Digital Commons Network^™

Profiling A Unique Female Serial Killer: Aileen Wuornos's Life Of Violence, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Zoo And Aquarium Animal Welfare, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Plato, Aristotle, And The Political Landscape Of The Present, Tanner J. Pacheco

Senior Honors Projects

Plato, Aristotle, and the political landscape of the past are all decidedly far removed from our current place in time and space. The works of the former two philosophers, and the political ecosystem established two millennia ago can appear too foreign to retain any relevance to today’s society. Though, I argue that these thinkers’ insights into political philosophy can serve as support for addressing our own political challenges either indirectly, or in some cases directly.

Few would contest that in the United States we face a variety of substantial difficulties concerning the wellbeing of our political system. In fact, a …

Specific Niche Requirements Underpin Multidecadal Range Edge Stability, But May Introduce Barriers For Climate Change Adaptation, Louise B. Firth, Daniel Harris, Julie A. Blaze, Martin P. Marzloff, Aurélien Boyé, Peter I. Miller, Amelia Curd, Mickaël Vasquez, Julia D. Nunn, Nessa E. O’Connor, Anne Marie Power, Nova Mieszkowska, Ruth M. O’Riordan, Michael T. Burrows, Lucy M. Bricheno, Antony M. Knights, Flavia L.D. Nunes, François Bordeyne, Laura E. Bush, James E. Byers, Carmen David, Andrew J. Davies, Stanislas F. Dubois, Hugh Edwards, Andy Foggo, Lisa Grant, J. A. Mattias Green, Paul E. Gribben, Fernando P. Lima

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Aim: To investigate some of the environmental variables underpinning the past and present distribution of an ecosystem engineer near its poleward range edge. Location: >500 locations spanning >7,400 km around Ireland. Methods: We collated past and present distribution records on a known climate change indicator, the reef-forming worm Sabellaria alveolata (Linnaeus, 1767) in a biogeographic boundary region over 182 years (1836–2018). This included repeat sampling of 60 locations in the cooler 1950s and again in the warmer 2000s and 2010s. Using species distribution modelling, we identified some of the environmental drivers that likely underpin S. alveolata distribution towards the leading …

Culture In Agriculture Avs 280x, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Practicum In Zoo And Aquarium Animal Science Avs 98, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Practicum In Zoo And Aquarium Animal Science (Temporary) Avs 398x, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Narrow And Brittle Or Broad And Nimble? Comparing Adaptive Capacity In Simplifying And Diversifying Farming Systems, Margiana Petersen-Rockney, Patrick Baur, Aidee Guzman, S. Franz Bender, Adam Calo, Federico Castillo, Kathryn De Master, Antoinette Dumont, Kenzo Esquivel, Claire Kremen, James Lachance, Maria Mooshammer, Joanna Ory, Mindy J. Price, Yvonne Socolar, Paige Stanley, Alastair Iles, Timothy Bowles

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Humanity faces a triple threat of climate change, biodiversity loss, and global food insecurity. In response, increasing the general adaptive capacity of farming systems is essential. We identify two divergent strategies for building adaptive capacity. Simplifying processes seek to narrowly maximize production by shifting the basis of agricultural production toward centralized control of socially and ecologically homogenized systems. Diversifying processes cultivate social-ecological complexity in order to provide multiple ecosystem services, maintain management flexibility, and promote coordinated adaptation across levels. Through five primarily United States focused cases of distinct agricultural challenges—foodborne pathogens, drought, marginal lands, labor availability, and land access and …

Bong Joon Ho, Okja (2017): Wounding The Feelings, Nagehan Uzuner

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Okja is a cute fictitious pig which is created in the laboratory as a solution for the meat industry to prevent hunger, which is one of the important problems of our contemporary century and the near future of the humanity. This pig-like, depicted as an ecological food source of the industrial society, is commodified for the mediation of the spheres within the society. Okja, as a film, falls within the intersections of food industry, feminism, orientalism, mediatization and globalization concepts. I try to understand and redefine the movie through contradictions such as East-West, women-men, good-evil. The review reexamines multiple interacting …

The Perceived Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence, Ross Murray

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by millions of consumers in their daily lives. Although this technology is providing convenience, information, and instant gratification the underlying moral framework that AI uses remains largely unknown to the consumers of the technology. Two of the mostly widely used moral approaches (deontology and teleology), and their implications for AI, are discussed. The context of chatbots that use AI is examined, specifically exploring Amazon’s Alexa. The context illustrates the issue of the latent moral frameworks that AI technologies use when interacting with consumers or the environment. Although AI holds the promise of many potential …

