Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Speech Biomarkers Of Cognitive Functioning In Multilingual Kenyan Adults, Adolfo M. Garcia, Levi Muyela, Alejandro Sosa Welford, Matías Caccia, Anne Njoki Gitere, Anne Nyambura, Erick Muhando, Zul Merali, Chinedu Momoh, Karen Blackmon

Brain and Mind Institute

Background: Digital speech biomarkers show promise as cost-effective and scalable diagnostic tools for cognitive decline and dementia in African research and healthcare settings. However, significant gaps remain in language-specific normative data, cross-linguistic validation, and standardized protocols for multilingual populations. Targeting cognitively unimpaired multilingual Kenyan adults, here we aim to validate speech timing features from natural language, against performance on standardized culture-sensitive neuropsychological measures.

Method: This study was funded by Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative and took place in an outpatient clinic at the Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya. Participants completed culturally adapted tests tapping on word list learning, visual memory, …

Longitudinal Implementation Of A Neurodevelopmental Screening Program For Children Born To Mothers Living With Hiv In Maternal–Child Clinics In Kenya: A Mixed Methods Study, Megan S. Mchenry, Eren Oyungu, Amina Abubakar, Ananda Roselyne Ombitsa, Micaela Gaviola, Cleophas Cherop, Beatrice Kaniaru, Carolyne Jerop, Alan Mcguire, Rachel C. Vreeman

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background: Children with perinatal HIV exposure are at increased risk for neurodevelopmental (ND) delays, yet little is known about ND screening implementation for this population.

Methods: This longitudinal study evaluated ND screening implementation at a health clinic in Kenya, from 9/2021 to 8/2023. Children aged 18-36 months with perinatal HIV exposure were screened using a 12-item general ND tool. Implementation outcomes—acceptability, feasibility, fidelity, and sustainability—were assessed through time-motion observations, clinic records, and semi-structured interviews with caregivers and staff.

Results: Of 507 eligible children, 405 (80%) were screened. Screening rates were consistent over 24 months, with average time …

Doing Drag: Exploring The Experiences Of Drag As An Occupation For Performers In California, Alicia Montes, Anna Ranario, Lilibeth Rosales, Eileen Spahle, Nathan Gelman, Laura Greiss Hess, Karen Mccarthy

Occupational Therapy | Faculty Scholarship

Background: Drag is a performative art where individuals explore identity, challenge societal norms, and foster community through exaggerated gendered performance. Drag in the United States is facing potential restrictions and remains underexplored in occupational science and occupational therapy literature.

Methods: This qualitative study explored the experiences of drag performers in California, applying an occupational perspective through the framework of form, function, and meaning. Five drag performers were interviewed. Reflective thematic analysis was used to interpret qualitative data.

Findings: Identity was the central theme, interconnected with form, belonging, non-belonging, meaning and motivation, and resistive occupation. Findings highlight drag …

Acuity-Based Staffing Tool: Improving Patient Outcomes And Nurse Wellbeing In A Local Critical Care Unit, Grace Watson, Rachel Nazha, Madeline Ruffin, Evvy Lewis

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This change project proposes implementation of the CAMEO (Complexity Assessment and Monitoring to Ensure Optimal Outcomes) acuity-based staffing tool in a local critical care unit to improve patient safety, nurse wellbeing, and organizational outcomes (Hurtig et al., 2021). Current staffing practices rely on floating nurses from other units during census fluctuations, creating skill mismatches, increased burnout, and risk for adverse events. Evidence links inadequate staffing with increased mortality, infections, length of stay, and nurse turnover, revealing the need for a more systematic approach (Elmdni, 2025). The CAMEO tool quantifies cognitive workload across 18 domains of care and aligns nurse expertise …

A New Framework For Drug Pricing Law And Policy, Rachel E. Sachs

Indiana Law Journal

Scholars and policymakers have expressed concern about the impact of high prescription drug costs on patients and healthcare budgets. This Article presents a new theoretical framework for evaluating both the problem to be addressed by drug pricing reforms as well as the efficacy of potential solutions. In seeking to solve “the drug pricing problem,” our legal system has given primacy to competition rather than regulation to drive down drug prices. This Article disaggregates the broader concept of drug competition into four steps, each of which must be addressed and each of which elevates different institutional actors to key roles. In …

