Digital Commons Network^™

Transoral Robotic Surgery (Tors) Post-Operative Chemoradiotherapy In High-Risk Patients: Exploratory Study On Survival Benefit Of Concurrent Cisplatin, Yin-Chieh Handley, Clifton D. Fuller, Mai Mandor Badawy, David I. Rosenthal

CATALYST Summer Training Program 2026

Preliminary evaluation of survival and recurrence benefits of adjuvant radiotherapy with and without cisplatin.

Mri Versus Ct In The Assessment Of Osteoradionecrosis Of The Jaw: A Feasibility Study, Chloe Marie Mouhayar, Natalie West, Anjolaoluwa Sijuade, Zipporah Kaffey, Kenneth Tran, Stephen Lai

CATALYST Summer Training Program 2026

The interobserver agreement of CT scans and black bone MRI scans were compared by calculating the dice similarity coefficient, jaccard index, Hausdorff distance, and mean distance to agreement of each observer contour pair in order to assess how black bone MRI compares to CT in monitoring osteoradionecrosis. Value and Impact CT imaging is currently the golden standard in evaluating bone structure and therefore monitoring osteoradionecrosis after radiation therapy, but it can create additional complications. The purpose of this study was to determine if black bone MRI is clinically acceptable in monitoring osteoradionecrosis in place of CT.

From Crisis To Reform: How The 1918 Influenza And Covid-19 Pandemics Redefined The Relationship Between Nurses And The American Healthcare System., Anh N V Le

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

The 1918 Influenza and COVID- 19 pandemic have become two major public health crises that reshaped the role of nurses in the America healthcare system. Although a hundred years apart, both pandemics revealed how deeply the country depends on nurses during emergencies without proper and efficient strategies. This paper argues that these pandemics acted as turning points that redefined the social contract between nurses and the U.S. healthcare system. By examining historical context, nurses’ responsibilities, public perception, and long-term effects, this research show how pandemics expanded nurses’ authority while also exposing long-term weakness of the systems. In 1918, nurses were …

Bioethics As Seen On Stage: Can Theater Change The World?, Sarah J. Cavanaugh

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

This research paper investigates the extent to which theatrical works can influence societal reform through the depiction of bioethical dilemmas through time, analyzing performative theater’s ability to change the world through great societal impact. By examining four plays from distinct historical periods—Philoctetes by Sophocles (409 BCE), Whose Life is it Anyway? by Brian Clark (1972), The Waiting Room by Lisa Loomer (1994), and Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey (2010)—this study analyzes how theater has consistently engaged with evolving issues of medical ethics and patient autonomy. Each play presents ethical conflicts reflective of the medical and social dilemmas of …

The "3 A'S" Of Sport Specialization: Emerging Themes To Characterize Athletes' Sport Participation Pathway Decisions, Adelaide F. Stark, Justin S. Disanti Ph.D.

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

In this study, former youth sport participants were grouped by their developmental sport pathways (i.e., if they specialized and when they specialized over the course of their participation) to identify emerging themes regarding why they chose their respective pathway, as well as how this impacted their sport experience. 948 participants completed a retrospective survey measure detailing their sport histories. Based on their specialization trajectory across their sport involvement (i.e., during elementary school, middle school, and high school) participants were sorted into three participation pathways – Early Specialization, Late Specialization, or Continued Multi-sport. Participants responded to open-ended questions about their decision-making …

Impacts Of Climate Change On Microalgae: Physiological Responses And Future Adaptations - A Review, Mohamed Zein Alabdein Nassar

Blue Economy

Climate change is increasingly affecting aquatic ecosystems, including microalgae (phytoplankton), which play a crucial role as primary producers and account for nearly half of global carbon fixation. This review synthesizes recent advances in understanding the effects of climate change on microalgae from physiological, ecological, and molecular perspectives. Increased temperatures, ocean acidification, changes in light regimes, and nutrient variability greatly affect microalgal growth, photosynthesis, and community structure, often promoting smaller and more stress-tolerant species. These changes also contribute to the expansion and intensification of harmful algal blooms, with serious ecological and economic consequences. Microalgae exhibit diverse adaptive responses, including metabolic reprogramming, …

