Digital Commons Network^™

Phenotypic Diversity And Outcomes In Pediatric Nmda Receptor Encephalitis: A 15-Year Retrospective Study From The Largest Children's Hospital In The United States, Alexander J Sandweiss, Timothy Erickson, Yike Jiang, Varun Kannan, Jonathan M Yarimi, Kristen S Fisher, Nikita Shukla, Tim Lotze, Eyal Muscal, Kristy O Murray

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Anti‐NMDAR encephalitis (NMDARE) is an autoantibody‐mediated disorder characterized by seizures, movement disorders, neurocognitive deficits, and psychosis, but the complete phenotypic heterogeneity, and outcomes are incompletely understood in children. This single‐center retrospective analysis of NMDARE at the largest pediatric hospital in the United States between 2009 and 2024 screened 115 patients diagnosed with NMDARE. 103 had sufficient clinical data available for analyses. Two‐thirds were Hispanic, disproportionate to the Houston metro area demographics, and Hispanic patients had a higher CSF white cell count and antibody titer. Approximately one‐half of the patients with idiopathic NMDARE presented with a focal cortical phenotype that localized …

Sustainment Of Hydroxyurea Adherence In Patients With Sickle Cell Disease, Andrew M Heitzer, Zachary Wooten, Guangjin Luo, Marsha Treadwell, Allison A King, Victor R Gordeuk, Nirmish Shah, Christina M Abrams, Sarah Mccuskee, Siera Gollan, Jennifer Longoria, Jane S Hankins, Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Despite established treatment guidelines and strong therapeutic benefit, hydroxyurea remains underused among patients with sickle cell disease.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the change in self-reported hydroxyurea use (ie, taking the medication at all) and adherence (ie, the number of days taken per week) over time and to examine factors associated with the trajectory of hydroxyurea use and adherence.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Data were collected through the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium, a longitudinal, multicenter, observational cohort study that recruited patients from 8 centers across the US. Data collection occurred from 2017 to 2022, and analyses were performed from January …

Guide To The Jean Stor Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Jean Stor was the pseudonym of William Astor Morgan (1890-1961). He was a composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, publisher, and teacher who lived and worked primarily in New York City. The collection consists of the handwritten and reproduced manuscripts of most of Stor’s major compositions, as well as a limited number of personal papers, published scores, writings, correspondence, photographs, and recordings.

High Concordance Of Physician-Attestation With Manual Data Abstraction For Sickle Cell Type: An Ash Rc Data Hub Study, Alexis Thompson, Ashima Singh, Donna Neuberg, Amanda Brandow, Allison King, Sophie Lanzkron, Emily Semmel, Sam Walters, Susan Rogers, Kathleen Torres, William Wood

Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States. The American Society of Hematology Research Collaborative (ASH RC) has built an SCD Data Hub (DH) to facilitate research and quality improvement using real-world data. To our knowledge, we report here the first analyses from the DH, focusing on cohort demographics and accurate identification of SCD diagnosis type. DH sites have data use agreements with ASH RC to extract and transfer electronic health record (EHR) data at least quarterly. Principal investigators (PI) provided additional attestation of SCD diagnosis based on existing local data sources deemed …

High Concordance Of Physician-Attestation With Manual Data Abstraction For Sickle Cell Type: An Ash Rc Data Hub Study, Alexis A Thompson, Ashima Singh, Donna S Neuberg, Amanda M Brandow, Allison A King, Sophie Lanzkron, Emily A Semmel, Sam Walters, Susan Rogers, Kathleen Torres, William A Wood

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States. The American Society of Hematology Research Collaborative (ASH RC) has built an SCD Data Hub (DH) to facilitate research and quality improvement using real-world data. To our knowledge, we report here the first analyses from the DH, focusing on cohort demographics and accurate identification of SCD diagnosis type. DH sites have data use agreements with ASH RC to extract and transfer electronic health record (EHR) data at least quarterly. Principal investigators (PI) provided additional attestation of SCD diagnosis based on existing local data sources deemed …

Governing Addiction: An Anthropological Comparison Of Care In The United States And The Netherlands, Kiren K. Bagga

Bates College Journal of Political Studies

This article examines addiction care as a form of moral governance through a comparative anthropological analysis of the United States and the Netherlands. Drawing on a Foucauldian theory of biopolitics alongside this study argues that approaches to addiction treatment reveal how states differentially value life, citizenship, and vulnerability. Joan Tronto's relational definition of ethical care is used to move beyond a solely moral context, towards an ethical understanding of both caretakers and those who require care. In the United States, addiction policy has historically functioned as a punitive and moralizing project, shaped by racialized drug criminalization, neoliberal ideals of individual …

