Digital Commons Network^™

What Have We Learned Today? A Synthesis Of Cases Presented, Elaine M. Lasda

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Chapter Seven from the book, The New Metrics: Practical Assessment of Research Impact

Synthesizes the strengths, challenges, and opportunities for the five cases described in the book. Providing research impact services in specialized libraries and information centers presents many opportunities for both the library/information center and the greater organization. There is a need for continued advocacy for responsible use of research impact metrics.

Establishment Of A Murine Pro-Acinar Cell Line To Characterize Roles For Fgf2 And Α3Β1 Integrins In Regulating Pro-Acinar Characteristics, Renée F. Thiemann, Deirdre A. Nelson, C. Michael Dipersio, Melinda Larsen, Susan E. Laflamme

Biological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Radiation therapy for head and neck cancers results in permanent damage to the saliva producing acinar compartment of the salivary gland. To date, a pure pro-acinar cell line to study underlying mechanisms of acinar cell diferentiation in culture has not been described. Here, we report the establishment of a pro-acinar (mSG-PAC1) and ductal (mSG-DUC1) cell line, from the murine submandibular salivary gland (SMG), which recapitulate developmental milestones in diferentiation. mSG-DUC1 cells express the ductal markers, keratin-7 and keratin-19, and form lumenized spheroids. mSG-PAC1 cells express the pro-acinar markers SOX10 and aquaporin-5. Using the mSG-PAC1 cell line, we demonstrate that FGF2 …

Change Management In Libraries And Technical Services, Janetta Waterhouse

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

This presentation was introductory material for a day-long library leadership and change management pre-conference workshop for the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference 2019. The workshop was sponsored by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) division. The presentation provides introductions to leadership and change management in broad terms to set the stage for other presentations during the workshop that were more targeted topics related to these areas.

404 Reasons To Use Perma.Cc, Angela Hackstadt

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

A 2013 study found that 70% of URLs in law journal articles and 50% of URLs cited by U.S. Supreme Court cases had suffered from reference rot and additional studies have demonstrated that reference rot increases over time. Information published online by government agencies is not immune to this phenomena. One startling example is the removal of climate change information from the Environmental Protection Agency's website. Perma.cc is a service developed by the Harvard Innovation Lab to preserve web-based content cited by scholars and the courts. Unlike archiving techniques that rely on random captures of web content, Perma.cc creates a …

Developing Metaliterate Citizens: Designing And Delivering Enhanced Global Learning Opportunities, Trudi E. Jacobson, Thomas P. Mackey, Kelsey L. O'Brien

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Metaliteracy, originally developed in 2010 as a response to a then-limited conception of information literacy, provides a pedagogical model for thinking and knowing in a social media age that has allowed for the proliferation of false and misleading information. It is vital that individuals be thoughtful and critical consumers of information, and also responsible and ethical information creators and sharers. Metaliterate learners are developed across academic disciplines through teaching and learning that support self-direction, collaboration, participation, and metacognitive thinking. The creation of innovative, collaborative, and open online learning environments that apply the metaliteracy goals and learning objectives is imperative for …

Spatial Tools For Case Selection: Using Lisa Statistics To Design Mixed-Methods Research, Matthew C. Ingram, Imke Harbers

Political Science Faculty Scholarship

Mixed-methods designs, especially those in which case selection is regression-based, have become popular across the social sciences. In this paper, we highlight why tools from spatial analysis—which have largely been overlooked in the mixed-methods literature—can be used for case selection and be particularly fruitful for theory development. We discuss two tools for integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis: (1) spatial autocorrelation in the outcome of interest; and (2) spatial autocorrelation in the residuals of a regression model. The case selection strategies presented here enable scholars to systematically use geography to learn more about their data and select cases that help identify …

To Speak Ghosts And See Echoes: Longing In Lolita, Emily Aucompaugh

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Underneath the plot of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, which focuses on the musings of a pedophile and murderer who attempts to “confess” actions and impulses of which he feels no guilt, a secondary motif emerges of a man motivated, guided, and consumed by longing, which he cannot assuage due his fixation of desire on a subject that does not exist. Longing embodies Humbert’s greatest joy and deepest pain, a feeling of anxiety and anticipation which eclipses the necessity of completion. Lolita invokes longing, the desire towards absent things, in two ways. Firstly, Nabokov alludes to a cornucopia of other poetic, …

“Queen Of The Underworld And Mistress Of The Labyrinth;” An Exploration And Critique Of Females In The Bildungsroman, Melissa Aucompaugh

