Digital Commons Network^™

Transgender Plaintiffs Win Preliminary Victories In Three Gender-Affirming Care Lawsuits, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Between Code And Context: Empowering Qualitative Researchers To Leverage Ai With Rigor And Responsibility, Tito Dimas Atmawijaya

The Qualitative Report

Diana Garcia Quevedo and Josue Kuri’s AI for Qualitative Research: A Hands-On Guide for Management Scholars (2026) offers a timely and accessible introduction to leveraging large language models (LLMs) for qualitative analysis in management research. Organized into two parts—theoretical foundations and hands-on applications—the book equips researchers with both conceptual understanding and practical programming skills to integrate AI tools responsibly into their analytical workflows. Garcia Quevedo, whose research at ESCP Business School centres on gender, entrepreneurship, and AI-driven qualitative methods, and Kuri, a principal scientist with extensive expertise in AI and network systems, provide a unique interdisciplinary perspective. This review examines …

Assessment Of Groundwater Quality For Irrigation Purpose In Asfan, Saudi Arabia, Abdelilah Khattab, Zaki Al-Hasawi, Talal Almeelbi

Journal of King Abdulaziz University: Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture

Saudi Arabia faces a severe water scarcity, making groundwater the primary source for agricultural activities and underscoring the need to assess its quality to ensure sustainable agriculture, given its direct impact on crop performance, soil properties, and overall productivity. This study evaluated the suitability of groundwater for irrigation in the Asfan area of Al-Jumum Governorate, Makkah Region, in western Saudi Arabia. Water samples were collected from nine wells distributed across five farms and analyzed to measure a wide range of physical and chemical parameters, including temperature, total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, salinity, electrical conductivity, pH, dissolved …

Belknap County 4-H Fair Animal Handbook, Alison Coleman

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Songs For A Burning World: Youth-Led Storytelling Through Vr And 360° Opera, Toby Young, Lucinda Jarrett, Misha Myers

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Songs for a Burning World is a youth-led, co-created immersive opera realised through 360° film, VR, and dome exhibition. Developed through extended online workshops with young participants across twenty countries, the project mobilises operatic voice and sound-led XR practices to articulate climate experience as lived, situated, and plural. Youth and community members are positioned as authors and co-researchers, shaping narrative, sonic material, pacing, and modes of address, rather than contributing testimony to pre-existing frames. Their songs, spoken texts, field recordings, and visual material form both the content and the method of the work, foregrounding embodied knowledge about the climate crisis …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Butte Reduction Works Smelter Area Intermediate 60% Remedial Design Submittal, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc., Atlantic Richfield Company

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Building Cultural Wealth: A Look Into The 40x40 Council’S Rise East Plan, Camille L. Batiste

Master's Theses

This research began as an effort to understand how community-based organizations in neighborhoods that have experienced generational economic disinvestment address the financial and cultural wealth gap in their communities. With the 40x40 Council and its work in East Oakland serving as the case study, it is evident how this organization mobilizes to reverse the impact of cultural erasure and wealth exclusion, helping Black residents not just live, but thrive. With an enriched understanding of how the 40x40 Council frames its approach, implements its vision, and develops its longevity, the Rise East Plan utilizes an alternative wealth-building strategy that centers community, …

Impact Of Immigration Policies On Los Angeles Communities: An Arts-Based Study, Kennedy Cardenas, Carrie Chen, Jenifer Dang, Inah Marie Mango, Reed Maruyama, Tommy Mix, Aida Sixtos

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological arts-based research sought the understanding of the implications and effects of the current immigration policies on the daily lives of Los Angeles County residents. The research question includes: What are the experiences & impacts of the immigration policies on residents of LA County? By centering the voices of Angelenos, this research aims to illuminate the ways immigration policies shape daily experiences, sense of safety, family and community relationships, and overall well-being, while amplifying narratives that are often underrepresented in traditional policy analysis. Art making and structured interviews were individually conducted with fourteen participants sourced through community-based recruitment. Participants' …

