Digital Commons Network^™

Critical Media Literacy Approaches To Violence Prevention: A Research Note, Emily A. Moorhouse, Hayley Brooks

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Sexual violence is a global phenomenon needing sustainable interventions. The article extends findings from media literacy scholars by exploring ways that critical media literacy (CML) pedagogies can be used to teach affirmative consent education for the purposes of violence prevention. The article is not a curriculum blue-print, as the pedagogies are still being piloted for adolescents in Ontario. However, the rationales for bridging consent education and critical media literacy apply transnationally. Engaging educators and students with critical analysis of media and creative media production is key to transformative learning about consent, within and beyond the classroom. The article ends by …

A Distinct Role For Recombination Repair Factors In An Early Cellular Response To Transcription–Replication Conflicts, Xin Shao, Amalie M. Joergensen, Niall G. Howlett, Michael Lisby, Vibe H. Oestergaard

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Transcription–replication (T–R) conflicts are profound threats to genome integrity. However, whilst much is known about the existence of T–R conflicts, our understanding of the genetic and temporal nature of how cells respond to them is poorly established. Here, we address this by characterizing the early cellular response to transient T–R conflicts (TRe). This response specifically requires the DNA recombination repair proteins BLM and BRCA2 as well as a non-canonical monoubiquitylation-independent function of FANCD2. A hallmark of the TRe response is the rapid co-localization of these three DNA repair factors at sites of T–R collisions. We find that the TRe …

Multi-Instrument Assessment Of Phytoplankton Abundance And Cell Sizes In Mono-Specific Laboratory Cultures And Whole Plankton Community Composition In The North Atlantic, Susanne Menden-Deuer, Francoise Morison, Amanda L. Montalbano, Gayantonia Franze, Jacob Strock, Ewelina Rubin, Heather Mcnair, Colleen B. Mouw, Pierre Marrec

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The abundance and size distribution of plankton in the surface ocean are key metrics to understanding primary and export production, food web dynamics, and the optical properties of the water column. Here we quantified cell size and abundance of phytoplankton species from mono-specific laboratory cultures, using optical, electrical, and image-based benchtop instrumentation. Moreover, we combined particle size distribution and size fractionated chlorophyll a (Chl a) analysis with image analysis to estimate phytoplankton community composition and abundance comparing a high and low biomass station in the North Atlantic during springtime. In laboratory cultures, we found generally good agreement in estimates of …

Ocean Deoxygenation And Copepods: Coping With Oxygen Minimum Zone Variability, K. F. Wishner, Brad Seibel, Dawn Outram

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Increasing deoxygenation (loss of oxygen) of the ocean, including expansion of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), is a potentially important consequence of global warming. We examined present-day variability of vertical distributions of 23 calanoid copepod species in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) living in locations with different water column oxygen profiles and OMZ intensity (lowest oxygen concentration and its vertical extent in a profile). Copepods and hydrographic data were collected in vertically stratified day and night MOCNESS (Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System) tows (0–1000 m) during four cruises over a decade (2007–2017) that sampled four ETNP locations: Costa …

Biological Control Of Aedes Mosquito Larvae With Carnivorous Aquatic Plant, Utricularia Macrorhiza, Janelle Couret, Marco Notarangelo, Sarashwathy Veera, Noah Leclaire-Conway, Howard S. Ginsberg, Roger Lebrun

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Biological controls with predators of larval mosquito vectors have historically focused almost exclusively on insectivorous animals, with few studies examining predatory plants as potential larvacidal agents. In this study, we experimentally evaluate a generalist plant predator of North America, Utricularia macrorhiza, the common bladderwort, and evaluate its larvacidal efficiency for the mosquito vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in no-choice, laboratory experiments. We sought to determine first, whether U. macrorhiza is a competent predator of container-breeding mosquitoes, and secondly, its predation efficiency for early and late instar larvae of each mosquito species.

Methods

Newly hatched, first-instar Ae. albopictus …

Transcriptional And Clonal Characterization Of B Cell Plasmablast Diversity Following Primary And Secondary Natural Denv Infection, Alan L. Rothman, Et Al

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Antibody-mediated humoral immunity is thought to play a central role in mediating the immunopathogenesis of acute DENV infection, but limited data are available on the diversity, specificity, and functionality of the antibody response at the molecular level elicited by primary or secondary DENV infection. In order to close this functional gap in our understanding of DENV-specific humoral immunity, we utilized high-throughput single cell RNA sequencing to investigate B cells circulating in both primary and secondary natural DENV infections. We captured full-length paired immunoglobulin receptor sequence data from 9,027 B cells from a total of 6 subjects, including 2,717 plasmablasts. In …

