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The Gut Microbiome, The Gut-Brain Axis, And College Student Well-Being, Idi Mckay

University Honors Theses

This literature review examines how diet, stress, environmental exposure, and food accessibility may influence college students' mental health and academic performance through the gut microbiome and the Gut-Brain Axis (GBA). Current microbiome research often focuses on early childhood development, clinical disease populations, or older adults, while overlooking college-age students who experience significant social, environmental, and biological transitions. College students frequently face food insecurity, irregular eating patterns, chronic stress, inconsistent sleep schedules, and reduced access to nutrient-dense foods, all of which may influence microbial diversity and overall gut health.

This thesis explores how modern campus environments and lifestyle factors may contribute …

Determinants Of Corporal Punishment And Severe Physical Punishment In Egypt: A Mixed-Methods Analysis For Child Protection Policy, Marwa Moustafa Nassef

Theses and Dissertations

Corporal punishment (CP) and severe physical punishment (SPP) remain a major public health, child rights, and child protection policy concern. In Egypt, despite legislative reforms, survey-weighted analysis of the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS) 2021 (CAPMAS, 2022) reveals prevalence rates of 60.5% for CP and 27.4% for SPP among children aged 1–14 (author’s calculations using EFHS-2021, n=7623), yet evidence distinguishing the determinants of routine corporal punishment from escalation to severe physical punishment remains limited in low- and middle-income contexts. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework, this mixed-methods study identifies key drivers of CP and its escalation to SPP among Egyptian …

Mapping The Neuroexposome: Integrative Analysis Of Dementia Risk Factors Through Multi-Omics And Environmental Profiling In The Egyptian Population., Mai Ahmed Saadzaghloul Othman

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Dementia represents one of the most pressing public health challenges of the twenty-first century, with the global burden projected to reach 153 million cases by 2050. Egypt, as the most populous Arab nation, faces a corresponding rise in age-related diseases, yet comprehensive data from low- and middle-income countries remain severely limited. The neuroexposome framework, integrating genetic susceptibility, environmental exposures, and metabolic alterations, offers a powerful strategy to characterize the complex interplay between internal and external risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease Related Dementias (ADRD).

Objectives: This thesis aimed to: (1) examine the distribution of APOE alleles …

Colostrum And Rethinking Passive Transfer In Dairy Calves, Drew Swartz, Kalen Taylor, Maggi Mathews

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides an overview of colostrum and passive transfer in dairy calves, with information applicable to producers, consultants, educators, and students.

Creating Sustainable School And Home Gardens: Managing Rainwater, Lawrence Krissek, Kathy Cabe Trundle

All Current Publications

Rainscaping can help solve drainage problems, reduce erosion, improve water quality, and conserve soil by effectively managing rainwater movement across the landscape. It can also provide environments with increased biodiversity while reducing the need for supplemental watering.  The details of rainscaping your garden are very site-specific, affected by the amount of space and money available, your garden’s physical and weather/climate characteristics, and your garden goals. This resource sheet addresses the use of natural methods to ensure efficient rainwater management.

Colostrum Management For Dairy Calves: Technical Guidelines For Consultant Evaluation And Implementation, Drew Swartz, Jacob Hadfield, Kalen Taylor, Maggi Mathews

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides a technical overview of colostrum management in dairy calves, including evaluation methods and evidence-based recommendations for consultants, educators, and students.

Effect Of Temperature On The Defensive And Predatory Behavior Of The Scorpion Hadrurus Obscurus (Scorpiones: Hadruridae), Zia Nisani, Megan Bennett, Audrey Enriquez, Mel Iniquez, Emilia Martinez Rios, Brooklyn Stone

Euscorpius

Scorpions employ their stinging mechanism both for defense and predation, and being ectothermic, temperature influences their physiology and behavior. As such, we hypothesized that temperature both affects defensive stinging and prey-capture behavior in scorpions. We tested the effects of body temperature on these behaviors in the desert hairy scorpion, Hadrurus obscurus Williams, 1970. In the first experiment, scorpions were placed in temperature-controlled chambers with either high (26-28°C) or low (21- 22°C) temperatures and probed to elicit a defensive sting. We recorded the reaction time and the number of probes needed to elicit a sting. In the second experiment, we observed …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Willamette Navarretia (Navarretia Willamettensis), Nora Dunkirk

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Willamette Navarretia (Navarretia willamettensis) using NatureServe methodology, 2026.

