Digital Commons Network^™

8th Vaccine Renaissance: A Creative Nexus For Vaccine Developers, Heather Johnson, Lenny Moise, Austin Menge, Sarah Beseme, Anne S. De Groot

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

T Cell Epitope Redundancy: Cross-Conservation Of The Tcr Face Between Pathogens And Self And Its Implications For Vaccines And Auto-Immunity, Leonard Moise, Sarah Beseme, Ryan Tassone, Rui Liu, Farzana Kibria, Francis Terry, William Martin, Anne S. De Groot

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

T cells are extensively trained on ‘self’ in the thymus and then move to the periphery, where they seek out and destroy infections and regulate immune response to self-antigens. T cell receptors (TCR) on T cells’ surface recognize T cell epitopes, short linear strings of amino acids presented by antigen-presenting cells. Some of these epitopes activate T effectors, while others activate regulatory T cells. It was recently discovered that T cell epitopes that are highly conserved on their TCR face with human genome sequences are often associated with T cells that regulate immune response. These TCR-cross-conserved or ‘redundant epitopes’ are …

Momentum: Research & Innovation For Spring 2015, University Of Rhode Island

Publications (Research and Economic Development)

The Spring 2015 issue of Momentum: Research & Innovation, a periodical focused on research at the University of Rhode Island.

And On Top Of All That… Coping With Ocean Acidification In The Midst Of Many Stressors, Denise L. Breitburg, John Salisbury, Joan M. Bernhard, Wei-Jun Cai, Sam Dupont, Scott C. Doney, Kristy J. Kroeker, Lisa A. Levin, W. Christopher Long, Lisa M. Milke, Seth H. Miller, Beth Phelan, Uta Passow, Brad A. Seibel, Anne E. Todgham, Ann M. Tarrant

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Oceanic and coastal waters are acidifying due to processes dominated in the open ocean by increasing atmospheric CO₂ and dominated in estuaries and some coastal waters by nutrient-fueled respiration. The patterns and severity of acidification, as well as its effects, are modified by the host of stressors related to human activities that also influence these habitats. Temperature, deoxygenation, and changes in food webs are particularly important co-stressors because they are pervasive, and both their causes and effects are often mechanistically linked to acidification. Development of a theoretical underpinning to multiple stressor research that considers physiological, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives …

The Magic Of Wondering: Building Understanding Through Online Inquiry, Julie Coiro

College of Education Faculty Publications

The ability to ask questions is essential to learning, reasoning, and understanding. This column introduces a sequence of activities that incorporate the use of digital images and online texts into intentional opportunities for even the youngest learners to work with their teachers and classmates as they wonder, anticipate, explore, and think deeply about things that matter to them.

Ontogenic Expression Of Human Carboxylesterase-2 And Cytochrome P450 3a4 In Liver And Duodenum: Postnatal Surge And Organ-Dependent Regulation, Yi-Tzai Chen, Lynnie Trzoss, Dongfang Yang, Bingfang Yan

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Human carboxylesterase-2 (CES2) and cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) are two major drug metabolizing enzymes that play critical roles in hydrolytic and oxidative biotransformation, respectively. They share substrates but may have opposite effect on therapeutic potential such as the metabolism of the anticancer prodrug irinotecan. Both CES2 and CYP3A4 are expressed in the liver and the gastrointestinal tract. This study was conducted to determine whether CES2 and CYP3A4 are expressed under developmental regulation and whether the regulation occurs differentially between the liver and duodenum. A large number of tissues (112) were collected with majority of them from donors at 1–198 days …

Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Was Inversely Associated With 3-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Chinese Oldest Old: Data From The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, Yue-Bin Lv, Zhao-Xue Yin, Choy-Lye Chei, Han-Zhu Qian, Virginia Byers Kraus, Juan Zhang, Melanie Sereny Brasher, Xiao-Ming Shi, David Bruce Matchar, Yi Zeng

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Objective: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a risk factor for survival in middle-aged individuals, but conflicting evidence exists on the relationship between LDL-C and all-cause mortality among the elderly. The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between LDL-C and all-cause mortality among Chinese oldest old (aged 80 and older) in a prospective cohort study.

Methods: LDL-C concentration was measured at baseline and all-cause mortality was calculated over a 3-year period. Multiple statistical models were used to adjust for demographic and biological covariates.

