Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Factors Motivating Clothing Choice: Environmental Impact Of T-Shirts, Lauren Hunt

DePaul Discoveries

Second only to oil, the fashion industry is one of the most pollutive industries globally. Due to the rise of fast fashion, this environmental issue is continually growing. The level of production has dramatically increased while quality of apparel has decreased, causing shorter garment lifespans. This research utilizes life cycle assessment to identify the environmental impacts of various textiles used in the production of t-shirts, including cotton, polyester, viscose, and elastane. The research scope focuses from material extraction through garment disposal. The life cycle assessment research is paired with a community survey to determine consumer behavioral patterns surrounding clothing consumption …

Environmental Justice And Soil Lead Contamination: Spatial Analysis Across Seven Community Areas, Arsene Lionel Apabaga

DePaul Discoveries

Pb is a pervasive metal with toxicity linked to numerous human health issues. Urban soil is a well-documented environmental sink for Pb, persisting as a legacy pollutant decades after the phaseout of leaded gasoline. This study measured, mapped, and analyzed the spatial distribution of total soil Pb concentrations across seven Chicago Community Areas (CCAs). The objectives were to: (1) assess the relationship between mean soil Pb concentration and mean Community Environmental Justice Index (CEJI) score per CCA, (2) determine the relationship between soil Pb levels and the percentage of industrial land use, and (3) quantify and compare the percentage of …

“Put Me In Coach!”: The Impact Of College Sport Team’S Mentorship In Chronically Ill And Disabled Children And Adolescents Adherence To Medical Regimen, Jameela Askira

DePaul Discoveries

The purpose of this study was to see if participation in TeamIMPACT, a program which matches ill children with college sports teams, aided chronically ill children and adolescents in adhering to their treatment regimen. This research is a part of a larger study where 25 child participants were interviewed via Zoom to answer questions regarding their time in the program, peer and family relationships, coping and resilience and other factors. The current study solely analyzed answers to questions regarding adherence to medical treatments. There were three measures: Child vs Parent Response, Treatment Regimen Components and Care Responsibility. Through a descriptive …

Using Synchrotron Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering To Study Collagen Degradation In Second Metacarpal Bones, Zeel Sheth, Misha Romanov, Ruby Schwieger

DePaul Discoveries

The study examines female human second metacarpal (mc2) bones from early medieval cemetery at Greding, Germany, using high-energy Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) at beamline 1-ID of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. Rietveld refinement showed that carbonated apatite lattice parameters did not correlate with estimated age-at-death. For six of the mc2, widths of 00.2 and 00.4 diffraction peaks were substantially narrower than those of a modern (non-diagenetically altered) mc2 and of the other four ancient mc2. The peak width results are interpreted as indicating that four of the ten ancient mc2 retain substantial collagen and six of …

Modified 2-Quinolinones For Photocatalysis: The Fluorescence Quantum Yield (Φf) Of Novel 2-Quinolinone Derivatives, Reggina Moreno Trevino, Graham Griffin

DePaul Discoveries

The photophysical properties of novel 2-quinolinone derivatives were examined to evaluate their potential as photocatalysts using fluorescence and UV-Vis absorbance spectroscopy. The fluorescence quantum yields were determined via the relative comparative method, using target absorbance values at a specific wavelength to prepare solutions and comparing these measurements to the reference molecule carbostyril-124. Molar absorptivity values were also calculated to assess the light absorption properties for each compound. Among the derivatives, PAV-3 presented with the highest molar absorptivity and fluorescence quantum yield values (ε= 15297.3 M-1 cm-1, ΦF= 17.1%), while PAV-5 showed the lowest (ε= 4796.2 M-1 cm-1, ΦF= 2.3%). The …

Race/Ethnicity, Living Arrangements, And Access To Healthcare Among Older Adults With Alzheimer’S Disease In The United States: Multiple Systematic Reviews In Relation To Health Outcomes, Chela Reiss, Grace Vethacke

DePaul Discoveries

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition primarily affecting older adults. It is a growing public health crisis that affects memory, thinking, and behavior. The number of adults aged 65 and older is projected to reach 98.2 million by 2060, leading to a continued rise in the prevalence of AD. Understanding the socioeconomic factors that influence health outcomes in patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) is essential in addressing the disparities within patient care and quality of life. This systematic review examined three socioeconomic factors - race/ethnicity, living arrangements, and access to healthcare - and their related health …

Depaul Discoveries Volume 14 Cover Art, Reggina Moreno Trevino

DePaul Discoveries

No abstract provided.