When Death Is Not Binary, Teneille R. Brown

Indiana Law Journal

There are few dichotomies more recognized than the one between life and death. Given the many legal rights that pivot on this distinction, one would think that the law has exceptionally clear standards for diagnosing death. It may surprise you then to learn that the line between legal life and death is no longer so obvious. That is, in a growing number of cases, there is now disagreement about whether someone is legally dead or alive. This is due to two things: the development of medical devices that can breathe for patients with severe brain injuries, and neuroimaging technology that …

The Fiduciary Game, Lauren R. Roth

Indiana Law Journal

Fiduciary duties are supposed to bridge the gap between public and private law. Private actors who engage in “public or quasi-public” functions (e.g., corporate directors and pension administrators) are often subject to fiduciary constraints to protect vulnerable parties who lack power in relationships with these actors. Recently, scholars have argued that both courts and legislatures have inappropriately expanded the use of fiduciary duties to purely private relationships. But what if the problem is not the expansion of fiduciary duties to private relationships, but the increasing delegation of public powers to private actors whose behavior cannot be adequately constrained by fiduciary …

Federalism And Fair Housing: State Innovation Amidst Federal Retrenchment, Paula A. Franzese

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Unequal Shelter: A Constitutional Challenge To The Adams Administration’S Differential Treatment Of Migrants Under New York’S Right To Shelter Laws, Alexandra Arleo

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Virtual High School Classes And The Impact On Rural Students And Teachers, Ashley M. Storck

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This literature review examines the impacts, advantages, and disadvantages of virtual high school classes on rural teachers and students. The review examines research on academic outcomes, instructional models, funding structures, stakeholder dynamics, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual learning can expand access to courses and provide flexibility to students, especially in the case of credit recovery. Full-time virtual schooling is frequently associated with weaker long-term outcomes in comparison to traditional brick-and-mortar education. These findings are often intensified in rural settings where there are broadband insufficiencies as well as existing deficiencies in institutional capacity and student support systems. The …

Predictors Of Increased Length Of Stay And Cost In Readmissions For Spinal Surgical Site Infections, Matthew Giammanco, Alex Zhang, Phillip Alexeev, Ryan Snowden

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Abstract:

Background

Surgical site infection (SSI) following spinal surgery remains a costly and morbid complication, frequently necessitating hospital readmission and operative management. While prior studies have characterized the overall economic burden of spinal SSI, the specific drivers of cost during SSI-related readmissions are poorly defined. The primary research question of this study was to identify clinical, operative, and microbiologic factors associated with increased hospital cost, length of stay, and financial margins during readmission for operative management of spinal SSI.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cohort study of adult patients readmitted for surgical management of spinal SSI at a single tertiary …

Table Of Contents, Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ai Deference, Kevin Frazier

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Existing AI tools allow administrative agencies to chart a more aggressive regulatory path. AI can identify which statutes and regulations, if reinterpreted, would further the agency's agenda. AI can also draft new regulations and forecast their likely effects.

No laws explicitly ban agencies from using AI. In fact, successive presidential administrations have encouraged agencies to increase their use of AI. Cities and states have already been integrating AI into ever more substantive governance tasks. Governments around the world are likewise finding novel ways to incorporate AI into drafting, enforcing, and adjudicating laws. In short, it is a matter of when, …

Impacts Of Native And Nonnative Plant Species On Avian Community Diversity, Matty John Mackay, Steven Van Dang, Brandon Lee Corn

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Avian communities play an essential role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem dynamic by regulating insect populations, assisting in plant pollination, and seed dispersal. These contribute to the overall health of natural ecosystems and mitigate ecological disruptions that would arise in their absence. However, the introduction of non-native invasive plant species can interrupt the balance avian communities bring to ecosystems by reducing availability of food sources, altering habitat structures, increasing competition among individuals, and disrupting ecological relationships through rapid invasion of ecological spaces. Point count observations of birds at Shelby Bottoms Park, Nashville, Tennessee in areas dominated by non-native privet and …

The Rise Of Right-Wing Populism Among Young Men, Oliver Lorgen

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Since the end of World War II, young people of Western Liberal Democracies have generally leaned left, holding views of reform, social progression, and policies that lead to a general increase in quality of life through social programs (Universal healthcare, food programs, public housing, etc). With unprecedented economic security, many people, especially younger ones, refocused their priorities away from ones of survival through strict authority and toward left-liberal positions of individual autonomy, civil rights, and redistribution of wealth and power. This trend continued throughout the 20th century. However, as instability begins to plague Western Liberal Democracies in the 21st century, …

Arkansas Women's Tennis Record Book, 2025-2026, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Athletics Media Relations

Arkansas Women's Tennis

No abstract provided.

