Digital Commons Network^™

Court-Type Traditional Thai Massage Versus Wrist Splinting For Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Phiyaphon Poonsuk, Sunyarn Niempoog, Jurairat Boonruab, Watchara Damjuti

Journal of Health Research

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common peripheral neuropathy at the wrist that affects palmar function. Court-type traditional Thai massage (CTTM) is a deep-pressure method that may alleviate nerve compression. However, its efficacy remains inadequately established. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of CTTM and wrist splinting (WS) in CTS patients.

Methods: Eighty patients were randomly assigned into two groups and underwent a 4-week. In the first group, patients received CTTM twice a week, while the second group received WS every day at night only. Pain intensity (VAS), symptom severity scale (Thai BCTQ-S), functional status scale …

Balneotherapy For Sleep Improvement And Reducing Depression In Knee Osteoarthritis Patients, Anca Paula Ciurba, Alexandru Bogdan Ilieș, Ionel Haidu, Doriana Ioana Ciobanu, Theodora Ursu, Florin Mihai Marcu, Dorina Ianc

Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic condition and a leading cause of global disability, often associated with pain, depression, and sleep disturbances. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of warm mineral water combined with physical therapy on sleep quality, depression and pain intensity in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Materials and Methods: The study involved 101 subjects (68.78±6.92 years) who were assigned to  a control group (CG) or an experimental group (EG). All subjects benefited from physical therapy and electrotherapy for 10 days. The experimental group additionally benefited from therapy with hot mineral water. …

Editorial Affiliation And Subconscious Bias In High-Impact Ophthalmology Journals, Iden Amiri, Gitanjali M. Fleischman, David Fleischman

Journal of Academic Ophthalmology

Background: Editorial leadership plays a critical role in shaping the scientific literature. Transitions in editors-in-chief (EICs) may introduce subconscious biases, particularly favoring their home institutions, potentially influencing publication patterns.

Purpose: To evaluate whether editorial transitions are associated with increased institutional publication representation in major ophthalmology journals and to assess the potential for subconscious or reciprocal editorial bias.

Methods: A retrospective bibliometric analysis of four high-impact ophthalmology journals, JAMA Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO), and British Journal of Ophthalmology (BJO), was conducted over a 15-year period (2010-2024). Institutional affiliation data were extracted …

The Use And Perceptions Of Virtual Reality Simulator Training For Ophthalmological Surgical Education, Geoffrey Nguyen, Mackenzie T. Pham, Paul C. Kang

Journal of Academic Ophthalmology

Background: The expansion of virtual reality (VR) headsets, haptic technology, and virtual education has provided educational innovators with a high-fidelity alternative to traditional surgical training.

Purpose: To characterize the utilization and perspectives regarding the use of virtual reality simulator training in U.S.-based ophthalmic residency programs for surgical education.

Methods: An anonymous online questionnaire hosted by Qualtrics (Silver Lake, Seattle, WA) was emailed to ophthalmology faculty through the Association of University Professors Ophthalmology (AUPO) listservs. They were asked if virtual reality simulators were used in their program. Participants who answered “yes” were asked questions regarding the specific virtual …

Ergonomics And Injury Prevention Education In Canadian Ophthalmology Residency Programs: A Survey Of Program Directors, Hargun Kaur, Changseok Lee, Jim S. Xie, R. Rishi Gupta, Rookaya Mather

Journal of Academic Ophthalmology

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are common among ophthalmologists. WMSDs are particularly associated with microscope use, awkward surgical postures, and nonergonomic equipment design. Symptoms can begin early in residency and may negatively affect trainees’ long-term musculoskeletal health, surgical performance, and career longevity.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of all 15 Canadian ophthalmology residency program directors (PDs) was conducted, with follow-up emails sent at 2- and 3-week intervals. The questionnaire was designed to elicit information on program characteristics, existing ergonomics education, instructional methods, barriers to implementation, and perspectives on future curriculum development.

