Digital Commons Network^™

Perioperative Predictors Of Hemodynamic Instability After Carotid Revascularization, Lutfi Barghuthi, Rebekah Bjorklund, Mya Phelps, Shrina Patel, Lakecia Beasley, Bayli Zink, Alyssa Bedell, Gaurav Singh, Sarah Stokke, Jacob Dunn, Lily Sadri, Carly Wadle, Alisha Thedford, Rebecca Swindall, Alan Cook, Hishaam Ismael, Mark Robbins

School of Medicine Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective

Postoperative hemodynamic instability after carotid revascularization can lead to adverse outcomes such as intensive care unit admission and prolonged hospitalization, leading to an increase in resource utilization. This study aimed to compare hemodynamic instability between transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) and carotid endarterectomy (CEA).

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was conducted at a single institution on treatment for carotid artery stenosis between 2021 and 2024. Clinical outcomes after TCAR and CEA were compared. The primary outcome was hemodynamic instability; secondary outcomes of interest included any >30-day complication or death.

Results

In total, 566 patients were included, 71.2% undergoing TCAR (n …

Maesa Ramentacea Leaf Extract Protects Against Gentamicin-Induced Nephrotoxicity In Wistar Rats By Modulating Renal Oxidative Stress, Inflammation And Apoptosis, Fahmida Akter, Md Shafiqul Islam Sovon, Baizid Hossain, Md Ariful Islam, Subrato Das, Anik Biswas, Md Sohorab Uddin, Md Mahmudul Hasan

Faculty Publications

Background: Gentamicin-induced nephrotoxicity continues to be a significant clinical concern, while effective and safe protective options remain limited. The nephroprotective potential of Maesa ramentacea has not yet been explored. To address this gap, the present study investigated the ethanolic leaf extract of M. ramentacea (MR-LEE) for its effects on gentamicin-induced kidney injury in Wistar rats. Methods: GC-MS profiling was employed to identify bioactive metabolites. Rats were categorised into five groups: control, gentamicin (100 mg/kg), gentamicin combined with silymarin (100 mg/kg), gentamicin combined with MR-LEE (200 mg/kg) and gentamicin combined with MR-LEE (400 mg/kg). Renal biomarkers, oxidative stress indicators, inflammatory and …

Building Capacity, Driving Impact: A Landscape Analysis Of Community Engagement And Outreach Cores' Activities, Emily Frankel, Stephanie Broyles, Stephenie Kennedy-Rea, Casey Solsrud, Elizabeth K. Woods, Deborah Goebert, Zsolt Nagykaldi, Holly Huye, Lee M. Pachter

Faculty Publications

Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Cores are a key component of the IDeA Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) Program, serving to develop and implement capacity-building initiatives that empower communities to engage and collaborate with investigators in community-engaged research. To strengthen collaboration and shared learning across sites, a CEO Special Interest Group was established. In 2022, the group conducted a landscape analysis to systematically characterize and categorize CEO Core activities across the IDeA-CTR network, with a focus on capacity-building efforts related to knowledge transfer, co-learning, and infrastructure development. The analysis revealed several common approaches to community engagement and capacity building across …

Masthead, Vol. 58 (2026)

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Bridging Divides, Building Futures: Affirmative Action From A Global Perspective, Irene Rhodes

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

Affirmative action in higher education has long been central to U.S. constitutional debate, but the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) ended race-conscious admissions. This Article uses a comparative framework to examine how Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and India reconcile equality, diversity, and meritocracy. Common law systems emphasize incremental positive action, while Brazil and India employ quota-based statutory models. These contrasts reveal that effective diversity policies must align with constitutional traditions. For the United States, durable reforms should include race-neutral socioeconomic indices, statutory authorizations, and programmatic supports with built-in review mechanisms. By drawing on …

Ecocide And The International Criminal Court: Reassessing The African Union-Icc Impasse, Ikechukwu Ugwu

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

The refusal of the African Union (AU) and its leaders to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) led to the negotiation of the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights 2014 (the Malabo Protocol). The Protocol incorporates the core crimes of the Rome Statute and, in addition, expands on the meaning of international crime by defining crimes related to the environment, among others. Although the Malabo Protocol is innovative in its provisions, it lacks the potential to prevent ecocide in Africa or to serve as a model for …

Maine Law Magazine - Issue No. 100, University Of Maine School Of Law

Maine Law Magazine

Features

• Maine Law’s Privacy Program Continues to Innovate
  How Maine Law’s privacy and innovation programs are preparing students for emerging legal challenges.

