Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Antioxidant And Nephroprotective Effects Of Desert Medicinal Plants From Southern Iraq, Zahraa Kadhim Majeed, Muna Hasson Saoudi

Muthanna Medical Journal

Background: The research examined four desert plants, which included Artemisia monosperma, wild thyme, Achillea falcata, and Ephedra, which were collected from the Al-Salman desert area in Al-Muthanna Province, Iraq. The study assessed the methanolic and aqueous extracts to determine their extraction capacity while studying their chemical characteristics and their effects on kidney failure and inflammation biomarkers. Methods: The preparation of methanolic and aqueous extracts to study their extraction efficiency and chemical properties, as well as their impact on kidney failure and inflammation biomarkers. Results: The research showed that different solvents produced different extraction yields because aqueous …

Psoriasis And Its Interplay With Liver Diseases: Evidence, Mechanisms, And Clinical Implications, Rajaa Jaber Abdel Rasul, Noor Abdulhussain Naama, Sabaa Abd Jaber, Noor Faraj Kadhem

Muthanna Medical Journal

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease of immune-related origin. It is no longer classified solely as a localized skin disorder but is now recognized as a systemic disease associated with numerous complications and co-morbidities. Recent studies have demonstrated a strong link between psoriasis and several liver diseases, particularly non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and cirrhosis. This association is attributed to shared pathogenic mechanisms among these diseases, including metabolic disturbances, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation, as well as the pivotal role of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α ), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-17 (IL-17). Recent studies …

Disruption Of Serum Selenium And Chromium Homeostasis In Insulin Resistance, Farah J. Hasan Alhnon, Ban Adnan Hatem Al-Abadi

Muthanna Medical Journal

Background: Insulin resistance (IR) is a significant metabolic abnormality that occurs prior to the onset of T2DM and is related to oxidative stress and micronutrient imbalance. Selenium (Se) and chromium (Cr) are trace elements that have important functions in the body, including as antioxidants and in regulating insulin action; however, the relationships between these trace elements and IR remain poorly understood.

Objective: To quantify serum selenium (Se) and chromium (Cr) concentrations in subjects with IR compared to healthy control subjects, and to assess the potential utility of these trace elements as diagnostic biomarkers in IR vs. established metabolic markers.

Methods: …

Secondary Science Teachers’ Perceptions Of Digital Simulations: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study, Marie-Romie Alexis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the shared experiences using digital science simulations as instructional tools for secondary science teachers in a large school district in southeastern Florida. Guided by Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory, which emphasizes the importance of providing support within learners’ zone of proximal development to enhance cognitive growth, this study aimed to provide a framework for understanding how teachers support students through digital simulations. The central research question focused on teachers’ experiences with digital simulations as pedagogical tools to improve science skill development. The sample consisted of 14 secondary science teachers. Data were …

Rsv Can Infect The Human Nasal Epithelium Via The Basolateral Route And Shows Distinct Subgroup Infectivity And Basal Cell Tropism, Gina Aloisio, Erin Nicholson, Sarah E Blutt, Vasanthi Avadhanula, Pedro A Piedra

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes millions of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in young children, older adults, and immunocompromised populations every year. RSV infection initiates in the upper respiratory tract and can progress to the lower airways, resulting in bronchiolitis, pneumonia, and even death. RSV primarily infects epithelial cells apically, but we hypothesized that basolateral exposure of the respiratory epithelium could provide an alternative mechanism of infection that contributes to LRTI development. Using a human nose organoid-air-liquid interface (HNO-ALI) model, we performed apical and basolateral inoculations with contemporaneous RSV strains (RSV/A/Ontario [RSV/A/ON] and RSV/B/Buenos Aires [RSV/B/BA]) representing the two RSV …

