Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Intention, Attitudes, And Social Influences On Covid-19 Preventive Behaviors Among Non-Rural Black And Rural Appalachian White Populations: A Faith-Based Community Study, Maria L. Gomez, Tofial Azam, Jean Edward, Hannah Bowman, Lovoria B. Williams

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has had detrimental impacts in non-rural Black and rural Appalachian populations. Yet despite the pandemic’s magnitude, there is a scarcity of research exploring potential influences of attitudes and social influences within these populations on their adherence to COVID-19 public health preventive behaviors.

Purpose: This study examines the intention, attitudes, and social influences to adhere to COVID-19 preventive behaviors among non-rural Black and rural Appalachian congregants in Kentucky by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).

Methods: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data was used to assess the association between the TPB constructs and four key public health …

An Il1rl1 Genetic Variant Lowers Soluble St2 Levels And The Risk Effects Of Apoe-Ε4 In Female Patients With Alzheimer’S Disease, Yuanbing Jiang, Xiaopu Zhou, Hui Yi Wong, Li Ouyang, Fanny C. F. Ip, Vicky M. N. Chau, Shun-Fat Lau, Wei Wu, Daniel Y. K. Wong, Heukjin Seo, Wing-Yu Fu, Nicole C. H. Lai, Yuewen Chen, Alzheimer’S Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Charles D. Smith, Gregory A. Jicha, Peter A. Hardy, Partha Sinha, Elizabeth Oates, Gary Conrad

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Changes in the levels of circulating proteins are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), whereas their pathogenic roles in AD are unclear. Here, we identified soluble ST2 (sST2), a decoy receptor of interleukin-33–ST2 signaling, as a new disease-causing factor in AD. Increased circulating sST2 level is associated with more severe pathological changes in female individuals with AD. Genome-wide association analysis and CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing identified rs1921622, a genetic variant in an enhancer element of IL1RL1, which downregulates gene and protein levels of sST2. Mendelian randomization analysis using genetic variants, including rs1921622, demonstrated that decreased sST2 levels lower AD …

Exogenous Short Chain Fatty Acid Effects In App/Ps1 Mice, Diana J. Zajac, Benjamin C. Shaw, David J. Braun, Stefan J. Green, Joshua M. Morganti, Steven Estus

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Elucidating the impact of the gut microbiome on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is an area of intense interest. Short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are major microbiota metabolites that have been implicated as a mediator of gut microbiome effects in the brain. Here, we tested the effects of SCFA-treated water vs. saline-treated water on APPswe/PSEN1dE9 mice maintained under standard laboratory conditions. Mice were treated with SCFAs from five months of age until ten months of age, when they were evaluated for microbiome profile, impaired spatial memory as evaluated with the radial arm water maze, astrocyte activation as measured by Gfap expression and …

Chinese-Backed Fintech Lending Boom: How Did Indonesia Respond?, Angela Tritto, Yujia He, Victoria Amanda Junaedi

Diplomacy and International Commerce Reports

Peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending has the potential to boost innovation and financial inclusion in emerging markets, yet it can also incur investment and borrower-related risks, such as privacy breaches.

Driven by regulation control in China, Chinese investments flocked to Indonesia, causing a rapid expansion of online lending platforms.

Similar to what happened in China prior to the regulatory crackdown, the P2P lending boom in Indonesia saw a rise in unethical and illegal business practices. The government responded by creating new regulations and institutions to mitigate risks without stifling the potential for financial inclusion.

