Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Image Quality In Mobile Cone-Beam Ct With Dose Modulation Using Automatic Exposure Control: A Phantom Study, Keita Okazaki, Wenchao Cao, Reza Taleei, Firas Mourtada, Jun Li, Karen Mooney, Pramila Rani Anne, Yingxuan Chen

Department of Radiation Oncology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The integration of mobile cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) into brachytherapy workflows offers clinical advantages such as immediate verification of applicator placement and adaptive treatment planning. These benefits require sufficient image quality to delineate applicators, target volumes, and organs at risk. A systematic evaluation of automatic exposure control (AEC) settings, radiation dose, and image quality is essential to ensure clinically acceptable imaging while minimizing patient exposure.

PURPOSE: This study evaluates the characteristics of AEC and its impact on image quality and radiation dose in a mobile CBCT system used for brachytherapy.

METHODS: The Elekta ImagingRing CBCT system was used to …

Peripheral Calcifying Odontogenic Cyst In Maxillary Anterior Gingiva: A Case Report, Dimitris N. Tatakis

Faculty Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Calcifying odontogenic cysts (Gorlin cysts) most commonly present centrally and have only rarely been reported in peripheral locations. The purpose of this report is to describe a new case of peripheral calcifying odontogenic cyst (PCOC) occurring in the anterior maxillary gingiva and to review the management and differential diagnosis of such a lesion. METHODS: A 37-year-old female presented with a long-standing submucosal nodule on the gingiva between the maxillary central incisors, with asymptomatic growth over the last three years. Following an initial incisional biopsy, a diagnosis of PCOC was established. To exclude the possibility of a central process, a …

Serum Factors In Primary Podocytopathies, Edward J. Filippone, John L. Farber

Division of Nephrology Faculty Papers

Primary podocytopathies, including minimal change disease (MCD) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), are caused by a circulating factor or factors injurious to the podocyte. An immunologic origin seems likely based on responsiveness to corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive agents, including calcineurin inhibitors targeting T-cells and rituximab targeting B-cells. Potential non-antibody-mediated circulating factors have been identified, including cardiotrophin-like cytokine 1, soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, and angiopoietin-like 4, among others. More recent research supports a primary antibody pathogenesis, with anti-nephrin antibodies found in a significant percentage of cases. Such antibodies also predict recurrence after transplantation. Other potential antigenic targets besides nephrin include …

Isu Symphony Orchestra: Roots And Resonance; September 28, 2025, Samuel Chen

School of Music Programs

This is the eleventh program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the Performing Arts

September 28, 2026

Sunday Afternoon

3:00 p.m.

Isu Symphony Orchestra: Roots And Resonance; September 28, 2025, Samuel Chen

School of Music Programs

This is the eleventh program of the 2025-2026 season.

Center for the Performing Arts

September 28, 2025

Sunday Afternoon

3:00 p.m.

Microtia, Peng You, Yi-Chun Liu, Caitlin Symonette

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Proceedings Of The Ursinus Colloquium On Liberal Education: Liberal Arts On Offense, Stephanie Mackler, Allison E. Carey, Matt Kozusko, Mark Schneider

Ursinus Colloquium on Liberal Education

About • Liberal Arts on Offense: Introductory Remarks • Questions Posed to the Alumni Panel • Panel Remarks from Session One: Offensive Liberal Arts • List of Participants

The Association Between Glp-1 Receptor Agonist Use And Gastroparesis In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Scoping Review, Daniela Lizbeth Avilez, Amanda Killeen

School of Podiatric Medicine - Student Research

Poster Category:  Non-sponsored

Level of Evidence:  Level V

Introduction:  GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), widely used for glycemic control and weight management in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), slow gastric motility.

Reports of “gastroparesis” in GLP-1 RA users raise the question whether this reflects reversible pharmacologic effects or true diabetic autonomic neuropathy. This distinction matters for podiatric physicians, as gastroparesis indicates systemic autonomic dysfunction that parallels peripheral neuropathy, impaired wound healing, and heightened foot ulcer risk. Most prior studies rely on symptoms rather than validated gastric emptying (GE) measures.