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

I explore the female bildungsroman expressed as a Counter Bildungsroman, the coming of age through a singular sexual event, coupled with a “a fall” and the Contra Bildungsroman, a more complex entrance into womanhood that reconfigures the female coming of age as rebirth instead of a fall. The first chapter, The Counter Bildungsroman, exposes how the Counter Bildungsroman’s coming of age scenario portrays the problematic expression of sexuality (or lack thereof) and entrance into womanhood in the film Labyrinth and the poem “Goblin Market.” Symbols emerge as supplements for the denied sexuality: the consumption of fruit …

“A Life Stripped Of Humanity”: Using The Buffalo Department Store Strike Of 1913 As A Case Study Of Abused Pre-World War I Female Department Store Workers, Kyle Thaine

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

When one considers the movement of women into the labor force, images of Rosie the Riveter, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, or New England textile mills are often conjured. But many women entered the workforce through retail employment, seemingly a much better work environment. Considering awful workplace conditions, these retail women workers are often overlooked. This paper argues that pre-World War I era female department store workers were an abused class that suffered as much as many of their female contemporaries. The paper begins with a general discussion of women’s labor history up until 1913, with a focus on women in …

Arab Spring In North Africa: An Analysis Of Foreign Influence And Revolutions In Egypt, Libya, And Tunisia, Trevor Eck

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This paper examines the role foreign influence had on the outcomes of the 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Foreign influence primarily came from the US, European states such as the UK and France, and Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE. Influence includes but is not limited to financial assistance, diplomatic pressure, and in Libya’s extreme case military intervention. Outcome of the revolution is determined by examining the state of each government before and after the 2011 revolutions. This paper studies why each of these three states had different levels of foreign influence throughout …

An Unsupervised Channel Selection Method For Ssvep-Based Brain Computer Interfaces, Ethan Webster, Hadi Habibzadeh, Tolga Soyata

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide an alternative communication channel for people with motor deficits that prevent normal communication. The underlying premise of a BCI is that a neuroimaging process such as electroencephalography (EEG) can be used to measure the user’s brain activity as signals. The obtained signals are analyzed to determine the user’s intended actions and a computer system can be used to replace voluntary muscle activity as a means of communication. The information transfer rate (ITR) of an algorithm used for determining the user’s intentions greatly affects the perceived practicality of the BCI system. Such algorithms are divided into two …

The Equal Rights Amendment: Why All U.S. States Have Not Ratified, Gina Tan, Mirren Galway

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Currently, enacted legislation for the equality of men and women in the United States does not exist. Despite many advancements, as of 2018, the equality of men and women is not explicitly stated in the U.S. constitution. There is a long history of discrimination against women in the U.S., and for some time now, there have been pushes toward constitutionalizing equality based on Sex. One such push came in 1923, shortly after women were granted the right to vote and The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was introduced. This amendment mandates that the “Equality of rights under the law shall not …

The Masks Of African Identity: Understanding Displacement In We Need New Names, Kemi Kehinde

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Two discourses have sculpted conceptualizations of the African continent and its people, most predominantly after colonization: Afro-pessimism and Afro-optimism. Afro-pessimism asserts that Africa is incapable of succeeding in the global climate due to African’s futility and inability to self-govern and repair damages due to colonization. Hence, the African continent is a lost cause to these theorists, and subsequently its people are subject to demise. This discourse has two sides primarily, one coming from the Western point of view and the other coming from the African themselves. In reaction and contention to this ideology, different forms of Afro-optimism have developed, the …

Trauma Analysis From Rapid Staircase Descension, Srinanti Bhattacharya

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This experiment was designed after the release of the Netflix show called the “The Staircase.” A true documentary, a woman’s fall down the staircase results in her death, but the investigators question whether it was an accident or murder. The woman’s husband was initially accused of murder, but after a lengthy trial and the review of additional evidence, it was ruled an accident. In the autopsy results, there was evidence of blunt force trauma (Figure 1) inconsistent with an accidental fall. Therefore this research asks what is the difference in trauma from an accidental fall versus a intentional, assisted descent?

Dear United States Of America, We Are Children: Unaccompanied Immigration Children Under The Obama And Trump Immigration System, Briana Dominguez

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Dear United States of America: We Are Children is about the way undocumented unaccompanied children are treated by the immigration system in the U.S. I focus on the two different presidential administrations, the Obama and Trump administration. I will started from the Obama administration, fiscal year 2014 and end on the Trump administration, fiscal year of 2018-19. This is important because undocumented children are treated unfairly, they are being thrown from one department to another, denied asylum, deported to their countries that they do not desire to go back, put in cells, and put into the immigration system by themselves. …