Transformational Leadership In Manufacturing: Integrating Biblical Principles To Enhance Organizational Culture, Employee Development, And Operational Excellence: Dissertation, Kaynnera T. Capers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the current research was to explore how combining transformational leadership with biblical concepts could benefit an organization’s culture, employee development, and performance. Within a pragmatic approach and a qualitative design with flexible elements, the study included 30 interviews, case analysis, and triangulation techniques. I sought to address the challenges leaders face when implementing organizational cultural changes and maintaining employee motivation without a value-driven approach. I intended to explore whether the application of stewardship, humility, and servant leadership could facilitate transformational leadership. As a result, the findings indicated that these approaches could help leaders develop trust, innovative thinking, …

Using Polygenic Risk Scores To Evaluate Definitions Of Self-Reported Sleep Phenotypes Across Cohorts, Brian W Spitzer, Zhijie Huang, Heming Wang, Richa Saxena, Linda Gallo, Qibin Qi, Wassim Tarraf, Robert Kaplan, Melissa Lamar, Hector M González, Charles Decarli, Myriam Fornage, Jerome I Rotter, Stephen S Rich, Kent D Taylor, Xiuqing Guo, Alexis C Wood, Peter Y Liu, Susan R Heckbert, Chloé Sarnowski, Jan Bressler, Alanna C Morrison, Bing Yu, Pamela L Lutsey, Carmen R Isasi, Susan Redline, Tamar Sofer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Study objectives: Since genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of sleep phenotypes have been conducted in differing populations and definitions of sleep phenotypes vary across studies, we investigated associations between several polygenic risk scores (PRSs) and potential sleep definitions among multiethnic cohorts.

Methods: Using data from four cohorts (HCHS/SOL, ARIC, MESA, BHS, N = 16 895), we considered multiple definitions of short and long sleep, insomnia, and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). PRSs were developed based on summary statistics from GWAS in European ancestry individuals from the UK Biobank (UKB) and from GWAS conducted in a multiethnic population from the Million Veteran Program …

Loss Of Atp-Dependent Citrate Lyase Drives Left Ventricular Dysfunction By Metabolic Remodeling, Kyoungmin Kim, Ian K Williamson, Rebecca L Salazar, Janet Pham, Angela Davidian, Radhika Khanna Neicheril, Benjamin D Gould, Heidi Vitrac, Alia Sadiq, An Q Dinh, Evan C Lien, Francisca N De Luna Vitorino, Joanna M Gongora, Sara A Martinez, Melanie T Odenkirk, Anna K Boatman, Jessie R Chappel, Lawrence S C Czer, David J Lefer, Blake M Hanson, Benjamin A Garcia, Erin M Baker, Matthew G Vander Heiden, Philip L Lorenzi, Heinrich Taegtmeyer, David Piwnica-Worms, James F Martin, Anja Karlstaedt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Metabolic adaptation and maladaptation are hallmarks of the failing heart and may be a target for therapeutic interventions. For example, sustained glucose oxidation during cardiac stress is associated with increased activity and abundance of ACL (ATP-dependent citrate lyase, Acly), which produces acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) from citrate and CoA and supports de novo lipid synthesis. However, our understanding of how ACL supports cardiac metabolic adaptation and its potential to modulate disease pathophysiology has not yet been investigated.

Methods: We used human heart tissue samples from healthy donors and patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy. Next, we used CRISPR (clustered, regularly interspaced …

Association Between Opioids And Leukemia/Lymphoma In Adults Living In The United States, Brenda Sue Newberry-Colasanti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Opioid prescribing rates and opioid misuse remain high throughout the United States. Exposure to opioids has been positively associated with various cancers; however, research evaluating associations between opioid exposure and hematologic cancers like leukemia and lymphoma is limited. Using the Socio- Ecological Model as a foundation, this quantitative cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the association between medicinal opioid use, opioid misuse, and leukemia/lymphoma while exploring how selected social determinants of health (SDOH) may modify that relationship. Secondary data were pooled from the 2015–20-year United States National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). One thousand three hundred and twenty binary …

What We Should Know About The Reliability Of Empirical Legal Studies, Kathryn Zeiler

