Digital Commons Network^™

Alma Link Resolver Subject Report 2018-2019, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Statistics for 2018-2019 on the number of OpenURL requests by Library of Congress classification code made to the Ex Libris Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries.

Information provided includes Classification Code, Classifications, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, and % Clicks from Requests.

Human Races Are Not Like Dog Breeds: Refuting A Racist Analogy, Heather L. Norton, Ellen E. Quillen, Abigail W. Bigham, Laurel N. Pearson, Holly M. Dunsworth

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In 1956, evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane posed a question to anthropologists: “Are the biological differences between human groups comparable with those between groups of domestic animals such as greyhounds and bulldogs…?” It reads as if it were posted on social media today. The analogy comparing human races to dog breeds is not only widespread in history and pop culture, but also sounds like scientific justification for eschewing the social construction of race, or for holding racist beliefs about human nature. Here we answer Haldane’s question in an effort to improve the public understanding of human biological variation and “race”—two phenomena …

Lack Of Long-Term Acclimation In Antarctic Encrusting Species Suggests Vulnerability To Warming, Melody S. Clark, Leyre Villota Nieva, Joseph I. Hoffman, Andrew J. Davies, Urmi H. Trivedi, Frances Turner, Gail V. Ashton, Lloyd S. Peck

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Marine encrusting communities play vital roles in benthic ecosystems and have major economic implications with regards to biofouling. However, their ability to persist under projected warming scenarios remains poorly understood and is difficult to study under realistic conditions. Here, using heated settlement panel technologies, we show that after 18 months Antarctic encrusting communities do not acclimate to either +1 °C or +2 °C above ambient temperatures. There is significant up-regulation of the cellular stress response in warmed animals, their upper lethal temperatures decline with increasing ambient temperature and population genetic analyses show little evidence of differential survival of genotypes with …

On The Sources And Sinks Of Atmospheric Vocs: An Integrated Analysis Of Recent Aircraft Campaigns Over North America, Xin Chen, Dylan B. Millet, Hanwant B. Singh, Armin Wisthaler, Eric C. Apel, Elliot L. Atlas, Donald R. Blake, Ilann Bourgeois, Steven S. Brown, John D. Crounse, Joost A. De Gouw, Frank M. Flocke, Alan Fried, Brian G. Heikes, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Tomas Mikoviny, Kyung-Eun Min, Markus Müller, J. Andrew Neuman, Daniel W. O'Sullivan, Jeff Peischl, Gabriele G. Pfister, Dirk Richter, James M. Roberts, Thomas B. Ryerson, Stephen R. Shertz, Chelsea R. Thompson, Victoria Treadaway, Patrick R. Veres, James Walega, Carsten Warneke, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Petter Weibring, Bin Yuan

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

We apply a high-resolution chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem CTM) with updated treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and a comprehensive suite of airborne datasets over North America to (i) characterize the VOC budget and (ii) test the ability of current models to capture the distribution and reactivity of atmospheric VOCs over this region. Biogenic emissions dominate the North American VOC budget in the model, accounting for 70 % and 95 % of annually emitted VOC carbon and reactivity, respectively. Based on current inventories anthropogenic emissions have declined to the point where biogenic emissions are the dominant summertime source of VOC …

The University Of Rhode Island And Indonesia: A 45-Year Retrospective (1974-2019), Michael A. Rice

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Barriers To Inclusive Deliberation And Democratic Governance Of Genetic Technologies At The Science-Policy Interface, Cynthia Taylor, Bryan Dewsbury

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Advances in 21st century genetic technologies offer new directions for addressing public health and environmental challenges, yet raise important social and ethical questions. Though the need for inclusive deliberation is widely recognized, institutionalized risk definitions, regulation standards, and imaginations of publics pose obstacles to democratic participation and engagement. This paper traces how the problematic precedents set by the 1975 Asilomar Conference emerge in contemporary discussions on CRISPR, and draws from a recent controversy surrounding field trial releases of genetically modified mosquitoes to explicate the ways in which these precedents undermine efforts to engage publics in decisions at the science-policy interface.

