Digital Commons Network^™

The Design Of A Bioinspired Impact Mitigation System Towards The Prevention Of Brain Injuries, Bryce H. Reimer

Master’s Theses

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), remain a major concern across contact sports, military operations, and transportation. Despite advancements in protective equipment, current strategies often fall short in preventing the mechanical conditions that contribute to long-term neurological damage. This thesis presents the design and validation of a bioinspired impact mitigation system modeled after bighorn sheep horn structures, which have evolved to endure high-energy collisions without apparent brain injury.

Using biomimetic principles, the research integrates experimental and computational methods to evaluate how horn-like geometries reduce impact-induced accelerations. A custom drop tower was built to test dynamic …

Evaluation Of Physical And Chemical Stability In Liposomes Composed Of Mixed Phospholipids, Sharareh Rezaei, Kenny Mineart

Master’s Theses

Liposomes, spherical vesicles composed of lipid bilayers, are widely used in drug delivery due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ability to interact with biological membranes. Despite these advantages, liposomes remain moderately unstable systems, highly susceptible to environmental stressors such as pH fluctuations, ionic strength variations, temperature changes, and interactions with other components. Addressing both chemical and physical instability is essential for translating liposomal formulations from experimental formulation to viable pharmaceutical products.

This study investigates the physicochemical characteristics of a mixed-phospholipid system in which one lipid is saturated, and the other is unsaturated (DMPC and DOPC respectively). Liposomes are prepared using …

Pwatem: An Anthology Of Literature And Art (2025)

Pwatem (Poictesme), 2006-

Pwatem is an anthology of literature and art from undergraduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Pwatem publishes poetry, prose and art of all kinds from talented undergraduate students of all majors.

It’S Time To Rethink The Law Of Armed Conflict, Joshua Andresen

North Carolina Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Size Does Matter: Bp Cuff Size And Measurement, Ashlyn Cheng, Maren L’Hirondelle

Bachelor of Science in Nursing Senior Synthesis

No abstract provided.

Jerking The Rug Out From Under A Trade Secret Licensee: Is Transfer Of The Patent A Remedy?, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Michigan Technology Law Review

Predominantly state trade secret law and exclusively federal patent law enjoy a sometimes-uneasy coexistence. Inventions almost always are secret until and unless they are patented; publicizing them for too long will negate the availability of a patent. Misappropriation of trade secrets often is accompanied by application for a patent on the same subject matter. This commonly occurs when an employee gains access to his employer’s trade secrets, quits, and then applies for a patent on them in his own name, maybe after going to work for a competitor of the original employer. It is also conceivable that the owner of …

Game-Based Recruitment Assessment, Hafsa Nasir, Maira Munir, Zara Mahroyan Kashif, Abdul Rafay, Zarlish Mohtasham

BSCS Final Year Projects

The primary objective of our project is to develop a game-based recruitment system that modernizes traditional personality assessments by making them more engaging, adaptive, and relevant by incorporating real scenarios. We began by examining established models such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Big Five personality traits. While these tools provide meaningful psychological insights, their formats are too lengthy, and repetitive. To address this, we selected approximately 20 questions most relevant to workplace behavior and hiring decisions and imitated the scoring process of the MBTI questionnaires. This not only shortens the assessment process but also improves candidate engagement. …

Social Data's Role In Law And Political Economy, Salome Viljoen

Book Chapters

Over the past several years, the digital economy has been a notable uptick in interest from scholars across areas of law. This should come as no surprise. The digital economy encompasses some of the largest companies in the world, whose business models pioneer and spread new strategies to concentrate private power across the political economy more broadly. Digital companies have transformed commercial and social life, and they raise problems of concentrated private power. They are also charged with a slew of downstream disruptions resulting from collective pursuit of that power: global, social, and interpersonal forms of dislocation, oppression, impoverishment, alienation, …

Koszulity, Supersolvability And Stirling Representations, Ayah Almousa, Victor Reiner, Sheila Sundaram

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Supersolvable hyperplane arrangements and matroids are known to give rise to certain Koszul algebras, namely their Orlik–Solomon algebras and graded Varchenko–Gel’fand algebras. We explore how this interacts with group actions, particularly for the braid arrangement and the action of the symmetric group, where the Hilbert functions of the algebras and their Koszul duals are given by Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds, respectively. The corresponding symmetric group representations exhibit branching rules that interpret Stirling number recurrences, which are shown to apply to all supersolvable arrangements. They also enjoy representation stability properties that follow from Koszul duality.

