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The Mucosal Expression Pattern Of Interferon-Ε In Rhesus Macaques, Andrew Demers, Guobin Kang, Fangrui Ma, Wuxun Lu, Zhe Yuan, Yue Li, Mark Lewis, Edmundo N. Kraiselburd, Luis Montaner, Qingsheng Li

Qingsheng Li Publications

Type I IFNs play an important role in innate and adaptive immunity against viral infections. A novel type I IFN, namely IFN-ε, which can protect against vaginal transmission of HSV2 and Chlamydia muridarum bacterial infection, has been described in mice and humans. Nevertheless, the principle cell type and the expression pattern of IFN-ε in tissues remain uncertain. In addition, the expression of IFN-ε in Indian rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) has not been reported. Here, we analyzed IFN-ε expression in multiple mucosal sites of uninfected or SIV-infected Indian rhesus macaques using IHCS. We report for the first time the …

Large-Scale Avian Influenza Surveillance In Wild Birds Throughout The United States, Sarah N. Bevins, Kerri Pedersen, Mark W. Lutman, John A. Baroch, Brandon S. Schmit, Dennis Kohler, Thomas Gidlewski, Dale L. Nolte, Seth R. Swafford, Thomas J. Deliberto

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Avian influenza is a viral disease that primarily infects wild and domestic birds, but it also can be transmitted to a variety of mammals. In 2006, the United States of America Departments of Agriculture and Interior designed a large-scale, interagency surveillance effort that sought to determine if highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses were present in wild bird populations within the United States of America. This program, combined with the Canadian and Mexican surveillance programs, represented the largest, coordinated wildlife disease surveillance program ever implemented. Here we analyze data from 197,885 samples that were collected from over 200 wild bird species. …

Production Of Recombinant Human Coagulation Factor Ix By Transgenic Pig, Weijie Xu

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Hemophilia B is the congenital bleeding disorder caused by deficiency in functional coagulation factor IX (FIX) and about 28,000 patients worldwide in 2012. And current treatment is restricted to protein-replacement therapy, which required FIX concentrates for patients’ life-time. Approximately 1 billion units FIX were consumed in 2012. However, still about 70-80% patients, mostly in developing countries, received inadequate or no treatment because of the unavailable and/or unaffordable FIX concentrates. Considering safety reasons, e.g. transmission of blood-borne diseases, the recombinant human FIX (rFIX) is recommended other than the plasma-derived FIX. However, only one rFIX is currently available on the market. The …

Adherence Inhibition Of Human Pathogens Campylobacter Jejuni And Campylobacter Coli By Non-Digestible Oligosaccharides, Alejandra Ramirez-Hernandez

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Adherence is the first and one of the most important steps of bacterial pathogenesis. Natural derived components that inhibit the adherence of pathogens to the surface of epithelial cells have received considered interest. The goal of this research was to assess the anti-adherence activity of mannan oligosaccharides (MOS), pectic oligosaccharides (POS) and cranberry high molecular weight component (HMW) against Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. First the anti-adherence activity of MOS and their purified fraction (pMOS) was tested against three strains of C. jejuni and two strains of C. coli. Results shown significant reductions in adherence (up to 70%) …

American Society Of Parasitologists Newsletter, V. 36, Nos. 1-2, Spring-Summer 2014, Scott Lyell Gardner

American Society of Parasitologists: Newsletter

Includes editor's note and contents, a report to the ASP by President Janovy, information about a new parasitology book, a report of the ASP Meeting in New Orleans, information about the transfer of the U.S. National Parasite Collection from the Agricultural Research Service to the Smithsonian Institution, and a list of credits and ASP Affiliates.

