Digital Commons Network^™

Deacon Roosevelt "Shug" Hagins

African American Funeral Programs

Deacon--Roosevelt--Shug--Hagins.pdf - Funeral program for Roosevelt Hagins

Mouse Metastable Epialleles Are Extremely Rare, Chathura J Gunasekara, Uditha Maduranga, Taylor Zhang, Jonathan N Wells, Maria S Baker, Eleonora Laritsky, Yumei Li, Cristian Coarfa, Yi Zhu, Robert A Waterland

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Metastable epialleles (MEs) are genomic loci at which epigenetic marks are established stochastically during early embryonic development and maintained during subsequent differentiation and throughout life, leading to stable epigenetic and phenotypic variation among genetically identical individuals. Although MEs were first described in mice over 20 years ago, the extent of epigenetic metastability in the mouse genome remains unknown. We present the first unbiased genome-wide screen for MEs in mice. Using deep whole-genome bisulfite sequencing across tissues derived from the three embryonic germ layers in isogenic C57BL/6J mice, we identified only 29 MEs, precisely localizing them and documenting their rarity. Consistent …

Rayion Smith, Rayion Smith '26, Nathalie Romero '25, Posse Legacy Project, Illinois Wesleyan University

All oral histories

Interview of Rayion Smith on July 19, 2025. Rayion Smith is a Posse 6 Scholar. Her major is in Biology with a minor in Public Health.

Incidence Of Heart Failure Following Carpal Tunnel Release Surgery, Harrison S. Fellheimer, Mahaa Ayub, Gabriel I. Onor, Lauren O'Mara, Eric Tecce, Pedro K. Beredjiklian

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: Previous literature suggests a relationship between carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and heart failure (HF), indicating that patients with CTS are more likely to experience cardiomyopathy. Amyloid deposition leading to CTS may be prodromal for the development of amyloid cardiomyopathy. We hypothesized that patients undergoing surgery for CTS would have an increased risk of HF compared to those who did not undergo surgery.

METHODS: The TriNetX database was queried using the primary ICD-10 code for CTS to identify patients. Patients were included if they had surgical treatment for CTS, reported as endoscopic or open carpal tunnel release, or median nerve …

Smartboot: Real-Time Monitoring Of Patient Activity Via Remote Edge Computing Technologies, Gozde Cay, Myeounggon Lee, David G Armstrong, Bijan Najafi

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a serious complication of diabetes, associated with high recurrence and amputation rates. Adherence to offloading devices is critical for wound healing but remains inadequately monitored in real-world settings. This study evaluates the SmartBoot edge-computing system-a wearable, real-time remote monitoring solution integrating an inertial measurement unit (Sensoria Core) and smartwatch-for its validity in quantifying cadence and step count as digital biomarkers of frailty, and for detecting adherence. Twelve healthy adults wore two types of removable offloading boots (Össur and Foot Defender) during walking tasks at varied speeds; system outputs were validated against a gold-standard wearable and …

Liberalism And Lockdowns, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

Some authors have argued that liberalism cannot support lockdowns because it cannot engage in collective welfare-type reasoning. Others have thought that liberalism can justify lockdown measures, but that legitimate lockdown measures must be based on pre-legal moral principles that set acceptable limits to the imposition of risk or forbid contributing to collective harm. In this essay, I assess the overall relationship between liberalism and lockdowns. Against the first interpretation of liberalism, I argue in favor of the idea that lockdowns can be justified by liberalism. Liberalism protects the liberty of each and so can presumably protect persons from some kinds …

“It Felt Like Solving A Mystery Together”: Exploring Virtual Reality Card-Based Interaction And Story Co-Creation Collaborative System Design, Yaojiong Yu, Mike Phillips, Gianni Corino