The Complex Challenges Of Protecting Consumers, Deniz Atik, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Maternal Blood Pressure In Relation To Prenatal Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplementation And Adverse Birth Outcomes In A Ghanaian Cohort: A Randomized Controlled Trial And Cohort Analysis, Alyssa Abreu, R. Young, Ashley L. Buchanan, Ingrid E. Lofgren, Harriet E T Okronipa, Anna Lartey, Per Ashorn, Seth Adu-Afarwuah, Kathryn G. Dewey, Brietta M. Oaks

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Background: It is unknown whether prenatal lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNSs) affect blood pressure (BP). Associations between hypertension and birth outcomes using recently updated BP cutoffs are undetermined.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the impact of LNSs on maternal hypertension and associations between hypertension and birth outcomes.

Methods: Pregnant Ghanaian women at ≤20 weeks of gestation (n = 1320) were randomly assigned to receive daily 1) iron and folic acid (IFA), 2) multiple micronutrients (MMN), or 3) LNSs until delivery. BP was measured at enrollment and 36 weeks of gestation. We analyzed the effect of LNSs on BP using ANOVA and …

Pornography, Its Harms, And A New Legal Strategy: Research And Experience In Japan, Seiya Morita, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this article we describe pornography’s harms in Japan, which are known about from surveys and research, and from the outreach and consulting activities of Japanese feminist-abolitionist groups. Among these are the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) and People Against Pornography and Sexual Violence (PAPS). We then propose a renewed classification scheme for pornography’s harms that centrally considers the experiences of victims in Japan. Lastly, we consider various legal approaches to addressing the myriad harms we describe and suggest possibilities for a new legal strategy. The article’s research comes from Japanese-language materials produced by the above-mentioned activist groups, as …

Missing The Outbreak For The Germs: Institutionalized Non-Knowledge And Industrial Power In Agrofood Safety Governance, Patrick Baur

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Leafy greens cause a growing proportion of foodborne illness outbreaks despite heavy investment in surveillance technologies designed to control pathogenic hazards in agriculture. To understand how the governing regime maintains authority despite continual lapses in control, I examine a deadly 2018 outbreak of Escherichia coli O157: H7 linked to romaine lettuce. By comparing the outbreak investigation and regulatory response to the questions not asked and actions not taken, I show how the regime’s methods of understanding the outbreak also organized its ignorance of dangers outside its carefully constructed field of vision. Applying agnotology theory, I argue that the industrial organization …

Getting Radical: Feminism, Patriarchy, And The Sexual-Exploitation Industries, Robert Jensen

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The sexual-exploitation industries, including prostitution and pornography, are patriarchal institutions that are inconsistent with dignity, solidarity, and equality. Radical feminism offers a compelling analysis not only for women but also for men striving to be fully human.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies And Health-Related Issues Among Women And Children: A Research Review, Laura Maria Corradi

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

From their first use in the late 1970s until the mid-1990s, Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) gave rise to serious concerns by feminists internationally. Their questions ranged from asking about health risks to ethical and political problems inherent in these technologies. However, over the last 25 years, interest in women’s health which used to be central to feminist theory and politics, progressively decreased and with it concerns about ART. Today, while the medical literature about health risks in ART is increasing, the topic of women’s health in relation to reproductive technologies remains marginal in feminist discourse, social sciences, and the mainstream …

Risk Perception Of A Major Earthquake Event At The Cascadia Subduction Plate Boundary, Amanda M. Watson, Dawn Cardace

Research Papers by Undergraduate Students (Geosciences)

The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) is a tectonic plate boundary that is located about 64 to 128 kilometers off the west coast from Northern California to Vancouver Island, British Columbia (Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup, 2013). Subduction faults are on a cycle of a pressure build up then quick release, materializing as a megathrust earthquake. These faults have the potential to produce earthquakes of the highest magnitude. Paleoseismic studies and Native American oral history have proved that the last CSZ earthquake occurred in 1700 and likely had a magnitude of 9.0 (Finkbeiner, 2015, Nelson et al., 2006). Most probability analyses suggest …

Novel Reproductive Behavior In An Asian Frog: Sex‐Reversed Inguinal Amplexus, Yik‐Hei Sung, Wing‐Ho Lee, Ho‐Nam Ng, Martha L. Crump, Nancy E. Karraker

