Digital Commons Network^™

Lifestyle Factors' Effect On Political And Religious Behavior, Madison A. Price

SPARK Symposium Presentations

There is a general understanding of an individuals’ political/religious beliefs when you analyze predictors like support of same sex marriage or views on abortion, but there is not a ton of research on how everyday lifestyle factors might affect how someone aligns themselves politically or religiously. Researchers have begun to expand the horizons of political and religious research by investigating how income, health, and politics affect religion (Francis-Tan & Tian, 2022), but there is a need to expand into more specific lifestyle factors. Which brings reason to question a few things: what lifestyle and demographic factors predict how religious someone …

Exploring The Synergistic Effects Of Cisplatin And Curcumin In Osteosarcoma Cells, Ellis Stafford, Alexa Cabral, Andrea Florian Ph.D., Reese Nagy

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a highly aggressive bone cancer characterized by rapid metastasis, which drastically reduces patient survival rates from 70% in localized cases to 30% upon metastasis. Current treatments combining chemotherapy with cisplatin and surgical intervention are often ineffective against metastatic OS and are associated with significant side effects. Cisplatin targets cancer cells by binding to DNA, disrupting transcription and replication, and inducing apoptosis. To address the challenges associated with current treatments, this study investigates the potential of combining cisplatin with curcumin, the bioactive compound derived from turmeric, as a novel therapeutic approach. Curcumin has shown anticancer properties by inducing …

Ecological Renovation Of Belmont Tennis Courts, Abbie E. Hamilton, Smith David, Darlene Panvini

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Although Belmont works hard to establish adequate green spaces on our campus, there is much work to be done if we want our students and the wildlife around us to maximize their ecosystem services. More specifically, Belmont can strive to implement nature-based solutions for its athletes, who are often competing in highly urbanized facilities. For this project, we have decided to redesign Belmont’s Tennis Courts, improving their design by increasing their green infrastructure. Our new design was created from a biophilic perspective and intends to serve all aspects of the triple bottom line. The new tennis courts will include ecologically …

Exploring Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Critical Illness: Seahorse Analysis Of Immune Cell Metabolism In Icu Patients With Sepsis And Surgical Stress, Sophia Klaver

SPARK Symposium Presentations

During severe infection and surgical stress, the body experiences significant metabolic stress in which cells may struggle to produce the energy needed to maintain normal function.To investigate this, mitochondrial metabolism will be analyzed in immune cells obtained from ICU patients. Peripheral blood samples will be collected, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) will be isolated for metabolic analysis. These cells will be evaluated using Seahorse extracellular flux assays, which measure oxygen consumption and cellular metabolic activity in real time. By performing a mitochondrial stress test, multiple parameters of mitochondrial respiration will be assessed to determine how cellular energy production changes …

Life At Friends Life Community: Exploring The Goals And Relationships At An Adult Day Program, Ella Pursley

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Our research examines the perceived quality of life of participants in a day program for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our research took place at Friends Life Community in Nashville, Tennessee and is a mixed-methods study. Using the Council on Quality and Leadership’s (CQL) Personal Outcome Measures, we interviewed ten participants to determine whether they saw themselves as having the Outcome Measures of Goals and Personal Relationships. The current literature surrounding adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities typically includes the voices of their caregivers, teachers, and friends but excludes the voices of this population. Our research aims to give …

Evaluating The Impact Of Tennessee House Bill 2327 & Senate Bill 2055, Kya Cousino, Emily Redford, Leah M. Vetters

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delays often require consistent therapeutic interventions such as speech therapy, occupational therapy (OT), or applied behavior analysis (ABA) in order to meaningfully access their education (Treatment and Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorder, 2024). However, service shortages, scheduling barriers, and restrictions on outside providers during the school day frequently create gaps in care. As a result, families may be forced to choose between their child’s educational attendance and the continuity of medically or developmentally necessary services.