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Virtual reality interaction design and story co-creation design for multiple users is an interdisciplinary research field that merges human–computer interaction, creative design, and virtual reality technologies. Story co-creation design enables multiple users to collectively generate and share narratives, allowing them to contribute to the storyline, modify plot trajectories, and craft characters, thereby facilitating a dynamic storytelling experience. Through advanced virtual reality interaction design, collaboration and social engagement can be further enriched to encourage active participation. This study investigates the facilitation of narrative creation and enhancement of storytelling skills in virtual reality by leveraging existing research on story co-creation design and …

Critical Mineral Mining And Native American Rights, Spencer Beeman Janes

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the intersection between critical mineral mining and Native Americans' rights. Critical minerals are essential for creating electric and sustainable energy sources that fuel the world's evolving technological landscape. The United States is making a concerted effort to mine these minerals on American soil due to their vital role in serving the U.S economy and national defense. However, many of these mineral reserves lie within close proximity to Native American reservations, and mining them directly impacts Native American communities. The development of critical mineral mines can offer substantial benefits to indigenous communities, but they also have the capacity …

Revamping The Ecosystem, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

A recent advertisement seeking secretaries to the government from outside the existing pool is a commendable step. One hopes it marks the beginning of system-wide changes in our antiqua­ted administrative structure and processes. This experiment’s success will depend not only on the calibre of the newcomers but also on the way the supporting ecosystem evolves. To begin with, scre­ening, short-listing and interviewing should follow objective parameters — for instance, mat­ching ex­­p­erience with job requirements, a demonstrated record of adaptability and innovation, strong interpersonal skills and problem-solving abilities.

Chondrocyte-Specific Knockout Of Piezo1 And Piezo2 Protects Against Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis Structural Damage And Pain In Mice, Erica V Ely, Kristin L Lenz, Sophie G Paradi, Seth Ack, Abraham Behrmann, Sarah Dunivan, Lauryn Braxton, Wolfgang Liedtke, Yong Chen, Kelsey H Collins, Farshid Guilak

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating joint disease characterized by cartilage degeneration, synovial inflammation, and bone remodeling, with limited therapeutic options targeting the underlying pathophysiology. Mechanosensitive ion channels Piezo1 and Piezo2 play crucial roles in chondrocyte responses to mechanical stress, mediating mechanotransduction pathways that influence chondrocyte survival, matrix production, and inflammatory signaling, but their distinct contributions to OA pathogenesis remain unclear.

METHODS: Using inducible, chondrocyte-specific Aggrecan-Cre (Acan) mice, we investigated Piezo1, Piezo2, and combined Piezo1/2 conditional knockouts (cKOs) using the destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM) model of post-traumatic OA in male and female mice. Pain and behavioral assessments were …

Unlocking Efficiency In Real-World Collaborative Studies: A Multi-Site International Study With One-Shot Lossless Glmm Algorithm, Jiayi Tong, Chongliang Luo, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The widespread adoption of real-world data has given rise to numerous healthcare-distributed research networks, but multi-site analyses still face administrative burdens and data privacy challenges. In response, we developed a Collaborative One-shot Lossless Algorithm for Generalized Linear Mixed Models (COLA-GLMM), the first-ever algorithm that achieves both lossless and one-shot properties. COLA-GLMM ensures accuracy against the gold standard of pooled data while requiring only summary statistics and completes within a single communication round, eliminating the usual back-and-forth overhead. We further introduced an enhanced version that employs homomorphic encryption to reduce the risks of summary statistics misuse at the coordinating center. The …

Autoregulation Of Rpl7b By Inhibition Of A Structural Splicing Enhancer, David Granas, Ishan Gammadde Hewa, Michael A White, Gary D Stormo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Yeast ribosomal protein gene RPL7B is autoregulated by inhibition of splicing. The first intron has a "zipper stem" that brings the 5' splice site near the branch point (BP) and serves as an enhancer of splicing that is required for efficient splicing because the intron has a nonconsensus BP sequence of UGCUAAC. The intron also contains an alternative, and mutually exclusive, structure that is conserved across many yeast species. That conserved structure is a binding site for the Rpl7 protein so that when the protein is in excess over what is required for ribosomes, the protein binds to the conserved …

