Digital Commons Network^™

Nourishing Confidence: Empowering Seniors To Make Healthy Food Choices, Ina Patricia Bangawan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Objective This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated the effectiveness of a 10-week nutrition education program designed to improve nutrition knowledge and confidence in making healthy nutritional choices among independent older adults living in a low-income senior housing community. Aim By August 10, 2026 the goal of this project was to increase average nutrition knowledge and confidence scores related to selecting nutritious foods and preparing healthier meals by 20% among senior housing facility residents. Methods A microsystem assessment and gap analysis, literature review, SWOT analysis, fishbone diagram, and GANTT chart were completed to guide the project development and implementation. Weekly nutrition …

Steady Steps: Building Confidence In Parkinson’S Disease Care, Jerlyn T. Nicdao

Master's Projects and Capstones

Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder that greatly impacts one’s quality of life due to its worsening progression and impact on cognitive and physical functions. Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement project is to strengthen staff confidence and competence in caring for residents with Parkinson’s disease (PD) living in a skilled nursing facility. Aim: Clinical nurse leader (CNL) students aim to increase staff confidence and competence in PD care from 60% to 75% over a six-week period, from June 18, 2026, to July 30, 2026. Method: A total of thirteen interdisciplinary staff members (e.g. registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, …

Standardizing Gestational Diabetes Group Education In An Outpatient Maternal-Fetal Medicine Clinic: A Quality Improvement Project, Nina Prieto

Master's Projects and Capstones

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) requires timely and consistent education to support effective self-management and reduce maternal and fetal complications. Baseline assessment of an outpatient maternal-fetal medicine clinic identified variation in educational materials, teaching approaches, referral processes, scheduling, and workflows across English- and Spanish-language GDM group visits. This quality improvement project aimed to standardize the group visit process and increase staff compliance with standardized materials and workflows from 0% to 50% over a 12-week period. Data were collected through direct observation of group and individual education sessions, stakeholder feedback, review of existing materials, referral and attendance patterns, and workflow analysis. These …

Improving Sleep Assessment Compliance On A Medical-Surgical Unit, Cassandra Nguyen

Master's Projects and Capstones

Poor sleep in the hospital is linked to more pain, more opioid use, delirium, slower healing, and longer hospital stays. A required Enhanced Recovery Medicine (ERM) sleep assessment is meant to help, but it is not always documented. On a 25-bed medical-surgical unit in a large integrated health system in northern California, only 75.8% of eligible days had this assessment documented before noon at baseline (March 30 to April 28, 2026). The plan has three parts: bedside sleep champions on the day and night shift, staff education during shift huddles supported by an education flyer, and weekly audits through the …

“Now Serving… Not Quite Yet”: Improving Waiting Room Experience Through Consistent Communication In The Emergency Department, Juan Carlos Serrato

Master's Projects and Capstones

Context: The quality improvement project was implemented in the front-end microsystem of a 36-bed emergency department (ED) in a non-profit, Magnet-designated California hospital. Problem: Communication with non-roomed patients at Hospital X was inconsistent, contributing to dissatisfaction. In June 2026, Press Ganey reported that 61.4% of patients felt they were informed about delays. Baseline observation identified gaps in staff explanations of estimated wait times, next steps in care, and opportunities to ask questions. Intervention: A 30-day pilot provided staff education on the AIDET communication framework through formal in-service education and daily huddles. Patient-facing materials explained the ED process …

Improving Pressure Injury Prevention Through Braden Scale Compliance And Education In The Emergency Department, Joycelyn Lee, Kira Simone Faerstain, Alyssa Kristine Ortiz, Ashley Briseida Cruz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Pressure injuries are a major burden in healthcare, particularly in the Emergency Department (ED). Patients can be sedentary for prolonged periods of time and don't always get their skin checked promptly. Patients visiting the ED often have comorbidities and patient-specific medical needs, such as seniors with fragile skin, malnourishment, immobility, etc. At a Southern Los Angeles Hospital, leadership found that there was a need for improvement in this area. Implementing standardized risk assessment methods can help to improve the consistent use of the Braden Scale as a predictive and preventive tool for identifying patients' risk for pressure injuries and promoting …

Practicing Pietas: Character Development For Lawyers As Citizens, Elisabeth Rain Kincaid

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Biology

No abstract provided.

