Digital Commons Network^™

Expanding Traditional Literacy Frameworks: A Multiliteracies Approach In Elementary Classrooms, Caroline Cuenca

Doctoral Dissertations

Teaching literacy in elementary schools can provide students with a rich, meaningful, and engaging learning experience. Furthermore, cultivating a culturally responsive approach to teaching and learning can promote feelings of acceptance and belonging in young children (Comber, 2018). However, elementary educators are feeling increased pressure to emphasize literacy instruction with a sole focus on foundational literacy skills, standardized curriculum, and accountability measures (Unadkat & Ochoa, 2026). Unfortunately, these instructional practices often limit students' opportunities to engage in creative, collaborative, multimodal, and meaningful learning (Unadkat & Cuenca, 2025). This mixed-methods study examined how a critical multiliteracies curriculum was implemented in a …

Methodological Progress Note: Logic Models, Molly J Horstman, Kyler M Godwin

Faculty and Staff Publications

Logic models are an accessible tool to organize the planning, management, and evaluation of programs across healthcare disciplines. This methodological progress note describes the five standard components of a logic model (Inputs, Activities, Outputs, Outcomes, and Impact) and provides guidance for developing a logic model. Logic models offer a visual representation of the work and theory of a program and should be created with input from all interested parties. Logic models are living tools that need to be revised as programs evolve and new information becomes available.

Tfeb Degradation Is Regulated By An Ikk/Β-Trcp2 Phosphorylation-Ubiquitination Cascade, Yan Xiong, Jaiprakash Sharma, Meggie N Young, Wen Xiong, Ali Jazayeri, Karl F Poncha, Ma Xenia G Ilagan, Qing Wang, Bei Gao, Hui Zheng, Nicolas L Young, Marco Sardiello

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Transcription factor EB (TFEB) is a master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and cellular clearance pathways. TFEB activity is tightly controlled by multiple post-translational mechanisms, but the exact molecular mechanism controlling its stability has remained elusive. Here, we identify the IκB kinase (IKK) complex as a key regulator of TFEB protein stability through a phosphorylation-ubiquitination cascade. A high-content kinase inhibitor screen reveals that IKK inhibition increases TFEB protein levels, and genetic ablation of IKK components increases TFEB stability, upregulates lysosomal genes, and enhances lysosomal biogenesis and degradative capacity. Mechanistically, we show that IKK phosphorylates TFEB on a cluster of serine residues …

Targeting Unfairness, Omolara Bewaji Joseney

Vanderbilt Law Review

Companies often engage in racially targeted marketing practices whereby they target and tailor their advertisements to racially segmented consumer populations. As a result, a targeted racial group of consumers may receive advertisements for a product or service that is intentionally customized to appeal to them (a “pull”) or may be specifically untargeted or excluded from receiving advertisements as members of a nontargeted racial group (a “push”). This Article examines the marketing environment created by these pull-push dynamics as a consumer protection concern. Legal scholarship on targeted advertising has focused either on its risks to privacy due to the growing reliance …

The Effects Of A Financial Literacy-Based Classroom Economy Model On Student Behavior, Engagement, And Financial Literacy, Liahna Sauter

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The Effects of a Financial Literacy-Based Classroom Economy Model on Student Behavior, Engagement, and Financial Literacy by Liahna Sauter employed a mixed methods research approach and used surveys, assessments, frequency charts, finance reports, and observations to learn more about the financial literacy-based classroom economy model. Different classroom economy models, namely token economies, are used widely across the educational sphere; though, financial literacy-based approaches do not have well-documented data surrounding their effectiveness. The financial literacy model aims to instruct students on real-world financial literacy concepts while simulating a real-world economy and incentivising positive behavior. Influenced by financial literacy-based classroom economy models …

Wegmans School Of Health And Nutrition’S Culinary Kitchen Cart Manual Development, Neena Bhala

Theses

To facilitate the initiation of culinary medicine at RIT, a manual to guide the use of a mobile kitchen cart was developed and evaluated. This manual was developed to support faculty, staff, and students’ use of a Mobile Kitchen Cart to be able to support culinary medicine and nutrition education activities. The Manual was directed to RIT faculty, staff, and students who have experience with the cart or intend to have future use with the cart. A qualitative evaluation study was conducted with ten participants including RIT faculty (n=2), students (n=4), and staff (n=4). Feedback on the manual was obtained …

Toward Reliable Computational Social Science: Inconsistency-Aware Methods For Human Annotation And Ai Inference, Sujan Dutta