Modeling, Analysis, And Prediction Of Covid-19 Dynamics With Interacting Subpopulations And Implicit Behavior Using Physics-Informed Neural Networks, Naima Aubry-Romero, Alonso Ogueda-Oliva, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer

Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics

In this paper, we consider an extended SEIR compartmental model that incorporates young and old interacting subpopulations, allowing for cross-group transmission dynamics. Implicit behavioral changes are included to determine the influence of social behavior on coronavirus transmission dynamics. The basic reproduction number, the average number of secondary cases of infection produced by a single primary case, is derived for both the explicit and implicit model using the next-generation matrix method. We solve the associated differential equation systems and estimate useful parameters in the explicit model using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs). Our results point to how the PINNs approach offers an …

Healthcare Administration Within Free Medical Clinics And The Impacts On The Sustainable Development Goals, Saneywongse Le Mar

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Racial And Geographic Distribution In Clinical Trial Enrollment Among Women With Advanced Stage Ovarian Cancer, Paxton Gillispie, Dhruva Dave, Gerald Mcgwin, Ashwini Katre, Ashley Anderson, Teresa Boitano, Nneka Ijeli, Purva Pawar, Rebecca Arend

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Summer Expo Poster Presentation

• Physical & Applied Sciences
• Health Sciences & Health Professions

Biocomputing Approach To Modeling And Modulating Calcium Signaling, Sehee Sun

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Biocomputing is an emerging field that seeks to perform computational tasks using biological substrates and processes. Unlike conventional computing systems based on silicon hardware, biocomputing leverages the parallelism, energy efficiency, and complex dynamics of living systems. Among various cellular mechanisms, calcium (Ca2+) signaling stands out as a central regulator of diverse biological functions, offering a promising basis for programmable logic and control in living cells.

This thesis introduces a novel framework for modeling and modulating Ca2+ dynamics using biologically inspired Boolean logic circuits. Specifically, we propose the Ca2+ Boolean Logic (CaBL) model, in which Ca2+ fluxes and interactions are abstracted …

Use Of High-Throughput Phenomics With And Without Fungicide As A Wheat Breeding Tool, Gerardo Ivan Rivera Collazo

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is an important food staple for many countries around the world and current consumption and production data demonstrate a production deficit. Breeders are challenged to help close this gap in production by selecting better cultivars with improved yields. Several methods aim to accelerate the breeding process to reduce the time required for releasing an elite variety. One of the main breeding bottlenecks is the lack of fast and reliable phenotypic data acquisition that could dissect physiological and morphological plant data. High-throughput remote sensing could have the potential to reduce this bottleneck by streamlining data acquisition, …

Functional Time Transformation Model With Applications To Digital Health, Rahul Ghosal Ph.D., Marcos Matabuena, Sujit K. Ghosh

Faculty Publications

The advent of wearable and sensor technologies now leads to functional predictors which are intrinsically infinite dimensional. While the existing approaches for functional data and survival outcomes lean on the well-established Cox model, the proportional hazard (PH) assumption might not always be suitable in real-world applications. Motivated by physiological signals encountered in digital medicine, we develop a more general and flexible functional time-transformation model for estimating the conditional survival function with both functional and scalar covariates. A partially functional regression model is used to directly model the survival time on the covariates through an unknown monotone transformation and …

Machine Learning For Digital Biomarker-Based Detection Of Cognitive Decline, Seng Khoon The

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease with a prevalence rate expected to triple by 2050, posing a significant challenge for health services. To impede the increasing prevalence, medical professionals and scientists are actively investigating technology to detect cognitive decline at a reversible stage known as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Digital biomarker technology is an emerging pragmatic approach to permit objective, ecologically valid, and long-term continuous measurement of cognitive health status, rendering it as one of the promising technologies for early MCI detection. Despite its potential, it is nontrivial to encode, extract and combine predictive information from these digital biomarker technologies; advanced …