Hot Off The Presses: Results Of A Statewide Survey On Online Access To Newspapers In Rhode Island, Chaichin Chen, Andrée Rathemacher, Julie Kliever, Julie Holden

Technical Services Faculty Presentations

Slides from a presentation, "Hot Off the Presses: Results of a Statewide Survey on Online Access to Newspapers in Rhode Island," presented at the Rhode Island Library Association Annual Conference 2019, Get Informed!, on May 23, 2019 in North Smithfield, Rhode Island.

An openly-shared Google Slides version of this presentation is also available at https://bit.ly/RILA-HOT.

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HOT OFF THE PRESSES: RESULTS OF A STATEWIDE SURVEY ON ONLINE ACCESS TO NEWSPAPERS IN RHODE ISLAND | ROOM 2B

Libraries’ ability to provide our users with access to quality news sources is more important than ever, yet options for online access to …

Dna Repair Enzymes Alkbh2, Alkbh3, And Alkb Oxidize 5-Methylcytosine To 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-Formylcytosine And 5-Carboxylcytosine In Vitro, Ke Bian, Stefan Ap Lenz, Qi Tang, Fangyi Chen, Rui Qi, Marco Jost, Catherine L. Drennan, John M. Essigmann, Stacey D. Wetmore, Deyu Li

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

5-Methylcytosine (5mC) in DNA CpG islands is an important epigenetic biomarker for mammalian gene regulation. It is oxidized to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) by the ten-eleven translocation (TET) family enzymes, which are α-ketoglutarate (α-KG)/Fe(II)-dependent dioxygenases. In this work, we demonstrate that the epigenetic marker 5mC is modified to 5hmC, 5fC, and 5caC in vitro by another class of α-KG/Fe(II)-dependent proteins—the DNA repair enzymes in the AlkB family, which include ALKBH2, ALKBH3 in huamn and AlkB in Escherichia coli. Theoretical calculations indicate that these enzymes may bind 5mC in the syn-conformation, placing the methyl group comparable …

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes May 2, 2019, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

No abstract provided.

Elevating The Environment Through Artistic Expression, Becky Gumbrewicz

Senior Honors Projects

REBECCA GUMBREWICZ (Environmental Science and Management)

Elevating the Environment Through Artistic Expression

Sponsor: Judith Swift (Communication Studies, Coastal Institute)

Currently there are multiple areas of environmental concern that require not only scientific research but increased public awareness in order to motivate further action toward preservation of our environment or remediation of human impacts. To promote a broader perspective of the most effective ways to communicate science, this project offers the culmination of an environmentally-focused art showcase of student interpretations of science that one could posit elevated public perception of the environment. An integral part of conducting research is understanding how …

Villains, Morality, And Redemption: A Content Analysis Of Children’S Movies, Iqra Ishaq

Senior Honors Projects

Research on children’s movies has yielded important findings on messaging about gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, mental illness, aging, and even death. All of this research has recognized the important role children’s movies play in children’s upbringing and informal education. Not only do children’s movies reflect the commonly-held values of the time, but they impart these values to their audience. Children, as the target audience of these movies, are extremely susceptible to absorbing these values and messages.

My research examines what messages children’s movies impart about villains. It includes a content-analysis of 80 full-length animated movies released by Disney, DreamWorks, …

Correlation Between Sei Whale Distribution And Chlorophyll-A Concentration In The Western North Atlantic, Dawn Parry

Senior Honors Projects

The sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) is an endangered baleen whale species whose distribution and migratory movements are poorly understood. Sei whale populations were decimated by commercial whaling in the 19th and 20th centuries. Much of what is currently known about their distributions comes from historical whaling records. Visual sightings, which may be sporadic and limited by weather and access to remote locations, are the primary source of data for recent research. It is thought that sei whale distributions may be influenced by the distribution of their food, which consists of zooplankton (small crustaceans, like shrimp), small fish, and …

Effects Of Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury On Cytochrome P450 Activity, Milleah Sawtelle