• New Business & Law Clinic
  Strengthening Maine’s economy one startup at a time.

• Global Experiential Learning
  From the Arctic Circle to U.N. climate negotiations, students engage with environmental law where it happens.

• Rural Access to Justice
  The Rural Practice Clinic’s impact on Maine’s growing justice gap.

• Law & Conservation Efforts
  How Maine Law alumni steward change and safeguard the future through environmental advocacy.

• Supporting Maine’s Vulnerable
  The Refugee & Human Rights Clinic expands access to justice across Maine. …

From Pañales To Partnership: An Ethnographic Investigation Of Knowledge, Gender, And Power Within A Family Literacy Program, Sara Mohler

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Within research on family literacy programming (Lynch & Prins, 2021), few studies bring together assets-based perspectives on knowledge and power alongside critical feminist lenses. This qualitative case study (Dyson & Genishi, 2005; Yin, 2018) informed by ethnography (Alonso Bejarano et al., 2019; Desmond, 2014; Günel & Watanabe, 2024) aimed to understand the culture of one family literacy program serving primarily Mexican-American families, named here the Treehouse Preschool, giving particular attention to the intersecting elements of knowledge, gender, and power as they are enacted across the roles and relationships of families and personnel participating in in the program. Data for this …

Prevalence And Incidence Of Heart Failure Phenotypes Among Transgender And Gender-Diverse Adults In The United States, Ian K. Everitt, Emily K. Quinn, Meredith S. Duncan, Chris Grasso, Sari L. Reisner, Guneet K. Jasuja, Tonia Poteat, Ayelet Shapira-Daniels, Howard Cabral, Vin Tangpricha, Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, Emelia J. Benjamin, Monica Mukherjee, Carl G. Streed

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Prevalent and incident heart failure (HF) and its comorbidities have not been characterized in transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) populations. This study determines the prevalence and incidence of HF phenotypes by gender identity. METHODS: A retrospective cohort analysis was performed using deidentified administrative claims from the Optum Labs Data Warehouse (2006-2022). TGD adults and a sample of demographically similar cisgender comparators were identified using a validated algorithm, and gender identity was categorized as cisgender man, cisgender woman, transmasculine, transfeminine, or unclassified TGD. Prevalent and incident HF, including systolic, diastolic, and unclassified phenotypes, were assessed using diagnosis codes. Multivariable logistic and …

Unexpected Longevity In Myasthenia Gravis, Bhupendra O. Khatri, Scott Schutten, Sergey Tarima

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: This study compares age at death in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) and multiple sclerosis (MS) with the general U.S. population and examines age at death patterns during a period preceding modern high-efficacy therapies. Objective: To compare age at death among individuals with MG and MS with the general population and assess differences in age at death between MG and MS. Design: Retrospective population-based study using death certificate data from four U.S. states (Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, and New York) for 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. Methods: Individuals with MG or MS listed on death certificates were identified. Age at …

Catwalk Xt Enables Sensitive Detection Of Locomotor Deficits After C2 Hemisection And Integrates Readily Into Ongoing Experimental Workflows In Adult Female Rats, Aaron L. Silverstein, Christopher M. Calulot, Christopher J. Mclouth, John C. Gensel, Warren J. Alilain

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Over half of all spinal cord injuries (SCIs) in the United States occur at the cervical level and often cause both life-threatening breathing dysfunction and profound locomotor deficits. Although the C2 hemisection (C2Hx) model is vital for study of breathing dysfunction after experimental SCI, post-C2Hx locomotor deficits have only been assessed by metrics such as the Martínez Scale and ladder tests, which require time-intensive scoring by human observers. However, the CatWalk XT Gait Analysis system (Noldus Information Technology) delivers automated, quantitative assessment of interlimb coordination, gait cycle, and paw function, providing robust locomotor data in a time-efficient and practical manner. …

Integration Of Community-Engaged Research Technology And Methods To Guide Tobacco Regulatory Science In Rural Communities, Melissa H. Abadi, Stephen R. Shamblen, Mary Kay Rayens, Kirsten T. Thompson, Amy Wildman, Kathy Rademacher, William Wieczorek, Raphael Nishimura, Shyanika W. Rose, Mikhail N. Koffarnus, Seth Himelhoch, Ellen J. Hahn