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Amphibians exhibit diverse reproductive behaviors, including nine documented types of amplexus, the behavior in which male and female frogs position themselves for courtship, oviposition, and fertilization. All known forms of amplexus involve the male on top of or in line horizontally (cloacal apposition) with the female. Here, we report a novel form of amplexus observed in Lau’s leaf litter toad (Leptobrachella laui; Megophryidae) in Hong Kong, China. Termed “sex‐reversed inguinal amplexus,” the female climbs on top of a male and the male transports the female to a concealed breeding site. We were unable to determine whether this was …

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R5 Tr_J1 Report Fy2020 - Journal Requests (Excluding Oa_Gold) By Title, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R5 Report TR_J1 for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020. The TR_J1 report is defined as "Journal Requests (Excluding OA_Gold)." This report presents an annual total only of e-journal usage by title.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results:

• Total Item Requests - 846,964
• Unique Item Requests - 620,899

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R5 Tr_B1 Report Fy2020 - Book Requests (Excluding Oa_Gold) By Title, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R5 Report TR_B1 for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020. The TR_B1 report is defined as "Book Requests (Excluding OA_Gold)." This report presents an annual total only of e-book usage by title.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results:

• Total Item Requests - 70,859
• Unique Title Requests - 31,282

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R5 Ir_M1 Report Fy2020 - Multimedia Item Requests, Andrée Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R5 Report IR_M1 for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020. The IR_M1 report is defined as "Multimedia Item Requests." This report presents an annual total only.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results:

Total Item Requests - 447

Evolution Of Protein-Mediated Biomineralization In Scleractinian Corals, Tal Zaquin, Assaf Malik, Jeana L. Drake, Hollie M. Putnam, Tali Mass

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

While recent strides have been made in understanding the biological process by which stony corals calcify, much remains to be revealed, including the ubiquity across taxa of specific biomolecules involved. Several proteins associated with this process have been identified through proteomic profiling of the skeletal organic matrix (SOM) extracted from three scleractinian species. However, the evolutionary history of this putative “biomineralization toolkit,” including the appearance of these proteins’ throughout metazoan evolution, remains to be resolved. Here we used a phylogenetic approach to examine the evolution of the known scleractinians’ SOM proteins across the Metazoa. Our analysis reveals an evolutionary process …

Spatial Scaling Properties Of Coral Reef Benthic Communities, Helen V. Ford, Jamison M. Gove, Andrew J. Davies, Nicholas A.J. Graham, John R. Healey, Eric J. Conklin, Gareth J. Williams

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The spatial structure of ecological communities on tropical coral reefs across seascapes and geographies have historically been poorly understood. Here we addressed this for the first time using spatially expansive and thematically resolved benthic community data collected around five uninhabited central Pacific oceanic islands, spanning 6° latitude and 17° longitude. Using towed-diver digital image surveys over ~140 linear km of shallow (8–20 m depth) tropical reef, we highlight the autocorrelated nature of coral reef seascapes. Benthic functional groups and hard coral morphologies displayed significant spatial clustering (positive autocorrelation) up to kilometre-scales around all islands, in some instances dominating entire sections …

Polyamines Drive Myeloid Cell Survival By Buffering Intracellular Ph To Promote Immunosuppression In Glioblastoma, Jason Miska, Aida Rashidi, Catalina Lee-Chang, Peng Gao, Aurora Lopez-Rosas, Peng Zhang, Rachel Burga, Brandyn Castro, Ting Xiao, Yu Han, David Hou, Samay Sampat, Alex Cordero, Joshua S. Stoolman, Craig M. Horbinski, Mark Burns, Yana Reshetnyak, Navdeep S. Chandel, Maciej S. Lesniak

Physics Faculty Publications

Glioblastoma is characterized by the robust infiltration of immunosuppressive tumor-associated myeloid cells (TAMCs). It is not fully understood how TAMCs survive in the acidic tumor microenvironment to cause immunosuppression in glioblastoma. Metabolic and RNA-seq analysis of TAMCs revealed that the arginine-ornithine-polyamine axis is up-regulated in glioblastoma TAMCs but not in tumor-infiltrating CD8⁺ T cells. Active de novo synthesis of highly basic polyamines within TAMCs efficiently buffered low intracellular pH to support the survival of these immunosuppressive cells in the harsh acidic environment of solid tumors. Administration of difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), a clinically approved inhibitor of polyamine generation, enhanced animal survival …