Senior Honors Projects

Approximately 2 million people worldwide and more than 670,000 Americans are affected by end-stage renal diseases (ESRD). The current standard of care for ESRD is kidney transplantation. However, the surgical procedure of kidney transplantation inherently involves ischemia, which interrupts blood flow and reduces oxygen, during kidney graft preservation. The ischemic period is followed by reperfusion (the restoration of blood flow to the transplanted graft), resulting in varying degrees of ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury. I/R injury is a leading cause of both organ dysfunction and graft failure. Furthermore, kidney I/R injury has been shown to cause remote organ damage, especially …

Surveying Apicomplexan Diversity And Dynamics In Narragansett Bay, Evelyn Spencer

Senior Honors Projects

Parasites play an important role in marine ecosystems and their diversity is generally understudied. Apicomplexans, a group of parasitic protists in the phylum Alveolata, infect a wide variety of animal hosts and are abundant in ecosystems spanning from Polar Regions to Neotropical rainforests. Previous data generated from marine sediments in Antarctica, Naples Bay, and off the coast of Oslo, exhibit high diversity and numbers of apicomplexans. Abundance and diversity of these protists are unknown for Narragansett Bay, despite the fact that they infect many commercially important species. The aim of my study was to obtain abundance data and understand genetic …

The Effects Of Gesture On Early Language Production, Gabrielle Zeyl

Senior Honors Projects

Over the last decade, baby sign language (adapted signs for simple words like milk or mom) has become a trending parenting fad. Although significant research is still lacking on the subject, there is evidence suggesting that the use of early gestures is beneficial in promoting spoken language in typically developing children. Given developmental support for early gesture, this project aims to investigate the use of manual gestures to support speech sound production for a young child with speech and language delay. This project is two-fold. Part one included an extensive literature review of existing research on baby sign, gesture and …

Developing A Modern Microbiology Laboratory Manual To Enhance Student Learning, Alexander Yonchak

Senior Honors Projects

My project has been addressing the issue of incorporating recent developments in biosafety and pedagogical approaches for lab-courses into our existing educational curriculum by developing a new, modern lab manual aimed at improving experiential learning for introductory microbiology teaching labs. Through researching the most recent safety regulations, industry standards, & guidelines for such teaching labs, my manual clearly delineates learning outcomes to match the skills expected of undergraduates completing degrees within the life sciences. In addition, the lab manual that I have designed has been modernized to incorporate the most recent recommended safety precautions and is written in a user-friendly …

Validating The Kubinyi Et Al. Personality Scale In Shelter Dogs, Gianna Zavota

Senior Honors Projects

The aim of this study was to apply the dog personality scale used in the study, Dog and owner demographic characteristics and dog personality trait associations, (Kubinyi et al. 2009) to resident shelter dogs. The personality was originally developed and adapted for dog personality based on a 48 item Human Personality Inventory available from The Big Five. In the study, owners were asked to characterize their dogs using this scale, and in this study a researcher used the scale to characterize dogs at various animal shelters. The four main personality traits measured were calmness, boldness, trainability, and dog …

Humans Of The Peace Corps: Uri Edition, Jessica Cohen

Senior Honors Projects

JESSICA COHEN (Political Science) Humans of the Peace Corps: URI Edition Sponsors: Kathleen Maher (Honors Program), Nancy Stricklin (Office of the Provost)

The Peace Corps is a volunteer organization that was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. The Peace Corps’ overarching mission is to promote world peace and friendship. It achieves this by “helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women and helping to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served”. Volunteers have helped with major global issues such as fighting hunger and protecting the …

Transcriptomic Response To Feeding And Starvation In A Herbivorous Dinoflagellate, Ewelina T. Rubin, Shu Cheng, Amanda L. Montalbano, Susanne Menden-Deuer, Tatiana A. Rynearson