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Objective – This study aims to build a rural Appalachian cohort to examine how US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) regulatory policies influence tobacco and nicotine product use across levels of rurality. Methods – The AppalTRUST (Appalachian Tobacco Regulatory Science Team) Cohort integrates four inter-connected Community-engaged Research + Technology (CEnRT) elements to support recruitment and retention: (1) building trust and cultural relevance; (2) addressing barriers to participation in research; (3) focusing on ethics and confidentiality; and (4) fostering ongoing and consistent collaboration between the scientific and field teams. The study uses a dual sampling design …

Raising The Profile Of Collaborative Biostatisticians In Team Science, Margaret R. Stedman, C. Christina Mehta, Emily Slade, Patricia L. Hibberd, Glenn M. Chertow, Robert H. Podolsky, Sowmya R. Rao

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Recent emphasis on transdisciplinary teams in science offers an opportunity for biostatisticians to assume roles beyond data management and analysis. Biostatisticians contribute to all phases of research, from hypothesis formulation and rigorous study design to data analysis and interpretation. Yet, their contributions are often underrecognized. We argue for better integration of biostatisticians in research training and team structures. Postgraduate physician-scientist training should include mentorship from biostatisticians and education on collaborative skills. Fully integrating biostatisticians as co-investigators improves rigor, reproducibility, and innovation. Institutional support, including protected time and updated promotion criteria, is essential to support sustained collaboration. Structural changes must address …

Reimagining Hospital Medicine For Long-Term Sustainability, Samantha Murray-Bainer, Margaret Shyu, Rachel Peterson, Michael Hendricks, Christine Welles, Gopi Astik, Khoosh Dayton, Kristen Mcquerry, Joy Engblade

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: High rates of burnout and turnover exist in the field of hospital medicine. Factors that make the career less sustainable and impact hospitalists as they age are not well understood. Objective: To identify factors that promote or impede hospitalist career longevity and understand job- and age-related challenges faced by older hospitalists. Design: Mixed-methods study of semi-structured qualitative focus groups within a national hospitalist consortium followed by a brief participant survey. Focus group discussions were recorded, summarized, and analyzed using matrix analyses to identify themes and subthemes. Participants: Thirty-seven attendees of the HOMERuN collaborative session in November 2024 participated in …

Rethinking Team Science Metrics Through Collaborative Guideposts, Kristen J. Mcquerry, Kelsey Karnik, Megan E. Hall, Caitline Phan, Yana Feygin, Emily Slade

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Introduction – The increasing reliance on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams has reshaped how science is conducted, yet evaluating the success of such teams remains a persistent challenge. Traditional metrics, such as publication counts, impact factors, and citation indices, fail to capture the full scope of team contributions, particularly in contexts where success may be defined by community engagement, mentorship, or long-term collaboration. Methods – In this Perspective, we introduce Collaborative Guideposts, a framework designed to align success metrics with a team’s organizing priorities. We illustrate this approach through two contrasting team models from a biostatistical collaboration center: Team A, a …

The Influence Of Support From Family, Friends, And Community On Perceived Mental Health Status In Diabetes, Courtney L. Ortz, Meredith S. Duncan, Oluwatosin Leshi, Suraksha Khanal, Brittany Smalls

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Strong social support is a protective factor in diabetes and mental health management. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the type of support on perceived mental health status among people with diabetes. We used data from the 2021 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Survey (MEPS). Regression models assessed the association between mental well-being (outcome) and expected help from family, friends, and the community (exposure). Support from both friends and family were significantly associated with better mental well-being, adjusting for covariates. Secondary analyses showed that those who reported greater anticipated support from family were more …

The Multidimensional Impacts Of Poverty On Adolescent Outcomes, Klarence Baker

Graduate Research Papers

Poverty is a pervasive, multidimensional phenomenon that extends beyond financial scarcity to encompass a lack of both tangible and intangible resources necessary for healthy development. This research article synthesizes current literature to explore the profound impacts of poverty on adolescents specifically examining how economic hardship influences long term outcomes in financial attainment, educational success, and physical and mental health. This study investigates how cooccurring risk factors can disrupt neural development and social trajectories. The primary purpose of this study is to assess the duration and severity of poverty exposure and its lasting effects extending into adulthood. This research examines three …

Mapping The Geography Of Economic Espionage In The United States (2000–2025): An Applied Counterintelligence And Spatial Analysis, David A. Turner

Graduate Research Papers

This Graduate Research Project examines whether economic espionage incidents within the United States exhibit structured geographic patterns aligned with innovation ecosystem density. Using a verified dataset of 135 publicly documented economic espionage and foreign-linked trade secret theft cases between 2000 and 2025, this study applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis to evaluate spatial concentration, sectoral prioritization, and foreign nexus distribution.

