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Intouch Week Of May 5, 2025, New York Medical College

InTouch

• Showcasing Innovation: 21st Annual Doctoral Project Presentation Day Highlights Student Research Shaping the Future of Physical Therapy
• Sameh Said, M.D., Leads First Mid-Delivery Open Heart Surgery
• Student Spotlight: First-Time Parents Navigate the Demands of Medical School at NYMC

Data-Driven Dynamic Decision-Making Using Discrete Optimization And Supervised Machine Learning, Navid Rashedi

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

In recent years, the operations research community has developed data-driven optimization techniques to solve complex combinatorial problems with the aid of machine learning. This thesis contributes to these efforts by combining machine learning with optimization to expedite online decision-making, with applications in transportation and healthcare.

In the domain of airline operations recovery, the focus is on the aircraft recovery process—repairing disrupted schedules by minimizing overall disruption costs. Traditional exact methods are too time-consuming, while heuristic approaches often yield poor solution quality and lack generalizability across varying formulations. To address these challenges, this research employs supervised machine learning to identify near-optimal …

Aquatic Boundaries: Reimagining BeléN, A City Carried By Water And Resilience., Kassidy R. Mcclain

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Rising water levels are not a distant threat. It is a reality that many cities already face. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global mean sea level has risen approximately 8–9 inches since 1880. The rising sea levels affect not only coastal cities but also cities along rivers and lakes attached to the sea by causing baseline water levels along rivers to increase. The rise in baseline water levels reduces the river's ability to drain effectively, thus causing riverside areas to become more susceptible to flooding. Traditional building methods meant to keep water out of buildings often …

Language Mapping During Awake Brain Surgery In A Deaf Patient With A Brain Tumor: Illustrative Case, Ene Chibawanye I, Elizabeth Silva, Kyle Noll, Mariana Bradshaw, Katherine Connelly, Ho-Ling Liu, Ravi Tummala, David Ferson, Frederick F Lang, Vinodh A Kumar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Signed language integrates complex sensorimotor processes involving visual and motor networks. The contribution of language regions such as Broca's and Wernicke's areas during signing is not well established. Here, the authors report the case of a 45-year-old right-handed male with congenital deafness, who communicates using American Sign Language (ASL) and Signed English, presenting with focal seizures. Imaging showed a diffuse infiltrative glioma in the right cerebral hemisphere.

Observations: Remarkably, preoperative functional MRI language activations were bihemispheric and overlapped for both traditional language paradigms and sign paradigms, suggesting that the same cortical regions of the brain are used for language …

Proteogenomic Analysis To Inform Causal Gene Prioritization For Human Disease, Daniel Western

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been key in expanding our understanding of the genetic contributions to common diseases. However, these genetic associations frequently fail to clarify causal disease mechanisms, as they often fall in non-coding regions and are difficult to interpret. One solution is to perform a GWAS for the levels of a cellular trait, known as quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping. Through methods such as colocalization, Mendelian Randomization, and transcriptome/proteome-wide association studies, the QTL variants can be compared to disease GWAS, identifying shared variation between cellular and disease traits. We can then prioritize cellular traits as potential causative, targetable …

Evaluating The Impact Of Initial Injury Severity On Post-Traumatic Joint Contracture In A Rat Elbow Model, Genevieve Jarrell

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

Post-traumatic joint contracture (PTJC) is a common complication following elbow injuries, often leading to stiffness, pain, and impaired limb function. A simple elbow dislocation model in Long-Evans rats has been validated to replicate clinical PTJC. However, real-world elbow trauma frequently involves more complex injuries such as chronic instability or fracture dislocation. The objective of this study was to evaluate outcomes of two newly developed, more severe elbow injuries in vivo for the first time. A three-tiered injury model of increasing severity was implemented: Tier I (simple dislocation), Tier II (instability), and Tier III (fracture dislocation). Mechanical hyperalgesia thresholds, forelimb strength, …

