Digital Commons Network^™

One Cutoff Is Not Enough: Assessing Different Area Deprivation Index Cutoffs For Insurance Types On Surgical Desirability Of Outcome Ranking (Door), Susanne Schmidt, Michael A Jacobs, Daniel E Hall, Karyn B Stitzenberg, Lillian S Kao, Bradley B Brimhall, Chen-Pin Wang, Laura S Manuel, Hoah-Der Su, Jonathan C Silverstein, Paula K Shireman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Social Determinants of Health impact health outcomes. Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is used to risk-adjust for neighborhood affluence/deprivation but guidance on choosing deprivation cutoffs is lacking. We hypothesize that different ADI cutoffs are required for different insurance types.

Methods: National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data 2013-2019 merged with electronic health records from three academic healthcare systems. Desirability of Outcome Ranking (DOOR) assessed the association of ADI cutoffs for different insurance types, adjusted for operative stress, frailty, and case status (elective, urgent, emergent). Secondary analyses assessed the association of ADI with case status.

Results: Patients with Private insurance living in …

International Multidisciplinary Consensus Recommendations On Clinical Application Of Three-Dimensional Visualization In Precision Surgery For Pediatric Liver Tumors, Qian Dong, Wenli Xiu, Benjie Tang, Eiso Hiyama, Mary T Austin, Yeming Wu, Xiaojun Yuan, Chengzhan Zhu, Chengli Liu, Hiroki Ishibashi, Karthik K Tappa, Huanmin Wang, Chuandong Sun, Yuntao Ma, Hongwei Xi, Jian Wang, Jianghua Zhan, Kyong Ihn, Mitsuo Shimada, Mingman Zhang, Mary E Brindle, Patrick B Thomas, Shigehisa Fumino, Tao Liu, Thom Lobe, Udo Rolle, Shan Wang, Xiaowen Zhai, Yoshinori Koga, Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Yuzuo Bai, Zhaozhu Li, Zhe Wen, Weikang Pan, Krysta M Sutyak, Pier C Giulianotti

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Pediatric liver tumors are predominantly primary malignant tumors, and complete tumor resection with sufficient preservation of liver tissue is crucial for improving prognosis. However, due to the delicate anatomical structure of the pediatric liver and the relatively large size of the tumors, especially in difficult cases, the surgical challenges are substantial. While precision liver surgery are widely applied in clinical practice, pediatric cases require more customized approaches. The application of three-dimensional (3D) visualization technology is crucial for enhancing surgical accuracy, allowing for precise preoperative planning and intraoperative guidance.

Methods: This consensus was collaboratively developed by 36 experts from eight …

Finger Orthoses For Rehabilitation―Part I: Biomedical Insights And Additive Manufacturing Innovations, Alireza Nouri, Lijing Wang, Hamed Bakhtiari, Yuncang Li, Cuie Wen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Finger orthoses are essential for treating injuries, deformities, and disorders of the upper limbs by supporting, immobilizing, or correcting deformities. Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing have significantly enhanced precision and customization compared to traditional fabrication methods such as thermoplastic molding, plaster or fiberglass casting, and the use of prefabricated splints. Methods: The present review was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, and other databases with keywords such as “hand therapy”, “additive manufacturing”, “finger and thumb”, and “orthosis”. Only English-language publications were considered, with a primary focus on articles published between 2010 and 2025. Key themes were identified and categorized into …

Little Aussie Bugs: Piloting Health Literacy Educational Resources At Early Childhood Education And Care, Ruth Wallace, Amelia Ruscoe, Leesa Costello, Gillian Kirk, Ros Sambell, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Building health literacy in early childhood is essential for lifelong health and underpins children's learning and developmental trajectories. This study assessed the efficacy of the Little Aussie Bugs books, designed to enhance health literacy in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centres. The books, featuring inclusive characters and key health literacy catchphrases, were distributed to >1200 early learning settings Australia-wide. Exploratory research design used online surveys (n = 110) and in-depth interviews with ECEC teacher participants (n = 8) to determine the compatibility of the books with ECEC contexts and practices to facilitate the delivery of health literacy education. …

Support Networks And Care Needs: Insights From Older Vietnam-Born Australians Living With Chronic Disease, Thi Ngoc Minh Nguyen, Rosemary Saunders, Gordana Dermody, Lisa Whitehead