Theses

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly common in computational social science, \textit{inconsistency} has emerged as a key challenge. AI models often contradict themselves when given equivalent inputs, disagree with other models on the same data, and diverge from human judgments in seemingly opaque ways. Human annotators exhibit their own inconsistencies, both within individuals and across groups shaped by differing values and identities. Rather than treating these inconsistencies simply as noise, this dissertation argues that they contain meaningful signals that can be leveraged to improve learning efficiency, strengthen evaluation, and increase the reliability of large-scale social measurement. To study this phenomenon, …

Department Of Politics And Government News And Views, Spring 2026, Department Of Politics And Government, Illinois State University

Department of Politics and Government News and Views

Newsletter of the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University

Diagnostic Criteria And Management Of Melas And Stroke-Like Episodes: Consensus-Based Statements, Michelangelo Mancuso, Marcello Bellusci, Valerio Carelli, Irenaeus De Coo, Daria Diodato, Felix Distelmaier, Omar Hikmat, Michio Hirano, Rita Horvath, Amel Karaa, Thomas Klopstock, Mary Kay Koenig, Cornelia Kornblum, Chiara La Morgia, Piervito Lopriore, Mika Henrik Martikainen, Robert Mcfarland, Olimpia Musumeci, Robert D S Pitceathly, Guido Primiano, Shamima Rahman, Fernando Scaglia, Andrew Schaefer, Manuel Schiff, Luisa Semmler, Costanza Lamperti, Serenella Servidei

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background and purpose: Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic acidosis and Stroke-like episodes (MELAS) is a rare multisystem mitochondrial disorder with clinical heterogeneity. Diagnostic criteria and management strategies for MELAS and mitochondrial stroke-like episodes (SLE) remain inconsistent. This work provides international consensus recommendations on the definition, diagnosis, and management of MELAS and SLE in pediatric and adult populations.

Methods: An international Delphi consensus process was conducted within the European Reference Network for Neuromuscular Diseases (ERN EURO-NMD), in collaboration with the US Mitochondrial Medicine Society, the ERN for Hereditary Metabolic Disorders (MetabERN), and patient representatives. Following a systematic literature review, 54 statements addressing diagnostic …

Weaning Drives Microbiome-Mediated Epigenetic Regulation To Shape Immune Memory In Mice, Li Yang, Robert C Peery, Shirui Zhou, Xiaomin Chen, Leah M Farmer, Fabiola Gutierrez, Stephanie Fowler, Lanjing Zhang, Julia M Salamat, Karen Riggins, Jiejun Shi, Lanlan Shen

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

During weaning, the transition to solid food diversifies the gut microbiome, triggering a programmed immune response critical for long-lasting mucosal immunity. Previous work showed that the gut microbiome mediates epigenetic development in intestinal stem cells (ISCs) during suckling, but what happens during weaning is unclear. Here, genome-wide profiling revealed that weaning-driven microbiome changes shape the DNA methylome and transcriptome of murine ISCs in an IFNγ-dependent manner. Specifically, we observe demethylation of enhancer elements essential for MHC class II genes, which results in a transcriptional memory that persists through differentiation into adulthood. IFNγ blockade, or low-dose penicillin to target Gram-positive bacteria, …

Complex Iliac Artery And Iliocaval Venous Reconstruction Using Temporary, Redundant Graft To Facilitate Resection Of Recurrent Metastatic Sex Stromal Tumor, Shah-Jahan M Dodwad, Blaz Podgorsek, Ezra Koh, Taha S Zaidi, Justin E Bird, Shalin S Patel, Thanila A Macedo, Gustavo S Oderich

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We report a complex case of recurrent, metastatic sex cord stromal tumor involving the pelvic vasculature and spinal nerves. Posterior and anterior approaches were required with redo iliac artery reconstruction using a temporary, redundant aortoiliac to right external iliac artery graft and iliocaval venous reconstruction. After completion of tumor resection from nerve structures, reconstruction of the right iliac veins was completed and the redundant aortoiliac arterial graft was shortened. The redundant graft minimized ischemia time, enabling meticulous dissection and tumor removal. This case underscores the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration in managing rare, aggressive malignancies with complex vascular and neural involvement.

