Digital Commons Network^™

Trash Trap: Categorizing Plastic Pollution In Chicago's Montrose Harbor, Thomas Botsford-Rhodes, Aana Shenai, Andrew Conover

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

Pollution of aquatic ecosystems by trash, including plastic, is a critical environmental and public health issue. The input and abundance of plastic to the environment is increasing and is worsened by climate change. Plastic litter poses a direct threat to both human and wildlife health through ingestion and entanglement. In addition, plastic particles leach toxic chemicals as they break down in the environment, creating low-level and persistent pollutant exposures. Lakes and rivers in urban areas are critical sites of litter input because they are closely connected to litter sources. Lakes and rivers are key sources of litter to oceans, and …

Inverse Flynn Effect: Analysis Of Causes, Solutions And Foresight Scenarios, Xavier Pillet

Defensive Publications Series

This document, produced with the assistance of ChatGPT o3 and GPT-5 Thinking, is released under the Apache 2.0 license. It is a voluntary defensive publication (prior art) and therefore enters the prior art upon release under the applicable patent statutes: EPC Art. 54(2) (European Patent Convention), French IPC/CPI Art. L 611-11 (French Intellectual Property Code), 35 U.S.C. §102(a) (United States Patent Act), Chinese Patent Law Art. 22(5) (中华人民共和国专利法), and Japanese Patent Act Art. 29(1) (特許法). This publication addresses the inverse Flynn effect through 65 enabling innovations across devices, assays, AI, closed-loop protocols, materials, therapies, manufacturing, imaging, delivery, data standards, UX, …

Revolutionary Technologies To Extend Lifespan And Personalize Medicine, Xavier Pillet

Defensive Publications Series

This document, produced with the assistance of ChatGPT o3 and GPT-5 Thinking, is released under the Apache 2.0 license. It is a voluntary defensive publication (prior art) and therefore enters the prior art upon release under the applicable patent statutes: EPC Art. 54(2) (European Patent Convention), French IPC/CPI Art. L 611-11 (French Intellectual Property Code), 35 U.S.C. §102(a) (United States Patent Act), Chinese Patent Law Art. 22(5) (中华人民共和国专利法), and Japanese Patent Act Art. 29(1) (特許法). It consolidates 100 enabling embodiments spanning gold nanomedicine (photothermal ablation, CRISPR-Gold delivery, nanozymes, theranostics), whole-body sensing (MRI, OPM/EEG, exposome), imaging/reconstruction (photoacoustics, DECT, PCD-CT), AI (digital …

Native Os-Integrated Ai In A European Oss/Open-Core Operating System, Xavier Pillet

Defensive Publications Series

This document, produced with the assistance of ChatGPT o3 and GPT-5 Thinking, is released under the Apache 2.0 license. It is a voluntary defensive publication (prior art) and therefore enters the prior art upon release under the applicable patent statutes: EPC Art. 54(2) (European Patent Convention), French IPC/CPI Art. L 611-11 (French Intellectual Property Code), 35 U.S.C. §102(a) (United States Patent Act), Chinese Patent Law Art. 22(5) (中华人民共和国专利法), and Japanese Patent Act Art. 29(1) (特許法). It discloses an end-to-end blueprint for native AI in operating systems, covering kernel/userland architecture, energy-aware scheduling, model supply-chain integrity, privacy-by-design dataflows, TEE-secured RAG, multimodal pipelines …

Do “Days Of Service” Meet Institutional Service-Learning Goals? A Case Study In Assessment Of The Mlk Day Of Service, Elizabeth B. Erbaugh, Jess Bonnan-White

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This study pilots a survey tool for assessing participant experiences in the MLK Day of Service at a public university. Student, faculty, staff, community volunteer, and community partner par-ticipants (N=344) reflected upon service, learning, and university-community connections as part of a multi-method evaluation process. Quantitative analysis of unidimensional and summed variables found significant variation by instructional site and participant affiliation. Such measures and instruments may clarify the role of Days of Service in advancing institutional ser-vice-learning goals.

Student Perspectives On Social Responsibility In Nursing, Crystal Shannon

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Social responsibility (SR) is a core component of the nursing profession. However, nursing ed-ucation is challenged in delivering meaningful translation of this topic to students. This poten-tially reduces the readiness of newly licensed nurses to care for underserved populations. This study explored nursing students’ understanding of SR and the impact on role formation. Results showed students have a limited understanding of SR and limited experiences for development. Recommendations for improvement are offered.