High Mobility Group Motif Proteins’ Role In Fibrosis, Inflammation, And Vascular Injury In Systemic Sclerosis, Fabian A. Mendoza, Sonsoles Piera-Velazquez, Sergio A. Jimenez

Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine Papers and Presentations

Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is an idiopathic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive cutaneous and systemic fibrosis, severe vasculopathy, and multiple humoral and cellular immunological alterations. The pathogenesis of SSc is highly complex and remains incompletely elucidated. The fibrotic process is a crucial component of SSc and is responsible for organ failure and high mortality. Although an increasing understanding of the fibrotic process has enabled the clinical development of antifibrotic therapeutic agents, these agents have limited clinical efficacy. Recently, the potential role of a group of transcription factors containing a High Mobility Group (HMG) motif, in the development and pathological manifestations …

Immune Suppression And Metabolic Reprogramming In Bactrocera Dorsalis Parasitized By Fopius Arisanus, Rehemah Gwokyalya, Jeremy Herren, Thomas Ogao Onchuru, Sahadatou Mama Sambo, Cassandra Purity Ronnie, Ndlela Shepard, Sunday Ekesi, Samira A. Mohamed

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Abstract – Bactrocera dorsalis is a major horticultural pest. Biocontrol using parasitoids, such as Fopius arisanus, is a sustainable tool for managing this pest. However, the mechanisms enabling the successful parasitism of B. dorsalis are poorly understood. Using transcriptomic profiling, cellular bioassays, and targeted metabolite analyses, we investigated how F. arisanus modulates the immunity and metabolic activity of B. dorsalis to achieve a high parasitism rate. Our results revealed a weak and late encapsulation response of B. dorsalis towards F. arisanus. Additionally, parasitism reduced the number of circulating haemocytes by 35%, lowered constitutive granulocyte counts and inhibited phenoloxidase activity in …

Agrivoltaic Shading Reduces Soil Greenhouse Gas Fluxes In A Semi-Arid Vineyard, Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, Rafael M. Almeida, Carine Cocco, Engil Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Agrivoltaic systems are expanding in semi-arid regions, raising questions about how panel driven shading alters soil greenhouse gas exchange. We used automated chambers to measure high frequency soil CO2, N2O, and CH4 fluxes in a newly established vineyard agrivoltaic system in Texas across three shading intensities (0%, 35%, 88%) that represent the light environment beneath panels as shaped by panel tilt and solar trajectory. Shading primarily cooled the soil, reducing mean soil temperature from 35.9 °C (0%) to 32.5 °C (35%) and 30.5 °C (88%), while mean soil water content shifted modestly (0.125, 0.106, and 0.130 m3 m−3, respectively). Over …

Impact Of Dolutegravir-Based Regimens On Patient Satisfaction And Quality Of Life Among People Living With Hiv: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Mustapha Muhammed Abubakar, Christabel Ogechukwu Okoye, Ruth Jeminiwa, Ifeanyi Kanayo Ifeorah, Lotanna Ezeja, Yusuf Dauran, Sahabi Musa, Silas Usen Joel, Abdurrahman Murtala Bello, Amauche Pearl Ngige, Gabriel Ezenri, Abdulmuminu Isah, Ifunanya Ikhile, Blessing Onyinye Ukoha-Kalu

College of Pharmacy Faculty Papers

Background: Despite the global scale up of dolutegravir (DTG)-based regimens as the preferred first-line therapy for persons living with HIV (PLHIV), no comprehensive evidence exists on its effect on patient-reported outcomes such as Quality of Life (QoL) and patient satisfaction (PS). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide the first comprehensive quantitative synthesis of the effect of DTG-based regimens on QoL and PS among PLHIV.

Method: We conducted literature search on PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Cochrane Library databases for peer-reviewed, primary studies published from January 2015 to January 2025. Studies using validated tools to evaluate QoL and PS …

Why Communicating Minimum Drawdown Elevations For Lake Powell And Lake Mead Can Mitigate Risks Of Volatile Colorado River Flow., Brittany Fager, David Rosenberg, Erik Porse

Reports

There is consensus across Reclamation’s hydrologic ensembles that volatile Colorado River flow will continue, including annual drops of 6 million acre-feet of natural flow above Lake Powell. This volatility poses risk that water managers cannot respond fast enough with the consequence that Lake Powell and Lake Mead drawdown so they no longer fulfill their Congressionally legislated purposes: deliver water, generate hydropower, protect native fish, or sustain infrastructure. In this post we suggest four reservoir operational strategies to reduce all those risks: (1) Identify Catastrophic Elevations where we lose the ability to operate reservoirs for one or more legislated purposes, (2) …

