Digital Commons Network^™

Bulletin Ninth District Ny May 2026

Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association

In the May 2026 issue, the reader will find the following feature articles:

• "ADA Lobby Day 2026"
• "Dentistry for Individuals with Special Needs"
• "ADA Trustee Corner"
• "CE Navigator FAQ"
• "NYSDA Wins in 2025"
• "Peer Review and Quality Assurance: What is it and Why is it an Important Member Benefit?"

Also included are your monthly President's Message, event updates, continuing education opportunities, membership news and classifieds.

Dentistry For Individuals With Special Needs, William J. Maloney

Bulletin of the Ninth District Dental Association

Dentists have a profound responsibility to champion special needs patients through patience, trust, accessibility, collaboration, and individualized care—recognizing that thoughtful accommodations and compassion are essential to safe treatment, dignity, and lifelong oral health.

This article discusses social-emotional, practical, and clinical considerations for best serving patients with disabilities. A list of tips specifically for improving the experience of dental visits for pediatric patients with developmental disabilities is included.

Construction Workers Noise Exposure And Hearing Conservation Program Needs, Quinn Noelle Overlin

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

Noise exposure among construction workers is a pervasive occupational hazard with serious implications for long-term hearing health and overall well-being. This literature review examines the extent of noise exposures in the construction industry and the long-standing need for implementation of effective hearing conservation programs (HCPs). It synthesizes current evidence on exposure levels, health outcomes, and the effectiveness of existing interventions. Findings reveal that construction workers are routinely exposed to noise levels that exceed occupational safety standards, resulting in a heightened risk of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and associated health consequences. Despite regulatory frameworks and available intervention strategies, substantial gaps persist …

An Introduction To East Asian Art: Tour Guide #3, The Year 1591, Victoria Weston

OER Textbooks

Please Note: This tour guide is the third in Victoria Weston's An Introduction to East Asian Art in Three Journeys. To access the full book, visit https://scholarworks.umb.edu/oer_textbooks/3/

For the remaining sections, visit:

Guide Part 1: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/oer_textbooks/4/

Guide Part 2: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/oer_textbooks/5/ This book is an introduction to important art forms practiced in China, the Korean peninsula, and Japan. It is in no way an encyclopedic treatment of the art histories of East Asia. Rather, it is a textbook for a single semester course. Each section is devoted to one year in time and framed by historical factors that naturally encourage comparative …

An Introduction To East Asian Art In Three Journeys, Victoria Weston

OER Textbooks

Please Note: This is the full version of this record. For individual tour guides, visit the following links:

Guide Part 1: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/oer_textbooks/4/ Guide Part 2: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/oer_textbooks/5/ Guide Part 3: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/oer_textbooks/6/

This book is an introduction to important art forms practiced in China, the Korean peninsula, and Japan. It is in no way an encyclopedic treatment of the art histories of East Asia. Rather, it is a textbook for a single semester course. Each section is devoted to one year in time and framed by historical factors that naturally encourage comparative analysis. Students learn methods of visual analysis while also exploring …

Extracting California's Land Grant History: A Comparative Study Of Rule-Based And Llm Methods For Historical Document Processing, Anthony Colin Herrera, Anthony Colin Herrera

Master's Theses

This thesis explores methods to extract structured data from historical documents, making them more accessible for analysis and visualization. The goal is to provide historians and Digital Humanities scholars with tools that save time and reduce the manual effort required for this kind of research. We work with census records and historical texts from the Early California Population Project and Spanish Colonial census, covering California's 18th-19th century transition from Spanish and Mexican control to U.S. statehood. The system has three components: person matching across records, family tree generation, and land grant extraction. For person matching, we use a modified Levenshtein …

The Southampton Plot: The Case For Innocence (1415), Haley Buckles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the "Southampton Plot" of 1415, a famous conspiracy to overthrow King Henry V of England. While history often portrays the plotters as simple traitors against the government, this study reexamines original records to show a more complex story. By looking closely at how the English government handled the trials, the research reveals that the English Crown may have exaggerated the threat to strengthen the King’s political power before he invaded France. This study shows that what we call "treason" was often shaped by the government’s need to control its public image and hold on to power. Ultimately, …

Nbl1 Associates With Renal Phenotypes In Mice, But Partial Nbl1 Reduction Does Not Ameliorate Kidney Disease., Courtney Willey, Rei Bufi, Yuka Takemon, Abigail Brackett, Alicia Warren, Samantha Spellacy, Daniel M Gatti, Susan Sheehan, Ron Korstanje