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study explored the support networks and care needs of older Vietnam-born adults living in Australia, using focused ethnography, and guided by Leininger's Culture Care theory. Data were collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews over 7 months in Perth, Western Australia, and analyzed thematically. Twelve participants were included. Two themes emerged: “The collectivist context of disease management” and “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Chronic disease self-management primarily took place within family and community settings, with ethnic communities playing a significant role. Migration-related stigma influenced perceived care needs, creating a gap between perceived and actual support. Findings …

Paradoxical Leadership As Facilitator In The Idea Journey: The Role Of Regulatory Focus, Irene E. De Pater, Shenghui Wang, Ming Yi, Eric F. Rietzschel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Drawing upon theory and research on innovation, conservation of resources, and paradoxical leadership, we examine relationships between three stages of the innovative process (i.e., idea generation, idea dissemination, and idea implementation) and the role of paradoxical leadership as a facilitator of the transitions between these stages. In addition, we examine the motivational mechanisms (promotion and prevention focus) that can explain the relevance of paradoxical leadership in the innovative process. Results of a four-wave study show that paradoxical leadership, through employee promotion focus, strengthens the relationship between idea generation and idea dissemination, whereas paradoxical leadership, through employee prevention focus, strengthens the …

Co-Designing Health-Related Digital Tools With Children: A Scoping Review Of Current Practice, Pauline Roberts, Fiona Boylan, Patricia Collins, Lennie Barblett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

An increased focus on research with rather than on or of participants provides challenges with the implementation of such research with children. This extends to participatory practices in which co-design is implemented towards developing a technology-based product or solving a problem particularly in the domain of health literacy. This systematic scoping review aimed to examine the practices of co-design with children to inform an interdisciplinary research team as they embarked on the development of a digital health literacy tool for young learners. While there were limited sources identified in the review (n = 11), it was ascertained the process of …

Stress Reactivity And Sociocultural Learning: More Stress-Reactive Individuals Are Quicker At Learning Sociocultural Norms From Experiential Feedback, Shilpa Madan, Krishna Savani, Pranjal H. Mehta, Desiree Y. Phua, Ying-Yi Hong, Michael W. Morris

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When interacting with others in unfamiliar sociocultural settings, people need to learn the norms guiding appropriate behavior. The present research investigates an individual difference that helps this kind of learning: stress reactivity. Interactions in an unfamiliar sociocultural setting are stressful, particularly when the actor fails to follow its rules. Although stress is typically considered a liability, more stress-reactive individuals may be more motivated to improve, and, thus, quicker to learn these rules. Consistent with this idea, a pilot study found that people genetically inclined to stress reactivity, as computed by a genetic profile score across 59 single nucleotide polymorphisms on …

Major Customers And Carbon Footprints Along The Supply Chain, Saiying Deng, Tinghua Duan, Frank Weikai Li, Xiaoling Pu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines whether major corporate customers curb corporate carbon emissions along the supply chain. We show that suppliers with a more concentrated customer base have significantly lower carbon emissions. The results are robust to alternative measures of carbon emissions and customer concentration, alternative sample, alternative explanation, and various approaches to mitigate endogeneity concerns. The effect is more pronounced when major customers have made emission-reduction commitment, when they are exposed to greater climate regulatory shocks and risks, and when they become more concerned about regulatory scrutiny. Moreover, the curbing effect of major customers on supplier carbon emissions is stronger when …

The Gender Effects Of Covid: Evidence From Equity Analysts, Frank Weikai Li, Baolian Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We use COVID-19 and sell-side analysts as an experiment to study the effects of gender on labor productivity. We find that the forecast accuracy of female analysts declined more than that of male analysts, especially when schools were closed and among analysts who were more likely to have young children, were inexperienced, were busier, or lived in southern states of the US. Relative to male analysts, females also reduced their forecast timeliness and resorted to more heuristic forecasts but did not reduce coverage or updating frequency. Relative to pre pandemic, female analysts’ careers were more negatively affected than male analysts’. …

Quality Of Life And Patient Experience In Black Women With Alopecia, Annyella Douglas, Jayson Suriano, Neda Nikbakht

Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

The Pricing Of Green Bonds And The Determinants Of The Green Bond Premium In The Asia-Pacific And European Markets, Parath Wongaree, Chiyachantana N. Chiraphol, Kuan Yong David Ding, Pattarawan Prasarnphanich, Wasin Siwasarit

