Digital Commons Network^™

Establishment Of A Specialized Pectus Clinic: Referral Patterns, Diagnostic Characteristics, And Early Management Experience At A University Hospital, Zeead M. Alghamdi

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To describe the establishment and early impact of a dedicated pectus clinic at a university hospital, focusing on patient characteristics, referral pathways, clinical presentation, and initial management strategies. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted at a university hospital between January 2020 and April 2025, with 153 patients included in the final analysis. Data collected included demographic characteristics, referral sources, clinical presentation, deformity type, and treatment options. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Results: The mean patient age was 18.3 (range 1–44) years, with males accounting for 83.9% of cases. Pectus carinatum was the most common diagnosis (48.1%), followed by …

The Case For Gulf Region-Specific Peripheral Artery Disease Trials: A Comprehensive Literature Review, Hosaam H. Nasr, Faisal A. Almudaiheem

Saudi Medical Journal

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) research is globally underrepresented, with landmark trials like Best Endovascular Surgical Therapy for Patients with Critical Limb Ischemia and Bypass versus Angioplasty in Severe Ischemia of the Leg predominantly featuring white, Western populations. These studies fail to account for the unique clinical landscape of the Gulf region, where PAD prevalence reaches up to 13.7%. Gulf patients present at younger ages and face a disproportionately high diabetes burden, with regional prevalence near 18%, nearly double that of Europe. Beyond metabolic factors, the Gulf population exhibits distinct genetic architectures, including high rates of consanguinity and familial hypercholesterolemia. Because …

Meta-Analysis On The Effect Of Tai Chi Chuan On Human Biomechanics And Health From (2021–2025), Bijad S. Alqahtani, Husam A. Almalki

Saudi Medical Journal

Objective: Prior reviews emphasize overall health outcomes of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) but rarely resolve the biomechanical intermediates (such as Center of Mass (CoM)–Center of Pressure (CoP) control, joint loading) that link practice to clinical function—knowledge that matters for balance, fall risk, and osteoarthritic knee load management. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to test the null hypothesis that TCC produces no improvement versus comparators in (i) biomechanical stability indices (mediolateral/anterior–posterior CoM–CoP separation; COP Root Mean Square RMS) and (ii) related clinical functions (such as Time up and go (TUG), Berg balance scale (BBS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis …

Developmental Dysplasia Of The Hip In Saudi Arabia And The Gulf Countries: A Genetic Systematic Review Study, Naif Z. Alrashdi, Ahmed M. Almansour, Azfar Jamal

Saudi Medical Journal

Objective: To describe the available research on genetic determinants with special emphasis on the developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), in Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations, with reference to the genetic variants, family trend, and environmental factors. Methods: The literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Saudi Digital Library and Google Scholar through a broad literature search since the beginning of the databases until 2023. Studies that conducted in Saudi Arabia or Gulf countries which evaluated the relationships of genetic factors in DDH were included. Case reports, conference abstracts, and studies that did not …

Indigenous Ontologies And Architecture, Reconstructing Interrelational Relationships, Arlene Garcia Guzman

McNair Summer Research Program

Contemporary architecture faces a growing pressure to respond to the socioecological crises with regard to the consequences of design that so often accept environmental systems as separate from the living. In contrast, many Native systems, often referred to as Traditional Knowledge (TK), comprehend cumulative, place-based bodies of knowledge that are developed through extended histories of interaction with specific environments. In this context, Traditional Knowledge encompasses resource use practices, sustainability, spirituality, and an emphasis on a relational worldview. It is characterized in such a framework that different layers of existence, such as humans, animals, plants, water, climate, and materials, are understood …

Facilitating Palliative Care In The Intensive Care Unit, Crystal Sanchez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Problem: Critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) frequently experience unmet palliative care needs due to inconsistent identification processes and delayed goals‑of‑care (GOC) discussions. Prior to this project, palliative care consultation practices were highly variable and lacked standardized criteria, resulting in missed opportunities for early communication and symptom management. This gap underscored the need for a structured, nurse‑driven approach to improve timely palliative care integration.

Context: This quality improvement project was conducted in a 20‑bed adult ICU within a large community‑based hospital system where palliative care integration was inconsistent and not systematically monitored.

