Digital Commons Network^™

Dentistry And The Law: Is A Lake Of Understanding Of Billing Procedures Fraud?, Daniel Schulte Jd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This legal column addresses whether improper dental billing resulting from misunderstanding plan requirements constitutes fraud. The author explains the legal elements necessary to establish fraud, including knowledge, intent, and damages. The article distinguishes billing errors and contract violations from fraudulent conduct and encourages dentists to review participation agreements and billing policies to minimize compliance risks.

2026 Summer Commencement Program, The University Of West Alabama

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Reading The Western Canon From Elsewhere: Teaching Political Theory Through Writing, Zlata Božac

GHEA21 Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of Treatment Options For Localized Prostate Cancer: A Meta-Analysis Of Cross-Sectional And Cohort Studies, Pius Omolewa, John Bressan, Nassrine Noureddine

All Faculty Scholarship

Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignancies among men worldwide, with incidence rates rising steadily over the past decades. Although the widespread adoption of PSA screening has improved early detection, it has also sparked extensive debate regarding overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Against this backdrop, balancing the avoidance of unnecessary interventions with the need to ensure favorable patient outcomes has become a central challenge in clinical decision-making. Methods: Articles published from 2010 through 2025 were searched in five databases. The cross-sectional and cohort studies examined the effects of treatment options on localized prostate cancer. Results: From the analysis of …

Confronting Founding Injustices: Reconstructive Constitutional Adjudication And Constitutional Legitimacy In Postcolonial States, Mutasim Abuzeid

International Studies (MA) Theses

Why do some postcolonial constitutions achieve higher constitutional legitimacy than others? Across the Global South, constitutions have proliferated while legitimacy remains uneven and contested. Existing scholarship explains variation in constitutional legitimacy in postcolonial states through three dominant paradigms. Institutionalist theories equate legitimacy with procedural design and endurance, presuming that stable institutions generate compliance and, over time, diffuse support. Transformative constitutionalism locates legitimacy in social justice, emphasizing judicial doctrines such as proportionality and reasonableness to advance equality and material inclusion. Transitional justice approaches, by contrast, locate moral repair largely outside constitutional law—through truth commissions, reparations, and memory projects—often leaving the constitutional …

Aegic Blogposts - Grain Demand Overview, Ross Kingwell, Paul Meibusch, Jorge E. Mayer, Richard Williams, Peter Elliott, Chris Carter

Grain and other field crops published reports

The Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) was an independent, not-for-profit organisation established in 2012 by the Western Australian Government and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). Its core mission was to increase the value and international competitiveness of Australia’s multibillion-dollar export grains industry. AEGIC ceased operation at the end of 2025.

Early in its history between 20 to 30 staff from the former Western Australian Department of Agriculture were seconded to AEGIC. Following the formation of DPIRD, AEGIC continued to receive substantial annual funding support from DPIRD.

This publication is a legacy document containing collated AEGIC blog posts …

Shifting Faith Among Indigenous People In Arunachal Pradesh, India: Revisiting Greenfeld's Civilizational Framework, M. Amin Khan

Comparative Civilizations Review

This paper examines changing religious demography in Arunachal Pradesh through Liah Greenfeld's theory of civilization as a self-generating and self-reproducing symbolic reality. Using decadal Census data (1971–2011), it traces the demographic decline of Indigenous/Tribal religions classified under “Other Religions and Persuasions” (ORP) alongside the widespread growth of Christianity and the more limited growth of Hinduism. The analysis argues that these demographic shifts reflect more than religious conversion; they reveal differential capacities for cultural reproduction. Whereas civilizations endowed with codified first principles and enduring institutions sustain continuity across generations, Arunachal Pradesh's largely localized and orally transmitted indigenous traditions have proven less …

Professor Greenfeld’S Last Class: Notes For Online Lectures On “The Science Of Humanity,” Delivered To Students And Scholars Primarily From India, July 2025, Liah Greenfeld

Comparative Civilizations Review

The question for this class is: What is humanity?

