Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying Risk Factors For The Rising Prevalence Of Multiple Sclerosis In Saudi Arabia: A Case-Control Analysis, Omar Babateen, Jamil Adnan Samkari, Rewaa Abdulaziz Alkaki, Sadin Ayman Alamri, Manal Mutlaq Alzahrani, Mussaed Saleh Alharbi, Ali Abdulrazaq Alghamdi, Amwaj Sultan Aljurays, Amjad Faleh Aldosari, Seraj Makkawi

Neurosciences

Objective: This study aims to identify risk factors linked to the increasing prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Saudi Arabia. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune condition affecting the central nervous system, marked by inflammation and damage to nerves and the myelin sheath.

Method: A case-control study conducted from September 2022 to January 2024 included 832 participants—263 diagnosed with MS and 569 controls. Controls were matched by age, gender, residence, and employment status. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire, with written consent obtained from participants aged 18 and older. Logistic regression analysis was used to ascertain risk factors.

Results: …

Key Attributes Of An Ideal Neurology Residency Candidate: Program Directors’ Perspectives, Bandar N. Aljafen, Ruwa A. Alneseyan, Rahmah M. Alsawad, Mohamed Bahr

Neurosciences

Objectives: To guide medical students and interns interested in neurology by identifying the key attributes of an ideal neurology candidate from the perspectives of neurology program directors (PDs).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, former and current neurology PDs were contacted across Saudi Arabia to complete a self-administered survey sent via email or text. The survey included seven questions: six on PD demographics and a seventh with 51 items evaluating candidate attributes on a 7-point Likert scale from disadvantage to advantage.

Results: Thirty-two neurology PDs filled out the questionnaire. Among the key attributes PDs prioritized in a candidate is their letter …

Transitions Of Growth And Partner Responsiveness In Late Adolescent Marriage, Terrell Ka-Seem Pugh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

During the stage of late adolescence, marriage presents unique challenges, with partners navigating several developmental tasks in tandem with forming and maintaining marital relationships. Partner responsiveness has been consistently identified as a key factor for personal wellbeing and relationship satisfaction. Limited research has explored how late adolescent married individuals describe this dynamic. The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to explore lived experiences of late adolescent married individuals between 18 and 20 who described their experiences with partner responsiveness during this transitional period. This study was grounded in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory in order to explore how relational …

Volume 46, Number 1, March 2026 Olac Newsletter, Laura Kane Mcelfresh, Amanda Mack, Michael C. Herrick, Diana Eynon, Junghae Lee, Janelle Zetty, Tanesa G. King, Nerissa Lindsey, Lisa Romano, Zachary Fannin, Jan Mayo

OLAC Newsletters

Digitized March 2026 issue of the OLAC Newsletter.

Agenda (3-27-2026), California State University, San Bernardino - Associated Students, Incorporated

Associated Students, Incorporated records

No abstract provided.

Clinically Aligned Long-Context Transformers For Cross-Platform Mental Health Risk Detection, Aditya Tekale, Mohammad Masum

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Social media platforms contain rich but noisy narratives of psychological distress, creating opportunities for early mental health risk detection. However, existing datasets capture heterogeneous constructs such as suicide risk severity, depression diagnosis, and DSM-5 symptom presence, and most prior models are trained and evaluated on a single corpus, limiting their clinical alignment and cross-dataset generalizability. In this study, we fine-tune a domain-specific long-document transformer, AIMH/Mental-Longformer-base-4096, for binary mental health risk detection (risk vs. no risk) using two clinically aligned Reddit datasets: the C-SSRS Reddit corpus and the eRisk 2025 depression dataset. To handle long user histories, we introduce an LLM-based …

Automating Administrative Burden In Algorithmic Criminal Record Expungement, Sarah Esther Lageson, Ericka B. Adams, Elsa Y. Chen

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Administrative burden describes the learning costs, psychological costs, and compliance costs people face when attempting to interface with the government, particularly in seeking a benefit. Algorithmic and automated processes offer the potential of reducing administrative burdens, but scant empirical research has determined to what, if any effect. This study uses the case of criminal record expungement in two policy contexts: traditional, court petition-based systems and newly enacted automated systems, to understand if and how administrative burden persists, and whether and how these burdens operate differently in the context of the criminal legal system. Drawing on interviews with 105 expungement-eligible people, …

Mechanistic Prediction Of Apixaban And Rivaroxaban Secretion Into Human Milk And Infant Systemic Exposure Through An Integrated Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Framework, Bofang Yi, Sung Hun Bae, Yongzong Yang, Linda Jiang, Shirley Chen, Allesandra Stratigakis, Zhongyuan Zhao, Mohammad Asikur Rahman, Yanyan Li, Xinrui (Sarea) Wang, Peng Zou, Tao Zhang

Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship

Accurately characterizing the transfer of apixaban and rivaroxaban into human milk is essential for evaluating their safety during lactation and for guiding anticoagulant therapy in breastfeeding patients. This study aimed to establish a mechanistic physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling approach linking maternal exposure, mammary drug transport, and infant systemic levels for both anticoagulants. Passive permeability and efflux transport across the mammary epithelium were measured using an in vitro human mammary epithelial cell model, providing information on diffusion and transporter-mediated clearance, whereas milk protein binding was determined using rapid equilibrium dialysis to account for unbound drug available for transfer. These experimentally …

The Beacon, March 27, 2026, Beacon Staff

The Beacon, 2025-2026

Club Spotlight: International Justice Mission; Perspectives through the decades: 1970s; DME abroad to Netherlands and Germany; “I Can Only Imagine 2” : simple and heartwarming; Luke Combs returns to roots with “The Way I Am”; Choir brings beautiful music to four states; The Trends of the past spilling into 2026; Why O-Staff is worth the commitment; Lost in translation: language requirement; The oldest and most discredited sport; Raiders are GPAC champions in 2026; Raiders show tenacity in post-season losses; Looking ahead to the golf spring season; The Emmy’s are on their way; Service makes your faith grow stronger

Eeoc Rules That Transgender Federal Employees May Be Denied Insurance Coverage For Gender-Affirming Care, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Kodak To Deepfakes: Publicity Rights And Abuse Of Our Likenesses, Michael Goodyear

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

The Contributions Of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps In Vasculopathies Of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy, Dakota Hunter, Riley Sullivan, Joseph Schrader

Poster Presentations

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a cerebrovascular disorder characterized by the progressive deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides within the walls of small to medium-sized cerebral blood vessels. As a prevalent comorbidity of Alzheimer's disease, CAA disproportionately affects the aging population, with an estimated 25% of individuals over 50 and approximately 50% of those over 80 exhibiting moderate to severe pathology. The condition is clinically significant due to its strong associations with microbleeds, intracranial hemorrhage, and cognitive decline. At the molecular level, Aβ accumulation arises from the irregular cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP), disrupting vascular integrity and triggering downstream pathological …

Wic Staffs’ Perspectives On Underutilization Of Wic In Rhode Island, Ophelia Xorlali Mensah, Fred B. Addo, Kathryn Roy, Ann Barone

Poster Presentations

Background and Objectives: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) improve food security, nutrition, and overall health for low income pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and young children in the U.S. However, continuous participation and retention drop as children age in the WIC program. Very few studies have assessed these challenges faced by caregivers from the perspectives of the WIC staff. We therefore explored perspectives of WIC staff on caregivers’ participation and early dropout from WIC. Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews among 3-4 staff from each of the major WIC agencies in Rhode Island (n=20). By …

Analysis Of Parameters For Improved Morphogenic-Regulator-Meditated-Transformation Using Immature Embryo Explants In Sorghum Bicolor., Ryan Donnelly, Yu-Ton Chen, Michael Tilelli, Erik A. Myers, Albert P. Kausch

Poster Presentations

Reliable Agrobacterium mediated transformation of Sorghum remains constrained by low transformation frequencies and the requirement for high quality immature embryos (IEs). A useful conceptual framework describes transformation efficiency T=V(Cd×Ci×Cr), as the product of DNA delivery (Cd), stable integration (Ci), regeneration competence (Cr), and experiment specific variables (V). Using this framework, in a multi-year study we systematically evaluated parameters predicted to influence DNA delivery and regeneration. Standard IE workflows established baseline developmental dynamics of somatic embryogenesis and regeneration. To increase DNA delivery, we tested Agrobacterium strains and ternary vir helper vectors, which enhanced bacterial attachment and transient reporter expression. To elevate …

Biosynthesis Of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle For Agricultural Fertilization Application, Nicoly Welter, Vinka Oyandel-Craver

Poster Presentations

Green synthetized nanoparticles have been the object of study for their use as fertilizers in the agricultural field. Among them, manganese oxide nanoparticles (MnONPs) have been used to increase the growth and biomass of rice seedlings, mung bean, moringa plants, among others. In this work, we explore the biosynthesis and purification of MnONPs for these environmental applications, seeing as the biosynthesis of MnONPs consumes less thermal energy compared to chemical synthesis methods. In this study, MnONPs were biosynthesized using a strain derived from the marine environment, Pseudomonas putida GB-1. The bacteria were incubated in a batch system in Leptothorix media, …

The George-Anne Inkwell Edition, Georgia Southern University

The Inkwell

No abstract provided.

