Digital Commons Network^™

Nature's Medicine? The Associations Of Organized Youth Sport, Unstructured Physical Activity, And Land-Use Recreation With Children's Mental Health, Emotional Control, And Social Well-Being, Natalie Stagnone, Katherine Alexander, Kat V. Adams, Travis Dorsch

Human Development and Family Studies Student Research

Physical activity is well-established as beneficial for children’s physical and mental health, yet limited research has explored how different activity types impact psychosocial outcomes. This is a cross-sectional study that examined associations between youth participation in organized sport, unstructured physical activity, and land-use recreation and their psychosocial health. Survey data were collected from 3246 caregivers of children in the Intermountain West region of the United States. Respondents reported on children’s physical activity engagement and psychosocial outcomes, including mental health, emotional control, and social well-being. All three activity types were significantly associated with improved psychosocial health (p < 0.001). Compared to organized sport, unstructured physical activity and land-use recreation were associated with significantly higher levels of mental health and emotional control (p_adj < 0.001), although with a small effect size (η^{2 …}

Team Strong: Developing Resiliency In Rural Schools & Communities: A Multi-System Perspective, Pamela Shockley-Zalabak

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

This session introduces how two transformative resilience programs, USOPM's Becoming Your Personal Best: Life Lessons from Olympians and Paralympians (BYPB) and UCCS's Greater Resilience Information Toolkit (GRIT), when combined as the Team STRONG program, offer support to positively impact our rural youth, families, schools, and communities. Team STRONG focuses on the development of healthy, strong, and supportive relationships in the lives of our children and the adults that support them. BYPB teaches resiliency skills to youth via the powerful stories of Olympians and Paralympians. GRIT is designed to harness the power of the community surrounding our youth to provide every …

Recruiting Tomorrow's Teachers Today Through Research Based Recruitment Strategies, Denise Cunningham, Rhonda Bishop

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

This presentation addresses the critical teacher shortage by outlining effective recruitment strategies for Missouri State University's College of Education. Recognizing the decline in teacher education enrollments, the presentation focuses on research-based approaches to attract prospective teachers, particularly for rural schools. Faculty will share their experiences implementing these strategies, including challenges, successes, and program evolution. Strategies include targeted recruitment efforts, engaging on-campus experiences, and preparing students for the college application process.

Grid Fragility, Blackouts, And Control Co-Design Solutions, Mario Garcia-Sanz

Faculty Scholarship

The grid is undergoing a large-scale transformation, including a significant reduction of synchronous generators, a high penetration of inverter-based resources and renewables, substantial demand growth, new extra-large loads, aging infrastructure and a concerning vulnerability to contingencies. Some of the recent massive blackouts in Spain/Portugal, Chile and Texas are exposing the fragility of the grid as we know it today. This paper introduces new solutions to stabilize the grid under undesired dynamic interactions and extreme contingencies, with the goal of avoiding cascading failures and blackouts. Using control co-design methodologies, the paper proposes three interdependent categories to improve the reliability and controllability …

Flourishing: A Plan To Strengthen Public Legal Education And Information, The Bc Plei Ecosystem Project, Catherine Dauvergne, Aara Johnson, Shannon Srivastava

All Faculty Publications

The Public Legal Education and Information (PLEI) Sectoral Planning Project, headed by Dr. Catherine Dauvergne, K.C., was commissioned by the Law Foundation of British Columbia with the goal of making recommendations about how to improve public legal education and information in the province. The project was co-sponsored by the Law Foundation and the province’s Ministry of the Attorney General. We have come to understand this constellation of resources and organizations as the “public legal education and information ecosystem.” There is a wide array of high-quality, easily accessible, clearly written, legal information available in British Columbia. Ecosystem leaders are at the …

Pinterest Can Help Teachers Cook A Casserole, But What About Lgbtqia+ Affirming Lesson Plans For Students Of Color?, Denise Villarrial Nealon