Discovery And Functional Characterization Of Novel Programmed Death-Ligand 1 Monoclonal Antibodies, Nurşah Ersezen, Mai̇de Şeker, Arzu Aysan, Durmuş Akdoğan, Mehmet Ender Avci, Asli Kurden Pekmezci̇, Si̇bel Kalyoncu Uzunlar, Mehmet İnan, Tamer Yağci

Turkish Journal of Biology

Background/aim: Targeted therapies with monoclonal antibodies provide cancer patients with better prognosis and diseasefree survival. The blockade of immune checkpoints, including programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1, with monoclonal antibodies may boost immune responses against tumors and is regarded as an effective strategy in cancer immunotherapy. We describe the generation of anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies with high affinity and specificity, and we assess their potential for therapeutic use in cancer.

Materials and methods: Hybridomas were selected for PD-L1 specificity and cross-reactivity with other immune checkpoint proteins and PD-L1 orthologs using indirect ELISA. Immunofluorescence and Western blotting assays were …

Church Tape Collection, Approximately 1969-2008, Ministers

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Mechanical Characterization Of Stereolithography 3d Printing Resins Using Tensile And Flexural Testing, Oliver Stitt

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

This study characterized and compared Clear V5 and Tough 1500 Resin V2 specimens printed on a Formlabs Form 4 SLA resin printer using tensile and flexural mechanical testing. Tensile testing was based on ASTM D638-14 using Type IV specimen geometry, and flexural testing was based on ASTM D790-17 using three-point bending geometry. Clear V5 produced a mean tensile modulus of 1953.5 MPa and flexural modulus of 1479.1 MPa, compared with 1328.0 MPa and 1103.9 MPa for Tough 1500. Clear V5 also reached the higher maximum engineering stress in tension, while Tough 1500 showed a more compliant response. The results were …

Interpreting Title Vi: Translation Theory And The Making Of Language Policy, Olivia A. Allred

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act provides the primary statutory basis for the development of policies supporting language access. Rather than explicitly requiring institutions to accommodate individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP), the statute establishes a broad prohibition against discrimination based on race, color, and national origin. This thesis examines the process through which that broad statutory mandate has been interpreted and applied to specific language-access policies.

To elucidate the application of language access polices at the federal level, this analysis focuses on three landmark Supreme Court decisions concerning Title VI: Lau v. Nichols, Regents of the University …

Brief For Legal Scholars And Historians As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Jackson V. State, Nos. 26-76, 26-78 (U.S Supreme Ct. Aug. 14, 2026), G. Ben Cohen, Seth P. Waxman, Ashley Bierman, Sara Saunders

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Under a Florida law enacted in 2023, a judge may impose the death penalty only if the jury first “determine[s] that the defendant should be sentenced to death.” Fla. Stat. § 921.141(2)(c). The question presented is whether the Sixth or Eighth Amendment requires that jury determination to be unanimous, or whether it suffices—as provided in the statute—for only eight of the twelve jurors to vote for death.

A Message From The Managing Editor, Carissa Bayack

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

A message from the 2025-2026 Managing Editor of the Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal, Carissa Bayack.