Author Correction: Phenome-Wide Analysis Of Copy Number Variants In 470,727 Uk Biobank Genomes, Xueqing Zoe Zou, Fengyuan Hu, Haiyi Lou, Oliver S Burren, Xiaoyin Li, Karyn Megy, Eleanor Wheeler, Qiang Wu, Santosh S Atanur, Marcin Karpinski, Douglas Loesch, Zammy Fairhurst-Hunter, Sri V V Deevi, Erin Oerton, Sean Wen, Xiao Jiang, Cecilia Salvoro, Jonathan Mitchell, Abhishek Nag, Ben Hollis, Amanda O'Neill, Astrazeneca Genomics Initiative, Jen Harrow, Stewart Macarthur, Sebastian Wasilewski, Sean O'Dell, Lifeng Tian, Katherine R Smith, Guillermo Del Angel, Margarete Fabre, Ryan S Dhindsa, Quanli Wang, Slavé Petrovski, Keren Carss

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Ethical Controversies In Organ Procurement: A National Survey On Public Perceptions Of Thoracoabdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion, Trevor M Bibler, Jill Oliver Robinson, Adam Omelianchuk, Tariq Nisar, Savitri Fedson, Ariel N Levchenko, Amy L Mcguire

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TA-NRP) would likely expand the quantity and quality of organs procured after controlled circulatory death donation in the United States, yet its ethical permissibility remains contested. We surveyed a representative sample of US adults (n = 975) with the goal of assessing their perspectives on the ethical permissibility of TA-NRP. After reading a neutral description of TA-NRP, participants judged its permissibility, reviewed 5 critic and 5 supporter arguments (in random order), and chose which argument they found most convincing. Multivariable logistic regression examined predictors of agreeing with critics. Before exposure to the arguments, 51.5% stated that …

Leadless Pacing And The Emerging Era Of Combined Procedures In Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Srikant Das, Brock A Karolcik, Taylor S Howard

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Empiric Azithromycin Alters The Upper Respiratory Microbiome And Resistome Without Anti-Inflammatory Benefit In Covid-19, Abigail Glascock, Cole Maguire, Hoang Van Phan, Emily C Lydon, Joanna Schaenman, Carolyn S Calfee, Esther Melamed, John Greenland, David B Corry, Farrah Kheradmand, Lindsey R Baden, Rafick Sekaly, Grace A Mccomsey, Elias K Haddad, Charles B Cairns, Linda N Geng, Bali Pulendran, Ana Fernandez-Sesma, Viviana Simon, Jordan P Metcalf, Nelson I Agudelo Higuita, William B Messer, Mark M Davis, Kari C Nadeau, Monica Kraft, Christian Bime, David J Erle, Mark A Atkinson, Scott C Brakenridge, Lauren I R Ehrlich, Ruth R Montgomery, Albert C Shaw, Catherine L Hough, David A Hafler, Alison D Augustine, Patrice M Becker, Bjoern Peters, Al Ozonoff, Annmarie Hoch, Seunghee Kim-Schulze, Florian Krammer, Steven Bosinger, Walter Eckalbar, Matthew C Altman, Michael Wilson, Leying Guan, Holden Maecker, Hanno Steen, Impacc Network, Joann Diray-Arce, Nadine Rouphael, Steven H Kleinstein, Naresh Doni Jayavelu, Elaine F Reed, Ofer Levy, Victoria T Chu, Charles R Langelier

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Azithromycin is a widely used antibiotic and was frequently used to treat hospitalized patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of empiric azithromycin use on the respiratory microbiome in patients with viral respiratory infections is unclear. Here we used longitudinal metatranscriptomics on nasal swabs from a prospective multicentre cohort of 1,164 patients hospitalized for COVID-19. We compared the upper respiratory microbiome, resistome and systemic immune response in patients treated with azithromycin (n = 366) with those who received no antibiotics (n = 474) or other antibiotics (n = 324). We found that azithromycin altered microbiome composition and increased the expression …

Feasibility Of A Large Language Model Chatbot To Support Parental Understanding In The Picu, R Brandon Hunter, Satid Thammasitboon, Sreya Rahman, Sriya Kakarla, Pamela Petersen, Shelley Kumar, Thomas Rappold, Sanjiv Mehta

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of a large language model (LLM)-based chatbot for answering parental questions in the PICU and inform design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Design: Prospective single-arm feasibility study conducted from August 2024 to December 2024.

Setting: Quaternary PICU.

Subjects: Fourteen parents of children admitted to the PICU.

Interventions: Parents engaged in 10-minute sessions with a HIPAA-compliant GPT-4o- (Generative Pretrained Transformer 4o, OpenAI, San Francisco, CA) based chatbot prompted with patient-specific electronic health record (EHR) data.

