Digital Commons Network^™

Vitamin D–Amp Axis In Host Defense Against Fungal Infections, Nuraly S. Akimbekov, Ilya Digel, Svetlana K. Sakhanova, Kuanysh Tastambek, Dinara K. Sherelkhan, Mohammed S. Razzaque

School of Medicine Publications

Vitamin D–mediated regulation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is an important focus in innate immunology and is aimed at elucidating the role of vitamin D in enhancing antimicrobial defense. AMPs are short protein chains that serve as a first line of defense against invading pathogens, including fungi, bacteria and viruses. Unlike conventional antibiotics, AMPs are produced endogenously and are less likely to induce antimicrobial resistance, making them promising candidates for treating infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens. Studies indicate that optimal vitamin D levels are essential for activating antimicrobial pathways and regulating AMPs that target multiple fungal pathogens. This article summarizes recent …

Disaster Justice: Queer And Disabled Mobilities And Infrastructures Of Care In The Pacific Northwest, Rachel Springer

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the social, political, and environmental pressures that drive LGBTQ+ migration to the Pacific Northwest and the social infrastructures people find on arrival. Drawing on thirty-four semi-structured interviews with LGBTQ+ adults who relocated between 2022 and 2025, it argues that these movements are best understood as responses to slow-onset disasters produced by the compounding interaction of legislative targeting and infrastructural violence.

State-level legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people—particularly transgender individuals—has fractured the geography of safety in the U.S., producing a landscape where civil rights, healthcare access, and everyday security vary dramatically across space. For those navigating these conditions at the …

Optimizing The Sensitivity Of Detection Of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections In Longitudinal Studies Using The Combination Of Weekly Sample Testing And Biannual Serology., Shannon C. Conrey, Daniel C. Payne, Maria Deza Leon, Monica Epperson, Melissa M. Coughlin, Allison R. Burrell, Claire P. Mattison, Rachel M. Burke, Julia M. Baker, Natalie J. Thornburg, Meredith L. Mcmorrow, Mary Allen Staat, Ardythe L. Morrow

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Cohort studies are often challenged by incomplete adherence to sampling regimens, limiting the full capture of disease burden. We describe the detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections achieved in a birth cohort using a combination of weekly nasal sample testing and serology. The Pediatric Respiratory and Enteric Viral Acquisition and Immunogenesis Longitudinal Cohort followed 245 maternal-child dyads from birth to age 18 to 24 months. Weekly mid-turbinate nasal swabs were tested for RSV using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Serum was tested for RSV pre-fusion F IgG and IgA antibody at age 6 weeks and biannually from 6 to …

Napier Grass (Pennisetum Purpureum) Meal Modulates Growth Efficiency, Gut Morphology, And Systemic Health In Broiler Chickens, Eric Lim Teik Chung, Yee Lyn Ong, Nazri Nayan, Muhamad Faris Ab Aziz, Faez Firdaus Abdullah Jesse, Faizal Andri, Arissara Sopawong

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Grass and leaf meals, which include vital phytocompounds, have the potential to be a natural and safe alternative to antibiotics in the poultry industry. Therefore, this study aims to assess Pennisetum purpureum leaf meal and its phytocompounds on the health performances of colored-broilers. A total of 216 unsexed Sasso chicks were assigned to six diet groups. The negative control (T1) received a commercial basal diet without antibiotics, while the positive control (T2) received the same diet with oxytetracycline (100 mg/kg). Groups T3 to T6 received no antibiotics and included P. purpureum meal at 1.25, 2.50, 3.75, or 5.00 grams per …

You Must Be This Tall To Scroll: California's Questionable Approach To Parenting By Policy, Caroline M. Cuddy

Pace Law Review

This note examines California's Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976), signed into law in September 2024, which prohibits personalized algorithmic feeds on minors' accounts without pa- rental consent and restricts platform notifications during school hours and nighttime. Drawing on the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association and related federal litigation, this note argues that SB 976 is unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Specifically, SB 976 is underinclusive because it fails to meaning- fully reduce minors' screen time, exempts comparable addictive plat- forms, and permits the very algorithmic feeds it deems harmful upon parental …

Blurred Lines: Did Booker Change Federal Sentencing Outcomes?, Hugh M. Mundy

Pace Law Review

This article considers whether United States v. Booker, the 2005 Supreme Court decision that replaced the then-mandatory federal sentencing guidelines system with an advisory scheme, had any enduring impact on sentencing outcomes. Commemorating Booker’s recent twentieth anniversary requires a balancing act: at once, recognizing the decision’s watershed impact while avoiding claims of lasting change where little exists. The criminal defense community hailed the ruling as a kind of liberation from the guidelines’ dispassionate rigidity. Today, while most lawyers and defendants would still prefer the current system, a legitimate question exists about Booker’s actual effect on federal sentencing. I propose that …

Jubilación, Janet Munoz

Writing Waves

No abstract provided.

The Flow State, Cody Sheets

Writing Waves

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Pollution, Ashlyn Grieg

Writing Waves

No abstract provided.