Sycamore Readers: All Stakeholders Win, Kathryn L. Bauserman, Debra Knaebel

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Sycamore Readers is an after-school tutoring program that serves struggling elementary students from local schools. It is housed at the local library in their Lifelong Learning Center. The program has positively impacted the library through increased usage, the community by increasing high school graduation rates, the parents by providing free help and support, the tutors through experiential learning, and the students who receive one-on-one help and improved literacy skills. The biggest impact on students has been an increase in their reading levels and their improved attitudes toward reading.

Editorial - Volunteerism And The Citizen‐Student: Long Term Impact On Well‐Being And Health, Catherine Stemmans Paterson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This editorial focuses on volunteerism research completed on older adults and the potential mental and physical health impacts it may have on college-aged students.

Urban University Community Engagement: Questions Of Commitment To Democratic Ethics And Social Change, Khaula Murtadha

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper examines ethical issues underpinning urban university engagement in community spaces. The intent is to encourage an evaluation stance and consider how university representatives and community representatives might justly approach and develop partnerships. The paper questions whether faculty, staff, and community partners take action to cultivate public dialogue, or what might be called democratic voice, to bring about social change. Social change organizations unambiguously try to affect and reshape public and environmental affairs, group dynamics, processes, and outcomes. Are the university administration and faculty, in partnership with community stakeholders, ready to take on the charge of social change organization?

The 2040 Plan For Northwest Indiana: How Public Engagement Guided The Formation Of The Plan, Steven R. Strains

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) prepared a Comprehensive Regional Plan for the three-county Northwest Indiana region. The involvement of numerous stakeholders, including many members of the general public, was essential and invaluable because their ideas formed the groundwork, the foundation for the entire plan development.

Community Engagement: It Is All About Relationships!, Jennifer June Anderson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The ability to generate sustainable, mutually beneficial, interprofessional teams becomes a critical skill for today’s emerging professionals. Interprofessional teams can be developed among community-university partners to bridge the intellectual resources of academe through a model of scaffolding interrelated paradigms. This work will provide a conceptual framework for enhancing community engagement through interprofessional collaborative practices for continuing education programs.

Leadership Skill Development In A First-Year Honors Service-Learning Seminar, Paige Haber-Curran, Trae Stewart

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The authors examine undergraduate students’ self-assessed leadership skill development before and after participation in a first-year honors service-learning seminar. A one-group, pre-test/post-test study was conducted with 651 first-year students enrolled in a first-year honors semi-nar course with a service-learning component. Participants completed the Roets Rating Scale for Leadership (RRSL). A paired-samples t-test analysis of RRSL indicates a significant de-crease in participants’ leadership skills. Results, along with implications for program design and future research are discussed.

Student Reflections On Service‐Learning: Cognitive, Affective, And Behavioral Lessons, Maria L. Claver, Lisa A. Lares, Lauren Gelgur

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Service-learning is an educational experience that allows students meaningful interaction with older adults. Students in a gerontology course completed service-learning and recorded their experiences in weekly journals. This study explored student-reported reflections, which indicated cognitive, affective, and behavioral lessons. Future research should include the perspectives of faculty members, agencies, and older adults; long-term influences of service; and approaches to facilitating service-learning for hybrid and online courses.

A Picture Puzzle Approach To Microbes, Infectious Diseases, History And Art, Adarsh Bhimraj

History of Medicine Seminar

Topics covered in this session:

• What is proper attire for doctors to wear?
• Why read history?
• Picture Puzzles

The 505 Initiative: Service Learning And Student Philanthropy In Graduate Social Work, Jessica Averitt Taylor, Caroline Macke, James E. Taylor

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This case study describes a community engagement project involving graduate social work students. The project centered on a specific area in Northern Kentucky: the Westside neighborhood of Newport. Efforts included a student philanthropy component that fostered community exploration, an assessment of strengths and challenges, service learning and an involved grants process, and student-initiated volunteer hours. The students demonstrated increased commitment to community and connected community engagement with student philanthropy and course concepts.

