Maryland Shared Open Access Repository

MD-SOAR is a shared digital repository platform for twelve colleges and universities in Maryland. It is currently funded by the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium (usmai.org) and other participating partner institutions. MD-SOAR is jointly governed by all participating libraries, who have agreed to share policies and practices that are necessary and appropriate for the shared platform. Within this broad framework, each library provides customized repository services and collections that meet local institutional needs. Please follow the links below to learn more about each library's repository services and collections.

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Recent Submissions

Does Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Improve Liver Outcomes in MASLD with Obstructive Sleep Apnea? A Systematic Review
(MDPI, 2026-12-27) Channapragada, Theja V.; Brenner, Clinton R.; Guruswamy, Keven; Katamreddy, Rewanth; Pandian, Alwyn T.; Pendala, Vyshnavi; Sam, Jaydon J.; Stine, Jonathan G.; Brenner, Michael J.; Pandian, Vinciya
Background/Objectives: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) often coexists with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) due to overlapping metabolic risk factors. Whether continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) influences hepatic outcomes in MASLD remains uncertain. This systematic review, using updated criteria for MASLD, evaluated the effects of OSA treatment on liver and metabolic outcomes. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies in adults with MASLD and OSA treated with CPAP, lifestyle interventions, pharmacotherapy, or surgery. Outcomes included liver stiffness, fat content, enzymes, fibrosis scores, HbA1c, lipids, and anthropometrics. Risk of bias was assessed with RoB 2 (RCTs) and ROBINS-I (non-randomized studies) and certainty of evidence with GRADE. Results: Eight studies (three RCTs, five observational; n = 1006; 73.5% male) met criteria. Studies evaluated CPAP for from 4 weeks to 3 years, with adherence ≥4 h/night in most. CPAP produced modest, inconsistent reductions in alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, small improvements in HbA1c and triglycerides, and minimal changes in liver stiffness, steatosis, weight, or anthropometrics. No RCT demonstrated significant improvement in fibrosis or steatosis. Risk of bias was low in one RCT, “some concerns” in two, and moderate in observational studies; one study had serious confounding risk. Conclusions: CPAP may modestly improve liver enzymes and select metabolic parameters in MASLD with OSA, but evidence for salutary effects on steatosis, fibrosis, and body composition is limited. Level of evidence was low due to methodological limitations, heterogeneity, and imprecision. High-quality, longitudinal trials are needed.
Does Dental Insurance Influence Treatment-seeking Behavior? A Cross-sectional Study
(Wolters Kluwer, 2025) Vasamsetti, Divya Bhavani; Kalluri, Sai Keerthi; Vallabhaneni, Saketha; Budumuru, Ramesh Kumar; Mynam, Ram Sateesh Babu
Introduction: Oral health is an integral component of overall well-being; however, access to dental services in India often relies on out-of-pocket expenditure. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the awareness and attitude toward dental insurance and trends in the utilization of dental services among insured and uninsured subjects visiting private clinics in West Godavari district. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 participants (150 insured – Employees’ State Insurance beneficiaries, 150 uninsured) recruited from private dental clinics using cluster and stratified random sampling. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, awareness, attitudes, and utilization were collected through face-to-face interviews with a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regression adjusting for age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Results: Awareness of social insurance schemes was higher among insured participants (73%) than uninsured (13%). Both the groups expressed positive attitudes toward dental insurance (80% insured vs. 77% uninsured). Utilization of dental services in the past year was greater among insured individuals (80%) compared with uninsured individuals (60%) (P ≤ 0.001). After adjustment, insured participants had more than twice the odds of utilizing dental services (adjusted odds ratio = 2.35; 95% confidence level: 1.30–4.20). Conclusion: Insured individuals demonstrated greater awareness and higher dental service utilization, though awareness levels remained generally low. While findings suggest that insurance coverage is associated with improved service use, the cross-sectional design limits causal inference. Broader insurance schemes and longitudinal research are recommended to confirm these associations.
Identifying conservation priorities in global Biodiversity Hotspots to protect small-ranged vertebrates from agricultural pressure