Interventions: A nurse‑driven palliative …

Escherichia Coli Concentrations In Sand And Water At Tributary-Influenced Lake Michigan Beaches, Josie Elaine Kuhlman

Masters Theses

Contamination of public recreational water and sand is a human health concern, creating a management challenge for public health officials. Past research has shown that Escherichia coli can persist in sediment and can be washed into recreational water. Currently, beach monitoring practices only utilize E. coli concentrations in water samples to determine beach safety and do not consider potential exposure to sediment/sand concentrations. In this study, I investigated the relationship between E. coli concentrations in water and sand samples, which will aid public health officials in making more informed decisions about beach closures. I utilized culture-based measurements of E. coli …

Enhancing A Mid-Wave Infrared Fourier Transform Hyperspectral Imager For Explosions, James T. Stofel, Kody A. Wilson, Martin Larivière-Bastien, Anthony L. Franz, Michael L. Dexter

Faculty Publications

Capturing reliable hyperspectral imager data at a meaningful frame rate for explosions and other fast-changing scenes is not possible in the mid-wave infrared region under traditional sensor operating configurations and processing techniques, which typically have frame rates on the order of 0.5–2.0 Hz. To combat these shortcomings, the scene acquisition parameters were tailored for explosions and a new method for processing optical signatures of fast transient scenes with Fourier-transform infrared hyperspectral imagers was developed. For this technique, the instrument was first configured to collect asymmetric interferograms while optimizing the number of measurement points on the short side of the interferogram. …

Anxious Or Avoidant? The Moderating Effects Of Attachment Styles On Later Development Of Ptsd And Bpd In Individuals With Child Maltreatment History, Jeannette L. Burkle

Theses

Child maltreatment (CM) has been associated with the later development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among emerging adults. Numerous attachment studies have documented the association of insecure attachments with CM. There is little research on the independent effects of anxious and avoidant maternal attachment on later psychopathology and even less on the effects of peer attachment. Secure peer attachments can improve emotional regulation strategies as well as create healthy social support systems which may buffer against the development of later psychopathology. This study examined the independent effects of maternal and peer attachment in the relationship …

Evaluation Of Implementation Of An Evidence-Based Screening Tool For Genitourinary Syndrome Of Menopause, Anna L. Myers

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) is a prevalent yet underrecognized and undertreated condition despite evidence-based therapies in the urology setting. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice quality improvement was to provide education on the 2025 American Urological Association/ Society of Urodynamics and Female Pelvic Medicine & Urogenital Reconstruction/American Urogynecological Society GSM guidelines and integrate the Day-to-Day Impact of Vaginal Aging (DIVA) questionnaire into practice, evaluate outcomes of acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of the intervention, and the impact on diagnosis and associated GSM prescribing. The aim was to impact provider screening and treatment of patients with GSM. Kolcaba's Comfort …

Design And Implementation Of An Intelligent Electronic Circuit To Control Laser Power In Real Time Using Built-In Thermal Feedback, Zainab Hussam Al-Araji

Mesopotamian Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

One of the challenges of laser thermal therapy is to balance treatment effectiveness with the protection of healthy tissues from unintentional thermal damage. The aim of this study is to regulate the laser thermal dose with high accuracy using commercially available microcontrollers through the design and implementation of a low-cost closed-loop control system. The proposed system uses an adaptive control algorithm (PID) to adjust the laser power in real time, supported by a safety mechanism that calculates the equivalent cumulative minutes (CEM43) to prevent tissue charring. A binary verification methodology was adopted to assess the system's reliability, in which a …

Knowledge Organization As A Cognitive Framework: Integrating Metacognition And Executive Function In Higher-Order Thinking, Arwa Alsultan

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper proposes a theoretical framework that positions knowledge organization as a cognitive mechanism rather than merely a technical or informational process. Drawing on an integrative review of literature across knowledge organization, metacognition, executive function, and schema theory, the study examines how structured knowledge environments may support higher-order thinking among researchers. The proposed model suggests that knowledge organization, metacognition, and executive function operate as an interconnected cognitive system: knowledge organization provides the structural foundation for processing information, metacognition enables monitoring and reflective regulation, and executive function supports cognitive control processes such as working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. Four theoretical …

Understanding And Responding To Childhood Trauma In The Classroom, Kara L. Ganzer