Shared Meaning: Deriving Mdasi Thresholds Against Eortc Symptom Ratings, Ulysses Joseph Hill, Oliver Nkuku Bs, Md Mahin Phd, Cem Dede Ms, Md, Clifton D. Fuller Md, Phd, Amy Moreno Md

CATALYST Summer Training Program 2026

The gap between the MDASI (0-10 severity scoring) used at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) and the EORTC(1-4 presence scoring) used in the CITOR framework is easily apparent. In 2025, a conversion between the two was done as part of a larger study in a population of head and neck cancer patients at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). The study compared several symptoms on the EORTC QLQ-C30/H&N35 (EHN) with the 0-10 score for the symptom given by a patient on the MDASI Head and Neck (MHN). The question remained: would these results hold in an MDACC population? In this …

Ctamj Forum On Mshsl Activities: Speech, Kathleen Walker, Scott Voss, Tanner Sunderman, Rebecca Meyer-Larson

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The CTAM Journal seeks to raise up voices from notable interest groups. Occasionally, individuals are asked to share their thoughts on issues that pertain to the target readership of CTAMJ.

For this special forum, four coaches share their voices on Minnesota State High School Speech: Kathleen Walker (Fairmont), Scott Voss (Apple Valley), Tanner Sunderman (Mounds Park), and Rebecca Meyer-Larson (Moorhead).

Lights, Camera, Acting! A Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Approach To Basic Filmmaking, Jessica Maloney, Chris Nelson

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

No film studio? No problem! This activity is designed to introduce basic concepts of filmmaking across disciplines such as theatre and communications, but could be used by either. It includes an emphasis on acting as well as the technical processes and procedures on set. We have geared this activity specifically towards use in a cross-listed class in Communication and Theatre Arts.

"The Climate Emotion Wheel" - An Exercise To Address Climate Anxiety Inspired By Boal's Forum Theatre, Talin Abadian

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The goal of this exercise is to provide students a space to articulate these complex emotions, engage in collaborative problem-solving with their peers, reclaim a sense of agency and empowerment by exploring meaningful action collectively while also highlighting individual responsibilities towards the environment. This exercise can be used effectively to demonstrate the power of Boal’s Forum Theatre as a tool for collaborative problem-solving and communal rehearsing of solutions to real-world challenges.

Everything I Learned About Teacher Noticing I Learned From Yoga Teacher Training, Grace Giorgio

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The following activity promotes teacher noticing as a pedagogical tool for teachers in training, with a focus on the public speaking classroom. Many students enter the public speaking classroom filled with performance anxiety and fears of how their peers will perceive them. When a teacher can tap into these concerns via by noticing how students are reacting in the moment, they can assuage those anxieties and fears. Hence, teaching instructors effective teacher noticing in teacher training improves the classroom experience for teachers and students alike.

Exploring The Seams Of Performance: Performance Studies & Theater Praxis, Sarah Kozinn

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The exercise aims to use a taxonomy of performance, as theorized by Richard Schechner in his essay “Drama, Script, Theatre, and Performance,” to think analytically about what performance is. (Part of the goal is to “make strange” what students, most often, think they already know by giving then tools to better define and identify the spectrum of what is termed “performance.”)  Students will articulate the porously bounded areas of drama, script, theatre, and performance, teasing apart and developing a definition of what defines theatre as theatre in relation to how they define performance.  Through this, students will develop an analytic …

The Chameleon Experience: Queer Identity, Mental Health, And Transformation, Cameron Penny

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In this autoethnographic piece, I examine the correlation between queer identity and mental health through reflective analysis of my own experiences within a Western socio-cultural setting. I expand external perspectives on the queer experience by highlighting the normalization of queer prejudice and its adverse impact on self-image. I share how the religious praxis of Catholicism enforces binary conformity by promoting dichotomous thinking that simultaneously constricts queer expression and subjugates implicit biases. In tandem, I utilize autoethnography as my medium because it provides a unique outlet to raise awareness for chronically stigmatized identities by centering marginalized voices (Atay, 2011; Chavez, 2013). …

Best Practices And An Agenda For Research In Benefits Communication, Kristi Egbert, Anne Kerber

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Benefits communication is information an employer/organization provides to employees about the types of benefit plans offered and information about them (i.e., health insurance, retirement, vacation time). Despite its importance to jobs across all sectors of the workforce, there is a dearth of current academic research regarding benefits communication. This paper defines benefits communication, examines its impact on organizations and workers, and explores existing research on best practices. Findings underscore the complexity of benefits material and emphasize the need for simpler and clearer language, employee-preferred formats, and adequate time for employees to review information and receive guidance from a knowledgeable source. …

