Digital Commons Network^™

Flexible Work, Rigid Discrimination, Natalia Ramírez Lee

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Legal scholars optimistically predicted that the adoption of remote work would provide historically excluded workers upward mobility through an opportunity to join the workforce or access better jobs. Remote work is now widespread and the empirical data on it demonstrates that, in practice, remote work arrangements are subject to the same workplace norms and biases that disadvantage marginalized groups on-site, risking exacerbating instead of remediating inequalities. Specifically, the data suggests that, in some instances, employers are deploying remote work unequally, denying remote work to workers of color who particularly benefit from flexibility.

This Article explains how the legal system is …

Improving Psychiatric Paraprofessional Preparedness Through Mental Health First Aid Training In An Outpatient Mental Health Clinic, Anisha Hampton

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Paraprofessional staff in outpatient mental health clinics play a critical role in monitoring clients with serious mental illness (SMI) and supporting continuity of care in community-based settings. However, the absence of standardized training contributes to variability in staff knowledge, confidence, and ability to recognize early signs of mental health deterioration. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an evidence-based training designed to improve mental health literacy and crisis response skills among frontline workers.

METHODS: This quality improvement project utilized a pre-post design within a Plan-DoStudy-Act (PDSA) framework at an outpatient mental health clinic. Paraprofessional staff completed the Mental Health Literacy …

Integrating Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Into Telepsychiatry: A Professional Development Model For Pmhnps, Catherine A. Roberts

DNP Scholarly Projects

Background: Mental illnesses remain among the most prevalent health conditions in the United States, affecting approximately 23% or nearly one in five adults in 2025 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2025); National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2024a). Despite this high prevalence, only 50.6% of adults living with mental health disorders receive treatment (NIMH, 2024a); although the expansion of telepsychiatry has improved access to mental healthcare, medication-management visits are frequently brief and primarily focused on pharmacotherapy thereby limiting opportunities for delivery of psychotherapeutic interventions. This limitation highlights the need for structured, evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches that can be …

Occupational Therapy’S Role In The School System: Educating Teachers On The Role Of Occupational Therapy And Providing Them With Sensory Processing Strategies, Kiley N. Carter

OTD Capstone Projects

This capstone project addresses the limited understanding and communication between teachers and occupational therapists (OT) in elementary school settings, particularly in Southern Illinois. Although occupational therapist are essential members of special education teams, teachers often lack clarity about the scope and impact of occupational therapy in schools. The project’s primary aim was to educate teachers about the role of OT and provide them with practical sensory strategies to support students with sensory processing disorders in the classroom. The methodology involved assessing teachers’ needs through observation, reviewing current literature, and collaborating with site and faculty mentors. An educational module and a …

Occupational Therapy For Perinatal Mothers In Rural Community Practice: Development & Implementation Of Educational Modules, Hannah M. Johnson

OTD Capstone Projects

There are significant gaps in maternal healthcare in rural communities in Illinois where only 65.4% of pregnant people live within 30 minutes of a hospital that provides maternity care (State of Illinois, 2025). Pregnant and postpartum individuals in the region are inadequately supported during their transition to motherhood within the current healthcare system. This capstone project aimed to serve women in Southern Illinois during the perinatal period through occupational therapy-based and trauma-informed educational content. The project was conducted at The Little Resource Center, a parenting and family support center in Carbondale, under the guidance of their staff. Three educational modules, …

Reframing Coral Reef Monitoring With Machine Learning And Remote Sensing: Detection, Classification, And Change, Gabrielle Ann Trudeau

Doctoral Dissertations

Coral reefs are vital ecosystems facing rapid decline from climate-driven stressors, yet existing monitoring approaches lack the spatial coverage and temporal resolution needed to capture ecosystem dynamics at meaningful scales. This thesis develops a scalable, integrated remote sensing framework by combining ICESat-2 LiDAR, multispectral imagery, and machine learning to move beyond static habitat maps toward quantitative, multi-factor characterization of reef structure and change. First, machine learning models were applied to ICESat-2-derived rugosity, slope, and bathymetric metrics to detect and delineate coral reef habitats at large scales. Next, a novel nonlinear spectral unmixing approach integrating Planet imagery and ICESat-2 terrain metrics …