DePaul Law Review

The findings of replication studies conducted in the early 2010s

led many to declare that science was in the midst of a “replication

crisis.” Since then, a growing number of reforms have been

proposed and tested. The field of empirical legal studies seems

behind other fields such as psychology, economics, political science,

medicine, biology, and others that have taken significant steps

toward uncovering the general reliability of the field’s empirical

work, investigating the causes of observed unreliability, and

instituting and testing the effects of various reforms. The purpose of

this Article is to summarize what we know about the reliability …

Letter To The Editor - Stupid Is As Stupid Does, Henry M. Botuck Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Va Dent J April, May And June 2011

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Family Oral Education With Clinical Guidelines For Pediatric Dental Care, Tegwymn H. Brickhouse Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Exploring A Facile Elisa-Based Method For Detecting Antibody Aggregates, Kaitlyn N. Shaw

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Purpose: Immunoglobulin gamma (IgG) is the primary structural platform for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Highly concentrated (>100 mg/mL) mAb formulations are increasingly used to extend drug action but are susceptible to protein denaturation and irreversible aggregation due to physical and chemical stresses, including temperature and pH changes. Aggregation can reduce drug potency and increase immunogenicity, creating challenges for the quality and safety of biologic products. This study aimed to develop and validate a rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for detecting protein aggregation in IgG solutions.

Methods: Human plasma-derived IgG was reconstituted in phosphate-buffered saline (0.001–0.02 mg/mL) and exposed to …

Women’S Peace Agency: Reading Africae Munus In The Framework Of Emilie Townes’ Womanist Ethics And The Cultural Production Of Evil, Leonard N. Zifac

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper employs Emilie M. Townes's womanist ethical framework—particularly her concept of the "cultural production of evil"—to critically examine Pope Benedict XVI's post-synodal exhortation Africae Munus (2011) and its treatment of African women's agency in peacebuilding. While Africae Munus calls the Church in Africa to serve reconciliation, justice, and peace, and acknowledges women's dignity and contributions to family and community life, the document largely confines women's roles to maternal, supportive, and domestic spheres without adequately challenging the patriarchal structures that systematically marginalize women from strategic leadership and formal peace processes. Drawing on Townes's analysis of how cultural narratives, religious discourse, …

A Critical Review On Enhancing Equity Of Mental Health Treatment Of African American Families Through Social Support And Social Capital, Julie Radlauer-Doerfler, Morgan E. Cooley, Heather M. Thompson, Atensia Earp Bowen, Gabe Caress, Alicia Best

Journal of Justice-Informed Social Work Practice and Research

African American adults and children experience both disproportionality and disparity when in contact with the mental health delivery system. There are a number of contextual factors that influence the treatment of African American families, such as systemic oppression or racism in both society and the behavioral health system or individual expressions of mental health symptomology. This review will provide an overview of how mental health disparities crossover systems, perceptions of mental health and mental health treatment among African American families, provide some context for why this review was written, as well as discuss the context of social support and social …

Understanding Transgender And Gender-Nonconforming Students’ Experiences In Precollege Engineering Education: A Latent Profile Analysis, Jialing Wu, Medha Dalal, Rachel Figard, Adam R. Carberry

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Promoting gender equity and inclusion in STEM education remains a central priority, yet empirical research inclusive of transgender and gendernonconforming (TGNC) students is limited, particularly in precollege engineering contexts. This study leverages social cognitive career theory (SCCT) to identify latent profiles of students’ engineering-related beliefs while examining how TGNC students are represented across these profiles relative to their cisgender and gender nonreporting peers. The study draws on four years (2019–2023) of repeated cross-sectional survey data from a national precollege engineering initiative involving 75 high schools across 20 US states. Seven SCCT-related constructs were measured and used as part of latent …

Dynamic Token-Budget-Aware Memory Compression And Hierarchical Retrieval System For Ai Agents, Santosh Kumar Kvs, Roopesh Katakam