Rape Pregnancies And Consequent Ptsd Resulting From The Overturn Of Roe V. Wade, Emma Lindenfelser, Yulia Garaeva, Nenette Nti-Agyemang, Ellen Davis, Anna Kabwa, Alexandra M Calaman

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, access to safe legal abortions was limited and often restricted along racial, economic, and geographic lines. Nearly fifty years later, women’s health policy evolved again following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade. This court ruling decimated federal protections of abortion. This paper presents the research that the 2022 Dobbs judicial decision may contribute to and exacerbate rape-related PTSD on 1 out of 20 American who are unable to access a safe abortion after a rape-related pregnancy. Pregnant women living in conservative states that have outlawed …

Shared Premotor Resources Underlie Dual-Task Interference Between Speech And Balance, Weina Lu, Sasha Lifton Lewis, Zoey Wire, Ingo Helmich

Exercise and Sport Studies: Faculty Publications

Humans frequently speak while standing, potentially engaging overlapping motor-cognitive resources. Dual-task paradigms with increased motor-cognitive demands reliably impair postural control, presumably due to competition for shared neural resources. The premotor cortex is critically involved in balance stabilization and in resolving competing motor plans and is also engaged during processing of action-related language. We therefore hypothesized that a central processing bottleneck emerges in the PMC when speaking and controlling posture simultaneously. Forty-one right-handed healthy adults (25 female, 16 male) maintained an upright stance while either verbally describing or mentally imagining navigation through a visually presented maze from an egocentric or allocentric …

Uncovering Dkk1 As A Therapeutically Relevant Target In Aggressive Er+ Breast Cancer Using A Novel Antiestrogen, Kristen Young

Dissertations

Over 70 percent of breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive (ERα+), meaning that the hormone estrogen drives tumor growth. Although first-line targeted therapies that directly block ERα from hormone-dependent pathologies are initially effective, almost half of patients ultimately progress. These patients show high mutational rates to the ESR1 gene that encodes for ERα. A hotspot missense tyrosine to serine mutation at position 537 (Y537S) initiates hormone-independent, allele-specific transcriptional programs that increase metastasis. While next-generation ERα-targeted therapies show promise, benefits are often limited compared to standard-of-care. Understanding the mechanisms of action used by the Y537S ESR1 breast cancer cells to evade therapeutic …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Synergistic Bioactive– Organometallic Condensation Polymers, Francesca Isabel Mosca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This research focuses on the synthesis and structural characterization of polymers with anticipated anticancer and antiviral properties by combining metal-containing Lewis acids, organotin dichlorides (R2SnCl2), Group 4 metallocene dichlorides (Cp2TiCl2, Cp2ZrCl2 and Cp2HfCl2), and triphenyl Group 15 metal dichlorides (Ph3AsCl2, Ph3SbCl2 and Ph3BiCl2), with biologically active Lewis bases, lamivudine, a synthetic nucleoside, and camphoric acid, a dicarboxylic acid, to achieve synergistic effect.

Five classes of polymers were synthesized using interfacial polymerization: lamivudine and organotin dichlorides, lamivudine and Group 4 metallocene dichlorides, camphoric acid and triphenyl Group 15 metal dichlorides, camphoric acid and organotin dichlorides, and camphoric acid and Group 4 …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Organometallic Polymers And Their Cytotoxicity Towards Human Cancer Cell Lines, Paul Peter Slawek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This research aimed to synthesize organometallic polymers from dialkyl (methyl, ethyl, butyl, cyclohexyl, and octyl) and diaryl (phenyl) tin dichlorides and three organic monomers, dipicolinic acid (DPA), chloramphenicol (CH), and isomannide (IS), using interfacial polymerization. Structure-activity relationships were investigated through physicochemical characterization (light-scattering photometry, proton NMR, and IR spectroscopy) and cytotoxicity was evaluated against six human cancer cell lines (AsPC-1, PANC-1, MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, HT-29, PC-3), with cisplatin serving as the reference standard.