Results: Twelve of 15 program directors (80%) …

The Impact Of Differentiated Instruction Strategy In Life Skills And Family Education On The Development Of Twenty-First Century Skills Among Sixth-Grade Primary Students, Tahani Khalid Al-Jubair

University of Bisha Journal for Educational Sciences

This study aimed to identify the effect of using the differentiated instruction strategy in the Life Skills and Family Education course on developing 21st-century skills among first-grade intermediate female students. The researcher adopted a quasi-experimental design. The study sample consisted of (50) first-grade intermediate students from Fatimah Al-Zahra Intermediate School, affiliated with the Eastern Province Education Office in the city of Dammam, during the academic year 1446 AH. The sample was equally divided into two groups: an experimental group (25 students) and a control group (25 students). To achieve the study objectives, a 21st-century skills questionnaire was developed, along with …

Improved Child Participation And Performance At Saddle Up!, Maya Pakulski

OTD Capstone Projects

This capstone project was created in partnership with the staff at Saddle Up! in Franklin, TN. Saddle Up! is a PATH accredited non profit organization that offers hippotherapy, adaptive riding and various horsemanship lessons and opportunities for children and youth with various disabilities to learn and engage with horses. The primary goal of this project was to address a need for improved child and family participation in various aspects of lessons and therapy sessions. The focus was to develop a functional communication and visual schedule system that was accessible and easily understood by all staff. This system included a wide …

Social Media’S Impact On Body Image Perception, Rachel Murino

Honors Theses

This study aims to analyze the relationship between social media use and body image perception, specifically focusing on universal and culturally unique factors. Survey data was collected from participants ages 18-47. By analyzing ethnic differences, this study seeks to identify how culture can shape beauty standards and if social media use and pressure play a role in reinforcing these ideals. The findings were expected to reveal a relationship between perceived social media pressure and negative body image perception, along with cultural trends. Results indicated a significant relationship between social media pressure and body image perception, along with a significant interaction …

Implementation Of An Occupational Therapy-Led, Sensory-Based Intervention In A Secure Children’S Home: A Qualitative Study Of Staff Experiences, Kevin Steede, Alison Warren

School of Health Professions

The Just Right State program (JRSP) is an occupational therapy-based, sensory intervention designed to support self-regulation. Qualitative methodology was used to explore the experiences of five members of staff working in a secure children’s home in training in and implementing the JRSP under the guidance of occupational therapy staff. Using thematic analysis four themes emerged: Sensory regulation training enhanced staff wellbeing, Sensory regulation as a new lens in a unique environment, Embedding theory in practice, and Considerations for the experiential JRSP training. The findings provide insights into effective training and implementation of sensory modulation interventions.

The Effect Of Low And High-Carbohydrate Diets On Memory Performance In College Students, Samia Baugh, Zoe Zajko, Jamie Analuisa, Ivanna Jacome

Department of Nutrition Student Projects

Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy for the brain and play an important role in processes related to memory performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a low-carbohydrate diet compared to a high-carbohydrate diet on memory performance in college students aged 18–22 years. For the purposes of this study, a low-carbohydrate diet is defined as a diet providing fewer than 130 grams of carbohydrates per day, while a high-carbohydrate diet provides approximately 325 grams of carbohydrates. This population is particularly important to study because college students experience high academic demands that require strong memory …

Bba 313 - Foundations Of Entrepreneurship, Andrew Gold

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus presents BBA 313: Foundations of Entrepreneurship, a three-credit undergraduate course offered at Lehman College, City University of New York, within the Department of Management and Business Innovation. Designed for students interested in entrepreneurship, the course introduces foundational frameworks of entrepreneurship including opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial identity, resource mobilization, financial management, and business feasibility planning. The course is structured as an Open Educational Resource (OER), utilizing the zero-cost OpenStax Entrepreneurship textbook (Laverty & Little, 2020, CC BY 4.0) and multi-format learning materials including written readings, audio podcasts, and experiential in-class activities. The syllabus reflects an applied, community-grounded pedagogy culminating in …

Physical Space And Democratic Citizenship: Third Place Usage And Civic Engagement Among Undergraduates, Justin L. Fintel

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis examines the relationship between third place usage and civic engagement levels among undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Drawing on urban planning and political science literature, I hypothesize that students who more frequently use and interact with campus third places—which are informal communal spaces that foster community, such as coffee shops, libraries, and student unions—demonstrate higher levels of civic engagement. Using survey data from thirty-eight undergraduates and ordinary least squares regression analysis, I find strong support for my hypothesis. Third place usage significantly predicts civic engagement (β = 0.609, p < 0.001) statistically, and this relationship remains robust even after controlling for family socialization and socioeconomic status. The findings suggest that physical spaces on college campuses play an independent role in promoting democratic citizenship beyond students' pre-existing characteristics. These results have important implications for university and urban planning, while highlighting the value of investing in communal campus spaces as mechanisms for promoting civic participation.