Evaluation Of Eight Live Attenuated Vaccine Candidates For Protection Against Challenge With Virulent Mycobacterium Avium Subspecies Paratuberclosis In Mice, John Bannantine, Jamie L. Everman, Sasha J. J.Rose, Lmar Babrak, Robab Katani, Raul G. Barletta, Adel M. Talaat, Yrjö J. Gröhn, Yung-Fu Chang, Vivek Kapur, Luiz E. Bermudez

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Johne's disease is caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), which results in serious economic losses worldwide in farmed livestock such as cattle, sheep, and goats. To control this disease, an effective vaccine with minimal adverse effects is needed. In order to identify a live vaccine for Johne's disease, we evaluated eight attenuated mutant strains of MAP using a C57BL/6 mouse model. The persistaence of the vaccine candidates was measured at 6, 12, and 18 weeks post vaccination. Only strains 320, 321, and 329 colonized both the liver and spleens up until the 12-week time point. The remaining five mutants …

A Likelihood Approach To Estimate The Number Of Co-Infections, Kristian A. Schneider, Ananias A. Escalante

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Article abstract:

The number of co-infections of a pathogen (multiplicity of infection or MOI) is a relevant parameter in epidemiology as it relates to transmission intensity. Notably, such quantities can be built into a metric in the context of disease control and prevention. Having applications to malaria in mind, we develop here a maximum-likelihood (ML) framework to estimate the quantities of interest at low computational and no additional costs to study designs or data collection. We show how the ML estimate for the quantities of interest and corresponding confidence-regions are obtained from multiple genetic loci. Assuming specifically that infections are …

The Prediction Of B-Cell Epitope Via Biostatistical And Bioinformatic Methodology And Applications, Bo Yao

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

By creating antibodies against antigens, B-cells, also named B-lymphocytes, play an important role in the immune system to fight against foreign invasion to the host body. Within the antigen specific to a certain B-cell antibody, the sections recognized and bound by antibody are called B-cell epitopes. As antigenic determinants, B-cell epitope identification is of vital importance in many immunological processes, such as vaccine design, immunodiagnostic tests, and antibody production. Towards this goal, biologists and immunologists have applied a variety of methods to identify B-cell epitopes through both experiments and bioinformatic predictions.

There are two kinds of B-cell epitopes: linear (continuous) …

Understanding The Factors Affecting Microbiological Quality Of Wheat Milled Products: From Wheat Fields To Milling Operations, Luis E. Sabillón Galeas

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Although regarded as a low-risk commodity, wheat flour-based mixes have been implicated in several food safety incidents. The present thesis is a compilation of five scientific manuscripts on the effect of weather variation, milling steps and implementation of pre-milling interventions on the microbiological quality and safety of wheat and milled products. The first manuscript is a review of the microbiological quality and safety of wheat-based products. Despite the low water activity, wheat flour may harbor dormant but viable microorganisms, which could lead to safety concerns when flour is used to produce refrigerated dough products. The second manuscript illustrates the effect …

Application Of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Based Metabolomics To Study The Central Metabolism Of Staphylococci, Bo Zhang

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Metabolomics studies the collection of small molecules (metabolites) involved in enzymatically catalyzed reactions, cell signaling and cellular structure. Perturbations in metabolite concentrations have been used to reflect the activity of corresponding enzymes or proteins. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a well-known approach for the structure determination of biological macromolecules. Alternatively, NMR has recently been established as a valuable tool of metabolomics, in which NMR spectral signals correlate small molecules with cellular activities. This has been accomplished through the chemometric analysis of high-throughput one dimensional ¹H spectra (metabolic fingerprinting) and quantitative metabolite identification based on two dimensional ¹H, …

Sex-Biased Gene Flow Among Elk In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Brian K. Hand, Shanyuan Chen, Neil Anderson, Albano Beja-Pereira, Paul C. Cross, Michael Ebinger, Hank Edwards, Robert A. Garrott, Marty D. Kardos, Matt Kauffman, Erin L. Landguth, Arthur Middleton, Brandon Scurlock, P.J. White, Pete Zager, Michael K. Schwartz, Gordon Luikart