Does Concurrent Completion Of A Computer Task Interfere With Talking? Comparing Younger And Older Adults, Emma Simpson Hymas

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of a computer-based divided attention task on spoken language and compares the impact between younger (18–30 years) and older (55–82 years) adults. Sixty adults participated in a speaking task and two computer tasks which varied in difficulty. The Level 1 computer task involved highlighting each instance of the word “the” and the Level 2 computer task involved highlighting each instance of the word “the” while also underlining each instance of the word “a”. Each task was completed alone and then two computer tasks with different levels of difficulty were completed concurrently with a procedural discourse …

Functional And Structural Basis Of A Hypermorphic Trpc3 Variant, Briar Bell, Angela M Jaramillo-Granada, Luis O Romero, Irene A Gutierrez, Venkata K P S Mallampalli, Guizhen Fan, Sameer Varma, Matthew L Baker, Irina I Serysheva, Valeria Vásquez, Julio F Cordero-Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cerebellar ataxias are characterized by impaired motor coordination resulting from neuronal dysfunction within the cerebellum. The mechanisms underlying this pathology and its cerebellar-specific neurodegeneration remain unknown. We uncover how a gain-of-function canonical transient receptor potential member 3 (TRPC3) mutation, coupled with a cerebellum-specific isoform, stabilizes the channel’s open state, resists the leading inhibitor Pyr3, and drives calcium-dependent cell death. Restoring calcium homeostasis by expressing a Purkinje cell calcium pump improves cell viability. Transgenic expression of the TRPC3 hypermorphic variant in Caenorhabditis elegans induces neurodegeneration, confirming its pathogenicity across species. Cryo–electron microscopy and molecular simulations reveal the structural basis for the …

The Mosaic, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Experiences Of Child Life Specialists Who Identify As Queer, Tori Hinton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Previous research shows that queer professionals experience underrepresentation, discrimination, harassment in the workplace (Kinitz et al., 2024; Ellsworth et al., 2020; Schatz & O’Hanlan, 1994; Eliason et al., 2011a; Katz-Wise et al., 2021). Across healthcare and psychosocial professions, queer professionals report discrimination, identity concealment, isolation and fears of professional repercussions related to disclosure. Such experiences are associated with decreased job satisfaction, increased stress, and barriers to career advancement (Cancela et al., 2024). Existing research on diverse child life specialists is limited and no published studies focus specifically on the experiences of queer child life specialists. One study by Gourley and …

Collaborative Care For Depression In Chronic Illness: A Narrative Review, Chun Wong, German E. Corso

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Depression commonly coexists with chronic medical illness and is associated with impaired self-management, poor adherence, increased healthcare utilization, and higher mortality.

Objective: To synthesize evidence published between 2000 and late 2025 on the effectiveness of the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) for depression in adults with chronic medical illness, with particular attention to contemporary U.S. implementation, policy, and equity considerations.

Methods: A narrative review of randomized controlled trials, pragmatic and implementation studies, systematic reviews, and policy analyses was conducted using PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus. Evidence addressing collaborative care for depression in adults with chronic medical illness was identified and synthesized …

Just City And Racialized Media: How A Non-Profit Provokes Policy And Fights Criminal Injustices, Isabella L. Wollfarth

LSU Master's Theses

This study explored the intersection of racialized media narratives, nonprofits, and penal policy through a case study of Just City, a nonprofit criminal justice organization located in Shelby County, Tennessee. Through the lens of Just City, this study explored how nonprofits resist racialized media narratives regarding crime and how in turn this contributes to penal policy reforms. This is accomplished using a thematic analysis to draw larger conclusions from coding Just City’s Instagram and through extensive interviews with Just City staff and local Shelby County and Tennessee politicians. These methods are guided by framing theory, an ideological framework that explains …

Evaluative Expressions In Spanish Digital Discourse: A Sociopragmatic Study Of Vaya/Qué Constructions, Jason L. Meier

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the sociopragmatic patterns of Spanish evaluative constructions involving qué/vaya in contemporary digital discourse. Drawing upon politeness and impoliteness frameworks by Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson (1978, 1987) and Jonathan Culpeper (1996), this research observes how speakers deploy use these constructions within public discourse to negotiate stance. The data consists of posts from X (formerly Twitter) and comments from YouTube videos, selected to showcase naturally occurring instances of (im)politeness across social media. These constructions are key to determining how society navigates expression and form within public discourse. In addition to the modern findings, a focused analysis of …

Measuring Indigenous Cultural Strengths: A Systematic Review Of A Decade Of Approaches., Melissa L. Walls, Danica Love Brown, Victoria M. O'Keefe, Evan J. White, Miigis Gonzalez, Ivy Blackmore, Tara L. Maudrie, Meenakshi Richardson, Timothy R. Werwie, Hariata G Tai Rakena, Multiple Additional Authors