Morphology, Phylogeny And Distribution Of Scaeurgus (Cephalopoda: Octopoda) In Southeast Pacific Seamounts, Sergio A. Carrasco, Christian M. Ibáñez, Andrea I. Varela, Jan M. Tapia-Guerra, Erin E. Easton, Javier Sellanes

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Octopuses of the genus Scaeurgus inhabit upper bathyal benthic habitats and are composed of five recognized species. In this study, we conducted morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses of two individuals of Scaeurgus and provided additional field observations of the genus in seamounts of the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges (southeast Pacific Ocean) over the last six years. Specifically, two specimens of Scaeurgus were collected at 234 m depth in 2019 during the EPIC oceanographic cruise onboard the R/V Mirai (JAMSTEC, Japan), and five other specimens were video recorded at depths between 210 and 340 m during three oceanographic expeditions …

Sex-Specific Differences In Lung Mitochondrial Function And Injury In Rats Exposed To Hyperoxia, Taheri Pardis, Abraham G. Taye, Devanshi D. Dave, Elizabeth R. Jacobs, Guru Prasad Sharma, Anne V. Clough, Ranjan K. Dash, Said H. Audi

Mathematical and Statistical Science Faculty Research and Publications

Hyperoxia is both an essential therapy and a contributor to lung injury in acute respiratory distress syndrome. We hypothesized that adult female rats are relatively protected from hyperoxia-induced acute lung injury (HALI) compared with males and that this protection is associated with sex-dependent differences in lung mitochondrial bioenergetics and H₂O₂ production. Adult rats were exposed to room air (normoxia) or hyperoxia (>95% O₂) for up to 60 h. Lung injury was assessed by pleural effusion, lung wet weight, pulmonary vascular filtration coefficient (K_f), histologic injury scores, and cleaved caspase-3 (CC3) staining. …

Untangling Impacts Of Socioeconomic Position, Chronic Disease, And Low-Level Pm2.5 Exposure On Mortality Among Native American Medicare Beneficiaries, Judy Wendt Hess, Wenyaw Chan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with increased mortality at concentrations below current regulatory standards. Studies of low-level exposure often rely on large administrative cohorts whose geographic and demographic composition may influence observed associations. In a prior analysis, we observed an association between long-term PM2.5 and all-cause mortality among Native American Medicare beneficiaries living in zip codes within the lowest decile of PM2.5 exposure. The present study, a case-control analysis of 1,713,399 low-PM2.5-exposed beneficiaries enrolled in traditional Medicare during 2015-2016, evaluated whether this association could be explained by geographic context, socioeconomic position (SEP), or baseline health status. We used …

Enhancement Dijkstra Algorithm Approach For Path Planning Navigation, Ali Alyasin, Eyad I. Abbas, Jabbar K. Mohammed

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Mobile robots are developing rapidly compared for modern information technology and are used in many fields, such as medicine, industry, military services, and all public services. However, the challenges facing these technologies are significant, including positioning, environmental awareness, path planning, and motion control. Greedy algorithm, Dijkstra algorithm is used for make the path planning better process for ensure increased navigation efficiency. The algorithm uses graphs to find the shortest path between two nodes in a weighted graph by repeating the process. calculating how far things have gone. The initial process of calculating the shortest path speeds up the proposed algorithm's …

Reliability Analysis For Deep Learning Secured Wireless Sensor Networks, Abeer Hussein Abdulrasool, Ekhlas Kadhum Hamza, Ahmed Mudheher Hasan

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

With the advancement of software, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) face many problems and challenges, such as loss or limitation of node power resources, as well as intrusions and other cyberattacks. This study aims to improve the reliability of WSNs to mitigate the impact of cyber-attacks by applying effective detection and prevention techniques to ensure their continuous operation, as well as to maintain the security, privacy, and integrity of information. Several efficient approaches and smart techniques have been presented in literature to enhance the reliability and security of WSNs against various cyber-attacks. Recent studies focused on the deep learning (DL) algorithms …

