Digital Commons Network^™

High-Throughput Echocardiography-Guided Induction Of Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion In Mice., Florian Sicklinger, Niklas Hartmann, Attila Kovacs, Carla Weinheimer, Jess Nigro, Tobias Thiemann, Junedh M Amrute, David Schumacher, Moritz P Kornadt, Laura M Wienecke, Lennart Rompel, Johannes Fischer, John F Bachman, Olivia Bedard, Shibali Das, Tim C Kuhn, Mirko Völkers, Ralf P Brandes, Rafael Kramann, Nadia Rosenthal, Norbert Frey, Kory J Lavine, Florian Leuschner

Faculty Research 2025

BACKGROUND: Mouse models of myocardial ischemia with subsequent heart failure are common approaches to examine heart failure pathology and possible treatment strategies. We sought to establish a high-throughput approach for echocardiography-guided induction of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (IR) in mice.

METHODS: After visualization of the left coronary artery with high-resolution ultrasound imaging and echocardiographic definition of the level of coronary occlusion, the left anterior descending artery was temporarily occluded with 2 micromanipulator-controlled needles. Functional and molecular changes were assessed and compared with commonly performed surgical techniques.

RESULTS: Echocardiography-guided induction of myocardial IR enabled standardized induction of myocardial IR injury with subsequent left …

Impaired Dnajb2 Response To Heat Shock In Fibroblasts From A Neuropathy Patient With Dnajb2/Hsj1 Mutation: Cystamine As A Potential Therapeutic Intervention, Raj K. Pradhan, Nikolas G. Kinney, Brigid K. Jensen, Hristelina Ilieva

Farber Institute for Neuroscience Faculty Papers

Background and Objectives: Neuropathy is a debilitating disorder characterized by peripheral nerve dysfunction and damage to sensory, motor, and autonomic neurons and their axons. While homozygous mutations in DNAJB2/HSJ1 have been linked to early-onset neuropathy, a heterozygous DNAJB2 c.823+6C>T was discovered in an adult patient with severe sensory–motor polyneuropathy. This mutation is predicted to affect both isoforms of the protein. DNAJB2 (HSP40), a key member of the heat shock protein family, plays a critical role in cellular protection and stress, including response to heat shock. DNAJB2 traffics unfolded proteins to another heat shock protein, HSP70, and activates its ATPase …

Uses And Perceptions Of Student Leadership Roles In A Secondary Choral Program, Jenna M. Rickerhauser

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined student leadership structure in a high school choral program, including data from a junior high director in the district. It aimed to evaluate the role and influence of a designated student leader in a secondary choral program through perceptions from student leaders, student members, and directors. Collected data included surveys, focus groups, individual interviews, field notes, and observation notes. The researcher analyzed the data using the constant comparative method. The resulting data fit into four level 2 codes: program structure, roles of student leaders, influence/impact on the choir, and personal impact of leadership on student leaders. The …

Beyond The Glitz And Glam: Unveiling The Physical And Psychological Toll Of Performative Perfection In Competitive Cheer And Dance, Audrey E. Marovich

Honors Theses

This study examines the factors that affect athlete burnout in current and former dancers and cheerleaders. A total of 108 participants completed an electronic survey where they provided information about their experiences with either cheerleading or dance and filled out a modified athlete burnout scale to get an average burnout score based on their responses. When looking at the variables that make up the culture of cheer and dance, a variety of relationships were found relating to burnout. Highly competitive experiences where athletes spend many hours per week participating and get very few breaks are correlated with high levels of …

Tariq Wyatt V. Superintendent Mahanoy Sci

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Eric Daimler V. Chris Moehle

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Western District of Pennsylvania

The Form Knows Best, Tara Chowdhury, Faith Chudkowski, Mitu Gulati

University of Miami Law Review

Law students learn that contracts are carefully negotiated, precisely drafted, and shaped by doctrine. But lawyers tell a different story. This article compares six pillars of contract law with what we heard in over 170 interviews with senior transactional lawyers across M&A, sovereign bonds, and leveraged loans. The result is a gap between the Official Story taught in classrooms and the Unofficial Story told by practitioners—where boilerplate dominates, case law is rarely consulted, and market custom often prevails over efficient design. We suggest that many contract provisions are better understood as historical artifacts: products of inherited forms and production pressure. …

Foreword, Hon. Nancy G. Abudu

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

What’S In A Name? How The Eleventh Circuit Ignored The Fourth Amendment To Hold That A Warrant For One Person Authorizes The Detention Of Others, Jared Mcclain, Dylan Moore

University of Miami Law Review

Odds are, your name isn’t all that unique. Most people share the same first and last name with hundreds, if not thousands, of other Americans. The frequency with which people share a name raises an important question of civil rights: What happens when officers arrest and detain an innocent person based on an arrest warrant that was issued for someone else with the same name?

