Digital Commons Network^™

Reliability And Spatial Consistency Of Mr Diffusion Tensor Imaging Measures Along The Cerebral Perivascular Space, Enchao Qiu, Joga Chaganti, Phillip Phan, M. Alizadeh, Devon Middleton, Kiran Talekar, Prabath Mondel, Scott H. Faro, Feroze Mohamed, Hsiangkuo Yuan

Department of Radiology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Diffusion tensor imaging analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS) has emerged as a promising noninvasive method for evaluating water motion that may reflect glymphatic system function. However, the reliability of DTI-ALPS measurements across different region-of-interest (ROI) selection methods remains underinvestigated. This study aimed to assess the interrater reliability among three neuroradiologists in native space and compare DTI-ALPS indices derived from ROIs placed in subjects' native space versus standardized Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space.

METHODS: DTI-ALPS indices from 16 healthy subjects were calculated from both left and right hemispheres using two ROI placement approaches: (1) native space ROIs …

Building A Novel Question-Answering System Using Retrieval-Augmented Generation For The California Fair Political Practices Commission, Saanvi Dua

Master's Theses

The California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) receives a high volume of inquiries via email from public officials, the general public, and other agencies, which currently requires staff to manually search through informational documents and manuals to provide timely responses. This process is both labor- and time-intensive.

To address this challenge, we design a question-answering (QA) system that drafts responses to emailed questions by retrieving relevant information from the FPPC’s manuals using a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) framework. Although the current implementation focuses on a single manual, the system is designed to be adaptable to the broader set of FPPC documents. …

Draft 2025 Interim Site-Wide Surface Water Monitoring Quality Assurance Project Plan, Woodard & Curran

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Horses And The Transition From Feudalism To Capitalism., Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Many scholarly articles and books have been written about the transition from feudalism to capitalism over the decades. The various points of views on what is the “main driver” or “prime mover” of the transition have been debated in various forums by historians and economic historians with a different major factor being advocated by different proponents or schools of thought. This paper tries to offer another analysis of how the horse could have been an important “means to an end” in the development of capitalism, and this analysis possibly can lead to support for more than one view of what …

Investigating The Behavior Of Dwarf-Hosting Cosmic Filaments In Regions Of Average Density Within The Universe, Manuel E. Ramirez Hernandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The cosmic web is the large-scale structure of the universe, composed of elongated, overdense areas held together by gravity known as cosmic filaments. Within these filaments, dwarf galaxies are ubiquitous and make for excellent laboratories due to their small size. to determine the effects of cosmic web structures on dwarf galaxies. In this thesis, I laid the groundwork to investigate whether dwarf galaxy populations vary across different types of filaments. Filaments were extracted from the gas density field in the New Horizon simulation at $z=0$ using the topological feature finder DisPerSE. I determined the distances of galaxies to their nearest …

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Former Lagos State Male Public High School Teachers About Their Onboarding Process., Agboola Clement Ikuyinminu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lagos State, Nigeria, faces male teacher retention challenges in public high schools, including destabilizing the educational environment, reducing the availability of experienced mentors, and negatively impacting student performance and outcomes. School leaders need to understand the challenges leading to male teacher turnover. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Lagos State male public high school teachers who left the profession, focusing particularly on their perceptions of onboarding and reasons for leaving the profession. This study was grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Bauer and Erdogan’s onboarding theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Bandura’s social …

Examining The Influence Of Encoding And Retrieval Contexts On 2- To 4-Year-Olds' Acquisition Of Nouns And Verbs, Piper Swearengin, Patrick Mihalicz, Leah Marsh, Zoe Baker, Faith Perry, Susan A. Graham, Jane B. Childers

Psychology Faculty Research

This study investigates whether the context in which a word is learnt affects noun and verb learning. There is mixed evidence in studies of noun learning, and no studies of background perceptual context in verb learning. Two-, three-, and four-year-olds (n = 162) saw a novel object moved in a novel way while hearing four novel words, either nouns or verbs. They were asked to generalize the word to a similar action or object shown in the same or different context. Results demonstrate that 2- and 3-year-olds were more accurate at test when learning nouns than verbs, demonstrating that verb …

Diffusion Mri Biomarkers For Predicting Treatment Outcomes In Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome With Non-Lesional Mri, Daniel Ackom, Scott A. Beardsley, Jennifer Meylor, Kayleigh Butler, Ricardo Vega, Andrew J.D. Crow, Hema Patel, Brian D. Schmit, Pradeep Javarayee

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Infantile epileptic spasms syndrome (IESS) is a devastating developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) and patients exhibit diffuse white matter alterations and structural remodeling. However, the correlation between these structural changes and brain network properties, or their effect on the efficacy of treatment outcomes in MRI non-lesional IESS patients is not clear.