House Bill 2327 and corresponding Senate Bill 2055 seek to address this barrier by requiring Local Education …

Chemotherapy Exposure Alters Heart Rate In Daphnia Magna: A Rapid Model For Evaluating Cardiotoxicity, Leland B. Wythoff, Andrea Florian

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Chemotherapy agents such as 5-Fluorouracil and Oxaliplatin are commonly employed in the management of various types of cancer. However, they have been implicated as causative factors of various side effects related to the heart. Drug-induced cardiotoxicity in rapid preclinical models could be employed as an effective tool for the identification of adverse effects. Daphnia magna is a small aquatic organism that is frequently employed in toxicological tests due to its transparent body that allows direct observation of physiological activities such as heart rates.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of various concentrations of 5-Fluorouracil and Oxaliplatin …

A Study Of Le Tombeau Du Couperin By Maurice Ravel, Carolyn M. Totaro, Reece Logan

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A Study of Le Tombeau du Couperin by Maurice Ravel discussing its origin, orchestration, and significance.

A Study Of Also Sprach Zarathustra By Richard Strauss, Carolyn M. Totaro, Luke Stephens

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A Study of Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss covering its inception and iconic status.

A Study Of The Opera Trouble In Tahiti By Leonard Bernstein, Carolyn M. Totaro, Skyler Orr-Depner

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A Study of the opera Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein discussing the libretto, roles, and music.

A Study Of The Opera Tosca By Giacomo Puccini, Carolyn M. Totaro, Natalia Hernandez

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A Study of the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini covering its libretto, music, and significance.

A Profile Of Beverly Sills, Carolyn M. Totaro, Lily Adams

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A 10-minute presentation on the career of Beverly Sills.

Dred Scott By Any Other Name: The New War Over Abortion And The Right To Travel After Dobbs, Wesley Mark Kimler

SPARK Symposium Presentations

After the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford and the Fugitive Slave Acts, slave states could effectively undermine the laws of free Northern states and deny African Americans the constitutional right to travel. Today, the denial of that right is faced by a different group. Where once the right to travel was denied to African Americans, it is now being denied to women and pregnant people. In addition to banning abortion, several states have enacted so-called "abortion trafficking" laws which make it a crime to assist a minor in procuring an abortion, even if that abortion is to take place …

A Macrocognitive Design Taxonomy For Simulation-Based Training Systems: Bridging Cognitive Theory And Human-Computer Interaction, Jessica M. Johnson

Virginia Digital Maritime Center (VDMC) Faculty Publications

Simulation-based training systems are increasingly deployed to prepare learners for complex, safety-critical, and dynamic work environments. While advances in computing have enabled immersive and data-rich simulations, many systems remain optimized for procedural accuracy and surface-level task performance rather than the macrocognitive processes that underpin adaptive expertise. Macrocognition encompasses higher-order cognitive processes that are essential for performance transfer beyond controlled training conditions. When these processes are insufficiently supported, training systems risk fostering brittle strategies and negative training effects. This paper introduces a macrocognitive design taxonomy for simulation-based training systems derived from a large-scale meta-analysis examining the transfer of macrocognitive skills from …

Hfpo-Da Aquatic Toxicity And Bioaccumulation, Bailey Dawn Rappold

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been detected globally in environmental media and biota. Legacy compounds PFOA and PFOS have been observed to be toxic and bioaccumulative in low doses and have been removed from production and industrial processes. Replacement PFAS chemicals are less understood and present a gap in current knowledge in their toxicological effects. This research utilized extended chronic toxicity studies to assess the impacts of HFPO-DA, a short chain replacement PFAS, on the standard aquatic toxicology organism Pimephales promelas. Organisms were exposed for 29 to 30 days at environmentally relevant concentrations of the toxicant, 7.8125 ng/L …

Dnp Repository: Using Technology To Help Nurse Leaders Make A Global Impact, Cynthia Plonien, Cathy Brown, Vanessa Garrett

Nursing Faculty Publications & Presentations - Archive

No abstract provided.