Esg Rating And Ownership Structure In U.S. Firms, Keondo Park

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Given the rising interest in the relationship between Environmental, Social and Governance rating (ESG) and its components, this paper investigates the relationship between insider/institutional ownership structure, ESG ratings and financial performance of the firm, using 398 companies in U.S. 2017 obtained from Bloomberg. This paper entails cross-sectional analysis of ESG rating and its components in 10 sectors (Communication, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Financial, Health Care, Industrials, Materials, Technology, and Utilities) and Return on Asset as a matrix for financial performance. The results suggest that ESG rating and performance of the firm is positively and significantly associated, except environmental score. …

The Role Of Liquidity In Technology Sector M&As, Cameron Gaechter

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

The purpose of this study is to examine abnormal wealth effects observed by acquirer and target shareholders in technology-sector M&A deals, as well as the effect that liquidity positioning has on merger premiums or discounts. Abnormal wealth effects experienced by the acquirer and target both pre- and post-merger announcement were tested in a two-sided event study consisting of a large sample of companies representing the two sides of the transaction. The event study demonstrates that different characteristics of M&A deals, i.e. payment consideration and domesticity, have asymmetric effects on abnormal wealth effects for shareholders of both parties, with the most …

A Sign Of The Times, Zoe Roswell

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

I drafted this short story for an assignment in my Creative Writing 102z course based on techniques we learned in class including estrangement but also it was inspired, in part, by Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie”. Williams’ play touches on certain familial mental health struggles in each character that were deep rooted and I wanted to communicate the same effect. My story revolves around the present life and childhood of Charles, an underground boxer, who was orphaned at a young age due to both of his parents’ struggles with mental illness. Charles experienced his mother’s mental deterioration before and following …

Geospatial Energy Potential And Life Cycle Assessment Of Nearshore Oscillating Water Column Systems, Aleks Siemenn, Marie-Odile Fortier

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Oscillating Water Column (OWC) systems are an iteration of terminator ocean energy technology which generate electrical energy from turbine torque induced by the compression of air in a chamber from changing water level height. OWCs are a well-established technology, however, there have been no studies to date which quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of these systems in a geographic context. The goal of this study is to optimally size an OWC system for selected New England coastline sites and then assess the environmental impacts of the varying system sizes.

An OWC system is optimally sized when the volume of …

Resiliency In Cranial Bones In Relation To Age And Trauma, Jada Dubose

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

The development of bone, nonetheless the skull, may be a major line of defense in relation to traumas they may face. As individuals get older, their bone density decreases for a number of mechanical and hormonal reasons, weakening the bone and increasing fragility. This decreased bone mass density, along with its increased risk of fragility, often lead to a higher likelihood of fractures and severe traumatic injuries; this combination of factors is a lot greater than in younger individuals. This study will evaluate skulls thickness, cross referenced by age and sex, will determine resiliency in terms of the biological structure …

Corporate Deleveraging And Financial Flexibility, Dan Dreher

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Most firms tend to deleverage from the historical peak market-leverage (ML) ratios to near-zero ML while also insisting on growing and maintaining high cash balances. Among 424 publicly traded non United States companies that are based in developed countries that are not financial nor industrial firms with five or more years post peak ML data, the median ML at the peak is

0.369 and 0.021 at the subsequent trough. The median cash / total assets ratio rises from 0.046 to

0.080, respectively during the same period. These findings support theories in which firms deleverage from peak ML to restore ample …

Opioid Withdrawal Post Incarceration, Samantha Spampinato

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This literature review attempts to provide a more complete understanding of the increasing opioid concern and its detrimental effects from withdrawal in incarcerated individuals. Opioid-related fatal overdoses will significantly decrease with the implementation of opioid treatment in jails and prisons nationwide. The incarcerated populations that are typically affected by Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) include about 8.5% of Hispanics and Whites, and about 7.4% of Blacks. One solution involves Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) with the use of opioid agonists, such as methadone and buprenorphine-naloxone. These medications offer a slow release of dopamine and can reduce the patient’s opioid withdrawal effects. However, fewer …

Loop-Ligation Of Dna Nanoswitch For Sensitivity Increase, Lillie Carnell

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

DNA nanoswitches are tools to detect nucleic acids such as microRNAs and viral RNAs. The DNA nanoswitch is a linear duplex structure created from single-stranded circular viral M13 DNA using a DNA origami approach. Each nanoswitch can be designed to have explicit detector strands that bind to a specific DNA sequence. In the presence of a particular target sequence, the DNA nanoswitch will undergo a conformational change in which it switches from a linear “off” state to a looped “on” state. The shape of the DNA nanoswitch can then be detected using standard gel electrophoresis, a cheap and simple test. …