Direct Histone Proteoform Profiling Of The Unannotated, Endangered Coral Acropora Cervicornis, Cassandra N Fuller, Sabrina Mansoor, Kevin Jeanne Dit Fouque, Lilian Valadares Tose, Javier Rodriguez-Casariego, Mariangela Kosmopoulou, Detlev Suckau, Francisca N De Luna Vitorino, Benjamin A Garcia, Jose M Eirin-Lopez, Francisco Fernandez-Lima

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Epigenetic modifications directly regulate the patterns of gene expression by altering DNA accessibility and chromatin structure. A knowledge gap is presented by the need to directly measure these modifications, especially for unannotated organisms with unknown primary histone sequences. In the present work, we developed and applied a novel workflow for identifying and annotating histone proteoforms directly from mass spectrometry-based measurements for the endangered Caribbean coral Acropora cervicornis. Combining high-accuracy de novo top-down and bottom-up analysis based on tandem liquid chromatography, trapped ion mobility spectrometry, non-ergodic electron-based fragmentation, and high-resolution mass spectrometry, near complete primary sequence (up to 99%) and over …

Accuracy Of Anthropometric Equations In Estimating Body Fat Percentage In Transgender Men Undergoing Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy, Barbara Buosi, Yana Barros Hara, Rodolfo André Dellagrana, Rafael Martins Da Costa, Mateus Rossato

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 18(1): 686-694, 2025. Transgender people may opt for the use of sex steroids and, in some cases, hormone blockers, which can lead to changes in body fat distribution. The aim of this study was to verify the accuracy of anthropometric equations to estimate the body density (BD) of transgender men who are undergoing Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy (GAHT). Four transgender men (25-32 years old), who had performed GAHT for at least six months and used the hormone testosterone cypionate participated in the study. The reference criteria for BD was air displacement plethysmography (ADP). In addition, BD …

Understanding Socio-Environmental Concerns About Bear Lake: Findings From A Community-Engaged Teaching Study, Stacia Ryder, Alexander Theophilus, Charlotte Emelia Williams, Elizabeth Brunner, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Zubair Barkat, Nowrin Fatema, Jordan Rowley

Transforming Communities

In the western U.S., climate change is exacerbating already difficult situations in many lake systems, including Bear Lake, which spans the Idaho-Utah border and faces several environmental issues and a new wave of recreational development. In this research note, we discuss preliminary findings from community-engaged research aimed at assessing different concerns that scientists, residents, and community organizations have for Bear Lake and the surrounding communities. To do so, this project connects student research across three courses. Data collected through archival and interview research provides important insights into the socio-environmental concerns related to 1) ecological threats, 2) water management, quality, and …

Benefits And Impact Of Global And Bilingual Education: Dual Master’S Degree In Spanish Language And Culture For Educators, Diana Meza, Felix Wang, Yenisei Montes De Oca

International Journal on Responsibility

The dual master’s degree program in Spanish Language and Culture (SLC) for educators represents a pioneering initiative, emphasizing internationalization and global education through collaboration between James Madison University (JMU) and the University of Salamanca (USAL). This program addresses the escalating demand for bilingual education and the growing population of Spanish speakers in the educational landscape of the United States. The SLC program highlights educators’ responsibility to engage with and promote cultural and linguistic diversity by supporting bilingualism and cultural literacy in diverse communities where Spanish is widely used, particularly in regions where Spanish-speaking populations are marginalized. The program offers the …

Inter-Effort Recovery Intermittent Hypoxia And Force Parameters In Sprint Interval Exercise, Tarine Botta De Arruda, Felipe Alves Ribeiro Ms, Germano Marcolino Putti, Marcelo Papoti