Somewhere In Between, Alexandria R. Mendez

Writing Waves

No abstract provided.

Daydreaming: How Far Can We Go?, Abigail Toribio

Writing Waves

No abstract provided.

The Trauma Challenge: Are You Ready To Lead With Trust-Based Relational Intervention?, Tara Quinn-Schuldt Dr., Patrick Walker, Melinda Meadow, Megan Jance

Southeast Conference on School Climate

In today’s educational landscape, understanding trauma isn’t optional, it’s essential. The Cherokee County School District has transformed from trauma-aware to trauma-responsive through intentional implementation and the creation of its connectED cohort training model. Combining strategic district-wide staff, including administrators, teachers, school support personnel, nurses, and resource officers—we created a collective approach to improving school climate, culture, and overall student outcomes. This comprehensive model integrates mental health, attachment theory, behavior intervention, and trauma responsiveness into the educational environment. This session shares evidence-based tools, a trauma-responsiveness assessment template, and strategies to address contradictions and strengthen trauma-responsive practices.

Introducing The Covenantal-Noncentralization Index (Cni) For Assessing Localism, Social Capital, Community Challenges And Community Health, Kahlib Fischer, Edwin Christmann, Melissa Stewart, Todd Robatin, Zachary Federico, John Kebles, Lucy Lambert, Alex Mishra

Journal of Law and Government

Numerous indices measuring social capital and community challenges at the local level exist, but none attempt to offer a measure of community health as an independent variable in comparison to community challenges as a dependent variable. Therefore, we propose the Covenantal-Noncentralization Index (CNI) in an effort to provide a more nuanced understanding of social capital at the local level as well as to differentiate between an independent variable index consisting of family stability, religious adherence, non-profit activity, and charitable giving and dependent variables representing various community challenges: violent crime, childhood poverty, STD rate, high school diploma completion, GDP, and unemployment. …

Defending The West By Reclaiming The Past, Steven Alan Samson

Journal of Law and Government

The Western world was originally shaped by the fine arts and philosophy of Greece, the architecture and law of Rome, and the faith, morality, and prophetic traditions of Judaism and Christianity. As the West loses the religious bond that generated its culture, careful attention should be given to reclaiming and rebuilding this moral and spiritual infrastructure.

Letter From The Editor, Kahlib Fischer

Journal of Law and Government

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Journal of Law and Government

No abstract provided.

The Plight Of “Unreasonable” Trafficking Victims: A Critical Assessment Of The Trafficking Victims Protection Act’S “Reasonable Person” Standard For Coercion In Policy-Oriented Perspective, Christian L. Gonzalez Rivera

Social Justice & Equity Law Journal (Willamette University College of Law)

Since the enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its requirement that, in alleging trafficking by means of coercion, victims and prosecutors make a showing that the victim was coerced under a reasonable person standard, an entire class of victims effectively became disenfranchised and no longer deemed victims. The inability to meet such a high burden of proof produces not only the lack of successful criminal and civil prosecutions, but also – and most alarmingly – precludes many a victim’s participation in basic and highly needed government services, required both to cope with and recover from the …

The Microbead-Free Waters Act Of 2015: Model For Future Environmental Legislation, Or Black Swan?, David A. Strifling

Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law (Florida State University)

Environmental law scholars have long lamented that it is has become unthinkable – or at least exceedingly unlikely – for Congress to pass significant new environmental legislation. This is not uniformly the case, as shown by the recent enactment of Public Law 114-114, the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 (“the Act”). Yet more nuanced questions must be answered before the Act can be hailed as an important break in the legislative logjam. Was the Act insignificant, simply not worth the time and political currency necessary for opponents of environmental regulation to stop? Was it the fortuitous product of a unique …

Toward Liberation: Decolonizing Curriculum To Heal Double Consciousness In Students Of Color, Olivia Cimino

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper explores how education can be reimagined as a form of liberation through the integration of interdisciplinary theories from political science, ethnic studies, and educational studies. Grounded in Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony and Louis Althusser’s concept of the Ideological State Apparatus, this paper introduces the concept of Reverse Hegemony as a framework to reclaim educational curriculum and mitigate systemic injustice. By applying this framework alongside liberatory pedagogies informed by Paulo Freire, Jarvis Givens, and Bryan Brayboy, the paper argues that education can heal the fractured sense of identity that W.E.B. Du Bois termed double consciousness. Through interdisciplinary …

Contributor Biographies, Editors Of Suurj

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Gentrification As A Consequence Of Light Rail Development In Rainier Valley, Seattle, A Policy Analysis, Jo C. Moreau

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

This policy analysis examines the gentrification and displacement impacts resulting from the development of Seattle’s Link Light Rail in the Rainier Valley, one of the city’s most diverse and historically marginalized neighborhoods. The expansion of light rail aimed to improve transit access, reduce traffic congestion, and promote environmental sustainability. However, coinciding market driven development, rising property values, and demographic shifts appear to disproportionately affect low-income and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) residents, making them more vulnerable to displacement (Padeiro et al., 2019). This report will evaluate three policy interventions to mitigate displacement: the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) program, …