Ai-Enabled Urban Decision-Making: From Infrastructure To Policy Implementation, Amir Hosein Taherkhani

Doctoral Dissertations

Urban infrastructure systems face unprecedented compound threats from aging physical stock, climate-driven hazard escalation, and large-scale systemic shocks, yet the analytical tools available to decision-makers remain inadequate in both empirical scope and equity orientation. This dissertation advances urban resilience science along two complementary empirical frontiers.The first investigation develops a deep reinforcement learning framework for socially equitable, flood-aware bridge portfolio maintenance optimization. Using Proximal Policy Optimization, a portfolio of 19 flood-vulnerable bridges in Suffolk County, Massachusetts is optimized over a multi-year planning horizon integrating HAZUS-based flood hazard simulation across four return-period scenarios (10, 50, 100, and 500 years), HEC-18 hydraulic scour …

Resilience In The Aftermath Of A Technological Disaster: A Community-Based Mixed Methods Research Study Author Links Open Overlay Panel, Jasmín D. Llamas, Melissa L. Morgan

Counseling Psychology

This study tests a disaster model of resilience in the aftermath of a natural gas pipeline explosion. This technological disaster occurred in a residential neighborhood in the Western United States. Traditionally, disaster literature has focused on the negative impacts of disasters, emphasizing distress and psychopathology; however, there has been a shift towards exploring protective factors that prevent psychopathology. The present study, guided by Community-Based Participatory Research, expands our understanding of disaster resilience. A mixed methods design was employed using a quantitative survey of 146 participants to test a model of resilience and qualitative open-ended questions to explore methods of coping …

Leveraging Virtual Reality And Haptics To Teach Surgical Skills: A Usability Study On Retropubic Midurethral Slings, Lauren Siff, Ginger S. Watson, Jerome Dixon, Moshe Feldman, Franklin Bost, Philippe J. Giabbanelli

VMASC Publications

Traditional methods to learn soft-tissue surgical procedures rely on cadaver labs or patient-based learning, which are costly and geographically limited, and raise ethical questions. Virtual reality (VR) with haptic feedback offers a scalable alternative, but most current platforms emphasize bone-based rather than soft-tissue procedures learned by feel. We developed a VR+haptic simulation for preoperative training of retropubic midurethral sling (MUS) surgery. This study examines the usability of this platform with thirteen expert urogynecologic surgeons and subsequently makes improvements (e.g., in haptics) to evaluate the platform with twelve trainees based on the NASA Task Load Index for workload and a UTAUT-informed …

Using Remote Sensing Technology To Develop A Framework For Improving Hydrologic Models, Marissa Cook

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

With increased storm intensity due to climate change and urbanization, flash flooding has become an increasingly significant issue globally and regionally. Although the factors influencing urban flash flooding are well-known, there is a growing need for technology to accurately and remotely predict the chance of a flash flood occurring from any given rain event to give people time to prepare. This study aims to use multispectral satellite imagery to provide a framework for improving near real-time flood predictions in an urban area of a high gradient, fourth order stream impacted by flooding. Specifically, we utilize satellite imagery to create the …

From Surfaces To Scaffolds: Tuning Hydrogel Microenvironments To Control Cell-Material Interaction, Tran Truong

Doctoral Dissertations

The last 40 years of in vitro cell and tissue biology have relied heavily on tissue culture plastic (TCPS), which offers high transparency and a simple, user-friendly method for growing adherent cells. Unfortunately, TCPS has limitations, such as its rigidity, which may alter cell shape, disrupt cell signaling, and ultimately affect cell fate. The poor control over the adsorption of proteins to TCPS and the fact that surface chemistry is fixed on this material are only two examples of the limitations that motivate the development of hydrogel-based culturing platforms, during which the mechanical properties, charge, hydrophobicity, and ligand presentation can …

Entrainment And Surfacing Dynamics Of Submerged, Buoyant Turbulent Jets, Zeeshan Saeed

