Digital Commons Network^™

Data Registration Techniques For Optical Functional Brain Mapping, Abigail Magee

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Optical functional brain mapping presents a versatile, portable, and cost-effective alternative to conventional functional imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, optical imaging does not inherently capture anatomical details and relies on existing structural imaging to generate accurate brain maps. By employing head models that incorporate participant-specific anatomy, imaging array placement, and the optical properties of underlying tissues, optical functional brain mapping can achieve results comparable to those of fMRI. Despite advances in registration techniques, the creation of atlas-derived yet participant-specific head models remains a significant challenge. My research endeavors to develop innovative registration and analysis pipelines …

Rethinking Empowerment: Financial Self-Efficacy In First-Generation College Students, David Steadman

Masters Projects

Financial wellness difficulties have increasingly been found as a trend found amongst college students in research, as loans increase and student aid decreases, research is needed to understand new approaches to financial wellness and improving this problem within higher education. This project explores financial wellness and the need for wellness support amongst first-generation college students, as they continue to face unique wellness challenges in education at disparate rates. Specifically, it focuses on Financial Self-Efficacy (FSE) as a mediating factor of financial wellness, instead of a traditional focus on purely financial literacy. Grounded in Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, the First-Generation Financial …

Explicit Instruction’S Role In Phonemic Awareness And Phonics In Early Childhood Education, Sydney J. Fisher

Masters Projects

Research consistently demonstrated the impact that explicit instruction has on young children’s acquisition of phonemic awareness and phonics skills, critical foundations for later reading success. These skills are linked to achievement in reading in the upper elementary grades and beyond. Children reading below often face challenges across subject areas, and low literacy levels can limit meaningful participation in the community. This project examines research on developing phonemic awareness and phonics skills. With proper training and knowledge, teachers can improve student outcomes in these areas. However, teacher preparation programs and professional development does not adequately address these skills and how to …

Evaluating Parotid Gland Dose Between Electronic Tissue Compensation And Field In Field Treatment Techniques For Parotid Sparing In Whole-Brain Radiotherapy, Joesph E. Bodgonas

Masters Projects

Purpose:

The parotid glands are essential to salivary function and patient quality of life, yet they are not routinely prioritized as organs at risk (OARs) during whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). With growing recognition of long-term side effects like xerostomia in patients with prolonged survival after WBRT, parotid-sparing techniques warrant investigation. This study compares radiation dose to the parotid glands using three different 3D conformal WBRT planning approaches: field-in-field (FiF) with blocking, electronic tissue compensation (eCOMP) without blocking, and eCOMP with blocking.

Methods and Materials:

A retrospective study was conducted on 20 patients previously treated with 3D conformal WBRT. Original eCOMP plans …

Like A Scientist: A Method For Introducing Disciplinary Literacy In The Science Classroom, Elizabeth L. Kuperus

Masters Projects

To be literate within a particular area of study requires an understanding of the literary disciplinary norms practiced in that field. Within the science classroom, students are often expected to engage with scientific literature, yet are unable to fully grasp the material since they have not been taught the disciplinary literacies associated with science. This project evaluates research surrounding the area of scientific disciplinary literacy and suggests how it could be used to inform classroom instruction. Disciplinary literacy skills need to be explicitly taught and modeled to demonstrate how students can approach texts and other literacy practices as a scientist. …

The Need For Updated Curriculum, Krahseeva N. Hugmeyer-Walsh

Masters Projects

The modern world requires a workforce equipped with diverse, adaptable skills, yet many students remain unprepared due to outdated curriculum models that no longer align with current societal and professional demands. This project explores the growing disconnect between traditional educational systems and the skills needed in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world. Current curricula often emphasize theoretical knowledge over practical application, leaving students ill-equipped to navigate real-world challenges. This project also proposes the development of a modernized secondary-level curriculum unit that prioritizes critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, ethics, and technological literacy. The proposed unit is designed to reflect student interests, promote engagement, and …

Childhood Vaccination In Mozambique Pre- And Post-Covid-19 Pandemic, Remy Mwamba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2019, infectious diseases and other conditions claimed the lives of over 5 million children under 5. Global immunization coverage remains below prepandemic levels, leaving behind over 14 million zero-dose children in 2022, of whom 84% lived in low- and middle-income countries. This quantitative cross-sectional study aimed to examine, using two consecutive Demographic and Health Surveys, whether the most significant household characteristics and health service utilization risk factors associated with nonvaccination before the COVID-19 pandemic still hold postpandemic in Mozambique. Andersen's behavioral model of healthcare service utilization was the foundation for this investigation. The sample included N=2034 children aged 12-35 …