We all believe we all know what it is, don’t we? After all, there is hardly any subject more important for us, a question on the answer to which other subjects depend — political, social, economic. Answers to questions such as: what are human economic needs and desires; what political structures are optimal for humans; is democracy, for instance, a universal human desire; should politics in every nation be democratic, or, perhaps, authoritarian governments are better; is freedom a natural need, does it make life better, does equality?

Constitutional Drafting Processes And Constitutional Success, Adam Chilton, Murat C. Mungan, Mila Versteeg

Faculty Scholarship

Several recent constitution-making processes have been celebrated for being participatory, inclusive, and representative. However, many of these processes also failed. We theorize that aspects of these kinds of constitutional drafting processes could reduce the probability of constitutional success. To show why, we construct a “Constitution Drafting game” (CD game) in which representatives from different interest groups must draft a constitution. We consider the case where the probability of constitutional success is single peaked, but the value from successful adoption is increasing in the degree of issue protection chosen. The drafting process then leads to protection choices that are above those …

B.R. Wells Arkansas Rice Research Studies 2025, J. Hardke, X. Sha, N. Bateman

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Arkansas is the leading rice producer in the United States. The state represents 45.2% of total U.S. rice production and 45.7% of the total acres planted to rice in 2025. Rice cultural practices vary across the state and across the U.S. However, these practices are also dynamic and continue to evolve in response to changing political, environmental, and economic times. This survey was initiated in 2002 to monitor and record changes in the way Arkansas rice producers approach their livelihood. The survey was conducted by polling county extension agents in each of the counties in Arkansas that produce rice. Questions …

A Finite Element Model To Analyze Crack-Tip Fields In A Transversely Isotropic Strain-Limiting Elastic Solid, Saugata Ghosh, Dambaru Bhatta, S. M. Mallikarjunaiah

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper presents a finite element model for the analysis of crack-tip fields in a transversely isotropic strain-limiting elastic body. A nonlinear constitutive relationship between stress and linearized strain characterizes the material response. This algebraically nonlinear relationship is critical as it mitigates the physically inconsistent strain singularities that arise at crack tips. These strain-limiting relationships ensure that strains remain bounded near the crack tip, representing a significant advancement in the formulation of boundary value problems (BVPs) within the context of first-order approximate constitutive models. For a transversely isotropic elastic material containing a crack, the equilibrium equation, derived from the balance …

Power Signature-Based Hardware Security Techniques For The Internet Of Things, Ashish Mahanta

Dissertations

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced significant security challenges, particularly concerning stealthy, instruction-level malicious code injections that evade traditional software defenses. While conventional power analysis techniques are highly effective at detecting such subtle abnormalities, they require capturing high-resolution, voluminous power trace data. This dependency necessitates bulky data acquisition (DAQ) instrumentation, power-hungry analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and intensive computational resources, making these methods impractical for deployment on resource-constrained IoT devices. To bridge this critical gap, this dissertation presents a novel hardware security paradigm, the Power Rising and Descending Signature (PRIDES) methodology. Instead of quantizing actual power consumption …

From Understanding To Production: A Qualitative Case Study Of Instructional Alignment And Bar Examination Readiness At One Law School, Mackenzie E. Gray

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Many law students who understand the law struggle to produce it under examination conditions.This qualitative case study examined how instruction in three settings at one ABA-accredited law school (first-year doctrinal, upper-division doctrinal, and for-credit bar preparation courses) shaped students’ perceptions of their readiness for the California Bar Examination. Grounded in metacognitive transfer theory, the study drew on 18 classroom observations across six courses, semi-structured interviews with seven students and four professors, and a simulated bar examination scored against a criterion-referenced rubric, all collected during the Spring 2026 semester. Interview data were analyzed through codebook thematic analysis. Five themes resulted. Students …