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

We quantified patterns of population genetic structure to help understand gene flow among elk populations across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We sequenced 596 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region of 380 elk from eight populations. Analysis revealed high mitochondrial DNA variation within populations, averaging 13.0 haplotypes with high mean gene diversity (0.85). The genetic differentiation among populations for mitochondrial DNA was relatively high (FST = 0.161; P = 0.001) compared to genetic differentiation for nuclear microsatellite data (FST = 0.002; P = 0.332), which suggested relatively low female gene flow among populations. The estimated ratio of male to female …

Oligomask: A Framework For Assessing And Removing The Effect Of Genetic Variants On Microarray Probes, Daniel Bottomly, Beth Wilmot, Shannon K. Mcweeney

The R Journal

As expression microarrays are typically designed relative to a reference genome, any individual genetic variant that overlaps a probe’s genomic position can possibly cause a reduction in hybridization due to the probe no longer being a perfect match to a given sample’s mRNA at that locus. If the samples or groups used in a microarray study differ in terms of genetic variants, the results of the microarray experiment can be negatively impacted. The oligoMask package is an R/SQLite framework which can utilize publicly available genetic variants and works in conjunction with the oligo package to read in the expression data …

Chlorovirus Skp1 And Core Ankyrin-Repeat Protein Interplay And Mimicry Of Cellular Ubiquitin Ligase Machinery, Eric Andrew Noel

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The ubiquitin-proteasome system is a common target of several unrelated viruses that have evolved convergent strategies to redirect host ubiquitin machinery to serve their own needs. Members of the genus Chlorovirus, a group of large dsDNA viruses that infect certain freshwater chlorella-like green algae, encode a conserved Skp1 homolog and ankyrin-repeat (ANK) proteins, some of which contain C-terminal domains characteristic of cellular F-boxes or related viral PRANC domains. These observations suggested that this unique combination of chlorovirus proteins either interact with or imitate the key components of the SCF (Skp1-Cul1-F-box) ubiquitin ligases. Using mass spectrometry, we identified two functional …

Paleoparasitological Studies On Mummies Of The Joseon Dynasty, Korea, Min Seo, Adauto Araújo, Karl J. Reinhard, Jong Yil Chai, Dong Hoon Shin

Karl Reinhard Publications

Paleoparasitology is the application of conventional or molecular investigative techniques to archeological samples in order to reveal parasitic infection patterns among past populations. Although pioneering studies already have reported key paleoparasitological findings around the world, the same sorts of studies had not, until very recently, been conducted in sufficient numbers in Korea. Mummified remains of individuals dating to the Korean Joseon Dynasty actually have proved very meaningful to concerned researchers, owing particularly to their superb preservation status, which makes them ideal subjects for paleoparasitological studies. Over the past several years, our study series on Korean mummies has yielded very pertinent …

Cystic Echinococcoses In Mongolia: Molecular Identification, Serology And Risk Factors, Akira Ito, Temuulen Dorjsuren, Anu Davaasuren, Tetsuya Yanagida, Yasuhito Sako, Kazuhiro Nakaya, Minoru Nakao, Oyun-Erdene Bat-Ochir, Tsendjav Ayushkhuu, Narantuya Bazarragchaa, Nyamkhuu Gonchigsengee, Tiaoying Li, Gurbadam Agvaandaram, Abmed Davaajav, Chinchuluun Boldbaatar, Gantigmaa Chuluunbaatar

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Abstract

Background

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a globally distributed cestode zoonosis that causes hepatic cysts. Although Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto (s.s.) is the major causative agent of CE worldwide, recent molecular epidemiological studies have revealed that E. canadensis is common in countries where camels are present. One such country is Mongolia.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Forty-three human hepatic CE cases that were confirmed histopathologically at the National Center of Pathology (NCP) in Ulaanbaatar (UB) were identified by analysis of mitochondrial cox1 gene as being caused by either E. canadensis (n = 31, 72.1%) or E. granulosus s.s. ( …

Conformationally Stabilized Hiv Envelope Immunogens, Peter Kwong, John Mascola, Gary Nabel, Richard Wyatt, Barna Dey, Ling Xu, Tongqing Zhou, Joseph Sodroski, Wen Yuan, Shi-Hua Xiang

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Isolated immunogens including a HIV-1 gp120 polypeptide or immunogenic fragment thereof stabilized in a CD4 bound confirmation by crosslinked cysteines, and methods of their use are disclosed. The immunogens are useful, for example, for generating an immune response to HIV-1 gp120 in a Subject.