Results: During three years of follow-up, 447 of 935 participants died, and the overall all-cause …

The Evolution Of Difficult Childbirth And Helpless Hominin Infants, Holly M. Dunsworth, Leah Eccleston

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Because of the implications for behavioral, social, and cultural evolution, reconstructions of the evolutionary history of human parturition are driven by two main questions: First, when did childbirth become difficult? And second, does difficult childbirth have something to do with infant helplessness? Here we review the available evidence and consider answers to these questions. Although the definitive time frame remains unclear, childbirth may not have reached our present state of difficulty until fairly recently (

Responses Of Birds To Humans At A Coastal Barrier Beach: Napatree Point, Rhode Island, Thomas W. Mayo, Peter W. C. Paton, Pete August

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Human activity is one of the most important factors affecting disturbance to birds that use coastal barrier beaches in southern New England. The barrier beach at Napatree Point, RI, provides important breeding habitat for several bird species, key stopover habitat for thousands of migrating shorebirds, and is also a popular destination for people. Anecdotal evidence suggested that walkers, joggers, dogs, and watercraft were disrupting birds that foraged and roosted at this site. Our objectives were to characterize the frequency and sources of disturbance to birds and use this information to develop management recommendations to minimize the frequency of human disturbances …

Time For T? Immunoinformatics Addresses The Challenges Of Vaccine Design For Neglected Tropical And Emerging Infectious Diseases, Francis E. Terry, Leonard Moise, Rebecca Martin, Melissa Torres, Nils Pilotte, Steven Williams, Anne S. De Groot

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

Vaccines have been invaluable for global health, saving lives and reducing healthcare costs, while also raising the quality of human life. However, newly emerging infectious diseases (EID) and more well-established tropical disease pathogens present complex challenges to vaccine developers; in particular, neglected tropical diseases, which are most prevalent among the world’s poorest, include many pathogens with large sizes, multistage life cycles and a variety of nonhuman vectors. EID such as MERS-CoV and H7N9 are highly pathogenic for humans. For many of these pathogens, while their genomes are available, immune correlates of protection are currently unknown. These complexities make developing vaccines …

Preclinical Development Of Hivax: Human Survivin Highly Immunogenic Vaccines, Peter R. Hoffmann, Maddalena Panigada, Elisa Soprana, Francis Terry, Ivo Sah Bandar, Andrea Napolitano, Aaron H. Rose, Fukun W. Hoffmann, Lishomwa C. Ndhlovu, Mahdi Belcaid, Lenny Moise, Anne S. De Groot, Michele Carbone, Giovanni Gaudino, Takashi Matsui, Antonio Siccardi, Pietro Bertino

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

Our previous work involved the development of a recombinant fowlpox virus encoding survivin (FP-surv) vaccine that was evaluated for efficacy in mesothelioma mouse models. Results showed that FP-surv vaccination generated significant immune responses, which led to delayed tumor growth and improved animal survival. We have extended those previous findings in the current study, which involves the pre-clinical development of an optimized version of FP-surv designed for human immunization (HIvax). Survivin-derived peptides for the most common haplotypes in the human population were identified and their immunogenicity confirmed in co-culture experiments using dendritic cells and T cells isolated from healthy donors. Peptides …

Momentum: Research & Innovation For Winter 2015, University Of Rhode Island

Publications (Research and Economic Development)

The Winter 2015 issue of Momentum: Research & Innovation, a periodical focused on research at the University of Rhode Island.

Array-Based Detection Of Persistent Organic Pollutants Via Cyclodextrin Promoted Energy Transfer, Nicole Serio, Daniel F. Moyano, Vincent M. Rotello, Mindy Levine

Chemistry Faculty Publications

We report herein the selective array-based detection of 30 persistent organic pollutants via cyclodextrin-promoted energy transfer. The use of three fluorophores enabled the development of an array that classified 30 analytes with 100% accuracy and identified unknown analytes with 96% accuracy, as well as identifying 92% of analytes in urine.

Escherichia Coli Edl933 Requires Gluconeogenic Nutrients To Successfully Colonize The Intestines Of Streptomycin-Treated Mice Precolonized With E. Coli Nissle 1917, Silvia A. C. Schinner, Matthew E. Mokszycki, Jimmy Adediran, Mary Leatham-Jensen, Paul S. Cohen

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Escherichia coli MG1655, a K-12 strain, uses glycolytic nutrients exclusively to colonize the intestines of streptomycin-treated mice when it is the only E. coli strain present or when it is confronted with E. coli EDL933, an O157:H7 strain. In contrast, E. coli EDL933 uses glycolytic nutrients exclusively when it is the only E. coli strain in the intestine but switches in part to gluconeogenic nutrients when it colonizes mice precolonized with E. coli MG1655 (R. L. Miranda et al., Infect Immun 72:1666–1676, 2004, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/IAI.72.3.1666-1676.2004). Recently, J. W. Njoroge et al. (mBio 3:e00280-12, 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00280-12) reported that E …

