Digital Commons Network^™

Behavioral Responses Of Goose-Beaked Whales (Ziphius Cavirostris) To Simulated Military Sonar, Brandon Southall, Robert Schick, William Cioffi, Stacy Deruiter, Heather Foley, Catriona Harris, Anne Harshbarger, J Joseph, T Margolina, Doug Nowacek, Nicola Quick, Zach Swaim, Len Thomas, Danielle Waples, Daniel Webster, Jillian Wisse, Andrew Read

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

We report direct measurements of changes in diving and movement behavior for 53 goose-beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) in relation to experimentally controlled mid-frequency (3–4 kHz) active sonar (MFAS) signals. These signals simulate powerful Navy sources that have been associated with multiple mortal stranding events for this species. We deployed a multi-scale combination of tags to monitor individual whales, including 50 long-duration (weeks), coarse-resolution satellite-transmitting tags and 3 short-duration (hours), high-resolution archival depth, orientation, and acoustic tags. We evaluated behavioral responses during 13 experimental trials (9 MFAS; 4 no-MFAS controls), resulting in 72 exposure events; some individuals were exposed in multiple …

The Virtual Kitchen Challenge-Version 2: Validation Of A Digital Assessment Of Everyday Function In Older Adults, Marina Kaplan, Moira Mckniff, Stephanie M. Simone, Molly B. Tassoni, Katherine Hackett, Sophia Holmqvist, Rachel E. Mis, Kimberly Halberstadter, Riya Chaturvedi, Melissa Rosahl, Giuliana Vallecorsa, Mijail Serruya, Deborah A. G. Drabick, Takehiko Yamaguchi, Tania Giovannetti

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Conventional methods of functional assessment include subjective self- or informant report, which may be biased by personal characteristics, cognitive abilities, and lack of standardization (eg, influence of idiosyncratic task demands). Traditional performance-based assessments offer some advantages over self- or informant reports but are time-consuming to administer and score.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Virtual Kitchen Challenge-Version 2 (VKC-2), an objective, standardized, and highly efficient alternative to current functional assessments for older adults across the spectrum of cognitive aging, from preclinical to mild dementia.

METHODS: A total of 236 community-dwelling, diverse older adults …

Automated System For Real-Time Display Failure Detection During Mechanical Stress Testing, Joshua Aganad, James Ho, Jared Baker, Kardile Ajay Sadashiv, Maxim Sivov, Venkata M K Akula, Eugene Bykov

Defensive Publications Series

Mechanical reliability testing of electronic displays may be limited by manual inspection methods. A system is described that synchronizes mechanical stress application with real-time optical analysis. An optical sensor, such as a camera, can monitor a display under load while a computing device (e.g., a server, personal computer, or smartphone) executes an algorithm to detect visual changes indicative of failure. Upon detecting a change that meets pre-configured criteria, for example a threshold for pixel brightness change, the system can generate and transmit a stop signal to the mechanical testing apparatus. This automated, closed-loop approach may reduce latency and subjectivity, allowing …

Multi-Agent System For Cognitive Work Automation Using An Adversarial Review Panel, Tanmay Kayande, Laura Hartney

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure describes systems and methods for a multi-agent framework that can automate and scale cognitive work. The framework can, for example, use a cognitive assembly line of specialized computational agents to perform tasks such as research and drafting. A beneficial component could be an adversarial review panel (ARP), which is a multi-agent review system where distinct agent personas critique a generated draft from varied perspectives. The structured feedback from the ARP can be used to automatically iterate on and refine the work product. This approach can improve the intellectual rigor of generated content and reduce the time required for …

Glossary-Augmented Generative Ai For Enterprise Translation, Tanmay Kayande, Deep Raithatha, Akash Dambhare, Pooja Agrawal, Mohith P

Defensive Publications Series

Global enterprise operations can experience inefficiencies and service delays from language-siloed support queues, while generic machine translation tools may lack the context to handle enterprise-specific terminology. A system and method can facilitate multilingual communication by integrating a generative artificial intelligence model within enterprise workflow platforms, such as customer relationship management systems. The framework can programmatically retrieve a curated, enterprise-specific glossary and inject it into a translation prompt sent to the model. This technique grounds the model, instructing it to prioritize an organization's specific lexicon for a given translation. The approach can produce translations that are both linguistically fluent and terminologically …

System For Proactive Intervention And Dual-Mode Data Compliance, Tanmay Kayande, Pooja Agrawal, Akash Dambhare, Mohith P, Deep Raithatha