Doctoral Dissertations

Turbulent entrainment (TE) in buoyant jets plays a key role in dispersing environmental contaminants, carrying significant socio-economic implications. For example, the transport of heat and solutes through submarine volcanoes and the discharge of subglacial meltwater crucially affect the marine ecosphere. This, in turn, impacts coastal communities, the supply chains they support, and the broader socio-economic landscape. Therefore, advancing our understanding of how submerged buoyant jets mix and developing remote sensing tools to help monitor their changing status is crucial for devising strategies to mitigate marine-related challenges quickly, economically, and effectively. Therefore, this dissertation has three primary objectives: (I) examine the …

Emotional Complexity In Context: Within-Person Variability In Emotional Granularity, Emotion Covariation, And Emodiversity, Kristen Diann Petagna

Doctoral Dissertations

Key features of emotional complexity include emotional granularity, the ability to identify feelings with precision; emodiversity, the number and evenness of different emotions experienced; and emotion covariation, the tendency to experience positive and negative emotions independently. Prior work has largely treated these features as trait-like. This dissertation examines whether these features are dynamic by investigating how they vary within individuals over time and across contexts. In Chapter 2, participants (N =123) reported their emotions multiple times a day for 6 weeks and completed biweekly assessments of mental health symptoms. Emotional granularity and covariation increased over time, whereas emodiversity decreased, and …

A Dose Of Accountability: Fixing Treaty Enforcement To Combat State Complicity In Transnational Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking, Caitlin Sharma

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international fentanyl crisis underscores significant gaps in treaty enforcement, particularly with state accountability for drug manufacturing and export practices leading to illicit fentanyl trafficking. Despite preventive measures established by United Nations drug conventions, legal loopholes in these provisions impede meaningful cooperation between state parties. This Note uses key countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, and India, as case studies in both producing and receiving fentanyl and its precursors. It evaluates current proposals to mitigate the crisis, such as enhanced international cooperation and the potential expansion of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction. However, these solutions remain insufficient due …

A World Of Connection: Asd, Morgan M. Gayton

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2026

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a diagnosis that affects many school-aged children (CDC, 2025). Autistic children can have more difficulties engaging with both their peers and their families, which can lead to a lack of social participation. A World of Connection: ASD was a doctoral capstone project centering on social participation for autistic youth. The project blended the capstone student’s expanded knowledge in performing arts with their education in Occupational Therapy to create a 4-part capstone experience. A scoping review targeting the question “what are the most effective performing arts methods to enhance the social participation of autistic children” yielded 9 …

Moving Forward With Purpose: Aadej Adopts New Mission, Vision, And Values Statements, Jasmine Shafagh Dmd

AADEJ - The Communicator

Regular feature from the president of AADEJ, Dr. Jasmine R. Shafagh with the latest updates from AADEJ.

Little Minds, Big Emotions, Marissa Fattorusso

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2026

Little Minds, Big Emotions is a doctoral capstone project designed to support the development of emotional regulation skills in preschool-aged children through the areas of program development, education, and clinical skills development. Emotional regulation is an essential component of children' s participation, social interactions, and overall well-being, yet many young children experience difficulties identifying emotions and using effective calming strategies. The purpose of this capstone project was to develop and implement a developmentally appropriate, play-based emotional regulation curriculum for preschool children while also providing educational resources for caregivers. This program was implemented three days a week for 14 weeks at …

A Neo-Kuyperian Approach To Mathematics, Calvin Jongsma, Kevin Vander Meulen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This chapter develops a Reformational perspective on the discipline of mathematics that stems from the seminal ideas of Kuyper, Dooyeweerd, Wolters, Clouser, and others. The implications of the Biblical motif of Creation-Fall-Redemption is explored for the task of Christian scholarship in general and for the field of mathematics in particular, drawing upon relevant developments in the history and philosophy of mathematics.

Silver Lining In A Soap Opera: A Boon For Hospital Debtors In The Midst Of In Re Steward's Madness, Mackie S. Garwood

Emory Law Journal

Lost in the technical jargon of the Medicare Statute and Bankruptcy Code are the powers to shape the posterity of hospitals that serve the American public. Distressed health care providers are increasingly turning to Chapter 11 relief, and ultimately the deal market, to salvage their businesses and fully monetize their assets. In the frequent event of an unsuccessful reorganization, hospital failures tank the health and well-being of their surrounding communities.