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 18(3): 672-685, 2025. Performing training sessions in hypoxia leads to a decrease in effort quality. The inter-effort recovery intermittent hypoxia model seems to ensure training session performance. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of sprint interval exercise under normoxic (NOR), continuous hypoxic (HYP), and inter-effort hypoxic (IEH) conditions on force parameters. Seven swimmers (age: 26.04 ± 4.64 years) volunteered and performed one session of the 10 × 30-s all-out tethered swimming efforts with 4-min passive recovery intervals for each condition. Considering the simulated altitude at F_iO₂ = 0.13 …

The Influence Of "Ifbb Pro" Designation On Consumer Decision-Making In Online Personal Training Services: An Experimental Investigation, Zehua Hei, Alan Morse

Global Sport Business Journal

The recent rising health awareness, social media occurrence, and digital access to fitness services promote the growth of online personal training. Drawing upon signaling theory, a recent rising group of trainers, “IFBB Pro” athletes, who are perceived as elite bodybuilders, often signal a high level of expertise and competency in fitness training. With content marketing as the background, posted content plays a key role in this process as social media platforms become increasingly popular for fitness professionals to market their personal training services and attract clients. However, scarce research exists to investigate how this designation influences consumer perceptions and purchase …

Monolithic Assembly For Augmented Reality Eyewear With Improved Comfort, Daniel Effinger, Matthew Valente

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes techniques to integrate multiple distinct modules of a display system for augmented reality eyewear into a single, monolithic unit or carrier. Per the techniques, a highly integrated, compact assembly replaces conventional multi-module systems. This is achieved through the design and manufacturing of a waveguide (WG) carrier that serves as a monolithic housing. The carrier is precisely molded to incorporate physical characteristics and features necessary for passively installing various optical and electronic components. Such components may include the waveguide, lenses for a light engine assembly (LEA), and lenses for a camera module. Active alignment (AA) of critical sensors …

Infographic: Early Career Teacher Induction Activities, Dominique Russell

Teacher infographics

The latest edition of National Trends: Teacher Workforce published by AITSL presents data on the characteristics of the teacher workforce to contribute to an understanding of who Australia’s teachers are and what their workforce experiences look like. In 2023 there were over 50,000 participants in the survey. This infographic shows the induction experience of early career teachers in 2023.

Accessible Art: Connecting Community Through Artistic Expression, Michaela M. Speers

Art and Art History Summer Fellows

I answered an important investigative question: How can we use art to connect our community? I illustrated, produced, and installed a “Mini Art Vending Machine” on campus to provide the Ursinus College community easy access to original works of art. I explored visual topics that would connect not only current students, but also prospective students, alumni, and members of the Collegeville community.

The Mini Art Vending Machine's permanent home is within Schellhase Commons. However, the machine will frequently move locations to further enhance events or to bring further exposure to the student artists. You can expect to see it at …

Crazy - Ep, Ben P. Focht

Music Summer Fellows

A collection of four songs, written, recorded, and mixed by me as part of an EP. Created under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Davis, and featuring fellow student Nico Yanzaguano on drums. Exploring the themes of power dynamics and identity, these songs display various stylistic elements highly inspired by grunge bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Soundgarden. These songs are the result of two months of creation, exploring what it was like to write and produce original music.

Singing Our Story: Composing And Writing An Original Musical, Gianna C. Daiuto

Music Summer Fellows

How can we use music to deepen the emotions of the stories we tell? What is the effect of combining song and speech? Through an extensive independent project, I have composed several pieces of original music alongside a script to create an original musical. While it is still in its infancy, this project is the first full draft of this story, and will hopefully be fleshed out to be staged and performed one day in its entirety.