Deliberately Queer Journal

We have learned to be crafty homemakers, small space decorators, and even teachers through the eye-catching appeal of sites like Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT). The accessibility and ease of searching for a preset lesson saves time, and in a society where teachers are paid far less than what they are worth and asked to work longer hours than they are paid for, this makes sense. Using the theoretical frameworks of CRT, QueerCrit, and CRP, along with the concepts of intersectionality, can build learning tools for new teachers to disrupt previous exclusionary practices that prevent LGBTQIA+ students of Color …

Innovative Partnerships To Expand School-Based Health Capacity In Rural Communities, Robyn Thomas Pitts, Amy K. Mcdiarmid

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

Our nation's youth are in dire need of increased access to high-quality school-based mental health (SBMH) services. In Colorado’s rural areas, the school psychologist-to-student ratio is 1:2,128— over four times the recommended level. Our team secured $4M in federal and state funding to implement an innovative partnership strategy for strengthening rural SBMH capacity. We describe how innovative partnerships enabled us to overcome systemic barriers to training future school psychologists as they live, work, and learn in rural settings. Our culturally sustaining approach to program design, implementation, and evaluation leverages family-school-community partnerships to expand rural SBMH capacity.

Participatory Exhibitions As An Awareness-Raising Platform For Bird Window Collisions, Janina Carla Castro, Jelaine Gan, Nancy Longnecker

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

Bird window strikes pose a significant threat to avian populations in urban settings. Understanding public attitudes toward this issue is vital for communicating the problem and possible interventions, such as applying window stickers. Bird Window Strike Philippines, a citizen science initiative, has promoted awareness through online engagement and a public pop-up exhibition designed to leave a lasting impression and gather visitor feedback. The exhibition introduced Filipino audiences to bird-window collisions through educational and participatory elements, including interpretive panels, taxidermied bird specimens, and window models demonstrating prevention techniques. Its central message was: “Bird window strikes are a problem, and we can …

Sustainable Pedagogical Space: Water Risk Reduction Management Through Permaculture Pedagogy, Susi Andriani Simanjuntak, Yuqin Zhou, Si Wen Li

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

This study explores a Permaculture design approach to promote water conservation and reduce water dependency, particularly in response to plastic pollution. Permaculture emphasizes water ethics, conservation principles, rainwater harvesting (via tanks, soil, land, and biomass), greywater reuse, and biological remediation techniques for water recycling and purification. The study applies a contextually adapted environmental pedagogy based on Permaculture for primary school students in North Sumatra, Indonesia, focusing on sustainable water conservation and plastic litter risk reduction. A case study method was employed, targeting schools that voluntarily participated. The approach highlights three commonly overlooked dimensions in environmental education: community connection, place-based authenticity, …

Terry Woodford Interview, Shoals Music Archive

Interviews

In this oral history interview, former producer, singer, and songwriter Terry Woodford reflects on his experiences in the Shoals music scene and the broader music industry. He reviews his childhood, where his love of music started. His first singing and recording experiences began at the age of five with his grandfather. His later childhood was marked by numerous moves due to his father’s job, but he still found time to sing and record with his grandfather, even into his twenties. Due to the moves, Terry encountered many people from diverse backgrounds at a very young age. Terry also details his …

Maximizing Limited Resources In Rural Schools: Toward Effective Gifted Programs, Celeste Dc Sodergren

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

Participants will receive knowledge and tools to support the implementation of local norms and universal screening within the boundaries of rural gifted programming. Participants will examine the variables impacting gifted identification and programming in rural school districts, evaluate rural gifted identification scenarios, and will explore ways to adapt universal screening and local norms to their own rural school districts' identification process.

Why Rural Matters 2025: A Preview And A Forward Look, Jerry Johnson

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

This presentation will provide a preview of the Why Rural Matters 2025 report that is currently in progress, including an overview of statistical gauges and indicators, topical essays, and key findings. Additionally, and looking forward beyond the report, presentation and discussion will engage the topic of cuts to federal programs that provide extant data essential for projects like Why Rural Matters and consider the implications for scholars, practitioners, and the general public.