The Role Of Leopard Spot Technique Acupuncture For Shoulder Impingement With Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Dewi Ratnasari, Sri Wahdini

Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal

Shoulder impingement syndrome can be defined as a collection of symptoms and signs in the shoulder caused by pathology within the intrinsic or extrinsic that cause pinching in the narrowed space between the acromion and the head of the humerus. Myofascial pain yndrome can occur because of shoulder impingement syndrome. We report a 66-year-old male patient who presented with complaints of limited motion in the right shoulder area accompanied by pain to a medical acupuncture clinic in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2024. Leopard spot technique manual acupuncture was performed at the palpable myofascial trigger point area in each therapy session. After …

Nemvaleukin Alfa Monotherapy In Patients With Advanced Melanoma And Renal Cell Carcinoma: Results From The Phase 1/2 Non-Randomized Artistry-1 Trial, Emiliano Calvo, Valentina Boni, Olivier Dumas, Sang Joon Shin, Seth D Rosen, Arvind Chaudhry, Philip R Debruyne, Xiaomin He, Ulka N Vaishampayan, David F Mcdermott

School of Nursing and Midwifery

BACKGROUND: Despite improved outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and their combinations in advanced solid tumors, a subset of patients remains unresponsive or progresses, highlighting an unmet need for novel treatments with durable benefit. Nemvaleukin alfa (nemvaleukin, ALKS 4230) demonstrated manageable safety and antitumor activity, alone and in combination with pembrolizumab, across heavily pretreated advanced solid tumors in the ARTISTRY-1 study. We report in-depth antitumor activity, safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of nemvaleukin monotherapy at the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) in advanced melanoma and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cohorts from ARTISTRY-1.

METHODS: ARTISTRY-1 was a three-part (A, B, and C), …

Hemispherotomy For Drug-Resistant Epilepsy In Bilateral Sturge-Weber Syndrome: Illustrative Cases, Eveline Teresa Hidalgo, Eric A Grin, Yosef Dastagirzada, Nealen Laxpati, Judith Bluvstein, Julia R Schneider, Daniel Miles, Michal Tzadok, James Riviello, Howard L Weiner

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS) is a congenital neurocutaneous disorder characterized by angiomas of the face, choroid, and leptomeninges. Seizures in these children often present within the first 2 years of life. SWS is typically unilateral, but bilateral SWS occurs in approximately 15% of cases. Bilateral SWS is associated with earlier seizure onset and poorer cognitive, developmental, and functional outcomes. More than half of children with SWS develop drug-resistant epilepsy requiring surgical intervention. Hemispherotomy has been established as a successful treatment for unilateral SWS, but resective surgery has traditionally not been considered a treatment option for patients with bilateral disease.

Observations: …

The Confucian Path To Utopia : Liao Ping’S Theory Of Great Harmony, 1897–1918, Jiahui Dong

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

Seeing utopia as “the expression of the desire for a better way of being” and a term that encompasses both the meanings of “good place” and “no place,” this thesis examines the theoretical interaction between Western utopianism and the concept of great harmony, or Datong, which emerged from the study of ancient Chinese classics. It focuses on the late Qing to early Republican period through the case of Liao Ping (1852–1932), a new-text Confucian scholar from Sichuan province, China. As an eminent scholar, Liao was deeply exposed to and influenced by Western concepts and literature during the time of …

Dyadic And Multiparty Turn-Taking In Two Deaf Preschool Classrooms, Savannah Tellander

Theses

Conversational turn-taking skills are needed to succeed in most conversational interactions. Timing of turn-taking is crucial for young deaf signers, who need early, accessible, and consistent input in a signed and/or spoken language. For deaf children who acquire a language in either modality, they must acquire appropriate turn-taking skills. Without these abilities, children may miss critical language input, and in a cascading effect–they may miss opportunities both for input (and thus new knowledge) and expressive language. In addition to documenting deaf children’s turn-taking skills across development, it is important to also document timing data for further understanding of cognitive language …

Optimization Of Light Spectrum During The Early Grow-Out Of Caribbean Corals, Liam A. Abrams

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

For at least half a century, numerous direct and indirect anthropogenic stressors have led to the decline of coral populations globally. To minimize this decline and preserve genetic diversity, land-based nurseries have been sexually propagating corals to repopulate reefs. While the techniques to induce corals to spawn and rear their larvae are relatively well-established, the grow-out, i.e. rearing from newly settled to a size suitable for outplanting, remains yet to be fully optimized. Specifically, light spectrum, food quantity and quality and algal control require optimization. This study investigated the post-settlement survival and growth of the Caribbean reef building corals Colpophyllia …

