Digital Commons Network^™

Pediatric Rheumatic Heart Disease Screening For Secondary Antibiotic Prophylaxis: An Explainable Shannon Energy Approach Using Heart Phonocardiogram In Northeast Brazil, Zhuohui Lin

Public Health Theses

Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD), caused by Group A Streptococcus (GAS), remains a significant global health burden, particularly among children in low- and middle-income countries. Untreated GAS infection can lead to acute rheumatic fever and subsequent chronic valvular damage of RHD, such as mitral valve (MV) regurgitation. Hence, early detection is critical for the administration of Secondary Antibiotic Prophylaxis to prevent disease progression. Although deep learning models demonstrate high diagnostic accuracy, limited explainability restricts clinical adoption, especially in resource-limited settings. In this proof-of-concept study, we evaluated Shannon energy (SE) transformation as a proxy to differentiate holosystolic murmurs associated with RHD-related mitral …

Understanding The Influence Of Hiv Status On Perceived Barriers To Reproductive Care For Pregnant Haitian Women: A Framework-Guided Qualitative Analysis, Olivia Mccarthy

Public Health Theses

Background: Haiti has the highest maternal mortality rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, where pregnant women face substantial structural, social, and economic barriers to care. Women living with HIV encounter additional challenges, including stigma, breaches of privacy, and discrimination within healthcare settings. Although prior research has examined maternal health and HIV related stigma in Haiti, little is known about how HIV status differentially shapes pregnant women’s perceptions of barriers to maternal healthcare.Methods: This study draws on data from seven focus groups conducted in rural communities in Haiti’s Centre Department between 2018 and 2019. Participants included 65 pregnant women, representing …

Successive Blood Meal Feeding And Wolbachia Impact On The Intra-Host Genetic Diversity Of Dengue Virus In Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes, Braiya Nolan

Public Health Theses

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne RNA virus and increasing public health threat. Due to its error prone replication, single-nucleotide variants (iSNVs) are rapidly generated within the vector, leading to heterogeneity in viral populations, fitness, virulence, and transmissibility, including under vector control interventions. One such control strategy is the large-scale deployment of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes worldwide. Wolbachia is an endosymbiotic bacterial biocontrol method that provides incomplete inhibition of DENV replication and transmission. Given its incomplete inhibition, it is critical to understand how Wolbachia impacts DENV-2 intra-host viral diversity. Additionally, successive blood meal feeding may influence intra-host viral diversity by supporting increased …

Triangulating Clinical Guideline Recommendations To Map The Standard Of Care For Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy During Pregnancy And Postpartum, Caralie Price

Public Health Theses

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. HDP represent a severe health equity issue and present concerns for the health of mother and child, highlighting the importance of early detection and management. This paper systematically documented current clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) for preventing, identifying, and treating HDP during the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. ACOG provides recommendations for HDP across different types of clinical guidance documents. Overall, 60 recommendations were extracted across …

Compromised Glutathione And Ascorbate Capacities Under Prenatal Alcohol Exposure, And Its Implications For Vulnerable Subpopulations, Reagan Strand

Public Health Theses

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) remains the leading preventable cause of lifelong neurodevelopmental impairment, yet the biological mechanisms underlying differential susceptibility remain poorly understood. The populations most vulnerable to PAE overlap substantially with those bearing the greatest burden of antioxidant insufficiency, including individuals experiencing food insecurity, environmental pollutant exposures, and alcohol use disorder, yet this convergence and its developmental consequences remain poorly characterized. This thesis investigates how dual antioxidant deficiency in both the dam and offspring modulates vulnerability to PAE using a compound heterozygous mouse model (GclmHET/GuloHET) that recapitulates reductions in antioxidants glutathione (GSH) and ascorbic acid (AA, or Vitamin C) …

Effectiveness Of The Release Of Wmel Wolbachia-Infected Aedes Aegypti Mosquitoes On The Incidence Of Chikungunya In Campo Grande, Brazil, Vivienne Zhong Ying Su