In the Eleventh Circuit, the answer is almost always “nothing.” So long as a mistaken detention lasts three days or fewer, officers are free from accountability for apprehending the innocent—even if those officers have good …

From The Kitchens Of Lords To Pinterest Boards: An Examination Of Recipe Discourse, Haley Hansen

Honors Theses

This paper traces the evolution of written recipe discourse from medieval manuscripts to modern digital platforms, examining how changes in recipe structure, audience, and purpose reflect broader shifts in cultural literacy and sponsorship. Drawing on Deborah Brandt’s theory of “sponsors of literacy,” the author argues that recipe authors have historically acted as sponsors of culinary literacy, shaping who has access to cooking knowledge and how that knowledge is communicated. Through close analysis of recipes from the Forme of Cury (1390), American Cookery (1796), the Good Housekeeping Cookbook (1963), and a contemporary food blog, the study highlights the increasing democratization of …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Teachers' Perceptions Of School Security Measures, Rozetta Michelle Isaac

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study explored the lived experiences of six middle school teachers who provided their perceptions of school safety measures at their work locations. This phenomenological qualitative study aimed to examine whether the participants feel safe while at work. The theoretical framework that guided this study was PET (Punctuated Equilibrium Theory) which focuses on policy change over time. Participants were given a survey questionnaire to answer. The survey questionnaire contained open-ended survey questions. The survey was utilized in lieu of in-person interviews (due to COVID -19 restrictions). Participants were asked open-ended questions about their experiences and perceptions regarding school safety measures. …

The Impact Of Motivational Interviewing On African-American Men With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Jamekia Kitchens

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Translational and Clinical Research Projects

African-American men with type 2 diabetes face an immense health disparity in the United States, with alarming mortality rates compared to their counterparts. This pilot study examined the impact of motivational interviewing on African-American Men with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The researcher conducted motivational interview sessions using the components of the Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale to guide the meetings. Pre- and post-confidence levels and pre- and post-hemoglobin A1c levels were collected and analyzed. After the completion of three motivational interview sessions, participants displayed significantly higher self-efficacy scores with significantly decreased A1c levels. The results suggest that motivational interviewing has a …

Psychoeducational Training For Community Health Workers To Improve Confidence In Providing Mental Health Services To Migrants, Nimota M. Akintoye

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Translational and Clinical Research Projects

There is a higher prevalence of mental health illnesses among migrants. This minority group is faced with challenges in accessing healthcare due to poverty, stigmatization, and fear of discrimination. Research has shown that community health workers (CHWs) bridge the gap between the health and social service sectors and the patients by improving patient access to care and healthcare outcomes. A translational project was implemented to evaluate how psychoeducational training improved the CHWs’ confidence and knowledge level in providing mental health support to the patients and community members. Sister Calista Roy’s Adaptation Model was used to guide the study by incorporating …

(The Lack Of) Fan Fiction Litigation: Why Do Creators Refrain From Suit?, Channah Klapper

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

This Note explores the status of contemporary fan fiction under United States copyright law. It begins by tracing the historical development of fan fiction and then examines fan fiction’s legal treatment in the internet age, with a focus on the potential application of the fair use doctrine. It surveys relevant case law and considers the notable absence of litigation by content creators against fan fiction authors. Finally, it offers a number of possible explanations for this reluctance to pursue legal action.