Nano-Enabled Water Treatment: Socially Embedded And Safe Routes Of Application, Navid Saleh

Amgen Seminar Series in Chemical Engineering

Most technological solutions are developed in isolation of the target population. Water treatment devices are no exception. It is well known that the simplest of water treatment solutions (e.g., chlorine distribution for disinfection) are often not effective to render the benefits that these are intended to deliver. This talk will highlight our recent efforts in developing socially embedded water treatment solutions for inactivation of microbes and removal of contaminants from water for low-income communities in the United States (i.e., those that are living in the U.S.-Mexico border region and in the Navajo Nation) and beyond. In our efforts, nanomaterials are …

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report No. #2019-20-10 (Courses), University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2019-20-10: Creation Of An Undergraduate Marine Technical Certificate Program, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2019-20-10: Curriculuar Proposals, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2019-20-10: Creation Of An Accelerated Online Undergraduate Certificate In Cannabis Studies, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

A Chance At Birth: An Academic Development Activity To Promote Deep Reflection On Social Inequities, Bryan Dewsbury

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

I describe the structure and implementation of an activity I use in academic development, aimed at introducing higher education faculty to social inequities in a profound way. The activity is structured such that previously naïve practitioners as well as those somewhat engaged in equity pedagogies are provided new ways of thinking about the role classroom practices play in social inclusion. Here I reflect on the activity’s genesis, provide suggestions for its use, and present considerations for academic developers interested in using it for their own practice.

Stavudine Exposure Results In Developmental Abnormalities By Causing Dna Damage, Inhibiting Cell Proliferation And Inducing Apoptosis In Mouse Embryos, Rui-Fang Ao, Yu-Xiang Liang, Xiao-Qing Liu, Kui Tan, Xiaoling Wang, Dan Liu, Ting Zhang, Gongqin Sun, Jun Xie

Cell and Molecular Biology Faculty Publications

Stavudine is an anti-AIDS drug widely used to prevent HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to the fetuses in underdeveloped countries for its low price. However, there is still a controversy on whether stavudine affects embryo development. In the current study, embryotoxicity of stavudine was evaluated using cultured mouse embryos with the concentrations: 5, 10, 15 μM and vehicle control. The data indicated that the effect of stavudine was dose-dependent at early neurogenesis. Stavudine exposure reduced somite numbers, yolk sac diameter, crown-rump length, and increased the rate of embryonic degeneration compared with the control. We chose the lowest but clearly toxic …

Jasmine (Jasminum Grandiflorum) Flower Extracts Ameliorate Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate Induced Ear Edema In Mice, Dongli Li, Xiaodan Tang, Chang Liu, Huifang Li, Shuzhen Li, Shili Sun, Xi Zheng, Panpan Wu, Xuetao Xu, Kun Zhang, Hang Ma

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Published data from in vitro assays support the anti-inflammatory effects of jasmine (Jasminum grandiflorum Linn.) but limited studies are reported in animal models. Herein, the anti-inflammatory effects of jasmine flower extracts (JFEs) including ethanol extract (JF-EE), petroleum ether extract (JF-PEE), ethyl acetate extract (JF-EAE), and n-butanol extract (JF-BE) were evaluated in a mouse ear edema model. Acute mouse ear skin inflammation was induced by tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA; 125 µg/mL) and then treated with JFEs (100 mg/mL) or dexamethasone (DEX; 6.25 mg/mL; as a positive control). Jasmine flower extracts alleviated ear edema by reducing TPA-increased ear thickness and ear …

Metabolic Recovery And Compensatory Shell Growth Of Juvenile Pacific Geoduck Panopea Generosa Following Short-Term Exposure To Acidified Seawater, Samuel Gurr, Brent Vadopalas, Steven B. Roberts, Hollie M. Putnam

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

While acute stressors can be detrimental, environmental stress conditioning can improve performance. To test the hypothesis that physiological status is altered by stress conditioning, we subjected juvenile Pacific geoduck, Panopea generosa, to repeated exposures of elevated pCO₂ in a commercial hatchery setting followed by a period in ambient common garden. Respiration rate and shell length were measured for juvenile geoduck periodically throughout short-term repeated reciprocal exposure periods in ambient (~550 μatm) or elevated (~2400 μatm) pCO₂ treatments and in common, ambient conditions, 5 months after exposure. Short-term exposure periods comprised an initial 10-day exposure followed …

Genome Sequencing Analysis Of Laboratory Isolate Of Francisella Noatunensis Subs. Orientalis, Joseph Paquette