Experimental Comparison Of Apf-Irrt*-Hs And Apf-Irrt*-Sb Path Planning Algorithms Using Robotic Manipulators, Mohammed T. Hameed, Ahmed R. Naser, Firas A. Raheem

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Path planning is a fundamental task in robotic systems, especially for manipulators operating in constrained environments. The use of low-discrepancy sequence techniques in traditional planning algorithms can significantly improve performance, particularly in terms of speed of convergence and optimal path. In this work, we utilize the popular quasi-random sequence methods, the Halton and Sobol sequences, to explore their impact on the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm. The APF-RT*-HS and the APF-RT*-SB are path-planning algorithms that are experimentally compared in this paper in terms of path length and the number of iterations, which are essential factors affecting robot energy efficiency …

Secret Key Generation From Real-Time Audio In Communication Apps, Rasha M. Mohsin

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Social media platforms security growing challenge of Security vulerabilities, underscoring for secure communication channels and robust user privacy safeguards. Althought key exchange protocol of the Diffie-Hellman (DH) widely adopted, remains various attacks of susceptible asnumber_theoretic exploits, Discrete Logarithm Attacks (DLAs) and Man_in_the_Middle Attacks (MITMAs). This study aim to generate cryptographic key depend on WAV audio files. By operating the entropy and distinctiveness of speech and ambient sound. Audio features has extracting by system to generat secure keys compatible with the DH protocol. The facilitate of these keys is strong encryption and decryption processes, thereby that enhancing the security of communication. …

Path Planning For Robotic Systems In Dynamic Environments: Using Rrt*, Rrt-D* Lite, And Bi-Rrt*-D* Lite, Hameed Salman Hameed, Omar Farouq Lutfy, Firas A. Raheem

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Path planning is one of the essential challenges in the area of robotic systems. In recent years, Rapidly-exploring Random Tree star (RRT*) has been a preferred path planner for robots due to its probabilistic completeness. This paper explores using three path planning algorithms for a mass point robotic system navigating dynamic environments with RRT*, Bidirectional Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (Bi-RRT*), and a novel hybrid approach (Bi-RRT*-D Lite*). The study shows the performance of these algorithms in terms of the path length, the path generating time, the number of search attempts, and the percentage error. In addition, it compares the Bi-RRT* and …

Design Of An Adaptive Sliding Mode For Satellite Attitude Control Based On Barrier Function, Osamah A. Aldoori, Mohammed Y. Hassan, Abbas H. Issa

Iraqi Journal of Computers, Communications, Control and Systems Engineering

Sliding mode control (SMC) has demonstrated significant success in controlling nonlinear systems, particularly those subject to disturbances and uncertainties. However, due to the negative effect of the Chattering phenomenon, it has become necessary to employ an Adaptive Sliding Mode Controller (ASMC) capable of handling time-varying disturbances. This work presents a two-phase Barrier Function (BF) based Adaptive Sliding Mode Controller (BFASMC). This controller is designed to achieve robust stability and performance of nonlinear systems without prior knowledge of disturbance bounds, and applied to satellite Attitude control. The first phase is a constant gain adaptation to ensure rapid convergence, while, the second …

Lakewood Christmas Bird Count, December 28, 2008, Nancy Howel

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Irene Turk Rorimer, Dwight Chasar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Location Key, The Cleveland Bird Calendar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Sean T. Zadar, Dwight Chasar, Haans Petruschke, Bill Whan, Judy Semroc

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Dwight Chasar, Ann Chasar, Sean T. Zadar, Cathy Priebe, Paula Lozano, Bob Finkelstein, Andy Fondrk, Dan Best, Kevin Metcalf, Nancy Howell, Jennifer Brumfield

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Sean T. Zadar, Dwight Chasar, Ann Chasar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Brenda Kovalsky, Dwight Chasar, Ann Edwards, John Edwards, Stanley Stine, Kevin Metcalf

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Noteworthy Records, Larry Rosche

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.

Field Notes, Linda Gilbert, Brad Stemen, Bob Finkelstein, Dwight Chasar

Cleveland Bird Calendar

No abstract provided.