Exploring Imagined Identities And Communities Among Learners Of English As A Lingua Franca: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry, Özge Kuru, Enisa Mede

The Qualitative Report

Exploration of imagined identities and communities has been recognized as critical aspects in learning English as a foreign language. These two aspects perspectives differ as to how learners view themselves with respect to others through narratives and how they practise the language not only face to face but also in virtual interactions. This study aimed to explore how being a participant in virtual communities of practice affect the identity construction among English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) learners coming from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Jenkins, 2006). Specifically, we tried to find out how three Turkish ELF learners positioned themselves …

Exploring Resource-Efficient Deep Learning For Medical Image Segmentation, Pallabi Dutta

Doctoral Theses

Automated medical image segmentation improves diagnostic accuracy by au tomating the precise delineation of target anatomical structures in the input images. Artificial Intelligence (AI), and specifically, Deep Learning (DL), has emerged as a state-of-the-art approach for this task. However, the significant computational demands of DL approaches often hinders their deployment. Ad vanced models, including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Vision Transformers (ViTs), require substantial processing power and a large memory footprint, limiting their use in resource-constrained settings. This thesis aims to address this challenge by developing a series of novel, resource-efficient DL models that achieve high segmentation accuracy with reduced …

A Multicenter Prospective Study Of Enhanced Viability Fat Transfer For Cosmetic Augmentation And Reconstruction Of The Breast, Miguel Medina

All Publications

Background: . Autologous fat transfer (AFT) is a well-established technique for cosmetic breast augmentation and reconstructive breast procedures. Historically, however, graft retention has been highly variable. The Viality™ system (Tiger Aesthetics Medical, Conshohocken, PA) is an FDA-cleared, in-line fat processing device designed to concentrate viable adipocytes, improving retention.

Methods: . In this prospective, 14-center study (NCT05258305), 190 patients underwent AFT for cosmetic (n=85) or reconstructive (n=105) breast procedures. Harvested fat was processed with Viality and AuraClens™ surfactant wash. Volumetric analysis, based on 3D imaging, was performed at baseline and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Percentage retention and …

Modeling Passenger Accumulation And Identifying Hidden Demand Patterns At Bus Stops Using Afc Data And Machine Learning, Diya Khalil

Theses

Public transport systems increasingly rely on data-driven approaches to understand passenger demand and improve operational efficiency. However, conventional bus stop classification methods are typically static and fail to capture variations in passenger accumulation patterns over time. As a result, certain bus stops may experience high levels of congestion without being identified as critical nodes within the network. This study addresses this gap by developing a data-driven framework to model passenger accumulation and identify hidden demand patterns at bus stops using Automated Fare Collection (AFC) data. The research investigates whether Regular Bus Stops exhibit homogeneous demand behavior and to what extent …

Strategic Silence: The Greek Left's Avoidance Of The 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe During The Refugee Crisis, 2015–2019, Harry Courts

College Honors Program

This thesis examines why the Greek political left, and specifically the SYRIZA government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the time period from 2015 to 2019, made near-absent reference to the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe when addressing the refugee crisis of those years. The Catastrophe, in which approximately 1.3 million Orthodox Greeks were displaced from Anatolia, is the foundational trauma of modern Greek nationhood and a living presence in Greek political culture. When hundreds of thousands of Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi refugees arrived on Greek shores from 2015, the historical parallel was widely noted. That SYRIZA rarely drew it requires …

Towards Beneficial Curatorial Experiences: Case Studies At The Smithsonian Folklife Festival And Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Christine Pash

Electronic Dissertations and Theses, 2010-current

Museums and other curatorial institutions have often taken control in presentations about communities to which the institutions’ decision-makers do not belong. This action has contributed to maintaining systems of power, privilege and oppression like colonialism and created negatively impactful acts like erasure of queer histories. In this context, some communities have built their own curatorial institutions, controlling presentations of what they do. However, some individuals note benefits of presenting at institutions outside their communities. My dissertation provides practical methods for navigating this conflict between curatorial control and benefits of presenting one’s work at an institution that takes away some of …

Investigation Of Potential Splenic Metastasis On Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (Psma) Imaging In High-Risk Prostate Cancer: A Role For Mri?, Carson H. Neal, Matthew D. Miller, Chance L. Matthiesen

Student Publications

Computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and bone scintigraphy are utilized to diagnose and stage prostate cancer. There is a growing interest in the utilization of prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive emission tomography (PSMA PET) scans for the diagnosis and monitoring of prostate cancer. Here, we present a case of biopsy-proven prostate cancer with solitary focal splenic uptake on PSMA PET initially concerning for splenic metastasis. Further imaging with MRI indicated a benign splenic etiology in this case. The patient underwent radiation therapy (RT) and initiated two years of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for high-risk localized prostate adenocarcinoma. The patient’s prostate-specific …

Reflections On And Recommendations From The Oceanic Study Cyp And Parent Advisory Group: A Patient And Public Involvement And Engagement Case Study, Emma Popejoy, Julie Menzies, Aysha Sheikhi, Sally O’Loughlin, Fred O’Loughlin, Deborah Barker, Rachael White, Jos M. Latour, Elizabeth S. Draper, Philip Quinlan, Jane Coad, Joseph C. Manning

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) is increasingly recognised as essential to the relevance, feasibility, and impact of paediatric intensive/critical care research. However, reporting of PPIE processes and outcomes, particularly in child health studies, remains limited, often lacking detail on sustained involvement and its influence across the research lifecycle. Case study: This case study presents the PPIE approach embedded within the OCEANIC Study, a multi-centre longitudinal mixed-methods investigation into the outcomes and support needs of children and families following paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) discharge. The study uniquely sustained engagement with a Children, Young People and Parent Advisory …

Fleeting Roots, Jonathan Tirado

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Onomichi, Japan carries a quiet crisis. Across its hillside arcades, akiya (abandoned properties) outnumber active storefronts, hollowing a town once defined by its dense, walkable culture. Fleeting Roots proposes a decentralized arts and fabrication campus woven through ten existing buildings along the Hondori Arcade, treating vacancy not as decay but as raw material for civic return.

The project rejects the museum impulse that often shadows preservation work. Heritage here is not frozen for tourist consumption. It is reactivated as a site of mutual cultural production, where local craft, visiting practice, and everyday commerce share the same vernacular shell. A precise …

Zheng V. Avelar

All Decisions

In this GCEL holdover, petitioners sought to re-argue or renew the court's prior decision dismissing the proceeding for failure to include statutorily required information in the predicate notice and petition to claim the GCEL small landlord exemption. The court denies the motion, distinguishing Shoreview Holdings, LLC v Fernandez (2025 NY Slip Op 25277) because in that case the affirmation in support of the amendment was submitted by someone with personal knowledge—unlike here.

Content Validity Testing Of Instrument For Student Record Employee Intention To Adopt Blockchain-Based Certificate Verification, Husam Abdulhameed Hussein, Zahurin Mat Aji, Hapini Awang

Mesopotamian Journal of Computer Science

The adoption of Blockchain-Based Certificate Verification (BBCV) in higher education offers a promising solution to issues of certificate fraud, inefficiency, and lack of transparency. To support the effective implementation of this innovation, a valid and reliable instrument is essential to assess stakeholders' intention to adopt BBCV. This study reports on the content validity assessment of a newly developed instrument designed for this purpose. The Content Validity Index (CVI) method, based on Lynn's approach, was employed to evaluate item relevance through the ratings of six experts in educational technology. The analysis involved calculating both Item-Level CVI (I-CVI) and Scale-Level CVI Average …

The Role Of Pharmacists In Preventing Antibiotic Resistance: A Narrative Review, Kristy Rahayu Martadiani, Widya Norma Insani, Sofa Dewi Alfian

Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research

Antibiotic resistance is a serious global health threat, driven by irrational antibiotic use, including uncontrolled self-medication, use without proper indication, and non-adherence to medical instructions. This review aims to examine the strategic role of pharmacists in preventing antibiotic resistance through interventions at different points of healthcare services. While the discussion addresses the global pharmacist role, this review places particular emphasis on resource-limited settings, such as those in developing countries, where access to antibiotics is relatively unrestricted, regulatory enforcement is weak, and self-medication practices are more prevalent. Literature findings indicate that pharmacists play an important role as educators and supervisors of …

Capturing System Complexity In Maritime Decarbonization: A Multilayer Modeling Perspective, Maksym Chepeliev, Rene Banares-Alcantara, Lorenza Campagnolo, Ronald Apriliyanto Halim, Jim Hall, Gianandrea Mannarini, Hesam Naghash, Carlo Palazzi, Ramiro Parrado, Paola Rocchi, Alessandro Taberna, Soheil Shayegh

Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia, Sarcoidosis, And The Ultimate Unmasking Of A Pheochromocytoma, Anusha U. Saga, Elizabeth Clark, Isaac R. Whitman

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

The pitfall of anchoring bias may contribute to diagnostic conundra. In this case, a patient with a history of systemic sarcoidosis presented to the electrophysiology clinic with palpitations. Rhythm monitoring revealed polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (PMVT). A diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis was presumed and pursued even though repeat cardiac imaging was negative. In the interim, the patient developed new hypertension, and the patient’s primary care provider screened the patient for pheochromocytoma. Despite the initial pursuit of a misdiagnosis in a patient with a high pretest probability for the wrong diagnosis, the pheochromocytoma was resected and the PMVT and hypertension was cured.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Discourse And Sentiment On Reddit Before And After Covid-19: Mixed Methods Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study, Marcin Marciniak, Sean A Setzen, Deeya Bhattacharya, Jamie Masliah, Robin Powszok, Erich M Sturgis, Vanessa C Stubbs, Mihir K Bhayani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted virus that causes various oropharyngeal and anogenital cancers. The HPV vaccine provides protection against several strains of HPV and is a key preventative tool against HPV-related cancers; however, vaccination rates remain suboptimal in the United States due to variable state mandates and misperceptions of vaccine efficacy and risks. As social media becomes an increasingly popular avenue for health discussions, platforms such as Reddit offer opportunities to understand public vaccine discourse, particularly among underrepresented groups. Furthermore, vaccine hesitancy and mistrust generally increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially impacting HPV vaccination rates.

Objective: This …

Association Of Polygenic Risk Scores With Aortic Valve Calcium: The Multi-Ethnic Study Of Atherosclerosis, Seamus P Whelton, Jie Yao, Clary Clish, Alexis C Wood, Kent D Taylor, Michael J Blaha, Matthew Budoff, Natalie Marrero, George Thanassoulis, Wendy S Post, Xiuqing Guo, Jerome I Rotter

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Aortic valve calcification (AVC) is the primary process leading to aortic stenosis. We examined whether polygenic risk scores (PRS) are associated with AVC beyond traditional atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Methods: We included 6812 participants in MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) with computed tomography-measured AVC at Visit 1. Using previously published PRS we calculated weighted PRS, standardized within each ancestry group. The cross-sectional association per 1 SD higher PRS with AVC >0 was examined using multivariable logistic regression modeling with Bonferroni correction. The mean age was 62 years old, 53% were female, and 913 (13.4%) had AVC >0 at …

Elongin B Orchestrates Chromatin And Transcriptional Programs In H3k27m-Mutant Diffuse Midline Glioma, Alan L Jiao, Rebecca L Murdaugh, Adam F Kebede, Claudia A Mimoso, Barry M Zee, Rosemary U Richard, Kwanha Yu, Caitlin L Bagnetto, Karen Adelman, Mariella G Filbin, Yang Shi, Jamie N Anastas