From Embarrassment To Prejudice: Online “Cringe Culture” As An Affective And Social Phenomenon, Maxwell Seebold

Sociology Summer Fellows

When scrolling through the myriad content found online, you’re bound to find something that leaves you with negative emotions strong enough that you cringe. While this is largely an involuntary response, “cringe” becoming an adjective, and therefore a label, occurs due to the conscious othering of a user for the nature or presentation of their content. This project conceptualizes cringe as a multidimensional phenomenon rather than a singular emotion, which allows us to more easily make sense of how online cringe specifically has morphed into what is colloquially known as “cringe culture.” Through analysis of academic literature (from disciplines ranging …

Executive Dysfunction In College Aged Students With And Without Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Emily A. Veasey, Tyler Herring

Neuroscience Summer Fellows

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive tool used to measure cortical hemodynamics and has growing applications in studying executive functioning after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). In this study, fNIRS was used to examine prefrontal cortex activation in individuals with a history of concussion during the Iowa Gambling Task, which is used to measure decision making under uncertainty and risk. This task assesses key executive functions such as decision-making, inhibition, and planning. This study aimed to find a correlation between college-aged students with mTBIs and frontal lobe dysfunction. We are going to see that students with more concussions, a …

Straddling The Boundary Of Misleading Information Group: Exploring The Association Between Network Brokerage And Morality Expressions, Yiqi Li, Marina Mitiaeva, Ximeng Deng, Una Joh, Yafei Zhang

iSchool - All Scholarship

Existing misleading information studies mostly focus on either the message content or social network structures, overlooking the association between the content and structural factors. This research examines the role of brokers, the key network actors straddling between misleading and true/regular information groups. Content-wise, morality expressions are examined, which signal social media users’ expressions toward what is right and wrong. This research provides insights into the understudied relationship between network brokerage and moral expressions and identifies connections between moral foundation and network brokerage theories. Findings suggest that binding morality (i.e., authority and loyalty) is dominant among network brokers. Practical strategies are …

Development And Validation Of The Informal Safety Leadership Measure, Ashley L. Gill

Dissertations

This research develops and validates a measure of the emerging concept of informal safety leadership (ISL), which integrates elements of safety leadership and informal leadership to address a significant gap in organizational safety literature. Despite extensive research on formal safety leadership, there remains limited understanding of how non-managerial employees influence safety practices and culture within organizations. This dissertation develops and validates a comprehensive measure of informal safety leadership through a sequential mixed-methods approach incorporating a pilot study and two additional studies. First, a pilot study employed focus groups with health, safety, and environmental professionals to identify key dimensions of ISL. …

Digital Evidence As A Means Of Proof In Criminal Proceedings In The Uae, Dr.Khaled Ramadan Soltan

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Papers | بحوث هيئة التدريس المحكمة

This paper addresses key issues related to the admissibility of digital evidence—a pivotal concern in modern legal proceedings. The use of such evidence is fraught with challenges, particularly due to the rapid technological changes and heightened concerns surrounding electronic data privacy. In the criminal justice system, these challenges can impact the admissibility of evidence, its presentation in trial, and the charging and resolution of cases.

This study examines the difficulties of admitting digital proof before the UAE judiciary. Considering the trend towards the digital world as an alternative to the tangible world, interest is increasing in the extent of the …

Hanley Sustainability Institute Awarded $70k To Standardize Campus Recycling, Dave Larsen

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency grant will help provide infrastructure and equipment to meet institutional goals to reduce campus waste by standardizing trash and recycling bins across UD.

Modeling And Simulation Of Complex Systems Based On Graph Neural Networks, Jinhu Lü, Hongyi Jiang, Deyuan Liu, Shaolin Tan

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Modeling and simulation of complex systems are critical issues for understanding their structural and functional properties. The ability of graph neural networks (GNNs) to learn and represent the internal correlations within data provides a new approach for modeling and simulating complex systems. Currently, there are various types of GNN models involving frequency-domain, spatial-domain, generative, heterogeneous, and spatio-temporal models. These models are widely applied in complex system modeling and simulation research in multiple fields such as industrial internet, social networks, and supply chains based on specific tasks and scenarios. Starting from three representative tasks: network topology representation, dynamic evolution modeling, …