How Social Media Provides Access For Human Traffickers To Victimize Children: A Literature Review With Combative Measures., Ashton Lamb

Honors Theses

This literature review focuses on how human sex traffickers utilize social media to groom children. Social media is utilized by a great number of people around the world, including many children. While social media is intended to be fun and interactive, it does provide new access for dangerous people to reach victims. There is a very real, growing issue online that is not widely known to the public. This hidden danger is known as human trafficking. Human trafficking is defined as the involvement of any force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some labor or commercial sex act (Department of Homeland …

Redefining Inclusion: The Lived Experience Of Physically Disabled Nurses In The United States, Vanessa Cameron

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of inclusion among physically disabled nurses actively working in the United States, including how those experiences differ based on disability timing—before or after licensure. Current literature largely centers on sensory or learning disabilities within academic settings; thus, this study addresses a critical gap by focusing on inclusion within professional nursing practice.

Significance: Physically disabled nurses remain underrepresented and underexamined in nursing research and workforce discussions. Applying Critical Disability Theory (CDT)—a framework never before used in nursing—this study explores how ableism and inclusion shape workplace experiences and opportunities …

Perceived Inadequate Neighborhood Food Shopping And Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The Multi-Ethnic Study Of Atherosclerosis, Amier Haidar, Ghadi Ghanem, Rishi Rikhi, Karol E Watson, Shreela V Sharma, Michael D Shapiro

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Individuals with access to healthy food have healthier diets, improved cardiometabolic risk profiles, and decreased cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, previous studies have focused on the neighborhood food environment as distance to and density of food retailers. Our study examines the association between an individual's perceived adequacy of neighborhood food shopping and incident CVD.

Methods: We analyzed data from 6814 participants in the MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis), a prospective cohort study of individuals aged 45 to 84 who were enrolled in the study between 2000 and 2002 and followed longitudinally. Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for …

Changes In Internet Search Term Popularity In Elder Mistreatment (2018-2023): Infodemiology Study Of Google Trends Data, Nicholas Sevey, Melvin Livingston, Kristin Lees-Haggerty, Olanike Ojelabi, Randi Campetti, Jason Burnett, Carolyn E Z Pickering, David Hancock, Rachit Sabharwal, Michael Brad Cannell

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Elder mistreatment (EM) is a significant public health problem that is frequently underdetected and underreported. Insufficient public recognition and engagement have been hypothesized as one contributor to this underreporting; however, few data sources exist to quantify public awareness or engagement with EM at the population level.

Objective: This study examined relative internet search interest in EM compared with other forms of abuse (child abuse and domestic violence) in the United States using Google Trends data.

Methods: We analyzed Google Trends data to compare the Relative Search Index (RSI) for the terms "elder abuse," "child abuse," and "domestic violence" in …

Out-Of-Pocket Costs And Antihypertensive Medication Use Among Veterans: A Natural Experiment, Alexander R. Zheutlin, Alexander Chaitoff, Daniel Addo, Joshua A. Jacobs, Catherine G. Derington, Eric L. Stulberg, Peter A. Glynn, Bernardo Modenesi, Jordana B. Cohen, Adam P. Bress

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Blood pressure (BP) control remains suboptimal in the United States despite available low-cost antihypertensive medications. Even small out-of-pocket medication costs may contribute to adherence. We determined whether $0 versus >$0 out-of-pocket costs for antihypertensive medications is associated with differences in adherence, discontinuation, BP control, and cardiovascular outcomes.

METHODS: We included veterans with newly diagnosed hypertension who initiated antihypertensive medication in the Veterans Health Administration from 2004 to 2022. A fuzzy regression discontinuity design with 2-stage residual inclusion leveraged differences in medication copay policy at a 50% service-connected disability threshold (≥50% service-connected disability: $0 out-of-pocket cost versus < 50%: $8 monthly cost). Outcomes included 1-year medication nonadherence (proportion of days covered < 80%), 1-year medication discontinuation (no medication in the final 90 days of the study year), 1-year BP control (systolic BP/diastolic BP < 140/90 mm Hg and < 130/80 mm Hg) and cardiovascular disease events (myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, peripheral artery disease, or stroke).

