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The Frequent Flyer’S Guide To Migration: How Songbird Metabolism And Oxidative Status Respond To Endurance Flight And Diet Quality, Kristen J. Demoranville

Open Access Dissertations

Migratory songbirds are among the best high-performance endurance athletes on the planet and during their annual peregrinations they are particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage because they maintain relatively high metabolic rates at rest, they are able to fly for long durations while operating at 9 times their resting metabolic rate, and they rely on fats to fuel this exercise which increases reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. The concept of evolutionary economic design of physiological systems considers such phenotypic flexibility in metabolic and antioxidant responses adaptive in that it allows birds to match the capacity of key physiological systems to prevailing …

Design And Validation Of Smart Fabric Sensors Based On Semiconductive Polymer Composites, Arar Alkhader

Open Access Dissertations

Smart Fabric Sensors (SFSs) have recently gained much interest as they are convenient as a long-term wearable as well as for their simplicity, lightweight, low manufacturing cost, high sensitivity, and flexibility. Semiconductive polymer composites SCPCs can be used as smart fabrics to create force or pressure sensors based on the piezoresistive effect, however, their wider application is limited due to their narrow sensing range, hysteresis and output drift issues as well as due to the lack of literature studying their voltage response related errors especially under high impact forces. In this Doctoral research, eight proposed designs of a smart fabric …

Towards Precision Medicine: Therapeutic Drug Monitoring–Guided Dosing Of Vancomycin And Β-Lactam Antibiotics To Maximize Effectiveness And Minimize Toxicity, Jaclyn A. Cusuman, P. Klinker, Angela Huttner, Megan K. Luther, Jason A. Roberts, Kerry L. Laplante

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Purpose

The goal of this review is to explore the role of antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), especially in critically ill, obese, and older adults, with a specific focus on β-lactams and vancomycin. Summary

The continued rise of antimicrobial resistance prompts the need to optimize antimicrobial dosing. The aim of TDM is to individualize antimicrobial dosing to achieve antibiotic exposures associated with improved patient outcomes. Initially, TDM was developed to minimize adverse effects during use of narrow therapeutic index agents. Today, patient and organism complexity are expanding the need for precision dosing through TDM services. Alterations of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics …

Uri Undergraduate And Graduate Course Catalog 2020-2021, University Of Rhode Island

URI Course Catalogs Archive

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

Making Sense Of Public Scientific Controversy: A Case Study Examining Science Communication And Public Engagement Surrounding Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In The Florida Keys, Cynthia Taylor

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents a discursive case study of a recent public scientific controversy surrounding proposed field trials of Oxitec’s genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. Despite endorsements by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, starting in 2011, and the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2016, field trial releases in the region have been stalled by intense public opposition. The research presented here attempts to better understand the nature of this controversy through a close examination of science communication and public engagement efforts. Avoiding the assumption that resistance to scientific and technological interventions is reducible to a …

Investigating The Role Of Vascular Activation In Alzheimer’S Disease-Related Neuroinflammation, Jaclyn M. Iannucci

Open Access Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, affecting 5.8 million people in the United States alone. Currently, there are no disease-modifying treatments for AD, and the cause of the disease is unclear. With the increasing number of cases and the lack of treatment options, AD is a growing public health crisis. As such, there is a push for investigation of novel pathological mediators to inform new therapeutic approaches.

Cardiovascular disease and associated cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) are linked to a significantly increased risk for developing AD, but the mechanisms whereby these risk factors contribute to the pathological …

The Human Dimensions Of Coral Reef Restoration: A Case Study In The Spermonde Islands Of Indonesia, Jessica Vandenberg

Open Access Dissertations

This study employs a decolonial multidisciplinary approach to explore the sociocultural dimensions of a corporate-led coral reef restoration program implemented in a small island community in Indonesia framed as a conservation and food security initiative. Coral Reef Restoration (CRR) has gained increased attention as a coral conservation tool to supplement traditional approaches to tropical marine management (Boström-Einarsson et al. 2020). Like many other forms of conservation, CRR programs are often posed as dual conservation and development programs, aimed at achieving both ecological and social outcomes. Despite the intention to meet both conservation and development goals, CRR studies have been criticized …