Hospital buyers regularly acquire a debtor’s Medicare Provider Agreement (Provider Agreement), a one-page form which credentials providers to participate in Medicare. In re Steward Health Care System, LLC, the …

Remedying Labor Violations Of The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement On Both Sides Of The Border, Lourdes A. Perez

Emory Law Journal

The labor provisions of the United States’ Free Trade Agreements contain language that allows labor violations to seep through unpenalized. Parties to the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) sought to rectify this by drafting the most comprehensive labor provisions of any free trade agreement to date by crafting the Facility-Specific Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). This Mechanism provides that a particular facility found to be in violation of the USMCA labor provisions must enforce a remediation plan that preserves workers’ rights or face the threat of losing its preferential trade status. The most salient way facilities breach the USMCA’s labor provisions is …

Coerced Corporate Consent, Jason J. Jarvis

Emory Law Journal

Corporations are not human beings, but they have rights, including the constitutional right of due process. The United States Supreme Court recently held in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. that due process is satisfied when a state requires that a corporation consent to personal jurisdiction before it can conduct business in that state. The Court did not analyze, however, whether such business registration statutes can be coercive and, if so, when. These unanswered questions expose corporations to previously unexplored risks.

Involuntary consent is an oxymoron. Consent must be knowing and voluntary, and consent extracted by threat is coerced and …

Is The Gig Really Up?: Exploring Statutory Protections For Moonlighting Workers, Chiazom E. Ugo-Obi

Emory Law Journal

Moonlighting, side hustles, and part-time jobs often refer to secondary employment pursued by employees. While the terminology may vary, the underlying reality remains the same: Legal protections against an employer’s ability to restrict such activities are limited. Nothing stops employers from implementing policies or employment contracts prohibiting participation in additional employment. For many workers, holding an additional job is not a choice born of passion or professional fulfillment but a financial necessity driven by rising costs, stagnant wages, and economic instability. These workers, often already vulnerable within the labor market, face significant challenges when employers impose restrictive policies that limit …

Genes For Sale!, Anya E.R. Prince

Emory Law Journal

In March 2025, 23andMe, the flagship direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing company, filed for bankruptcy. Just like that, the genetic information of fifteen million customers was up for sale to the highest bidder, creating a firestorm of reactions from the public, media, state attorneys general, and legislators warning of the dire outcomes that could arise from the sale of such sensitive data. The warnings seemed reasonable, as federal law does little to protect consumers from the widespread sale and misuse of their genetic data.

Yet, in retrospect, the public concerns and media frenzy could potentially be seen as excessive given the …

Unlikely Criminals: Inside The Ivf Drug Grey Market, Maybell Romero

Emory Law Journal

In this Article, I admit to committing crimes, specifically buying fertility drugs on the in vitro fertilization (IVF) drug grey market. Drawing from personal experience, I explore how people wanting to undergo IVF turn to the criminalized fertility drug grey market to access necessary but prohibitively expensive fertility medications that would otherwise be out of reach. In the absence of comprehensive insurance coverage, patients often rely on informal online communities to obtain medications at lower prices, often from other patients whose IVF cycles have been canceled or who have excess drugs. While these transactions fulfill a critical need, they also …

Making Environmental Cancer Risk Legally Visible: Legal Epidemiology, Chemical Regulation, And The Failures Of Cancer Cluster Investigations, Beverley C. Thompson

Emory Law Journal

Environmental cancer risks remain difficult to detect, investigate, and remediate despite decades of federal regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Cancer cluster investigations are designed to identify unusual patterns of cancer and their environmental causes, but fragmented authority, inconsistent methodologies, and narrow investigative frameworks routinely prevent these investigations from addressing population-level harms. By failing to detect and address cancer clusters, public health systems inadvertently perpetuate environmental injustices, disproportionately harming communities already underserved and overburdened by pollution.