Defensive Publications Series

Enterprise service platforms can present operational challenges due to reactive support models and compliance risks associated with managing sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII). A dual-function architecture may integrate a proactive intervention engine and an augmented data compliance framework. The intervention engine can analyze real-time data signals from various enterprise systems using an inference layer, such as a large language model, to predict potential user friction points and deliver preventative interventions. Concurrently, the compliance framework can provide a proactive component for detecting potential PII for human-in-the-loop review and an on-demand utility for creating non-destructive, anonymized versions of data …

Spatially Resolved Integrative Analysis Of Transcriptomic And Metabolomic Changes In Tissue Injury Studies, Eleanor C Williams, Lovisa Franzén, Martina Olsson Lindvall, Gregory Hamm, Steven Oag, Muntasir Mamun Majumder, James Denholm, Azam Hamidinekoo, Javier Escudero Morlanes, Marco Vicari, Joakim Lundeberg, Laura Setyo, Trevor M Godfrey, Livia S Eberlin, Aleksandr Zakirov, Jorrit J Hornberg, Marianna Stamou, Patrik L Ståhl, Anna Ollerstam, Jennifer Y Tan, Irina Mohorianu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Recent developments in spatially resolved -omics have enabled the joint study of gene expression, metabolite levels and tissue morphology, offering greater insights into biological pathways. Integrating these modalities from matched tissue sections to probe spatially-coordinated processes, however, remains challenging. Here we introduce MAGPIE, a framework for co-registering spatially resolved transcriptomics, metabolomics, and tissue morphology from the same or consecutive sections. We show MAGPIE's generalisability and scalability on spatial multi-omics data from multiple tissues, combining Visium with MALDI and DESI mass spectrometry imaging. MAGPIE was also applied to new multi-modal datasets generated with a specialised sampling strategy to characterise the metabolic …

A Policy Reversal As Structural Break: A Lesson From China’S Land Lease Financing For Infrastructure, Yilin Hou, Lin Li, Lei Shao

Center for Policy Research

Land-based revenues as a fiscal instrument to finance infrastructure tie public investment to real estate markets, where demand fluctuations cause fiscal consequences. This paper takes policy reversals as structural breaks and examines their impacts on infrastructure investment. We dissect China’s 2016 policy reversal that disallowed developers to finance land purchase with debt, causing sharp declines in local government land revenues, slashing their fiscal base for infrastructure investment. Using prefecture-level panel data and continuous difference-in-differences identification, we estimate the reversal reduced land-lease revenues by 55%. Two-stage least squares estimates suggest a 10% land-revenue decline translates into 6.6% investment reduction. Decomposing the …

January 2026, Pacific Alumni Association

Alumni News & Events

No abstract provided.

Coworkers' Lived Experiences Of Being Exposed To Healthcare Professionals Misusing Substances, Juratu Garuba-Agbebaku

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the harm of substances, coworkers in hospitals, healthcare facilities, and urgent care centers found themselves among healthcare professionals who misused substances such as alcohol and prescription medication. Grounded in social cognitive theory, the purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of coworkers who have been exposed to healthcare professionals’ substance misuse. The participants consisted of 12 healthcare professionals working in various hospitals, healthcare facilities, and urgent care centers in the United States. Data were collected using semistructured interviews. Through Colaizzi’s seven-step analysis, five themes emerged: (a) emotional experiences, (b) ethical reflections, (c) cognitive …

Exploring Parenting Experiences: Fathers And Mothers Raising A Child With Autism, Simmi Santha

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The experiences of parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been widely studied in Western contexts. Still, limited research has explored how sociocultural factors shape these experiences in India. This qualitative study aims to address this gap by exploring and comparing the lived experiences of mothers and fathers raising a child with ASD in Kerala, India. The purpose of this study was to investigate how gender roles, cultural expectations, and social structures impact parental adaptation, coping, and caregiving practices. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Crenshaw’s ideas of intersectionality provide the conceptual framework of this study. Using an interpretative …

Cancer Literacy And Social Determinants Of Health: An Epidemiological Analysis Of Trust, Digital Engagement, And Healthcare Utilization In Cancer Information Seeking, Kimberly Leeann Hazel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The rise of online health information has increased access to cancer resources but also amplified misinformation, creating trust gaps that threaten prevention, treatment, and health equity. This study examined how trust in cancer information sources, online information-seeking, and healthcare perceptions relate among U.S. adults. Guided by the health information seeking behavior, the socioecological model, and the structural influence model of health communication, data from the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey (N = 6,197) were analyzed with logistic regression, mediation, and moderation modeling, controlling for demographics. Trust in government agencies predicted greater cancer information seeking (odds ratio [OR] = 1.94, …

