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The Effects Of Auditory Predation Risk Cues On Caterpillar Growth, Development, And Fitness, Zachary A. Lee

Open Access Master's Theses

Predation risk is a major factor that impacts the growth and behavior of organisms. Being able to detect potential predators before contact offers a major competitive advantage, but these anti-predator behaviors often come with a significant energetic cost. Domestication, which can remove predation stress as a selective force, can lead to a reduction in these costly anti-predator behaviors in favor of increased growth and reproduction. Monarch (Danaus plexippus) and spongy moth (Lymantria dispar dispar) caterpillars both use auditory cues as a primary detection method for airborne predators. We exposed both species to a series of auditory …

Population Monitoring Of White-Tailed Deer In Rhode Island, Dylan Ferreira

Open Access Master's Theses

Wildlife conservation and management occurs across the world through many different mechanisms and underlying principles. North America has developed a unique and successful process coined the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. A key outcome of this model is that wildlife science informs management decisions, which are made by government officials in the public’s trust. If a species undergoes some form of legal take, managers are often required to ensure it is done responsibly with empirical evidence and consideration of ecological and societal objectives. Recent research suggests that 60% of wildlife management systems in Canada and the United States were …

Investigation Into The Impact Of Parasitic Apicomplexans On The Gut Microbiome Of Marine Tunicate Ciona Intestinalis, Evelyn Anna Spencer

Open Access Master's Theses

Gregarines are a diverse group of apicomplexan parasites that inhabit the intestines, coeloms and reproductive vesicles of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial invertebrates. They have been known to dominate soil communities and show high infection rates within their hosts. Despite this, little information is available about the impact of infection on the gut microbiome of their hosts. Tunicates are a known host of gregarines and several species already have preliminary research focusing on microbial sampling and even screening for bioactive metabolites with pharmaceutical potential. The solitary ascidian Ciona intestinalis emerged as a model organism for studying host–microbe interactions taking place in …

Assessing Horseshoe Crab (Limulus Polyphemus) Population Structure Within Southern New England, Natalie Ameral

Open Access Master's Theses

The Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a commercially, ecologically, and economically important species. Current management practices of this species may not be well informed enough to avoid jeopardizing the future health of these animals. This thesis argues that population differences, as defined by morphometrics, behavior, and genomics, may be visible over smaller geographic scales than current fisheries management observes. Specifically, this work focuses on three states in southern New England: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Ten sampling locations were observed over two years, 2020-2021, from which over 500 crabs were sampled. Width and weight data were collected to assess …

Control Of Varroa Destructor Using Powdered Sugar And Heat, Casey L. Johnson

Open Access Master's Theses

The parasitic varroa mite, Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman), is a global threat to honey bee health and the leading cause of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colony mortality. In the constant battle against varroa, many apiarists turn to chemicals, such as formic acid, oxalic acid, or synthetic compounds, to control mite populations and save their colonies. However, each chemical treatment option exhibits certain shortcomings and the development of new varroa mite controls is key to combating varroa resistance and increasing safety to beekeepers and bees. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of two organic methods …

Deciphering Biogenic Silica Production Trends In Picoplankton Of The Subarctic North Pacific Using Novel Dna Barcoding Methods, Andrew Presley

Open Access Master's Theses

The Silica cycle and the biological pump in our global oceans are intimately related. As a part of the NASA Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) our work aims to explore the community composition of picoplankton in the 0.2-5µm size fraction and their contributions to the silica cycle using next generation MiSeq sequencing and analysis. Recently published data from collaborators within the EXPORTS project have observed high biogenic silica production in the picoplankton, indicating that organisms in this size fraction are contributing notably to the silica cycle in the North Pacific, though it remains unclear exactly what …

Bulk Recycling: Density Separation Models For Mixed Plastic Waste, Megan Lee St. Hilaire

Open Access Master's Theses

Microplastic pollution is now everywhere, from the highest elevation of Mount Everest to the deepest dives of the Mariana Trench. The use of synthetic polymers has contributed to the transformation of our modern world. Nonetheless, the growing presence of plastics in the natural environment constitutes a sense of urgency to develop sustainable solutions to address the global plastic pollution crisis. Approximately 80 percent of all the plastics ever produced have been discarded. Our relationship with plastic needs rethinking.