Faculty Research 2026

Increased concentrations of neuroblastoma suppressor of tumorigenicity 1 (NBL1) in the blood have been associated with disease progression in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and IgA nephropathy. However, it is unclear whether NBL1 is a causal factor for kidney disease and what is driving these increased concentrations in the blood. To test this, we evaluated Nbl1 heterozygous knockout (Nbl1^+/−) mice in two models of kidney injury, X-linked Alport syndrome (XLAS) and chronic low-dose cisplatin treatment, and compared them with wild-type (WT) controls. In parallel, we assessed serum NBL1, kidney function, and damage, and performed a genetic analysis for …

Spoti-Find: A Novel, Open-Source Void Spot Assay Image Analysis Tool., Cara M. Statz, Susan Sheehan, Seamus Mawe, Nick Sebasco, Will Ricke, J Matthew Mahoney, Ron Korstanje

Faculty Research 2026

The void spot assay (VSA) is a widely used, noninvasive method for evaluating urinary behavior in rodents, but existing analysis tools are limited in scope, throughput, or accessibility. We developed Spoti-find, a stand-alone, open-source VSA image analysis application that introduces novel, biologically meaningful metrics including void circularity, distance to paper edge, and volume-based binning into primary, micro-, and nanovoids. Designed with usability in mind, Spoti-find features a graphical interface that enables manual or semiautomated spot identification, adjustable thresholds, and streamlined data export without the need for coding expertise. We validated Spoti-find across diverse datasets, showing strong interuser consistency, sensitivity to …

The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up Alma, Kristen Fredericksen

Publications and Research

Is your Alma environment a cluttered attic of outdated records, lingering purchase orders, and expired user accounts? At CUNY, large-scale cleanup is essential for improving discovery, ensuring reliable reporting, and keeping daily workflows running smoothly across multiple Institution Zones and a shared Network Zone. This session shares the central office's practical approaches to identifying and cleaning up bibliographic, holdings, and item records; purchase order lines; electronic portfolios; patron requests; calendars; and user accounts. Drawing on real cleanup projects, we'll explain how we used Alma's advanced searches, jobs, normalization rules, Analytics reports, APIs, and external tools like Excel and MarcEdit to …

An Empirical Study Of Malingering In Insanity Cases Across Twelve Decades, Deborah W. Denno

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Does Five Days Of Tapering Effect Rates Of Fatigue And Recovery In Collegiate Male Swimmers?, Riley Yerks

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This study was conducted on the members of the 2025-26 St. John's "Johnnies" swim and dive team. This study used both subjective surveys and objective HRV readings that the swimmers took before and after practice. The first day of testing occurred on the last day of the regular training season, and the second day of testing occurred on the last day of tapered training. Results of the surveys and HRV readings were compared between pre and post-practice, and pre and post-taper. The subjective surveys showed how the swimmers themselves felt in terms of physical and mental energy and fatigue, and …

Effects Of Dietary Nitrate And Caffeine On End Power And Work Above End Power During A 3 Min All-Out Test In Trained Male Cyclists, Anthony M. Hagele, Kyle Sunderland, Petey W. Mumford, Chad Kerksick

Faculty Scholarship

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of acute dietary nitrate (NO3−) and caffeine (CAF) supplementation on end power (EP) and work performed above EP (WEP) in trained male cyclists during a 3 min all-out test (3MT) on a cycle ergometer.

Methods: Fifteen healthy, trained male cyclists (28.5 ± 5.3 years, 79.2 ± 9.1 kg, VO2peak 55.2 ± 5.6 mL·kg−1·min−1) completed four exercise trials in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study design separated by 3–7 days. The four experimental conditions were placebo beverage (nitrate-depleted) + placebo capsule, nitrate-rich beetroot juice + placebo capsule (BR), …

Shedding Light On The Invisible Work Of Peer Recovery Support Specialists Through The Design Of A Point Of Care Technology., Jessica A Pater, Elisabeth Andrews, Michelle Drouin, Mindy Flanagan, Dana Albright, Rachel Pfafman, Jeanne Carroll, Erik Hess, Tammy R Toscos

Health Services and Informatics Research

Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSSs) are certified professionals that provide social, informational, and logistical supportto people in recovery fromsubstance use disorders. In this study, we report the findings from design work completed with a teamof PRSSsto define workflowand informationalneeds for the developmentofa novel point of care software. Through our qualitative research we uncovered a significant amount of undocumented work that is necessary for a PRSS to provide individualized support to their clients. Thus, much PRSS work is not quantified and rendered "invisible." We present technology design strategies that help quantify these tasks and illuminate the complexity of PRSS work.