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the sources of capital for sustainable development and investigates the existence of a green bond premium in both primary and secondary bond markets across the Asia-Pacific and European regions. Utilizing the robust Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) method in conjunction with the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE), our analysis reveals a significant disparity in yields between green bonds and conventional bonds within the Asia-Pacific markets, indicating the existence of a green bond premium. In contrast, this distinction is not observed in Europe. These findings suggest that investors in the Asia-Pacific region display a willingness to accept lower yields …

Business Schools And The External Environment: Where Are They Now?, Kai Peters, Howard Thomas, Michael Thomas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The article, the first of a two-part series, takes a look at the external environment facing business schools today. Major factors considered include the global landscape and related populism, funding shortfalls, increasing regulatory burdens, increased competition, and artificial intelligence. This combination of challenges, together with factors that are internal to business schools and universities and will be examined in an article later in the year, means that it is not an easy time to be the dean of a business school. Protecting present income streams, developing new sources of funds, and being agile are all paramount.

Harnessing Redox-Active Molecules In Alkylammonium Halide-Based Eutectic Solvents For Redox Flow Batteries, Zeru Syum, Jesse Wainright, Desiree Mae Prado, Burcu Gurkan, Palani Sabhapathy, Clemens Burda, Matthew Vasil, Robert Savinell

Faculty Scholarship

Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are promising for large-scale energy storage, however, advancements in performance and cost-effectiveness are critical factors for adoption. Here we report on alkylammonium halide based eutectic solvents (ESs) and found that a ESs comprising of diethylammonium chloride or bromide, in ethylene glycol demonstrated exceptional stability and a wide electrochemical stability window, making it a promising candidate for RFB applications. The electrochemical stability and redox behavior of the alkylammonium halide-based ESs are significantly influenced by hydrogen-bonding interactions, modulated by the alkyl chain length of the cation and the nature of the anion. A redox-active eutectic electrolyte containing 0.45 …

Evaluation Of Gold Helical Microwire Structure Electrode For Long-Term Rodent Nerve Stimulation, Danny V. Lam, Kevin Yang

Faculty Scholarship

Objective. The development of electrodes for chronic peripheral nerve stimulation faces several challenges, including complex compositions, intricate manufacturing processes, and high costs associated with the availability and fabrication of suitable materials. These limitations hinder the accessibility and feasibility of producing effective devices for chronic preclinical studies. This study evaluated the feasibility of a simple-to-manufacture gold helical microwire structure electrode (Au-HMSE) for peripheral nerve stimulation, electromyography (EMG) recording, and preliminary tissue response on the rat sciatic nerve. Approach. Manufactured electrodes were used for up to 8 weeks in rats for nerve stimulation and EMG recordings, with electrode-tissue impedances and motor thresholds …

Infrastructural Splintering Along The Bri: Catholic Political Ecologies And The Fractious Futures Of Sri Lanka’S Littoral Spaces, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article considers the ways in which the material infrastructures of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersect with other infrastructural formations, and how the resulting overlaps can trigger processes of what I call “infrastructural splintering”. These processes cause infrastructure to be experienced in differentiating ways, creating divisive politics where there might once have been unity. Embracing these politics as an analytical starting point undermines the techno-material stability of the BRI, and reveals its more-than-material affects. I illustrate these ideas by developing a case study of the effects of the China-backed Colombo Port City project on Catholic fishing communities that …

Emulating Empire: Washington’S Preoccupation With British Counterinsurgency In Malaya And U.S. Commitment To Vietnam, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This essay examines how Washington’s deep preoccupation with the British-Malayan counterinsurgency tactics–tactics that routed the guerilla fighters of the Malayan Communist Party–shaped US commitment to Vietnam. This US preoccupation, stoked by Britain’s (and Malaya’s) promotion of their counterinsurgency knowledge to US leaders, also influenced the lessons that US analysts and thinkers absorbed from the United States’ defeat in Indochina. Most studies of British-Malayan counterinsurgency and its connection to the Vietnam War fixate upon debating the relevance of the former to the latter and how this bears on US failures in Indochina. However, this essay focuses on the understudied fervor with …