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Recurrent driver mutations in genes encoding histone H3 (H3.3K27M and H3.1K27M) are observed in ~80% of diffuse midline gliomas (DMG), which lead to aberrant gene regulation, yet the specific RNA polymerase II (Pol2) regulators that induce transcriptional dysregulation in DMG are not fully defined. We identified multiple regulators of Pol2 elongation as DMG genetic dependencies in a chromatin-focused CRISPR screen. Additional studies confirm that knockout (KO) of the Pol2 SIII complex gene elongin B (ELOB) inhibits DMG cell proliferation in tissue culture and tumor growth in xenograft models. Further genomic analyses reveal that ELOB binding sites are enriched in H3K27M …

The Impact Of Optimization Approximation Algorithms On The Performance Of The Bht-Qaoa, Ali Al-Bayaty, Marek Perkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article investigates the performance impact of five classical optimization approximation algorithms on our previously introduced quantum search algorithm, termed the Boolean–Hamiltonians Transform for Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (BHT-QAOA), to effectively search for all best-approximated solutions for Boolean-based problems. These optimization approximation algorithms are BFGS, L-BFGS-B, SLSQP, COBYLA, and COBYQA. Their performance impact is evaluated and compared using two proposed performance metrics—(i) the final number of function evaluations (the lower numbers denote the best optimization approximation algorithms) and (ii) the final quality of qubit measurements (the higher values indicate all best-approximated solutions were found for a problem). Arbitrary classical Boolean …

Latest In Resuscitation Research: Highlights From The 2025 American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium, Caleb T Suh, Clark G Owyang, Lindsay Shepard, Betty Yang, Ryan W Morgan, Daniel M Rolston, Catherine R Counts, Tommaso Scquizzato, James Horowitz, Tatyana Shvilkina, Katherine Berg, Sam Parnia, Sanam Alilou, Catherine Swarts, Ryan A Coute, Lama A Ammar, William C Herring, Thomas Lederer, Joaquin Araos, Benjamin S Abella, Cameron Dezfulian, Sarah M Perman, Felipe Teran

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Narrative Divergence Across Information Environments: Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Reporting And Ai-Generated Narratives, Marco Marquez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Interpreting cybersecurity incidents within critical infrastructure requires analysis across a complex information environment. Authoritative reporting, open web journalism, and Al-generated summaries coexist but often diverge. This study examines narrative properties across these three environments. Lexical uncertainty analysis, embedding-based semantic drift measurement, and probabilistic topic modeling are applied to 908 human-produced documents covering five U.S. critical infrastructure incidents. Results indicate that narrative divergence varies systematically by incident rather than by source type. Factors such as technical complexity, attribution ambiguity, and public visibility influence this divergence. Preliminary analysis of 429 Al-generated narratives indicates that large language models create a distinct environment, characterized …

Dual Identification: How Organizational Culture Impacts Educational Access For Student With Intersecting Language & Dis/Ability Identities, Kara M. Piastrelli

Doctoral Dissertations

Educating multilingual learners (MLLs) in the K–12 setting has been, and continues to remain, a complex challenge. Students with intersecting language and dis/ability identities often face organizational barriers that interrupt equitable access to curriculum, language acquisition, and educational opportunities. While previous research has largely focused on racial disproportionality within special education, limited research has examined the intersection of multilingual learners within special education and the organizational systems that shape their educational experiences. This study sought to examine how organizational culture shapes the implementation and expression of institutional policies and practices related to multilingual learners with dis/abilities, specifically in relation to …

Combating Β-Lactamase Resistance: From Inhibitor Design To Substrate Evolution, Lian M.C. Jacobs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

β-lactamase production by bacteria is a major mechanism of antibiotic resistance. These enzymes hydrolyze β-lactam antibiotics, preventing them from binding to and inhibiting PBPs. Although new β-lactam scaffolds and inhibitors are continually introduced into the clinic, resistance often emerges within a few years. Therefore, the development of cross-class inhibitors with novel scaffolds is critical to mitigate this resistance. In parallel, a deeper understanding of the structural and mechanistic basis of β-lactamase resistance is essential. Together, these approaches provide an effective strategy for combating antibiotic resistance.

The first project addressed the need of effective cross-class β-lactamase inhibitors capable of targeting SBL …