Mentor Teachers As Leaders In Rural Schools: A Case Study In Retention And Renewal, Mandi Leigh

DU Rural Summit Conference Proceedings

Teacher recruitment and retention remain critical issues for rural schools in Colorado. This study explores the role that leadership development for mentor teachers may play in addressing the retention of veteran teachers and new/novice teachers alike. Rural veteran teachers are resilient leaders who introduce new teachers to the unique challenges of rural schools and their community contexts. By identifying and training mentor teachers, districts can simultaneously elevate veteran teacher expertise, celebrate their community contributions, and create capacity for leading induction programs. Ultimately, these can increase teacher retention in rural settings where teachers are most needed.

Directivity And Sound Radiation Of Percussion Instruments And Harmonic Analysis Of The Alto Saxophone, Hanna Michelle Pavill

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how musical instruments radiate sound, with a focus on directional behavior under realistic performance conditions. High-resolution measurements using a rotating microphone array were used to study percussion and woodwind instruments, providing new insight into how design, excitation, and frequency content shape acoustic output. The first set of experiments analyzed the directivity of the bass drum, triangle, and open snare. Each instrument exhibited unique radiation patterns reflecting its structure and playing method. The bass drum showed dipole-like behavior at low frequencies, transitioning to omnidirectional spreading at mid frequencies, and increasingly irregular patterns at higher frequencies. The triangle, due …

The Meaning And Essence Of Depression And Loneliness In Widowhood: Discovering The Healthy Construct Of Self-Efficacy, Christine M. Ward

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study will be to describe the lived experience of widows aged 65-80 who lost their husbands within the past five years in one of three counties in Washington State: Pierce, Kitsap, or Mason. The two theories guiding this study will be Bowlby’s Attachment Theory and Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, (SLT), as they relate to post-loss identity and mourning. Both serve as vital tools for surviving and recovering from the impact of losing a spouse. When these affectional attachments are lost, a widow’s quality of life can be lessened or even damaged. A widow will go …

Pretty And Problematic: The Use Of Music In Guadagnino's 'Call Me By Your Name', Brandon L. Foskett

Deliberately Queer Journal

Tension in the reception of the American-Italian film Call Me by Your Name (dir. Guadagnino, 2017)—as a beautiful film that implicitly condones a problematic narrative—is shaped in part by its compilation soundtrack. Already lauded as a timeless masterpiece in cinematography, sensuality, and music, the film also receives steadfast criticism regarding its portrayal of homosexuality and alleged condoning of interage desire between Elio, a 17-year-old Italian-French boy, and Oliver, a 24-year-old American man. In this paper, I analyze five musical episodes from the film, including The Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way,” Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan, and Sufjan Stevens’s “Mystery …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Biology

No abstract provided.

Incidence, Risk Factors And Clinical Outcomes Of Pericardial Effusion In Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients, Muhammad Zubair Khan, Yevgeniy Brailovsky, Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan, Gregary D. Marhefka, Abu S. M. Faisal, Adrija Sircar, Parker O'Neill, J. Eduardo Rame, Sona Franklin, Muhammad Waqas, Hadia Shah, Indranee Rajapreyar, René J. Alvarez

Division of Cardiology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Development of pericardial effusion in patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) can be detrimental to health outcomes. This study aims to elucidate the prevalence and risk factors for pericardial effusion in patients with LVADs.

AIM: To elucidate risk factors associated with the presence of pericardial effusion in patients with LVADs and compare the clinical outcomes of those with and without pericardial effusion. The secondary goal is to determine the incidence of pericardiocentesis and pericardial window placement in patients with LVADs experiencing pericardial effusion.