Graduate School Blog - July 2025 Volume 1, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The July 2025 UofM Graduate School Blog – Volume 1 continues the Cost of Graduate School Guide with a deep dive into hidden and variable expenses such as residency-based tuition differences, program-specific fees, and differential tuition. The blog provides practical tips for prospective students on how to ask the right financial questions when comparing programs. It also features a student spotlight on Billy Brooks, a dual MHA/MBA candidate motivated to transform healthcare access and equity. Upcoming events include a Virtual Fall 2025 Open House with Financial Aid and USBS, a Dissertation Writers Retreat, and both in-person and virtual Graduate Student …

Phytochemical Analysis And Antimicrobial Activity Of Micromeria Barbata Leaf And Stem Extracts Against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: Insights From Molecular Docking And In Vitro Assays, Shiraz Rawas, Dalia El-Badan, Nawal Al Hakawati

BAU Journal - Science and Technology

The present study provides the characterization of the phytochemical content and the antibacterial activity of ethanolic extracts from the leaves (LM) and stems (SM) of Micromeria barbata (M.barbata) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Important functional groups were determined by analyzing the FTIR spectra of LM and SM. The phytochemical profiles were analyzed by GC-MS, and these characterized the chemicals according to retention periods and peak regions. The binding affinities of discovered compounds with the P. aeruginosa LasR and PqsD proteins were evaluated using molecular docking approach. Assays for biofilm formation, MIC, MBC, and agar well diffusion were used to assess the …

Vitamin D3 Toxicity-Induced Hypercalcemia In Staphylococcal Arthritis: A Focus On Il-6, Ali Jabbar Abd Al-Hussain Alkawaz, Maryam Sabah Naser, Ali Jalil Obaid, Zakaria M. Al-Ghazaly

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Background: Vitamin D3  over-supplementation can induce toxicity through the development of hypercalcemia and may disturb immune modulation. This study examines the relationship between hypercalcemia  resulting from Vitamin D3 Overdose and serum Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in patients diagnosed with staphylococcal arthritis.

Methods: Forty male patients (mean age: 31 years; range: 17–45 years) were enrolled from Dec. 2024 to Feb. 2025. Twenty cases of staphylococcal arthritis were compared with twenty healthy male controls. Serum concentrations of Vitamin D3, calcium, IL-6, and other biochemical markers (urea, creatinine, ESR, WBC, and potassium) were analyzed. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from synovial fluid and confirmed using …

Chemical And Physical Characterization Of Verbenaceae Essential Oils Using Modern Analytical Methods And Chemometrics, Aleksandra N. Hilliard

Master's Theses

Essential oils have been used for generations to treat various health issues, including mitigating insomnia, reducing stress, inflammation, and preserving foods, to mention a few. Essential oils have complex chemistry, which defines the essence of the host plant. Recently, increased commercial uses of essential oils have prompted attention at the governmental level to monitor the chemical, physical, or biological activity of essential oils. This study is an attempt to add new information for consumers to the understanding of the composition of essential oils.

Modern analytical techniques including FTIR-ATR, GC-MS, LC-MS-MS, multivariate analysis statistics, and physio-chemical techniques (electrochemistry, DPPH, TRC, and …

Deliberately Queer Journal Editors' Note For Volume One, Sean Te Maulding, Mel Monier

Deliberately Queer Journal

No abstract provided.

Synthesis Of Carboxymethyl Cellulose From Nypa Fruticans For Coating Metformin On Zn-Based Metal-Organic Framework Nanohybrid As A Bionanocomposite Drug Delivery System, Delviani Delviani, Viola Giary Rizkillah Maharani, Putri Nur Shadrina, Tri Warni, Regina Wan Azizah, Indra Lasmana Tarigan, Madyawati Latief