Rescue Of The First Mitochondrial Membrane Carrier, The Mpic, By Tat-Mediated Protein Replacement Treatment, Samar Zabit, Orly Melloul, Michal Lichtenstein, Erin L. Seifert, Haya Lorberboum-Galski

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

The mitochondrial phosphate carrier (mPiC), encoded by the nuclear gene SLC25A3, is synthesized with an N-terminus mitochondrial targeting sequence (MTS), enabling its import into the mitochondria. mPiC imports inorganic phosphate (P_i) into the mitochondrial matrix for ATP production and other matrix phosphorylation reactions, as well as regulates mitochondrial Ca²⁺ uptake and buffering of matrix Ca²⁺. PiC also imports copper (Cu), crucial to COX subunit holoenzyme assembly. Variants in SLC25A3 exist and lead to mPiC deficiency (MPCD), cause a rare autosomal recessive disease with no current cure; patients with MPCD usually die within the first …

Tnf-Α-Driven Changes In Polarized Egf Receptor Trafficking Facilitate Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase/Protein Kinase B Signaling From The Apical Surface Of Mdck Epithelial Cells, Syntyche Ngalula, Cathleen R. Carlin

Faculty Scholarship

This manuscript describes a novel unconventional secretory pathway that facilitates EGF receptor (EGFR) signaling from apical membranes in polarized epithelial cells responding to immune cell mediators. Epithelial tissues provide a physical barrier between our bodies and the external environment and share an intimate relationship with circulating and local immune cells. Our studies describe an unexpected connection between the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and EGFR typically localized to basolateral membranes in polarized epithelial cells. These two molecules sit atop complex biological networks with a long history of shared investigative interest from the vantage point of signaling pathway interactions. We …

Gut Dysbiosis Patterns In Cvid Patients With Noninfectious Complications Observed In A Germ-Free Mouse Model Through Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, Joud Hajjar, Anita Y Voigt, Margaret E Conner, Alton G Swennes, Stephanie Fowler, Chadi Calarge, Danielle D Mendonca, Dominique Armstrong, Chen-Yen Chang, Jolan E Walter, Manish J Butte, Tor Savidge, Julia Oh, Farrah Kheradmand, Joseph F Petrosino

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) who develop noninfectious complications (NIC) have worse clinical outcomes than those with infections only (INF). While gut microbiome aberrations have been linked to NIC, reductionist animal models that accurately recapitulate CVID are lacking. Our aim in this study was to uncover potential microbiome roles in the development of NIC in CVID. We performed whole-genome shotgun sequencing on fecal samples from CVID patients with NIC, INF, and their household controls. We also performed fecal microbiota transplants from CVID patients to germ-free mice. We found potentially pathogenic microbes

Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia-Linked Ryanodine Receptor Variants Exhibit Domain-Specific Calcium Leak And Calmodulin Affinity Properties, Hitoshi Uchinoumi, Xiaoqiong Dong, Ivanita Stefanon, Yi Yang, Eduardo Hertel Ribeiro, Bengt Svensson, Xander H T Wehrens, Takeshi Yamamoto, Razvan L Cornea, Robyn T Rebbeck, Masafumi Yano, Donald M Bers

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an inherited stress-induced arrhythmogenic disease often caused by point variants in the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) that enhance diastolic sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ leak. These RyR2 variants cluster in three hot-spots (N-terminal, central and C-terminal domains). We previously demonstrated a pathologic diastolic RyR2 conformation in heart failure, oxidative stress and CaMKII phosphorylation exhibiting a trilogy of effects: (1) reduced calmodulin (CaM)-RyR2 affinity, (2) enhanced unzipping peptide (DPc10) binding and (3) elevated diastolic SR Ca2+ leak that are dantrolene-sensitive. Here we test whether this pathological trilogy occurs in CPVT knock-in (KI) mice bearing N-terminal (R176Q/+), …