Predicting Customer Churn In Telecommunication Companies: A Predictive Analytics Case Study Inspired By E&, Nadia Almheiri

Theses

Customer churn is a significant challenge in the telecommunications industry, particularly in competitive markets such as the United Arab Emirates, where customers can easily switch between providers such as e& and du. Telecommunications companies must move beyond reactive approaches and adopt data-driven strategies that enable early identification of churn risk and support proactive retention. This study develops an interpretable churn prediction framework using logistic regression and decision tree models within IBM SPSS. Following the CRISP-DM methodology, the research identifies key demographic, behavioural, and service-related factors that influence churn, and evaluates model performance using accuracy, precision, recall, and ROC-AUC. The findings …

Development Of A Compartmental Metabolism Rate Model For Digestive Oligosaccharides Transformation To Glucose In The Human Proximal Small Intestine, Edesiri Albert Ukusajuya

All Theses

Excess postprandial glucose remains a significant metabolic concern, particularly for individuals with impaired glucose regulation. In the proximal small intestine (PSI), dietary oligosaccharides are enzymatically hydrolyzed to glucose, which is subsequently absorbed into the bloodstream. However, direct measurement of these coupled digestion-absorption processes in vivo is limited, making in silico mechanistic modeling a practical approach for analyzing system behavior under controlled conditions.

In this work, a time-dependent compartmental model was developed to describe oligosaccharide/starch hydrolysis and glucose absorption in the PSI. The intestine is represented as a series of continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) segments, where each segment captured temporal concentration …

Calibration Refinement Of Aashto Paveme For Kentucky Asphalt Overlays, Clayton S. Cook, Kean H. Ashurst Jr., Clark Graves

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) uses AASHTOWare’s Pavement ME Design Version 3.0 (PaveME) to develop mechanistic-empirical designs for new and reconstructed pavements. Transfer functions used for estimating pavement distress in PaveME rely on national calibration values derived from the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database. However, these often fail to reflect Kentucky’s local conditions, materials, and practices. To address this issue, Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers completed local calibrations for several key transfer functions (rutting, reflective fatigue cracking, and roughness (IRI)) to improve the predictive accuracy of and reduce bias in pavement performance models developed for rehabilitation projects that involve placing …

Volume 12, 2024/2025, Full Issue

The Journal of Wyndham Lewis Studies

No abstract provided.

Efficacy Of Tick Sampling Methods In Urban Parks., Emma Staples

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Amblyomma americanum (Lone star ticks) are parasites and vectors of diseases, including Ehrlichiosis. Questions remain about how an urban environment affects the host-seeking behavior of A. americanum across different life stages and thus the efficacy of different sampling methods. We sought to compare the efficacy of different sampling methods on A. americanum ticks in urban parks during the fall season and explore how the urban heat island (UHI) effect may impact each method’s efficacy. We hypothesized that, where the UHI effect is weaker near the city’s periphery, the CO₂ trapping method would collect more A. americanum adults and nymphs …

The Influence Of Valence On Action Control: A Comparison Of Simon Effects In The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (East) And The Spatial Simon Task, Yaara Aleissa

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

People adjust their thoughts and actions in response to a changing environment every day and emotions may influence these actions. Understanding how emotion impacts action control in situations where emotion is central to the action (task-relevant) compared to when it is present in the environment as distracting information (task-irrelevant) is essential. Currently it is unclear when emotion most significantly modulates action control. This study seeks to compare how valence (positive versus negative emotion) impacts action control performance when valence is task-relevant and task-irrelevant by using two modified versions of the Simon conflict task.

The Simon task is a paradigm to …

“The Bloodstained Letters Of Hannah:” The Creation And Development Of A Visual Novel, Thien Ong

Theses & ETDs

The purpose of this project was to create a visual novel developed and designed using the game engine Ren’Py. Ren’Py contains all the tools to create an immersive story experience. Using Ren'Py, layered audio tracks, such as sound effects and background music were added, as well as illustrations layering for background, character interactions, and foreground. Using this engine, the mystery novel “The Bloodstained Letters of Hannah” was created. In this novel, the player investigates the sudden disappearance of her sister. As the player continues to explore the story, the plot diverges into two paths. In the first path the player’s …

Creating Experiences That Drive Profit: How Leadership Style, Servicescape, Menu Design, And Break-Even Point Shape Business Performance In The Case Of Amoranto, Sofia Hernandez Cruz

Theses & ETDs

The present study aimed to determine the extent to which leadership style (transformational vs. transactional) and the perception of the servicescape influence business outcomes, particularly when integrated with menu engineering analysis (popularity and profitability) and break-even analysis, in the case of Amoranto. Amoranto is a concept house located in Cali, Colombia, composed of three sectors: restaurant, flower shop, and boutique, situated in the upper sector of the city. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining psychological and economic factors, the study demonstrates that these dimensions are complementary when analyzing overall business performance. The first study showed that transactional leadership is positively associated …