Community College Faculty Experiences As Post-Pandemic Online Instructors, Irene Arshad

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sudden transition from face-to-face to online instruction. The problem that was addressed through this study is that little is known about the experiences of community college faculty members when teaching online in the post-pandemic era. Grounded in Hall’s and Hord’s concerns-based adoption model, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of community college faculty members’ perceptions of their teaching experiences working online post-pandemic. For this basic qualitative design, data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 community college faculty. A thematic analysis of the data revealed the following six themes: (1) …

Impact Of Grain Size On Low-Temperature Carrier Phase Coherence Length In Polycrystalline Halide Perovskite Films, Aungkan Sen, Liam J. Scanlon, Axel Melchor Gaona Carranza, Jose L. Mendoza-Cortes, Johannes Pollanen, Richard R. Lunt, William J. Gannon

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Halide perovskites are now being studied for a full range of optoelectronic devices due to their excellent electronic and optical properties. This work explores the impact of grain boundaries on low-temperature carrier transport in polycrystalline cesium tin iodide (CsSnI₃) within the quantum diffusive transport regime, comparing a range of polycrystalline samples with varying grain sizes with epitaxial counterparts. Low-temperature magnetoresistance measurements reveal the presence of weak anti-localization (spin-orbit effects) with a shorter coherence length (L_ϕ) than the epitaxial films. Surprisingly, L_ϕ is not found to be impacted by grain size, despite being nearly an order …

Usa V. Dijuan Taylor

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Ousmane Savane V. Secretary United States Department Of Homeland Sec

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Titlemax Of Virginia, Inc. V. Secretary Pennsylvania Department Of Banking And S

2026 Decisions

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

Mildred Williams Smith

African American Funeral Programs

Program for the memorial service of Mildred Williams Smith, held at Matthew H. Lovett & Son's Funeral Home on January 7, 2026.

Collaborating With ‘Blue Food’ System Stakeholders To Achieve Optimal Nutritional Health And Wellbeing In Less Affluent Communities, Clare Pettinger, Louise Hunt, Carol Wagstaff

School of Health Professions

UK food system transformation is urgently needed, but to date, minimal research has investigated ‘blue foods’ probably because they are ethically nuanced. There exists a paradox whereby materially deprived communities should be eating more fish to meet nutritional requirements, yet there is a global ‘red flag’ around global overfishing. New collaborative and creative solutions are, therefore, needed to tackle such food system inequities. By working together, all voices can be equally heard when decisions are being made to improve the system. Similarly, innovation and disruption of established supply chains will enable better access to healthy, affordable and tasty food that …

Distribution Of New Statistics Of Parking Functions And Their Generalizations, Stephan Wagner, Catherine H. Yan, Mei Yin

Mathematics: Faculty Scholarship

In this paper we present new results on the enumeration of parking functions and labeled forests. We introduce new statistics on parking functions, which are then extended to labeled forests via bijective correspondences. We determine the joint distribution of two statistics on parking functions and their counterparts on labeled forests. Our results on labeled forests also serve to explain the mysterious equidistribution between two seemingly unrelated statistics in parking functions recently identified by Stanley and Yin and give an explicit bijection between the two statistics. Extensions of our techniques are discussed, including joint distribution on further refinement of these new …

Bayesian Multi-Cell Type Models For The Analysis Of Complex Immune Cell Populations With Application To Ovarian Cancer., Chase J. Sakitis, Jose Laborde, Julia Wrobel, Alex C. Soupir, Christelle M. Colin-Leitzinger, Benjamin G. Bitler, Mary K. Townsend, Andrew B. Lawson, Joellen M. Schildkraut, Shelley S. Tworoger, Kathryn L. Terry, Lauren C. Peres, Brooke L. Fridley

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

To understand how the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) impacts clinical outcomes and treatment response, researchers have been leveraging single-cell protein multiplex imaging techniques. These technologies measure multiple protein markers simultaneously within a tissue sample, providing a more complete assessment of the TIME. However, statistical challenges arise from the over-dispersed and zero-inflated nature of the data and from relationships among different immune cell populations. To address these challenges, we developed a Bayesian hierarchical method using a beta-binomial (BB) distribution to model the abundance of multiple immune cell types simultaneously while incorporating relationships and immune cell differentiation paths. We applied the model …