Agent-Based Modeling Of Cellular Dynamics In Adoptive Cell Therapies, Yujia Wang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Adoptive cell therapies (ACT) have shown promising progress in combating cancer, but clinical responses remain heterogeneous. Key determinants, including the functional states of infused cells, tumor–immune interactions, and dosing strategies, are difficult to resolve experimentally in the dynamic and heterogeneous tumor microenvironment, limiting optimization of ACT products and treatment regimens. To address the gap, we developed ABMACT (Agent-Based Model for Adoptive Cell Therapies), a computational framework that reconstruct key cellular functions, interactions, and molecular signatures to recapitulate cell population dynamics associated with differential treatment responses. ABMACT encodes autonomous “virtual cells” using literature-informed rules calibrated with experimental data, enabling simulation of …

Defining The Role Of Spxa1 And Spxa2 In Group A Streptococcus (Gas), Gretchen Anne Morrison

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a human-restricted pathogen whose global incidence has surged in the post-COVID era. The ability of GAS to shift from a colonizing to invasive phenotype depends on coordinated virulence gene regulation in response to host-imposed stressors. The paralogous global transcriptional regulators, SpxA1 and SpxA2, have emerged as central mediators of these adaptive responses; however, the mechanisms by which these regulators influence both global gene regulation in direct response to external stresses and the host response as a result of regulatory changes remain incompletely understood. Using an integrated multi-omic approach, we define the distinct yet interconnected regulatory …

Oxidative Stress Mediated Glutamate Release And Nmda Receptor-Dependent Synaptic Remodeling In Radiation-Induced Cognitive Dysfunction, Thanh Lam

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In children younger than 14 years old, the brain and other parts of the central nervous system are the most common sites for solid tumors. Radiotherapy is an effective treatment for central nervous system (CNS) tumors. However, it often causes a progressive decline in cognitive functions, which is especially devastating for pediatric patients. Although post-mitotic neurons are generally considered resistant to radiation-induced immediate cell death, ionizing radiation causes complex neurochemical and structural changes that damage synaptic integrity. In this study, we examined the molecular cascades following a 10 Gy radiation dose applied to mouse cortical neurons. We found that radiation-induced …

Mutational Analysis Of Domain Functions In The Yeast Decapping Enzyme Dcp2, Jellisa Ewan, Ambro Van Hoof

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In yeast, the major mRNA decay pathway involves deadenylation of the 3’ poly-A tail, followed by decapping of the 5’ m7Gppp cap and subsequent 5’ to 3’ degradation or 3’ to 5’ degradation. This is carried out by Pan2/Pan3 and Ccr4/Not deadenylases, the decapping enzyme Dcp2, and Xrn1 and  RNA exosome exoribonucleases, respectively. The eukaryotic mRNA decapping enzyme complex, Dcp1/Dcp2, is essential in yeast, and deletion of either gene is lethal. However, the deadenylases that act upstream and the 5’ exoribonuclease that act downstream of the decapping step are not, even though they are all highly conserved with no known …

My God Is My Mercy: A Philological And Exegetical Study Of The Use Of Hesed In The Old Testament And Its Echoes In The New Testament, Sister Mary Agatha Hester, O.P.

Theology Graduate Theses

One little word can have a mighty impact. This is the case with the Hebrew word hesed.  Having encountered hesed in Scripture scholarship, pursuit of its nature and nuance has become a quest that has resulted in this thesis. What follows is a philological and exegetical study of the meaning and use of hesed in the Old Testament, its intertextual echoes in the New Testament, and its implications for right living. First, the use of hesed is analyzed in the context of the Old Testament, focusing on Exodus 34:6-7, which serves as the exemplar text. Using the work of …

A Critical-Constructivist Grounded Theory Exploration Of The Mental Health Experiences Of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities In Post-Secondary Settings, Alyssa L. Decker