The Reckoning: A Mostly Lamentable Tragedy Comedy Of One Christopher Marlowe (...), Mac F. Mitchell

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

The Reckoning is a play by Mac Mitchell in completion of his MFA in Playwriting from Hollins University. It is a farce set in the Elizabethan Era inspired by the life of Christopher Marlowe and his involvement in the complex world of Elizabethan espionage. After investigating a counterfeiting plot designed to bankroll an assassination plot on Queen Elizabeth's life, he unwittingly implicates himself in the plot.

Marlowe will dropkick the fourth wall and, with a team of crackpot actors, attempt to set the record straight. He most certainly did not have anything to do with it and will prove his …

Backward, Benjamin W. Abbott

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Backward is a solo show about a man who, when he turns forty-five, starts living backward in time. Every day he wakes up, he has traveled back to the day before the one he just lived and there's nothing he can do to stop it. As he relives his life in reverse, he must confront his failures as a husband and father. Even as he learns the lessons necessary to repair them, those relationships get left behind in the future. He continues moving backward and eventually must confront the most difficult relationship of them all: his relationship with his own …

Rainbows And Shades Of Gray, Lillian I. Savage

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Rainbows and Shades of Gray is an original musical that explores the complexities of addiction, memory, and grief through a nonlinear, liminal narrative structure. The story follows Aaron, a deceased veteran, father, and musician forced to confront moments from his life as he grapples with the impact of his addiction on his relationships with his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Natalia. Through a series of fragmented scenes spanning past and present, the musical examines the emotional aftermath of trauma and the ways in which love persists despite harm.

Blending dialogue and original music, the piece uses song as a narrative device …

Leveraging Research-Based Knowledge Translation Via Rural Libraries To Improve Maize Postharvest Practices In Uganda, Jackline Estomihi Kiwelu, Patrick Ngulube

Libraries

Background: Rural community libraries are increasingly recognised for providing localised knowledge, yet their potential to support agricultural extension services and improve access to postharvest knowledge in Uganda remains underexplored.
Objectives: This study examined the postharvest information needs of smallholder maize farmers and explored how community libraries can be leveraged to translate and repackage research-based knowledge to meet these needs.
Method: A mixed-methods parallel design was employed. Data were collected from a survey of 312 maize farmers, personal interviews and two focus group discussions (FGDs) with 22 extension workers and four librarians. Desk research was conducted to analyse relevant documents. Quantitative …

The Nature Of Extremism Within The Rhode Island Department Of Corrections, Robert J. Hehl, Richard Laroche, Riley Guilbeault, Cameron Page

CJC 450 - Criminal Justice and Criminology Capstone

The key judgements in this Capstone Research assessment (CRA) are based on interviews of extremism professionals done through Zoom calls, scholarly articles, and reports. Research conducted by Capstone Research team #1 is current from 2019 through 2025. Interviews were conducted from October 3, 2025, to November 14, 2025. Insights from these interviews proved valuable in providing context, verifying open-source findings, and increasing the overall reliability of the cited information. Continued reporting on this topic will offer further understanding of the likelihood and nature of the identified activities.

Use Of Preference Signals In Family Medicine Residency Recruitment, John E. Snellings, Hanwen Miao, Daniel L. Meyer, Miranda A. Moore

Department of Family and Community Medicine Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Increases in graduate medical education application volume led to the introduction of preference signaling—a tool within the Electronic Residency Application Service that allows applicants to signal their sincere interest to a limited number of programs. This study aims to evaluate how family medicine program directors used preference signals during the 2023–2024 recruitment season, the first year this tool was available to family medicine programs. Understanding program director perspectives on preference signal utility is crucial for determining the tool’s impact on the residency selection process.