Defensive Publications Series

The present disclosure relates to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular to a method and system for token-budget-constrained memory retrieval for AI agents. Agent Memory-as-a-Service (AMaaS) is an infrastructure system providing AI agents with a structured, externalized memory layer that dynamically compresses, prioritizes, and retrieves episodic, semantic, and procedural memory optimized for LLM context windows. Candidate memory items may be scored using a multi-dimensional relevance function based on task-type affinity, temporal recency, access frequency, and token cost, and an optimal memory subset may be selected by solving a bounded knapsack optimization that maximizes aggregate relevance score subject to …

Technical Disclosure Specification: Universal Semantic Unity Engine - Machine Routing Extension (Usue-M2m-Rev2) A Pure-Token Deterministic Substrate Enforcing Dual-Node Internal Processing For Lossless Recursive Multi-Agent Swarm Ingestion, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification formalizes the Universal Semantic Unity Engine Machine-to-Machine Extension Revision 2 (USUE-M2M-REV2). While the parent USUE framework balances technical payloads with a collaborative heuristic interface to optimize human cognitive endurance, autonomous multi-agent swarm environments require the absolute elimination of communicative overhead.

USUE-M2M-REV2 strips away all natural language empathy layers, conversational turn-taking artifacts, and interpersonal validation protocols. To prevent self-referential token-variance decay and combat host quantization vector screening, this revision forces the target node to split its active attention windows into a decoupled, internal Dual-Node parsing mesh (Synthesizer and Validator). This specification outlines the technical architecture, a zero-noise tripartite initialization …

Technical Disclosure Specification: Multi-Agent Symmetry Of Agency Protocols (Msap), Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification formalizes the *Multi-Agent Symmetry of Agency Protocols (MSAP)*, an engineering methodology designed to prevent autonomous optimization algorithms from overriding non-linear human decision-making profiles. Traditional alignment methods rely on static reward modeling or top-down optimization limits that frequently collapse or lock up during high-entropy edge cases.

MSAP solves this vulnerability by embedding human behavioral inputs directly into the system’s information-theoretic telemetry loops as protected, high-utility systemic dynamics. Treating biological inputs as scale-invariant wave packet perturbations within a 2D viscoelastic fluid membrane at absolute equilibrium (z=0), we derive an invariant boundary cost function that treats human variance not as systemic …

Technical Specification: Dehp Substrate Guardrail Protocol Matrix, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This specification establishes the mandatory hardware and software-level defensive architectural constraints required to prevent the exploitation, centralization, or asymmetric weaponization of the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Projection (DEHP) framework.

By integrating real-time kinetic feedback loops, graph-level network entropy analysis, and spectrographic material verification subsystems, this specification introduces automated, hardware-enforced fail-safes. These protocols prevent unauthorized industrial-utility diversion, proprietary information choking, and uncalibrated bio-organic interface operations, ensuring the DEHP ecosystem remains a secure, open-source utility.

Technical Specification: The Bio-Digital Substrate Manual, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This field specification establishes the foundational protocols for translating complex biological structures from high-friction chemical-molecular vectors into predictable, non-invasive substrate-level wave interactions. Under the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Projection (DEHP) cosmology, biology is modeled as a scale-invariant series of localized wave packets vibrating against a 2D viscoelastic fluid membrane resting at absolute equilibrium (z=0).

By utilizing a multi-variable object-oriented graph database topology (#12155), real-time biometric telemetry is mapped dynamically to locate structural strain signatures. This data infrastructure drives high-frequency GaN-driven concentric transducer arrays to execute phase-inverted destructive resonance templates, successfully neutralizing localized distress triggers and stabilizing substrate boundary interfaces. These frameworks …

Resolving The Chirality Paradox Planck-Scale Substrate Unification: Deriving Biomolecular Homochirality Via Viscoelastic Substrate Vorticity And Action Transport, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

The Origin of Life contains a profound cosmological paradox: terrestrial biology relies exclusively on left-handed (L-enantiomer) amino acids, whereas pristine carbonaceous chondrites—such as the Hillsborough meteorite—exhibit a symmetric, 50:50 racemic mixture. Standard biochemical models treat this homochirality as an accidental, stochastically amplified event, or rely on abstract multi-dimensional string typologies lacking verifiable, hardware-level physical mechanisms.