Investigating Antibiotic Resistance Levels Of Salmonella Internalized In Lettuce Leaves, Jason B. Thomas

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Contamination of food crops by the human pathogen Salmonella is a food safety threat worldwide. Though using treated wastewater for irrigation is a sustainable practice, it may introduce trace levels of Salmonella that may contaminate food crops. Salmonella could develop resistance to antibiotics present in wastewater. The overall goal of the project is to increase the understanding of the public health risk associated with the use of treated wastewater to irrigate food crops. The objective of this particular study is to determine the antibiotic resistance level of Salmonella internalized in lettuce leaves. In this experiment, thirty-six plants of the lettuce …

The Development And Application Of Nebraska’S Northeast Habitat Management Decision Support System, Christopher Jorgensen, Roger Grosse, Marian Langan, Alicia Hardin, Eric Zach, Karie Decker, Andrew Bishop

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Staff Research Publications

In the face of the compounded effects of a changing climate, exponential human population growth, and accelerated land-use change, implementation of effective conservation measures grows ever more challenging, as conservation organizations are often faced with limited funding and resources. Given the complexity of managing for multiple species, each inhabiting various local habitat types, it is astonishing that we can pinpoint specific areas and tracts of land within the focus area where conservation measures would benefit all species (Figure 3). Here we demonstrate the usefulness of decision support systems in aiding policymakers and habitat managers in making decisions about where to …

Visual Analysis And Design Proposal For The Bridges Organization Day Facility In Rockledge, Florida, Lesa N. Lorusso

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The population by age of the client and staff at the Bridges Facility in Rockledge, Florida represent a microcosm of the population of Brevard County, Florida. The shared history of two non-profit organizations that began in in Brevard County, FL in the mid twentieth century is remarkable. NASA began in 1958, and the Bridges organization began in 1956. The historically significant American community of Brevard County, FL now faces the challenges of a new focus without the NASA space shuttle program and accommodating an increasingly aging population, while the similarly aged Bridges organization faces similar organizational and population challenges as …

Diversity And Ecology Of Host-Seeking Mosquitoes In Irrigated Agro-Ecosystems Of Clay County, Nebraska, Alister K. Bryson

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the United States, Nebraska has the third highest incidence of human West Nile virus (WNV). Since WNV was first detected in the state in 2002, 3,422 confirmed cases and 57 deaths have been reported. Irrigated agro-ecosystems, which have been associated with elevated WNV incidences in other states, are prevalent in Nebraska. The objectives of this investigation were to 1) characterize mosquito abundance and diversity in irrigated agro-ecosystems, and 2) evaluate associations of two primary vectors of WNV, Culex tarsalis and Culex pipiens, with irrigation methods (sprinkler vs. surface) and crop type (corn vs. soybean). Investigations were conducted …

Influenza A Subtype H3 Viruses In Feral Swine, United States, 2011–2012, Zhixin Feng, John A. Baroch, Li-Ping Long, Yifei Xu, Frederick L. Cunningham, Kerri Pedersen, Mark W. Lutman, Brandon S. Schmidt, Andrew S. Bowman, Thomas J. Deliberto, Xiu-Feng Wan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

To determine whether, and to what extent, influenza A subtype H3 viruses were present in feral swine in the United States, we conducted serologic and virologic surveillance during October 2011–September 2012. These animals were periodically exposed to and infected with A(H3N2) viruses, suggesting they may threaten human and animal health.