Antiamyloid Monoclonal Antibodies In Alzheimer’S Disease, Part 1: Patient Selection, James R. Bateman, Tara C. Carlisle, Yanghong Yang, Christian Lachner, Melissa D. Stockbridge, Laura A. Flashman, Zeina Chemali, Nasir Alzbeidi, Peter S. Pressman, Carlos J. Martinez-Menendez

School of Medicine Publications

The availability of monoclonal antibodies directed against amyloid beta, for use as disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), represented a major shift in the field of AD research and treatment. U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals for the monoclonal antibody–based medications lecanemab and, more recently, donanemab provide clinicians with two antiamyloid therapy (AAT) options for targeting early symptomatic AD. The emergence of AAT has made careful biomarker-informed diagnosis of AD paramount, which was once reserved for highly specialized centers and research settings. Patient selection is complex, and although appropriate-use recommendations have been published, clinicians caring for patients with AD across …

Volume 7 Complete Issue, James W. Gallagher

The Geographical Bulletin

Volume 7 Complete Issue

Systems Approach In Physical Geography, Hubert B. Stroud

The Geographical Bulletin

The concept of a system is not new and the emergence of systems analysis in academia has caused controversy over the significance of this approach as a viable means of scientific analysis. Some geography scholars feel that the use of systems analysis would definitely put us on the research frontier,1 while others view the term " systems" as nothing more than jargon. Nevertheless, the simplest definition for system is " a set of interrelated elements." The demand for the systems approach arose because scholars in a number of disciplines recognized in their own research that individual components of a problem …

City Structure And City Change: A System Analysis Approach, A. Y. Abu-Ayyash

The Geographical Bulletin

The structure of the city and the transformation processes which generate changes in its structure have fascinated intellectuals from many disciplines. Sociologists are mainly concerned with the social structure and the demographic characteristics of the inhabitants of the city as a base for understanding its structure. Economists are concerned with economic forces in terms of locational competition as the main reasons for the changing structure of the city. Engineers are concerned with the architecture of the city.

A Reading Curriculum Teaching “Text-To-Self" Connections Using Literature With Diverse Characters At The Early Elementary Level, Elise N. Buzza

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

This research project’s focus was to answer the question of how can texts featuring realistic diverse characters be used to teach “text-to-self” connections at the kindergarten level? With a rapid increase of diverse demographics in the classroom, students’ accessibility to diverse literature becomes crucial. While the need for diverse literature is heightened, students and teachers instead are met with curriculum that’s focus remains on animal characters. Researchers argue that with a lack of diverse visibility in literature, this presents a significant issue pertaining to a reader’s engagement. Thus, “text-to-self” connections become vital. This is when readers use their experience to …

Character Education: Morning Meetings On Responsibility And Citizenship; A Curriculum Development, Kelsie Fike

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

This project explores character education, morning meeting, and social emotional learning (SEL). It highlights a need for the curriculum being created and how it can be accomplished in a morning meeting format. It also highlights interactive read alouds, reflective writing, interactive discussion, and interactive drama. The purpose of this capstone project is to create a curriculum that educates on the character education traits of responsibility and citizenship. The curriculum is supported by Ohio’s SEL standards. It is also research supported. The project’s aim is to create a curriculum that can be differentiated and adapted to fit the various needs of …

Birds Of A Feather: An Integrated Outdoor-Based Bird Study P-3 Curriculum Guide, Erin A. Buzza

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

In a post-pandemic world that places technology at the at the forefront, educators are searching for ways to help students connect with the natural world. This project aids teachers in tackling this challenge by using the study of birds as a motivation to engage students with the outdoors and local wildlife. To demonstrate how ornithology topics can be used as an integrated thematic unit, research regarding components of ecological literacy is presented. They include nature-based learning, outdoor learning, environmental education, and wildlife education. In addition to these pedagogies, the benefits of incorporating interdisciplinary learning within the classroom are also provided …

Final Scholarly Project: Development And Initial Validation Of An Evidence-Based Guideline For Presurgical Medication Hold Times, Alyscia Defrancisco

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Problem Statement: Presurgical testing is a critical component for preventing surgery delays and postsurgical complications. A major focus of presurgical testing is educating patients on hold times of medications prior to surgery. Medication guidelines vary across ambulatory surgery centers.

