend this result, as well as other related results for the Dirichlet problem for polyanalytic and generalized analytic functions from the literature, to their analogues for bicomplex differential equations.

Antimicrobial Stewardship: Aspiration Pneumonia And Anaerobic Antibiotic Coverage, Children's Mercy Kansas City

Clinical Critically Appraised Topics

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Mississippi Criminal Code Part V: Justification, Judith J. Johnson

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invoking The Protection Of Pupil Rights Amendment ("Ppra") To Safeguard Student Privacy Rights: My Three-Year Battle To Enforce The Ppra Against An Intractable New Jersey School District, Patricia Montana

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

When Formalism Becomes Abdication: Howell, Hathorne, And The Limits Of Legislative Finality, Joe Hemleben

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Overruling Texas V. Johnson?, Natti Perelman

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Formalism, Finality, And The Judicial Role In Mississippi Post-Conviction Review, Joe Hemleben

MC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Impact Of Outreach Programmes On Second Level Students In Formal And Informal Computer Science Education In Ireland, Karen Nolan

Doctoral

Computer Science (CS) education at second-level in Ireland has undergone significant development, including the introduction of the Leaving Certificate Computer Science (LCCS). However, the existing literature examined demonstrated that access to and participation in CS education is uneven, resulting in many students having limited exposure CS at second-level before making educational choices. At the same time, students who elect to study LCCS require appropriate support as they engage with programming and other aspects of a relatively new formal curriculum. This thesis investigates the function of school-based CS outreach in helping students at these various phases of their second-level CS education …

Modern Youth Or Moral Decadence: Discourses On South Korea’S “Youth Culture” In Magazines Of The Late 1960s And Early 1970s, Thibaut Diverchy

Asia Pacific Perspectives

The cultural phenomenon known as “youth culture” (ch’ŏngnyŏn munhwa) emerged in South Korean society at the turn of the 1970s. It encompasses Western fashion trends, music genres, leisure and nightlife. Labeled as a foreign and decadent trend by the authorities, this so-called counterculture was the target of repeated crackdowns. It is sometimes perceived as a force of protest or resistance, but it had more ambiguous relations to the regime. Popular entertainment magazines such as the Sunday Seoul or the Chugan Kyŏnghyang helped propagate youth culture and provided resources about new trends to young people, but also kept a certain distance …

Diffusion-Informed Joint Segmentation Enhances Detection Of Thalamic Atrophy In Parkinson’S Disease, Gozde Kizilates-Evin, Ani Kicik, Emel Erdogdu, Dilek Betul Saridede, Sevim Cengiz, Basar Bilgic, Hasmet A. Hanagasi, Esin Ozturk-Isik, Tamer Demiralp, Ali Bayram

All Works

The thalamus is a critical subcortical hub that relays sensorimotor information and regulates higher-order cognitive processes. Accurate delineation of thalamic nuclei is essential for elucidating disease mechanisms and tracking clinical progression. In this study, we compared two segmentation approaches implemented in FreeSurfer: the conventional structural method and a joint framework that integrates diffusion tensor imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 24 healthy controls (HC), 27 patients with cognitively normal Parkinson’s disease (PD-CN), and 33 Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) were analyzed. Segmentation methods were compared in HC to assess their effect on volume estimates. Group comparisons …

Toward Equitable Energy Futures: The Influence Of Digital Government And Financial Development On Clean Energy Justice, Martin Spraggon, Muhammad Hafeez, Sana Ullah, Chanyanan Somthawinpongsai, Zurul Aisya Osman, Sidra Sohail

All Works

Fossil fuel energy is the largest source of carbon emissions and the main driver of climate change and global warming. Therefore, the world is switching towards clean and green energy sources as an alternative to fossil fuel-based energy sources. Nevertheless, the equitable distribution of clean energy resources in urban and rural areas among every segment of society has become a concern for policymakers. Thus, urban-rural clean energy justice is an investigation topic that needs our attention. In this analysis, our main focus is on investigating the influence of financial development and digital government on clean energy justice using an advanced …

Trends In Antimicrobial Resistance Associated With Gastrointestinal Tract Infections In The Uae: A Comprehensive Retrospective Surveillance 13-Year (2010-2022) Study, Madikay Senghore, Jens Thomsen, Najiba M. Abdulrazzaq, Wei Chen, Eveline Kaambo, Stefan Weber, Fouzia Jabeen, Godfred Antony Menezes, Abiola Senok, Dean B. Everett, Carole Ayoub Moubareck

All Works

Background This study analyzes longitudinal trends in AMR among key bacterial pathogens causing GI infections across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to inform future treatment policies and public health interventions. Methods We conducted a 13-year, nationwide, longitudinal surveillance study (2010-2022) using data from 341 public and private healthcare facilities and 45 diagnostic laboratories across the UAE. Pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing followed WHO GLASS standards, supplemented by WHONET-integrated electronic medical records. Statistical analyses assessed trends in pathogen incidence, resistance patterns, geographic distribution, and associations with clinical outcomes. Findings Out of 15,593 laboratory-confirmed GI cases, the highest burden was observed …

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Thermal And Electrical Properties Of (Cr,Mo,Ta,V,W)C High-Entropy Carbide Ceramics, Ali Sarikhani, Steven M. Smith, Suzana Filipovic, William G. Fahrenholtz, Gregory E. Hilmas