The Child Figure In Climate Fiction: Redefining Community And Culture In The Face Of Climate Change, Allison Wasley

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

While climate change has been a known phenomenon for decades, social and cultural factors have stagnated our collective ability not only to discuss ongoing climate disasters, but also to conceptualize the disintegration of the very relationship between humanity and the natural world. This essay builds upon existing research and theory, proposing that climate fiction could serve as an antidote to our “cultural derangement,” which simultaneously destroys the relationship between humanity and nature, and our relationship with one another. This essay analyzes several examples of climate fiction that leverage the figure of the child as a symbol of hope and a …

Imaginary Companions Across Contexts: Developmental Adaptation Or Clinical Concern?, Kaeli M. Chop

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

This literary review examines the developmental, clinical, and cultural dimensions of imaginary companions (ICs) to understand how they function across different contexts. By bringing together findings from developmental psychology and cross-cultural research, it considers how ICs shape emotional growth across the lifespan. In early childhood, ICs often reflect a child’s creative engagement with emotion, imagination, and early social growth. They provide a safe space for children to express their feelings, explore relationships, and develop emotional understanding. ICs can often serve more complex roles in response to trauma, shifting from playful imagination to coping mechanisms that offer comfort or protection when …

Creating Accessible And Equitable Mental Health Treatments: The Usefulness Of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy In Treating Racial Trauma, Aicha J. Toure

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is a recently developed method for treating mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research into the effectiveness of psychedelics in treating mental health has largely excluded Black Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, and People(s) of Color (BIPOC); this is problematic, as rates of these mental health disorders are proportionally higher in BIPOC individuals than in white individuals. Mental health issues experienced by BIPOC are, more often than not, rooted in experiences of racial discrimination (Schouler-Ocak et al., 2021). Experiences of racial discrimination can develop into racial trauma, manifesting as depression, anxiety, and/or PTSD. This literature …

Queer (Re)Formations Of Mexican Identity: Modernity & Visibility As Seen In El Vampiro De La Colonia Roma, Y Tu Mamá También, And Sueño En Otro Idioma, Mar Bradley

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

Starting with the infamous Ball of the 41, the perception of Mexican male queerness has been strongly affected by its visibility. The Ball of the 41 attracted massive attention from the press; popular engraver José Guadalupe Posada completed two prints on the ball, mocking the attendees. For the first time in modern Mexico, queerness was represented in widespread public media, as knowledge of the scandal disseminated throughout the country by articles and images printed in newspapers. A politics of visibility is central to understanding the representational shifts of queer people, particularly by studying how queer people represent or are represented …

Table Of Contents, Editors Of Suurj

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Suurj Volume 10 Entire Volume, Editors Of Suurj

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

“Thrown To The Fire”: Exploring The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Education And Self-Efficacy In New Graduate Physical Therapists, Michael Furtado, Gregory Brusola, Dana Wild

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) education and practice, leading to emergency transitions to online learning and interruptions in clinical experiences across the United States. These disruptions raised concerns about their impact on new graduate DPTs' self-efficacy and professional readiness. The current issue addressed by this study is the effect of these disruptions on new graduate self-efficacy and confidence in their professional role. This mixed-method study aimed to assess the extent of clinical education disruption, evaluate its effects on self-efficacy, and explore the lived experiences of new graduate DPTs during the pandemic. Method: A survey …

An Exploratory Study: The Presence Of Imposter Syndrome In New Graduate Allied Health Professionals And Its Relationship To Location Of Practice, Samantha J. Barber, Carol A. Flavell Dr, Moira Smith Dr

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Imposter syndrome (IS) explores the feelings of fraudulence within personal and professional settings. Commonly IS results in impaired self-confidence, and self-perceptions of one’s own abilities, their mental health, and places them at a higher risk of burnout. Imposterism is linked to transitionary periods, such as being newly graduated, and while IS addressed amongst the medical community [doctors and nurses], there is a gap in literature relating to IS amongst allied health professionals (AHPs). Additionally, there is no known literature in which IS presence or severity is explored in relation to an individual’s geographic location. The aim of this study …

Aphasia Therapy In An Arabic-Speaking Individual After Stroke: A Case Report, Mohammed F. Alharbi Dr

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: This case report describes the clinical application and preliminary outcomes of Arabic-adapted Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA), Phonological Components Analysis (PCA), and Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) in an Arabic-speaking adult with post-stroke aphasia and highlights language-specific factors that affect the adaptation of these interventions to Arabic. Methods: The participant was a 53-year-old right-handed native Arabic-speaking man who developed moderate to severe nonfluent transcortical motor aphasia after a left middle cerebral artery stroke. One month after stroke onset, he underwent assessment with the Short Aphasia Test for Gulf Arabic speakers, which showed relatively preserved auditory comprehension and repetition but marked …