Genome-Scale Profiling Reveals Noncoding Loci Carry Higher Proportions Of Concordant Data, Robert Literman, Rachel Schwartz

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Many evolutionary relationships remain controversial despite whole-genome sequencing data. These controversies arise in part due to challenges associated with accurately modeling the complex phylogenetic signal coming from genomic regions experiencing distinct evolutionary forces. Here we examine how different regions of the genome support or contradict well-established hypotheses among three mammal groups using millions of orthologous parsimony-informative biallelic sites [PIBS] distributed across primate, rodent, and Pecora genomes. We compared PIBS concordance percentages among locus types (e.g. coding sequences, introns, intergenic regions), and contrasted PIBS utility over evolutionary timescales. Sites derived from noncoding sequences provided more data and proportionally more concordant sites …

"There Is Always Violence": An Exploratory Study Of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Street-Involved Children, Jarrett D. Davis, Glenn M. Miles, Sean Blackburn, Erika Mosebach-Kornelsen

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

As the economic center of Cambodia, Phnom Penh has long been a hotspot for street-involved children and families. While violence is a common facet of life on the street, risk and vulnerability among children is notoriously difficult to measure. Most large-scale surveys tend to sample children within homes and schools, which overlook street-involved children who are commonly unregistered, irregularly attend school, and live outside of houses. This research paper is one of a series of studies on such groups in Southeast Asia. The study conducted 94 semi-structured interviews with street-involved children eight to 18 years of age in Phnom Penh. …

Computational Study Of Helical And Helix-Hinge-Helix Conformations Of An Anti-Microbial Peptide In Solution By Molecular Dynamics And Vibrational Analysis, Faramarz Joodaki, Lenore M. Martin, Michael L. Greenfield

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Many classical antimicrobial peptides adopt an amphipathic helical structure at a water-membrane interface. Prior studies led to the hypothesis that a hinge near the middle of a helical peptide plays an important role in facilitating peptide-membrane interactions.Here, dynamics and vibrations of a designed hybrid antimicrobial peptide LM7-2 in solution were simulated to investigate its hinge formation.Molecular dynamics simulation results on the basis of the CHARMM36 force field showed that the $\alpha$-helix LM7-2 bent around two or three residues near the middle of the peptide, stayed in a helix-hinge-helix conformation for a short period of time, and then returned to a …

Behavioral And Demographic Responses Of Mule Deer To Energy Development On Winter Range, Joseph M. Northrup, Charles R. Anderson Jr, Brian D. Gerber, George Wittemyer

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic habitat modification is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. In North America, one of the primary sources of habitat modification over the last 2 decades has been exploration for and production of oil and natural gas (hydrocarbon development), which has led to demographic and behavioral impacts to numerous wildlife species. Developing effective measures to mitigate these impacts has become a critical task for wildlife managers and conservation practitioners. However, this task has been hindered by the difficulties involved in identifying and isolating factors driving population responses. Current research on responses of wildlife to development predominantly quantifies behavior, but …

Designing Multifunctional Urban Agroforestry With People In Mind, John Taylor, Sarah Taylor Lovell

Plant Sciences and Entomology Faculty Publications

Urban landscapes combining trees and crops—urban agroforestry (UAF) systems—may offer greater ecological and cultural benefits than annual cropping systems. Interest in UAF is growing, as evidenced by an increasing number of built projects and articles in the popular press and the academic literature on the subject. However, the practice of UAF appears to far outpace research on its scientific underpinnings or its design. Developing sustainable, resilient UAF sites can be challenging because of biophysical and sociocultural conditions unique to the city; however, cities offer opportunities not found in rural environments including the potential to close open nutrient loops between consumers …

Community Orchards For Food Sovereignty, Human Health, And Climate Resilience: Indigenous Roots And Contemporary Applications, Sarah Taylor Lovell, Jann Hayman, Hannah Hemmelgarn, Andrea A. Hunter, John R. Taylor

Plant Sciences and Entomology Faculty Publications

Community orchards could play a valuable role as nature-based solutions to complex challenges we face today. In these unique plantings, a variety of nut- and fruit-producing trees and berry shrubs are often established together on public spaces to provide the community with healthy, fresh food. Interest in these plantings has been increasing in the United States, even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in our food systems. However, the roots of community orchards can be traced back to Indigenous foodways which have persisted for millennia. Then and now, community orchards support an array of functions, positioning them to …