Method

This retrospective study was conducted on IESS patients using fixel-based analysis (FBA) of diffusion MRI and graph theory analysis of structural connectivity, involving 26 non-lesional IESS patients aged 2 to 12 months and 120 age-matched controls. We further examined the differences between antiseizure medication (ASM) responders and non-responders …

Perceived School Climate Norms Of Equality, Perspective-Taking And Youth Collective And Civic Actions, Shelley Mckeown, Cd Schaefer, Jaysan Charlesford, Thia Sagherian-Dickey, Gian Antonio Di Bernardo, Loris Vezzali

School of Psychology

Schools can play a crucial role in encouraging young people to make constructive societalcontributions that transcend group lines and that benefit communities more generally.Recognising this potential, the present research examined the relationship between perceivedschool climate norms of equality, and in turn perspective-taking on two forms of constructivecontributions amongst youth in England: civic engagement and collective action intentions insupport of refugees. A total of 696 youth (aged 11 to 12) were asked to complete a survey inschool as part of a larger study on youth interaction experiences. Bootstrapped mediationanalysis conducted in Mplus found that perspective-taking mediated the link between perceivedschool climate …

Most-Favored-Nation's False Promises, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

Most-favoured-nation (MFN) protection seems decidedly straightforward both in meaning and operation, certainly as compared to other investment protections, such as fair and equitable treatment, which are plagued with indeterminacy. But the clarity of meaning and ease of application of MFN clauses are largely illusory. An examination of arbitral case law reveals seriously underestimated uncertainties surrounding the doctrine’s scope and workings. But the problems with MFN run far deeper. MFN may have the virtue of enhancing the level of protection of foreign investments. But States do not only extend benefits; they also withhold them. MFN disrespects the balance that States sought …

Bank Supervision And Article Ii, Kathryn Judge

Faculty Scholarship

The administrative state is again at a cross roads. The Supreme Court seems poised to continue its march toward trying to fit all of government neatly into one of the three constitutionally enumerated branches. An important front of this shift has been a flattening of the mechanisms through which officers of the United States may be held appropriately accountable for their actions. Waning are the days when Congress had the flexibility to create the institutions it believed were “necessary and proper” for carrying into execution important policy aims and to determine the appropriate mechanisms for accountability in conjunction with considering …

Restorationland: The Lost And Found Objects Of Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

The Doll’s Head Trail is a grassroots, low-art installation nestled within a Southeast Atlanta wildlife preserve. Constructed by volunteers and visitors from decades of environmental debris, the trail converts waste into folk art-inspired “junk” displays. The creative upcycling ranges from a miniscule shrine to “Toxic Masculinity” to a stark shoe pile commemorating child gun violence. This article details how queer theory’s “temporal turn” provides insights into material performance as collaborative regeneration. The curious vignettes playfully invert hierarchies, revealing the merits of small-time memorialization. Through these defiantly unofficial grassroot performances, the Doll’s Head Trail both remembers and restores community ruins, demonstrating …

Beech Bark Disease Agent Responses To Exogenous Application Of Tree Defense Inducing Phytohormones, Erin Reilly

Master's Theses and Capstones

Pathogens and insects face several barriers to successful infection and colonization of a host plant, including a range of physical and chemical defenses, some of which are inducible (modified or initiated by attack or infection). These interactions can be complex and are influenced by environmental conditions, tree physiological status, host age, and timing of attack. Non-native pathogens and insects can have an advantage against a plant’s evolved chemical defenses, but they are also subject to abiotic stressors and conditions. In North America, beech bark disease (BBD) is a disease complex where the beech (Fagus grandifolia) host is subject to concurrent …

The Development Of A Meteorological Buoy For Measuring Turbulent Fluxes Along The Air-Sea Boundary Layer, Jane Maria Schwadron

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Air-Sea Flux Buoy (ASFB) is part of a larger effort implemented by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) to characterize the dynamics of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL). The ASFB samples the 3D wind velocities, air temperature, and water vapor to derive the air-sea eddy-covariance fluxes of momentum, heat, and humidity. The solar radiation, water temperature, rain intensity, barometric pressure, and water salinity are sampled to estimate the bulk-parameterized stability conditions. A GNSS inertial navigation system enables centimeter-scale motion correction and an onboard cellular modem provides real-time telemetry. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, hydrostatic analysis, mooring simulations, and …

Analysis Of Nutrient Accumulation Within A Bioretention System, Amina Halim Nefic