Achieving a circular economy requires a holistic approach to redesign the systems that make, use and reuse plastics. Evaluating the life cycle …

Distribution Of Wood Turtle (Glyptemys Insculpta) Populations In Rhode Island, Chloe Nicole Johnson

Open Access Master's Theses

Wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) populations are declining throughout their geographic range and the species is listed as Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Population declines have resulted from habitat loss, road mortality, land use practices, and many other detrimental anthropogenic factors. This species has been studied in several parts of its geographic range, but its distribution in Rhode Island, a rapidly urbanizing state, is poorly understood. In 2021 and 2022, we surveyed 24 stream segments five times each to determine occupancy and detection probability for wood turtles in Rhode Island, USA. Visual surveys were conducted in …

Mechanisms And Consequences Of Cross-Generational Acclimatization In Reef-Building Corals, Kevin Harrison Wong

Open Access Dissertations

Coral reefs are valued over trillions of dollars and are becoming increasingly degraded due to global climate change. Ocean warming disrupts the symbiotic relationship between corals and their algal symbiont, Symbiodinaceae, leading to severe energetic reduction and increased mortality. Recent studies have identified the potential for beneficial within-generational and cross-generational acclimatization to mitigate the impacts of future environmental change, however the mechanisms and outcomes remain understudied in tropical corals. Here, I present three manuscripts testing different mechanisms of within- and cross-generational acclimatization in corals to understand the long-term consequences of ocean warming. First, we tested the hypothesis that the survival …

Clustering Of Cancerous Genomes Using Efficient Distance Calculations, Yana Hrytsenko

Open Access Dissertations

Comparative cancer genomics can elucidate similarities in genome variation across different types of cancer. Current approaches are implemented through the identification of mutations in specific pathways present in multiple cancers. However, the major shortcoming of these approaches is in identifying specific genes that are similar rather than determining broad-scale patterns of variation in the genome. Similarities found in these patterns across cancers may be linked to similarities in driver mutations and thus lead to treatment approaches with a higher success rate. Identification of such similarities requires comparison of whole genomes and is not always easy to do using traditional alignment-based …

Wearable User-Centric Zero-Configuration Haptic Feedback System Design In Connected Environments, Joshua V. Gyllinksy

Open Access Dissertations

This doctoral dissertation focused on the creation of wearables for gait which feature haptic feedback systems and can make use of Connected Environments (CE). The developed systems were created in a user-centric way with the intent of minimizing human effort for setup and configuration, using zero-configuration for network self-discovery and unattended organization.

CE empowers Internet Of Things (IoT) technologies to become non-stationary, enabling users to multitask, focusing on things other than the IoT Device. Since these technologies often are intended to have high availability and in some cases be always-on, discreet communication channels, such as the haptics of the vibration …

Probabilistic Vision Only Localization In Single And Multiple Mobile Robot Systems, Sarah E. Brent

Open Access Dissertations

In this work, we address and propose solutions to the problem of localization in single and multi-robot systems using vision as the sole sensor. We first propose a study on landmark identification as a step towards a localization setup for real-world robotic swarms setup. In real world, landmark identification is often tackled as a place recognition problem through the use of computationally intensive Convolution Neural Networks. However, the components of a robotic swarm usually have limited computational and sensing capabilities that allows only for the application of relatively shallow networks that results in large percentage of recognition errors. In [1], …

Recovery Of A Cylindrical Body Into An Outer Tube, Michael Berry, Daniel Deleon, Connor Rouillier, Jaxon Royal

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

The use of unmanned vehicles by the U.S. Military is an evolving method of weapon deployment and data acquisition. As the use of these devices increase as the technology surrounding them evolves, the method of retrieval of these unmanned vehicles needs to advance as well. Consequently, The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is interested in devising a method of recovering Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) and has asked Team 3 from the University of Rhode Island’s College of Engineering’s Capstone teams to design and build a device or method of retrieval. While methods of retrieval of these devices already exist, they …

Opinions On The Halfshell: Examining Public Perceptions Of Southern New England Aquaculture Development, Callan J. Yanoff

Open Access Master's Theses

With the recent expansion of aquaculture in New England, it has become increasingly difficult for aquaculture growers with farm proposals to advance past the permitting process due to public opposition. The substantial lack of innovative strategies for understanding and addressing the public’s perceptions of aquaculture development in the Northeast has created conflict in expanding sustainable farming. Through 15 focus group discussions during the summer of 2021, this study assesses how people who live in Rhode Island and Massachusetts think about farm design and examines their attitudes towards aquaculture impacts and governance. By identifying the general public’s preferences and perceptions, findings …

A Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The American Woodcock, Anna R. Fateiger

Open Access Master's Theses

The decline in young forests has caused almost 70% of the birds that flourish in such habitats to experience a severe population decline over the past 60 years. The American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) is no exception to this population reduction due to its heavy reliance on such habitats, making them a key indicator species for young forest management. Conservationists rely on information received from tracking woodcock for details about the young forest vegetation in hopes of preserving the habitat and protecting the wildlife that flourishes in such areas. This paper expands on previous research that focused heavily on …

Phytochemical Analysis And Biological Evaluation Of Maple (Acer Saccharum) Sap Water, Kara Torrey