Public Health Theses

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne arboviral disease primarily transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus that is rapidly emerging in new geographical settings because of climate change, viral adaptation, and globalization. Brazil has experienced the significant expansion of chikungunya over the past decade and has adopted novel vector control interventions, including Wolbachia-based population replacement, as part of its public health response. While the effectiveness of wMel Wolbachia on dengue incidence has been demonstrated across multiple settings, evidence on its effect on chikungunya risk remains limited. Large-scale releases of wMel-infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were implemented in the city of Campo Grande, Brazil …

Influenza-Associated Hospitalizations And Socioeconomic Status In Southern Connecticut, 2022-2025, Allison Traiger

Public Health Theses

Background: Influenza is a common respiratory illness in the United States responsible for hundreds of thousands of influenza-associated hospitalizations each year. To implement effective preventative interventions, it is crucial to understand which populations are most at risk of severe illness and hospitalization. Prior studies have found that increased rates of poverty and crowding are associated with increased rates of hospitalization.Methods: This study explores the connection between neighborhood poverty, crowding, and influenza-associated hospitalization through the connection of hospitalized influenza cases with their census tract-level socioeconomic indicators. Addresses of hospitalized cases were geocoded and linked to data on poverty and crowding from …

Assessing Cardiovascular Disease Risk And Healthcare Access Barriers To Identify Prevention Strategies Among Market Vendors In Uganda, Yumi Yang

Public Health Theses

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for 10% of all deaths in Uganda, making it the leading cause of death among non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country. Across sub-Saharan Africa, urban market vendors serve as key participants in the informal workforce. Research from West Africa suggests that vendors, many of whom are women, are a vulnerable population with high prevalence of CVD risk factors and structural barriers to healthcare access. However, limited research has examined this population in East Africa, and the present study is the first to characterize 10-year CVD risk and assess healthcare barriers among market vendors in Uganda.Methods: …

A Low Noise, High Qe, Large Format Ccd Camera System For The Nasa Mighti Instrument, Jed Hancock, Joel Cardon, Mike Watson, James Cook, Mitch Whiteley, James Beukers, Chris Englert, Charlie Brown, John Harlander

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

Outline

• MIGHTI Instrument Overview and Configuration
• Camera System Block Diagram
• Flight Camera Heads, Electronics Box, and CCDs
• CCD Testing at e2v
• AI&T at the Space Dynamics Lab
• Electro-Optical Characterization and Performance Results
• Conclusions

Restrictions On Party Status In Interpretations Of An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit And Métis Children, Youth And Families, Jamesy Patrick, Alana Cattapan, Brenda Yuen

Journal of Law and Social Policy

An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families came into force in January 2020 with the stated objectives of affirming Indigenous jurisdiction over child and family services, reducing the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in state care, and advancing Canada’s commitments under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Central to achieving these objectives are the Act’s National Standards, which are intended to ensure Indigenous communities are meaningfully included in decision-making processes. While these standards were upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2024 as constitutional, emerging jurisprudence reveals significant shortcomings in the …

Examination Of Awareness And Frequency Of Behavioral Masking/Camouflaging Based On Life Experiences, Elizabeth M. Smith

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Camouflaging behaviors are typically employed by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to appear more in line with societal norms and avoid social ostracization. This study examined the connections between camouflaging and theatre experience, mental health diagnostic status, and levels of self-monitoring. In the study, participants completed a brief, 30- minute survey online examining camouflaging, autistic traits, self-monitoring, and life experiences across individuals of different age ranges. All participants were 18 years of age or older, completed a consent form, and received a debriefing. All responses were completely anonymous. The results showed significantly higher levels of camouflaging behaviors in participants …

Climate Change Impacts On Hydrology In The Upper James Watershed, Imiya Mudiyanselage Chathuranika, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Hydrological modeling of the Upper James Watershed (UJW), Virginia, is critical for predicting water availability, flood management, agriculture, ecosystem protection, and hydropower production under increasing climate change. The Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is applied to evaluate climate change impacts on key hydrological components within the watershed. Future climate conditions were assessed for the near (NF: 2026-2050), mid (MF: 2051-2075), and far (FF: 2076-2100) periods using three Global Climate Models (GCMs) under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways SSP 2-4.5 and SSP 5-8.5. Climate data were bias-corrected using the Linear Scaling Method (LSM) and used to drive the HEC-HMS model. Results project …