Aim:  To evaluate the association between GLP-1 RA use and gastroparesis …

Comparison Of Authentic Urine N-Ethylpentedrone Metabolites To Predicted In Silico And In Vitro Human Hepatocyte Metabolism, Gloria Daziani, Omayema Taoussi, Diletta Berardinelli, Giulia Bambagiotti, Marilyn A. Huestis, Francesco P. Busardò, Jeremy Carlier

Institute of Emerging Health Professions Faculty Papers

Synthetic cathinones are the second most common class of substances belonging to the category of new psychoactive substances (NPS). N-ethylpentedrone (NEPD) self-administration was reported, making it important to elucidate its metabolic pathway to improve its detection. NEPD is often taken together with other substances; confidently identifying its intake is important for accurate toxicological analysis and understanding its toxicity. NEPD metabolism was studied following incubation with human hepatocytes and analysis by liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry paired with Compound Discoverer software (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Prediction of possible metabolites was performed with the online software GLORYx. In vivo NEPD metabolism was evaluated by …

Outcomes Of The Modified Cabrol Technique In Aortic Root Replacement: Early And Midterm Experience, Nayeem Nasher, Joshua R. Chen, Purab Kothari, Colin King, Jacqueline Mcgee, Vishal Shah, Saarah Khairi, Konstadinos A. Plestis

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVES: The modified Cabrol technique has been associated with excellent graft patency. However, prior studies were limited to patients largely on long-term anticoagulation. We sought to analyze outcomes in patients primarily managed without mechanical prostheses.

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed all patients who underwent aortic root replacement by a single surgeon from 2014 to 2024. Patients who underwent reimplantation of one or both coronary ostia using the modified Cabrol technique with separate interposition grafts were identified. Baseline characteristics and postoperative outcomes were reported. Predictors of mortality were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards, and overall survival was reported using Kaplan-Meier analysis.

RESULTS: …

Quality Improvement Project Simulation Orientation For Nursing Faculty, Emily Harvey

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Many nursing faculty are expected to teach using SIM without adequate preparation, which can limit competence in SIM-based teaching. A university-level school of nursing identified this gap and initiated a quality improvement project to strengthen faculty readiness through a structured online orientation. The intervention used the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Essentials in Clinical SIMs Across the Health Professions and was guided by Benner’s Novice to Expert Model, Lewin’s Change Theory, and the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest quantitative design was conducted with nursing faculty participants. The Facilitator Competency Rubric (FCR) assessed competence across five domains: preparation, prebriefing, facilitation, debriefing, …

Emotion Labor As A Catalyst For Language Teacher Identity Renewal And Well-Being: An Autoethnography, Yasser Aminifard

The Qualitative Report

In this autoethnographic study, I explore how my temporary engagement in emotion labor, triggered by teaching and assessment demands imposed by my university, prompted a renewal of my teaching style and enhanced my well-being. Personal journals supplemented by semi-structured interviews with the university’s vice-chancellor, whose expectations precipitated my emotion labor, served as the primary data sources. Drawing on Engeström’s (2015) activity theory, I analyze the contradictions within my university’s activity system that gave rise to my emotion labor, understood here as the management of the negative emotions and tensions arising from discrepancies between teachers’ professional beliefs and workplace demands (Benesch, …

Growth Plate Skeletal Stem Cells And Their Actions Within The Stem Cell Niche, Natalie Kiat-Amnuay Cheng, Shion Orikasa, Noriaki Ono

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The growth plate is a specialized cartilage structure near the ends of long bones that orchestrates longitudinal bone growth during fetal and postnatal stages. Within this region reside a dynamic population of growth plate skeletal stem cells (gpSSCs), primarily located in the resting zone, which possess self-renewal and multilineage differentiation capacity. Recent advances in cell-lineage tracing, single-cell transcriptomics, and in vivo functional studies have revealed distinct subpopulations of gpSSCs, which are defined by markers such as parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), CD73, axis inhibition protein 2 (Axin2), forkhead box protein A2 (FoxA2), and apolipoprotein E (ApoE). These stem cells interact intricately …