Open Access Master's Theses

Our laboratory initiated a comprehensive research program to investigate the phytochemical composition and biological effects of an ethyl acetate maple water extract (MWX), in comparison to other maple food extracts. Created by boiling and evaporating maple sap (Acer saccharum), maple syrup has become a popular alternative sweetener. The raw sap of the maple tree has been consumed by indigenous cultures for centuries, but recently, maple water products have gained the interest of consumers seeking plant derived functional beverages with added health benefits. Based on previous studies by our group, we hypothesize that maple water (and MWX) contains many …

The Alice Atom Compendium, Nick Mendillo

Open Access Master's Theses

Using an original work of fiction, a novel I had written titled The Alice Atom, I have created multiple levels of media that encompass several aspects of said novel’s central theme – the desire to find meaning in not only products we create but the act of ‘following one’s dream.’ To achieve a personal goal is to follow, chase, or accomplish their ‘dreams,’ but I intended to explore the question of what that pursuit can tangibly look like. The action of the novel involves the protagonist literally searching for a woman he has imbued with deep philosophical meaning. I, …

Do Environmentally Relevant Concentrations Of Microplastics Pose A Threat To The Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica?, Hannah Haskell

Open Access Master's Theses

It is well known that microplastics are ubiquitous within the marine environment and that organisms are interacting with them. However, information on the potential impacts this pollutant may have on an organism are less well understood, especially in response to environmentally relevant microplastic concentrations The aim of this study was to determine if environmentally relevant microplastic exposure has any physiological impact on the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica. We exposed C. virginica to daily doses of polyester microfibers based on concentrations reported from the field (0, 2, & 95 fibers L-1) as well as a higher concentration similar to those …

Translation And Validation Of Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cell Proteomic Targets In Liver And Lung Tumors, Justin Trickett

Open Access Master's Theses

Advancements in technology have made possible the development of highly personalized and efficacious medicines. Various forms of immunotherapy have demonstrated clinical utility in the treatment of blood-based cancers (e.g., leukemia, lymphoma, etc.). Cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of solid tumors can suppress the immune response of T cells, therefore hindering the efficacy of T-cell immunotherapies. Consequently, a growing number of studies are investigating methods of modulating the TME for improving immunotherapeutic outcomes in this context. Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are one such cell responsible for diminishing the activity of immune cells by secreting immunosuppressive cytokines. Recent studies show that …

Bioconcentration Of Pfas From Afff Environmental Exposure: Evidence Of Precursor Bioaccumulation In Fathead Minnows, Nicholas Hill

Open Access Master's Theses

Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been associated with toxicities in wildlife and negative health effects in humans. Decades of fire training activity at Joint Base, Cape Cod, Massachusetts incorporated the use of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) which resulted in long-term PFAS contamination of sediments, groundwater, and hydrologically connected surface waters. To explore the bioaccumulative potential of PFAS residing in complex environmental mixtures, a mesocosm was established to evaluate bioconcentration of PFAS from AFFF-contaminated groundwater by flow-through design. Fathead minnows (n = 24) were exposed to PFAS in groundwater over a 21-day period and tissue specific PFAS …

Parallelized Implementation Of A Genetic Algorithm On A Field Programmable Gate Array (Fpga) To Provide Heuristic Solutions For The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (Cvrp), Maximilian Jakob Heer

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis reports on the implementation of a Genetic Algorithm for finding heuristic solutions to the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) on High-Performance Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The heuristic approach to the class of NP-hard problems related to the Travelling-Salesman-Problem (TSP) has a long tradition in computer science, with this thesis being directly based on an implementation of a specialized Genetic Algorithm for a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). In my work, I describe how the algorithmic structure can be directly transformed into an adapted computing architecture with special focus on the highest possible degree of parallelism. For that, the …

Expert Elicitation Regarding Effectiveness Of Recent North Atlantic Right Whale Protection Agreement, Jessica Marie Hiltz

Open Access Master's Theses

With the rise of offshore wind energy in the United States, there has been increasing concern about how offshore wind turbine installation and operation is affecting benthic and pelagic marine life (Bailey et al. 2010). Increased, localized ocean noise resulting from project-related activities, such as vessel traffic, surveying, and turbine installation, has the potential to disturb or injure nearby marine life. Increased vessel traffic heightens the probability of a vessel strike occurring, and noise produced during the turbine installation phase, in which pile-driving is used to hammer and secure turbines to the seafloor, is significantly loud and widespread. This noise …

Modeling Rhode Island Food Production Potential Under Different Production Scenarios, Nina Oberg

Open Access Master's Theses

Food sovereignty emphasizes the rights of people to have control over their food system. Relocalizing food production and limiting dependence on global industrial supply chains is necessary to increase food sovereignty in regions dominated by conventional food systems. In the US, the New England region aims to relocalize production by producing 50 percent of food consumed in the region by the year 2060. Rhode Island can contribute to this goal by expanding production and strengthening local food systems, thus serving as a model for New England and other urbanizing regions globally. For this study, a site suitability analysis was performed …