RESULTS: Among 417 …

Coverage, Traits, And Geographic Distribution Of Online Surgeon Reviews: Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Analysis, Michael Geng, Carlos Riveros, Yash B. Shah, Sanjana Ranganathan, Kai Fok, Renil Sinu Titus, Vatsala Mundra, Eusebio Luna Velasquez, Dharam Kaushik, Allan S. Detsky, Angela Jerath, Benjamin N. Breyer, Yusuke Tsugawa, Christopher J. D. Wallis, Raj Satkunasivam

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

BACKGROUND: The use of online physician rating platforms has significantly increased and has been shown to influence physician selection. There are limited data on the use of these platforms for rating surgeons.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we sought to assess the geographic distribution of and patterns in rating scores of surgeons in the United States. Additionally, we examined rating volumes across different surgical specialties and the association between peer-nominated and patient-initiated ratings on online rating platforms in the United States.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study by identifying 201,154 surgeons in the United States via the National Plan and Provider …

Medicaid Expansion And Frequent Mental Distress Among U.S. Adults: Staggered Did Using Brfss, 2011 To 2024, Abimbola Adegoke, Kola Adegoke, Olajide Alfred Durojaye, Deborah Dawodu, Abiodun Isola Aluko, Akorede Adekoya, Kenneth A. Knapp

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility, potentially improving access to care and reducing psychological distress among lower-income adults. However, evidence on population-level mental health effects remains mixed, and conventional two-way fixed-effects difference-in-differences (DiD) estimates can be biased under staggered adoption. This study estimates the effect of Medicaid expansion on frequent mental distress (FMD) among non-elderly adults, with emphasis on lower-income adults. We used Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 2011 to 2024 and restricted the sample to adults aged 18 to 64 years. FMD was defined as ≥14 days of poor mental health …

High-Throughput Multiplex Detection Of Respiratory Pathogens: Multicenter Evaluation Of The Nxtag Respiratory Pathogen Panel V2 Assay., Marisa C. Nielsen, Ping Ren, Sri Bharathi Kavuri, Karissa Culbreath, Rangaraj Selvarangan, Dithi Banerjee, Blake W. Buchan, Rachel Behounek, Janet Farhang

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Respiratory tract infections remain a major cause of global morbidity, highlighting the need for rapid and accurate diagnostic testing. This multicenter study evaluated the clinical and analytical performance of the updated NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel v2 (RPPv2), a high-throughput multiplex molecular assay designed to detect 21 viral and bacterial respiratory pathogens. A total of 2,145 nasopharyngeal swab specimens, including both prospectively enrolled and archived specimens, were analyzed across five U.S. clinical sites. The NxTAG RPPv2 was assessed against FDA-cleared molecular assays and bi-directional sequencing, with contrived specimens used to supplement low-prevalence targets. Valid results were obtained for 99.7% of specimens …

Contraception In The Ed: Understanding Education And Opportunities For Clinicians To Advise Patients, Hannah B. Lewis, Teagan R. Mccarthy, Dara Kass, Jennifer L. Kahoud

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

Introduction: The United States faces a high rate of unwanted pregnancies. Despite this, many people continue to face barriers to accessing contraception. The emergency department (ED) can help bridge these gaps, but emergency clinicians must first feel comfortable offering contraceptive services. In this study, we sought to determine emergency clinician comfort in prescribing contraceptives and educating patients on their use. We also gauged clinician interest in receiving education specifically geared toward contraceptive care.

Methods: We conducted an online survey of ED residents, attendings, and advanced practice clinicians at Thomas Jefferson Univerity Hospital and affiliates in both the urban and suburban …

Relative Impact Of Multidomain Lifestyle Interventions On Deficit Accumulation Frailty Over 24 Months In The U.S. Pointer Trial, Mark A Espeland, Kayloni Olson, Christy C Tangney, Darren R Gitelman, Maryjo Cleveland, Amber A Thro, Yitbarek N Demesie, Heather M Snyder, Rachel A Whitmer, Pankaja Desai, Rifat Alam, Lucia Crivelli, Thomas M Holland, Olivia Preissle, Rema Raman, Michele K York, Laura D Baker

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Multidomain lifestyle interventions hold promise as approaches to slow aging. Deficit accumulation frailty indices (FIs) are increasingly used to capture aging processes. Frailty is highly associated with increased mortality and chronic disease risk, but the degree to which multidomain lifestyle changes impact frailty is not clear.