Llm-Gaode: Large-Language-Model Augmented Neural Ordinary Differential Equation Network For Video Nystagmography Classification, Shuo Li

Faculty Scholarship

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), a common type of vertigo with complex etiologies, is traditionally diagnosed using video nystagmography (VNG). Current automated methods lack diagnostic precision owing to subjective interpretation of eye movement characteristics. To address these challenges, we introduce a large language model-augmented Gram-based attentive neural ordinary differential equation (LLM-GAODE), an innovative and data-driven framework integrating eye-tracking technology with a Gram-based attention mechanism and a neural ordinary differential equation network to improve BPPV classification. Furthermore, when the neural network exhibits low confidence in its predictions, an LLM can supplement the process with advanced reasoning in natural language. LLM-GAODE was …

A Few Millimeters Of Bone: How Male Supremacists Leverage Scientific Sexism To Reinforce Misogynistic Ideologies, Robin O'Hanlon

Publications and Research

In recent years, male supremacist actors have reinforced their misogynistic worldviews by using narrative strategies centered on authoritative “common sense” and scientific “fact.” This paper presents a thematic narrative analysis of The Incel Wiki and the Wiki4Men, representing the first formal analysis of the wiki for the men’s rights organization A Voice for Men. The analysis indicates male supremacists use techniques including misappropriation of scientific information, manipulation of statistics, and leveraging pseudoscientific information to develop their narrative strategies of supremacy. The most consistent narrative strategies of scientific sexism on the wikis are male victimhood, denial of inequality between men and …

Genomic Prediction And Association Mapping Of Early Season Flood Tolerance In Soybean, Caio Canella Vieira, Chengjun Wu, Derrick Harrison, Rafael Marmo, Liliana Florez-Palacios, Andrea Acuna, Daniel Rogers, Samuel B. Fernandes, Igor Fernandes, Grover Shannon, Heng Ye, Henry T. Nguyen

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Flooding has become a major threat to soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production as the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitations have been increasing due to climate change. While advances have been made in identifying soybean genetic resources and genomic regions associated with mid-season flood tolerance, there is limited understanding of early season flood tolerance at the vegetative growth stages V2/V4. This study aimed to identify genomic regions associated with early season flood tolerance using a diverse panel of 254 soybean accessions, as well as investigate the viability of implementing genomic prediction models for flood tolerance. Field trials were conducted …

Converse Of Ptolemy’S Theorem, Hidefumi Katsuura

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In The Almagest, we found the original Ptolemy’s theorem and its proof, and we compared it to “Ptolemy’s theorem” written in two modern geometry textbooks. They are different in that the new ones include the “converse” of the original one. We noticed the hypothesis of the “converse” can be interpreted in two ways. Using this as our motivation, we establish a new theorem related to Ptolemy’s theorem in this note as follows: If four distinct points A, B, C, D are given in the three-dimensional space so that ABC is a triangle, and if |AB||CD|+|AD||BC|=|AC||BD|, then the points A, B, …

Change In Property Of Hardened Cement Specimens Having Different Mineral Composition Cured In High Concentration Co2 From The Very Early Material Age, Kazuto Tabara, Kazuya Yamashita, Hiroyuki Kameda, Shintaro Miyamoto

C3 Symposium 2025

We conducted research of CO2 capture behavior and rate of CO2 diffusion into hardened cement specimens of different pre-curing period before starting accelerating carbonation curing for ordinary portland cement (herein after OPC), OPC mixed with ground granulated blast furnace slag (herein after BB), and OPC mixed with an amorphous calcium aluminate-based accelerator (hereinafter ACC) respectively. We prepared two-type of hardened cement specimens, the first was in the case of powder shape hardened cement paste specimen which is designed to avoid carbon dioxide diffusion’s influence as much as possible and to evaluate fixation capacity of CO2, as a result CO2 content …

Rectifying The Disconnect Between The Policy Of The Doctrine Of Equivalents And Practice, Ian Moore

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The doctrine of equivalents began as a measure to protect inventors from unscrupulous copiers who would make substitutions to avoid liability under literal infringement claims. Prosecution history estoppel was established as a guardrail to the doctrine, as a method of bringing some certainty to the scope of patent claims. However, in the Supreme Court’s zeal to contain the doctrine, they over-curbed its efficacy.