For Weight Loss: Why Do Glp-1 Agonists Work, And How Can We Make Them Work Better?, Charlise Giang, Jieyi Meng, Mahmoud Ali Mohammad, Zhenqi Liu, Xinle Wu, Yi Zhu

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) have revolutionized the management of not only type 2 diabetes but also obesity. However, even with rapid therapeutic advances in GLP-1RAs, questions regarding the fundamental principles of GLP-1-mediated weight loss and the enhanced efficacy of next-generation therapies remain. In this comprehensive review article, we first examine the milestones of GLP-1, from its initial discovery and biological characterization to its successful translation into clinical therapy. Furthermore, this review highlights the latest clinical trial data, specifically HbA1c reduction, weight-loss efficacy, and safety profiles, while exploring current pipelines of major pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, we delineate the mechanistic …

Fall Risk In Community-Dwelling Adults: A Comparison Of English And Spanish-Speaking Individuals, Jesus D. Gomez

Dissertations, 2020-current

Falls are a leading cause of injury-related mortality among middle-aged and older adults. Although vestibular dysfunction, hearing loss, behavioral factors, and social determinants of health have been associated with increased fall risk, few studies have examined these relationships. Furthermore, limited research in audiology and vestibular science has investigated fall-risk vulnerability among Spanish-speaking individuals.

This study aimed to: (1) estimate the prevalence of fall risk among community-dwelling adults and compare prevalence between English-speaking and Spanish-speaking participants; (2) assess the prevalence of previously undiagnosed benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and compare prevalence between language groups; and (3) develop predictive models of fall …

Brain Perivascular Macrophages Regulate Endothelial Cell Function Via A Cmaf-Dependent Transcriptional Program In Mouse And Human, Simone Brioschi, Julia A Belk, Steffen E Storck, Yue Wu, Zhuoying Wang, Ziang Feng, Lynn Van Olst, Josie L Emery, Raki Sudan, Junjie Wu, Siling Du, Marco Genua, Federica La Terza, Alex J Edwards, Khai M Nguyen, Jessie Sanford, Daniel D Lee, Mattia Bugatti, Arnold J Federico, Yun Chen, Zuoxu Wang, Silvia Penati, Patrick Fernandes Rodrigues, Alina Ulezko Antonova, Hui Qi Loo, Igor Smirnov, Susan Gilfillan, Carmen M Halabi, Jennifer Ponce, Jun Yan, Howard Y Chang, Gwendalyn J Randolph, William Vermi, Marina Cella, Michael Meers, Renato Ostuni, David Gate, Aivi T Nguyen, Carlos Cruchaga, Song Hu, Jonathan Kipnis, Marco Colonna

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Brain perivascular macrophages maintain brain physiology, yet their transcriptional regulators and functions in health and disease remain unclear. Using single-cell multi-omics and functional experiments, we identify cellular musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene (cMAF) as a key transcription factor for brain perivascular macrophages, and conditional deletion of cMAF disrupts their phenotype in vivo. Functionally, cMAF drives insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1) expression in perivascular macrophages, enabling communication with endothelial cells. Consistently, cMAF deletion in perivascular macrophages causes transcriptional alterations in cerebral arteries, affecting vascular functions. Notably, cMAF emerges as the main transcription factor for human perivascular macrophages, suggesting conservation of this transcriptional module. During …

Cultural Tailoring Of Digital Nutrition Interventions: A Scoping Review Of Adaptation Strategies, Evaluation Methods, And Evidence Gaps, Wendy Liang

Master's Projects and Capstones

Background: Nutrition-related chronic diseases disproportionately affect culturally diverse populations, highlighting the need for effective and equitable interventions. Digital nutrition interventions have expanded rapidly due to their accessibility; however, the extent to which they incorporate and evaluate cultural tailoring remains unclear.

Research aim: This scoping review maps the existing evidence on culturally tailored digital nutrition interventions, describes cultural adaptation strategies used, examines methods used to evaluate cultural appropriateness, and identifies gaps for future research and public health practice.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines.

Findings: Culturally tailored digital nutrition interventions generally improved participant engagement, acceptability, and dietary …

Building Fluent Readers: Developing Comprehensive Reading Fluency In K-2 Classrooms, Erika Yersak

Masters Projects

Despite extensive research establishing reading fluency as essential to literacy development, many early elementary students fail to achieve grade-level fluency, compromising their reading comprehension and academic success.  Fluency instruction has been narrowed to measuring reading speed, dismissed beyond third grade, and taught as an isolated skill disconnected from authentic reading across content areas.  While research demonstrates that fluency encompasses accuracy, automaticity, and prosody and should be integrated meaningfully across disciplines, many K-2 teachers lack practical resources and guidance for implementing comprehensive fluency instruction in their classrooms.

