Digital Commons Network^™

A Meta-Analysis Of Prescription Stimulant Efficacy: Are Stimulants Neurocognitive Enhancers?, Marisa E. Marraccini

Open Access Dissertations

Prescription stimulant use for neurocognitive enhancement is a significant problem among college students with and without ADHD. The primary reason students report misusing stimulant medication is to enhance academic functioning. Given that increasing numbers of students are misusing prescription stimulants, it is critical to explore whether empirical findings support neurocognitive benefits of prescription stimulants. Hence, the primary purpose of this meta-analytic study was to examine the potential effects of prescription stimulants on cognitive functioning of adults with and without ADHD. A systematic search and retrieval process resulted in the calculation of effect sizes from 91 studies. Fourteen meta-analyses were conducted …

Life Vs. Unlife: Interspecies Solidarity And Companionism In Contemporary American Literature, Barnaby Mclaughlin

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the representations of interspecies relationships in contemporary American literature. In recent years, interdisciplinary attention, variously referred to under the umbrella categories of Posthumanism," "Human-Animal Studies," "Animality Studies," and "Critical Animal Studies," have called into question the anthropocentric traditions across multiple disciplines. However, much of this recent attention still focuses on animals in the abstract, which is to say that they rarely concern themselves with actual animals or our relationships to them. Even when a real animal manages to penetrate a text, such as Jacques Derrida's cat in the opening pages of The Animal That Therefore I Am …

Virtuality, Virtual Consumption, And The China Market, Man Zhang

Open Access Dissertations

With technological advance, virtuality and virtual consumption have been evolving to become increasingly important in marketing landscapes worldwide. Theoretical and methodological approaches for study of virtuality and consumption, however, have not kept pace. In terms of theoretical approach, the existing literature has been primarily focused on virtual consumption in virtuality as a place of “de-localization” and “de-realization” In terms of methodological approach, there have been various conflicting opinions concerning different methodological procedures to be followed. Moreover, in terms of empirical study, there is little existing literature dealing with virtuality and virtual consumption in context other than western. Given the fact …

She Had A Name That God Didn’T Give Her: Thinking The Body Through Atheistic Black Radical Feminism, Marquis Bey

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

The article attempts to demonstrate the necessity of acknowledging the body when considering the current Black Lives Matter movement, give an account of Black female and trans erasure, and ultimately (re)affirm the lived embodiment of Black, female, and trans bodies, all through an atheistic lens. Atheism here, while indeed denying the existence of gods, has as its primary concern affirming life. Too often is theology, as theologian Anthony Pinn says, “a theology of no-body”; thus atheistic feminist Blackness, as understood here, seeks to entrench the body rather than abstract it. Atheistic feminist Blackness reinscribes and affirms the subjectivity and humanity …

Design And Development Of Ph-Sensitive Peptides For Cancer Diagnostics, Ramona Cosmina Adochite

Open Access Dissertations

The design and development of pH-sensitive peptides for cancer diagnostics provides an opportunity to study and address fundamental questions of in vivo bio-distribution of pH-sensitive peptides, as well as developing new targeting imaging and therapeutic agents for acidic diseased tissue such as cancer, infections, ischemia, stroke and others.

The main goal of the work presented here is to investigate the following problems:

- Targeting of highly metastatic mammary tumors and spontaneous breast tumors in transgenic mice with fluorescently labeled pHLIPs® (pH (Low) Insertion Peptides) pHLIP variants;

- Direct imaging of pHLIP insertion and cargo translocation in vivo;

- Targeting …

Characterization Of Biofilm Formation, Chemotaxis, And The Genome Of Aliiroseovarius Crassostreae, Linda Kessner