Methods: Creating a standardized evidence-based medication guideline could improve some surgical complications. This project is the creation and pilot evaluation of an evidence-based medication guideline. After the development of the guideline participants attended an educational session. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the guideline, used a preintervention and postintervention questionnaire. The participants of the project are presurgical testing practitioners at …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

Medical Illustrations Of Human Facial Muscles And Heart Anatomy, Molly G. Ecroyd

Honors Projects

Wrote a research paper on the history, careers, and future of medical illustration. I created twelve drawings total, six of the musculature of the human face and six of an enlarged human heart. I worked hands-on with a real human heart in the cadaver lab and used a human face model for reference in my drawings. The human face drawings were drawn from the anterior and lateral views. The human heart drawings were drawn from the anterior and cross-sectional views.

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

An Inquiry-Based Interdisciplinary Social Studies Unit On Libraries Around The World In A Second-Grade Classroom: A Curriculum Development, Emma G. Weinman

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

This project explores inquiry-based learning and project-based learning. My specific interest in interdisciplinary, inquiry-based instruction stemmed from professional development received, and from an overarching initiative to move towards this type of instruction within the school building that I work. The curriculum developed provides a two-week lesson sequence that can be implemented within a second-grade classroom. The lesson sequence is inquiry-based, and provides opportunities for students to communicate, collaborate, create, and think critically throughout the learning process. This curriculum is interdisciplinary in nature and is designed to meet second-grade Ohio social studies standards, as well as standards in other areas. The …

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Power Word Queer: Using Tabletop Role-Playing Games As Expressive Art Therapy For The Queer Community: A Literature Review, Aliza King

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

At a time when homophobia and transphobia are on the rise, and hard-won rights are being taken away, the Queer community needs heroes, magic, and hope. Tabletop role-playing games have become increasingly popular, particularly in the Queer community (Diamond, 2022). This literature review examines the existing research regarding TTRPGs as a psychological intervention, with particular focus on their value as an expressive art therapy intervention for Queer clients, using a socio-ecological model of Queer mental health (Mink et al., 2014) and drawing from core expressive arts theories. The results suggest that TTRPGs show promise as an effective tool for growth …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …

Genomic Structure Among Populations Of A Regionally Rare Perennial Plant Indicates The Need For Reevaluation Of Management Units, Cheyenne Moore, Angela J. Mcdonnell, Scott Schuette, Christopher T. Martine

Faculty Journal Articles

Conservation of rare species often relies on the delineation of management units and genomic tools can now be applied for this purpose. However, this is not as common on a local scale, where populations are often small and fragmented, despite the utility of informing conservation and management practice at the regional level. We use a genotyping by sequencing (GBS) approach to assess the perennial riparian plant species Baptisia australis (Fabaceae) in Pennsylvania, where the taxon is at the edge of its natural distribution and considered threatened. In this system, we investigate whether sampled subpopulations exhibit genetic structure. We find that …

Evaluation Of Phenotypic Antimicrobial Resistance From Bacterial Pathogen Isolates In Bison, Aleena M. Kallan

Honors Capstones

Bison, the American buffalo, are increasingly utilized for food consumption due to their high protein content. Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is an important food-borne pathogen that leads to severe clinical infections and becomes antimicrobial-resistant (AMR). Specifically, fluoroquinolone antibiotics can complicate human treatment when infected with resistant STEC. This study aims to determine the presence of STEC in bison reservoirs and their antimicrobial resistance. Fecal samples (n=320) from bison herds were collected, followed by specific culture-based isolation for STEC. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed for pathogen confirmation, with 25.6% prevalence. PCR targeting gene, gyrA (resistant to fluoroquinolone), was tested …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents