Digital Commons Network^™

Interest Rate And Inflation Control In Egypt: Evaluating Policy Efficiency (1976-2023), Fatma Abouzeid

Theses and Dissertations

Inflation has been a persistent problem in Egypt peaking with unprecedented levels throughout the past decades affecting economic stability and living standards in the country. Controlling inflation through interest rate has been a major tool adopted by the monetary authorities in Egypt with no real satisfactory outcome with respect to inflation levels. This links to a theoretical debate in economic literate on the relationship between interest rate and inflation which represents a major controversy in the field. The study examines this controversy in the case of Egypt to reach a conclusion on the actual relationship between these two central economic …

Species-Dependent Gazing Behavior Of Emotional Facial Expressions In Dogs (Canis Familiaris) And Adult Humans (Homo Sapiens)., Heini Törnqvist, Gray S. Atherton, Liam Cross, Sanni Somppi, Jarkko Hautala, Miiamaaria V. Kujala

School of Psychology

Emotional expressions play an important part in social communication of dogs and humans, but comparative studies between dogs and humans are rare. In addition, little is known about how emotions are perceived across species and how attention is divided among different parts of faces. Here, we compared the gazing behavior of dogs and adult humans toward emotional dog and human facial expressions. Dogs mostly gazed at the eye and nose areas, whereas the humans’ focus also included the mouth area. The gazing behavior of both species was affected by the facial expressions and species presented, and they gazed at emotional …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Habit Recording Tool To Improve Mental Health Of University (Auc) Students, Noran Nounou

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: According to previous research, the mental health of university students has become an alarming public health concern worldwide. Most of the mental disorders begin among young adults, attributed to the transition to university and increased financial and societal pressure. Despite the important effect of daily habits on mental health, there still remain research gaps in Egypt in exploring their effect among university students and exploring the potential opportunities to support their well-being. Objectives: To assess depression rates among AUC students and to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly designed habit recording board, Make an Impact (MAI) to improve depression …

Supporting Data – Urban Stream, Cardinal Court, Isu, Normal, November 9, 2023 To May 1, 2025, Eric Wade Peterson, Ava Miller

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Between November 9, 2023 to May 1, 2025, water samples were collected upstream and downstream along a segment of a stream adjacent to Cardinal Court on the Illinois State University campus. At each location, samples were collected at the surface. In-situ measurements of Dissolved Oxygen, Specific Conductance, and Temperature were recorded with a YSI 85. Anion samples were analyzed using a Ion Chromatograph for fluoride (F^-), chloride (Cl^-), nitrate as nitrogen (NO3-N), phosphate (PO₄^3-), and sulfate (SO₄^2-). The available dataset provides the recorded field parameters and the analyzed ion concentrations.

Anthelmintic Efficacy Of Rosemary Oil And Its Nanoemulsion Against The Monogenean Parasite, Zeuxapta Seriolae, In Yellowtail Kingfish (Seriola Lalandi), Md Reaz Chaklader, Lindsey Woolley, Hosna Gholipour-Kanani, Masashi Maita, Gavin Partridge

Fisheries Research Articles

This study evaluated the anthelmintic efficacy of rosemary oil delivered as a nanoemulsion compared with regular rosemary oil against the monogenean parasite Zeuxapta seriolae in yellowtail kingfish (YTK; Seriola lalandi). A 20-day feeding trial tested three dietary treatments: two levels of regular rosemary oil (providing 0.85 and 1.7 g cineole·kg−1 feed) and a rosemary-oil nanoemulsion (providing 0.85 g cineole·kg−1 feed), against a control diet without rosemary oil. Juvenile fish (293 ± 5 g) were pre-exposed to Z. seriolae oncomiracidia before the trial, resulting in an initial mean parasite abundance of 97 ± 4 per fish. At trial completion, plasma …

Bad Bunny’S Super Bowl Performance Generated 892.8% More Social Media Mentions Than Kid Rock’S Halftime Show With Triple The Search Interest, Jin-A Choi, Bond Benton, Yi Lou

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

A study from Montclair State University faculty in the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the College of Communication and Media analyzed social media reaction to the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny and Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show” featuring Kid Rock. Results suggest significantly higher interest online in Bad Bunny’s performance. Highlights from the study include 892.8% more posts on X about Bad Bunny’s halftime show performance with a 963.6% higher number of posts throughout Super Bowl Sunday. Additionally, there was triple the amount of search interest for “Bad …

Abuse Of Contract: A Proposal For A New Cause Of Action, Miriam A. Cherry

William & Mary Law Review

With the growth of online commerce and the platform economy, many companies are including provisions in their online terms and conditions that extend far beyond what reasonable consumers would expect. Some terms and conditions purport to bind customers to separate contracts in future transactions that have little to do with the first contract. Other boilerplate purports to cover family members of the customer who created an account. Some retailers have argued that people shopping in their brick-and-mortar stores are subject to terms and conditions because those shoppers had at some point previously created an online account. For example, Disney argued …

Medical Device Dangers: Choosing Ignorance In The Courts And At The Fda, George Horvath

William & Mary Law Review

Medical devices save lives and improve well-being but have caused as many as 83,000 deaths and 1.7 million injuries in a recent decade. Decisions of critical importance—patients’ decisions whether to have a device implanted, doctors’ decisions about which device to use, insurers’ decisions whether to reimburse for those devices—depend on information about risk that is provided by manufacturers. But producing this information is costly. Injured patients, through private lawsuits under state products liability theories, can incentivize device manufacturers to incur these costs and to produce and disclose information about device risk. Unfortunately, courts are making it increasingly unlikely that this …

Property Law For Positive Externalities: Carving New Sticks For The Bundle, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman

William & Mary Law Review

Property law has long confronted a troubling puzzle: Why does doctrine focus so much on eliminating harms flowing as negative externalities from uses of property—curbing pollution, nuisances, and other harmful land uses—while largely ignoring the potential to encourage positive externalities? Why such a strong focus on preventing bads instead of promoting goods? Using a case of a natural capital resource and the ecosystem services of flood control, water purification, and pollination it provides, this Article explains how and why existing doctrine fails to recognize these benefits as distinct property interests, leading to systematic underinvestment in conservation and service provision. We …

Skrmetti And The Problem Of Incidental Intent, Martin Katz

William & Mary Law Review

The modern Supreme Court has defined “discriminatory intent” as a strict-liability concept. It does not matter why the government sorts people by a protected characteristic, such as race or sex; it matters only that the government does sort people by such a characteristic. This principle is the key holding of affirmative-action cases, such as Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. Yet, in the recent case United States v. Skrmetti, the Court seemed to focus not on the question of whether the government sorted people by sex (it did), but on the question …

Caregivers' Experiences Of Assessment And Treatment For Their Child With Childhood Apraxia Of Speech: An International Questionnaire Study, Donna Claire Thomas, Maryane Gomez, Angela Muis, Nathan Trezise, Eliza Williamson, Julie Case, Elizabeth Murray, Maria Irene Grigos, Jenya Iuzzini-Seigel, Shelley L. Velleman

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose: The aim of this study was to understand caregivers' preferences and experiences with diagnosis and treatment of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).

Method: Caregivers of children with CAS completed a 70-item online survey that explored demographics, initial concerns, the CAS diagnostic process, speech therapy goals, and preferred and received speech therapy service delivery (session frequency, length, and context). Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and with inferential statistics; qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis.

Results: One hundred sixty-one caregivers participated, mostly from the United States, Australia, and Canada. A total of 72% of caregivers had concerns about their child's …

Utilization Of Plastic Waste In The Concrete Industry, Nancy Abdelmoneim Sakr

Theses and Dissertations

Plastic recycling has emerged as a crucial strategy that aligns with environmental, social and economic sustainability indicators. Currently, substantial volumes of plastic waste are either deposited in landfills or incinerated, neglecting the potential to harness its embodied energy and the energy consumed for producing virgin materials. A key advantage of plastic lies in its promising mechanical properties. Concrete mix design is fundamental to a wide range of construction applications, including brick walls, reinforced concrete slabs and concrete pavements. Despite the adoption of recycled plastic in construction materials in various countries, its widespread implementation remains limited. This is primarily due to …

Media Use And Pro-Equality Attitudes Toward Women As Leaders, Mark Tremayne, Dustin Harp, Ariana Hernandez

Communication Faculty Publications

This study examines how Americans’ media use corresponds with attitudes toward women as leaders. We surveyed 1,030 adults and measured pro-equality attitudes using a 17-item index. Newspaper reading and streaming video use were positively associated with pro-equality views, while time spent on social media (particularly Facebook and X) showed small negative associations. Participants who used newspapers for political content reported higher pro-equality scores than non-users, whereas those who used X for politics reported lower scores. The findings suggest that media habits and political ideology are connected to gender attitudes.

Willingness To Travel With Endogenous Distance: Evidence From The Changing Retail Landscape, Yue Cao, Judith Chevalier, Jessie Handbury, Hayden Parsley, Kevin Williams

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Economists often use variation in consumers’ distance from services as a source of demand variation. This approach typically treats consumer-supplier distance as exogenous, despite suppliers strategically choosing locations. We develop a novel class of instruments to address this endogeneity. These instruments exploit the spatial distribution of consumer demographics and can be constructed from standard cross-sectional data, making them useful in a variety of spatial applications. Our preferred instruments use the income composition of concentric discs centered on the Central Business District. Applying these instruments to smartphone geolocation data for millions of devices across 18 metropolitan areas, we estimate consumer preferences …

A Case Report Of Milk-Alkali Syndrome Secondary To Excessive Antacid Use, Samir Beso, Layla Abubshait

Einstein Health Papers

INTRODUCTION: Milk-alkali syndrome is characterized by the triad of hypercalcemia, metabolic alkalosis, and acute kidney injury resulting from excessive intake of calcium and absorbable alkali. Despite falling out of prominence with the advent of modern ulcer treatments, milk-alkali syndrome has experienced a resurgence with the widespread availability of over-the-counter calcium preparations, which now account for up to 10% of hypercalcemia cases.

CASE REPORT: A 60-year-old man with multiple comorbidities presented to the emergency department with altered mental status after his scheduled kyphoplasty was canceled due to concerning neurological findings. Laboratory evaluation revealed severe hypercalcemia, marked metabolic alkalosis, and acute kidney …

The Impact Of Innovation Belief On Strategic Product R&D, Yan Zhou

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In highly uncertain innovation scenarios characterized by long R&D cycles and high risks, how to continuously drive enterprises to develop market-competitive blockbuster products has become a critical issue of shared concern in both practice and academia. Existing research has mostly explained differences in blockbuster product R&D from perspectives such as resource allocation, organizational structure, or institutional incentives, while paying insufficient attention to cognitive and belief factors at the individual level. Based on this, this paper introduces the psychological and cognitive variable of "innovative belief" to systematically examine its impact mechanism on blockbuster product R&D capability.

Taking the R&D team of …

Market Culture And Innovation Acceptance In Fire Safety Products: The Moderating Role Of Perceived Market Regulation, Xu Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Against the backdrop of continuously rising global fire safety standards and ongoing technological iteration in fire protection products, whether innovative fire protection products can be effectively accepted by the market has become a critical issue influencing the returns on firms’ innovation investments and the high-quality development of the industry. Existing studies have predominantly explored innovation diffusion mechanisms from the perspectives of technological attributes or organizational factors, while paying relatively limited attention to market culture as a contextual factor, as well as to the differentiated role that government regulation may play in this process. Based on this, this study takes institutional …

Epidemiology And Outcomes Of Sporotrichosis: A Descriptive Real-World Analysis From A Global Cohort, Samantha Schapiro, Nicholas Pulciano, Julian Galindo-Ramirez, Nicholas Rau, Jose Tuells, Nelson Iván Agudelo Higuita, George R. Thompson Iii, Daniel B. Chastain, Andrés F. Henao-Martínez

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Sporotrichosis is a dimorphic fungal infection of increasing global relevance. Although usually cutaneous or lymphocutaneous, disseminated disease occurs in immunocompromised hosts. Large-scale data on its epidemiology, treatment and outcomes remain limited.

Objectives: To characterise the clinical features, comorbidities, antifungal prescribing patterns and one-year mortality associated with sporotrichosis, with emphasis on patients with HIV and other forms of immunosuppression.

Patients/methods: We performed a retrospective global cohort study using the TriNetX Research Network. Adults (≥ 18 years) diagnosed with sporotrichosis were identified using ICD-9/10 codes (1995-2024). Demographics, comorbidities, laboratory parameters and antifungal prescriptions were analysed. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality …

A Narrative Review On The Therapeutic Potential Of Stem Cells In Neurodegenerative Diseases: Advances, Insights, And Challenges, Tirath Patel, Fathimathul Henna, Iman Sharif, Inaya Javed, Fatima Mustafa, Hannan Sharif, Fatima Nasir, Mirat Javaid

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease (HD) are set apart by progressive neuronal loss and concomitant functional decline. Traditional therapies are equipped with only symptomatic relief, devoid of neurorestorative properties. Stem-cell-based therapies have the potential to revolutionize neurological care by replenishing lost cells, mitigating inflammation, and fostering a neuroprotective environment.

Objectives: This narrative review aims to appraise the treatment potential of various stem cell types in managing NDs, highlighting their functional pathways, delivery methods, and current experimental validation.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was carried out based on …

Peaks Island Star : February 2026, Vol. 46, Issue 2, Service Agencies Of The Island

Peaks Island Star, 2026

The Peaks Island Star is the newsletter of the island's service agencies and other community news.

Successful Biliary Re-Cannulation And Neo-Anastomosis Creation In Complete Bile Duct Occlusion Or Disruption Using A Combination Of Interventional Radiology And Endoscopic Techniques, Joshua G. Fricker, Tarik Babar, Husameddin El Khudari, Ali Ahmed, Dalton Norwood, Sergio A. Sánchez-Luna, Eric Bready, Ramzi Mulki, Kondal Kyanam, Shajan Peter, Andrew Gunn

Radiology Faculty Publications

Aims: Biliary strictures are a known complication of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeries. This retrospective descriptive series highlights six consecutive patients with complete bile duct occlusion or disruption who required a multidisciplinary approach with a combination of interventional radiology (IR) and endoscopic techniques to either re-cannulate or create a neo-anastomosis in the biliary system. Methods and Results: The biliary system was either re-cannulated or a neo-anastomosis was created using a small gauge needle (N = 3), a rendezvous procedure (N = 1), a radiofrequency ablation wire (N = 1), and the back end of a wire (N = 1). There was …

The American College Of Radiology Diagnostic Fluoroscopy Dose Index Registry Pilot, Steve D. Mann, Donald L. Miller, Grant Fong, Allen R. Goode, Emily L. Marshall, Thomas Nishino, Pavlina Boxx, Liqiang Ren, Celalettin Topbas, Alan H. Schoenfeld, Vivek Singh, Jie Zhang

Radiology Faculty Publications

Background: The ACR Diagnostic Fluoroscopy Dose Index Registry (DIR-Fluoro) is expanding to include diagnostic fluoroscopy. Variations in dose reference points and overhead radiography events may introduce unique challenges for benchmarking. Purpose: To survey the technological status and dosimetric performance of fluoroscopes participating in the DIR-Fluoro pilot project, focusing on longitudinal stability and variability of fluoroscopic dose reporting accuracy across multiple institutions and vendors. Methods: Sixty-six fluoroscopic systems from nine institutions (24 facilities) were surveyed for facility type, fluoroscope type, image receptor type, age, dose reporting capabilities, and other key features. Of these, 56 were evaluable. Semi-annual measurements assessed reference air …

Border Perceptions: Security And Immigration In The South Texas Borderlands, Carla Angulo-Pasel, Mi-Son Kim, Adrien A. Halliez

School of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies Faculty Publications

With the Trump administration, we witnessed a hardening of border security policy and practices. Trump used his leadership and celebrity to explicitly attack and criminalize “undocumented” migrants with a discourse of threat, danger, invasion, crisis. Policywise, he took steps to further securitize the borderlands. In this paper, we examine how public opinion has differed with regards to the support or opposition to these hard security policies, especially in borderland areas when compared to the overall national population. The aim of this paper is to examine this difference by directing our attention to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), a borderlands region …

Catatonia And Elevated Mortality: A Population-Wide Cohort Study With Healthy, Sibling, And Schizophrenia Spectrum Controls, Chih-Wei Hsu, Yang-Chieh Brian Chen, Marco Solmi, Chih-Sung Liang, Mu-Hong Chen, Yao-Hsu Yang, Liang-Jen Wang, Edward Chia-Cheng Lai

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Aim: To determine whether catatonia is associated with increased long-term all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

Methods: Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database (2000-2022), we assembled a population-based cohort of all adults (≥18 years) with catatonia and matched each to four controls without catatonia on sex and birthdate. Mortality was compared between (1) individuals with catatonia and their unaffected siblings and (2) individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders with catatonia and those with schizophrenia spectrum disorders without catatonia. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality; secondary outcomes were natural- and unnatural-cause deaths. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated with …

The Impacts Of Political Leaders’ Social Capital On Policy Success: The Case Of Local Food Systems, In Hae Noh, Beomgeun Cho, April M. Roggio, Luis F. Luna-Reyes