(Springer Nature, 2025-12-26) Yang, Can; Dong, Jinwei; Jenkins, Clinton N.; Zhang, Xi; Li, Yuzhe; Meng, Ziqi; Ma, Keping; Zhao, Lei; Garrett, Rachael D.; Ellis, Erle C.; Xiao, Xiangming; Zhang, Geli
Biodiversity Hotspots (Hotspots), harboring exceptionally rich small-ranged species, are critical for mitigating biodiversity loss. As priorities for terrestrial conservation, Hotspots increasingly face threats from agriculture, the largest anthropogenic disturbance impacting biodiversity. Yet, the spatial dynamics of agricultural expansion and its impacts on biodiversity, especially small-ranged vertebrates, remain poorly understood. Using site-level observations and satellite imagery, we found that agricultural pressures reduce species richness by 25.8%, total abundance by 12.4%, and rarefied species richness by 8.7% relative to primary vegetation within Hotspots. However, cropland area within Hotspots expanded 12% from 2000–2019, exceeding the global average of 9%. Fine-scale analysis identified 3,483 risk spots (cropland expansion and high small-ranged vertebrate richness,?~1741 Mha);?~1031 Mha of these areas fall outside Protected Areas, particularly in the Atlantic Forest, Indo-Burma, Western Ghats, Sri Lanka, and Sundaland. These results underscore the urgent need for targeted conservation actions to prevent biodiversity loss from agricultural expansion.
PyTOAST: Python Top Of Atmosphere Simulation Tool
(NASA, 2025-12) Werdell, Jeremy P.; Ibrahim, Amir; Bailey, Sean; Sirk, Emerson; Sayer, Andrew; McKinna, Lachlan I. W.; Patt, Frederick S.; Franz, Bryan A.; Werdell, Jeremy P.
PyTOAST generates simulated top-of-atmosphere Level-1B files for the PACE Ocean ColorInstrument (OCI). PyTOAST utilizes retrieved surface and atmospheric properties and top-ofatmosphere (TOA) radiances from MODIS and VIIRS, pre-computed radiative-transfer look-uptables for the OCI spectral response, and spectral libraries of land and clouds to produce realisticradiometry in the standard Level-1B format (https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/pace/format/)of OCI. The PyTOAST simulator is computationally efficient, and thus allows for large scaleproduction of multi-day global data distributions with realistic viewing geometries for testing ofretrieval software mechanics and data flow.
LLM Collectives Self-Organize to Solve Problems Following Hallmarks of Biological Collective Intelligence
(2025-12-24) Maltsev, Alexander
Just as Large Language Models (LLMs) are now commonly used to generate solutions to problems, biological organisms since the dawn of life have been generating solutions for survival as they continuously face novel challenges in dynamic environments. Collectives of cells must coordinate to solve problems they have never encountered before, generating adaptive responses not explicitly specified in their genome. Understanding how this kind of collective intelligence emerges from local interactions among agents with heterogeneous capabilities remains a central challenge in systems biology. Meanwhile, LLMs continue to struggle with creative problem-solving beyond their training data, especially in solving complex problems, such as mathematical discoveries. These challenges are complementary. Insights from biological collectives can guide the design of more capable LLM systems, while controlled study of LLMs may reveal mechanisms difficult to isolate in living systems. This study introduces LLM-simulated expert conferences as a controllable in silico model system for studying collective problem-solving dynamics. The LLM was prompted to simulate conferences among synthetic agents, each assigned a distinct expertise profile, to solve a mathematical problem (Yu Tsumura's 554th problem) that otherwise could not be solved via direct prompting. Analysis of problem-solving dynamics revealed three hallmarks known for biological collective intelligence. First, division of labor emerged without pre-assignment, with errors detected by agents whose expertise matched the error type (p < 0.05). Second, functional repair chains arose spontaneously following a Detect, Confirm, Repair, Validate sequence analogous to sequential task handoffs in biological systems at multiple scales, such as error correction in DNA or social insect behavior. Third, discourse dynamics exhibited a phase transition from stochastic verification to ordered consensus ultimately providing the solution to the problem. Transition entropy dropped from 2.27 bits in the verification phase to 0.25 bits at consensus, representing a 9-fold collapse. This entropy collapse provided an intrinsic termination signal that characterizes consensus formation in biological collectives. Thus, the result supports the view that the mechanisms and information processing underlying collective intelligence is substrate-independent (either biological or silicon-based) and can be further studied using the new synthetic collective model mainframe. Furthermore, LLMsimulated expert conferences offer a disruptive innovation in LLMs’ problem-solving capabilities (beyond their training data) and may be applied to any complex problem in mathematics or other scientific disciplines that need creative or novel solutions.