Kernel Density Estimation and state-level aggregation reveal disproportionate clustering within innovation-dense regions, including California, New York, and major Midwestern industrial corridors. Aerospace and defense technologies, energy technologies, and semiconductors and microelectronics collectively account for 55.6 percent of all documented cases. …

Skin Type Diversity In Image Datasets, Neda Alipour

Doctoral

Image-based AI systems that analyse human skin are increasingly used in healthcare and computer vision applications. However, many human skin-based image datasets do not provide reliable information about skin type, making it difficult to assess whether these systems perform consistently across the full spectrum of skin colour. The objective of this thesis is to examine how skin type diversity is represented and measured in image datasets, and to evaluate the reliability of image-based skin type measurement methods under different imaging conditions. Using publicly available skin lesion image datasets as a well-defined and widely used sub-class of skin image datasets, this …

Annotated Bibliography Assignment For English 201, Sara Whitestone

Open Educational Resources

In this English 201 assignment, students investigate a research question about happiness and build an annotated bibliography through 15 scaffolded, low-stakes steps involving research, source evaluation, reflection, drafting, feedback, and revision. They use the same sources to write papers in two different disciplinary genres, adapting their selection and use of evidence to each genre’s conventions, audience, tone, and style. The process emphasizes personal intellectual engagement, responsible use of AI, self-assessment, and the understanding that strong academic writing develops through sustained revision.

Selling Ideals: Sexualization In Teen Girl Magazines, 2007-2017, Megan Coogan

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Magazines are made to sell more than just a product; they sell lifestyles and ideals. Teen girl magazines target adolescents starting as young as twelve years old, but is the content in its pages appropriate and identifiable for that demographic? This study investigated how levels of perceived sexualization changed between 2007, 2012, and 2017, in Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines. A decrease in perceived sexualization was expected across the ten-year period of time. This window of time reflects the last ten years of publication for both magazines. Research was conducted by creating and utilizing a grading system for non-explicit sexualized …

Flood Risk Prediction System For Irish River Networks, Fernando Adalberto Naatz Heringer, Hugo Rodrigues De Freitas

ICT

Flooding costs the Irish economy more than 300 million euros annually; however, the hydrometric and meteorological data needed to predict dangerous river rises is already collected and freely available. This project applies machine learning to a decade of hourly observations from OPW Station 09001 on the River Liffey at Leixlip and Met Eireann Casement Aerodrome to build a flood risk prediction system with a 72-hour forecast horizon.

A two-phase modelling pipeline was built following the CRISP-DM framework. Phase 1 compared LSTM and GRU recurrent neural networks on the task of forecasting the river level in metres 72 hours ahead. LSTM …

Machine Learning System For Cereal Yield Prediction In South America., Victor Gabriel Oliveira, Kelvin Henrique Ferreira Dumas

ICT

This project developed a machine learning solution to predict cereal yield in South America using FAOSTAT agricultural data. The objective was to estimate yield in kg/ha for rice, maize, and wheat based on variables such as country, crop type, year, harvested area, producer price, pesticide use, and nutrient indicators.

The project followed the CRISP-DM methodology, covering business understanding, data understanding, data preparation, modelling, evaluation, and deployment. Several regression models were tested, including Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, AdaBoost, XGBoost, KNN, and SVR.