Long-Term Follow-Up Of Left Atrial Appendage Exclusion: Results Of The V-Clip Multi-Center Post-Market Study, Elias Zias, Katherine G Phillips, Marc Gerdisch, Scott Johnson, Ahmed El-Eshmawi, Kenneth Saum, Michael Moront, Michael Kasten, Chanderdeep Singh, Gautam Bhatia, Hiroo Takayama, Ralph Damiano

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

How Much Variance Exists Among Published Definitions Of Proximal Junctional Kyphosis? A Retrospective Cohort Study Of Adult Spinal Deformity, Tim T Bui, Karan Joseph, Alexander T Yahanda, Samuel Vogl, Miguel Ruiz-Cardozo, Camilo A Molina

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Alternative To The Statistical Mass Confusion Of Testing For "No Effect", Josh L Morgan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In cell biology, statistical analysis means testing the hypothesis that there was no effect. This weak form of hypothesis testing neglects effect size, is universally misinterpreted, and is disastrously prone to error when combined with high-throughput cell biology. The solution is for analysis of measurements to start and end with an interpretation of effect size. In this manuscript, I walk through some of the common critiques of significance testing and how they relate to experimental cell biology. I argue that careful consideration of effect size should be returned to its central position in the planning and discussion of cell biological …

An Ethanol-Induced Loss Of The Lipid Droplet-Associated Segregase Vcp/P97 Leads To Hepatic Steatosis, Sandhya Sen, Shaun Weller, Ryan J Schulze, Donglin Ding, Carol A Casey, Conrad Weihl, Mark A Mcniven

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The liver stores substantial numbers of neutral lipid organelles termed lipid droplets (LDs) that accumulate within hepatocytes in response to chronic ethanol (EtOH) consumption leading to hepatic steatosis. Mass spectrometry analysis of LDs isolated from EtOH-damaged rat livers revealed a substantial reduction in the valosin-containing protein ATPase (VCP/p97) that acts to remove targeted proteins from cellular membranes for degradation. Experimental disruption of VCP function resulted in an increase in LD content in hepatocytes and mouse livers along with a marked increase in LD-associated hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD17β13) known to contribute to hepatic steatosis. Surprisingly, treatment of hepatocytes with the proteasome inhibitor …

Students' Social Attitudes Towards Students With Disabilities And Social Guidance In Inclusive Elementary Schools, Joko Yuwono, Ren Wenas, Nazmin Binti Abdullah, Mahardika Supratiwi, Fadjri Kirana Anggarani, Citra Tectona

Buletin Konseling Inovatif

Teachers in elementary schools have a strategic role in providing social guidance to students to accept the presence of Students with Disability (SwD). The aims of this study were to determine the social attitudes of students, how teachers provide social guidance for non-disability students regarding the presence of disabled students in class/school and describe the challenges faced by teachers. This study uses a mixed method approach (Quantitative and Qualitative). This research method uses a data collection technique, namely a questionnaire distributed via Google Form to teachers in Indonesia. Through the questionnaire, quantitative data (percentage) and qualitative data were obtained regarding …

The Influence Of The Pearl-Maiden On The Imagination Of J. R.R. Tolkien, Jane Beal

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

The Lay(Er)S Of The Corrigan, Lelie Brémont

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

Mythopoeic Awards Ceremony, The Mythopoeic Society

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

A Holy And Subversive Imagination, Amanda Benckhuysen

CTS Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Improving Icu Decolonization Compliance Among Nursing Staff, Sarah J. Moore

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) burden patients and health care organizations by influencing extended hospital stays, increasing mortality risk, and increasing healthcare spending.

PICOT: The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Project was guided by the PICOT question: In ICU nursing staff (P), how does the implementation of a standardized process with visual reminders and checklists (I) compared to no reminders or checklists (C) impact compliance with the decolonization protocol for HAI reduction (O) over four weeks?