Senior Honors Projects

Francisella noatunensis subs. orientalis is a known fish pathogen that has been most notably isolated from tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Costa Rica. The genome of this Francisella species pathogen has been sequenced using Next-Generation Sequencing and been made available for the scientific community. Dr. Kathryn Ramsey’s research laboratory in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Rhode Island works with several Francisella species pathogens and is interested in identifying the differences, if any, between the known genome sequence of Francisella noatunensis and that of a laboratory isolate of the same species. With the use …

Energy Stores, Oxidative Balance, And Sleep In Migratory Garden Warblers ( Sylvia Borin) And Whitethroats ( Sylvia Communis) At A Spring Stopover Site, Andrea Ferretti, Scott R. Mcwilliams, Niels C. Rattenborg, Ivan Maggini, Massimiliano Cardinale, Leonida Fusani

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Little is known about how songbirds modulate sleep during migratory periods. Due to the alternation of nocturnal endurance flights and diurnal refueling stopovers, sleep is likely to be a major constraint for many migratory passerine species. Sleep may help to increase the endogenous antioxidant capacity that counteracts free radicals produced during endurance flight and reduces energy expenditure. Here, we investigated the relationship between sleep behavior, food intake, and two markers of physiological condition—the amount of energy reserves and oxidative status—in two migratory songbird species, the garden warbler (Sylvia borin) and the whitethroat (Sylvia communis). In garden warblers, birds with high …

Flow Model Of Offshore Input Of Nitrogen Into The Narragansett Bay, Christopher M. Sireci

Senior Honors Projects

Nitrogen is an important nutrient in ecosystems, as it is used in many biological processes, including the creation of DNA and RNA. However, excess nitrogen in an ecosystem can have adverse effects, such as triggering algal blooms, which limit sunlight penetration to bottom growth, and create anoxic zones. Large scale strategies to remove excess nitrogen from wastewater treatment plants have been utilized, but they are expensive and can potentially remove too much, while increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, it is essential that we understand the accurate full nitrogen budget for an estuary.

Narragansett Bay, an important coastal marine ecosystem that …

Perceptions Of Healthcare And Medicine In Yogyakarta In Comparison To Providence, Lynnea Talbot

Senior Honors Projects

The way in which medicine is practiced and perceived varies across the world and is influenced by history. After a trip to Indonesia, and experiencing the local health centers first-hand, the differences in medical practices became evident. A comparison between the cities of Yogyakarta and Providence was performed with respect to different areas of medicine. The life expectancy values for the city of Providence were significantly higher than those for Yogyakarta. The top ten causes of death were examined for both cities: the number one cause being stroke in Yogyakarta and heart disease in Providence. Medical facilities and personnel, insurance …

Late Preterm Infants Progression Of Adaptive Functioning Skills From Age 8 To 23, Kimberly L'Etoile

Senior Honors Projects

Background: Late preterm infants (LPT) are born 34^0/7 to 36^6/7 weeks gestation, comprising 71% of preterm infants in the United States. Despite being of similar size and weight to full term (FT) infants, LPT infants exhibit poorer long-term outcomes. Using data from a longitudinal Rhode Island cohort of former preterm infants, this study investigated adaptive functioning skills of LPT infants as compared to FT infants at 8 and 23 years.

Methods: The sample included 30 LPT infants born 33-36 weeks gestational age (GA) and 40 FT infants. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at 8 years and Adult Self …

Calf Heath And Oxidative Stress, Samantha Cardin

Senior Honors Projects

In recent years, beef cattle operations such as farms and ranches in the U.S. have surpassed 900,000 and have been steadily increasing. With this rise in the beef industry, comes a greater concern for calf health since it has huge impacts on production and viability. There are multiple different factors that can affect calf health ranging from the intrauterine environment to conditions early on post parturition. An improper maternal environment during pregnancy can impact fetal growth because it can decrease the amount of nutrients reaching the calf. This can lead to low birth weights and undeveloped organ systems. Additionally, if …

Honest Sex Education Advocacy, Kyleigh Richard

Senior Honors Projects

It is imperative that children and teens receive honest and well researched information when they are being taught sex education, particularly so they learn to care about their sexual health and protect their own bodies.