Open Access Master's Theses

Aliiroseovarius crassostreae, the causative agent of Roseovarius Oyster Disease, is a marine α-Proteobacterium and a member of the Roseobacter clade. Roseovarius Oyster Disease, formerly known as Juvenile Oyster Disease, has been the reason for high mortality rates in hatchery-raised eastern oysters (Crassostreae virginica) since the late 1980s. Juvenile oysters less than 25 mm in shell length are more heavily impacted by the disease than large adult oysters. Because mortality rates can exceed 90%, the disease is responsible for large economic losses to the New England aquaculture industry. The probiotic organism, Phaeobacter gallaeciensis is a marine α-Proteobacterium and …

Assessing The Pathogenic Cause Of Sea Star Wasting Disease In Asterias Forbesi Along The East Coast Of The United States, Caitlin Jessica Delsesto

Open Access Master's Theses

As keystone predators, sea stars serve to maintain biodiversity and distribution through trophic level interactions in intertidal ecosystems. Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD) has caused widespread mass mortality of Asterias forbesi in locations along the Northeast Coast of the US in recent years. A similar disease has been described in several sea star species from the West Coast of the US. Recently, a densovirus has been associated with wasting disease in West Coast sea stars and a few limited samples of A. forbesi. The goal of this research is to describe the pathogenesis of SSWD in A. forbesi and …

Garcinia Kola: Phytochemical, Biological And Formulation Studies, Yasah Vezele

Open Access Master's Theses

The objective of this research was to search for an antiviral compound, garcinol (or guttiferone F) from the Garcinia kola nuts using two different extraction techniques and formulate a suitable liposome for control release using an antiviral compound. The two extraction techniques used were: liquid-liquid extraction (for simplicity purposes, the term solvent-solvent, S-S, will be used interchangeable) and Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE). Both techniques were used to profile compounds found in Garcinia kola and for statistical comparison purposes. Extracts from both techniques were collected and analyzed for separation using Reversed-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) using Ultraviolet Photodiode Array (UV-PDA) …

Exploring Classroom Behavior And Vocabulary Learning Outcomes In Kindergarten, Sarah Hardy

Open Access Master's Theses

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of student behavior on vocabulary knowledge development across three groups of kindergarteners: Intervention, Control, and Reference. Kindergarten students (n = 1132) from forty schools across Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Oregon completed a vocabulary program approximately 20 weeks in duration, including an additional vocabulary intervention for students in the Intervention group. Each student was assessed on four different vocabulary knowledge measures before and after completion of the vocabulary program, using both standardized and experimenter-developed formats: Target Receptive, Target Expressive, PPVT-4, and EVT-2. Results showed significant impact on vocabulary outcomes by …

Organic Waste Amendments As Sources Of Carbon And Fertility For Vegetable, Rebecca Long

Open Access Master's Theses

Waste amendments, such as food or yard waste, are abundant potential sources of C for soil organic matter and nutrients for crop production. A number of amendments, like gelatin waste and dehydrated food waste, remain relatively unstudied. For those amendments that have been extensively studied, like biosolids and paper waste, the conclusions about their effects on soil and crops are often conflicting, likely due to the varying experimental conditions. To address this gap in knowledge, I compared six waste amendments and their effects on soil quality and vegetable crop production to a mineral fertilizer control.

In a two-year field trial …

Boat Anchoring Contributes To Coral Reef Degradation In The British Virgin Islands, Rebecca Loberg Flynn

Open Access Master's Theses

Habitat degradation is occurring the world over, threatening species, population dynamics, ecosystem function and valuable ecosystem services. This degradation is in many cases linked to anthropogenic activities, which often reduce a habitat’s resilience to other stressors. Coral reef decline, for example, has been linked to climate change, pollution, and overfishing. Few studies have focused on the localscale physical drivers of coral decline, such as anchoring. As global human population and the popularity of water-based recreation continue to rise, the potential for anchoring to contribute to coastal habitat degradation increases. We sought to determine the potential impact of anchoring to coral …

Do Urban Environments Influence Antipredator And Foraging Behavior Of The Lizard Anolis Cristatellus?, Kevin J. Aviles-Rodriguez

Open Access Master's Theses

As the human population increases, urban areas are expanding and bringing humans and wildlife into close proximity. Disturbance by humans can lead to changes in animal behavior and ecological interactions. Urban areas also provide access to novel, artificial substrates (e.g., cement walls and metal posts), which may influence the behavior of organisms. We studied whether urban habitats and artificial substrates influenced escape and foraging behavior of the Puerto Rican Crested Anole (Anolis cristatellus).