A Raced Theology Of The Human Person: An Expanded Theological Anthropology, Cary W. Dabney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on race as a critical, yet largely unaddressed, topic in Catholic theological anthropology. In Catholic colleges and universities that are recognized as members of the Cardinal Newman Society, theological concerns about race are deemed irrelevant for theological education in the faith and are altogether absent from the theology of the human person. As a result, this collection of institutions treats race as a specialty within pastoral theology, one that is significant to groups, but not a part of the fundamental theology of the human person. This ‘un-raced’ theological anthropology results in the institution’s inability to respond effectively …

Communicative Harmonics: A Synchronization Of Minds, Manners, And Emotions As A Phenomenological Approach To Resonant Leadership, Victor J. Grigsby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the heart of human relationality and resonant leadership is an interpersonal vibration that creates group coherence. The fusion of minds, manners, and emotions is a synchronization of individual vibrations and frequencies that unite the human spirit. Communicative harmonics presupposes the necessity for dialogue as the interconnection of contrasting perspectives. The auditory framework of speaking and listening parallels that of leading and following and is used to explore dialogic leadership as a major element in leadership communication. This dissertation is modeled after the work of Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad and incorporates a musical pentad of tone, rest, frequency, rhythm, and …

Entropy And Incarnation In The Duchamp Room: An Inquiry Into Aesthetic Time, Jesse Goodman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the posthumous installation of Marcel Duchamp, Étant donnés, as a test case for how particularly historically situated artworks may or may not change over time. It begins with an overview of Duchamp’s biography, and his own theories of art’s relationship to temporality (which influenced the piece’s construction). It then moves through contrasting accounts of aesthetic time from Adorno and Robert Smithson. Section two works with Walter Benjamin’s writing on photography and aura to produce an account of estrangement between the piece and the viewing subject induced by the historical development of the artwork’s “translation” and “replication”—through …

The Contribution Of Catholic Compromise Principles In Global Health, Scott N. Helstad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Roman Catholic tradition has developed comprehensive ethical principles to address complex practical scenarios that encounter foundational value compromises. These are referred to as compromise principles and they have both a narrow and a broad focus. Narrowly, these compromise principles are critical for Catholic healthcare organizations in the United States with regard to the guidelines of the US Bishops in their Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. More broadly, these compromise principles are relevant in the secular realm regarding global health. This dissertation examines these varying perspectives, hence its title, “The Contribution of Catholic Compromise Principles …

God Who Crafts: An Appalachian Theology Of Making And Community, Gwendolen Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachia has been the subject of much speculation and often disparagement since it first became distinct as a part of the United States in approximately the 1860s, but it is more than just its reputation. This dissertation discusses the history and modern myth of Appalachia, and then it considers Appalachia on its own terms through what the people who live there have said about it and about their own lives.

This work focuses on the continued prominence of craft and its place in the spiritual lives of mountain people as it examines interviews that I conducted with mountain crafters. I …

Bridging Cattle Farming And Technology: The Development Of Moomanager, Matthew Hayes

Honors College Theses

Small-scale cattle producers face persistent challenges in adopting digital tools for herd management, often due to barriers such as limited digital literacy, software complexity, and poor alignment with practical workflows. Existing literature highlights the potential benefits of mobile applications in agricultural contexts, yet adoption rates remain low among smaller operations. This thesis investigates how a streamlined, mobile-first application can address these adoption barriers while supporting essential farm management tasks. The study details the design and development of MooManager, a mobile application built with React Native and Supabase and structured around core features such as cattle tracking, beef sales logging, and …

Structure Determination Of Mg2tihn And Mg3tihn (N=1-25) Clusters, Meagan Dobbs

Honors College Theses

Fossil fuels are a resource that is used in everyday life. A major problem with the reliance on fossil fuels lies in their major contributor to global warming. When fossil fuels are burned, they release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warm the Earth. In order to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted new fuel sources are being considered, and a leading candidate is hydrogen. This project looks at magnesium hydride clusters doped with a titanium atom. Specifically, the Mg₂TiH_n (n =1-25) and Mg₃TiH_n (n =1-25) clusters are considered. The …

Cuyahoga County Regional Collaboration Survey 2024, Meghan Rubado, René-Simone Martin

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report explores collaboration among local governments in Cuyahoga County using a survey of municipal and township officials, primarily mayors. The survey was fielded in late 2024 through a partnership between the Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs and the Cuyahoga County Department of Regional Collaboration and follows up on a similar survey fielded by Levin in 2018. This report summarizes findings of the survey. The report examines the extent to which municipalities in the County were collaborating with various types of external partners, including the County, other municipalities, nonprofits, and private organizations. The vast majority of respondents reported …