Makara Journal of Science

Diabetes is a common and rapidly spreading disease that affects 6.6% of the world’s population. Metformin hydrochloride (HCl) is an effective oral pharmacological treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients because of its capability to reduce glucose levels and the risk of hypoglycaemia. However, gastrointestinal sensitivities to this drug can cause diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and stomach ache. An alternative is controlled release technology by coating metformin with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and zinc-metal-organic framework (Zn-MOF) through the encapsulation method. Therefore, this study aimed to coat metformin formulations using CMC in a Zn-MOF to control release into the body and minimise …

The Only Constant Is Change: The Role Of Genetic Diversification In Cancer And Beyond, Malgorzata Tyczynska Weh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Genetic diversification, the process by which genetic variation arises in a population, is fundamental to evolution by natural selection. Mutation, a central diversification process, fuels adaptation across species, including in cancer. Yet most new mutations are neutral or deleterious on cell fitness, raising the question of how mutation-driven adaptation persists. To explore this paradox, I developed a spatial agent-based model (ABM) in which population fitness emerges from individual cells acquiring mutations at varied rates and with diverse fitness effects. I evaluated model behavior across adaptive states, mutation rates, and distributions of fitness effects. The results show that high mutation rates …

Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy And Perinatal Outcomes: Two Prospective Cohort Studies Of Nulliparous Women In India And Tanzania, Andrea B. Pembe, Pratibha Dwarkanath, Amani Kikula, John Michael Raj, Nandita Perumal Phd, Heavenlight A. Paulo, Rajalakshmi M, Christopher P. Duggan, Honorati M. Masanja, Nandini Chopra, Mary M. Sando, Tinku Thomas, Cara A. Yelverton, Alfa Muhihi, Anura V. Kurpad, Wafaie E. Fawzi, Blair J. Wylie, Christopher R. Sudfeld

Faculty Publications

Introduction Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) have been linked with increased risk for maternal and offspring complications in high-income settings. However, in resource-limited settings, studies with robust measurement of HDP, including severity and timing, and perinatal outcomes are limited.

Methods We analysed data from two prospective cohorts of nulliparous women in India (n=10 570 pregnancies) and Tanzania (n=10 299 pregnancies) who were enrolled in calcium supplementation trials and had blood pressure and proteinuria assessments throughout pregnancy and at the time of labour and delivery. Generalised estimating equations were used to assess the relationship between HDP severity categories (gestational hypertension, preeclampsia …

Multiscale Modeling Of Drug-Induced Liver Injury From Organ To Lobule, Alon Malka-Markovitz, Stelian Camara Dit Pinto, Mohammed Cherkaoui, Steven M Levine, Sharmila Anandasabapathy, Gagan K Sood, Sadhna Dhingra, Gao Yujia, John M Vierling, Nicolas R Gallo

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Drug-induced liver injury poses significant challenges in drug development and in clinical care. This study builds on prior work developing a Human Liver Virtual Twin by creating a Multiscale Computational Fluid Dynamics framework that integrates patient-specific anatomical data to predict acetaminophen-induced liver injury as a demonstration of its capability. The model bridges vascular, lobular, and cellular scales to simulate dynamic blood flow, drug transport, and injury mechanisms that accurately reflect clinically observed spatial heterogeneity. Results demonstrate accurate blood flow dynamics, predictions of hepatocellular damage, and a scalable framework for studying spatial heterogeneity applicable to other hepatic pathologies. This work establishes …

Association Between Dietary Inflammatory And Antioxidant Potential And Systemic Inflammatory And Oxidative Status With The Risk And Severity Of Coronary Artery Disease, Zahara Namkhah, Elham Alipoor, Manhnaz Salmani, Negar Ebrahimi, Monireh Ahmadpanahi, Ali Vasheghani-Farahani, Mehdi Yaseri, Michael David Wirth, Longgang Zhao, James Hébert Scd, Javad Hosseinzadeh-Attar

Faculty Publications

Background and aims

Unhealthy diets have pro-inflammatory properties that have been shown to contribute to coronary artery disease (CAD). The dietary inflammatory index (DII®) and the dietary antioxidant quality score (DAQS) quantify the anti-/pro-inflammatory and antioxidant potential of a diet. This study aims to investigate the association between the energy-adjusted DII (E-DIITM), DAQS, oxidant/anti-oxidant biomarkers, and CAD risk and severity.