In cases that hinged on the doctrine of equivalents, patentees were only successful 21% of the time in district court, and 22% of the time in the federal circuit. A much lower success rate compared to the …

You Can’T Handle The Obvious: Lkq And Testing For Nonobviousness In Design Patents, Frank Easterlin

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This Note traces the change from the rigid Rosen-Durling test for obviousness in design patents, to the Graham analysis in light of KSR v. Teleflex. The history of obviousness inquiries supported a more flexible approach and thus made Rosen-Durling unsupportable as anomalous. However, in abandoning a functional, if stiff, test for obviousness, the Federal Circuit both clarifies and clutters the law around obviousness. This Note follows that change, makes sense of what it can, and humorously criticizes the ambiguities and circularity of the court’s opinion. Ultimately, the new test opens up design patents to a wider array of attacks. This …

Dilemmas And Prospects Of Infectious Disease Prevention In Long-Term Care: A Qualitative Study, Po-Jen Kung, Ching-Min Chen, Nancy Reynolds

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Aim: To explore the experiences of long-term care workers in preventing emerging infectious diseases, the challenges they faced during the pandemic, and how they were addressed.

Design: This study used an exploratory qualitative research design.

Methods: The study involved various long-term care institutions across Taiwan. Twelve interviewees, including four nurses, four nursing assistants, and four managers, were recruited via purposive sampling. All interviewees worked in the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, were actively involved in clinical care or institutional management, and were proficient in Mandarin. In-depth interviews were conducted face-to-face between July and August 2024, and data …

Pandemic Prevention Competencies Of Long-Term Care Institution Workers: A National Survey In Taiwan, Po-Jen Kung, Ching-Min Chen, Katherine Ornstein

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Aim: To assess the self-perceived pandemic prevention competencies of health and care workers in Taiwan’s long-term care institutions and identified key factors influencing these competencies.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from June to July 2024 using stratified proportional sampling of health and care workers (nursing and nursing assistants) from various types of long-term care institutions (assisted living facilities, residential care homes and nursing homes). Participants were actively employed during the survey, involved in COVID-19 prevention efforts, and proficient in reading traditional Chinese. Data on pandemic prevention competencies were collected, using the Emerging Infectious Disease Prevention Competencies …

Developing And Validating An Emerging Infectious Disease Prevention Competencies Scale, Po-Jen Kung, Ching-Min Chen

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Aim: To develop an instrument and evaluate its psychometric properties for emerging infectious disease assessing prevention competencies among health and care workers in long-term care institutions.

Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive design utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods was employed.

Methods: The scale was developed according to scale development guidelines in two phases, namely the scale development phase and scale testing phase, with the staff of long-term care institutions as the study population and their workplaces as the sampling unit.

Results: The scale comprises 27 items across three dimensions: 14 items pertaining to professional role performance, 7 items addressing workplace resources, …

Health And Care Workers’ Roles In Infectious Disease Prevention In Long-Term Care: A Scoping Review, Po-Jen Kung, Ching-Min Chen, Yi-Yuan Cheng

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Aim: To describe how health and care workers contribute to the prevention of emerging infectious diseases in long-term care facilities.

Design: A scoping review.