Dissertations, 2020-current

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) now have access to higher education, often through inclusive post-secondary education programs (IPSE), to increase employability and quality of life. IPSE programs, historically, have provided academic and life skill support and not mental health support within programs’ curricula. A recent review of IPSE programs reveals that if mental health services are included, they are often accessed through university health services. Transitioning from high school to college induces high levels of stress, which can exacerbate underlying mental health conditions. Mental health care is defaulted to an already overburdened college counseling center without the knowledge and skills …

The Interplay Of Interdependence And Correlation In Bilateral Trade, Takashi Kunimoto, Cuiling Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Following Crémer and McLean (1985, 1988) for finite type spaces and McAfee and Reny (1992) for continuous ones, we establish two respective sufficient conditions for the existence of efficient, ex ante budget-balanced mechanisms satisfying Bayesian incentive compatibility (BIC) and interim individual rationality (IIR) in bilateral trade settings with interdependent values and correlated beliefs. We then utilize the ex ante welfare (EAW) condition proposed by Kunimoto and Zhang (2026), which is necessary for the stricter requirement of ex post budget balance. We prove that while the EAW condition is sufficient in a two-type model and generalizes existing conditions in the literature, …

Singapore In Global Value Chains: Implications Of The Trump Ii Tariffs, Pao-Li Chang, Ruoqing Chen

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines Singapore’s structural position in global value chains (GVCs) and the implications of the second Trump administration’s tariff escalation for Singapore and the broader ASEAN region. We proceed in three parts. First, using the ADB Multi-Regional Input–Output (MRIO) tables for 2019 and 2024, we characterise Singapore’s GVC participation and position. Singapore is the most GVCintensive economy in ASEAN, with nearly half of its gross exports comprising foreign value-added and a markedly downstream orientation. China is its dominant upstream partner across manufacturing and services—intermediating over 27% of foreign content in electronics and over 10% in chemicals—while Malaysia, Taiwan, and …

Engagement Of Understudied Populations As Community Change: The South Texas Adrc Model, Gladys E. Maestre, Neela K. Patel, Rosa V. Pirela, Robin C. Hilsabeck, Kendra Stine, Neyra García, Roberto Reyes, Omar Oropeza, Cristian Maestre, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Sarah Williams-Blangero, Ney Alliey Rodriguez

School of Medicine Publications

Many populations experiencing the highest burdens of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias remain understudied, in part because traditional recruitment and retention models are insufficient to support sustained engagement. The Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core (OREC) of the South Texas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center reconceptualized participant recruitment as a long-term system change in a Hispanic-majority, urban–rural region. OREC institutionalizes shared power through community advisory governance, aligns research protocols with local lived realities (through patient navigators, community health workers/promotores, and decentralized access points), and employs a data-driven feedback loop for continuous improvement. In 1 year, 46 outreach events touched 10,134 individuals (71% …

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Race-Associated Egfr And Kras Mutation Profiles In Lung Adenocarcinoma, Lovyanne Vergel De Dios, Catherine Wu, Salique Hassan Shaham, Manish K. Tripathi

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most prevalent histologic subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and exhibits considerable molecular heterogeneity. Among the most clinically significant driver alterations are mutations in EGFR and KRAS, both of which influence treatment selection and oncologic outcomes. The prevalence of these mutations varies by race, yet racial minority populations remain underrepresented in genomic studies. EGFR alterations are more frequently observed in Asian patients, while KRAS mutations predominate in non-Asian cohorts. This study aimed to characterize race-associated differences in driver mutation prevalence among Asian, Black, and White patients with LUAD. Methods: A retrospective secondary cohort …

Defining The Value Of Elective Lumbar Fusion: A Systematic Review Of Existing Methodologies And Framework For The Operative Value Index, Advith Sarikonda, Anthony Chen, Theo S. Biddle, Danyal A. Quraishi, Preston Carey, Arbaz A. Momin, Matthews Lan, Dwight Mitchell Self, Ashmal S. Kabani, Ahilan Sivaganesan

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Despite wide variation in the outcomes and costs of lumbar fusion, few studies have integrated these domains together within a single metric to assess "value" (outcomes achieved per dollar spent). In this review, we sought to 1) characterize existing metrics of cost-effectiveness for lumbar fusion, 2) evaluate all applications of time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) in spine surgery, and 3) outline the conceptual foundation for a standardized Operative Value Index (OVI).