A proactive approach towards monitoring and regulating …

Urban Utopia Or Pipe Dream? Examining Chinese-Invested Smart City Development In Southeast Asia, Yujia He, Angela Tritto

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

With increasing public–private partnership and international cooperation in smart city development across the Global South, Chinese firms are poised to take advantage of growing business opportunities, a situation that few studies have examined. This empirical case study of the Forest City, a Chinese-invested greenfield smart city project in Iskandar Malaysia, begins to fill that gap. This megaproject represents the coming together of overlapping economic development interests of the local authorities and the profit motivations of the Chinese investor. However, the project’s use of the ‘smart city’ discourse contrasts with the reality of limited technology adoption. Its visibility and considerable socio-economic …

Enlarged Perivascular Spaces Are Negatively Associated With Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scores In Older Adults, Timothy J. Libecap, Valentinos Zachariou, Christopher E. Bauer, Donna M. Wilcock, Gregory A. Jicha, Flavius D. Raslau, Brian T. Gold

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Emerging evidence suggests that enlarged perivascular spaces (ePVS) may be a clinically significant neuroimaging marker of global cognitive function related to cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD). We tested this possibility by assessing the relationship between ePVS and both a standardized measure of global cognitive function, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and an established marker of cSVD, white matter hyperintensity volume (WMH) volume. One hundred and eleven community-dwelling older adults (56–86) underwent neuroimaging and MoCA testing. Quantification of region-specific ePVS burden was performed using a previously validated visual rating method and WMH volumes were computed using the standard ADNI pipeline. Separate …

Reduced-Scale Experiments And Numerical Simulations Of Informal Settlement Dwelling Fires, Vigneshwaran Narayanan, Antonio Cicicone, Ayden D. Botha, Richard Shaun Walls

Progress in Scale Modeling, an International Journal

Informal settlement dwellings (ISDs) house approximately one billion people in the developing world and this number is expected to double by the year 2030. Contemporary research on ISD fires has focused on understanding the fire dynamics within individual dwellings (micro-scale) and fire spread in settlements consisting of multiple dwellings (macro-scale). This paper aims to do two primary things: investigate if scaling methods that were derived for compartments with thermally thick boundaries can be applied to ISDs (compartments with thermally thin boundaries), and if they can adequately represent the most important phenomena associated with full-scale ISD fires; and demonstrate Fire Dynamics …

Bridge Project Prioritization, Bryan Gibson, Christopher Van Dyke, Sudhir Palle, Ryan Griffith, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky’s 14,000+ bridges are key nodes within the state’s surface transportation network. They facilitate the movement of freight, commercial vehicles, and personal vehicles alike. Historically, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has prioritized bridge maintenance projects using sufficiency ratings. These ratings are based on three factors — structural adequacy and safety, design obsolescence, and an asset’s importance within the roadway network. Although useful, sufficiency ratings do not account for factors that should be considered during the prioritization process (e.g., condition factors, risk). To address the shortcomings associated with using sufficiency ratings, KYTC — with the assistance of the Kentucky Transportation Center …

Updating The Bridge Construction Cost Database, Rachel Catchings, Ying Li, Ryan Griffith, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Adopting a comprehensive suite of methods to track, analyze, and maintain data on bridge construction costs can help state transportation agencies identify and implement strategies to mitigate the influence of factors which escalate project costs. This report discusses how the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) should approach updating, maintaining, and analyzing its bridge construction cost data. Based on a review of practices introduced at other agencies and interviews with public and private industry stakeholders, the report catalogues practical strategies for improving estimating procedures and tracking cost data as well as the most important cost drivers of bridge construction. Analysis of KYTC …

Utilization Of Lidar Technology — When To Use It And Why, Levy Mcintosh, Brad Rister

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Lidar technologies can assist transportation agencies during the design, construction, and maintenance phases of transportation projects. While Lidar has numerous applications, successfully deploying Lidar technologies is only possible if agencies have a solid understanding of their use cases and potential limitations. This report offers guidance the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) can use when making decisions on how to employ Lidar technologies in highway contexts. In addition to reviewing Lidar platforms and comparing Lidar-driven surveying to traditional surveying methods, the report examines challenges related to processing and storing Lidar data and the safety benefits Lidar technologies confer in the field. Brief …

“Sí Se Puede”: Using Innovative Application Of Apps In Language Learning, Heather Campbell-Speltz

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Collaborative Technology In Engineering, Farzad Taghaddosi

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Night Shift Report: A Critical Thinking Activity For Nursing Students, Jennifer Cowley