The Vascular Density/Angiogenesis Marker Cd31/Pecam1 Does Not Correlate With Overall Survival In Neuroendocrine Tumors, Nicholas J. Skill, Kenneth Avanzino, Yvette Bren-Mattison, J. Philip Boudreaux, Ramcharan Thiagarajan, Mary Maluccio

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Abstract: Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are rare cancers. CD31/PECAM1 is an adhesion molecule that modulates endothelial cell-to-cell contact. Increased CD31 expression is a marker for tumor growth, and cancer aggressiveness. The purpose of this study was to better understand the prognostic value of CD31 expression in primary and metastatic NEN tumors in terms of correlations with overall survival and pathological metrics, tumor grade, and tumor primary/metastatic location. As NENs are highly vascular tumors, the hypothesis is that CD31 staining is an important prognostic biomarker and target. This is based on prior correlations between CD31 staining and 3-year recurrence-free survival in pancreas …

January 7, 2026 Blazer Weekly, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

Blazer Weekly (student newsletter)

No abstract provided.

2025 Uninsured Adult Healthcare Safety Net Annual Report, Tennessee. Department Of Health.

Healthcare Safety Net Annual Report

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Extracellular Vesicles As Diagnostic Tools In Gut-Brain Axis Disorders, Patricia Marçal Da Costa, Paulo Iury Gomes Nunes, Gabriella Cunha Vieira Ciurleo, José Wagner Leonel Tavares Junior, Pedro Braga Neto, Ludmila Belayev, Reinaldo Barreto Oriá

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

The gut–brain axis represents a dynamic two-way signaling network whose dysregulation has been implicated in a wide range of neurogastrointestinal disorders. In this context, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as critical mediators of intercellular signaling and as promising non-invasive biomarkers. Derived from host and microbial cells, EVs carry bioactive cargo—including proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and metabolites—that reflect the physiological or pathological state of their cells of origin. Their ability to cross biological barriers, such as the blood–brain barrier, underscores their potential for diagnosing and monitoring gut–brain axis dysfunctions. In this mini-review, we integrate microbial and brain-derived EVs within the framework …

State Of California Cannabis Reporting, University Of Mississippi – National Center For Cannabis Research And Education

California

No abstract provided.

Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Placebo Cure In Onychomycosis Clinical Trials, Julianne M. Falotico, Zachary J.K. Neubauer, Anjile An, Shari R. Lipner

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

No abstract provided.

Esg Performance In The Regulatory Transformation Era: A Systematic Thematic Review (2020–2024), Jiyeon Kim Ph.D., Wooyoung Yang

Faculty Publications

Introduction:

The 2020-2024 period represents a regulatory transformation era in ESG research, marked by mandatory disclosure frameworks (CSRD/ESRS, SEC climate rules, ISSB standards) replacing voluntary approaches. This creates a natural experiment for examining ESG-performance relationships under compulsory reporting. Despite extensive voluntary-period literature, limited research addresses how mandatory frameworks alter these relationships during regulatory transformation.

Methods:

We conducted a systematic thematic review following PRISMA 2020 guidelines (INPLASY202570105). Comprehensive database searches (2020–2024) yielded 4,441 records; after screening (Cohen's κ = 0.89), 17 high-quality studies met inclusion criteria (12 primary search, 5 ESRS-specific supplementary search). Thematic analysis identified ten interconnected themes grounded in …

The Role Of Micrornas As Potential Biomarkers In Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, Eirini Panteli, Epameinondas Koumpis, Vasileios Georgoulis, Georgios Petros Barakos, Evangelos Kolettas, Panagiotis Kanavaros, Alexandra Papoudou-Bai, Eleftheria Hatzimichael

Computational Medicine Center Faculty Papers

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common and clinically aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). While novel therapies such as rituximab and polatuzumab vedotin have led to improved outcomes, approximately 35% of patients eventually develop relapsed or refractory disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of endogenous single-stranded RNAs approximately 22 nucleotides in length, play a pivotal role in the regulation of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level through interactions with complementary target RNAs and contribute significantly to the development, progression, and treatment response of DLBCL. Oncogenic miRNAs, such as miR-155, miR-21, and the miR-17-92 cluster, promote proliferation, survival, immune …

Civc Curriculum Committee Minutes January 7, 2026, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Call to Order
• New Business 
• Adjourn: 10:02 am