METHODS: Two PRISMA-concordant systematic reviews were performed on PubMed and Scopus databases. The first review examined all studies which reported a cost-effectiveness metric for lumbar fusion. The second review …

Efficient And Universal Watermarking For Llm-Generated Code Detection, Boquan Li, Zirui Fu, Mengdi Zhang, Peixin Zhang, Jun Sun, Xingmei Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large language models (LLMs) have significantly enhanced the usability of AI-generated code, providing effective assistance to programmers. This advancement also raises ethical and legal concerns, such as academic dishonesty and the generation of malicious code. For accountability, it is imperative to detect whether a piece of code is AI-generated. Watermarking is broadly considered a promising solution and has been successfully applied to identify LLM-generated text. However, existing efforts on code are far from ideal, suffering from limited universality and excessive time and memory consumption. In this work, we propose a plugand- play watermarking approach for AI-generated code detection, named ACW …

When The Best-Fit Model Is Not Best: The Glass Slipper Fallacy And Latent Growth Mixture Modelling, Jonathan L. Chia, Markus Wettstein, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite the use of latent growth mixture modelling (LGMM) to study longitudinal changes, existing practices may inadvertently impede this very investigation. Although subgroup trajectories may theoretically differ in their structure (e.g., some subgroups being linear, some curvilinear), the current convention advocates overreliance on the baseline model to derive subsequent profile trajectories, which may obscure these structural differences. In this article, we provide a brief description of extant LGMM practices, after which we explicate the pitfalls of the current approach. Finally, we provide a principled approach for LGMM research moving forward. Specifically, we recommend specifying a set of theoretically plausible models …

Global Prevalence Of Depression Among University Students: A Comprehensive Umbrella Review, Gilda Yun Kai Sam, Xun Ci Soh, Harshitha Balaji, Gabriel X. D. Tan, Shu Fen Diong, Meilan Hu, Andree Hartanto, Nadyanna M. Majeed

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Depression has become a major concern for educational institutes due to its increasing incidence and detrimental impacts on students’ well-being. However, its global prevalence in the context of tertiary education remains unclear. This umbrella review summarised existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews to examine the worldwide prevalence of depression among university students. Several sociodemographic and methodological factors, including differences in depression prevalence before, during, and after COVID-19, were examined as moderators. Structured and exhaustive searches were conducted in five bibliographic databases and five journals, alongside two sources of grey literature. A total of 61 meta-analyses and systematic reviews were included in …

Towards Confucian Economic Democracy: A Relational Alternative To Possessive Individualism, Sor-Hoon Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article offers a Confucian conception of ownership and a different approach to equality based on a concept of relational person that could provide an alternative philosophical framework for economic democracy. The Confucian concept of nonexclusive and nonabsolute co-ownership, conditional on owners fulfilling their social responsibilities and sustained in networks of relationships mitigates the drive to appropriation and resistance to redistribution even without formalizing legal rights of equal ownership. Confucian texts’ condemnation of wide disparities between rich and poor corresponds with distributive ideas that balance equal satisfaction of needs with merit-based incentives for productivity constrained by social harmony. Without advocating …

The Ambivalent Wisdom Of Moral Disgust, Brandon Yip

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper has two aims. First, to provide a positive account of moral disgust. I suggest that moral disgust is a response to acts that are socially corrosive, namely, acts that undermine the normative structure to which an agent is attuned. I support this analysis with two lines of evidence: (1) moral disgust serves the important function of guarding normative structures from socially corrosive actions and (2) the analysis provides an illuminating explanation of moral disgust in a wide variety of cases. The secondary aim of this paper is to probe the normative implications of my positive account. I suggest …