Assessing Climate Change Impacts On Wildfire Risk In Central Appalachian Forests Of The Eastern United States, Imiya Mudiyanselage Chathuranika, Dalya Ismael

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Wildfire risk is increasing in the eastern U.S., yet spatial and climate-driven assessments remain limited. This study evaluates climate change impacts on wildfire risk in the Upper James Watershed (UJW) using baseline (2000–2019), near-future (2021–2040), and far-future (2061–2080) projections from a 12-model CMIP6 global climate model (GCM) ensemble under SSP2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5. A wildfire risk model was developed in ArcGIS Pro using nine key factors and validated with MODIS hotspot data, showing good agreement between modeled risk patterns and observed fire occurrences (NOF = 0.21, RMSE = 4.20, MAE = 3.37). Baseline risk was primarily driven by land cover, fire-lookout …

Element Of Accountability: Strengthening Enforcement Of California’S Housing Element Law, Jonathan D. Bremen

Chapman Law Review

California’s housing crisis, marked by a severe shortage of affordable housing, soaring costs, and rising homelessness, has reached alarming proportions. Despite decades of efforts, the state continues to grapple with a housing market that significantly underserves low- and middle-income residents, forcing many to devote high portions of their income to housing. On paper, California’s Housing Element Law appears to be a valuable tool to address the crisis by requiring cities and counties to plan for housing needs across all economic segments. Widespread noncompliance with the law, however, has prompted both the state Attorney General and private parties to seek judicial …

Arbitration Overcorrection? Interpreting Arbitration Clauses After Morgan V. Sundance, Peter Constable Alter

Chapman Law Review

In 2022’s Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) does not allow courts to “devise novel rules to favor arbitration over litigation.” Applying that principle, the Court held that the Eighth Circuit erred by grafting an arbitration-specific prejudice requirement onto the generally applicable waiver standard when deciding whether a defendant waived its right to arbitrate by proceeding in court. The Supreme Court traced this error to a misunderstanding of the FAA’s core purpose. While courts, including the Supreme Court itself, routinely interpreted the FAA as establishing a liberal “policy favoring arbitration,” the …

Escaping The Labyrinth: Cutting Through The Maze Of Federal Sector Employment Laws To Streamline Appeals, Allow Faster And More Consistent Decisions, And Level The Playing Field Between Agencies And Employees, Christopher Ligatti

Chapman Law Review

Federal employees and their job protections have gained increased media attention due to the current presidential administration. Criticism has long been aimed primarily at the property interest and accompanying due process protections that federal employees have in their employment. However, this Article argues that while the federal sector employment law system is badly in need of reform, the issue is not the constitutionally required due process protections afforded to employees, but rather the additional statutory and regulatory protections Congress has granted employees. Currently, federal employees have multiple overlapping forums in which they can bring employment actions, may cross-appeal negative decisions …

The Military Discharge Review Boards’ Irregular Presumption Of Regularity, Jessica Lynn Wherry

Chapman Law Review

“There is a presumption of regularity in the conduct of governmental affairs.” With these twelve words in the Department of Defense’s Code of Federal Regulations, the military discharge review boards (DRBs) have denied relief to thousands of veteran-applicants seeking a discharge upgrade. While seemingly innocuous, this administrative principle has become a nearly insurmountable barrier to relief for veterans with a less-than-honorable discharge. Veterans with a less-than-honorable discharge are generally ineligible for a range of veterans benefits, including health care and education benefits, and they have higher suicide rates compared to honorably discharged veterans.