Identifying Perceived Barriers In Special Education, Alexus K. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the lived experiences of teachers and administrators supporting students with disabilities transitioning from special education to general education settings. Grounded in a phenomenological approach within a qualitative research paradigm, the research aimed to uncover how educators perceive and navigate the challenges, barriers, and successes associated with this complex transition process. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of special education teachers, general education teachers, and school administrators from a small urban district in Texas. The study followed a qualitative methodology that focused on transition theory, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis.The research procedures …

A Standardized Bathing Protocol To Prevent Central Line–Associated Bloodstream And Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Infections, Lindsy L. Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, in medical–surgical inpatients increase mortality, length of stay, and readmissions. In this project, the investigator sought to decrease CLABSIs and MRSA infections through quality improvement by implementing a standard chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing process. An urban hospital in the Midwestern United States experienced more CLABSIs and MRSA infections than expected in 2024. This unit had a standardized infection ratio of 1.4, with three CLABSIs rather than the 2.1 predicted. Also, they had 10 hospital-acquired MRSA isolates, which was higher than the 3.3 average of the other medical–surgical units. The …

Leadership And Peer Support Of Surgeons Post-Adverse Event: A Phenomenological Study, Maxine E. Trent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Surgeons are leaving the active practice of surgery and fewer physicians are pursuing surgical training, as a result the United States is predicted to have a shortage of surgeons until 2050. Surgery hosts a multitude of occupational stressors, one of which is interoperative adverse events and the subsequent experience of second victims. The literature indicates surgeons prefer psychological/emotional support from peers after interoperative adverse events. However, best practices for how to deliver peer and leadership support responses when surgeons experience second victims have not been established. This was a phenomenological qualitative study targeting practicing surgeons across the United States. …

The Financial Effects Of Enrolling Students With Disabilities In Catholic High Schools In States That Offer Vouchers Or Scholarships For Students With Disabilities, Susan M. Noonan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the financial effect of enrolling students with disabilities in Catholic high schools located in states that offer vouchers or scholarships for these students. Furthermore, the research aimed to understand the school’s experience in collaborating with the U.S. Department of Education to meet the criteria for voucher acceptance. It is important to note that enrollment and tuition revenue is the key to a school’s financial stability. Using an exploratory case study approach, information was gathered from a variety of stakeholders including the superintendent, administration, business manager, admissions coordinator, teachers, and counselors. The findings indicated that parents of children …

The Impact Of Principals’ And Mexican American Parents’ Preset Perspectives On Parental Involvement And What It Means For Student Achievement, Brenda Fouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parental involvement is crucial to increasing student achievement. However, elementary school principals do not always know how to provide effective parental involvement opportunities, particularly for second-generation Mexican American families. This phenomenological qualitative study was designed to improve the understanding of and describe the lived experiences of second-generation Mexican American families and their relationships with schools. A purposive sample of five second-generation Mexican American parents and five elementary school principals participated in semistructured audio and video interviews. The study offered insight into principals’ mindsets as they provided parental involvement opportunities for the families they serve. The major parental themes identified in …

Runtime Backdoor Detection For Federated Learning Via Representational Dissimilarity Analysis, Xiyue Zhang, Xiaoyong Xue, Xiaoning Du, Xiaofei Xie, Yang Liu, Meng Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Federated learning (FL), as a powerful learning paradigm, trains a shared model by aggregating model updates from distributed clients. However, the decoupling of model learning from local data makes FL highly vulnerable to backdoor attacks, where a single compromised client can poison the shared model. While recent progress has been made in backdoor detection, existing methods face challenges with detection accuracy and runtime effectiveness, particularly when dealing with complex model architectures. In this work, we propose a novel approach to detecting malicious clients in an accurate, stable, and efficient manner. Our method utilizes a sampling-based network representation method to quantify …

Nexusgs: Sparse View Synthesis With Epipolar Depth Priors In 3d Gaussian Splatting, Yulong Zheng, Zicheng Jiang, Shengfeng He, Yandu Sun, Junyu Dong, Huaidong Zhang, Yong Du

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) and 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) have noticeably advanced photo-realistic novel view synthesis using images from densely spaced camera viewpoints. However, these methods struggle in few-shot scenarios due to limited supervision. In this paper, we present NexusGS, a 3DGS-based approach that enhances novel view synthesis from sparse-view images by directly embedding depth information into point clouds, without relying on complex manual regularizations. Exploiting the inherent epipolar geometry of 3DGS, our method introduces a novel point cloud densification strategy that initializes 3DGS with a dense point cloud, reducing randomness in point placement while preventing over-smoothing and overfitting. Specifically, …