Methods: Data were collected through the Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research …

Prison Labor Exploitation, As Easy As “Pie”: Private Industry Exploitation Under Pie Certified Prison Work Programs, Jack Burum

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chronic Alcohol Consumption Enhances The Differentiation Capacity Of Hematopoietic Stem And Progenitor Cells Into Osteoclast Precursors, Hami Hemati, Madison B. Blanton, Jude Koura, Rupak Khadka, Kathleen A. Grant, Ilhem Messaoudi

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Chronic alcohol consumption (CAC) is associated with an enhanced risk of bone fracture, reduced bone density, and osteoporosis. In a rhesus macaque model of voluntary ethanol consumption, CAC induces functional, transcriptomic, and epigenomic changes in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and their resultant monocytes/macrophages, skewing them toward a hyper-inflammatory response. In the present study, those studies were extended to investigate alterations in osteoclast development, which, in postnatal life, differentiate from HSPCs and play a critical role in maintaining bone homeostasis. Spectral flow cytometry revealed a skewing of HSPCs toward granulocyte-monocyte progenitors in the CAC group, consistent with an increased …

Chronic Alcohol Consumption Reprograms Osteoclast Lineage Communications To Promote Osteoclastogenesis, Hami Hemati, Brianna M. Doratt, Ilhem Messaoudi

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Chronic alcohol consumption increases the risk of osteoporosis and fracture by disrupting bone remodeling, in part by enhancing osteoclastogenesis. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying this process remain incompletely defined. We analyzed scRNA-seq data from osteoclasts differentiated in vitro from bone marrow mononuclear cells obtained from macaques following 12 months of chronic ethanol or isocaloric control solution consumption. Module scoring, trajectory inference with generalized additive modeling (tradeSeq), and CellChat-based analyses of intercellular communication were applied to uncover ethanol-induced changes in metabolic reprogramming, lineage progression, and signaling network dynamics. Module scoring indicated metabolic reprogramming toward oxidative phosphorylation, with reduced glycolytic, migratory, and …

Alcohol Consumption Exacerbates High-Fat Diet- Mediated Disruptions In Myelopoiesis And Osteoclastogenesis In Mouse Models Of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Liver Diseases, Hami Hemati, Madison B. Blanton, Lauren Rutt, Nicholas Keiran, Rebecca Geron, Florence Lima, Rebecca L. Mccullough, Ilhem Messaoudi

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Objective: Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Alcohol-related Liver Disease (MetALD) exhibit systemic immune abnormalities. Given that such immune dysregulation is closely linked to the skeletal complications frequently observed in MASLD and MetALD, we sought to comprehensively characterize the bone marrow hematopoietic compartment and its link to osteoclastogenesis.

Methods: We utilized bone marrow from mouse models of MASLD (high-fat diet, HFD) and MetALD (high-fat diet plus ethanol, HFD+EtOH), followed by flow cytometric analysis to phenotype hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), as well as in vitro and in vivo assays to evaluate osteoclastogenesis.

Results: We found that …

Public Schools: Immigration & Customs Enforcement’S Unconstitutional And Inhumane Hunting Ground, Ma Camille Briones

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can We Close The Rhode Island Women’S Prison?, Nick Horton

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Baobabs, Networks And Digital Sovereignty: Afro-Brazilian And Indigenous Community Digital Territories As Communitarian Dh, Eduard Arriaga-Arango

Language, Literature, and Culture

Baobáxia is an initiative developed by the Afro-Brazilian network Rede Mocambos that serves as a model of community digital organizing so they can propose data justice, digital sovereignty and autonomy. Baobáxia is a technology that interconnects diverse communities in Brazil (i.e, Quilombos, Indigenous communities and Favelas, among others), and also creates a structure to store, curate and disseminate local knowledge, traditions, histories and representations. This infrastructure demonstrates how non-expert communities can use digital strategies to defend their territory, preserve their cultural production, and affirm their human condition. Throughout this article I discuss how Baobáxia and Rede Mocambos work, as well …

Plea Bargaining In The United States Military, Frank Rosenblatt

Journal Articles

This article offers a primer on plea bargaining in the U.S. military justice system. American military justice is like criminal justice in the rest of the country in that the lion’s share of cases are plea bargained. But there are key differences between military and civilian plea bargaining. First, a central factor of negotiations in military plea bargaining is whether the accused will keep his or her job. Second, the military has a wider range of disposition options than traditional penal sanctions, including nonjudicial punishment and administrative sanctions. Finally, the military seemingly permits more discretion and offers less binding guidance …