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Minutes: Benefits Advisory Committee: October 9, 2025
Get PDFAgenda: Welcome and Comments from the Chair; Approval of 9/25/25 Minutes; Wellbeing Program Year Update; Health Plan Semi-Annual Report; Open Enrollment Preview; Update on Pharmacy RFPUniversity of Minnesota. Benefits Advisory Committee. (2025). Minutes: Benefits Advisory Committee: October 9, 2025. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277102
Structure and dynamics of triblock copolymer solutions
Get PDFUniversity of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. June 2025. Major: Chemical Engineering. Advisors: Frank Bates, Timothy Lodge. 1 computer file (PDF); xx, 245 pages.Block copolymers can self-assemble into nanoscale morphologies, including spherical micelles, in the bulk and in a selective solvent for one of the blocks. Micelles formed from BAB triblock copolymers, where the end blocks form a micelle core, are of particular industrial interest. In concentrated solutions and the bulk, a fraction of triblock chains form bridges, where end blocks of the same chain localize in two neighboring micelles. These intermicelle bridges serve as dynamic physical crosslinks, which can impart interesting rheological behavior on the material. In this thesis, the molecular-level structure and dynamics of two model triblock systems with industrial relevance are explored using a suite of characterization techniques, including small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). These properties are then related to the macroscopic-flow properties measured using rheology, which dictate material function and use.First, polystyrene-poly(ethylene-alt-propylene)-polystyrene (SEPS) in squalane is explored as a model system that is similar to commercially available thermoplastic elastomers. At temperatures below the glass transition temperature of the core block, the intermicelle bridges act as crosslinks, imparting solid-like material properties. Upon heating, chains can pull out, breaking bridges and allowing the material to flow. In this work, time-resolved small-angle neutron scattering (TR-SANS) is used to measure the rate of molecular-level chain pullout and exchange. This is then related to the rate of macroscopic stress relaxation, as well as micelle rearrangement and ordering.
Second, the structure and rheology of aqueous poloxamer solutions is investigated. At low temperatures, both the poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) blocks in this triblock copolymer are relatively water soluble. Increasing temperature results in the PPO block dehydrating and forming micelles, which then order onto a cubic lattice when a critical volume fraction of micelles is achieved. This ordering corresponds to a distinct rheological transition, with the modulus increasing by many-orders-of-magnitude, effectively transitioning from liquid-like to solid-like behavior. While this transition is promising for a variety of applications including injectable therapeutics, applications are currently limited as tunability is difficult in conventional poloxamer solutions. Here, poloxamer-based derivatives with different architectures are synthesized and used to alter the molecular-level structure and resulting rheological behavior. In tandem, micellar structure upon addition of therapeutic small molecules is tuned to result in a formulation with ideal temperature-dependent behavior that is successfully used to treat middle ear infections in a chinchilla model.White, Joanna. (2025). Structure and dynamics of triblock copolymer solutions. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277406
Minutes: Campus Safety Committee: November 24, 2025
Get PDFIn these minutes: Welcome; Chief of Police Search Update; Crookston Campus Safety Issues; Morris Campus Safety Issues; Campus Safety Strategic PlanUniversity of Minnesota: Campus Safety Committee. (2025). Minutes: Campus Safety Committee: November 24, 2025. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277765
ICI Staff Newsletter "FYI" October 2025
Get PDFThe Institute's monthly staff newsletter featuring news of recent activities, accomplishments, and resources. This month's first feature story is about ICI's 40th anniversary event, at which numerous ICI allies spoke, including Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver, Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (via video). The second story concerns 40 big ideas in disabilities that appeared in an Institute poll and formed the fall issue of ICI's Impact magazine. The third story is about a direct support conference that ICI sponsored. The third story is about childhood autism rates. This month's Update is Andrea Lawson (MNLEND 2024–25), who co-chairs Minnesota's African American Health State Advisory Council.University of Minnesota. Institute on Community Integration. (2025). ICI Staff Newsletter "FYI" October 2025. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/276647
Minnesota Transfer of Wealth: Changes in Individual Wealth 2021-2024
Get PDFThe purpose of this brief is to detail the changes in Total Net Worth (TNW) across Minnesota and its counties from 2021 to 2024. The TNW has been the basis for wealth measurement by the Transfer of Wealth (TOW) study team in the Extension Department of Community Development since 2023. Initial study reports for Minnesota were based on 2021 data and covered the time period 2020-2070. To shift the model to a 2025-2060 time period, the team is incorporating the latest wealth data from 2024. There are signifi cant changes in wealth over this 2021-2024 time period, and and this brief will document where and to what extent this increase is occurring across the state at the county levelWinchester, Benjamin; Opatz, Aiden. (2025). Minnesota Transfer of Wealth: Changes in Individual Wealth 2021-2024. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277676
Sex Trading Among Students in Higher Education: Report of Findings for the Minnesota Department of Health
Get PDFThis report is the final deliverable for a project funded by the Minnesota Department of Health to better understand how institutions of higher education can best support students in higher education who trade sex. The report provides a preliminary overview of findings from a project. We will continue to explore the data in future manuscripts and reportsMinnesota Department of HealthMartin, Lauren; McMorris, Barbara; Rider, G. Nic; Voller, Vanessa; Swift, Jayne. (2025). Sex Trading Among Students in Higher Education: Report of Findings for the Minnesota Department of Health. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/276952