Placental Hpv Infection In Hiv Positive And Hiv Negative Zambian Women, Chrispin Chisanga

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) have been reported to infect epithelial trophoblastic cells of the placenta, induce cell death and even cause placental malfunction associated with spontaneous preterm delivery. To date, no study has been conducted to determine the role of HIV on HPV genotype distribution and pathogenesis in the placental compartment. This is despite the evidence that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can decrease the cellular immune response and increase the incidence of malignant cancers in HPV patients. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed 200 genomic DNA (gDNA) samples extracted from paraffin embedded placental tissues of HIV positive and HIV negative …

Precautionary Labelling Of Foods For Allergen Content: Are We Ready For A Global Framework?, Katrina J. Allen, Paul J. Turner, Ruby Pawankar, Steve Taylor, Scott Sicherer, Gideon Lack, Nelson Rosario, Motohiro Ebisawa, Gary Wong, E. N. Clare Mills, Kirsten Beyer, Alessandro Fiocchi, Hugh A. Sampson

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Food allergy appears to be on the rise with the current mainstay of treatment centred on allergen avoidance. Mandatory allergen labelling has improved the safety of food for allergic consumers. However an additional form of voluntary labelling (termed precautionary allergen labelling) has evolved on a wide range of packaged goods, in a bid by manufacturers to minimise risk to customers, and the negative impact on business that might result from exposure to trace amounts of food allergen present during cross-contamination during production. This has resulted in near ubiquitous utilisation of a multitude of different precautionary allergen labels with subsequent confusion …

Developing Transmissible Vaccines For Animal Infections: Intrinsically Safe Designs And A Staged Transparent Development Process Will Be Essential, Daniel G. Streiker, Megan E. Griffiths, Rustom Antia, Laura Bergner, Peter Bowman, Maria Vitoria Dos Santos De Moraes, Kevin Esvelt, Mike Famulare, Amy T. Gilbert, Biao He, Michael A. Jarvis, David A. Kennedy, Jennifer Kuzma, Carolyne Nasi,Iyu Wanyonyi, Christopher Remien, Tonie Rocke, Kyle Rosenke, Courtney Schreiner, Justin Sheen, David Simons, Ivet A. Yordanova, James J. Bull, Scott L. Nuismer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Developing Transmissible Vaccines for Animal Infections: Intrinsically Safe Designs and a Staged Transparent Development Process Will Be Essential

Intrinsically safe, biologically compelling vaccine designs

Pahsed development must incorporate checkpoints and engagement

Staged development with established checkpoints

Wquitable partnerships with international governance

Toward deployment

Workshop organization

Seven proposed commitm ents for the responsible development of transmissible vaccines for infectious disease control in animals

Evolutionary outcomes of vaccine transmission depend on the viral vector and the genetic modifications introduced

Presence Of Cd8+ T Cells In The Ectocervical Mucosa Correlates With Genital Viral Shedding In Hiv-Infected Women Despite A Low Prevalence Of Hiv Rna–Expressing Cells In The Tissue, Anna Gibbs, Taha Hirbod, Qingsheng Li, Karin Bohman, Terry B. Ball, Francis A. Plummer, Rupert Kaul, Joshua Kimani, Kristina Broliden, Annelie Tjernlund

Qingsheng Li Publications

The female genital tract is a portal of entry for sexual HIV transmission and a possible viral reservoir. In this study, the ectocervical CD8⁺ T cell distribution was explored in situ and was related to expression of CD3 and HLA-DR and presence of HIV RNA. For this purpose, ectocervical tissue samples and genital secretions were collected from HIV-seropositive (HIV⁺) Kenyan female sex workers (FSWs) (n = 20), HIV-seronegative (HIV−) FSWs (n = 17), and HIV− lower-risk women (n = 21). Cell markers were assessed by in situ staining and by quantitative PCR. HIV RNA expression in tissue …