These failures are not merely scientific but reflect legal and institutional design choices that determine which cancer risks are visible, investigable, and …

County-Level Surveillance For The American Dog Tick (Dermacentor Variabilis) And Rickettsia Species In Kentucky, Callista W. Vandegriff, Jun Seok Ryoo, Maria C. Carrasquilla, Anna Rosalee Pasternak, Wayne T. Sanderson, Subba R. Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

Spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiosis includes a group of illnesses with similar symptoms caused by Rickettsia species bacteria. While Rickettsia rickettsii, the agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a well-known pathogen, other SFG Rickettsia spp. can infect ticks and occasionally contribute to human disease. We conducted county-level surveillance of Dermacentor variabilis ticks in Kentucky to characterize the distribution and diversity of SFG Rickettsia. Ticks were collected from the environment from 2019 to 2024 by dragging a white cloth and through our Kentucky Tick Submission Program. In total, 2,023 D. variabilis ticks were collected from 114 …

Clinical Manifestations Of Bed Bug Bites: A Systematic Review Of Case Reports, Julian Felipe Porras-Villamil, Zachary C. Devries

Entomology Faculty Publications

Importance: Clinical characterization of bed bug (Cimex spp.) bite manifestations remains limited.   Objective: This systematic review synthesizes case reports to describe dermatological, systemic, and psychological outcomes of bed bug bites.   Evidence review: Following PRISMA guidelines, multiple databases, including Pubmed and Scopus, were searched using terms such as “bed bug,” “Cimex lectularius,” “Cimex hemipterus,” “case report,” and “case series.” Extracted data included demographics, species, lesion type, anatomical distribution, and clinical manifestations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted.   Results: Eighty-four patients were included: 76 with C. lectularius (90.5%) and, 8 with C. hemipterus (9.5%). Sex distribution was …

Evolutionary Transitions In Social Behavior Are Associated With Convergent And Partially Reversible Expansions Of Transcription Factor Binding Sites, Savanna G. Ploessl, Beryl M. Jones

Entomology Faculty Publications

The evolution of sociality involves shifts in physiology and behavior, most notably the emergence of a reproductive division of labor. Within social colonies, these distinct behavioral phenotypes arise from differential regulation of a shared genome. Changes in transcription factor (TF) binding motifs are one potential mechanism underpinning this plasticity, with prior studies suggesting that social species exhibit expansions in TF binding sites. However, it remains unclear whether motif expansions are reversed when sociality is lost. Here we analyze predicted TF motif occurrences across gene promoters in 42 bee species spanning millions of years of evolutionary divergence and multiple independent gains …

Variability In Mountain Pine Beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Gene Expression In Response To Increasing Concentrations Of Species-Specific Double-Stranded Rna, Kylie J. Bickler, Zachary Bragg, Flávia Pampolini, Bethany R. Kyre, Lynne K. Rieske

Entomology Faculty Publications

Sensitivity to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-induced gene silencing has been observed in multiple coleopterans. Initial work with mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, determined that specific ubiquitously expressed essential genes can cause mortality when silenced by carefully designed dsRNAs. However, current dsRNA production methods are not economically feasible for production at scale. Therefore, identifying the minimum efficacious dose is a critical step to deployment. To investigate the relationship between dsRNA dose and subsequent gene expression, adult mountain pine beetles were fed either a target or control dsRNA across a gradient of concentrations, including 2.5, 1.0, 0.25, and 0.025µg/µl, and relative gene …

Indoor Allergens And Endotoxins In Relation To Cockroach Infestations In Low-Income Urban Homes, Madhavi L. Kakumanu, Zachary C. Devries, Richard G. Santangelo, Jeffrey Siegel, Coby Schal

Entomology Faculty Publications

Background: Cockroach allergens are well recognized as important risk factors in the development and prevalence of allergic rhinitis and asthma in children, especially in low-income urban households. The German cockroach gut hosts a diverse community of highly abundant microbes, including gram-negative bacteria that shed large amounts of endotoxins in cockroach feces. Objective: We sought to delineate the causal relationship between the presence of cockroaches in homes and levels of household endotoxins. Methods: In laboratory assays, we measured the amount of endotoxin produced by cockroaches. In-home monitoring estimated the size of the cockroach population in each home and quantified cockroach allergen …