Master's Theses and Capstones

Bioretention systems are widely used in stormwater management to mitigate nutrient pollution, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. Over time, these systems undergo changes in nutrient retention efficiency due to organic matter accumulation and biogeochemical transformations. This study examines the distribution and long-term retention of total nitrogen (TN), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), nitrate (NO3-), total phosphorus (TP), and orthophosphate (PO43-) within a 16-year-old bioretention system. A combination of k-means clustering and non-parametric statistical tests (Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests) were employed to analyze nutrient concentrations across different soil depths and media types. Results indicate that TN and TKN are concentrated in the …

A Dynamic Hierarchical Attention Framework For Multimodal Malware Detection, Tamanna Nazmin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing use of Android in the worldwide mobile ecosystem has come along with a significant increase in advanced malware, highlighting the critical necessity for efficient, scalable, and adaptable detection systems. Despite recent advancements in machine learning improving malware detection, the majority of current solutions are limited to one, two, or three data modalities, hence neglecting the comprehensive behavioral spectrum of contemporary multi-vector threats. This thesis presents the first comprehensive multimodal framework for Android malware detection, which combines textual, time-series (temporal), graph-based (structural), and visual information using an innovative hierarchical attention mechanism and Dynamic Fusion Controller(DFC). Our methodology consistently classifies …

Understanding Glufosinate Resistance In Palmer Amaranth And Examination Of Additives For Improved Weed Control, Pamela Carvalho-Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation was to: 1) provide an in-depth review about the potential use of natural and synthetic glutathione S-transferase (GST) inhibitors to enhance herbicidal activity or induce crop safety; 2) determine if the addition of metabolic inhibitors to glufosinate is an effective approach to enhance weed control; 3) investigate the mechanism conferring resistance to glufosinate in a highly-resistant Palmer amaranth accession; 4) characterize the genomic rearrangement involved in glutamine synthetase 2 amplification in a Palmer amaranth accession resistant to both glufosinate and glyphosate; 5) quantify the distribution of glufosinate resistance among Palmer amaranth accessions within a 15-km …

Urbanization, Climate Change, And Water Quality In Northwest Arkansas Caves, Eliezer Ugarte

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Ozark Cavefish is one of multiple species of conservation concern found in Cave Springs Cave and Logan Cave in Northwest Arkansas (NWA). Over the past two decades, the urbanization of NWA has negatively impacted the recharge areas of both caves, and in turn the water quality of both cave streams. The changing climate has also altered temperature and precipitation, which influence many aspects of karst groundwater. These effects are shown in the historical water quality records for both caves. However, these records are from varied sources and have never been comprehensively compiled and analyzed. This thesis approaches the issue …

Dual Investigations Into Broiler Health: Mitochondrial Gene Expression In Ascites Susceptibility And G-1,25(Oh)₂D₃-Driven Modulation Of Bone And Gut Integrity In Lameness, Layla Hussein Al-Mitib

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern broiler production faces persistent challenges from metabolic and skeletal disorders, particularly ascites and bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), which compromise animal welfare and production efficiency. This dissertation examines two key factors that contribute to these conditions: mitochondrial gene expression associated with pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS) and the role of intestinal barrier integrity in mitigating lameness. In the first study, the expression of mitochondrial genes COXII and ATP6 was evaluated in the breast, thigh, and lung tissues of three broiler genetic lines—ascites-susceptible (SUS), ascites-resistant (RES), and unselected relaxed (REL). While no significant expression differences were observed in muscle tissues, SUS …

Stay Woke: Understanding Critical Consciousness Development In Adults And Its Relationship To Psychological Constructs, Christin Alexandra Mujica

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Racism confers numerous measurable health risks for people of color. Interventions to mitigate the impact of racism on health are necessary and important to reduce disease burden and improve health outcomes for people of color. While communities of color have developed resiliency tactics that have allowed them to survive, even thrive, in the face of racial oppression, the evaluation and promotion of promising tools that counteract racism’s negative impacts are essential (Phillips et al., 2015). Critical consciousness is just such a tool. Research with children suggests it holds promise (Diemer et al., 2016; Heberle et al., 2020; Maker-Castro et al., …

Constraining The Properties And Formation Pathways Of Low Mass X-Ray Binaries In Early-Type Galaxies, Andrew Paul Ferrell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we explore how low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) form and evolve in nearby early-type galaxies. We investigate X-ray binary (XRB) luminosity function (XLF) scaling relations for Chandra-detected populations of LMXBs within the footprints of 24 early-type galaxies. Our sample includes Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope observed galaxies at D ≲ 25Mpc that have estimates of the globular cluster (GC) specific frequency (SN) reported in the literature. As such, we are able to directly classify X-ray-detected sources as being coincident with unrelated background/foreground objects, GCs, or sources that are within the fields of the galaxy targets. We model the …