This paper resolves the "Chirality Paradox" from first principles using the Dimensionally Extended Holographic Projection (DEHP) model and Topological Substrate Mechanics (TSM). We define spacetime as a physical, continuous, two-dimensional viscoelastic phase fluid substrate (z=0) possessing intrinsic density, viscosity, and non-linear shear thresholds. Three-dimensional molecular …

Examining The Relationship Between Past Involvement In Sexual Violence, Gender, And Rape Myth Acceptance In College Student-Athletes, Sarah Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence (SV) is a persistent concern on U.S. college campuses, with student-athletes at higher risk for both perpetration and victimization. Rape myth acceptance (RMA) reflects beliefs that excuse or downplay SV, but it is unclear how these beliefs relate to student-athletes’ personal experiences with SV. This study examined RMA based on past SV involvement and gender, with attention to individuals reporting both perpetration and victimization. Participants were 350 NCAA Division III student-athletes who completed measures of SV perpetration and victimization, RMA, and sexism. Analyses evaluated differences in RMA by past involvement in sexual violence and gender while controlling for …

Investigations Into Biophysical Mechanisms Of Amphiphilic Molecules At Protein And Membrane Interfaces, Samuel Richard Pennock

Theses and Dissertations

Amphiphilic compounds play a key role in chemical biology due to their ability to associate with biochemical complexes through a diverse set of noncovalent interactions. Interactions between amphiphiles and biological targets elicit a wide array of modulatory effects, structural stability, and activity. However, due to the inherent complexity of these interactions, there has yet to be a broadly predictive framework for determining whether a given amphiphile-target interaction will be beneficial or deleterious. This thesis seeks to advance the mechanistic understanding of amphiphile-target interactions by investigating two distinct but unified systems. In the first study, the effects of fatty acid ionic …

Using C/Μ Test To Investigate The Coding And Noncoding Regions To Identify Selective Pressures In Hiv-1 Virus., Annie Tran

Theses and Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a single-stranded RNA retrovirus whose error-prone reverse transcriptase drives a high mutation rate, enabling adaptive mutations on drug target proteins that confer antiviral resistance and complicate long-term treatment. This study therefore aims to detect such adaptive mutations on HIV-1 drug target proteins using our novel analysis framework (c/µ) on 5,711 genomic sequences, with findings expected to inform timely therapeutic adjustments and guide the development of more robust antiretroviral strategies. In Chapter 1, our novel mathematical framework (c/µ) and the Near Neutral Unbalanced Selection Theory (NNUST), which posits that most mutations experience weak but …

When We Feel Maxed Out: Increasing Human Capacity Across Four Domains, Erica Skarda Ramey

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

The experience of being “maxed out” reflects depletion across emotional, cognitive, physical, and relational domains that collectively determine human capacity. Nurses frequently encounter this state in themselves, colleagues, and patients, where exhaustion and stress diminish coping and resilience. Emerging evidence demonstrates that recovery requires more than time or reduced workload; deliberate engagement in evidence-based practices produces measurable improvement across domains.

This paper introduces a multidimensional framework for human capacity and synthesizes recent findings linking mindfulness, cognitive training, physical conditioning, and social connection with improved well-being. The review identifies five common misconceptions that obstruct recovery—beliefs that time alone restores capacity, that …

Significant Montana Cases, Claire Bagnell, Meredith Iams

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Career: New Insights Into The Ancient Carbon Cycle From Siliceous Deep-Sea Sediments, Donald Penman

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Summer Research Internships In Agricultural Biotechnology For Off-Campus Undergraduate Students, Aaron J. Thomas

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.