Genetic And Morphological Diversity Of Trisetacus Species (Eriophyoidea: Phytoptidae) Associated With Coniferous Trees In Poland: Phylogeny, Barcoding, Host And Habitat Specialization, Mariusz Lewandowski, Anna Skoracka, Wiktoria Szydło, Marcin Kozak, Tobiasz Druciarek, Don A. Griffiths

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Eriophyoid species belonging to the genus Trisetacus are economically important as pests of conifers. A narrow host specialization to conifers and some unique morphological characteristics have made these mites interesting subjects for scientific inquiry. In this study, we assessed morphological and genetic variation of seven Trisetacus species originating from six coniferous hosts in Poland by morphometric analysis and molecular sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene and the nuclear D2 region of 28S rDNA. The results confirmed the monophyly of the genus Trisetacus as well as the monophyly of five of the seven species studied. Both DNA sequences …

Identification Of Brucella Suis From Feral Swine In Selected States In The Usa, Kerri Pedersen, Christine R. Quance, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Antionette J. Piaggio, Sarah N. Bevins, Samuel M. Goldstein, Wesson D. Gaston, Thomas J. Deliberto

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Serologic tests currently available for brucellosis diagnosis detect antibodies to Brucella but do not distinguish between species of Brucella. Although Brucella suis is known to circulate within various feral swine (Sus scrofa) populations, our objective was to determine the primary species of Brucella circulating in feral swine populations in areas of the US with high brucellosis prevalence. We cultured lymph nodes from 183 feral swine. We identified 22 isolates from 21 animals, and all isolates were genotyped as B. suis. Most isolates were B. suis biovar 1, with the exception of two genetically distinct isolates from one feral swine in …

Cd8Α Dendritic Cells Drive Establishment Of Hsv-1 Latency, Kevin R. Mott, Sariah J. Allen, Mandana Zandian, Bindu Konda, Behrooz G. Sharifi, Clinton Jones, Steven L. Wechsler, Terrence Town, Homayon Ghiasi

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

It is generally accepted that CD8 T cells play the key role to maintain HSV-1 latency in trigeminal ganglia of ocularly infected mice. Yet, comparably little is known about the role of innate immunity in establishment of viral latency. In the current study, we investigated whether CD8α DCs impact HSV-1 latency by examining latency in the trigeminal ganglia (TG) of wildtype (WT) C57BL/6 versus CD8α^‒/‒ (lack functional CD8 T cells and CD8α⁺ DCs), CD8β^‒/‒ (have functional CD8α⁺ T cells and CD8α⁺ DCs), and β2m^‒/‒ (lack functional CD8 T cells but have CD8α^{+ …}

Debaryomyces Hansenii: A Foodborne Yeast That Produces Anti- Candida Killer Toxin, Nabaraj Banjara

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Candida yeasts are commensal members of the gastrointestinal, mucosal, oral and vaginal microbiota. Candida albicans and C. tropicalis can be found as a part of the normal human commensal flora, especially in all sections of the gastrointestinal tract. However, when the host defense system and microbiota are disturbed, Candida can become pathogenic and cause severe infection or candidiasis. Antifungal drugs used to treat candidiasis have been shown to result in treatment failures due to drug toxicity and/or development of resistance during long term antifungal therapy and, in recent years, the incidence of Candida infections has increased dramatically due to the …

A Stochastic Agent-Based Model Of Pathogen Propagation In Dynamic Multi-Relational Social Networks, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski, Mohamed Saad

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We describe a general framework for modeling and stochastic simulation of epidemics in realistic dynamic social networks, which incorporates heterogeneity in the types of individuals, types of interconnecting risk-bearing relationships, and types of pathogens transmitted across them. Dynamism is supported through arrival and departure processes, continuous restructuring of risk relationships, and changes to pathogen infectiousness, as mandated by natural history; dynamism is regulated through constraints on the local agency of individual nodes and their risk behaviors, while simulation trajectories are validated using system-wide metrics. To illustrate its utility, we present a case study that applies the proposed framework towards a …