Evaluation Of A Photograph-Based Citizen Science Program As A Tick Surveillance And Prevention Education Tool, Heather Lynn Kopsco

Open Access Dissertations

The multitude of factors fueling the escalation in tick-borne disease in the United States is further complicated by gaps in public knowledge and inconsistent adherence to tick-bite prevention behaviors. Passive tick surveillance is a growing strategy to monitor tick species trends and associated pathogen prevalence across the country. Most practice involves citizens shipping encountered ticks to a laboratory for identification and pathogen testing, but given potential delays in mailing and processing time, tick bite victims may be placed outside the window of potential prophylactic options, or under unnecessary antibiotic administration. Recently, photographed-based tick surveillance has been shown to be a …

Using Seafood Traceability To Teach The Complexities Of Natural Resource Management And Sustainability, Kelvin D. Gorospe, Lauren I. Josephs, Austin T. Humphries

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

This lesson plan addresses the challenge of conveying to students the globalized nature and complexity of natural resource management. Specifically, it uses seafood traceability, or the ability to track seafood as it moves through the global seafood supply chain, as a theme for understanding the potential for science and technological innovations to enable traceability as well as the different roles that various stakeholders play in ensuring fisheries sustainability. The lesson plan conveys several themes related to environmental sustainability including: the role of consumer empowerment, the importance of data and information sharing, the need to coordinate multiple stakeholders, and the intersection …

Responses To Environmentally Relevant Microplastics Are Species-Specific With Dietary Habit As A Potential Sensitivity Indicator, Coleen Suckling

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

There is a lack of information on understanding how marine organisms respond to environmentally relevant microplastics (MP) which hampers decision making for waste management strategies. This study addresses this information gap by determining whether responses to MPs are species specific within a functional group. Benthic residing sea urchins, Psammechinus miliaris and Paracentrotus lividuswere used as a case study. Psammechinus miliaris are strong omnivores with dietary intake including hard components (e.g. shell, tubeworms) and therefore likely to cope with the ingestion of MPs, while P. lividus are strong herbivores consuming softer dietary items (e.g. biofilms, algae) and therefore more likely …

On The Proposed Legalization Of Commercial Surrogacy: I Thought We Had Abolished The Sale Of Human Beings, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Female Comic Grotesque Characters In Victorian Novels: Investigating The Possibilities Of Liminality, Barbara A. Farnworth

Open Access Dissertations

Female comic authors during the nineteenth century have received little attention from twentieth and twenty-first century literary critics. As Regina Barreca observes, major studies of the role of comedy in British literature do not deal with women writers (Barrecca 1988 11). Several anthologies which focus on humor in nineteenth-century literature begin with Jane Austen and then ignore every other female comedic writer. Similarly, studies of the comic grotesque in nineteenth century literature focus primarily on how it is employed by male authors such as Charles Dickens, William Thackeray and Anthony Trollope. My dissertation will address this imbalance by examining the …

Molecular Mechanism Of Polypeptide Insertion Into Bilayer And Exit, Gregory Slaybaugh

Open Access Dissertations

The pH-low insertion peptide (pHLIP) and pH-low insertion cycle (pHLIC) have been shown to target cancer cells and inflammation due to the acidic environment present at those sites. It has been demonstrated that pHLIP’s and pHLIC’s pH dependent behavior stems from the protonation and deprotonation of aspartic acid (Asp) and glutamic acid (Glu) residues. A decrease in pH leads to the protonation of Asp/Glu located in membrane-inserting part of peptides, which increases the overall hydrophobicity of pHLIP and pHLIC and triggers the insertion across a lipid bilayer.