Structure Activity Related, Mechanistic, And Modeling Studies Of Gallotannins Containing A Glucitol-Core And Α-Glucosidase, Hang Ma, Ling Wang, Daniel B. Niesen, Ang Cai, Bongsup P. Cho, Wen Tan, Qiong Gu, Jun Xu, Navindra P. Seeram

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Gallotannins containing a glucitol core, which are only produced by members of the maple (Acer) genus, are more potent α-glucosidase inhibitors than the clinical drug, acarbose. While this activity is influenced by the number of substituents on the glucitol core (e.g. more galloyl groups leads to increased activity), the mechanisms of inhibitory action are not known. Herein, we investigated ligand–enzyme interactions and binding mechanisms of a series of ‘glucitol-core containing gallotannins (GCGs)’ against the α-glucosidase enzyme. The GCGs included ginnalins A, B and C (containing two, one, and one galloyl/s, respectively), maplexin F (containing 3 galloyls) and …

Deficiency In Nrf2 Transcription Factor Decreases Adipose Tissue Mass And Hepatic Lipid Accumulation In Leptin‐Deficient Mice, Jialin Xu, Ajay C. Donepudi, Vijay R. More, Supriya R. Kulkarni, Liya Li, Liangran Guo, Bingfang Yan, Tapan Chatterjee, Neal Weintraub, Angela L. Slitt

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Objective: To evaluate whether Nrf2 deficiency impacts insulin resistance and lipid accumulation in liver and white adipose tissue.

Methods: Lep^ob/ob mice (OB) with targeted Nrf2 deletion (OB‐Nrf2KO) were generated. Pathogenesis of obesity and type 2 diabetes was measured in C57BL/6J, Nrf2KO, OB, and OB‐Nrf2KO mice. Hepatic lipid content, lipid clearance, and very low‐density lipoprotein (VLDL) secretion were determined between OB and OB‐Nrf2KO mice.

Results: OB‐Nrf2KO mice exhibited decreased white adipose tissue mass and decreased adipogenic and lipogenic gene expression compared with OB mice. Nrf2 deficiency prolonged hyperglycemia in response to glucose challenge, which was paralleled by reduced insulin‐stimulated Akt …

Urinformed Summer 2015, Urinformed

URInformed: The URI Employees' Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Going Global: The Introduction Of The Asian Isopod Ianiropsis Serricaudis Gurjanova (Crustacea: Peracarida) To North America And Europe, Niels-Viggo Hobbs, Eric Lazo-Wasem, Marco Faasse, Jeffrey R. Cordell, John W. Chapman, Carter S. Smith, Robert Prezant, Rebecca Shell, James T. Carlton

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The Asian isopod Ianiropsis serricaudis is now well established in fouling communities, often associated with introduced ascidians, throughout the Northern Hemisphere but has gone largely unnoticed because of its diminutive size (typically less than 3 mm in length) and the difficulties of identifying small peracarid crustaceans. Known locations include the northeastern Pacific (Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, and Monterey Bay), the northwestern Atlantic (from the Gulf of Maine to Barnegat Bay, NJ), and the northeastern Atlantic (England and the Netherlands). We predict that this species is widespread along North America and European coasts, and may already be introduced to cold …

Placental Transfusion Improves Iron Stores At 6 Weeks Of Age In Late Preterm Infants, Judith S. Mercer, Debra A. Erickson-Owens

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Graduate School Of Oceanography Annual Report For Fy2015, Uri Graduate School Of Oceanography

Graduate School of Oceanography Publications

Annual report for the Graduate School Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island for the year 2015 fiscal year.

Includes research projects by faculty and students, biographies of new faculty, events on the Bay campus and program development and list of donors.

Advanced Targeted Nanomedicine, Mohan C.M. Arachchige, Yana K. Reshetnyak, Oleg A. Andreev

Physics Faculty Publications

Targeted drug delivery has been the major topic in drug formulation and delivery. As nanomedicine emerges to create nano scale therapeutics and diagnostics, it is still essential to embed targeting capability to these novel systems to make them useful. Here we discuss various targeting approaches for delivery of therapeutic and diagnostic nano materials in view of search for more universal methods to target diseased tissues. Many diseases are accompanied with hypoxia and acidosis. Coating nanoparticles with pH Low Insertion Peptides (pHLIPs) increases efficiency of targeting acidic diseased tissues. It has been showing promising results to create future nanotheranostics for cancer …

Fathers' And Mothers' Verbal Responsiveness And The Language Skills Of Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Michelle Flippin, Linda R. Watson

Communicative Disorders Faculty Publications

Purpose: In this observational study, we examined the interactions of 16 young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents to investigate (a) differences in verbal responsiveness used by fathers and mothers in interactions with their children with ASD and (b) concurrent associations between the language skills of children with ASD and the verbal responsiveness of both fathers and mothers.