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Intellectual Disabilities: A Population-Based Comparison, Sarah Hurst, Astrida S. Kaugars

Modern Psychological Studies

Childhood is a critical time for development, and negative experiences during this period may have lasting consequences. Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are at greater risk for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than children without ID. Using data from the 2022 National Survey of Children’s Health (U.S. Census Bureau), we assessed the frequency of ACEs reported based on IDs. Participants were caregivers of 528 children currently diagnosed with an ID and a random sample of 528 children selected from the remaining 49,755 respondents without an ID. As hypothesized, parents of children with ID reported a statistically significant greater number of total …

Development And Validation Of An Analytical Method For Quantitative Determination Of Small Aldehydes In Plasma, Stephanie T. Clark

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses - Archive

Small aldehydes such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are highly reactive metabolites that play important roles in biological processes related to oxidative stress, metabolism, and DNA damage. Because of their chemical reactivity, volatility, and low endogenous concentrations, accurate measurement of these compounds in biological samples remains analytically challenging. The goal was to develop and evaluate a practical analytical method for detecting small aldehydes in biologically relevant matrices using headspace gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS). The method combined chemical derivatization with O-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine (PFBHA) and headspace sampling to stabilize aldehydes and enable selective detection by mass spectrometry. Method development focused on optimizing derivatization …

Understanding Student E-Textbook Satisfaction And Learning Outcomes: Does The Instructor Still Matter?, Qinyu Liao, Edith Galy, Lin Zhang, Xiaodi Zhou

Datasets

Background: With the increasing cost of textbooks and new generations of technology savvy students, universities and textbook publishers are promoting e-Textbooks as a more accessible and affordable alternative. Studies comparing adoption, preference, and learning effectiveness of print books and e-Textbooks provide conflicting results. There are a few research studies focused on student e-Textbook learning outcomes but no empirical studies have included the instructor as a factor.

Methods: This study proposes a holistic model to investigate the antecedents of college student e-Textbook satisfaction and learning outcomes. A survey of 261 college students investigating factors related to students, e-Textbook, and …

Havens For Corporate Lawbreaking, William J. Moon

Faculty Scholarship

Whether corporations are obligated to maximize profits or if they ought to consider societal interests more broadly remains one of the most highly contested debates in corporate law. Yet even the fiercest defenders of the firm’s profit motive concede that the corporation’s profit-seeking function cannot justify breaking the law. As a matter of American corporate law, directors and officers are in breach of their fiduciary duties if they facilitate or engage in profit-maximizing illegal activities. Or so we thought.

This Essay reveals a troubling trend of jurisdictions undercutting the legal compliance obligations of directors and officers. The current legal architecture …

Screen Scenes, Jordan Dewilde

Teaching Resource Archive

This elementary art lesson introduces students to Derrick Adams’s use of fragmentation to create abstract portraits and scenes from their own personal visual culture.

Students will brainstorm ideas of imagery that they frequently see in the media: TV, social media, YouTube, etc. Each student will choose an image to draw inside a corresponding frame (television set, tablet, phone, laptop screen, etc.), and apply Derrick Adams’s style of fragmentation and use of SMPTE color bars.

Development Of A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (Pbpk) Simulation Model For Nicotine, Brian Kim, Sung Hun Bae, Mohamed Bashar, Bofang Yi, Mohammad Asikur Rahman, Prince Awuah, Matthew Hartog, Rony Panarsky, Tao Zhang

Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship

Tobacco is a major cause of chronic diseases such as lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worldwide. Nicotine, the primary psychoactive component in tobacco, is highly addictive and while not the primary driver of such tobacco-related diseases, poses various health risks, particularly those affecting the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems. Although nicotine-based therapies, such as nicotine replacement products, are widely utilized in smoking cessation efforts today, the impact of newer, tobacco delivery systems such as electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS, remains uncertain and warrants continued evaluation. This study aims to develop and validate a physiologically based pharmacokinetic …

Youth Aspirations And Migration: Challenges And Opportunities In Rural Dominican Republic, Truc T. Ngo