In order to learn where there are gaps or insufficiencies in this sex education in the state of Rhode Island, twenty superintendents from public schools across the state were contacted by email and phone and asked to share their curriculum and resources. Of the eight that supplied their school curriculums, I found three points I felt were deficient in sex education: (1) human anatomy is …

Small Phytoplankton Dominate Western North Atlantic Biomass, Luis M. Bolanos, Lee Karp-Boss, Chang Jae Choi, Alexandra Z. Worden, Jason R. Graff, Nils Haentjens, Alison P. Chase, Alice Della Penna, Peter Gaube, Francoise Morison, Susanne Menden-Deuer, Toby K. Westberry, Robert T. O'Malley, Emmanuel Boss, Michael J. Behrenfeld, Stephen J. Giovannoni

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The North Atlantic phytoplankton spring bloom is the pinnacle in an annual cycle that is driven by physical, chemical, and biological seasonality. Despite its important contributions to the global carbon cycle, transitions in plankton community composition between the winter and spring have been scarcely examined in the North Atlantic. Phytoplankton composition in early winter was compared with latitudinal transects that captured the subsequent spring bloom climax. Amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), imaging flow cytometry, and flow-cytometry provided a synoptic view of phytoplankton diversity. Phytoplankton communities were not uniform across the sites studied, but rather mapped with apparent fidelity onto subpolar- and …

Stuck In The Middle With You (And Not Much Time Left): The Third Intergovernmental Conference On Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, Elizabeth M. De Santo, Elizabeth Mendenhall, Elizabeth Nyman, Rachel Tiller

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

The third of four scheduled Inter-Governmental Conferences on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction met in New York in August 2019. This article tracks the progress made in the negotiations, focusing on the four key themes the draft treaty is addressing: (1) marine genetic resources, (2) area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, (3) environmental impact assessments, and (4) capacity building and transfer of marine technology. Drawing on process tracing (i.e. observations, interviews, and literature analysis), we have observed several critical issues in the emerging institutional design of a future agreement for ‘Biodiversity Beyond National …

Sinking Flux Of Particulate Organic Matter In The Oceans: Sensitivity To Particle Characteristics, Melissa M. Omand, Rama Govindarajan, Jing He, Amala Mahadevan

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The sinking of organic particles produced in the upper sunlit layers of the ocean forms an important limb of the oceanic biological pump, which impacts the sequestration of carbon and resupply of nutrients in the mesopelagic ocean. Particles raining out from the upper ocean undergo remineralization by bacteria colonized on their surface and interior, leading to an attenuation in the sinking flux of organic matter with depth. Here, we formulate a mechanistic model for the depth-dependent, sinking, particulate mass flux constituted by a range of sinking, remineralizing particles. Like previous studies, we find that the model does not achieve the …

Nanomaterials Engineering To Probe And Control Living Systems, Markita Landry

Amgen Seminar Series in Chemical Engineering

Unique physical, chemical, and optical phenomena arise when materials are confined to the nano-scale. We are accustomed to making observations and predictions for the behavior of living systems on a macroscopic scale that is intuitive for the time and size scales of our day-to-day lives. However, the building blocks of life: proteins, nucleic acids, and cells, occupy different spatiotemporal scales. Our lab focuses on understanding and exploiting tunable optical and chemical properties of nanomaterials to access information about biological systems stored at the nano-scale. In the context of leveraging nanomaterial optical properties, we present recent work on developing and implementing …

A Conceptual Map Of Invasion Biology: Integrating Hypotheses Into A Consensus Network, Laura A. Meyerson, Et Al

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Background and aims

Since its emergence in the mid‐20th century, invasion biology has matured into a productive research field addressing questions of fundamental and applied importance. Not only has the number of empirical studies increased through time, but also has the number of competing, overlapping and, in some cases, contradictory hypotheses about biological invasions. To make these contradictions and redundancies explicit, and to gain insight into the field’s current theoretical structure, we developed and applied a Delphi approach to create a consensus network of 39 existing invasion hypotheses.

Results

The resulting network was analysed with a link‐clustering algorithm that revealed …

Disruption Of Cholinergic Neurotransmission, Within A Cognitive Challenge Paradigm, Is Indicative Of Aβ-Related Cognitive Impairment In Preclinical Alzheimer’S Disease After A 27-Month Delay Interval, Jessica Alber, Paul Maruff, Claudia Y. Santos, Brian R. Ott, Stephen P. Salloway, Don C. Yoo, Richard B. Noto, Louisa I. Thompson, Danielle Goldfarb, Edmund Arthur, Alex Song, Peter J. Snyder

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Abnormal beta-amyloid (Aβ) is associated with deleterious changes in central cholinergic tone in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which may be unmasked by a cholinergic antagonist (J Prev Alzheimers Dis 1:1–4, 2017). Previously, we established the scopolamine challenge test (SCT) as a “cognitive stress test” screening measure to identify individuals at risk for AD (Alzheimer’s & Dementia 10(2):262–7, 2014) (Neurobiol. Aging 36(10):2709-15, 2015). Here we aim to demonstrate the potential of the SCT as an indicator of cognitive change and neocortical amyloid aggregation after a 27-month follow-up interval.

Methods

Older adults (N = 63, aged …

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report No. #2019-20-9 (Courses), University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Curriculum And Standards Committee Report #2019-20-9: Curricular Proposals, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.