Black Hole Sun, Veronica G. Ordaz

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been in hiding for almost nine months, and a twenty one year old local seems to know where he is.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience …

Ripples: An Automated Embedding Generation Algorithm For The Forward-Forward Algorithm, Spencer Connolly

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Forward-Forward algorithm (FF) is yet another novel invention by Geoffrey Hinton, the creator of the famous backpropagation algorithm (BP). Since its proposal, many papers have been published exploring its potential, and good progress has been made in increasing its viability. Though FF continually falls short of BP, its purpose is not to replace BP and preliminary research shows that there is plenty of room for growth. In this paper, we present a literature review for FF algorithms applied to Convolution Neural Networks (CNN) for image classification tasks and set the stage for applying FF to more complex datasets. The …

The Judicial Opinions Of Sandra Schultz Newman, Joel Fishman

Law Faculty Publications

Judge Of The Commonwealth Court Of Pennsylvania, 1993-1995.

Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania, 1996-2006.

Presented In A Special Ceremony Of The Supreme Court Of Pennsylvania In Naming Its Courtroom In Philadelphia On September 9, 2025.

compiled by Joel Fishman, PH.D., M.L.S.

The Demographics Of Vasopressor Requirements In Covid-19 Patients, Sammy R. Ghaoui, Paloma A. Molina, Romina Flores, Adela Bazbaz, Daryelle Varon, Joseph Varon

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

Severe Hypercalcemia In A Patient Taking Chronic Shark Fin Supplements, Sumanth Reddy, Bishwas Upadhyay

North Texas Research Forum 2025

BACKGROUND/INTRODUCTION: In this study, we discuss a case of an 86 year old Vietnamese female who presents with severe hypercalcemia, 15.0, who presented with progressively worsening physical debility which resulted in the patient being wheelchair bound after being found to be taking chronic calcium supplements. Hypercalcemia is a metabolic abnormality that is known to cause muscle weakness, changes in sensorium, dehydrations, nausea, anorexia, polyuria, constipation, fatigue, and depression. CASE PRESENTATION: Patient is an 85 year old female with significant medical history of osteoarthritis who presented to the emergency department for generalized fatigue for the past 2 weeks. Patient reports that …

A Case Of Life Threatening Hemorrhage After In Office Drainage Of Suspected Bartholin Gland Cyst, Rebecca Johnson, Sandra Zhi, Megan Khuu, Robert Boccaccio

North Texas Research Forum 2025

Introduction: Labial masses are common in OBGYN clinics. They are benign the vast majority of times. Common causes are Bartholin cysts, epidermal inclusion cysts, labial warts, sebaceous cyst. We report a case of a 33 year old who presented for what appeared to be a benign Bartholin gland cyst but resulted in massive hemorrhage, exam under anesthesia, massive transfusion, and embolization. Case Summary: A 33 year old patient presents for a painless, non-enlarging labial mass that has been present for 3 weeks. History and physical exam were consistent with a commonly encountered condition, Bartholin gland cyst. Routine incision and drainage …

Fibrillary Glomerulonephritis Associated With Hepatitis C: A Case Report Of Progression To End-Stage Renal Disease, Boney Lapsiwala, Karthik Kasireddy, Marisha Sharma, Mayank Singh, Vaishnavi Singh, Victor Canela

North Texas Research Forum 2025

A Case of DNAJB9 with rapid renal progression to End-Stage Renal Disease in a patient with previously treated HCV Background Fibrillary glomerulonephritis (FGN) is a rare and progressive kidney disease, accounting for 0.5% to 1.4% of native kidney biopsies. It is characterized by non-amyloid fibrillar deposits in the extracellular matrix. Although historically regarded as idiopathic, recent studies have revealed associations with autoimmune diseases, malignancies, and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. DNAJB9, a proteomic marker identified through mass spectrometry, has been consistently found in FGN cases, regardless of congophilia. This case illustrates FGN in a patient with a history of successfully …

An Atypical Presentation Of Pheochromocytoma, Ali Asghar, Neil Maithel, Ibrahim Musa, Hasnan Ijaz, Thomas Alexander

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

A Rare Case Of Pseudo-Pseudo Meigs Syndrome With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rabia Mahfooz, Grant Patterson, Neil Maithel, Daniel Kim

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

Novel Use Of A Biodegradable Endovascular Plug In A Case Of A Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm During An Endovascular Aortic Repair, Sophia G. Jimenez, Paul T. Spore, Carolsun S. Rajan, Ryan S. Turley, Bradley Boone

Central & West Texas and San Antonio GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

Investigating Secondary Causes Of Hypertensive Emergency In A 37- Year-Old Adult With Multi Organ Involvement, Pallavi Shekhawat, Julia Fashner