Method: Parent verbal responsiveness was coded from video recordings of naturalistic parent–child play sessions using interval-based coding. Child language skills were measured by the Preschool Language Scale–Fourth Edition (Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 2002).

Results: For both …

Department Of English 2014-2015 Annual Newsletter, Uri English Department

English and Creative Writing Department Publications

The 2014-2015 Annual Newsletter for the English Department is a periodical focused on department news and faculty research.

Synchrony Capture Filterbank (Scfb): Auditory-Inspired Signal Processing For Frequency Tracking, Vijay Kumar Peddinti

Open Access Dissertations

The mammalian auditory system is a more robust and versatile sound analyzer than any artificial system that has been developed to date. Nature found a simple yet elegant solution for the hearing mechanism. Incorporating some key aspects of the functional organization of the mammalian auditory system into artificial signal-processing systems may drastically simplify problems of auditory representation and scene analysis such that capabilities for acoustic signal separation, detection, classification, recognition and identification can be greatly improved.

The objective of the thesis is to mimic the functionality of the mammalian peripheral auditory system in a digital computer by developing a synchrony …

An Investigation Of The Interactions Between Escherichia Coli And The Intestinal Microbiota In Vivo And In Vitro, Matthew E. Mokszycki

Open Access Dissertations

We previously proposed that colonizing strains of E. coli likely occupy specific niches as minimal members of mixed biofilms formed primarily by anaerobic members of the gut flora. These "restaurants" formed by the different community members of the gut provide individual strains of E. coli with various unique binding pockets and locally provided mono- and disaccharides by breaking down polysaccharides which facultative anaerobes, such as E. coli, could not break down on their own. This allows strains of E. coli that cannot grow as efficiently on available sugars to colonize if they are able to occupy niches that other …

Evaluation Of In Vitro Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Diabetic And Anti-Lipogenic Activity Of Natural Polyphenolic Extracts And Their Pure Constituents, Pragati P. Nahar

Open Access Dissertations

The long-term goals and objectives of our group are to identify bioactive natural products relevant to human disease prevention and health promotion. To attain this goal, the objective of this thesis was to demonstrate that bioactive polyphenol-rich extracts or preparations exert positive health benefits beyond basic nutrition, thus impacting overall health and wellness. We believe that this project has immense scientific merit from a human health perspective and will be of great public impact given that consumers are seeking natural and organic choices for improving health. In this investigation, we have focused our attention on investigating the biological activities of …

Childhood Maltreatment And Its Impact On Executive Skills Within An Inpatient Setting, Jennifer Ann Dupont Frechette

Open Access Dissertations

Previous research has shown that child maltreatment can negatively impact brain development and neurocognitive systems for children, adolescents, and adults. However there are no published studies that have sought to understand the role of child maltreatment with psychiatrically hospitalized children. Psychiatrically hospitalized children are considered a high-risk population due to increased suicidality, internalizing disorders, and lower cognitive functioning. The current study examined a hierarchical and cumulative model of maltreatment with inpatient children (ages 6-14 years old) who had been maltreated (n=111) to understand its impact on executive functioning skills, compared with a psychiatric outpatient sample (n=166). …

Uri Undergraduate And Graduate Course Catalog 2015-2016, University Of Rhode Island

URI Course Catalogs Archive

This is a downloadable PDF version of the University of Rhode Island course catalog.

Stages Of Change For Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision And Sexual Risk Behavior In Uncircumcised Zambian Men: The Spear And Shield Project, Colleen A. Redding, Deborah Jones, Robert Zulu, Ndashi Chitalu, Ryan Cook, Stephen M. Weiss

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Dissemination and scale up of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programs is well supported by evidence that VMMC reduces HIV risk in populations with high HIV prevalence and low rates of circumcision, as is the case in Zambia.

Purpose: At both individual and population levels, it is important to understand what stages of change for VMMC are associated with, especially across cultures. This study evaluated VMMC knowledge, misinformation, and stages of change for VMMC of uncircumcised men and boys (over 18 years), as well as the concurrent relationship between VMMC stages of change and sexual risk behaviors.

Method: Uncircumcised …

The Pricing Of Community Supported Agriculture Shares: Evidence From New England, Thomas W. Sproul, Jaclyn D. Kropp, Kyle D. Barr

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Purpose: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs allow consumers to buy a share of a farm’s production while providing working capital and risk management benefits for farmers. Several different types of CSA arrangements have emerged in the market with terms varying in the degree to which consumers share in the farm’s risk. No-arbitrage principles of futures and options pricing suggest that CSA shares should be priced to reflect the degree of risk transfer.

Methodology: We evaluate the three most common share types using a cross-sectional dataset of 226 CSA farms from New England to determine if there is empirical …