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Grazing by heterotrophic protists influences plankton population dynamics, community composition, and the flux of carbon through marine planktonic food webs. To gain insight into the molecular underpinnings of grazing in dinoflagellates, a group of important heterotrophic protists, we used a RNA-Seq approach to investigate the transcriptomic response of Oxyrrhis marina under fed and starved conditions with three different phytoplankton prey (Isochrysis galbana and two strains of Heterosigma akashiwo). In response to fed and starved conditions, 1,576 transcripts were significantly differentially expressed in O. marina. Fed O. marina cells upregulated transcripts involved in the synthesis of essential fatty …

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2018-19-12 (Courses), University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Review: Crash Course In Media Literacy, Faith Rogow

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Forced by its format to distill a subject area’s central tenets into just a few sessions, a “crash course” should be an excellent place to uncover the essential elements of a topic or field. Viewed through that lens, Complexly’s YouTube offering, “Crash Course in Media Literacy,” provides an illuminating, if sometimes confounding opportunity for reflection.

Media Literacy And American Education: An Exploration With Détournement, Seth D. French, Jacob Campbell

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Many competing voices are speaking about the state of American education and how it should be reformed in the best interest of students. Topics such as teachers unions, charter schools, and standardized tests are at the center of many of these discussions. How do we decipher what to believe amid such conflicting perspectives concerning these topics and others like them? To progress American education in a direction that benefits students and democratic society, today’s educational stakeholders must adopt a critical stance in their evaluation of issues at the center of American education; lessons that encourage the development of critical media …

Curricular Report No. 2018-19-9 From The Graduate Council To The Faculty Senate: Environmental Communication Track In The Master Of Environmental Science And Management Degree Program, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2018-19-11: Curricular Changes, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Refinement Of An In Vivo Exsheathment Assay Of Haemonchus Contortus In Ruminally Fistulated Ewes, Madison Parks

Senior Honors Projects

My honors project examined one aspect of an overarching research project currently happening here at the University of Rhode Island studying the parasite Haemonchus contortus. This project focused on revising the current working assay for in vivo exsheathment of the parasite in cannulated ewes in order to find more cost effective materials and shorten the length of time the assay takes to complete. Haemonchus contortus, commonly known as the barber pole worm, inhabits the digestive tract of sheep and goats. It feeds on the blood in the abomasum, a chamber of the ruminant stomach, and causes anemia and sometimes death …

The Development Of A Fecal Glucocorticoid Metabolite Assay To Assess Stress In Captive Breeding Populations Of New England Cottontail Rabbits, Kianna Lee Taylor

Senior Honors Projects

The topic for this research project was based on the problem of the diminishing population of the wild New England Cottontail rabbits. Over the last 50 years, the population of these once very common rabbits has decreased to only inhabit New England and parts of New York (1). This is less than one-fifth of the geographic range they once inhabited (1). Roger Williams Park Zoo currently has a New England Cottontail breeding program that has experienced limited success, which may be caused by the domestic environment into which this wild species is being introduced. The central objective of this study …

The Effect Of Music, Art, Photo, Animal Assisted, And Alternative Therapies On Quality Of Life In Patients With Dementia: A Systematic Review, Angela Ferlo

Senior Honors Projects

Dementia is a devastating set of diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, and more, with a few theories of cause, but no certainties. One major theory behind Alzheimer’s disease involves a deficit of an important neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, in the brain. Few pharmacologic options are available to treat the symptoms or slow the progression of dementia, and the options we do have are indicated for Alzheimer’s disease. Most of the pharmacologic options for Alzheimer’s disease work by increasing the amount of acetylcholine in the brain, but none offer a cure. Often, dementia leaves the person …

Medical Textiles, Martin Bide

Seminar in Textiles and Clothing

A vital aspect of the textile industry is creating materials for medical use. Medical textiles come in all different shapes and sizes. They can be used to create something as simple as a bandage or something more extreme like sutures. Martin Bide, a TMD professor at the University of Rhode Island, discussed his experience with creating medical textiles and shed light on how lengthy the process can be before achieving the final product. In order to have any success in this area of the industry you need to be familiar with innovation in medical textiles, the stages it takes to …

Fish And Wildlife Conservation For Educators Nrs 580, Michael Cerbo

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2018-19-11 (Courses), University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.