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Network approaches to collaborative leadership suggest that local leaders’ success depends on activities that connect their organization to diverse stakeholders and resources. Drawing on the literature on managerial networking and a mixed-methods approach that includes 38 semi-structured interviews and a survey of 185 New York State municipal leaders, we explore the impact of leaders’ networking efforts on food access and security in their communities. We hypothesize that different forms of leaders’ social capital (bridging, bonding, and linking) has an impact on policy success. Our results suggest that only bridging social capital has an impact on food access. We conclude with …

Derivation Of An Updated Brief Multivariable Prediction Model To Detect Panic-Related Anxiety In Emergency Department Patients With Cardiopulmonary Complaints, Sharon C. Sung, Felicia J. L. Ang, Arul Earnest, Leslie E. C. Lim, Shreshtha Jolly, Gilaine Rui Ng, A. John Rush, Marcus E. H. Ong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background Patients with panic related-anxiety (i.e., panic attacks or panic disorder) frequently present to emergency departments (EDs) with cardiopulmonary complaints but are often undiagnosed, which can lead to recurrent visits and prolonged distress. This study aimed to derive a new symptom-based multivariable diagnostic prediction model to detect panic-related anxiety in ED patients with cardiopulmonary symptoms.Methods We conducted a single-blind prospective derivation study over 15 months in the ED of a major tertiary hospital in Singapore. Patients presenting with symptoms of palpitations, chest pain, dizziness, or difficulty breathing were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID) to diagnose …

Examining The Effects Of Viewing Nature And Animal Smartphone Wallpapers On Affect, Behaviour, And Cognition: A Randomised Cross-Over Trial, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Nicole R. Y. Chen, Adalia Y. H. Goh, Meilan Hu, Kenneth J. J. Koh, Yuolmae H. G. Ang, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study aims to investigate the effects of different smartphone lock screen wallpapers on weekly perceived well-being, procrastination, and productivity in young adults. Through a pre-registered within-subject experiment, 60 participants were exposed to three smartphone wallpaper conditions: nature, animal, and neutral (control). Each participant experienced each condition over three weeks, with the order of conditions counterbalanced. Using Frequentist and Bayesian analyses, we did not find any differences between conditions across the pre-registered confirmatory outcomes (i.e., life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, stress, productivity, and procrastination). Exploratory outcomes related to lock screen engagement, however, revealed some meaningful effects. Animal-themed smartphone wallpapers …

Less Is More: Docstring Compression In Code Generation, Guang Yang, Yu Zhou, Wei Cheng, Xiangyu Zhang, Xiang Chen, Terry Yue Zhuo, Xin Zhou, Ke Liu, David Lo, Taolue Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The widespread use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in software engineering has intensified the need for improved model and resource efficiency. In particular, for neural code generation, LLMs are used to translate function/method signature and DocString to executable code. DocStrings, which capture user requirements for the code and are typically used as the prompt for LLMs, often contain redundant information. Recent advancements in prompt compression have shown promising results in Natural Language Processing (NLP), but their applicability to code generation remains uncertain. Our empirical study shows that the state-ofthe-art prompt compression methods achieve only about 10% reduction, as further reductions …

Defending Code Language Models Against Backdoor Attacks With Deceptive Cross-Entropy Loss, Guang Yang, Yu Zhou, Xiangyu Zhang, Xiang Chen, Terry Yue Zhuo, David Lo, Taolue Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Code Language Models (CLMs), particularly those leveraging deep learning, have achieved significant success in code intelligence domain. However, the issue of security, particularly backdoor attacks, is often overlooked in this process. The previous research has focused on designing backdoor attacks for CLMs, but effective defenses have not been adequately addressed. In particular, existing defense methods from natural language processing, when directly applied to CLMs, are not effective enough and lack generality, working well in some models and scenarios but failing in others, thus fall short in consistently mitigating backdoor attacks. To bridge this gap, we first confirm the phenomenon of …

Fcghunter: Towards Evaluating Robustness Of Graph-Based Android Malware Detection, Shiwen Song, Xiaofei Xie, Ruitao Feng, Qi Guo, Sen Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Graph-based detection methods leveraging Function Call Graph (FCG) have shown promise for Android malware detection (AMD) due to their semantic insights. However, the deployment of malware detectors in dynamic and hostile environments raises significant concerns about their robustness. While recent approaches evaluate the robustness of FCG-based detectors using adversarial attacks, their effectiveness is constrained by the vast perturbation space, particularly across diverse models and features. To address these challenges, we introduce FCGHunter, a novel robustness testing framework for FCG-based AMD systems. Specifically, FCGHunter employs innovative techniques to enhance exploration and exploitation within this huge search space. Initially, it identifies critical …