Rumination And Inhibitory Control In Suicidal Ideation: The Role Of Explicit And Implicit Emotional Processing, Arooj Abid

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and suicidal ideations (SI; thinking, considering, or planning suicide) are a strong predictor of suicide attempts. Prior literature describes inhibitory control as an important facet of regulating negative thoughts, and studies suggest that inhibitory control deficits and engagement in brooding rumination are risk factors of SI. Recent studies have found implicit cognitive markers of suicidality suggesting that level of processing may variably be linked to SI. This study examined the relation between aspects of inhibitory control across explicit and implicit emotional contexts and levels of brooding rumination among …

The Intersection Of Race And Nativity: Exploring Criminal Justice Contact Among Black Adults In The United States., Uchenna Makuochukwu Onuoha

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black immigrants in the United States navigate a dual identity as both Black and immigrant, yet their unique experiences remain underexplored in research on immigration and crime. While prior studies have documented generational differences and negative associations between immigration and crime, the intersection of race and nativity in shaping criminal justice contact for Black immigrants is unknown. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examines the role of race and nativity on various forms of criminal justice contact. Specifically, we investigate (1) the extent to which nativity plays a role in criminal legal …

Variational Temporal Deconfounder Network For Individualized Treatment Effect Estimation With Longitudinal Observational Data, Hao Dai, Yu Huang, Yuxi Liu, Xing He, Jingchuan Guo, Mattia Prosperi, Jiang Bian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: By leveraging real-world electronic health record (EHR) data, this study set out to estimate individualized treatment effects (ITE) in longitudinal observational settings to advance personalized medicine, addressing key challenges that are often observed in real-world clinical scenarios and pose statistical challenges, including hidden confounding and dynamic treatment regimens.

Methods: We propose the Variational Temporal Deconfounder Network (VTDNet), a novel framework designed to account for time-varying hidden confounding using a variational recurrent transformer-based autoencoder. Specifically, VTDNet comprises three critical components: a temporal Encoder-Decoder structure to capture hidden representation, a Treatment Block that captures interdependencies among multiple treatments, and a Potential …

Author Correction: Oncolytic Dnx-2401 Virotherapy Plus Pembrolizumab In Recurrent Glioblastoma: A Phase 1/2 Trial, Farshad Nassiri, Vikas Patil, Leeor S Yefet, Olivia Singh, Jeff Liu, Rachel M A Dang, Takafumi N Yamaguchi, Mariza Daras, Timothy F Cloughesy, Howard Colman, Priya U Kumthekar, Clark C Chen, Robert Aiken, Morris D Groves, Shirley S Ong, Rohan Ramakrishna, Michael A Vogelbaum, Simon Khagi, Thomas Kaley, Jason M Melear, David M Peereboom, Analiz Rodriguez, Maxim Yankelevich, Suresh G Nair, Vinay K Puduvalli, Kenneth Aldape, Andrew Gao, Álvaro López-Janeiro, Carlos E De Andrea, Marta M Alonso, Paul Boutros, Joan Robbins, Warren P Mason, Adam M Sonabend, Roger Stupp, Juan Fueyo, Candelaria Gomez-Manzano, Frederick F Lang, Gelareh Zadeh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Trop2 Expression In Salivary Gland Adenoidcystic Carcinoma (Acc) According To Histologic Subtype: Therapeutic Implications, Juliana Mota Siqueira, Yoshitsugu Mitani, Mario L Marques-Piubelli, Camilla Oliveira Hoff, Flavia Bonini, Luana Guimaraes De Sousa, Mutsumi Mitani, Giovanna Lopes Carvalho, Fabio Daumas Nunes, Leandro Luongo Matos, Shiaw-Yih Lin, Michael T Spiotto, Ehab Y Hanna, Daniel J Mcgrail, Adel K El-Naggar, Renata Ferrarotto

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a common salivary gland carcinoma with high recurrence and distant metastasis rates. Currently, there is no standard systemic treatment available. TROP2 is a transmembrane glycoprotein involved in the oncogenesis of several tumors that can be therapeutically targeted by a TROP2-antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). We aimed to characterize TROP2 expression in ACC and assess TROP2 as a potential therapeutic target.