Measurements and main results: Feasibility was assessed through four criteria: parental engagement and satisfaction, provider perceptions, accuracy and safety, and …

Body Mass Index And Survival In Children Receiving Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, Pilar Anton-Martin, Keith Baxelbaum, Shilpa Vellore, Erika O'Neil, Vinai Modem, Sameer Thadani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Importance: Underweight and obesity represent opposite ends of the nutritional risk spectrum that negatively affect children's health worldwide. Both conditions have been associated with increased mortality in pediatric patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support.

Objective: To investigate the association of underweight and obesity status with pediatric ECMO outcomes using body mass index (BMI) z scores.

Design, setting, and participants: This retrospective cohort analysis used data from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) database from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023. Participants included all pediatric patients from international ECMO centers aged 29 days to 18 years who received ECMO …

Development And Internal Validation Of A Pretransplant Biomarker Panel For Mortality Prediction Following Liver Transplant, Guergana G Panayotova, Sopio Simonishvili, Lianhua Jin, Duc T Nguyen, Edward A Graviss, Yong Qin, Anastasia Xynogala, Tumininu Ayorinde, Laurie J Minze, Alexander Lemenze, Krupa R Mysore, Julie M Corkrean, Linda W Moore, Flavio Paterno, Ashish Saharia, Constance M Mobley, Arpit Amin, Mark J Hobeika, Xian C Li, Paul J Gaglio, R Mark Ghobrial, James V Guarrera, Keri E Lunsford

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Importance: Current pretransplant clinical scoring systems fail to accurately estimate post-liver transplant (LT) survival, making recipient selection challenging. Persistent immune dysfunction contributes to early LT recipient mortality but is not captured by existing models.

Objective: To identify plasma biomarkers of pretransplant immune dysfunction and to develop a biomarker-based pre-LT risk stratification tool to predict post-LT mortality.

Design, setting, and participants: Prospective biomarker analysis of consecutively enrolled adult LT recipients was conducted. Healthy controls were included for baseline comparison. Patients undergoing LT at Houston Methodist Hospital (October 1, 2013, to December 31, 2017) and Rutgers/University Hospital (January 1, 2019, to March …

Physiological Peristaltic-Like Reactions Of The Tracheobronchial Tree Move Pulmonary Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Bacilli Into The Gastrointestinal Tract, Andrew R Dinardo, George W Kasule, Alberto L Garcia-Basteiro, Stool4tb Global Partnership

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Rethinking "Very High-Risk" Ascvd: Most Patients Qualify, Few Are Distinct?, Michael D Shapiro, Yuzhi Xi, Tammy Jiang, Xiao Zhang, Lori D Bash, Swapnil Rajpathak, Laura Gellis, Robert Hilkert, Erin D Michos, Christie M Ballantyne

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Cardiovascular Outcomes With Icosapent Ethyl By Burden Of Standard Modifiable Cardiovascular Risk Factors In Reduce-It, Rahul Aggarwal, Deepak L Bhatt, Michael Miller, Christie M Ballantyne, Eliot A Brinton, Terry A Jacobson, Steven B Ketchum, Jean-Claude Tardif, Matthew J Budoff, Gemma A Figtree, Ph Gabriel Steg

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Advanced Artificial Intelligence Vs Simpler Models For 1-Year Death Prediction Among Patients Receiving Hemodialysis, Karthikeyan K, Jennifer E Flythe, Patrick H Pun, Wolfgang C Winkelmayer, David Carlson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: We evaluated the data requirement for modern AI tools to outperform simpler models in predicting short-term mortality in over 500 000 patients with hemodialysis-dependent kidney failure.

Materials and methods: We compared logistic regression, boosting, and transformers using increasingly complex feature sets (from last-visit data to full trajectories). Performance was measured using the area under the ROC curve (AUC-ROC) and the Precision-Recall curve (AUC-PR) across training data sizes ranging from 500 to 490 197 samples.

Results: Using features with temporal information is beneficial across all models. On the full dataset, Transformers (AUC-ROC = 0.8568) and boosting (AUC-ROC = 0.8598) perform …

Driveline Infections Among Patients Supported With Left Ventricular Assist Devices: A Single Center Sixteen-Year Longitudinal Profile, Anh Nguyen, Alexis Shafii, Gabriel Loor, Andrew Civitello, O Howard Frazier, Todd Rosengart, Kenneth Liao

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Left ventricular assist device (LVAD) driveline infections significantly impact patient outcomes. This study aimed to identify their risk factors.