Five DPA/tin polymers were synthesized, with IC₅₀ values in the range of 0.60–0.71 μg/mL. Their cytotoxicity was significantly lower than that of cisplatin (0.0023-0.044 μg/mL), suggesting that …

Discovery Of Bmi-Associated Gut Microbiome Signatures In The Awi-Gen 2 Cohort, Meriem Yagoubi

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is increasing across sub-Saharan Africa amid rapid dietary, environmental, and urbanization transitions, yet the gut microbiome features associated with adiposity in African populations remain under-characterized. This study investigated whether species-level gut microbiome composition is associated with body mass index (BMI) in the AWI-Gen 2 cohort, and whether BMI-associated microbial signals remain detectable after accounting for the dominant geographic structure of the microbiome. Gut microbiome community structure and diversity were characterized across 1,665 participants, and differential abundance analysis was used to identify taxa associated with BMI after controlling for study site. Machine learning models were then trained to assess how …

Polygenic Risk Scores, Sex, And Socioeconomic Factors As Predictors Of Age Of Onset For Major Depressive Disorder, Kaitlyn M. Nowak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous psychiatric condition influenced by genetic, sociodemographic, and environmental factors, yet the extent to which these factors jointly shape the timing of disease onset remains unclear. This study evaluated the effects of polygenic risk scores (PRS), sex, and socioeconomic status (SES) on age of onset for MDD across two independent cohorts: the Pharmacogenomics Research Network Antidepressant Medication Pharmacogenomics Study (PGRN-AMPS) (N = 486) and the All of Us Research Program (N = 8,014). Analyses were restricted to individuals of European genetic ancestry, and PRS were constructed using both European-ancestry (EA) and multi-ancestry (MA) genome-wide …

Declination Of Groundwater Potential Zones Of Nashik, Maharashtra Using Geographic Information System With Analytic Hierarchy Process-Fuzzy Techniques, Madhusudhan M. Reddy, Bhogayya G. Naidu, Bharat N. Mulay, Ramanjaneyulu B, Ravi K. Kumar, Mirzi L. Betasolo, Praveen U. Goud, Snehal N. Chaudhari

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Groundwater is a critical resource for agriculture and domestic use in the semi-arid region of Nashik District, Maharashtra, where overexploitation and erratic climatic conditions have led to declining groundwater availability. This study integrates Geographic Information System (GIS) with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy-AHP techniques to delineate groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) and identify suitable sites for artificial recharge. A total of ten thematic layers drainage density, rainfall, geomorphology, elevation, distance from river, geology, slope, land use/land cover, topographic wetness index (TWI), and curvature were derived from SRTM DEM, Landsat-8, and IMD datasets, representing key controls on groundwater recharge, infiltration, and …

Current Status Of Anthelmintic Resistance In Meat Goats: A Comparative Efficacy Study Of Albendazole And Fenbendazole In Maha Sarakham, Thailand, Minta Pipatsakulpak, Usanisa Boonum, Kotchakorn Roongruang, Benjawan Sae-Chue, Sukanya Leethongdee, Songsak Chumpawadee, Nattaya Watwiengkam, Pongphol Pongthaisong

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Anthelmintic resistance in gastrointestinal nematodes threatens sustainable goat production globally. While resistance is well-documented in many regions, data from Thailand remain limited. This study determined the prevalence of gastrointestinal nematodes and assessed the efficacy of albendazole and fenbendazole in meat goats in Maha Sarakham province, northeastern Thailand. A two-stage cross-sectional study was conducted on 10 meat goat farms between August 2021 and March 2022. In Stage 1, fecal samples from 150 goats were examined using simple flotation and sedimentation techniques to identify parasite morphology. In Stage 2, the McMaster technique was employed to quantify fecal egg counts (FEC). Twenty-six goats …

Diversification Of Ghost Electric Fishes (Gymnotiformes, Apteronotidae) In Tropical South America: How Traits And Environmental Factors Constrain Macroevolutionary Diversification, Jonathan Gifford Allen

Doctoral Dissertations

Neotropical electric fishes (Apteronotidae) display remarkable phenotypic and ecological diversity, offering an exceptional system for studying macroevolutionary processes in freshwater environments. Here I investigate the morphological, ecological, and historical factors shaping diversification in the clade Navajini, with a focus on craniofacial evolution, species delimitation, and biogeographic patterns. First, using high-resolution micro-CT scans, 3D geometric morphometrics, and phylogenetic comparative methods, I analyze skull shape variation across Navajini. Key traits resulting from heterocephaly exhibit strong phylogenetic signal and reflect functional differentiation among genera. Sexual dimorphism contributes significantly to cranial disparity in some lineages, while others show conserved, modular patterns likely tied to …

Targeting Inflammatory And Growth Signaling Pathways In Breast Cancer Through Diet, Microbiome, And Metabolite Interactions, Brittany Lorraine Witt