For most veteran-applicants, the administrative path to …

Tilting The Playing Field: Executive Attacks On Big Law Firms As A Mechanism Of American Competitive Authoritarianism, Sajah Ali

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how President Donald Trump’s executive campaign against elite law firms, collectively known as “Big Law,” serves as a concrete case study of competitive authoritarianism in action. Drawing on Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way’s framework in their work The Path to American Authoritarianism, this thesis applies their four pillars of competitive authoritarianism to the administration’s executive orders targeting major law firms and maps those pillars onto three distinct firm responses: fighting back, capitulation, and quiet retreat. Situating this case study within the broader political context of Trump’s second term, this thesis finds that while the United States has …

“Shaking The Ladder” Reveals How Analytic Choices Can Influence Associations In Nutrition Epidemiology: Beef Intake And Coronary Heart Disease As A Case Study, Colby J Vorland, Lauren E O'Connor, Beate Henschel, Cuiqiong Huo, James M Shikany, Carlos A Serrano, Robert Henschel, Stephanie L Dickinson, Keisuke Ejima, Aurelian Bidulescu, David B Allison, Andrew W Brown

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Nutrition epidemiological models involve many analytic decisions, such as defining exposures, selecting which covariates to include, or configuring variables in different ways. We explored the impact of analytical decisions on conclusions in nutrition epidemiology using self-reported beef intake and incident coronary heart disease as a case study. We used REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) data, and selected covariates and their configurations from published literature to recapitulate common models used to assess associations between meat intake and health outcomes. Three model sets were designed: sets one and two used continuous and quintile-defined beef intakes, respectively, each with …

Examining Widely Held Propositions On Human Dietary Protein Needs And Benefits: A Critical Review Of The Science That Shapes Both The Data And Our Understanding Of An Essential Macronutrient, Mitchell M Kanter, Sally Aaron, Steven N Austad, Andrew W Brown, Nicholas A Burd, Wayne W Campbell, Mark Cope, Teresa A Davis, John W Erdman, Miguel Freitas, Kristen Hicks-Roof, Samuel Klein, Wantanee Kriengsinyos, Dudley W Lamming, Donald K Layman, Heather J Leidy, Kevin C Maki, Richard D Mattes, Shalene Mcneill, Daniel R Moore, Stefan M Pasiakos, Stuart M Phillips, David Raubenheimer, Wendy Reinhardt, Nancy R Rodriguez, Stephen Simpson, Hans H Stein, Luc J C Van Loon, Connie M Weaver, David B Allison

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

The essentiality of protein in the human diet is unequivocal. Yet researchers, clinicians, and lay people often believe numerous propositions about dietary protein despite insufficient supporting or refuting data in some instances. To address this disconnect, and to "pressure-test" current beliefs about dietary protein, the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington convened a workshop in February 2025 titled "Human Dietary Protein Needs and Benefits: A Critical Assessment of Postulated Propositions." More than 20 international experts discussed (1) methodologic issues affecting data acquisition and interpretation; (2) "optimal" dietary protein intakes and effects on muscle protein synthesis rates, muscle protein accretion, …

Sustainable Community-Wide Model To Enhance Cancer Data Usage And Utility, Emily S Boja, Mousumi Ghosh, Ying Huang, Tung-Shing Mamie Lih, Rawan Shraim, Gregory Wheeler, Diana Thomas, Rakesh Khanna, Stephanie Sandor, Jinghui Zhang, Sapna Oberoi, Nicolas J Llosa, Aditya Suru, Fernanda Silva Michels, Eric Durbin, Anna Fernandez, Lucy Han, James Galbraith, Yin Lu, Brian Furner, James H Tanis, Michael Watkins, David Higgins, Gavriel Matt, Xin Zhou, Yang Li, Marcin Cieslik, Jamie Estill, Michael Sierk, Yanling Sun, Weiping Ma, Joseph Flores-Toro, Freddie Pruitt, Subhashini Jagu, Elmer A Fernández, Daniela Orschanski, Stephanie J Spielman, Jaclyn Taroni, Trinh Nguyen, Brian Capaldo, Erin Beck, Tanja Davidsen, Johanna Goderre Jones, Minghong Ward, Anne Sturcke, Jennifer M Torres Del Valle, Sean Hanlon, Danielle Daee, Brandon Wright, Nathaniel Boyd, Heather Basehore, Liang Liu, Ying Hu, Daoud Meerzaman, Huiqing Li, Ying Wu, Gregory H Reaman, Erin Rudzinski, Jack F Shern, Brigitte Widemann, Warren Kibbe, Jaime Guidry Auvil

