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An Investigation Of Cardiac Dynamics And Substrate Metabolism In An Animal Heart Failure Model, Anna Stanhewicz

Senior Honors Projects

Heart failure (HF) is a condition in which the working heart is unable to meet the blood flow demands of the body. It is the leading cause of early death in the United States and is a progressive, debilitating disease that presently, can only be detected in late, irreversible stages. The progression of HF is complex and poorly understood, involving a number of molecular mechanisms. It is characterized by a complex of symptoms including cardiac hypertrophy and a shift in myocardial substrate utilization, all leading to reduced pumping efficiency of the heart and decreased systemic blood flow. In HF, the …

Protozoan Vaccine Candidate Homologues In Tetrahymena Thermophila, Justin Schumacher

Senior Honors Projects

Tetrahymena thermophila is a member of the phylum Ciliophora (the ciliated protozoa) and is currently of great interest due to its unique qualities that make it useful as a model for research directed towards understanding how eukaryotic cells function. Recently, the T. thermophila genome was sequenced, and made available online. Since Tetrahymena is a member of the Alveolata, the major eukaryotic clade that also contains the apicomplexan parasites that cause a number of serious human and animal diseases, we sought to determine whether the genes coding for apicomplexan vaccine candidates were represented in the genome of Tetrahymena. In addition, we …

Categorizing Humans, Animals, And Machines In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Martha Bellows

Senior Honors Projects

From Plato to Descartes and Kant and now to modern day, there is a general idea that pervades Western society. This idea is about the uniqueness and superiority of the human being. We are rational and conscious beings that apparently stand alone in the world, separated intellectually from animals and biologically from machines. The relationship between humans, animals, and machines is a tumultuous one and it is not easily definable. For many classical philosophers, this relationship has always been a hierarchy. Humans are on the top and animals and machines fall somewhere below. These beliefs have created a distinct category …

Likely Outcomes In The National Debate Over Greenhouse Gas Emissions -A Public Policy Analysis, Maureen Coyle

Senior Honors Projects

In 2005, the Convention on Climate Change took many conceptual ideas regarding greenhouse gas emissions, best practices, and national environmental policies and committed the 192 member countries to legislation known as the Kyoto Protocol. The United States signed this protocol but it was not ratified, and therefore the United States need not and has not, been bound to the protocol. However, the new administration, under President Barack Obama, promises the United States is now ready to assume leadership in tackling climate change.

In December of this year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark to …

The Effects Of Tail Flukes On The Swimming Pattern Of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins, Lauri Leach

Senior Honors Projects

Atlantic bottlenose dolphins are top predators in the wild, due in part because they are excellent swimmers. When dolphins swim through the water, the tail flukes are moved in an up and down motion to propel the animal through the water. They use the pectoral fins for steering and braking, and the dorsal fin for stabilization as they swim. Using this style of swimming, Atlantic bottlenose dolphins can swim up to 25 miles per hour and leap 15 to 20 feet into the air.

During the spring of 2008, I was an intern at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida. …

Factors Influencing Interactions Between Ticks And Wild Birds, Amy A. Diaz

Senior Honors Projects

Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial illness, is the most common vector-borne infection in north temperate areas worldwide. Ticks, while minute in size, can be competent vectors of both human and animal diseases. Upon hatching, larvae must take a blood meal in order to transform into the next life stage. When taking this first blood meal, the larval tick may ingest blood containing pathogens. If this occurs, the newly emerged nymphal tick is capable of transmitting infection to the next host, which can become infected and, if reservoir competent, infective. When the pathogen carrying vector is attached long enough, a host …

Curricular Affairs Committee Minutes April 20, 2009, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Committee Reports and Appendices

No abstract provided.

Inter-Cohort Competition Drives Density Dependence And Selective Mortality In A Marine Fish, Jameal F. Samhouri, Mark A. Steele, Graham E. Forrester

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

For organisms with complex life cycles, the transition between life stages and between habitats can act as a significant demographic and selective bottleneck. In particular, competition with older and larger conspecifics and heterospecifics may influence the number and characteristics of individuals successfully making the transition. We investigated whether the availability of enemy-free space mediated the interaction between adult goldspot gobies (Gnatholepis thompsoni), a. common tropical reef fish, and juvenile conspecifics that had recently settled from the plankton. We added rocks, which provide refuge from predators, to one-half of each of five entire coral reefs in the Bahamas and …

Division Of Research And Economic Development Annual Report For Fy2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

Annual report for the Division of Research and Economic Development of the University of Rhode Island for the year 2008-2009.

Includes statistics of project proposals, expenditures, URI Foundation Awards, previous annual report summaries and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For March 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For January 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For May 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For February 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For April 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For July 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For June 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For August 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For October 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For September 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For December 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For November 2009, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Research & Innovation For 2008-2009, University Of Rhode Island

Publications (Research and Economic Development)

The 2008-2009 issue of Research & Innovation, a periodical focused on research at the University of Rhode Island.