Despite similarity of pHLIP and pHLIC ability to sense pH at cell surfaces …

Evaluation Of Key Perfluoroalkyl Substances To Induce Liver Steatosis In Mouse And Human Models, Emily Sara Marques

Open Access Dissertations

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals that have been released into the environment over the past six decades. Some perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAA), such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), have been associated with hepatic steatosis in rodents and monkeys, however it is unclear if lipid accumulation occurs in humans. This thesis explores the liver effects of PFAS on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, using mouse and primary human hepatocytes. The central hypotheses are that diet and liver lipid composition alter PFAS-induced outcomes, and PFAS structure (i.e. functional groups and chain length) will …

Molecular Modeling Of Normal Modes And Dynamics In Aromatic Rings, Peptides, And A Complex Lipid Bilayer, Faramarz Joodaki

Open Access Dissertations

Interest in studying anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) has increased becasue of their potential as future applicable antibiotic drugs. In my research under supervision of Professor Michael L. Greenfield, we attempt to understand the structure and dynamics of a novel hybrid AMP LM7-2, which was designed previously in Professor Lenore M. Martin’s research group (Cell and Molecular Biology Department at URI). Several experimental studies have successfully investigated mechanisms of AMPs against bacteria and shown that AMPs attack the membrane of bacteria and induce bacteria death. However, there is still much uncertainty in the exact mechanisms because of experimental restrictions. Hence, studying the …

Potential Value Of Gear-Based Management For Coral Reef Fisheries And Conservation, Paul Carvalho

Open Access Dissertations

Access to markets and globalization has fueled the expansion of fishing pressure in coral reef fisheries and has consequently led to overfishing on many reefs around the world. Overfishing has profound consequences for reef ecosystems and the people that rely on reef resources for nutrition and income. Collecting fisheries-dependent data required for traditional stock assessment methods that guide management is often infeasible for coral reefs due to the small-scale, dispersed, multi-species, and multi-gear nature of these fisheries. In addition, coral reefs are concentrated in developing countries that often have inadequate capacity for management and enforcement, which limits the effectiveness of …

Drug-Induced Liver Injury: A Predictive Model, Mitochondrial Toxicity Mechanisms Risk, And Antipsychotic Medications Risk In A Real-World Setting, Payal Rana

Open Access Dissertations

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is one of the leading reasons for clinical candidate termination during drug discovery and development. Similarly, many drugs have received a black-box warning or withdrawn from the market due to DILI. It is reported that DILI is the 4th leading cause of liver disease leading to liver failure. It is estimated that the DILI has an annual incidence rate of 13.9 ± 2.4 cases per 100,000 people, translating to about 44,000 liver injury patients in the United States each year. Despite tremendous research in the predictive field, liver injury prediction using in vitro and in vivo …

Characteristics And Potential Management Of Indonesia’S Deepslope Demersal Fishery, Elle Wibisono

Open Access Dissertations

The deep-slope demersal fishery in Indonesia is a deep-water (50-500 m) fishery targeting multiple snapper (Lutjanidae), grouper (Epinephelidae), croaker (Scianidae), jack and trevally (Carangidae), and emperor (Lethrinidae) species. Many target species have slow growth rates, later age at maturity, and extended longevity making them particularly vulnerable to over-exploitation. This fishery is economically important and positions Indonesia as the second-largest snapper exporter globally. Fishers utilize dropline, longline, mix-gears (dropline and longline concurrently), traps, and gillnets, depending on the fishing grounds’ habitats. However, the main fishing gears are droplines and longlines. Vessel sizes vary from 1 gross ton (GT) to 150 GT, …

Occupied Land Is An Access Issue: Interventions In Feminist Disability Studies And Narratives Of Indigenous Activism, Jess L. Cowing

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Native/Indigenous narratives of health and environmental activism often engage with feminist disability issues to center the connections between land, health, sovereignty, and historical legacies of settler militarized colonialism. Within the context from which Native women and youth act as key leaders in health and environmental activism, expanded modes of feminist disability inquiry could interrogate how transformative justice issues require historicizing concepts of ableism through ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. Considering the work of Native writers such as Winona LaDuke, feminist disability studies scholars might critically examine how key tenets of feminist disability issues such as access require attention to Native/Indigenous …

Vulvodynia, It’S In My Head: Mad Methods Toward Crip Coalition, Renee Dumaresque

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This article employs a mad transdisciplinary approach to autoethnography to detail vulvodynia — or chronic vulvar pain — within the system of (dis)ability. Through autoethnography, the self operates as a mobile orientation from which to identify and disrupt the colonial rationalities that differentially construct and narrate vulvodynia across sites of madness and disability. Through historical, discursive, and autoethnographic analysis, I locate vulvodynia’s role in various processes of subject, race, and settler-state formation from the nineteenth century up to the neoliberal present.