We tested whether lizards in urban environments reduced flight initiation distance (i.e., the distance between the observer and the lizard when the lizard begins escape) …

The Effect Of A Family-Based Dietary Intervention On Dietary Fiber Density In Children Ages 6-11, Jennifer Nobles

Open Access Master's Theses

Background: Fiber intake has been shown to be higher in normal weight children compared to overweight and obese children. However, the effect of family-based interventions have been inconclusive.

Objective: To determine if a family-based weight management intervention, which has been successful at lowering BMI Z-score, has an effect on energy adjusted dietary fiber intake and other markers of dietary quality.

Methods: Sixty-six children ages 6-11 and their guardians participated in a 16 week nutrition and physical activity intervention. Guardians and children completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) during the first and last sessions. The FFQ provided information …

Food Safety And School Garden Program, Valerie Calberry

Open Access Master's Theses

School food safety education programs have increased knowledge and promoted proper food safety practices, attitudes and beliefs of students. Supplying young children with basic food safety education is important for the development of foundational food safety knowledge and behaviors. The primary objective of the Food Safety and School Garden Program (FSSGP) was to develop an intervention curriculum that integrated food safety principles into school garden-related activities and the primary hypothesis was that there would be a significant increase in students’ knowledge from pre- to post-intervention. The secondary objectives of this study were to assess knowledge changes by grade and by …

Detecting And Verifying Microsatellite Markers Associated With Disease Resistance In Cultured Populations Of Eastern Oysters, Crassostrea Virginica, Kehan Bao

Open Access Master's Theses

The eastern oyster, Crassostrea viginica, is an economically important aquaculture species in the USA, but several diseases, such as Dermo and MSX, inhibit maximum production. Efforts have been made to develop disease-resistant oyster lines using selective breeding techniques based on phenotype; however, achievement of the desired trait is hindered by the inability to maintain consistent and intense selection pressure in field trials. Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) offers an effective alternative to traditional breeding techniques by selecting based on genetic markers associated with disease resistance, even in the absence of disease-related selection pressure. The greatest challenge in applying MAS is to …

Individual Differences In Interpretations Of Justified And Unjustified Violence, Melissa Marcotte

Open Access Master's Theses

This study examines the impact and interaction of individual differences in personality, empathic style, ethical position, and trait violence sensitivity on perceptions of violence in a "justified" or "unjustified" video clip. Undergraduate students (n=229) enrolled in an introductory psychology course participated in an online survey where they were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 groups (Video Order x Justification). As found in previous studies, in general, participants rated the justified clip as less violent, even though both videos depicted the same scene. When rating the unjustified violence, individual differences did not seem to impact severity ratings but when participants were …

Inducing Heterochronic Shift In Ciona Intestinalis, Bonnie Colantuono

Open Access Master's Theses

Solitary and colonial ascidians show heterochrony in the development of adult organs. This project is a first step towards reproducing this heterochronic shift using Ciona intestinalis as a model and gaining insight into the number of genes involved in this process. In the first part of this thesis, an inducible transgene was constructed to reproduce the shift. The transgene was designed with a heat shock protein (HSP70) promoter to induce the expression of a gene at any time in development. A control transgene was constructed, but after two experiments, the transgene did not show the ability to be induced. With …

Landscape Pattern And Change Through Integration Of Remote Sensing And Stone Wall Feature Identification, Rebecca J. Trueman

Open Access Master's Theses

Stone walls are relics of an agricultural civilization that once flourished in New England. By identifying the locations of both historical and present day stone walls, compositions of post-agricultural landscapes common across the New England region can be assessed with inclusion of historic human-land use interactions. I selected the town of New Shoreham, known as Block Island, as the study site for this thesis. Block Island is located approximately 14.5 km south of the Rhode Island mainland. The Island has rich land use history which resulted in an extensive network of stone walls still present across the landscape. Through visual …