State Of The World: Presidential Rhetoric At The United Nations, Jason A. Edwards, Zoe Hess Carney, Kory Hoyt

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In 1982, President Reagan spoke to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the first time. In doing so, Reagan established a presidential tradition that, we argue, created a new genre of presidential rhetoric. Like the State of the Union speech, presidents, in this address, outline their vision for U.S. foreign policy and global politics for the coming year. Specifically, presidents mediate on the history and values of the United Nations, assess the current state of global affairs, and offer policy recommendations to deal with those issues. Examining presidential rhetoric at the United Nations offers a heuristic to understand U.S. …

Communication & Theater Association Of Minnesota Journal, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2026

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Volume 49, Issue 1 (2026) of the Communication & Theater Association of Minnesota Journal.

Sleep Disturbance, Fatigue, And Weight Loss During Radiotherapy For Head And Neck Cancer: An Evaluation Of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risk, Fatema M. Elmeligy, Busra Yilmaz, Sophie T. Melancon, Clifton D. Fuller

CATALYST Summer Training Program 2026

No abstract provided.

Growth, Governance, And Organizational Crisis In Nonprofit Rowing Club: Failures In Leadership In A Growing Organization, Noah Legendre, Ehren R. Green

The COSMA Journal

This case explores governance and leadership challenges within a growing nonprofit sport organization governed by a volunteer board of directors. Within this case, the Litchberg Valley Rowing Club (LVRC), a rowing organization in a small community, experienced rapid growth in membership, financial resources, and competitive success. Despite this growth, the organization maintained informal governance structures and policies to guide its decision-making. In this case, the board of directors elected to terminate the head coach because of difficult contract negotiations and other issues at hand. This decision was met with public backlash, raising concerns about club leadership and the future of …

Preface, Prof. Anandan Sambandam, Prof. Rengaraj Selvaraj, Dr. Nawal Al Rasbi

Sultan Qaboos University Journal For Science

It is our great honor and privilege to present this Special Issue on ``Chemistry of Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications'' in the Sultan Qaboos titled University Journal for Science (SQUJS). This thematic collection showcases research that highlights the important role of nanomaterials in addressing contemporary scientific, technological, environmental, and biomedical challenges. The contributions featured in this Special Issue reflect the remarkable diversity and interdisciplinary research in the area of nanoscience and technology. The papers demonstrate how nanoscale engineering is driving innovation across multiple disciplines, from the development of advanced photocatalytic systems for sustainable energy conversion and environmental remediation to the …

Amplifying Community Voices In Climate Policy: Attitudes On Climate Change And Decarbonization In Cache County, Cristina Chirvasa, Rivkah Haubner, Stacia Ryder

Transforming Communities

Climate change is altering global ecosystems and imperiling human health, but knowledge of these impacts does not always translate into adaptation and mitigation action. Many solutions fall under decarbonization, or the reduction and capture of atmospheric carbon. These actions are increasingly developed at more localized, sub-state levels. Thus, understanding the attitudes of Cache County, Utah, residents, including students and faculty at Utah State University, toward different decarbonization techniques will be important to building successful climate action plans and policies. Here, as part of a large-scale collaborative group of different on-campus departments and community partners, we held focus groups to examine …

Developing An Object Level Understanding Of Sine And Cosine As Ratios And A Coherent Trigonometry, Jeffrey Peter Nair

Theses and Dissertations

Solving right-triangle problems as well as integrating right-triangle and circular trigonometry into a coherent understanding are documented challenges for students. Prior research has deeply investigated students constructing ratio meanings for sine and cosine using a circle-first approach, which then can be extended to right triangles. Also, past work has separately documented distinct meanings that are useful for sine and cosine, in addition to the ratio meaning, including as lengths in a unit circle and coordinate points. This study took these existing ideas and put them together into one possible developmental progression, based on APOS theory, where students can learn length, …

Intrinsic Memory In Digital Snns: Enhancing Performance On The Cart-Pole Task With Fractional-Order Dynamics, Niklas Karl Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