Determination Of Intersex Humans In Human Remains, Audria Payne

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Currently, there isn’t much research on whether forensic anthropologists include the identification of intersex humans in human remains. Forensic anthropologists tend to have varied training that is related to identifying skeletal remains, but there isn’t much research about how to identify intersex humans after death or whether they have come across intersex in skeletal remains at all, besides those they have classified as ambiguous. In this paper, I will be researching various skeletal remains to see if the current identification methods of identifying sex are accurate in identifying intersex. I will also research ambiguous and undetermined remains to see if …

Czar 52; A Case Study Of Failed Leadership, Samael O'Brien

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This breakdown of proactive, effective leadership is certainly worth further analysis and investigation. The military operational climate, even though thoroughly enforced, has a myriad of examples where rules are metaphorically bent. In the Fairchild Air Force Base incident, we find a prime example of such mishap and ultimately see a command structure which frequently neglected concerns. The nature of their mission ultimately speaks to how far the operational risk and guidelines can be stretched, evaluations differ from higher headquarters missions, and airshows likewise are subjected to a different operational climate. Decision making can become gray when ego-driven personnel and nepotistic …

An Assessment Of Combinatorial Transcription Factor Activity At P53 Enhancer Elements, Sylvia Kuang

Biological Sciences

Certain non-coding DNA sequences in the eukaryotic genome regulate gene expression. These non-coding regulatory regions, including promoters and enhancers, are controlled by the binding of multiple transcription factors which act together to regulate gene transcription. The number of potential transcription factor combinations regulating any gene presents a massive experimental challenge. One well-known transcription factor, p53, activates multiple transcription pathways involved in tumor suppression, primarily through engagement with enhancers. p53 is one member of a paralogous transcription factor family, which includes the factor p63. Whereas p53 is involved in tumor suppression, p63 is a transcription factor responsible for maintaining epithelial cell …

Rna Secondary Structure Of 3’Utr Regulates Translation Control, M. Grace Hren

Biological Sciences

According to the central dogma of biology, DNA is transcribed into mRNA. This mRNA is then translated into a protein. Translation of mRNA into protein is extremely precise, and as such is controlled by many different factors, both spatially and temporally. This phenomenon is known as translation control. Many times, this regulation is influenced by secondary structures, often in the form of stem loops on the mRNA. These secondary structures found on mRNA, specifically in the 3’Untranslated Region (3’UTR) of mRNA, can influence cellular gene expression. These genes can be upregulated or down regulated, depending on stem loop function. When …

Pre-Administration Of Medium Chain Triglycerides In Vivo Can Attenuate Or Block The Effects Of Recurrent Hypoglycemia, Dhanisha Nandigama

Biological Sciences

Hypoglycemia is a state of abnormally low blood glucose. Many patients who use insulin, primarily for the treatment of diabetes, experience multiple bouts of hypoglycemia, termed recurrent hypoglycemia (RH). Because RH impairs cognitive function and ability to appropriately respond to a subsequent episode of hypoglycemia, it is critical to develop treatments. One approach, which we have taken here, is to attempt to preserve neuronal fuel supply during a hypoglycemic episode. Medium-chain triglycerides are medium-chain fatty acid (MCT) esters of glycerol that can provide an alternative fuel source to the brain via ketones; the hippocampus is known to express transporters for …

Investigating The Effects Of Intrahippocampal Glucose Administration On Spatial Working Memory In Rats, Jeremy Carter

Biological Sciences

Insulin is a peptide hormone released by beta pancreatic cells . Insulin’s best-known function is to regulate absorption of glucose into peripheral tissue: this occurs via activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling cascade and subsequent translocation of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) to the cell surface. This canonical peripheral insulin signaling pathway appears to exist in essentially identical form within the central nervous system (CNS), so that insulin promotes entry of glucose into neural cells and subsequent increased metabolism. In order to maintain proper function, insulin-responsive hippocampal neurons and glia require glucose metabolism; a catabolic energy-yielding process that requires insulin …

The Efficacy Of Ventral Pallidum- Deep Brain Stimulation In Rat Models Of Epilepsy, Fu Yee Chua

Biological Sciences

Antiepileptic drugs have been a primary option for patients with epilepsy worldwide, however, about one-third of patients do not respond to pharmacotherapy. For these individuals, resective surgery can be performed but seizures are still reported in some cases. With that in mind, neuromodulation or deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a plausible alternative to provide seizure freedom for refractory individuals. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), anterior thalamus DBS and responsive neurostimulation (RNS) are FDA approved as neuromodulatory approaches for epilepsy. They reduce and delay seizures but do not prevent or abolish seizures. In the previous study, the Shin lab showed that DBS …