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Exploring Extension Agent Capacity And Readiness To Adopt Policy, Systems And Environmental Change Approaches, Lisa T. Washburn, Heather Norman-Burgdolf, Natalie Jones, Lauren E. Kennedy, Soghra Jarvandi

Dietetics and Human Nutrition Faculty Publications

Introduction: Enhanced Extension outreach strategies combine traditional direct education programs with public health approaches like policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change. However, the Cooperative Extension system and county-based Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Extension agents have historically prioritized direct education programming and diffusion of enhanced outreach strategies has varied. Extension personnel may lack capacity and readiness for successful PSE change implementation. This study explored perceived acceptability, capacity, and readiness for PSE change work among FCS Extension agents in two states.

Method: A survey was developed framed by selected domains from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research: Intervention Characteristics, Inner Setting, …

Aerosol Capture And Coronavirus Spike Protein Deactivation By Enzyme Functionalized Antiviral Membranes, Rollie Mills, Ronald J. Vogler, Matthew Bernard, Jacob Concolino, Louis B. Hersh, Yinan Wei, Jeffrey Todd Hastings, Thomas D. Dziubla, Kevin C. Baldridge, Dibakar Bhattacharyya

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

The airborne nature of coronavirus transmission makes it critical to develop new barrier technologies that can simultaneously reduce aerosol and viral spread. Here, we report nanostructured membranes with tunable thickness and porosity for filtering coronavirus-sized aerosols, combined with antiviral enzyme functionalization that can denature spike glycoproteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in low-hydration environments. Thin, asymmetric membranes with subtilisin enzyme and methacrylic functionalization show more than 98.90% filtration efficiency for 100-nm unfunctionalized and protein-functionalized polystyrene latex aerosol particles. Unfunctionalized membranes provided a protection factor of 540 ± 380 for coronavirus-sized particle, above the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s standard of 10 …

Ccr Beneficial Use Data Capture And Reporting, Joe Ploetz, Kevin Foody

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of The Ccr Rule, Superfund, And Irrigation On The Great Plains, Shane D. Mcdonald, Jillian Troyer, Robert Kleinmann, Marty Stange

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Benefits Of Numerical Flow And Transport Modeling Applied To Ccr Site Characterization, Remedial Design, And Closure, Johnathan F. Ebenhack, Eric M. Hicks

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Groundwater Monitoring Plan Considerations For Assessment And Corrective Action Sites, Sherren Clark, Nicole Kron, Tom Karwoski, Bernd Rehm

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Remedial Actions At Coal Combustion Residuals (Ccr) Sites Through Coupled Hydrogeological-Geochemical Reactive Transport Modeling, Pj Nolan, William Deutsch, Greg Lehn, Rens Verburg

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Methods To Differentiate Ccr From Native Soil Or Fill With Similar Visual/Physical Characteristics To Successfully Facilitate Ccr Removal, Trenton M. Godwin, Stephen K. Wilson, Kevin M. Stephenson

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Incorporating Adaptive Site Management Into Groundwater Corrective Action, Kristen Jurinko, Lauren Coker

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Cut-Off Walls As A Tool For Corrective Action Associated With Coal Ash Landfills And Impoundments, Sean Sean Rome

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Ccr Removal And Its Effects On Soil And Groundwater Geochemistry, Sarah Holmstrom, Clint Miller

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Challenges In Ccp Management In Europe, Fabrice Fayola, Hans-Joachim Feuerborn

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Reducing Corrective Actions Through Modelling, Ernie Stine

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Alternative Liner Demonstration At A Ccr Surface Impoundment At Great River Energy’S Coal Creek Station, Craig Schuettpelz, Todd Stong, Jennifer Charles, Shane Stockdill

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

To Cap Or To Excavate, And What Happens Next – An Evaluation Of Ash Basin Closure Alternatives Using Flow And Transport Modeling As A Decision-Making Tool, Rong Yu, Wesley T. Prater

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Decision Analysis Applied To Ccr Surface Impoundment Closure And Corrective Action, Andrew Bittner

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Managing And Visualizing Data For Alternate Source Demonstration Support, Darby Litz, Sarah Holmstrom

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.