Methods and results

This cross-sectional study investigated 158 participants for the presence and severity of CAD based on coronary angiography. E-DII and DAQS scores, malondialdehyde (MDA), total oxidant status (TOS), glutathione peroxidase (GPX) activity, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and conventional …

A Community-Based Study To Investigate Persistent Ambient Odors In Childs Park, Fl, Gennaro Saliceto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For many years, residents in Childs Park, Saint Petersburg, Florida, have reported unpleasant odors. Although there have been prior efforts to address the issue, the odors continue to be a concern for the community, who worry about possible health implications. This research aimed to equip residents with information to address the issue by identifying the presence of airborne pollutants that generate odors, quantifying the concentrations of toxic organic pollutants, and exploring the sources and environmental conditions that contribute to odors and their perception.

To accomplish these aims, the study utilized different methods. First, two walking measurement campaigns were conducted to …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 11.0, Robert O. Duncan, Grace Axler-Diperte, Joe Bisz, Christina Boyle, Devorah Kletenik, Carolyn Stallard

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Conference combines workshops, idea exchanges, interactive participant presentations, playtesting, and playing tabletop games into a one-day online event to promote and discuss game-based learning. The conference focuses on creative pedagogy, such as playful learning activities or games, that teachers can use in the classroom every day. The conference is online and features interactive presentations by attendees, informal idea exchange sessions, and workshops by the conference organizers.

Early Diagnosis And Detection Of Skin Cancer Using Deep Neural Network Models And Feature Extraction From Pre-Trained Cnns, Sahil Khanna

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Skin cancer is one of the most common and lethal cancer types. While accurate diagnosis at an early stage is essential for skin cancer treatment it remains difficult to achieve in many regions due to lack of sufficient dermatologists and proper diagnostic equipment. Prior studies show Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models excel at skin lesion classification and consistently achieve better results than standard diagnostic practices. However, the focus of many studies remains confined to image-based learning while neglecting useful patient metadata that could improve prediction accuracy. This research project created a specialized CNN model to classify skin lesions and evaluated …

Temporal Modeling And Forecasting Of Blood Glucose Dynamics In Individuals With Diabetes Mellitus, Mj Ruff

University Honors Theses

People living with Diabetes Mellitus face significant health risks, including an increased likelihood of heart disease, stroke, and fluctuations in blood glucose levels. The unpredictable nature of glucose levels can lead to dangerous conditions such as ketoacidosis and hypoglycemia. This study employs advanced time series analysis tools to forecast the glucose levels for an individual diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.

Forecasting Influenza Rates Using Machine Learning: A Study Of Chatgpt's Predictive Accuracy, Sara Saleh

University Honors Theses

This study evaluates ChatGPT's ability to forecast influenza rates, such as the number of flu cases, hospitalizations, and death during peak season periods using CDC data, and comparing forecasts against actual results to calculate statistical accuracy and consistency. Influenza forecasting is essential for public health planning, but traditional methods may not always provide timely or accurate predictions. In this research study, ChatGPT was utilized to predict the influenza rates for the following week based on the previous week's data obtained from the FluView surveillance system. The predicted rates were compared to the actual influenza rates to assess the model's overall …

Ensemble-Based Binding Free Energy Profiling And Network Analysis Of The Kras Interactions With Darpin Proteins Targeting Distinct Binding Sites: Revealing Molecular Determinants And Universal Architecture Of Regulatory Hotspots And Allosteric Binding, Mohammed Alshahrani, Vedant Parikh, Brandon Foley, Gennady M. Verkhivker

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

KRAS is a pivotal oncoprotein that regulates cell proliferation and survival through interactions with downstream effectors such as RAF1. Despite significant advances in understanding KRAS biology, the structural and dynamic mechanisms of KRAS allostery remain poorly understood. In this study, we employ microsecond molecular dynamics simulations, mutational scanning, and binding free energy calculations together with dynamic network modeling to dissect how engineered DARPin proteins K27, K55, K13, and K19 engage KRAS through diverse molecular mechanisms ranging from effector mimicry to conformational restriction and allosteric modulation. Mutational scanning across all four DARPin systems identifies a core set of evolutionarily constrained residues …