Methods: The U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) was a 2-year randomized clinical trial to compare two multidomain lifestyle interventions designed to increase exercise, improve diet, and promote social and cognitive stimulating activities and health monitoring. The Structured intervention incorporated greater structure, intensity, and accountability …

Untangling Impacts Of Socioeconomic Position, Chronic Disease, And Low-Level Pm2.5 Exposure On Mortality Among Native American Medicare Beneficiaries, Judy Wendt Hess, Wenyaw Chan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with increased mortality at concentrations below current regulatory standards. Studies of low-level exposure often rely on large administrative cohorts whose geographic and demographic composition may influence observed associations. In a prior analysis, we observed an association between long-term PM2.5 and all-cause mortality among Native American Medicare beneficiaries living in zip codes within the lowest decile of PM2.5 exposure. The present study, a case-control analysis of 1,713,399 low-PM2.5-exposed beneficiaries enrolled in traditional Medicare during 2015-2016, evaluated whether this association could be explained by geographic context, socioeconomic position (SEP), or baseline health status. We used …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Integrated Mortality Surveillance In The United States, Colombia, & Zambia: Facilitators, Barriers, & Lessons, Chinwe Lucia Ochu, Erin Nichols, Abdisalan Noor, Karen A. Mcdonnell

GW Research Showcase 2021-2026

No abstract provided.

The Living Architecture Of Law, Joseph R. Goodwin

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Necessity Of U.S. Aid: The Russian-Ukrainian War, Lelin Spriggs

The Dialogue

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the conflict has emerged as a defining foreign-policy challenge of the twenty-first century. In the United States, the war dominates political discourse and continues to shape debates on national security and the appropriate scope of American global leadership. Although President Trump vowed during his campaign to end the war upon entering office, hostilities intensified following his inauguration, prompting renewed policy debates regarding the future and extent of U.S. military and economic support for Kyiv.

This paper argues that the United States must continue providing sustained military and economic …

Neighborhood Physical Disinvestment And Incident Diabetes Between Visits 1 And 2 Of The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study Of Latinos (Hchs/Sol)., Cara M. Smith, Elizabeth W. Spalt, Linda C. Gallo, Jordan A. Carlson, Matthew Allison, Bharat Thyagarajan, Earle C. Chambers, Amber Pirzada, Martha Daviglus, Christina Cordero, Qibin Qi, Elena Austin, Amanda M. Fretts, India Ornelas, Robert Kaplan, Joel D. Kaufman, Stephen J. Mooney

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Neighborhood-scale environmental factors, including disinvestment in infrastructure, may impact cardiometabolic disease risk. To our knowledge, no prior studies have investigated the association between neighborhood disinvestment and incident diabetes. We used a virtual street audit of Google Street View Imagery to generate a neighborhood disinvestment score for participants' residential addresses in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). An item response theory model was fit to indicators (litter, graffiti, under-maintained buildings, bars on windows, and abandoned buildings) to form a scale measuring a latent level of disinvestment. Ordinary kriging was used to estimate levels for each residential address within the …

Confessions In Cases Of Child Physical Abuse-A Capnet Study., Margaret R. Russell, Antoinette L. Laskey, Henry T. Puls, Suzanne P. Starling, Joanne N. Wood, Daniel M. Lindberg, Nancy S. Harper, Caitlin R. Mcnamara, Angela W. Bachim, Farah W. Brink, Lori D. Frasier, James Anderst, Porcia Vaughn, Kristine A. Campbell

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVE: Prior research on confessions of physical abuse (PA) has explored mechanisms of injury. Little is known about conditions supporting a confession of abuse or how confessions may influence case outcomes.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study of suspected PA in children aged < 10 years at 10 centers participating in CAPNET, a multicenter child PA research network, included children with in-person Child Abuse Pediatrics (CAP) consultations between February 2021 and December 2022 and excluded children without injury. Our focus was a confession of inflicted injury known to the CAP during clinical involvement. We compared child and clinical characteristics, out-of-home (OOH) placements, and arrests between cases with and without confessions. Multivariable models using generalized estimating equations (GEE) produced adjusted predicted probabilities (APP) clustering by CAPNET site.