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Indigenous Peoples experience severe health inequities rooted in experiences of colonization. Calls for strengths-based, culturally grounded research and practice to redress these harms continue to grow. This systematic review assesses how Indigenous "culture" has been quantified in research across the globe over a 10-year span. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched four databases (2013-2023) for peer-reviewed, English-language articles featuring quantitative measures of Indigenous culture as a positive/protective factor. Data were extracted via a double coding system to assess cultural domains, operationalization strategies, and sociodemographic characteristics of reviewed studies. We reviewed 279 records and identified 461 measures, 289 of which were unique. …

Novel Electrical Interfaces For Bionic Limbs, Matthew Aaron Melton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in neural interfaces are pivotal for enhancing the functionality and longevity of implantable biomedical applications, particularly in the field of neuroprosthetics. This dissertation is focused on the continuing development of a novel neural interface fabricated from silicon carbide (SiC). SiC has demonstrated superior performance over traditional silicon-based material systems due to its exceptional biocompatibility, hemocompatibility, and electrochemical stability. The research herein explores silicon carbide’s semiconductor properties, with a highlighted focus on a unique and innovative design structure - centered around a p-n junction. This work examines detailed fabrication steps of an all-SiC device, acute-style packaging (for future in vivo …

The Power Of Beliefs: Cognitive Pathways Linking Mental Health Literacy To Psychological Distress, Katherine Elise Kirsch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mental health disorders are prevalent in children and adolescents, and they are accompanied by challenges throughout the lifespan. Mental health literacy (MHL) provides a flexible framework to address child and adolescent mental health. Identifying significant relationships between MHL and mental health outcomes has the potential to inform successful interventions. This study uses a secondary analysis of data gathered for the Study on Attitudes of Adolescents and Young Adults Toward Relevant Health Issues to isolate MHL belief domains that significantly effect psychological distress levels in adolescents.

The Swiss Youth Mental Health Literacy and Stigma Survey was used to assess the MHL, …

In The Realm Of Dreams: The Feminine Imagination In Music, Katie Scarlett Ellender

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project examines selected works by Clara Schumann, Rebecca Clarke, and Lili Boulanger that contain representations of night, dream, and mythology. These composers were influenced by the prevailing artistic movements during their lives, including German Romanticism, Impressionism, and Symbolism, which emphasized nocturnal landscapes, supernatural beings, and liminal states. Descriptive analysis and performance recommendations are provided for selected Lieder by Clara Schumann, Rebecca Clarke’s Morpheus, and Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne. Particular emphasis is given to how each composer uses night, dream, and myth imagery as expressive frameworks that inform decisions on harmonic language, level of cadential resolution, motivic repetition and transformation, texture, …

The Living Archive: Photography, Social Media, And The New Frontier Of Activism, Lundyn C. Herring

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to analyze the discursive field and technology of photography and its multi-faceted role in the oppression of colonized people under Western imperialism. Among the main collection highlights of many established state-run archival institutions are photographic records consisting of surveillance images, mugshots, and other visual media as representations of the political hegemony that is exerted over governed peoples. From the mid-19th century to 2026, much has shifted in the realm of photography with the introduction of smartphones, accessible technology, and social media platforms during the beginning of the twenty-first century. As states and powerholders apply the technology of …

Prosecutorial Philosophy And Racial Disparities In Arrest Rates, Carl L. Reeds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prominent issue of racial disparities in arrest in the criminal justice system is well documented. One proposed mechanism for addressing these disparities in the criminal justice system is the emergence of progressive prosecutors. Progressive prosecutors are vastly different than traditional prosecution through the approach to their roles in the criminal justice system. Traditional prosecutors prioritize convictions and punishment, often seeking maximum sentences for defendants and relying on the traditional model of tough-on-crime policies. Progressive prosecutors pledge to reform the criminal justice system by declining to prosecute certain low-level offenses, expanding diversion programs, and explicitly addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities. …

Netflix, Between Intercultural Exchange And Monopolizing Tendencies: Streaming Consumption, Production, And Distribution In Romania, Ana-Maria Calancea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the development and involvement of the SVOD platform Netflix in Romania in the context of a global media corporation engaging with a local market. Romania’s status as a former communist country acts as a good case study highlighting the long-term consequences of diverse content deprivation. I argue that in a country such as Romania, a service like Netflix can provide a so-called indirect intercultural exchange through the production and distribution of easily accessible diverse content, whether that diversity stems from nationality, ethnicity, race, sexuality, or any unconventional form of expression that was restricted or censored in the …