METHODS: Data were obtained from the National Inpatient Sample database between 2016 and 2018. Statistical …

Multigrade Teaching And Learning: Developing Theoretical Frameworks Through Mapping Conceptual Territories With An Inclusive Education Lens, Mary Garland, Anne Parfitt, Cath Gristy, Stuart Read

Professional Services

This paper offers an engagement, through an inclusive education lens, with the theoreticalframeworks and concepts used in multigrade teaching and learning. With the aim of developingand extending thinking about pedagogies in diverse education settings, it employs a scopingliterature review to identify and examine the various conceptual frameworks which underpinthinking about and practice within multigrade classrooms. It is argued that close study of theknowledges used by teachers in multigrade classrooms, which are implicitly diverse educationspaces, offers a useful way with which to consider pedagogies in all diverse education settings.Study of multigrade classrooms also offers space to develop understanding of the tensions …

An Exploratory Analysis Of Automated Deception Detection For Mental Health Applications, Sayde Leya King

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deception in mental health settings can undermine therapeutic relationships, compromise treatment efficacy, and impact patient outcomes. Yet, research shows that mental health clinicians often perform no better than chance at detecting deceptive behavior in therapy. Automated deception detection, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and multimodal behavioral cues—such as eye gaze, body gestures, and facial expressions—offers a promising alternative. However, most existing research focuses on high-stakes legal contexts, limiting its applicability to mental health settings.

This dissertation addresses this gap by pursuing three key research objectives using a mixed-methods approach. First, we investigate mental health clinicians’ perspectives on AI-assisted deception detection through …

Teacher Perceptions Of The Arkansas Rise Initiative Regarding Student Performance And Teacher Training, Susan Hoffman Lawrence

Student Theses and Dissertations

The Arkansas Reading Initiative for Student Excellence [RISE] works to build a culture of reading for students in Arkansas through the coordination of a statewide reading campaign that utilizes the Science of Reading, which incorporates a wide body of scientifically-based research that informs stakeholders of how students can effectively learn to read. In addition, tenets of the RISE Initiative encourage building a community of partners and teachers to establish the importance of reading in homes, schools and communities. This mixed-method study explored teacher perceptions of the Arkansas RISE Initiative regarding its effectiveness in terms of students’ reading achievement, as well …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session Thursday June 26, 2025, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Acceptance of the Agenda
Approval of the Minutes (April 17, 2025 and April 23, 2025)
Remarks by the Chair of the Board
Remarks by the President
Updates by the Faculty Senate President
Updates by the Western Student Association President
Updates by the Graduate Student Association President
Western Michigan University Employee Graduates
Montgomery Essential Needs Program Presentation
Public Comments Regarding Action Items

Action Items

• Academic Tenure and Promotion
• Student Housing and Meal Rates 2025/26
• Fall 2025 Differential Tuition Rates
• Fall 2025 Tuition and Required Fee Rates
• General Fund Fiscal Year 2025/26 Operating Budget
• President Emeritus Status for Edward Montgomery

Consent Items …

Voclosporin‐Induced Gingival Enlargement: A Case Report, Dimitris N. Tatakis

Faculty Scholarship

The gingiva (gums) is often a site in the mouth where changes or reactions can occur in response to certain systemic medications. Some drugs, particularly those used to treat autoimmune conditions or following organ transplants, can cause the gums to grow excessively, a condition known as drug-induced gingival enlargement (also known as gingival overgrowth). In this report, we document the case of a 27-year-old woman with lupus nephritis who developed gingival enlargement after starting a medication called voclosporin. This drug is a newer treatment option for lupus nephritis, but until now had not been linked to gingival enlargement. The patient …

Research Highlights, Himani Garg, Gandham Kumuda

Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy

Research Highlights

Validity And Reliability Of The Indonesian Version Of Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire 2002 (Nosq-2002), Listya Paramita, Fajar Waskito, Dikky Prawiratama, Niken Indrastuti, Tuntas Rayinda, Sri Awalia Febriana

Journal of General - Procedural Dermatology and Venereology Indonesia

Background: Epidemiological data on occupational hand eczema in Indonesia is still limited, partly because there are no valid and reliable instruments in the Indonesian language as a means of survey. This study aims to translate the Nordic Occupational Skin Questionnaire 2002 (NOSQ-2002) into the Indonesian language and assess the validity and reliability of the Indonesian NOSQ-2002 as an instrument for epidemiological surveys and screening of occupational hand eczema.