The models were evaluated using MAE, MSE, RMSE, and R² score. The results showed that tree-based ensemble models performed …

A Comprehensive Study Of Sarima And Xgboost Models For Short-Term Traffic Volume Forecasting At A Melbourne Intersection (Victoria), Australia, Douglas Vinicius Dierings, Felipe Fontanive Marques

ICT

Traffic congestion is an increasing challenge in modern cities, impacting transportation efficiency and urban sustainability. This project focuses on short-term traffic volume forecasting, using 15-minute Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) data collected from the State of Victoria, Australia. The study compares two forecasting approaches: SARIMA, a statistical time-series model, and XGBoost, a decision-tree machine-learning model. Historical traffic data from 2022 to 2024 was analysed to identify traffic patterns, seasonal trends, and peak traffic periods. The models were evaluated for their effectiveness in handling urban traffic behaviour. The results of this study aim to support smarter traffic management, infrastructure planning, …

Identifying New Programme Development Viability, Grant Goodwin

ICT

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) face the challenge of developing programmes that respond to changing labour market needs while providing graduates with relevant employment opportunities and ensuring institutional financial viability. Rapid technological and economic changes make it increasingly important for HEIs to use reliable data to identify emerging skills and workforce demands. This project explores the use of machine learning and nationally collected employment data to support evidence-based decision-making in higher education programme development. By analysing patterns and relationships within labour market data, machine learning models can help identify areas of growing demand and provide insights into the potential alignment between …

Machine Learning For Early Obesity Risk Prediction, Giuseppe Cutugno

ICT

Obesity is a major global public health concern, with significant implications for individual health, healthcare systems, and wider economic outcomes. Early identification of obesity risk can support preventive strategies and encourage healthier lifestyle choices before health conditions become more severe. This project develops a machine learning framework for estimating obesity levels using data relating to individuals’ physical characteristics, eating habits, lifestyle behaviours, and demographic factors. Following the CRISP-DM framework, the project examines the structure and limitations of the dataset, including its mixture of objective measurements, survey-based variables, and synthetically generated observations. Two modelling approaches are considered, one including BMI as …

Predicting Product Returns In Online Retail, Mihaela Cristina Stefanache

ICT

Product returns are a significant challenge for online retailers, contributing to additional operational costs and affecting inventory management and profitability. This project develops and evaluates three machine learning models to predict product returns for a UK online retailer, building on the data understanding and preparation completed in the previous CA2 capstone project. Following the CRISP-DM framework, the study extends the analysis through enhanced exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, model development, hyperparameter optimisation, cross-validation, and model interpretability. Logistic Regression, a Tuned Random Forest, and XGBoost are evaluated, with the Tuned Random Forest achieving the strongest overall performance, obtaining an F1 score …

Development Of Stronger, More Extrudable 6xxx Series Alloys For Automotive Applications, Eli A. Harma

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

6xxx alloys are widely used in automotive extrusion structures for their high specific strength and formability. Advanced designs require greater formability and strength, creating an opportunity for high-strength, formable alloys. The 6xxx series forms β”-Mg₅Si₆ precipitates during age hardening and develops a fibrous microstructure during extrusion, both strengthening the alloy. Increasing Mg and Si to form more β” decreases formability. Thus, modifying texture can increase strength without reducing formability. Current alloys like 6005A add Mn and Cr to form dispersoids that inhibit recrystallization and promote strengthening textures; however, high Mn and Cr concentrations reduce formability. Replacing Mn …

Comparison Of Fixed Tilt And Single Axis Tracking Solar Photovoltaics During Winter, Isobel R. Bowker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

As solar projects are built in northern climates, it is necessary to understand how snow cover impacts power generation. While there are validated models that predict snow shedding for fixed tilt projects, there is not one for single axis tracking systems. This report aims to characterize the differences between fixed tilt and single axis tracking systems under the same snow conditions. Generation data was collected over four winter months for fixed tilt and tracking systems at Michigan Technological University. Models were created for both systems using weather information from the site, in which losses were set to zero to create …

Design, Modeling, And Experimental Development Of Nanoscale Confinement Structures On Planar Silicon-Based Microelectrode Arrays For Single-Entity Electrochemical Sensing, Parinaz Eskandari

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Electrochemical sensing is widely used for chemical and biological detection due to its high sensitivity, label-free operation, and compatibility with miniaturized electronic systems. However, conventional microelectrode platforms operate in an ensemble-averaged regime in which the measured current represents the collective response of many molecules interacting with the electrode surface. This ensemble averaging masks localized nanoscale electrochemical events and limits the ability to detect rare interactions, such as single molecules or nanoparticles. Achieving single-entity electrochemical detection therefore requires strategies that confine electrochemical reactions to nanoscale regions while maintaining compatibility with scalable planar microfabrication.

This dissertation investigates nanoscale electrochemical confinement on planar …