The Higher Educational Institution Assesses The Community Partnership In Service Learning: One Strategy For Institutionalizing Service Learning, Susan Waters

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

While a growing number of institutions offer service-learning courses, there is relatively little literature on the assessment of community partnerships with the institution. This study offers substantive institutional-community partner survey question examples from Campus Compact member websites targeting institutional assessment of the community partnership for ascertaining both the quality and effectiveness of service-learning on campus and for accreditation purposes. There is a paucity of service-learning institutional assessment research, and this study attempts to alleviate that gap.

Needs Assessment Of An International Service-Learning Program: An Innovative Approach To Community-Based Learning, Sara Pullen

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This study used an original survey to evaluate the physical therapy and education needs of health care workers affiliated with a community hospital in the Dominican Republic. Results suggest that health care workers affiliated with this hospital could be an ideal audience to focus the initiation of a sustainable rehabilitation training program. The survey described can assist other academic physical therapy and medical programs in the planning and implementation of international service-learning opportunities for students and faculty by providing a guide for assessing the needs of local stakeholders.

Bingocizetm: Successful Integration Of Intergenerational Service-Learning Into An Exercise Science Practicum Project, K. Jason Crandall

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Intergenerational service-learning was used to meet course learning outcomes for an exercise science practicum while increasing older adults’ physical activity participation. Five practicum students researched, planned, and executed a combination bingo and exercise program (BingocizeTM) twice per week (45-60 minutes sessions) at a low-income independent living facility located near campus. The results of the program were positive as evidenced by achievement of student learning outcomes and improvements in older adults’ overall well-being.

Everyone Has Humanity In Them: Multidimensional Teaching And Learning Through Philosophy-Based Discussion, Jennifer Cutler Merritt, Loren Intolubbe-Chmil

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

While many K-12 alternative education programs use innovative pedagogy and practice, the students who attend them often remain educationally marginalized. Simultaneously, in higher education, experiential learning courses grounded in the theory of engaged scholarship have frequently cast alternative K-12 students in roles subordinate to those of their college student “helpers.” This paper sets forth a preliminary analysis of a community-university positive youth development model as an asset-based approach promoting mutuality and transformation, in the spirit of Freire’s conscientização.

Incubating Grassroots Nonprofits: A Service-Learning Approach To Organizational Capacity Building With Communities Of Immigrant And Refugee Background, Nancy Winemiller Basinger, Rosemarie Hunter

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper explains the development of a community-university partnership responding to community-identified needs and toward the goal of creating a nonprofit incubator in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our research draws on several years of partnership work with communities of immigrant and refugee experiences. As groups of immigrant and refugee background settle in new communities, they seek to serve the members of their ethnic community. Leaders emerge and begin to organize groups to meet the specialized community needs they have identified. Increasingly these groups are organized as nonprofits. Emerging micro-nonprofits often struggle to find connections and navigate systems that support organizational …

Mutual Transformation Through Arts-Based Service Learning With Australian Aboriginal Communities: An Australian Case Study, Anne Power, Dawn Bennett, Brydie-Leigh Bartleet

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper reports from a national arts-based service-learning project in Australia. Working with pre-service teachers, the paper employs the theoretical framework of sentipensante (sensing/thinking), which has been successfully used in disciplines such as policy, leadership, and communication. Participant stories reveal a network of relations that create understanding of shared existence, and these learning experiences emerge as variously threshold, transformative, and/or troublesome. Findings lend support to the value of flexible, critical service learning approaches, particularly in diverse cultural contexts.

Academics Meets Action: Community Engagement Motivations, Benefits, And Constraints, Alicia M. Schatteman

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

In recent years, civic engagement has increased with college students, which has been recognized by the Carnegie Institute and is the focus of this article. One example is the growth in community service and service-learning programs. This study builds on the work of Clary et al. (1996 and 1998) that examined student motivations for participating in community service projects. The purpose of this paper is to determine who participates in a college community service event, what motivates them to participate, what are the constraints, and what are the benefits of participating. Furthermore, this study adds to the literature and uses …

Reconsidering The American Dream And U.S. Latino Culture In A College Spanish Service-Learning Course, Zak K. Montgomery, Serena B. Ugoretz, Sarah E. Montgomery, Sarah Vander Zanden, Ashley Jorgensen, Mirsa Rudic

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This study explores how a joint Photovoice project about the American Dream between a U.S. Latino culture course and a multicultural middle school class influenced college students’ perceptions of Latino culture. In addition to outlining the service-learning course design, the study also analyzes the trajectory of the students’ understanding of the American Dream. As a result of the partnership, college students’ American Dreams shifted away from the archetypal personal success narrative toward a more civically- oriented approach.