Methods: The original English version of NOSQ-2002 was translated into the Indonesian language following the standard procedure of translation. The Indonesian NOSQ-2002 version, which had been collectively approved, was subsequently completed by …

The Epidemiology Of Sports And Recreation Related Toe Fractures In The United States, Dogerno Norceide, Gabriel I. Onor, Oluwatomi Akingbola, William Justice, Nana F. Amponsah, Abimbola Okulaja, Ifeanyichukwu Onor, Michael Okoronkwo, Chibuikem Nwizu, David Pedowitz, Md

Rothman Institute Papers

BACKGROUND: Fractures of the toes are among the most frequently diagnosed lower extremity fractures. In sports, toe fractures may present after diverse mechanisms of injury, varying severity, and varying implications for management. This study aimed to discern trends in toe fractures presenting to US emergency departments (EDs) particularly in association with sports and recreational activities. An additional aim of the study was to identify if rates of toe fracture presentation significantly decreased during the year 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: We queried the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database to identify toe fractures presented to …

Mental Health Of Adults With Down Syndrome, Brian Chicoine

Advocate GME

Mental health is an integral part of overall health and well-being for people with and without Down syndrome. In this presentation, Brian Chicoine, MD will describe common characteristics of individuals with Down syndrome that are important to understand when supporting their mental health promotion efforts. He will also discuss diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions in people with Down syndrome and provide case examples of some of the mental health challenges that people with Down syndrome may experience. Additionally, Dr. Chicoine will highlight different types of resources that can be used by adults with Down syndrome and those who …

3d Nano-Architected Polymer Shell Enables Reconfigurable Stabilized Blue Phase Soft Crystals, Sephideh Norouzi, Yazael R. Morales-Flores, Tadej Emersic, Jeremy Money, Otillo E. Rodriguez-Lopez, Andrew Casale, Juan J. De Pablo, Jose A. Martinez-Gonzalez, Monirosadat Sadati

Faculty Publications

Blue phases (BPs), formed through the self-assembly of chiral liquid crystal molecules into 3D nanolattices with cubic symmetries, exhibit dynamic photonic bandgaps in the visible spectrum, offering transformative opportunities for advanced optical circuits, sensing and communication technologies. However, their thermal stability is restricted to a narrow temperature range (0.5–1.0 K), limiting practical applications. Polymer stabilization of bulk BPs has extended thermal stability but often compromises the dynamic behavior essential for fast-response functionalities. Here, experimental and computational approaches are integrated to investigate the effect of curvature and interfacial interactions on BP polymer stabilization. It is demonstrated that photo-polymerization of reactive monomers …

Social Communication Implementable And Applicable Lens: A Framework For Addressing Assessment Of Social Communication, Louise C. Keegan, Jerry K. Hoepner, Leanne Togher, Mary Kennedy, Elise Bogart, Melissa Brunner, Sheila Macdonald

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose:

Method:

Fostering Belonging: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Of Nontraditional Students In Higher Education, Gina M. Bolin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the sense of belonging for nontraditional students in online higher education environments. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the CoI, which emphasized the importance of social, cognitive, and teaching presence to foster a supportive and positive student experience. The central research question was: How do online nontraditional students in higher education describe their experiences of academic and social belonging within their learning communities? This study employed a transcendental phenomenological design. Participants included 15 nontraditional students enrolled in fully online degree programs at various U.S. institutions. Data collected through …