School of Engineering: Faculty Scholarship

The youth population plays a vital role in the continuing development of societies. However, young people in rural, underserved regions of the world face more life disadvantages compared to others due to lack of access and limited resources. Lower socioeconomic status, combined with poor living conditions, has caused young people to migrate out of their rural towns in early adulthood. Consequently, growth and development in rural communities face challenges due to a shortage of young, talented and skilled workforce. Through a survey, this study assesses youths' aspirations and perspectives towards future's prospects and out-migration from the rural town of El …

Monroe, New Hampshire Annual Report Of The Monroe Town Officers For The Year Ending December 31, 2025, Monroe Town Representatives

Monroe, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Notre Dame [Lawyer] Judge - 2026, Notre Dame Law School

Notre Dame Lawyer

Cover

25 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett

31 The Rise of Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick

39 Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and the Pursuit of Justice

05 News

71 Alumni

81 Faculty

Judicial Profiles

35 Judge Ann Claire Williams ’75 J.D.

37 Q&A: Judge John Blakey ’88, ’92 J.D.

38 Judge Martha Vázquez ’75, ’78 J.D. ’43

43 Q&A: Judge Edward S. Kiel ’91 J.D.

45 Four Alumni: Their Roles as Federal Magistrate Judges

47 Judge Jerry Pappert ’88 J.D.

49 Justice Mary Yu ’93 J.D.

51 Judge Charles R. Wilson ’76, ’79 J.D.

53 The Specialists: Article I Federal Court …

Olli Spring 2026 Catalog, Toniann Leavitt

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

No abstract provided.

Meta-Analysis: Diabetes Mellitus And The Risk Of Endometrial Cancer, Tricia Ho, Marika Ongpauco, Han Ha Ngoc Nguyen

Physician Assistant Studies | Graduate Research Papers

Background: Many studies have looked at the relationship between diabetes mellitus and development of endometrial cancer. This study provides an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the estimated effect of diabetes and the risk of endometrial cancer.

Methods: Some studies were found on databases such as PubMed and Iceberg. The remaining studies were extracted from the initial studies found. Binary data was collected and the raw data was imputed into a Fixed Effects Model.

Results: A total of 25 studies were included in this meta-analysis, generating statistically significant results (p < 0.001, OR 2.05, 95% Cl 1.92-2.19).

Discussion: Diabetes is found to be …

The Effects Of Antidepressant Medications On Sleep Quality In Dominican University Of California Students, Natalie L. Davis, Kenna Wohlford, Stephanie Lee

Physician Assistant Studies | Graduate Research Papers

We spend approximately one third of our life time sleeping or attempting to sleep. The quality of our sleep is equally, if not more important than the amount of sleep we get. This study assesses the effects that medications, specifically antidepressants, can have on sleep quality in Dominican University of California students. 118 participants completed a Qualtrics survey including questions regarding stress, sleep quality, medication lists, and demographics. This study utilized the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to quantify participants’ sleep quality as the outcome. Participant stress levels were assessed with a Likert scale question asking for stress levels on …

Cpaf In Focus Vol. 11 One On One : Reflections On Change And Impact, Michiko Karissa M. Buot, Johnnelda P. Cosep, Paulo C. Aquino, Therese Marie L. Quilnat, V. Bruce J. Tolentino, Agustin L. Arcenas, Samantha Geraldine G. De Los Santos, Guinevere T. Madlangbayan, Raizza F. Acuzar

IN FOCUS: Development & Governance

This volume of In Focus invites its readers to have a one-on-one with stories exploring how small acts of change can grow into waves of impact in governance and development -- From alumni who continue to excel beyond the university, to students recognized for academic achievements, to field notes from our research centers that ground theory in practice. We will also feature reflective think pieces from experts in governance and development, alongside an infographic highlighting the recently concluded ICGD4. At its core, the magazine asks its readers to reflect: how can individual acts of change create lasting impact? 

Editorial Team …

Annual Report Of Town Officials, Departments, And Committees, Town Of Acworth, New Hampshire For The Year Ending December 31, 2025, Acworth Town Representatives

Acworth, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.