Methods: We analyzed LVAD data from our institutional Intermacs database (January 1, 2008-December 31, 2023), combining primary implants and pump exchanges. Patient characteristics were summarized as frequencies for categorical variables and median (IQR) for continuous variables. The nature of repeated infection events was handled by the Andersen-Gill method within a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model for cause-specific hazard of driveline infections, accounting for death and heart transplant as competing risks.

Results: Our cohort included 1026 LVAD implants. Median patient age …

The International Pediatric Headache Didactic Series: A Novel Curriculum Innovation, Sara Pavitt, Sruthi Ilangovan, Zoë Allen, Samantha L Irwin, Irene Patniyot

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: The International Pediatric Headache Didactic Series (IPHDS) was developed to provide free, comprehensive pediatric headache education to healthcare professionals worldwide. The objective of this study was to describe the design, implementation, and impact of this prospective educational intervention.

Background: Headache is the most common neurological symptom within the pediatric population. Yet, only nine fellowships are offered in pediatric headache medicine. Limitations in access to education and training are often cited as reasons for diagnostic and management barriers. To address this gap, the IPHDS was established in July 2022.

Methods: IPHDS is a recurring series consisting of 23 biweekly lectures. …

Complement Anaphylatoxin C5a-Induced Mouse Lymphatic Functions Modulate Interactions Between Endothelial Cells And T Lymphocytes, Haydn E Rich, Yi-Dong Li, Kathryn D Hok, Stacey L Mueller-Ortiz, Aleksey Y Domozhirov, Anthony Shadid, Rajarajan A Thandavarayan, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Marie-Francoise Doursout, Tingting Weng-Mills, Faraz Bishehsari, Nirmal K Banda, Kristin L Eckel-Mahan, Marcos I Restrepo, Pooja Shivshankar

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The lymphatic system is a highly branched endothelial tubular network that facilitates the migration of immune cells from the peripheral tissues to lymph nodes (LNs) and other lymphoid organs. Complement factors are essential for innate and adaptive immune functions. Complement anaphylatoxin C5a is crucial in vascular endothelial cell activation and lymphocyte polarization. Understanding the impact of C5a and its cognate receptor C5ar1 signaling on lymphatic function could provide new insights into the mechanisms of immune dysregulation observed in chronic inflammatory diseases. We demonstrate that acute C5a challenge in wildtype C57B6/J mice significantly reduced lymph propulsion compared to their C5ar1-deficient counterparts. …

Aht Diagnoses: The Influences Of Clinical Presentation And Evidence Of Impact, Ruairi Smith-Dewey, Angela Bachim, Colleen Bressler, Kristine Campbell, Lori Frasier, Christopher Greeley, Danielle Horton, Nicole Johnson, Jan Leonard, Megan M Letson, Caitlin Mcnamara, Ashley Sherman, Shalon Nienow, Stuart Sommers, Joanne N Wood, James Anderst

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: The frequency of abusive head trauma (AHT) diagnoses by child abuse pediatricians (CAPs), especially regarding external evidence of head impact, has been questioned.

Objectives: To compare CAP diagnoses in subjects with subdural hemorrhage (SDH) across clinical presentations, including subgroups with and without external evidence of head impact. Additionally, we aimed to describe subjects with SDH and concomitant suspicious injuries (CSI) without evidence of head impact.

Participants and setting: Multicenter retrospective study including subjects < 24 months old with SDH.

Methods: Subjects were divided into groups based on clinical presentations: Ill SDH only, Non-ill SDH only, and SDH + CSI. Groups were subcategorized based on presence/absence …

Confessions In Cases Of Child Physical Abuse-A Capnet Study, Margaret R Russell, Antoinette L Laskey, Henry T Puls, Suzanne P Starling, Joanne N Wood, Daniel M Lindberg, Nancy S Harper, Caitlin R Mcnamara, Angela N Bachim, Farah W Brink, Lori D Frasier, James D Anderst, Porcia Vaughn, Kristine A Campbell

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: Prior research on confessions of physical abuse (PA) has explored mechanisms of injury. Little is known about conditions supporting a confession of abuse or how confessions may influence case outcomes.

Methods: This cross-sectional study of suspected PA in children aged < 10 years at 10 centers participating in CAPNET, a multicenter child PA research network, included children with in-person Child Abuse Pediatrics (CAP) consultations between February 2021 and December 2022 and excluded children without injury. Our focus was a confession of inflicted injury known to the CAP during clinical involvement. We compared child and clinical characteristics, out-of-home (OOH) placements, and arrests between cases with and without confessions. Multivariable models using generalized estimating equations (GEE) produced adjusted predicted probabilities (APP) clustering by CAPNET site.