East Florida Division GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

A Vaping Nightmare: Sudden Death Provoked By Vaping In The Setting Of Pectus Excavatum, Anoop Gala, Nga Van, Grace Rustom, Danielle Ford, Phuc Nguyen

North Texas Research Forum 2025

Pectus excavatum (PE), characterized by an inward depression of the sternum, is the most common congenital chest wall abnormality. It has been rarely linked to cardiac abnormalities, such as arrhythmias and sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). In addition, emerging research suggests that vaping is a cardiovascular risk factor that has the potential to destabilize cardiac rhythm and promote arrhythmias. There is a lack of FDA oversight and long-term research on the effects of vaping. The rising popularity of vaping among youth, coupled with misconceptions about its safety, underscores the urgent need to understand the potential interactions vaping has in precipitating fatal …

Hypothyroidism Associated Hyponatremia, A Complicated Presentation, Gary Lee, Spencer Steinberg, Samiuallh Shahid, Evangelista Ezenduka, Edgardo Flores

North Texas Research Forum 2025

Introduction: Hypothyroidism is a well known text-book cause of euvolumic hyponatremia that is a rare occurrence in clinical practice in the absence of other potential etiologies of hyponatremia. We review a case of a 48 year old female presenting with profound generalized weakness found to have severe hyponatremia, later found to have severe hypothyroidism during admission. We review the potential mechanisms whereby hypothyroidism results in hyponatremia and whether or not hypothyroidism-induced hyponatremia truly exists and the current evidence supporting these views Case Presentation: 48 year old female with history of hypothyroidism, breast cancer post right lumpectomy and radiation presented for …

Can Residents Cheat The Unknown Slide Sessions By Using The Large Language Models? Which Model Should They Use: Chat-Gpt, Claude, Or Gemini?​, Gul Emek Wymer, Susana Ferra

East Florida Division GME Research Day 2025

Introduction: In recent years, artificial intelligence tools, such as large language models (LLMs) have expanded the potential for diagnostic medicine, including histopathology. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic ability and utility of the publicly available large language models in predicting the accurate diagnosis of the unknown cases by using the images of the hematoxylin-eosin stained slides taken by a mobile phone and compare their performance with the residents’ performance.

Method: The twenty cases, including a variety of entities, were collected from teaching sets of non-HCA patients and public available domains, which are used for unknown slide sessions for residents. …

Middle School Students’ Perceptions Of Social And Emotional Learning, Janelle Butler

Curriculum and Instruction (Ed.D.) Dissertations

This mixed methodology study analyzed the perceptions of middle school students at a rural middle school in the Southeast United States, as they experience social and emotional learning lessons. Data was explored through the lens of the subgroups of gender, grade level, and ethnicity in order to fully conceptualize the unique perspective of Black students. Through convenience sampling study participants were recruited from individuals who were currently participating in social and emotional learning lessons at the research site resulting in a total of 66 participants. Six case representatives were selected from those that participated in the survey for follow-up semi-structured …

A Preliminary Analysis Of Lungless Salamander Baraminology (Caudata: Plethodontidae), Timothy R. Brophy, Kayla G. Natelborg

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Members of the lungless salamander family (Caudata: Plethodontidae), currently composed of over 500 species in 29 genera, nine tribes, and two subfamilies (1), have been grouped together for almost 200 years. This consistent taxonomic history suggests they form a distinct cognitum and quite possibly an apobaramin. Despite their abundance and diversity, no formal baraminological analyses have been conducted for this family (see Wood (2)). Hennigan (3), however, tentatively defaulted to the genus level for lungless salamander kinds and suggested future research would probably lump them into larger taxonomic groupings. We utilized taxonomic, hybridization, morphological, and molecular data to estimate the …

Missing & Murdered Indigenous People, Victoria Giordano

Student Works

No abstract provided.

A Holistic Overview Of The Data Act, Its Implications On The Economy And Interplay With The Gdpr, Mary A. Mikhail

Student Works

No abstract provided.

A Lesson To Learn: Transgender Students Face Discriminatory School Policies In Texas, Randy Terhune

Student Works

No abstract provided.

When Simplicity Fails: A Purposeful Approach To Causation In Fca Enforcement, Hye Sun Choi

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Procedural Protection Or Political Pendulum: An Overview Of The Cross Examination Requirement In Title Ix Hearings Through Varying Presidential Administrations And An Analysis Of The Effects Of Khan V. Yale University, Charlotte A. Sweeney

Student Works

No abstract provided.