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Despite vast investments in data collection, generation, and sharing from childhood cancer studies, for example, Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Program, Childhood Cancer Data Initiative, and other efforts, secondary use of data remains a challenge especially for rare diseases. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Office of Data Sharing (ODS) aimed to promote FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data sharing practices to enhance data utility, accelerate discovery, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. NCI ODS launched its inaugural Data Jamboree focusing on childhood cancer alongside its third Annual Symposium in September 2025. Over 120 participants with diverse backgrounds coalesced into 23 multidisciplinary teams …

Death By Discretion: Executive Power And The Arbitrary Machinery Of Federal Capital Punishment, Reem Haikal

Chapman Law Review

This Article argues that the federal death penalty is not merely at risk of being cruel; it is increasingly at risk of becoming arbitrary and lawless. Despite the procedural safeguards embedded in the Federal Death Penalty Act (FDPA), executive practices have reintroduced many of the same constitutional flaws that the Supreme Court identified in Furman v. Georgia. Through detailed analysis of the FDPA’s structure, this Article shows that the statute fails to meaningfully constrain the Attorney General’s charging discretion, allowing life-and-death decisions to hinge on opaque and often politicized processes. The Trump administration’s revival of federal executions, culminating in sweeping …

A Lightweight Quantum-Secure Authentication And Key Agreement Protocol For Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks, Lasseni Coulibaly, Damien Hanyurwimfura, Evariste Twahirwa, Abubakar Diwani

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

Intelligent transportation systems, a critical pillar for smart cities, enable real-time vehicular communications to prevent human errors and improve traffic safety and efficiency. However, the open and highly dynamic nature of vehicular networks exposes them to various security threats, including message tampering, impersonation, and privacy violations. Several authentication and key agreement (AKA) protocols have been proposed to mitigate these risks, but often fail to maintain future-proof security against emerging quantum threats or introduce significant latency that affects real-time applications by relying on computationally expensive public-key cryptography, blockchain or centralized architectures. This paper proposes a new AKA protocol that combines hash-based …

Modeling Of Intraday Fluctuations In Future Climate Parameters And Their Impact On Perovskite Solar Modules, From A Sustainable Development Perspective, Wakiang Emile Latchiba, Sebastian Waita, Robert Kruege, Julius M. Mwabora

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

Modeling of intraday fluctuation in future climate parameters. This study uses ARIMA and LSTM models to evaluate and examine the prediction accuracy of four main meteorological parameters (solar irradiance, temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed) that have an impact on perovskite solar modules using Chad as an example. The findings show that the use of averaged climatic data considerably obscures the effects of intraday fluctuation, which significantly increases power output volatility and speeds up degradation. Increasing short-term temperature extremes may further jeopardize system reliability, according to projections under future climate scenarios. The results highlight the necessity of climate-resilient photovoltaic modeling …

Clean Hands, Dirty Money, And The Codification Of Sec Disgorgement, Stephanie Palma

Fordham Law Review

Disgorgement is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) most powerful enforcement tool and among its most controversial. For decades, federal courts treated disgorgement in securities enforcement actions as an equitable remedy, a view that the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed in Liu v. SEC. Months after Liu, Congress passed the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which codified disgorgement in SEC enforcement actions. The codification of disgorgement sparked a circuit split between the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Second Circuits over whether Congress created a new statutory form of …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of Research On Cefr-Based English Speaking Pedagogy : Trends And Directions, Saima Khan, Azidah Abu Zidena, Zoofishan Khanb

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Mapping The Kku-Aelt Reading Test To The Cefr : A Standard-Setting Study, Sivakorn Tangsakul, Kornwipa Poonpon

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Aligning The Culi Test With Cefr Illustrative Scales, Sasithorn Limgomolvilas

PASAA

No abstract provided.

From Policy To Practice In Assessment : A Cefr-Aligned Professional Development Model For Classroom-Based Assessment In Iranian Efl Classrooms, Amir Ghajarieh, Zuraidah Mohd Don

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Cogniwrite : Ai-Enhanced Smart Handouts For Cefr-Based Language Instruction And Retention In Higher Education, Diannike Putri, Barlian Kristanto

PASAA

No abstract provided.