Methods: A systematic search of literature dating from 2002 to 2022 was conducted in the following databases: EMBASE, Medline (Ovid), Cochrane Library, CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, and AgeLine. Studies were selected if they focused on health and care workers in long-term care facilities, offered a perspective on the prevention of emerging infectious diseases or infection prevention and control, and were original qualitative or quantitative studies in English. Data were extracted, cross-checked …

Carbonated High-Al Steel Slag As Supplementary Cementitious Material: Synergy Of Carbonation At Elevated Temperature And Addition Of Gypsum, Nannan Zhang, Gao Deng, Wenyu Liao, Chuanlin Hu, Lingyu Chi, Hongyan Ma

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

High-Al steel slags, such as ladle metallurgy furnace (LMF) slag, substantially retard the early hydration of cement when incorporated into cement pastes, primarily due to the high mayenite content. In this study, carbonation of slag at elevated temperatures of 60°C and 80°C, combined with gypsum addition, was proposed to synergistically mitigate the retardation effect and enhance the early-age strength of cement pastes. The physical and chemical properties of slags carbonated at various temperatures were analyzed to elucidate their impact on cement performance as a supplementary cementitious material. The results indicate that higher temperatures enhance carbonation reactivity, accelerating the carbonation of …

The Student Movement Volume 110 Issue 2: Week Of Prayer, Politics, And Purpose, Kara Shepard, Megan Constantine, Corinna Bevier, Melanie Webb, Joey Carrion, Isa Demoraes, Timi Olatunde, Aiko J. Ayala Rios, Ayanda Dewa, Nicoleta Cojan, Madison Vath

The Student Movement V. 110 (2025-2026)

HUMANS

What the Constitution Means to Me, Kara Shepard

Where Passion Meets Purpose: Senior Natalie Reid Reflects on Her College Years, Megan Constantine

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Art Around the City, Corinna Bevier

The Saxophone Reimagined: Cerus Quartet at HPAC, Melanie Webb

The TV Shows That Taught Me Spanish, Corinna Bevier

NEWS

TikTok Survives: Trump Administration Announces Deal to Save the Platform, Joey Carrion

Students Experience "Real Life, real God" at Week of Prayer, Isa DeMoraes

IDEAS

Being Adventist in the 21st Century, Timi Olatunde

Question of the Week #2, Aiko J. Ayala Rios

The Great Spanish Surge, Ayanda Dewa

PULSE …

Controlling Private Economic Power: Lessons Learned From The Us Experience In The First Decades Of The 20th Century, Thierry Kirat, Frédéric Marty

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

Concerns related to Big Techs have led to a proliferation of legislative initiatives to complete competition rules with regulatory devices that would lead gatekeepers to be subject to obligations to preserve an equality of opportunities on the market. Within this context, this contribution revisits American decision-making practice from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century to show how regulatory-type interventions and the enforcement of competition rules have been activated to control the strategies of firms acting as gatekeepers. What we can learn from this experience is that a big firm having private regulatory power …

Catholic Jesuit Evangelisation In India: The Successes And Challenges Of Cultural Accommodation And Inculturation, Sajit U. Kabadi

eJournal of Catholic Education in Australasia

Since its inception as a Catholic religious order in 1540, the Society of Jesus continues to be the prominent instrument of Catholic Mission evangelization in the world. There is no bigger example of this than in the country of India. Given that India is a predominantly Hindu nation, Jesuit Catholic evangelization efforts is remarkably successful as well as revealing of complexity. These successful missionary efforts (in terms of number of conversions and Jesuit influence) have not been without its challenges, questions, controversies, and sacrifices of both the Jesuits and the local Indian people. This manuscript presents a historiography of Jesuit …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

No abstract provided.

Women Clergy Members' Perceptions Of Mentorship Strategies For Leader Development, Linda Ann Brady

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to recent studies, women were underrepresented in senior leadership in the global Christian church, and leadership pathways for the development of women were often lacking. The local problem within the International Christian Church (ICC) was a lack of understanding of holistic mentoring strategies that support the development of women clergy members, which could help fill the current leadership gap. Guided by Dahlvig and Longman’s model of women’s leadership development, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of women clergy regarding holistic mentoring strategies that might increase the number of women in leadership within the …