Acoustic Microfluidic Separation Techniques And Bioapplications: A Review, Yuan Gao, Mengren Wu, Yang Lin, Jie Xu

Mechanical, Industrial & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Microfluidic separation technology has garnered significant attention over the past decade where particles are being separated at a micro/nanoscale in a rapid, low-cost, and simple manner. Amongst a myriad of separation technologies that have emerged thus far, acoustic microfluidic separation techniques are extremely apt to applications involving biological samples attributed to various advantages, including high controllability, biocompatibility, and non-invasive, label-free features. With that being said, downsides such as low throughput and dependence on external equipment still impede successful commercialization from laboratory-based prototypes. Here, we present a comprehensive review of recent advances in acoustic microfluidic separation techniques, along with exemplary applications. …

Efficacy Of Seaweed (Sargassum Sp.) Extract To Prevent Vibriosis In White Shrimp (Litopenaeus Vannamei) Juvenile, Indriyani Nur Mulyadi, Wa Iba

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Marine algae, especially brown algae (Sargassum sp.), is a natural compound plant capable of being prophylactic and immunostimulant. This study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of seaweed (Sargassum sp.) extract to improve resistance and immune response of juvenile white shrimps (Litopenaeus vannamei ) infected by Vibrio algynolyticus .

Materials and Methods: The ethanolic extract of seaweed was used to evaluate its antibacterial effect by immerse the juvenile shrimp at a dose level of 0 (control), 150, 250 and 350 ppm for 3 h. Shrimp immune response was observed based on total haemocyte count (THC) and differential …

Global Drivers On Southern Ocean Ecosystems: Changing Physical Environments And Anthropogenic Pressures In An Earth System, Simon A. Morley, Doris Abele, David K.A. Barnes, César A. Cárdenas, Cedric Cotté, Julian Gutt, Sian F. Henley, Juan Höfer, Kevin A. Hughes, Stephanie M. Martin, Carlos Moffat, Marilyn Raphael, Sharon E. Stammerjohn, Coleen Suckling, Vivitskaia J.D. Tulloch, Cath L. Waller, Andrew J. Constable

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

The manuscript assesses the current and expected future global drivers of Southern Ocean (SO) ecosystems. Atmospheric ozone depletion over the Antarctic since the 1970s, has been a key driver, resulting in springtime cooling of the stratosphere and intensification of the polar vortex, increasing the frequency of positive phases of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). This increases warm air-flow over the East Pacific sector (Western Antarctic Peninsula) and cold air flow over the West Pacific sector. SAM as well as El Niño Southern Oscillation events also affect the Amundsen Sea Low leading to either positive or negative sea ice anomalies in …

Dietary Contributors To Food Group Intake In Preschool Children Attending Family Childcare Homes, Andrea Ramirez-Sanabria

Open Access Master's Theses

Statement of the Problem: Exposing preschool aged children to a variety of healthy food is essential for the development of healthy eating patterns. Therefore, ensuring healthy environments are necessary. This includes Family Childcare Homes (FCCH), a specific type of childcare in which non-relative providers care for the children in their own home. Unfortunately, during childcare, children are not meeting recommendations for fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat milk; and on the contrary, are consuming too many sugar-sweetened beverages, fruit juice and energy-dense snacks. Most studies have been conducted in childcare centers, and even though FCCH provide care for nearly 2 …

Functional Analysis Of The Csld Genes In Physcomitrella Patens By Crispr/Cas9 Gene Knockout, Kai Yuan