To address this gap, this project presents a research-based fluency integration guidebook for K-2 …

Establishing Partnerships Between Families, Schools, And Communities To Support Family Involvement In Literacy Education, Matraca Bourdo

Masters Projects

As the percentage of fourth grade students reading at a proficient level continues to decline, schools are seeking effective ways to improve literacy education and student achievement. Research emphasizes the importance of early literacy development in supporting academic success and lifelong learning. However, not all families have the same background knowledge of literacy skills and how to develop them with their children. Partnerships between schools, families, and communities can provide the support and resources needed while working toward the goal of improving student achievement.

The purpose of this project is to implement a team that partners with families to educate …

Building Culturally Informed Classrooms Through Professional Learning, Samantha Grimm

Masters Projects

Black Americans remain disadvantaged within today’s current education system. Teachers are not always equipped with equitable resources and teaching practices to effectively teach literacy to historically marginalized groups, where cultural differences are complex. When teachers utilize a culturally informed pedagogy that values students’ cultural identities, personal and academic achievement are enhanced. Culturally informed instruction builds upon previous research by Gloria Ladson-Billings, Geneva Gay, and Gholdy Muhammad. This project is designed to support teachers when working alongside culturally diverse students. The resources created in this project are intended to create positive and equitable learning experiences for Black students. These students deserve …

The Parkinson's Pathway: Enhancing Knowledge And Care Management In Skilled Nursing, Kaitlyn Chau

Master's Projects and Capstones

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is commonly diagnosed among the older population, contributing to high utilization of skilled nursing facility (SNF) services. Objective: SNF A’s current onboarding and training program for staff discussed general geriatric topics but failed to include structured PD-specific education. This may lead to gaps in competence, confidence, and workflow related to PD care and management, resulting in low quality of patient care, poor health outcomes, and decreased safety and satisfaction. Aim: The project aimed to establish and incorporate a structured PD-specialized education program within a SNF located in Northern California, to increase employees’ self-reported confidence, competence, …

Teaching Phonics And Phonemic Awareness To Grow Reading, Brianna N. Wildey

Masters Projects

Research has revealed important information about students reading proficiently, yet most students in public schools throughout the country are reading below their grade level. As proficient readers, early elementary students need to know how to read the words on the page and understand what they mean. Students cannot read for knowledge or fun if they don’t know what the words are on the page. Two theoretical frameworks have informed this project to improve student reading. One is Orthographic Mapping Theory and the other is Alphabetic Phase Theory. This project explores the background of teaching reading, both past and present. Students …

The Educational Experiences Of College Students Who Were Formerly Involved In The Juvenile Justice System, Nicole-Jasmin T. Clark

Doctoral Dissertations

In the United States, juvenile offending, reentry, and recidivism continue to be serious concerns for public and institutional policy making. Due to historical and current policies of both the education and juvenile justice system, youth of color (YOC) and youth with disabilities and diagnosed with mental health disorders have been overly disciplined by schools and disproportionately adjudicated by the juvenile justice system. In their annual Statistical Briefing Book, The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has consistently reported YOC, particularly Black youth, are arrested, adjudicated, and detained at much higher rates when compared to their white peers. Research …

Retired Doctors As Users Of Patient-Facing Electronic Health Records: A Mixed-Methods Survey In The Uk And Spain, Ray Jones, Shang-Ming Zhou, Angeles Lazcoz, Brian Mcmillan, Olanrewaju Bamidele, Richard Fitton, Brian Fisher, Mar Soler-Lopez, Charlotte R. Blease