Methods: TROP2 immunohistochemistry was performed in a tissue microarray including 165 ACC of salivary gland. The tumors were grouped according to the histological pattern as non-solid, solid + non-solid, or solid. TROP2 protein expression in ACC …

Mature And Migratory Dendritic Cells Promote Immune Infiltration And Response To Anti-Pd-1 Checkpoint Blockade In Metastatic Melanoma, Jiekun Yang, Cassia Wang, Doris Fu, Li-Lun Ho, Kyriakitsa Galani, Lee Chen, Jose Gonzalez, Jolene Fu, Amy Y Huang, Dennie T Frederick, Liang He, Mukta Asnani, Rahul Tacke, Emily J Robitschek, Sandeep K Yadav, Wentao Deng, Kelly P Burke, Tatyana Sharova, Ryan J Sullivan, Sarah Weiss, Kunal Rai, David Liu, Genevieve M Boland, Manolis Kellis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer therapy, yet most patients fail to achieve durable responses. To better understand the tumor microenvironment (TME), we analyze single-cell RNA-seq (~189 K cells) from 36 metastatic melanoma samples, defining 14 cell types, 55 subtypes, and 15 transcriptional hallmarks of malignant cells. Correlations between cell subtype proportions reveal six distinct clusters, with a mature dendritic cell subtype enriched in immunoregulatory molecules (mregDC) linked to naive T and B cells. Importantly, mregDC abundance predicts progression-free survival (PFS) with ICIs and other therapies, especially when combined with the TCF7 + /- CD8 T cell ratio. Analysis …

The Brescia International Multidisciplinary Consensus Guidelines On The Optimal Pathology Assessment And Multidisciplinary Pathways Of Non-Pancreatic Neoplasms In And Around The Ampulla Of Vater (Peripan), Mohammad Abu Hilal, Bas A Uijterwijk, Daniël H L Lemmers, Boris V Janssen, Marc G Besselink, Denise Bianchi, Arantza Fariña, Noriyoshi Fukushima, Anthony J Gill, Seung-Mo Hong, Alyssa Krasinskas, Claudio Luchini, Laura Melocchi, Giulio Rossi, Aldo Scarpa, Olca Basturk, Deyali Chatterjee, Angela Chou, Irene Esposito, Roger Feakins, Bas Groot Koerkamp, Ralph H Hruban, Stefano La Rosa, Chanjuan Shi, Aatur Singhi, Joanne Verheij, Huamin Wang, Sergio Alfieri, Fabio Ausania, Adnan Alseidi, Marco J Bruno, Ugo Boggi, Claudio Bnà, Christos Dervenis, Massimo Falconi, Michele Ghidini, Jakob W Kist, Giovanni Marchegiani, Michele Milella, Roberto Salvia, Ajith Siriwardena, Hanneke Wilmink, Alberto Zaniboni, Shaimaa Al-Janabi, Maia Blomhoff Holm, Eva Roos, Naoki Sano, In Hye Song, Zeynep Tarcan, Gianpaolo Balzano, Isabella Frigerio, Alfredo Guglielmi, Giuseppe Malleo, Horacio Asbun, Volkan Adsay, Caroline Verbeke

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: The lack of multidisciplinary workflow guidelines and clear definitions and classifications for neoplasms in and around the ampulla of Vater results in inconsistencies affecting patient care and research.

OBJECTIVE: The PERIPAN international multidisciplinary consensus group aimed to standardize the multidisciplinary diagnostic workflow and achieve consensus on definitions and classifications in order to ensure proper classification and optimal diagnostic assessment and consequently to improve patient care and future research.

DESIGN: An international team of 43 experts (pathologists, surgeons, radiologists, gastroenterologists, oncologists) from 12 countries identified knowledge gaps, reviewed 37061 articles, and proposed recommendations using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network methodology …

Author Correction: Ppp2r1a Mutations Portend Improved Survival After Cancer Immunotherapy, Yibo Dai, Anne Knisely, Mitsutake Yano, Minghao Dang, Emily M Hinchcliff, Sanghoon Lee, Annalyn Welp, Manoj Chelvanambi, Matthew Lastrapes, Heng Liu, Zhe Yuan, Chen Wang, Hao Nie, Stephanie Jean, Luis J Montaner, Jiakai Hou, Ami Patel, Shrina Patel, Bryan Fellman, Ying Yuan, Baohua Sun, Renganayaki Krishna Pandurengan, Edwin Roger Parra Cuentas, Joseph Celestino, Yan Liu, Jinsong Liu, R Tyler Hillman, Shannon N Westin, Anil K Sood, Pamela T Soliman, Aaron Shafer, Larissa A Meyer, David M Gershenson, David Vining, Dhakshinamoorthy Ganeshan, Karen Lu, Jennifer A Wargo, Weiyi Peng, Rugang Zhang, Linghua Wang, Amir A Jazaeri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Ling 471.01: Phonetics And Phonology, Mizuki Miyashita

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.