Options For National Parks And Reserves For Adapting To Climate Change, Jill S. Baron, Lance Gunderson, Craig D. Allen, Erica Fleishman, Donald Mckenzie, Laura A. Meyerson, Jill Oropeza, Nate Stephenson

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Past and present climate has shaped the valued ecosystems currently protected in parks and reserves, but future climate change will redefine these conditions. Continued conservation as climate changes will require thinking differently about resource management than we have in the past; we present some logical steps and tools for doing so. Three critical tenets underpin future management plans and activities: (1) climate patterns of the past will not be the climate patterns of the future; (2) climate defines the environment and influences future trajectories of the distributions of species and their habitats; (3) specific management actions may help increase the …

Forest Grazing And Natural Regeneration In A Late Successional Broadleaved Community Forest In Bhutan, Bill Buffum, Georg Gratzer, Yeshi Tenzin

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

This study investigated the sustainability of combining forest grazing and timber harvesting with selection felling in a cool broadleaved community forest (CF) in Bhutan. Forest grazing and timber production are critical livelihood activities for many farmers throughout the world, so it is important to understand under what conditions the 2 activities can be combined. The study was based on a household survey to quantify livestock holdings and grazing patterns, a comparison of 2 forest inventories to assess forest structure and regeneration, and a study of stumps to quantify harvesting intensities. During a 5-year period the number of cattle grazing inside …

The Pic Protease Of Enteroaggregative Escherichia Coli Promotes Intestinal Colonization And Growth In The Presence Of Mucin, Susan M. Harrington, Jalaluddin Sheikh, Ian R. Henderson, Fernando Ruiz-Perez, Paul S. Cohen, James P. Nataro

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is increasingly being recognized as a cause of diarrheal disease in diverse populations. No small animal model is currently available to study this pathogen. We report here that conventional mice orally inoculated with prototype EAEC strain 042 generally became colonized, though the abundance of organisms cultured from their stool varied substantially among individual animals. In contrast, mice whose water contained 5 g/liter streptomycin consistently became colonized at high levels (ca. 10⁸ CFU/g of stool). Neither conventional nor streptomycin-treated mice developed clinical signs or histopathologic abnormalities. Using specific mutants in competition with the wild-type strain, we …

Novel Features Of The Polysaccharide-Digesting Gliding Bacterium Flavobacterium Johnsoniae As Revealed By Genome Sequence Analysis, Mark J. Mcbride, Gary Xie, Eric C. Martens, Alla Lapidus, Bernard Henrissat, Ryan G. Rhodes, Eugene Goltsman, Wei Wang, Jian Xu, David W. Hunnicutt, Andrew M. Staroscik, Timothy R. Hoover, Yi-Qiang Cheng, Jennifer L. Stein

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

The 6.10-Mb genome sequence of the aerobic chitin-digesting gliding bacterium Flavobacterium johnsoniae (phylum Bacteroidetes) is presented. F. johnsoniae is a model organism for studies of bacteroidete gliding motility, gene regulation, and biochemistry. The mechanism of F. johnsoniae gliding is novel, and genome analysis confirms that it does not involve well-studied motility organelles, such as flagella or type IV pili. The motility machinery is composed of Gld proteins in the cell envelope that are thought to comprise the “motor” and SprB, which is thought to function as a cell surface adhesin that is propelled by the motor. Analysis of the …

Purification And Characterization Of A Novel Salivary Antimicrobial Peptide From The Tick, Ixodes Scapularis, Sivakamasundari Pichu, José M.C. Ribeiro, Thomas N. Mather

Plant Sciences and Entomology Faculty Publications

A novel antimicrobial peptide was isolated from the saliva of the Lyme disease tick vector, Ixodes scapularis, henceforth designated as ISAMP (I. scapularis Antimicrobial Peptide). ISAMP was purified using a sequential method including ultra filtration, gel filtration and reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography. The purified peak had a molecular weight of 5.3 kDa by MALDI/TOF-MS and its amino acid sequence, determined by Edman degradation was PDxGxPxxVKAGRxPxxSI. A BLASTP search revealed that the protein is a putative 5.3 kDa secreted protein (AAM93656) from I. scapularis. The predicted protein is composed of 69 amino acids with no conserved …

Freshman Record : The University Of Rhode Island, The Interfraternity/Panhellenic Councils

Freshman Record

No abstract provided.

Recalculated Diet And Daily Ration Of The Shortfin Mako (Isurus Oxyrinchus), With A Focus On Quantifying Predation On Bluefish (Pomatomus Saltatrix) In The Northwest Atlantic Ocean, Anthony D. Wood, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Francis Juanes, Nancy E. Kohler, Cheryl Wilga

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The diet and daily ration of the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) in the northwest Atlantic were re-examined to determine whether fluctuations in prey abundance and availability are ref lected in these two biological variables. During the summers of 2001 and 2002, stomach content data were collected from fishing tournaments along the northeast coast of the United States. These data were quantified by using four diet indices and were compared to index calculations from historical diet data collected from 1972 through 1983. Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) were the predominant prey in the 1972–83 and 2001–02 diets, accounting for …

Population Size And Survivorship For Juvenile Lemon Sharks (Negaprion Brevirostris) On Their Nursery Grounds At A Marine Protected Area In Brazil, Renato Hajenius Aché De Freitas, Ricardo S. Rosa, Bradley M. Wetherbee, Samuel H. Gruber

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Sharks face a number of obstacles for surviving their first several years of life and many species occupy nursery areas. Although estimates of survival, particularly for young age classes, are essential for assessing, monitoring and effectively managing animal populations, there have been relatively few calculations of survival within shark populations and even fewer estimates based on direct methods for sharks on their nursery grounds. We used tag-recapture methods to estimate the population size and survival of juvenile lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) on their nursery grounds at Atol das Rocas, a marine protected area in Brazil. Sharks were sampled …