Open Access Master's Theses

Plant cellulose synthase catalytic subunits (CESAs) are known to synthesize the β -1,4-glucan chains that comprise cellulose microfibrils. These CESA subunits associate to form plasma membrane localized Cellulose Synthesis Complexes (CSCs) that facilitate microfibril assembly in concert with β -1,4-glucan polymerization. Cellulose synthase-like D proteins have also been suggested to be involved in cellulose biosynthesis. However, it is not known whether CSLDs form CSCs or produce cellulose in microfibrillar form. This has been difficult to evaluate due to interfering CESA activity being present in the same cells. Whereas CESA null mutations are lethal in vascular plants, some evidence suggests that …

Investigation Of The Impact Of Bacterial Endosymbionts On Host Parasite Relations In Apicomplexans, Elizabeth Sage Hunter

Open Access Master's Theses

Apicomplexa is a diverse protistan phylum composed almost exclusively of metazoan-infecting parasites, including the causative agents of malaria, cryptosporidiosis, and toxoplasmosis. A single apicomplexan genus, Nephromyces, was described in 2010 as a mutualist inside its tunicate host. Here we present genomic and transcriptomic data from the parasitic sister species to this mutualist, Cardiosporidium cionae, and its associated bacterial endosymbiont. Cardiosporidium cionae and Nephromyces both infect tunicate hosts, localize to similar organs within these hosts, and maintain bacterial endosymbionts. Though many other protists are known to harbor bacterial endosymbionts, these associations are completely unknown in Apicomplexa outside of the Nephromycidae …

The Development And Evaluation Of Transgenic Sorghum Lines For Conferred Phenotypes, Jiayin Liu

Open Access Master's Theses

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) requires minimally 9-months from wild type immature embryo explants to T0 seeds. More efficient methods for sorghum transformation are necessary to conduct routine transgenesis for genome editing purposes in this important crop. With this in mind, there were two primary objectives to this thesis. The first was to evaluate and possibly improve upon methods for characterizing putative transformants once produced through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of sorghum. The second was to evaluate and possibly improve upon transformation efficiencies in sorghum using an available Cas9 construct that would provide, long-term, a platform in …

The Influence Of Pre-Migratory Body Composition And Habitat Quality On Fall Migration In The American Woodcock (Scolopax Minor), Clayton Lee Graham

Open Access Master's Theses

Young forests and the wildlife that are dependent upon them are uncommon and declining within the Northeastern U.S. As such, forest management plans have been implemented to create and maintain young forest for wildlife, including migratory birds such as the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) that use young forest to meet their life history needs. Given that most Northeastern woodcock migrate between more northerly breeding areas and southern wintering areas, information about how post-breeding habitat quality and body composition carry over to influence fall migration strategies and residency is important for their management but currently unknown. I investigated how …

Dewlap Evolution Among Non-Native Populations Of The Lizard Anolis Sagrei, Jessica N. Pita-Aquino

Open Access Master's Theses

The biological invasion of the brown anole (Anolis sagrei) provides an opportunity to test alternative hypotheses for phenotypic evolution as non-native populations established from multiple native-range sources experience different environmental conditions. In this study, we explored the evolution of Anolis lizard dewlaps, a well-studied communication structure with a remarkable diversity of phenotypes within and among species. Considerable evidence exists showing that the dewlap is a multifaceted trait subject to multiple selective pressures related to the local environmental conditions. We tested adaptive hypotheses for the response to climate and habitat variation as well as non-adaptive hypotheses tracing the genetic …

Investigating The Structure And Function Of A Novel Anti-Virulence Factor, Jamie Wandzilak

Open Access Master's Theses

Francisella tularensis is a Gram-negative, facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen and the causative agent of the potentially fatal human disease tularemia (Sjöstedt, 2007). Like many pathogens, F. tularensis contains a number of proteins encoded by a variety of genes that are critical to its ability to cause disease including virulence factors and anti-virulence factors. F. tularensis encodes an anti-virulence factor called PriM that inhibits replication inside macrophage, one of its key host cell types. The goal of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism for how PriM functions as anti-virulence factor in F. tularensis subspecies holarctica live vaccine strain …