In Praise Of Attainder, Nathan Ristuccia

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Race, Racialization, & Rehabilitation: Intersectional Insights Into The Cuban Revolution’S Campaign To Eliminate Prostitution, Alyssa Garcia

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

"I Gotta Lock-In": Metacognition Strategies In A High School Biology Classroom, Darby Ice

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Metacognition is an emerging focus in education and has been shown to enhance student learning outcomes and self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate both student and teacher perceptions of implementing metacognitive strategies in a high school biology classroom, as well as the impact on students’ self-regulated learning. The researcher collected data through classroom observations, student surveys, teacher interviews, and analysis of student test scores. Using the constant comparative method, qualitative data revealed secondary codes of problem- solving strategies, study methods, perceptions of content mastery, impact of classroom environment, and evidence of metacognition. Quantitative data showed a statistically significant increase in …

The Role Of Spirituality In A Rural Second-Grade Science And Social Studies Classroom, Elizabeth C. Pitcock

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Children’s spirituality unequivocally connects to student experiences in schools due to their relationships with themselves, others, nature, and transcendence. These pillars allow students to enhance their awareness, value, and mystery in relationship with curricular content to become more spiritually sensitive citizens. This action research sought to understand the role of spirituality in a rural second-grade science and social studies classroom. Qualitative and quantitative survey, interview, observation, and artifact data were collected. The data was analyzed through the constant comparative method and descriptive statistics. Themes emerged to produce three primary codes and 18 secondary codes for findings. The study found that …

Understanding Student And Teacher Perceptions Of A Checking For Accuracy Method In Algebra Class, Abigail A. Jameson

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Mathematics encompasses learning from one’s mistakes and developing accuracy with problem-solving. This action research study analyzed the classroom teacher’s and students' perceptions of a checking for accuracy math method that was implemented in an eighth-grade algebra classroom. Additionally, the researcher wanted to understand how the participants felt about the accuracy method and its influence on students’ attitudes toward math and mastery of math concepts. Student surveys, individual teacher (with student artifacts) and student interviews and focus groups (with individual artifacts) were the qualitative data collected using the constant comparative method. Descriptive statistics was used to collect quantitative data with calculated …

Do I Feel Safe At School? A Study Of Student And Teacher Perceptions Of School Safety Measures, Dayton-Turner K. Billington

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

This study examined student and teacher perceptions of current school safety measures. It explored feelings of safety among high school students and their classroom teacher, focusing on their perspectives regarding school safety measures and school resource officers (SROs). Students took a survey asking their thoughts regarding current school safety measures using Likert scale questions as well as drawing a picture and writing a describing paragraph regarding their perceptions of safety. From the survey results, 11 students were selected to be a part of two separate focus group interviews. The qualitative data was analyzed using the constant comparative method, while the …

Effects Of Foam Rolling With And Without Vibration On Contralateral Limb Range Of Motion And Jump Performance, Lawton P. Hawkins

Honors Theses

Recently, foam rolling with vibration (VFR) has gained popularity with having similar benefits to standard foam rolling (FR). VFR may induce a greater improvement in pain pressure threshold, which could lead to a greater improvement in range of motion (ROM). When applied to one limb, improvements in ROM occur in the non-rolled limb for both FR and VFR. Studies comparing the effects of FR and VFR in terms of acute changes in ROM and performance have reported mixed results. Using a larger dosage of VFR may provide a greater improvement in ROM for the non-rolled limb compared to FR. PURPOSE: …

Establishment Of Six Flags Over The Deconstruction Of Sandtown, John Ely

Master's Theses

Development, both private and public, has played a crucial role in the knowledge that historians can take from the land, but the desire to build quickly ultimately destroyed many sites before they were properly studied. The Chattahoochee River, along with almost all the other rivers and streams in the Southeast, supported not only survival but civilization. Unfortunately, almost the entire catalog of scholarly sources regarding these places was written by men of European descent, and these writers rarely discuss the details regarding the fate of the sites that were destroyed in the name of industry. Sandtown was an almost mythic …