Tolfenamic Acid: A Potential Modifier Of Tau Protein In Alzheimer's Disease, Joanna K. Chang

Open Access Master's Theses

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by the increased abundance of amyloid beta (AB) plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles composed of hyperphosphorylated tau. Only a handful of medications have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since AD's discovery more than 100 years ago. These drugs only treat the symptoms and are best prescribed during the early stages of the disease. In addition, the drugs do not restore the cognitive loss. It is critical to discover a novel drug to treat and prevent this disease. We …

Shellfish Farms As Agritourism Destinations: The Growers' Perspective, Maria Vasta

Open Access Master's Theses

Agritourism encompasses a variety of different types of agricultural tourism products and can be defined broadly as the incorporation of commercial tourism into a working farm. Agritourism has been used on land as a way to diversify farm activities. As national shellfish aquaculture production in the United States increased over the years, aquaculture growers also began adopting agritourism components on their farms.

The primary objectives for this study were to (1) expand on current agritourism knowledge; (2) help to address the gap in existing literature pertaining to aquaculture farm-based tourism; and (3) provide shellfish growers and coastal managers with insights …

Injectable Conductive Hydrogels For Use In Neuroprosthetic Intervention, Rosa Ghatee

Open Access Master's Theses

Neuroprosthetic interventions are strategies aimed at treating a wide range of neurological disorders, long-term neuroprosthetic treatments traditionally require the implantation of hard metallic electrodes that must sustain their electrical connection with neural tissues for prolonged periods of time. However, surgical introduction of these electrodes and their mechanical mismatch with neural tissues results in inflammation, which disrupts their electrical interface. Our aim was to develop soft, injectable, and conducting hydrogel-based electrode materials and characterize their sustained mechanical and electrical properties before and after sterilization and injection. These gels were made from poly (3-4, ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) (a conductive polymer) and poly (acrylic …

Tracking Control For Non-Minimum Phase System And Brain Computer Interface, Yacine Boudria

Open Access Dissertations

For generations, humans dreamed about the ability to communicate and interact with machines through thought alone or to create devices that can peer into a person’s mind and thoughts. Researchers have developed new technologies to create brain computer interfaces (BCIs), communication systems that do not depend on the brain’s normal output pathways of peripheral nerves and muscles. The objective of the first part of this thesis is to develop a new BCI based on electroencephalography (EEG) to move a computer cursor over a short training period in real time. The work motivations of this part are to increase: speed and …

The Green Eating Project: Web-Based Intervention To Promote Environmentally Conscious Eating Behaviours In Us University Students, Jessica T. Monroe, Ingrid E. Lofgren, Becky L. Sartini, Geoffrey W. Greene

Nutrition Faculty Publications

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of an online, interactive intervention, referred to as the Green Eating (GE) Project, to motivate university students to adopt GE behaviours.

Design: The study was quasi-experimental and integrated into courses for credit/extra credit. Courses were randomly stratified into experimental or non-treatment control. The 5-week intervention consisted of four modules based on different GE topics. Participants completed the GE survey at baseline (experimental, n 241; control, n 367) and post (experimental, n 187; control, n 304). The GE survey has been previously validated and consists of Transtheoretical Model constructs including stage of change (SOC), …

Nrf As An Oxidative Stress And Nutrient Responsive Transcription Factor In Calorie Restriction, Laura Armstrong

Open Access Dissertations

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) can classically be defined by physiological factors, clinical factors, and metabolic factors that are responsible for increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). The International Diabetes Federation has released the most recent definition of MetS, defined by increased waist circumference and two of the following factors: increased serum triglycerides or decreased HDL-cholesterol, increased fasting blood glucose, or hypertension. MetS is also profoundly defined by chronic low-grade inflammation. This proinflammatory state can develop as a result adipocyte hypertrophy and hyperplasia that is responsible for increased secretion of glycerol, free fatty acids, and secretion of …