Evidence: A review of evidence-based literature demonstrated efficacy in the reduction of HAIs through once daily bathing with 2% chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) …

Automated Semantic Segmentation Of Arctic Surface Water Features With Very-High Resolution Satellite X-Band Radar Imagery And U-Net Deep Learning: Segmentation Sémantique Automatisée Des Caractéristiques Des Eaux De Surface De L’Arctique À Partir D’Images Radar Satellite En Bande X À Très Haute Résolution Et À L’Aide De L’Apprentissage Profond U-Net, Michael Allan Merchant, Masoud Mahdianpari, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Ben Devries, Aaron Berg

Michigan Tech Publications

Repeatable methods capable of quantifying Arctic surface water extent at high resolutions are important, but still require development. Here, we present a study using very-high resolution (VHR) X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from Capella Space for fine-scale semantic segmentation of Arctic surface water features. Our study proposes a modified U-Net encoder-decoder model for this task, optimized using the Nadam algorithm. Otsu thresholding was leveraged to rapidly generate 512 × 512-pixel patches for the U-Net, resulting in an efficient and automated training pipeline. Within this study, we also quantitatively compared the deep learning (DL) U-Net to a shallow machine learning …

Magnet Council Toolkit For Organizations Seeking Magnet Status And Recruitment, Andrew J. Boone

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: The problem was a lack of a standardized or structured process for the development of Magnet Councils. There is no clear pathway or materials to initiate the process, and one must start by applying to the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) with little guidance prior to seeking help on the Magnet Journey. PICO Question: The PICO question that guided this DNP Project Toolkit development was as follows: For healthcare organizations pursuing Magnet status (P), how does the development of a structured Magnet Council Toolkit (I) compared to the absence of a formal toolkit (C), contribute to the validation …

Barriers To Participation In Follow-Up Services In Oncology, Casey Wagman

DNP Projects

Background
Psychological distress is often seen in cancer patients due to the physical, emotional, and social burdens of diagnosis and treatment. Patient participation in support services remains low despite the readily available psychosocial resources. The Emotional Well-Being Tool (EWBT), a validated psychological distress screening tool, is often used in a Midwest cancer clinic, yet it was noted that its supportive services were underutilized.

Purpose
This quality improvement project aimed to analyze the perspective of cancer patients on the EWBT, their understanding of its purpose and outcomes, and the perceived barriers to utilizing supportive services.

Methods
It was an exploratory design, …

The Use Of Debriefing To Combat Compassion Fatigue Among Cardiac Intensive Care Nurses, Brittany Johnson

DNP Projects

Background:
Compassion fatigue has physical, emotional, and psychological impacts on nurses working in intensive care units. Debriefing sessions can be used to help reduce compassion fatigue by allowing nurses on a cardiac intensive care unit to discuss their thoughts and feelings after the death of a patient who has had a complex hospital stay or traumatic death.

Aim:
The purpose of this project was to assess the perception of compassion fatigue on work life among Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) nurses and to evaluate whether debriefing sessions following demanding situations enhance nurses' coping abilities and emotional processing.

Methods:
Nurses working …

Teaching Law Through Art: On Magic, Emotions, And Resistance, Hamsini Marada

Socio-Legal Review

This is an auto-ethnographic article in which the author reflects on her research in art and law, the legal academic culture, and the ways in which her art practice (painting and photography) informs her teaching pedagogy. The author uses theoretical works of scholars like Paulo Friere and bell hooks as foundational texts to address how an emotional and care-based approach to teaching can be developed through engagement with art in law classrooms. This theory is substantiated with anecdotes from the author's experience of teaching electives on art and law and core courses like Criminal Law and Intellectual Property Rights. By …

Imputation Via Domain Adaptation: Rethinking Variable Subset Forecasting From Knowledge Transfer, Runchang Liang, Qi Hao, Yue Gao, Kunpeng Liu, Lu Jiang, Pengyang Wang, Minghao Yin

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multivariate time series forecasting in practical deployment faces a critical challenge termed Variable Subset Forecasting (VSF), where certain variables accessible during training are entirely missing during inference. This creates a stark discrepancy between the training (source domain with full variables) and inference (target domain with partial variables) environments, disrupting cross-variable dependencies and fragmenting global temporal patterns. Existing imputation methods, limited to transferring local knowledge (e.g., temporal neighbors or pairwise correlations), fail to capture essential global dynamics, leading to severe performance degradation under distribution shifts. To address these challenges, we redefine VSF as a cross-domain knowledge transfer problem and propose VIDA, …

Sos (Save Our Skin)- A Hospital Acquired Pressure Injury Reduction Quality, Nicholas A. La Mar

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) are a significant source of preventable harm. Often associated with increased patient morbidity, reduced quality of life, and substantial financial costs. In 2023, a Northern California level II trauma center reported 44 HAPI cases, with 25% occurring in the telemetry units. Despite a hospital-wide reduction in HAPIs in 2024, telemetry units accounted for 33% of the cases in the first quarter of 2025, highlighting a need for targeted intervention.

Context: The project was conducted in four adult inpatient telemetry units of a 241-bed level two trauma center. The units faced challenges with inconsistent adherence to …