ETDs from 2020-2029

Breast cancer (BC) accounts for 1 in 3 (or 30%) of all new female cancers each year and is the most common malignant cancer in women in the United States. Since the 1990s, there has been a 44% decrease in BC, but there is still a significant gap between certain groups in terms of mortality rates. Black women have a higher mortality rate and risk for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This may be due to social (inadequate access to health care facilities, insurance, or completion of therapy) and biological (genetic mutations, tumor characteristics, or comorbidity) factors between races and other …

The Relationship Between The Environment And Pollution With Surgical Outcomes And Disparities, Wendelyn Marie Oslock

ETDs from 2020-2029

Air pollution exposure has been linked to many surgically managed diseases and adverse health events that occur in the postoperative period. Despite this, the impact of air pollution on postoperative recovery is poorly understood. This knowledge gap may be one of the underlying mechanisms for persistent disparities in surgical outcomes. Previous studies have found racial and economic disparities in air pollution exposure. These same communities have been shown to experience worse surgical outcomes. The goal of this thesis is to explore if exposure to air pollution impacts surgical outcomes and determine if disparities in socioeconomic factors impact this relationship. The …

Limitations And Alternative Applications Of Carbohydrate Fatty Acid Esters As Food Antimicrobials: A Review, Valeria Rodríguez Monge, Namhyeon Park

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science Student Research

Carbohydrate fatty acid esters (CFAs) are nontoxic food additives with reported antimicrobial activity and growing interest as a potential safer alternative to conventional preservatives. However, their translation into real food systems remains limited. This review examined the main factors that restrict the antimicrobial performance of CFAs in foods and evaluated emerging alternative applications, particularly edible coatings, antibiofilm strategies, and synergistic combinations with other cleaning agents or processing techniques. Overall, the available evidence indicates that the antimicrobial efficacy of CFAs is often reduced in real food matrices compared with in vitro conditions. This loss of activity has been mainly associated with …

Biologically Informed Negative Samplingfor Antibody Chain Pairing Classification, Ishita Singh

Computer Science Senior Theses

Antibody heavy and light chain (H/L) pairing is fundamental to antigen recognition and stability. While single-cell sequencing preserves native pairing information, widely used bulk repertoire and spatial transcriptomics platforms do not, motivating the need for efficient ML methods to infer H/L pairing. Training a binary classifier for this task faces the methodological challenge of a lack of true biological negatives, since natural selection eliminates B cells with incompatible H/L pairs.

In this thesis, I introduce a biologically informed negative sampling strategy for H/L pairing classification, drawing on known V-gene biases in heavy and light chain pairing. Pseudo-negatives are constructed by …

National Agricultural Library (Nal) Search., Leah Everitt, Sonya Lemke

Publications

SEARCH is the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL)'s main discovery platform that provides integrated access to the NAL Digital Collections, Special Collections, PubAg and AGRICOLA. NAL SEARCH is a valuable tool for health science librarians, students, and professionals seeking veterinary science, nutrition, or animal experiment alternatives. This article aims to give users a comprehensive overview of this resource.

Wrack Lines Spring-Summer 2026 Volume Number 1, Margaret Cozens, Johann Heupel, Owen Placido, Paul Salopek, Judy Benson

Wrack Lines

“Building community around the places we love,” is the theme of the Spring-Summer 2026 issue of Wrack Lines magazine. Learn about the work of the Six Lakes Park coalition in Hamden, Riverfront Recapture in Hartford, MyCoast in southeastern Connecticut and the statewide land conservation conference. Additional stories tell about the artistry and mission of photographer-videographer Tomas Koeck, and National Geographic explorer Paul Salopek, who is traveling the world on foot.

Vitamin D–Amp Axis In Host Defense Against Fungal Infections, Nuraly S. Akimbekov, Ilya Digel, Svetlana K. Sakhanova, Kuanysh Tastambek, Dinara K. Sherelkhan, Mohammed S. Razzaque

School of Medicine Publications

Vitamin D–mediated regulation of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is an important focus in innate immunology and is aimed at elucidating the role of vitamin D in enhancing antimicrobial defense. AMPs are short protein chains that serve as a first line of defense against invading pathogens, including fungi, bacteria and viruses. Unlike conventional antibiotics, AMPs are produced endogenously and are less likely to induce antimicrobial resistance, making them promising candidates for treating infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens. Studies indicate that optimal vitamin D levels are essential for activating antimicrobial pathways and regulating AMPs that target multiple fungal pathogens. This article summarizes recent …