School of Nursing and Midwifery

BackgroundOnline patient access to electronic records is expanding internationally but remains contested. Although practising clinicians’ concerns are well documented, less is known about the views of retired doctors who are more likely themselves to be patients. We explored the experience of retired doctors in accessing their own medical records as patients in the UK and Spain.MethodsWe conducted an anonymous mixed-methods online survey of retired doctors aged 60 years and over in the UK and Spain. Participants reported their experiences of accessing their own medical records and their views on whether online access should be available to all patients. Quantitative analyses …

Lineage Tracing Reveals A Shared Cellular Origin For Supraclavicular Brown And Inguinal Beige Adipocytes, Yali Ran, Kai Zhang, Yi-Ting Shen, Qianxing Mo, Ziyi Wang, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Sharon John, Mari Kogiso, Xia Gao, Chunmei Wang, Tanvi Sinha, Brian L Black, Miao-Hsueh Chen

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

The metabolic importance of brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been recognized, but its origins, particularly supraclavicular BAT (scBAT), remain unclear. Here, we traced scBAT to Mef2c-anterior heart field (AHF)-marked cells. Mef2c-AHF-marked cells isolated from scBAT can spontaneously differentiate into brown adipocytes, express mesenchymal stem cell markers, and can be isolated from the stromal-vascular fraction (SVF) of wild-type scBAT as [CD31

The Application Of Knowledge Graphs In Education: A Bibliometric Analysis, Rui Yin, Jundi Teng, Ningwei Sun, Huimin Li, Ting Cheng

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as ChatGPT, the use of knowledge graphs (KGs) has increased substantially in educational applications. As a technology for knowledge representation and management in AI, KGs play a pivotal role in personalized learning, educational resource integration and management, and learning performance prediction. Their scalability and semantic interpretability were particularly evident in online education during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, systematic reviews of their application in education remain limited.

To address this gap, our study analyzed data from the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection (high-quality Social Sciences Citation Index …

Community School Hubs: A Path To Literacy For English Learners And Families, Elizabeth Ortiz-Wright

The Reading Professor

This qualitative narrative study examined the perceptions of community school hub members and Hispanic English learner parents at an elementary school in a suburban district. Eighty-four percent of the students at the study site were economically disadvantaged. The inquiry drew on sociocultural theory and Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory to explore how these hubs support families. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and field observations and analyzed using Quirkos software. The findings demonstrate the overall value of community school hubs in addressing basic needs, increasing the potential for academic success. However, a significant lack of clarity exists; many parents were unaware …

Beyond The Deficit Lens: Black Family Literacy As Social, Cultural, And Historical Practice: Implications For Literacy Teacher Education, Tasean D. Baldwin

The Reading Professor

Literacy education in the United States has long centered on standardized English and formal classroom instruction. While intended as a universal benchmark, this approach systematically overlooks and delegitimizes the rich literacy history and traditions rooted in Black families and communities. Through the application of frameworks such as New Literacy Studies, Gee's Theory of Discourse Communities, Yosso's Community  Cultural Wealth model, and Critical Race Theory, this article reframes Black family literacy through a social, cultural, and historical lens. It is forged and perpetuated by resistance to racial oppression, through the intergenerational exchange of knowledge, and oral traditions within the community. This …

Beyond The Label: Investigating The Relationship Between Ell Placement And Teacher Expectations For Academic Rigor, Bruce A. Torff, Audrey Figueroa Murphy

The Reading Professor

Urban teachers (N=142) completed a survey assessing how placement of English learners in common pedagogical settings that vary in ESL models (self-contained, pull-out, push-in, bilingual, and dual language) was associated with teachers' beliefs about rigor of curriculum. Teachers significantly favored low-Critical Thinking (CT) curricular activities over high-CT ones consistent with "rigor gap" research showing that teachers tend to view ELLs in need of low-CT curriculum. Beliefs consistent with the rigor gap also emerged within the ELL population, based on placements. Teachers preferred curriculum tilted toward low-CT instruction for students with the greatest challenges--those given the most ESL-sequestered placements (self-contained and …