Prompting As A New Medium: Greenbergian Medium Specificity And The Iterative Unpredictability Of Ai Art, Samantha Shapiro, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article argues that AI prompting should be understood not as a tool, technique, or accessory to image generation, but as a medium in its own right. Drawing on Clement Greenberg’s theory of medium specificity, it contends that a medium becomes legible through the operations peculiar to itself, namely, the constraints, affordances, and formal procedures that distinguish it from neighboring arts. Existing scholarship has asked whether prompting counts as art, whether prompt engineering constitutes a creative skill, and whether the prompt itself can be aesthetic; however, these accounts often stop short of a sustained theory of prompting as medium. This …

Decoding Trafficking Films: Advocate Perspectives On Human Trafficking Portrayals, Avery Mock

All Theses

The crime of human trafficking is often used as a plot point in popular action films in the United States, however, many of these portrayals do not fully represent the truth of the crime, how it occurs, and who the victims are. Nonprofit organizations often combat this misrepresentation to re-educate the public, in addition to aiding survivors and fighting for legislation. Previous research has looked into false representations of human trafficking in both news and fictional media, as well as public and advocate sentiments of popular film portrayals. This thesis aimed to better understand the ways in which anti-trafficking advocates …

Understanding Barriers To Breast Cancer Screening Among Rural Women In South Carolina: A Qualitative Study Using The Idea Model, Israt Jahan

All Theses

Breast cancer screening rates remain low among rural women in South Carolina, leading to higher incidences of late-stage cancer diagnosis. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to investigate reasons why many women delay or avoid screenings, even when free screening programs such as the Best Chance Network are available in South Carolina. Guided by the IDEA model, the study explored how women interpret cancer risk, how they seek and trust cancer information, how they understand screening explanations, and what barriers affect their ability to take action. Participants described fear of pain, fear of diagnosis, personal relevance, confusion about the screening …

Effects Of A Passive Assistive Hamstring Device On Overground Running Kinematics And Hamstring Activation., Quinn Castner

All Theses

Hamstring strain injuries are among the most common and recurring injuries in sports, occurring most often during the terminal swing phase of gait. Despite progress in rehabilitation, the incidence of injury has only increased, suggesting a need for a novel intervention. We designed a passive, assistive, wearable device with two specific criteria in mind: to offload the hamstrings during running, and do so without hindering normal kinematic patterns. The device consists of an adjustable elastic band anchored proximally at the waist and distally just above the ankle joint center. It stretches and shortens with the hamstrings, providing passive hip extension …

Robustness Of Vision Language Models For Pedestrian Detection Tasks, Ostonya K. Thomas

All Theses

Autonomous vehicle (AV) systems typically employ modular systems in which discrete components handle separate tasks such as perception, computation, and path planning. While flexible, this approach allows errors to propagate and compound across the pipeline, and many AI systems offer little transparency into their internal decision-making. Such limitations are particularly concerning in safety-critical domains where failures can carry lethal consequences. Vision Language Models (VLMs) have emerged as a promising alternative because they support end-to-end implementations that bypass compounding error risks and provide natural language explanations of their outputs. Despite these advantages, prior research has demonstrated that both computer vision systems …

Redefining The Teenager: Liminality And The Dystopian Young Adult Heroine Who Overthrows The Government To Save The Child And Preserve Innocence, Ashtyn Zavala

All Theses

The teen girl figure has swept young adult dystopian fiction from 2008 onward, continuously overthrowing governments and acting outside of her socially defined roles. This stock character became a cornerstone in most YA fiction during its time, leading to this thesis’s investigation of its necessitation: why must a teenage girl save her country’s people from an oppressive government and why can none of the other children or adults do this saving? This thesis attends to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008-2025) and Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me (2011-2021) to examine the conditions and subsequent formula that give rise to this teen …

Cox V. Sony: Let’S Call Gershwin Off, Jonathan Band

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Ai×Life 2026: Advances In Computational Biology Across Scales For Life & Health Sciences, Suma Mohan S., Devika N. T., Pranavathiyani G.

Conference Proceedings

Book of Abstracts of the International Conference, AIxLife 2026: Advances in Computational Biology Across Scales for Life & Health Sciences, held on 17–18 April 2026, SASTRA Deemed to be University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, INDIA 

About the Conference

Conventional computational biology laid the foundation for biological data analysis through statistical models, algorithms, and curated databases, enabling insights into genes, proteins, and pathways. Today, the integration of artificial intelligence, spanning machine learning, deep learning, and large language models (LLMs) is driving a transformative shift across biological scales, from atomic and molecular interactions to pathways, cellular systems, organisms, and populations.

AI-powered approaches …