Results: Confessions were known to CAPs in 115/4297 (2.7%) cases, with significant site variability. In a multivariable GEE model, confessions were more likely in cases with injuries with high specificity for abuse (APP 6.0% vs 1.6%, P < .001), near-fatality (APP 5.6% vs 2.3%, P < .001), and older children (APP 4.8% vs 2.5%, P = .025). OOH placements and arrests were more common in cases with confessions. CAP awareness of confessions, OOH placements, and arrests did not follow racial or ethnic patterns seen in the US child welfare system. Lower socioeconomic status was associated with OOH placements and arrests but not with CAP awareness of confessions.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight differences in case characteristics and outcomes where a confession is known to the CAP and raise questions about …

Fronto-Cerebellar Features Associate With Cognitive Dysfunction In Childhood-Onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Hanne Van Der Heijden, Gabrielle Alonzi, Amanda Cao, Raquel Van Gool, Merve Koç Yekedüz, Lise Vrolix, Itamar Ronen, Vanessa Rameh, Kyle Mcbrearty, Aditi Deokar, Robert P Sundel, Eyal Muscal, Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich, Andrea Knight, Joyce C Chang, Jaymin Upadhyay

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objective: Cognitive dysfunction (CD) is a prevalent symptom in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE). This study aimed to investigate the neurobehavioral basis of CD in cSLE.

Methods: Patients with cSLE (N=20) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs, N=20) completed questionnaires and multiple neurocognitive tests. The Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000 and laboratory markers were used to monitor patients' clinical status. Neuroimaging assessments included functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and structural MRI.

Results: cSLE patients demonstrated moderate disease activity with high inflammation and immune dysregulation, alongside low medication adherence. Relative to HCs, cSLE patients …

Trauma-Related Compulsions In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Functional Insights From Factor Analysis, Caitlin M Pinciotti, Max Thorsson, Gregor Horvath, Matti Cervin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Resisting obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) compulsions is a key predictor of exposure and response prevention (ERP) effectiveness, yet trauma-exposed individuals with OCD endorse more severe compulsions and are more likely to be labelled 'treatment resistant.' Among trauma-exposed individuals, compulsions are theorised to function to prevent future trauma and cope with trauma-related responses. Recent findings suggest that certain compulsions in the context of trauma exposure differentially impact treatment outcomes, yet missing from extant literature is a larger empirically derived conceptualisation for how trauma may impact the underlying function of compulsions. In a sample of 662 adult patients enroled in intensive OCD treatment …

Dominant Clones Leverage Developmental Epigenomic States To Drive Ependymoma, Alisha S Kardian, Hua Sun, Siri Ippagunta, Nicholas Laboe, Srinidhi Varadharajan, Kwanha Yu, Hsiao-Chi Chen, Erik Emanus, Tuyu Zheng, Riley M Deneen, Jon P Connelly, Yong-Dong Wang, Jiangshan Zhan, Hengxi Liu, Kimberley Lowe, Taylor Bugbee, Rakesh Pathak, Amanda Bland, Sanya Mehta, Sophie Cochiolo, Amir Arabzade, Blake Holcomb, Kaitlin M Budd, Gabriele Kembuan, Tristen Wright, Emma Caesar, Maxwell Park, Amelia Hancock, David Gee, Joel Murdoch, Yi Xiao, Samuel K Mcbrayer, Thomas E Merchant, Jun Qi, Adam D Durbin, Lindsay A Schwarz, Li Wang, Andrew M Donson, Nicholas K Foreman, Sameer Agnihotri, Alfonso Lavado, Suzanne J Baker, David W Ellison, Hyun Kyoung Lee, Shondra M Pruett-Miller, Kelsey C Bertrand, Benjamin Deneen, Stephen C Mack

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

ZFTA–RELA is the most recurrent genetic alteration seen in paediatric supratentorial ependymoma (EPN) and is sufficient to initiate tumours in mice1. Despite its oncogenic potential, ZFTA–RELA (ZR) is observed nearly exclusively in childhood EPN, with tumours located distinctly in the supratentorial brain of the central nervous system1. We proposed that specific chromatin modules accessible during brain development would render distinct cell lineage programs at direct risk of transformation by ZR. To test this hypothesis, we performed combined single-nucleus assay for transposase-accessible chromatin and RNA (snMultiome) sequencing of the developing mouse forebrain compared with ZR-driven mouse …