Improving Communication and Engagement Between the City of New Brighton and Manufactured Home Park Communities
Get PDFReport, poster, and presentation completed by students enrolled in PA 8081: Leadership and Social Policy Capstone, taught by Dr. Jeannie Entenza in summer 2025.This project was completed as part of a partnership between the City of New Brighton and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (https://rcp.umn.edu/). The goal of this project was to investigate outreach strategies that City staff could employ to reach residents and park owners and connect them to available resources. City of New Brighton project lead Craig Schlichting collaborated with a team of students in Dr. Jeannie Entenza’s course PA 8081: Leadership and Social Policy Capstone to research case studies of outreach strategies in other municipalities, develop a resident survey, and propose recommendations for New Brighton for future engagement efforts. A final student report, poster, and presentation slides from the project are available.This project was supported by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a program at the University of Minnesota whose mission is to connect communities in Minnesota with U of MN faculty and students to advance community resilience, equity, and sustainability through collaborative, course-based projects. RCP is a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). Funding was provided by the City of New Brighton and the Metropolitan Council. More information at https://rcp.umn.edu
The Public Health Workforce Calculator in a Post-COVID Era
Get PDFContext: A new tool, the Public Health Workforce Calculator (“Workforce Calculator”), was developed near the onset of the COVID pandemic to help agencies estimate the staffing they would need to fully implement the Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS). The data underlying the Workforce Calculator algorithm was from pre-pandemic time periods.
Objective: To assess whether the Workforce Calculator continues to reliably estimate staffing need in a peri-COVID context.
Design: Local health departments participated in the National Association of County and City Health Officials Profile survey, which for a random half of agencies, stratified by jurisdiction size, contained a module that asked them to estimate the FTE they would need to fully implement FPHS. For each of the 108 valid responding agencies, these data were compared with the Workforce Calculator output that the agency would have received to assess whether the Workforce Calculator was concordantly estimating staffing needs.
Main Outcome Measure: We assessed concordance between the reported staffing needs and the Workforce Calculator’s estimates, both graphically and quantitatively, using Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient.
Results: For most FPHS categories, the Workforce Calculator systematically underestimated the amount of staffing needed for full implementation relative to agencies’ reported needs.
Conclusions: Post-COVID staffing needs systematically appear more substantial than the pre-COVID data on which the Workforce Calculator was based. An update to the Workforce Calculator using post-COVID data would benefit end users.This project was supported by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration under awards U81HP47167 and UR2HP47371. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.Vogel, Abby; Patel, Krishna; McCall, Timothy C.; Orr, Jason; Leider, Jonathon P.. (2025). The Public Health Workforce Calculator in a Post-COVID Era. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, 10.1097/PHH.0000000000002177
Minutes: Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs: Term Faculty and Academic Professionals Subcommittee: October 14, 2025
Get PDFIn these minutes: Committee Discussion: Setting Goals for 2025-2026University of Minnesota: Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs. (2025). Minutes: Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs: Term Faculty and Academic Professionals Subcommittee: October 14, 2025. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277095
Accounting for interactions and uncertainty in multi-omic association studies
Get PDFUniversity of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. July 2025. Major: Biostatistics. Advisor: Wei Pan. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 106 pages.Genetic variation influences complex diseases and traits in part by regulating how much genes and proteins are expressed. Many methods have been developed for studying the genetic architecture of expression levels and for identifying molecular phenotypes whose genetically regulated expression modulates disease risk, but most approaches are limited to analyzing linear associations between one omic trait and one outcome at a time. Here we move beyond this paradigm by accounting for interactions and uncertainty in association studies of molecular phenotypes. First, we introduce differential regulation analysis by bootstrapping (DRAB), a method for identifying genes whose patterns of genetic regulation are significantly different between tissues or other biological contexts. DRAB learns models of genetic regulation in each context and then tests them for equivalence through a novel model comparison test, which we developed to account for the variability of feature selection and model training. In the next chapter, we extend the popular transcriptome- and proteome-wide association study (TWAS/PWAS) framework to account for genetic effects on gene–gene or protein–protein interactions. Our co-expression-wide association study (COWAS) method can identify pairs of genes or proteins whose genetically regulated co-expression is associated with complex traits, boosting power over standard TWAS/PWAS while also disentangling direct and interaction effects. Finally, we apply DRAB and COWAS to examine how aging affects the genetic regulation of protein expression and co-expression. We uncover age-biased protein quantitative trait loci (ab-pQTLs) and age-specific associations between genetically regulated co-expression and Alzheimer’s disease, highlighting the plasticity of genetic effects over time. Overall, this dissertation provides new tools for multi-omic association studies and demonstrates the importance of considering interaction effects and model training uncertainty in statistical genetics.Malakhov, Mykhaylo. (2025). Accounting for interactions and uncertainty in multi-omic association studies. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/277379