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The synthesis and characterization along with the resulting properties of fully dense (Cr,Mo,Ta,V,W)C high entropy carbide ceramics were studied. The ceramics were synthesized from metal oxide and carbon powders by carbothermal reduction, followed by spark plasma sintering at various temperatures for densification. Increasing the densification temperature resulted in grain growth and an increase in the lattice parameter. Thermal diffusivity increased linearly with testing temperature, resulting in thermal conductivity values ranging from ∼7 W/m•K at room temperature to ∼12 W/m•K at 200 °C. Measured heat capacity values matched theoretical estimates calculated using the Neumann-Kopp rule. Room temperature electrical resistivity decreased from …

The Role Of Mxene In The Process Of Sintering Hpcs To Ceramic, Jianyu Dai, Congjie Wei, Jeremy Watts, Chenglin Wu

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This work presents a detailed investigation of the pyrolysis and sintering processes of hydridopolycarbosilane (HPCS) polymers, focusing on the formation of β-silicon carbide (β-SiC) and the influence of Ti₃C₂–Ox in this process. Due to the computational limitations of density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics methods with appropriate potentials are necessary for simulating large-scale systems, however, the available potentials are limited when the modeling process evolves relatively more element types or complex chemical-mechanical processes are studied. In this work, a machine learning based MACE (Multi-body ACE) model is adopted and trained to accurately capture the polymer's transformation …

Manufacturing Routes For Oxide Dispersion Strengthened Alloys, Ertugrul Demir, Seung Min Ha, Alexander Killips, Guan Cheng Chen, Yitian Chi, Dileepa Maddumage, Dalong Zhang, Xiaochun Li, Haiming Wen, Enrique Lavernia

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Oxide dispersion strengthened alloys are promising structural materials for high temperature, irradiation, and mechanically demanding environments because their performance depends on fine and stable oxide dispersoids distributed within a metallic matrix. However, reliable fabrication remains challenging because precursor oxide nanoparticles or oxide forming species must be transformed into stable oxide dispersoids without excessive agglomeration, coarsening, contamination, or loss during processing. This review critically compares powder metallurgy, additive manufacturing, and liquid metallurgy routes for ODS alloy fabrication, with emphasis on oxide evolution, microstructure control, mechanical performance, scalability, and industrial maturity. Powder metallurgy remains the most reliable route for producing fine and …

Sea-Level Rise And Regional Economic Adjustment On The U.S. Gulf Coast, Md A M Hasif, Juhee Lee, Robin A. Choudhury

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise (SLR) poses escalating risks to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where critical industries, infrastructure, and populations are concentrated in low-lying areas. This study estimates the short- and long-run economic effects of SLR using a panel autoregressive distributed lag-pooled mean group framework applied to county-level data from 26 coastal counties across five Gulf Coast states from 2005 to 2021. Over this period, mean sea level increased by approximately 11 cm on average across counties, with cumulative changes ranging from about 4 cm to over 24 cm and substantial cross-county variation, providing a meaningful empirical setting for identifying economic adjustment. We …

Re: Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Final Bpsou Unreclaimed Sites Anderson Shaft Remedial Action Work Plan (Rawp) Request For Change Ur-2026-Ra-01, Mike Mcanulty

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Best Practices For Supporting Occupational Therapy Students With Disabilities During Clinical Education: Results From A Three-Round Delphi Study, Courtney Gohean, Katie Mclaughlin, Aster Harrison

Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: Disabled occupational therapy students face systemic barriers in clinical education. Although legal mandates require reasonable accommodations, implementation is often inconsistent, and few standardized guidelines exist for fieldwork education. This study is aimed at establishing best practices for supporting occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant students with disabilities during fieldwork.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A three-round Delphi study was conducted with a panel of 30 experts, including disabled occupational therapy students, disabled occupational therapy practitioners, academic fieldwork coordinators (AFWCs), fieldwork educators (FWEs), disability services staff, and researchers. In Round 1, participants answered open-ended questions about challenges, accommodations, and environmental supports. Responses …

Catalysts For Third-Country Market Entry: The Role Of Preferential Trade Agreements, Qiugu He, Xuan Luo

Research Collection School Of Economics

Preferential trade agreement (PTA) membership is known to divert trade volumes away from nonmember (third) countries along the intensive margin of trade, yet much less is known about its effects on third-country market entry along the extensive margin of trade. This paper examines whether PTAs catalyze market entry into third countries, and more broadly whether PTAs create spillover effects beyond member countries that matter for development. Using bilateral trade data from 1948 to 2020, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy, and find that the third-country market entry rate rises by 2.1% when the origin country has a PTA partner in the …

Threshold Spatial Panel Regression With Fixed Effects, Xiaoyu Meng, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We introduce general estimation and inference methods for threshold spatial panel regression with two-way fixed effects in a diminishing-threshold-effects framework. A valid objective function is obtained through a simple adjustment on the concentrated quasi loglikelihood with fixed effects being concentrated out, which leads to a consistent estimation of all common parameters. We show that the estimation of threshold parameter has a negligible effect on the asymptotic distribution of the main parameter estimators and thereby regular inference methods apply, though a bias correction may be necessary. The limiting distribution of the threshold parameter estimator is shown to be non-regular and infeasible, …