The Evolution Of An Urban Design Curriculum In Landscape Architecture And A Community-Based Design Center, Frank Sleegers, John R. Taylor

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Urban community-based design centers have multiple potential functions. Ideally, they give voice to previously underrepresented groups in public discussions of urban design and environmental change. When combined with a university design curriculum, they can be training grounds for a new generation of urban designers sensitive to the needs, wants, and desires of local stakeholders. This study describes the co-evolution of an urban design curriculum at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a design center in the nearby city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Four key areas related to community service learning were evaluated through a mixed methods approach including historical analysis, qualitative …

Enflonsia (Clesrovimab-Cfor): A New Era In Rsv Protection For Infants, Katherine Ghattas Pharmd, Rileigh Smith Pharmd, Amanda Rawa Pharmd

Transformative Medicine

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a leading cause of serious lung infections in infants and young children, especially during the winter months. For decades, preventative options were limited, costly, or only available to babies at high-risk. The FDA approved Enflonsia (clesrovimab-cfor) in June 2025, given as a single injection to protect infants thorough their first RSV season. Since it is designed for broader infant use and can be distributed through programs such as Vaccines for Children, Enflonsia may help close long-standing gaps in RSV prevention.

Bifascicular Block: Harmless Finding Or A Red Flag?, Muhammad Asad Hanif

Transformative Medicine

No abstract provided.

Successful Management Of High-Risk Gestational Choriocarcinoma With Choriocarcinoma Syndrome: A Case Report, Ava R. Hansen, Hannah Daley, Priyanka Raju, Jonathan Buerger

Transformative Medicine

Introduction: Choriocarcinoma is a rare and highly malignant gestational trophoblastic neoplasia that is treatable with timely and appropriate intervention. However, choriocarcinoma may lead to life-threatening complications, such as choriocarcinoma syndrome (CCS), a rare type of tumor lysis manifesting as hemorrhage at metastatic sites of advanced tumors.

Case Description: This case involves a 30-year-old woman, gravida 3 para 0, with high-risk choriocarcinoma and a WHO score of 11, indicating high risk. Initial management comprised Etoposide, Methotrexate, Actinomycin D, Cyclophosphamide and Vincristine (EMA/CO) chemotherapy until multisystem complications arose, including the development of CCS which resulted in an abdominal compartment syndrome. An exploratory …

Comparative Oncogenic Phenotypes Of Polyclonal And Monoclonal Ybx1-Expressing Hcc Cell Lines, Yamile Abuchard Anaya, Kaylee Renteria, Veerababu Nagati, Manish K. Tripathi

Research Colloquium

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer and disproportionately affects underserved populations due to socioeconomic and healthcare disparities. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in South Texas exemplifies this issue, with high rates of obesity, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and viral hepatitis (B and C)—all major risk factors for HCC. McAllen, Texas, part of the RGV, is notably one of the most obese cities in the U.S., exacerbating HCC prevalence and severity in this region. Late-stage diagnosis remains a critical challenge due to limited access to screening and early intervention.

Sorafenib, a first-line …

Community Service In Saudi Arabian Universities: A Comparative Study, Hesham K. Alfares, Muhammad H. Al-Haboubi, Mesfer M. Al-Zahrani

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

A comparative analysis is presented of community service activities in Saudi Arabian Universities. The methodology includes literature surveys, benchmarking, questionnaires, and focus group meetings. Community service definitions and activities are surveyed around the world. A benchmarking comparison is made between community service programs in 10 major Saudi universities and 20 top American universities. The current status of community service in Saudi universities is evaluated, and several improvement strategies are proposed.

Impact Of Degrees Of Service On Alumni Career Development, Judith Warchal, Ana Ruiz

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper presents the results of a survey that assessed the long-term impact of varying degrees of service on alumni employment and attitudes toward careers. Alumni with service-learning and other service experiences (SL plus group) felt it was important to work to correct inequalities, to provide a service to others, to make a difference in the community, and agreed that their service, academic, and social experiences affected their career development.