RESULTS: Confessions were known to CAPs in 115/4297 (2.7%) cases, with significant site variability. In a multivariable GEE model, confessions were more likely in cases with injuries with high specificity for abuse (APP 6.0% vs 1.6%, P < .001), near-fatality (APP 5.6% vs 2.3%, P < .001), and older children (APP 4.8% vs 2.5%, P = .025). OOH placements and arrests were more common in cases with confessions. CAP awareness of confessions, OOH placements, and arrests did not follow racial or ethnic patterns seen in the US child welfare system. Lower socioeconomic status was associated with OOH placements and arrests but not with CAP awareness of confessions.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight differences in case characteristics and outcomes where a confession is known to the CAP and raise questions about …

A National Security Strategy For The Middle East, Vanessa Rice, Rudy Torres, Addy Horgan, Joy Omosa, Mark Westfall

School of Public Policy Capstones

This National Security Strategy addresses the persistent national security challenges the United States faces in the Middle East, a region vital for global energy supply, economic connectivity, and a source of anti-American extremism. Recognizing the failures of past "haphazard experimentation," the strategy proposes a thoughtful, pragmatic plan prioritizing five distinct and congruent interest areas: Maintaining Regional Access, Supporting Regional Stability, Ensuring Energy Security, Defending American Citizens and Personnel, and Preserving and Protecting Western Ideals. The strategy outlines actions such as: countering Chinese and Russian influence through intelligence sharing and defense incentives; containing Iran via a new, permanent nuclear deal and …

National Sociodemographic Estimates For United States Community Water Systems Service Area Boundaries, Jahred M. Liddie, Xindi C. Hu

GW Research Showcase 2021-2026

No abstract provided.

Lessons Learned From The Implementation Of A Pragmatic Trial Evaluating Non-Pharmacological Approaches To Dementia Care In Us Nursing Homes, Carin Wong, Catherine V. Piersol, Felicia Chew, Cara Lekovitch, Victoria Shier, Mike Morris, Jenny Martínez, Julie Britton, Natalie E. Leland

Department of Occupational Therapy Faculty Papers

RATIONALE: The consistent delivery of effective evidence into nursing home practice has been shown to enhance quality of care and residents' outcomes. Pragmatic trials enable the evaluation of efficacious interventions in a real-world context, including care of residents living with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Yet, there are limited pragmatic trials conducted in nursing homes and even less evidence on the strategies to successfully conduct such research in this setting.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the lessons learned from a pragmatic trial and provide recommendations for future successful studies in United States (US) nursing homes.

METHODS: Drawing on a case example …

Capacity For What? Elon Musk’S Doge, Public Value Destruction And The Darkside Of Policy Capacity, Adam Wellstead, Michael Howlett

Michigan Tech Publications

Purpose – This paper addresses a missing element in Wu et al.’s (2015) ninefold policy capacity framework: the ‘capacity for what’ question. Specifically, it explores the objectives toward which policy capacities are directed, focusing on how government capabilities and competencies can be utilized to either create or destroy public value. Design/methodology/approach – Through a literature review, the paper establishes the connections between public value and policy capacity. An illustrative case of value destruction, specifically, the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) experience during the early second term of the Trump administration, is used to demonstrate how policy capacity can be …

Dental Insurance Status Among Formerly Incarcerated Older Adults, Alexander Testa, Rafael Samper-Ternent, Dylan B Jackson, Kyle T Ganson, Vahed Maroufy, Jason M Nagata, Ana C Neumann

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Formerly incarcerated individuals have poorer oral health and less frequent dental care utilization than the general population. However, prior work has overlooked the relationship between prior incarceration and disparities in dental insurance coverage. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 11,638), findings from multiple logistic regression analyses demonstrate that formerly incarcerated older adults are significantly less likely to have dental insurance coverage (odds ratio [OR] = 0.745, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.608, 0.912). After accounting for the income-to-poverty ratio, this association was no longer statistically significant. Analyses using the Karlson-Holm-Breen method demonstrated that approximately 45% of …

"Transgender Insanity" And Scapegoating: President Donald Trump's Political Rhetoric Regarding Transgender Americans, Savannah Torres

Presentations - 2026

The political rhetoric used by President Donald Trump to refer to transgender Americans results in their scapegoating.

How The Korean War Has Affected Security In The Korean Peninsula: Ideological Separations And Lasting Military Alliances In This Region, Teagan Mcsherry

Posters - 2026

Although the Korean War ended in 1953, its effects continue to shape security on the Korean Peninsula today. This paper examines how the war created long-lasting ideological divisions and military alliances, particularly through the involvement of the United States and China. These alliances have helped maintain stability through deterrence but have also prevented meaningful reconciliation between North and South Korea. I argue that these dynamics reinforce a security dilemma, where efforts to increase security also deepen division and mistrust. As a result, the peninsula remains in a prolonged state of tension, demonstrating how unresolved conflicts can continue to influence global …