Home Grown: An Experimental Analysis Of Home-Methods Of Mold Removal On Textile Substrates, Paige Bailey

Open Access Master's Theses

When seeking information on how to clean away mold from clothing and textiles, searching the internet can lead to an overwhelming amount of confusing and vague information. A lack of reputable references and consistent measurements across methodologies makes attempting to clean textiles, valuable or not, potentially damaging to the textile itself. As such, the objective of this experiment was to select a handful of these cleaning methods and test them with the expectation that the results will contribute to reliable information on what methods could possibly work for certain textiles. It is the hope that this information will be made …

Treprostinil Improves Hepatic Cytochrome P450 Metabolism During Renal Ischemia Reperfusion Injury, Daniel Kelly

Open Access Master's Theses

Background: Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) causes acute kidney injury, as well as liver injury resulting in altered hepatic metabolism. Decreased hepatic cytochrome P450 levels can impact drug clearance and increase the risk for adverse drug reactions. Currently, there is no treatment available to improve liver cyp450 metabolism during renal IRI. Treprostinil (Remodulin®) is a FDA approved prostacyclin analog that our lab has shown to have hepatoprotective effects during renal IRI. This study investigates the efficacy of treprostinil on improving hepatic cyp450 metabolism during renal IRI in vivo.

Methods: Male Sprague Dawley rats were subjected to 45 minutes of …

Using Centered Kernel Alignment For Understanding And Pruning Neural Networks, Alex Lachance

Open Access Master's Theses

Understanding neural networks has been challenging since their inception. Neural networks are non-linear and learn representations without the user defining them, making the internal workings obscure. Methods for understanding networks have been researched for many years. This study uses centered kernel alignment (CKA) to measure the similarity between the representations of data between layers in a network. The method is invariant to invertible orthogonal transformation, invariant to isotropic scaling, and exhibits behavior demonstrating its superiority over other methods.

The similarity results enable understanding of how architecture choices impact learning and network representations. Depth and width changes of MLPMixer, a neural …

The Structure, Constraints, And Suggestions Of The Indian Medical Textile Product Industry With A Focus On Fabric Manufacturers, Poonam Parab

Open Access Master's Theses

Medical textiles are specialty fabrics and products doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers use. These include bandages, surgical gowns, hospital sheets, artificial hearts, and hernia meshes. India has been a global textile manufacturing hub and has recently shifted its focus to medical textile/ textile products. However, there is no clear understanding of the basic structure of the Indian medical textile product industry related types of companies involved and their interactions with each other. The information about the industry needs to include categorization and depth, and there is no value chain-related information. A well-integrated value chain improves efficiency and effectiveness, which …

Mammals Adjust Diel Activity Across Gradients Of Urbanization, Travis Gallo, Mason Fidino, Brian Gerber, Adam A. Ahlers, Julia L. Angstmann, Max Amaya, Amy L. Concilio, David Drake, Danielle Gay, Elizabeth W. Lehrer, Maureen H. Murray, Travis J. Ryan, Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Carmen M. Salsbury, Heather A. Sander, Theodore Stankowich, Jaque Williamson, J. Amy Belaire, Kelly Simon, Seth B. Magle

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator–prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hr light–dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust their temporal activity to mitigate or adapt to environmental change has become a recent topic of discussion and is important for effective wildlife management and conservation. While spatial habitat is a fundamental consideration in wildlife management and conservation, temporal habitat is often ignored. We formulated a temporal resource selection model to quantify …

Analyzing The Differential News Coverage Of The North Atlantic And North Pacific Right Whales: A Case Study Of Agenda Setting, Framing, And Tone In Endangered Species Communication, Colette Soulier

Open Access Master's Theses

Mixed methods analysis was used to evaluate policy protections and media coverage of the less endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) compared to the more endangered North Pacific Right Whale (NPRW) from 2008-2020. The NARW and NPRW represent an interesting case study of mismatched conservation action and threat status, due to their highly similar appearance and membership in a traditionally highly prioritized group for conservation action. This study establishes large differences in policy creation between the species and uses media content analysis of news coverage of both whales to understand trends in framing, tone, and content between articles focusing on …

The Role Of Federalism In Initiating Offshore Wind Development In The United States And Europe, Clayton K. Starr

Open Access Master's Theses

For the United States, offshore wind represents a significant opportunity to meet renewable energy goals, contribute to climate change mitigation, and pursue economic development. Yet despite having abundant wind resources, the United States lags behind most countries with active offshore wind industries in terms of total installed capacity. Drawing on environmental federalism theory, this thesis used desk research and key informant interviews with offshore wind policy experts (n = 22) to compare the effects of federalism on offshore wind development in the United States and Europe. Interview data were coded using the program Atlas.ti, and applied thematic analysis revealed five …