Master of Arts in Human Services

This capstone explored childhood trauma as a significant public health and educational issue because of its widespread impact on children’s development, learning, behavior, and educational experiences. A review of the current literature was conducted to examine adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the neurobiological and developmental effects of childhood trauma, its impact within educational settings, and the trauma-informed approaches for supporting students who have experienced adversity. The literature suggested that childhood trauma can disrupt brain development, executive functioning, emotional regulation, attention, memory, and stress-response systems, contributing to academic, behavioral, and social-emotional challenges within the classroom. Findings also highlighted the important role schools …

Mountain Development In Nepal: Settlements, Infrastructure, And Economic Transformation, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

As Nepal urbanizes, expands infrastructure, strengthens local governments, and explores deeper connectivity with India and China, climate change is increasing floods, landslides, heat, and water insecurity. Rapid internal migration, rising disaster risks, youth outmigration, and dependence on remittances are also revealing the limits of conventional urban development, especially in the mountainous region. The central challenge for Nepal is no longer just to accommodate growing towns and cities, but to build settlements that are safe, productive, environmentally resilient, and capable of sustaining long-term prosperity.

This paper argues that Nepal's urban future must be guided by a new development paradigm centered on …

Becoming A Therapist In A Foreign Land: Narratives Of International Trainee Clinicians Of Color In The U.S., Prathma Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation project is on the community of trainee clinicians of color, who have been consistently overlooked in the literature on mental health. This dissertation employed narrative analysis as a methodological framework to explore the experiences of international trainee clinicians of color as they navigated the complex landscape of mental health training in the United States. In an increasingly globalized world, the voices and perspectives of these individuals offered critical insights into the challenges, triumphs, and unique pathways that shaped their professional development. Much of the literature on diversity and inclusion tends to individualize the challenging experiences, …

Chemistry & Fine Arts Collaboration Posters 2025 - 2026, Basil Masri Zada, Corey Beck

Exhibition Catalogs

Supervisors Dr. Basil Masri Zada and Dr. Corey Beck bring together students from Ohio University’s Chemistry and Digital Art + Technology programs in a collaborative effort to make scientific concepts more accessible. Each artist has been assigned to work with a group of chemistry students, and they are then prompted to create an art poster with only the name of the compound. Enclosed in this pamphlet is the hard work of both students from the digital art program and the chemistry program.

Participating artists include:  Addie Smith, Madelyn Bartolone, Jabin Tasmin, Sara Pirahmaiden, Parker McGowan, Sophie Hillis, Leena Blanton, Jack …

Vocabulary Knowledge Within Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Hannah A. Lord

Masters Projects

Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are consistently experiencing a “definitional gap”, where they are able to process vocabulary breadth within labeling but are unable to comprehend text due to the lack of vocabulary depth. The four week vocabulary unit titled “Our World in Words” is created to bridge the gap between vocabulary breadth and depth for first graders. Research in Dual Coding Theory and Cognitive Load Theory provides insight into the use of stable visual anchors with orthographic facilitation, which allows for the disregard of auditory processing, along with an overloaded cognitive load. This framework includes four important …

Inclusion Support For Early Childhood Educators, Victoria Parker

Masters Projects

Some general education teachers are not prepared to support the diverse needs of young students with disabilities being included in general education classrooms. Research shows that teacher preparation is a vital component to creating high-quality inclusive classrooms for young children. Preparing teachers for teaching in inclusive classrooms starts in college, and needs to continue throughout teaching careers to encourage and support the implementation of new strategies. Research also shows that training and preparedness for the challenges of working with students with diverse needs in the general education classroom affects staff attitudes and willingness to collaborate. The purpose of this project …

Methodologies For Encouraging Creative Expression Within The Curriculum, Ian D. Martzke

Masters Projects

Many students struggle to find creative expression within the school curriculum. Indeed, since the 1990s we have seen a rise in average IQ but a reduction in scores through the Torrance Test for Creative Thinking (TTCT) (Kim, 2011). In the course of this project several methodologies for creative problem solving will be described and several lessons will be described that will both explain and model these methodologies of creative problem solving. These lessons will utilize the creative process (Wallas, 1926) and be written to include student choice (Hogan et al. 2020) specifically, within the instructional framework known as Teaching for …

Integrated Self-Regulation Strategy Development And Physical Science: A Unit For Second Grade, Ashley Crawford

Masters Projects

Writing is a large part of education, social communication, and work environments. However, the ability of elementary students to write proficiently is severely lacking. Much of educational writing and work-place writing is informational and the foundation of this writing begins in elementary school. There is a need to increase the amount of instruction and practice that elementary students receive in informational writing so that they are able to write in a competent manner. Writing proficiency in elementary school will affect the education a student receives moving forward and ultimately their adult lives.

Elementary educators need to integrate classroom instruction to …

Surface-Modified Zinc Oxide Nanostructures For Ammonia Detection, Gowri Shonali N Ms

Theses and Dissertations

The escalating demand for sustainable gas sensors with low-ppm detection has driven research on surface-engineered nanomaterials for portable air-quality and health screening. This thesis focuses on the fabrication of nanostructured ZnO films as chemiresistive sensors for NH3 detection at RT. This study investigates surface modification using GO, rGO, g-C3N4, Ti3C2Tx; (Se, and Te) ink using a drop casting technique over DC-sputtered ZnO films. Surface modification plays a vital role by providing plenty of active sites, enhancing defective oxygen vacancy, facilitating charge transfer, and synergistic interaction between adsorbed oxygen species to enhance the sensing performance at RT. Among them trGO/ZnO hybrid …

Strengthening Rti Decision Making For Students At Risk For Dyslexia, Christine A. Schout

Masters Projects

Despite the intent of Response to Intervention (RTI) to support early identification, inconsistent implementation and a lack of objective decision rules can delay the identification and support of students at risk for dyslexia. The purpose of this project was to develop practical, evidence-based resources to support educators in making consistent RTI decisions that promote early identification of students at risk for dyslexia and timely referral for comprehensive evaluation when appropriate. The project was informed by a review of the literature examining dyslexia, early identification, evidence-based intervention, progress monitoring, instructional intensification, and RTI implementation. A series of professional resources was developed …

Lessons From Tanzania’S Ujamaa For Smart Settlements In Nepal: Social Justice And Economic Development, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s constitutional commitment to a “socialism-oriented” state places social justice, equitable access to resources and housing, and protection of marginalized populations at the center of national development discourse. However, persistent landlessness, informal settlements, unemployment, youth outmigration, and unequal access to infrastructure reveal a significant gap between constitutional aspirations and socioeconomic realities.

This article examines lessons Nepal can draw from Tanzania’s experience with Ujamaa, the African socialist development model initiated by President Nyerere in 1967. Using comparative policy analysis, published research, official documents, and exploratory field observations from selected Tanzanian locations, including the capital and villages in the Iringa Region, the …

Building Agentic Ai Systems With Langgraph: From Llm Pipelines To Multi-Agent Decision Workflows, Mohammad Amin Kuhail

All Works

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have enabled the development of increasingly sophisticated agentic AI systems capable of reasoning, planning, tool use, memory management, and collaborative problem solving. Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can autonomously pursue goals and execute tasks by combining reasoning, decision-making, memory, interaction with external tools, and adaptive workflows. Unlike traditional LLM applications that primarily rely on single-prompt interactions or fixed sequential pipelines, agentic AI systems can iteratively analyze problems, coordinate multiple steps, invoke external resources, refine intermediate outputs, and dynamically adapt their behavior in response to evolving context and feedback. Recent developments in …

Learning To Evaluate: Cost-Effective Model Evaluation On Unlabeled Data With Meta-Learning, Trinh Pham, Viet Huynh, Hongzhi Yin, Quoc Viet Hung Nguyen, Thanh Tam Nguyen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The rapid advancement of machine learning has led to an unprecedented expansion of model ecosystems, making it increasingly difficult to assess the reliability of newly released models on unseen and unlabeled data. Existing evaluation pipelines typically rely on costly annotation, repeated fine-tuning, or assumptions that do not generalize well to new models. We introduce MetaEvaluator, a cost-effective, model-agnostic framework for fast, label-free evaluation of unseen models across diverse architectures and modalities. MetaEvaluator meta-learns over a pool of reference models to acquire an effective initialization for accurate assessment of unseen models, thereby amortizing evaluation cost and eliminating the need for per-model …

The Right To Have Rights In United States Territories, Anthony M. Ciolli

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Immigration Detainers, Local Law Enforcement, And Constraints On Bureaucratic Discretion: Recent Trends Under The Second Trump Administration, Richard T. Middleton, Sheridan Wigginton

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From Militarization To Military Enforcement: The U.S. Armed Forces And Immigration Control In The Second Trump Administration, Kit Johnson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Immigration Bridges, Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Deportation After Death By Incarceration: A Right To Redemption, Jennifer Lee Koh, Tin Nguyen

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.