A Multimodal Fusion Model Leveraging Mlp Mixer And Handcrafted Features-Based Deep Learning Networks For Facial Palsy Detection, Heng Yim Nicole Oo, Min Hun Lee, Jeong Hoon Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Algorithmic detection of facial palsy offers the potential to improve current practices, which usually involve labor-intensive and subjective assessments by clinicians. In this paper, we present a multimodal fusion-based deep learning model that utilizes an MLP mixer-based model to process unstructured data (i.e. RGB images or images with facial line segments) and a feed-forward neural network to process structured data (i.e. facial landmark coordinates, features of facial expressions, or handcrafted features) for detecting facial palsy. We then contribute to a study to analyze the effect of different data modalities and the benefits of a multimodal fusion-based approach using videos of …

The Equal Rights Amendment: The 28th Amendment To The U.S. Constitution, Twiss Butler, Patrick Butler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article reviews how Supreme Court interpretations of the 14^th Amendment have allowed laws to discriminate against women. It aims to show that the Equal Rights Amendment, ratified as the 28^th Amendment in 2020, offers a constitutional basis for eliminating all forms of legal sex discrimination against women. These forms include discrimination based on pregnancy and abortion, commodifying women’s bodies, and allowing men to intrude into women’s protected spaces. The review starts with the denial of protection for women by America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, denounces the Supreme Court’s precedent-setting 1974 Geduldig decision, which ruled—quite illogically—that discrimination …

Understanding Intergenerational Trauma Among Arab, Middle Eastern, And North African (Arab/Mena) Americans, Rawan H. Atari-Khan, Nuha Alshabani, S. Dolma Rabgay, Farida Refaat Elhedk, Ava Clifford, Sofia Gomariz, Warda Sahib

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Americans experience various forms of racial–ethnic trauma in the United States, including historical and intergenerational trauma (IGT). The population has been migrating to the United States since the 1800s, and the number of migrants has risen in recent decades due to war, persecution, and family reunification. As a result, the children of these migrants may be exposed to IGT, with research suggesting that descendants of individuals who have experienced trauma are more susceptible to poor mental health outcomes. Using semistructured interviews, alongside the art of storytelling and empowerment through critical consciousness, this study investigated …

Understanding Parents’ Beliefs About The Etiology Of Youth Mental Health Problems: Differences Across Race/Ethnicity, Madeline Buchanan, Lindsay E. Holly

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Parents’ etiological explanations for youth mental health problems are relatively understudied; most studies focus on adult beliefs about the causes of mental disorders experienced by adults. This is concerning given research demonstrating that parents’ causal beliefs may influence several aspects of youth mental health service utilization including whether parents seek help for their youth and how they engage in treatment. The current study used a novel methodology to examine causal beliefs about youth mental health problems among a diverse group of parents (N = 417; 36.9% non-Hispanic White; 33.3% Black/African American; 29.8% Hispanic/Latino) who completed a series of questionnaires …

Lessons Learned From Sandboxing, Piloting And Policy Experimentation With Ai And Other Digital Initiatives: Part 2, Ten In-Depth Interviews, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This report, "Lessons Learned from Sandboxing, Piloting and Policy Experimentation with AI and Other Digital Initiatives," captures insights and experiences from project experts involved in recent digital innovation initiatives with the governments of Bangladesh, Maldives, and Kazakhstan, and from project experts actively involved with the use of AI for delivering government digital services in the EU, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, United States, and Uzbekistan. The ten in-depth interview write-ups produced from these nine different country settings provide a small but highly informative sample of rich descriptions of some of the important realities, approaches, nuances, issues and challenges related to testing …

Ntire 2025 Challenge On Event-Based Image Deblurring: Methods And Results, Lei Sun, Et. Al.

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents an overview of NTIRE 2025, the First Challenge on Event-Based Image Deblurring, detailing the proposed methodologies and corresponding results. The primary goal of the challenge is to design an event-based method that achieves high-quality image deblurring, with performance quantitatively assessed using Peak Signal-toNoise Ratio (PSNR). Notably, there are no restrictions on computational complexity or model size. The task focuses on leveraging both events and images as inputs for singleimage deblurring. A total of 199 participants registered, among whom 15 teams successfully submitted valid results, offering valuable insights into the current state of eventbased image deblurring. We anticipate …