On Becoming A Digital Literacy Mentor: Self-Determination And Media Production In Elementary Education, Yonty Friesem

Open Access Dissertations

Today, anyone with a smartphone has access to a whole suite of tools to create video and multimedia that can be instantly and widely shared. While research shows the cognitive, social, and emotional benefits of media production on students' learning, less is known about how media production is integrated into the context of elementary education and only a few schools have begun to experiment with video production as a means to promote literacy and learning. This research explored some effects of a two-year initiative to integrate digital literacy in a suburban public elementary school. For a period of six months, …

Bridging The Soft-Skill Gap From Education To Employment Through Internships, Kim Stack Washor

Open Access Dissertations

Employers express a growing concern that recent college graduates do not possess the necessary soft-skills to transition into entry level positions seamlessly. Educators are asked by employers and policy makers to provide instruction which would develop student skills in both the “hard” (academic and technical) and “soft” (personality traits and habits) skills required to be workplace-ready. The research study was designed to understand the degree to which internships enhance student soft-skill development, specifically in the areas of communication, teamwork, initiative, and, analytical thinking. Researcher-designed pre-post retrospective surveys were administered to students and one to corresponding supervisors to measure change in …

An Examination Of Argumentation In Undergraduate Composition Textbooks, Wendy Lee Grosskopf

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation describes an investigation of the practice of teaching argumentation in the undergraduate composition classroom in large part by examining a corpus consisting of 16 commonly used argumentation textbooks with publication dates from 2010 to 2014. The purpose of this project is to help advance the teaching of written argumentation by examining how it is defined, justified, and taught via textbooks, by ranking the textbooks on a 1-3 sliding scale according to how well the lesson plans within them are equipped to teach students how to write arguments according to what the authors and publishers describe as the ideal …

Development Of Copper Sulfide Nanoparticles For Photothermal And Chemo Therapy Of Cancer Cells, Yajuan Li

Open Access Dissertations

Cancer has become number one cause of death. Conventional treatment includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or combination. The combinatorial therapy in one system is highly efficient and economical. Herein, two drug delivery systems with chemo and photothermal therapy are developed in order to enhance the therapeutic efficacy in A549 human lung cancer cells. The first one is hollow copper sulfide nanoparticle carrying doxorubicin (PEG-HCuSNPs-DOX). The second one is mesoporous silica coated CuS nanoparticles (CuS NPs) loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) (PEG-CuS@MSNs-DOX).

Both nano-drug delivery systems are pH sensitive, laser responsive, and photothermal convertible. CuS NPs are the photothermal sensitizers in both …

Insomnia And Identity: The Discursive Function Of Sleeplessness In Modernist Literature, Sarah Kingston

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the topic of insomnia in British and American modernist literature, focusing primarily on the ways in which the condition of insomnia and the identity category of the “insomniac” intersect with other aspects of subjectivity, such as gender, occupation, race, and social class. Through examining insomnia from a narratological perspective, using fictional, philosophical, psychological, sociological, and medical literature, I discuss the discursive function of both this disorder and identity category during the Modernist period. It also explores the relationship between insomnia and Modernism itself, regarding both the discursive production of knowledge of insomnia and the insomniac during this …

“I Am A Hmong American”: An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Hmong Students In College, Ducha Hang

Open Access Dissertations

As the changing demographics in the United States are steadily shifting the student populations in colleges and universities, the focus on retention and college success becomes ever more important. When marginalized and underrepresented students like Asian Americans enter post-secondary education institutions and are assumed to fit stereotypes like the Model Minority Myth which suggests that all Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students are high achievers, how do these students succeed and continue with their education under challenges including discrimination, language barriers (Lee, 2008) and cultural tension (Xiong and Lee, 2011; Ngo, 2007)? This study explores the experiences of Hmong …