Researchers working with Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) are faced with the challenge of identifying useful biologically plausible features for inclusion in neuron models. Prior research indicates that dynamics of fractional-order calculus, which impart a form of intrinsic memory, are a key feature of biological neurons. In this work, we present the development and usage of neural networks with intrinsic memory in application to the cart-pole task, a common benchmark for neural network performance. We found that usage of fractional-order neurons may allow for up to a 37.5% reduction in neural network size as compared to networks using a standard Leaky …

Telomere-To-Telomere Genome Assembly And A Pangenome For The Rat., Kai Li, Julia L Ciosek, Sergey Koren, Adam M Phillippy, Yaming Zhu, William A Lauer, Shelise Y Brooks, Gerard G Bouffard, Brandon D Pickett, Beth L Dumont, Melissa L Smith, Theodore S Kalbfleisch, Peter A Doris

Faculty Research 2026

We report a complete rodent telomere-to-telomere genome assembly from the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus. Annotation was enriched with multi-tissue long-read RNA sequencing and uncovered numerous novel genes. Assembly of both sex chromosomes reveals the absence of gene coding in the presumed pseudo-autosomal regions and the presence of centromeric satellite repeats on distal chromosome Y (chrY). We provide evidence of meiotic conjunction between Xp and Yq. The genome assembly reveals several expanded autosomal regions enriched for testis-expressed genes. Finally, we have generated a pangenome from recent high-quality assemblies of 8 distinct inbred rat strain genomes. This allows the strain-specific distribution of …

The Fate Of Microplastics In The Littoral Zone Of A Whole-Lake Microplastic Addition Experiment, Ren Staggs

Theses

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous across all ecosystems, but the physical fate of MPs within specific littoral compartments in lakes is poorly understood. Here, we describe the fate of MPs across five littoral compartments: water, macrophytes, periphyton, rocks, and sediment, to contribute to a whole-lake MP particle budget as part of the pELAstic project, which has been adding polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) MPs to an entire lake over three years in a whole-ecosystem experiment at the IISD-ELA. We quantified MP abundance across three particle size fractions (>212, 106–212, and 106–53 µm) by sampling each compartment at …

Lost In Translation: Quantifying Political Sociolect Divergence And Testing Llm Reliability As Political Interpreters, Daniel J. Corcoran

Theses

In the United States political sphere, growing polarization between Democrats and Republicans, particularly their more ideologically extreme wings, has given rise to distinct English-adjacent languages, shaped by social tendencies and referred to as “sociolects”. These sociolects offer a new avenue to analyze and further quantify growing polarization, and as Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) become increasingly embedded in political and social analysis, understanding their depth of political reasoning, biases, and classification behavior has become imperative. In this study, we sourced comment data from the CNN, Fox, and MSNBC YouTube channels, spanning from 2020 through 2024, trained …

Interview With Cecilia 'Sue' Sill, Cecilia 'Sue' Sill, Logan Dovalina

Rio Grande Valley Oral Histories

Cecilia 'Sue' Sill (b. 1939, Woodward, Oklahoma) recounts a life shaped by mobility, scientific curiosity, and engagement with the natural world of South Texas and Mexico. The daughter of a pipeline welder, she moved frequently as a child before settling for a time in Pharr, Texas, in 1950. She later spent roughly forty years in Corpus Christi, where she raised two sons, pursued higher education later in life, and earned a Ph.D. focused on the systematics of Tillandsia (air plants), describing several new species centered in Mexico.

After her divorce in 1990, Sill lived for eight years on a mountainside …

Multidimensional Total Quality Management And Its Effects On Sustainability And Performance In Industrialized Building System Projects, Felix Delmonte

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study develops and tests a multidimensional total quality management (TQM) framework to explain how distinct quality practices influence environmental sustainability, construction quality, cost and schedule performance, waste reduction, energy efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction, and overall project performance in industrialized building system (IBS) projects. Soft and hard TQM dimensions such as leadership commitment, customer focus, employee involvement, training and continuous improvement, process management, supplier quality, and data driven decision making are operationalised and linked to eight outcome constructs. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS SEM) is used to estimate direct effects and to examine mediation by waste reduction and energy …

Usa V. Frank Monte, Iii

2026 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

Carlos Baires-Rivas V. Attorney General United States Of America

2026 Decisions

Agency

Scott Phillips V. Archdiocese Newark

2026 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey