Digital Commons Network^™

Substance Use In Justice-Involved Youth: The Roles Of Adhd And Cd, Avery Beatty

Open Access Dissertations

The present study aimed to investigate the relationships between ADHD, CD, and comorbid ADHD and CD on cigarette, cannabis, and alcohol use among justice-involved youth (JIY). Data for the present study were derived from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that compared the effectiveness of various interventions in reducing cigarette use among youth at a state juvenile correctional facility in the Northeastern United States. The total sample (N = 302) comprised incarcerated and detained youth (n = 243) who ranged in age from 13 to 19 years (M = 16.01, SD = 1.01). Additionally, the present finding revealed that the total …

Characterization Of Methodological Variability In Compound Specific Isotope Analysis Of Amino Acids (Csia-Aa), Audreyana Brown-Nash

Open Access Dissertations

The use of isotopes in the natural sciences stems from the principle that chemical reactions predictably alter the isotopic composition of a given sample. Recent advances in compound specific isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) have paved the way for studies of increasingly complex ecological relationships, including the identification and characterization of organismal physiology, consumer-resource linkages, biogeochemical cycling, and movement ecology. The analytical power of CSIA-AA has caused an exponential increase in the number of application-based studies since its inception in the 1990s. With the technique constantly evolving to accommodate new research goals, it is important to understand how variation …

Quantifying Mixotrophy Potential As A Function Of Environmental And Biological Drivers In Coastal And Estuarine Plankton Communities, Erica Ewton

Open Access Dissertations

The discovery of mixotrophic plankton has bridged gaps in nutrient cycling budgets and altered the understanding of food webs and energy transfer. Mixotrophic plankton are capable of simultaneous or sequential photosynthesis and heterotrophy, providing multiple avenues of nutrition and thus reducing limitations that affect specialists. These energy dense cells provide increased biomass for higher trophic levels, which may increase organism sizes throughout the food web. Additionally, they may be physically denser, which alters biogeochemical cycling including carbon sequestration. The work presented here uses LysoTracker Green, an acidotropic stain that attaches to phagocytic vacuoles within potentially phagotrophic small (< 20 µm diameter) phytoplankton communities (‘mixoplankton’), to better understand their abundance, relative abundance, and growth rates in relation to the matrix of natural conditions they inhabit. Understanding the prevalence and drivers of mixoplankton is vital to better parameterize biogeochemical cycling and energy transfer in the ocean and for models that predict the fate of future oceans.In the first study, I compared the abundance of mixoplankton in the Northeast U.S. Shelf (NES) and Coastal California Current System (CCS) during two cruises in the NES in summer 2021 and one cruise in the CCS in summer 2022. These two contrasting coastal systems span the breadth of environmental conditions observed in temperate marine ecosystems and thus provided an opportunity to examine indicators of mixoplankton across temperate coastal regions. I discovered higher mixoplankton abundance in the NES than CCS yet similar population sizes of nanoeukaryotic photosynthesizers, resulting in higher relative abundance of mixoplankton in the NES than CCS. Across both systems, I found increased mixoplankton abundance associated with decreasing temperature and combined nitrate + nitrite concentrations (N+N), and increasing light intensity and Synechococcus abundance …

Investigating The Photophysical Dynamics Of Anthracene And Acridine Derivatives Using Time-Resolved Spectroscopy, Sophia Tiano

Open Access Dissertations

Anthracenes and acridines are among the simplest visible light absorbing heterocyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and as such are extensively used in a variety of applications including photosensitizers and fluorescent sensors. Although the photophysics of some derivatives have been studied in the past, there is still a lot of unknown fundamental information that is vital in order to optimize these molecules for particular applications. Transient absorption spectroscopy was used to study the photophysics of the 9-substituted methyl, hydroxymethyl and formyl derivatives of acridine and anthracene. The growth and decay of the triplet-triplet absorption peak were quantified for each dye in …

Real-World Clinical And Cost Effectiveness Of Osteoporotic Treatments In Men, Yu Ren

Open Access Dissertations

Osteoporosis is a condition characterized by the loss of bone mass, which increases the risk of fractures. In 2017-2018, the age-adjusted prevalence of osteoporosis among adults aged 50 and over was 12.6%, with 19.6% in women and 4.4% in men. Untreated osteoporosis can lead to a cycle of recurrent fractures that severely impact quality of life and place significant emotional, physical, and financial strain on patients, families, and healthcare resources. Approximately 50% of women and 20% of men will experience at least one fracture in their lifetime. In the United States, an estimated 1.5 million osteoporotic fractures occur each year, …

Consumer And Environmental Preferences: Discrete Choice Experiments And Machine Learning Applications In Ev Battery Adoption And Aquatic Invasive Species Management, Lufan Helen Liu

Open Access Dissertations

As climate change and resource scarcity drive a global shift toward cleaner energy systems and environmental conservation, understanding how individuals value sustainability-related interventions has become increasingly important. This dissertation contributes to this growing body of knowledge by applying and advancing discrete choice experiment (DCE) methodology to assess consumer and public preferences for two key environmental policy domains: (1) repurposed electric vehicle (EV) batteries for residential energy storage and (2) aquatic invasive species (AIS) management in New York State. Across all three chapters, the study examines how traditional econometric models and emerging machine learning (ML) methods can complement each other in …

A Socio-Ecological Investigation Of Ulithian Spearfishing, Joshua Pi

Open Access Dissertations

Coral reef socio-ecological systems (SESs) characterize the interconnected relationships between coral reef ecosystems and reef-dependent communities. One such SES exists in Ulithi Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia, where Ulithians fish, steward, and govern their reefs through customary marine tenure, traditional ecological knowledge, and cultural taboos. In recent decades, rapid modernization in Ulithi has introduced new fishing technologies, transformed fishing practices, and ultimately reshaped the functioning of Ulithi’s traditional SES. One significant change was the introduction of spearfishing during the mid-20^th century, which is more selective and individualistic compared to other community-centric fishing methods that have existed for generations. This …

Incorporating Time-Varying Parameters And Climate Drivers Into Fisheries Models, Rachel Catherine Marshall

Open Access Dissertations

Commercial fishing is a highly valuable industry in the United States and globally, and as such, managing based on the best available science is necessary to maintain important fish stocks. Some parameters in stock assessment models that are assumed to be constant over age and time may actually vary to an extent that stock assessment modeling results could be improved by allowing the parameters to vary in the models. In the present dissertation, two stock assessment parameters that are typically held constant are explored for potential time or age variance. Potential environmental drivers of nonstationary parameters are also explored. Productivity, …

Ischemia-Induced Cytoskeletal And Nuclear Disruptions Drive Neuronal Death And Dysfunction: Insights Into The Connection Between Stroke And Dementia From In Vitro And In Vivo Models Of Stroke, Emily Potts

Open Access Dissertations

Stroke and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) represent two of the leading causes of neurological disability worldwide, and their prevalence is expected to rise as the global population ages. Although stroke is traditionally viewed as an acute vascular event, a growing body of evidence suggests that transient ischemic injury can trigger lasting cellular disturbances that increase neuronal vulnerability to later neurodegeneration. Understanding how ischemic stress alters neuronal structure and function, and how these changes may overlap with pathways implicated in ADRD, is an emerging focus for stroke and neurodegenerative researchers. This dissertation addresses these questions through an integrated combination …

Heightened Menopausal Symptoms Mediate The Associations Between Stress And Depressive Symptoms Among Midlife Women, Nicole Logan, Janis Gaudreau, Bridget Owens, Brietta M. Oaks, Christie L. Ward-Ritacco, Natalie J. Sabik

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Objectives:

Investigate associations between stress, cortisol, menopause symptoms, and depression in a sample of midlife women. Because stress has been associated with greater menopause symptoms, we examined this as a mediator for the association between stress and depressive symptoms.

Methods:

Data from a cross-sectional study of 118 women (40-64 y old) were analyzed. Participants completed in-person visits and self-reported questionnaires, including the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Saliva samples were collected at 4 intervals upon waking (wake, 30 min, 45 min, and 60 min after waking), …

Documenting The Effects Of Laboratory Sorting In Zooarchaeology: Lessons Learned From The Čḯxwicən Project, Kristine Bovy, Virginia L. Butler, Michael A. Etnier, Sarah K. Campbell

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Zooarchaeologists routinely analyze assemblages that were initially sorted into major animal type (birds, mammals, fish, invertebrates) by students or lab technicians with varied backgrounds in zooarchaeology. Sorting errors are probably made in this initial phase, which can affect taxonomic representation and understanding of human–animal relationships. Recent study of the immense faunal assemblage (over 1 million NSP [Number of Specimens]) from Čḯxwicən (45CA523), a 2,700-year-old Lower Elwha Klallam village located on the coast of Washington (USA), allows us to systematically analyze trends in sorting errors. For example, 22.6% of the bird bones included in our sample were initially missorted into other …

Voting With Their (Left And Right) Feet: Are Homebuyers’ Values Of Neighborhood Environmental Amenities Consistent With Their Politics?, Corey Lang, Jarron Vanceylon

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

There exists a consistent partisan gap in preferences for public spending on the environment, with approval being 20 to 40 percentage points higher for Democrats than Republicans. In this paper, we investigate whether there is a similar partisan gap present in residential preferences for environmental amenities. We link housing data, land use, and household characteristics, including voter registration, for three distinct housing markets, and we develop a residential sorting model to estimate marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) for residential proximity to conserved land, allowing for preference heterogeneity by partisanship as well as other household characteristics. For all households combined, we estimate average …

Nanotube Spectral Fingerprinting And Machine Learning For Optimized Bioimaging/Sensing And Disease Detection Applications In Als, Rodrigo Monroy Lopez

Open Access Master's Theses

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) possess unique physicochemical and optical properties that make them ideal candidates for biomedical imaging, biosensing, and disease diagnostics. This thesis explores the potential of SWCNT-based spectral fingerprinting combined with ML (Machine Learning) algorithms to optimize bioimaging, disease detection and prediction, with a specific focus on differentiating between healthy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) lymphoblastic patient samples. By functionalizing SWCNTs with single-stranded DNA, we enhance their stability and target specificity, enabling their application in serum patient samples.

A comprehensive spectral analysis of DNA-SWCNTs was conducted using near-infrared fluorescence spectroscopy and other characterization techniques, including UV-Vis-absorption spectroscopy. The …

The P3 Event-Related Potential (Erp) In Visual And Auditory Tasks: Implications For Executive Functioning In Adhd Preadolescent Children, Alex Visal Seng

Open Access Master's Theses

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a widespread psychological disorder in children, poorly impacting executive functioning domains of inhibitory control and working memory. Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide neuroelectric insight into these cognitive processes. However, most ERP research focuses on one task type, limiting direct comparisons of cognitive demands across different task paradigms. This study examined P3 amplitude and latency in ADHD children using a visual NoGo task (response inhibition) and an auditory oddball task (working memory), and associations between the P3 ERP and behavioral measures of executive functions.

Cross-sectional data of symptomatic ADHD children (N=13; F=5; aged 9.15 ± 1.86 years) were …

Big Cells, Big Impact: Unravelling Seasonal Patterns Of Net Primary Production In Narragansett Bay, Dominique Jae Lockwood

Open Access Master's Theses

Net primary production is a measurement of available energy, or the amount of biomass that phytoplankton produce during photosynthesis that fuels marine food webs and drives carbon cycling. Despite its ecological importance, net primary production is relatively understudied in comparison to chlorophyll-a, which is often used as a proxy for biomass rather than productivity. In this study, we measured size-fractionated net primary production and chlorophyll-a concentrations in Narragansett Bay over a 14-month period from January 2022 to February 2023. Weekly surface water samples were collected and filtered to distinguish between small (> 10 μm) and large ( …

The Anatomy Of Efficiency: Changes In British Military Medicine On The Western Front, 1914-1918, Ricky Mather

Open Access Master's Theses

The Western Front of the First World War was a theater of tragedy and unprecedented loss. As thousands of mangled British bodies were evacuated from the front lines, medical officers, surgeons, nurses, orderlies, stretcher-bearers, and other staff worked tirelessly in an efficient and technical manner to restore soldiers’ fitness so they might be redeployed into the chaos, and continue servicing the war machine. This thesis looks at changes in medicine driven by the war. First, it examines the evolution of medical theory and practice as reflected in three medical manuals. The first was published in 1911, before the war, and …

Through Their Eyes: Investigating The Broad Autism Phenotype In Parents An Exploration In Eye Tracking During A Phonemic Restoration Paradigm In Conjunction With Social Communication Measures, Elena Esposito

Open Access Master's Theses

The Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) refers to traits that resemble those seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The BAP traits are more common in first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD which suggests a potential genetic contribution to the disorder. Understanding how these traits manifest in communication remains limited. Previous research has shown differences in eye gaze patterns between children with ASD and neurotypical children. This study explored whether similar patterns exist in parents of children with autism (pASD) during a phonemic restoration task. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) and Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ) were also used in this study …

Risk Factors For Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Statistical And Machine Learning Perspective, Supti Biswas

Open Access Master's Theses

his study explores factors associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through analysis of a rich dataset comprising maternal and child characteristics. The data were carefully cleaned and preprocessed to address missing values and ensure analytical consistency. Statistical analyses and advanced visualization techniques were used to uncover patterns linking ASD status with variables such as maternal age, prenatal smoking, and education level. To further assess predictive capacity and feature importance, multiple supervised machine learning algorithms - logistic regression, decision trees, random forests, and support vector machines (SVM) - were applied. ASD appears to be influenced by a complex interplay of demographic …

Associations Between Dietary Sodium And Potassium Intakes, Urinary Sodium And Potassium Excretion And Blood Pressure Among Adult Females In Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Fred Baffour Addo

Open Access Master's Theses

Introduction: Accurate assessment of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) intake is essential for population level monitoring of salt intake as part of global strategies to reduce salt consumption to control the increasing prevalence of high blood pressure (BP). Thus, a simple, cost-effective, and low-burden method is particularly valuable in resource-limited settings for population level monitoring of Na and K intake. This study aimed to compare the reliability of various methods of Na and K intake assessment, and their associations with blood pressure measurements.

Methods: This secondary analysis was based on a cross-sectional study of 100 non-pregnant women of …

From Lawns To Life: Landscaping For Biodiversity On Mason’S Island, Margit Burgess

Open Access Master's Theses

The collapse of biodiversity is an existential threat to life on Earth. Residential landscapes, dominated by open lawns maintained in turfgrass, do not support biodiversity. In the United States, turfgrass has replaced native landscapes in over 40 million acres, with 500 square miles added each year (Tallamy, 2019). Of the 78% of the U.S. land that is privately owned, approximately 135 million acres - nearly twice the size of all national parks combined - are residential (Milesi et al., 2005). With a shift in private landscape management, this land could present a largely untapped opportunity for biodiversity restoration and social …

Micro- And Nano-Plastics Preparation And Their Impact On Cobetia Marina, Lauren Lamothe

Open Access Master's Theses

Plastic pollution has become an increasing threat to marine and coastal environments. Macroplastics derived from consumer waste are broken down by chemical and physical degradation processes, resulting in micro- and nano-plastics (MPs and NPs). This thesis presents an investigation into the MP and NP pollution in the sea surface microlayer (SSML). The SSML contains surface active compounds and natural and anthropogenic matter. This study provides insight into the deeper impacts on the transport and fate of MPs and NPs and on marine bacteria. The first chapter works through the breakdown of plastic particles with the use of a top-down approach …

Investigating The Effectiveness Of Best Management Practices In Reducing Fecal Bacteria In Narrow River, Rhode Island, Katherine Thompson

Open Access Master's Theses

Fecal bacterial contamination shapes how communities manage and use estuarine waters, with consequences for ecosystem health and public access. In Rhode Island's Narrow River, elevated concentrations of fecal coliforms and enterococci have restricted shellfishing for decades despite ongoing management efforts. From 2004 to 2018, local organizations implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs) to address water quality challenges, yet their effectiveness remains incompletely understood. This study analyzes three decades of monitoring data using linear regression, generalized additive models, and Before After Control Impact methods to evaluate BMP effectiveness and identify key drivers of contamination. Linear regression revealed spatially variable trends, with bacterial …

The Coral Carousel: A Device And Method For In-Situ Propagation Of Deep-Sea Corals, Gregory Bales

Open Access Master's Theses

The research described herein covers the development of a tool station for performing in-situ propagation of corals using a work class ROV. This includes a system for manipulating coral fragments and affixing them to a cement base plug. To validate this tool station, testing was performed both in the lab as well as at depth in the Gulf of Mexico. As restoration of shallow-water corals has grown in popularity, many techniques have been developed for propagation. However, it is difficult or inappropriate to directly apply these techniques to deep-sea corals. While some forms of diving are capable of approaching the …

Plastics And Their Interactions With Bacterial Biofilms Of Synechococcus Sp. Pcc 7002 And Escherichia Coli Nissle 1917, Jackson Zmich

Open Access Master's Theses

Plastic waste is a leading global pollutant with increasing concerns, as recent studies have shown that these wastes are not only concentrated on a macro scale but on a micro and nano scale. These micro- and nano- sized plastic particles, denoted as MPs and NPs, have been measured in marine and freshwater sources, air, food products, and within biosolids expelled from organisms, including humans. Due to their small size, MNPs are entering organisms through inhalation, ingestion, or dermal absorption. [1] Humans are ingesting MNPs daily, with median rates of approximately 200 ng/capita/day for children and 600 ng/capita/day for adults. [2] …

Estrogen Receptor-Mediated Effects Of Resveratrol On Muscle Function, David Ayi-Bonte

Open Access Master's Theses

Artemis missions are set to send the next man and the first woman back to the moon and enable long-term missions on the lunar surface. However, exposure to lunar gravity has significant physiological effects characterized by loss of muscle mass, weakness and decreased bone density. Nutraceutical countermeasures such as Resveratrol (RSV), a naturally occurring polyphenol, have been identified as promising strategies to preserve musculoskeletal health; however, its pleiotropic effect hinders our ability to identify the primary cellular pathways through which it delivers its benefits. Furthermore, its efficacy in simulated lunar gravity is unknown. Based on the benefits observed with RSV …

Evaluating Uas & Als Lidar’S Ability To Detect Understory Shrubs In Rhode Island Forests, Noah Henkenius

Open Access Master's Theses

Understory shrubs provide important habitat for wildlife and assist with nutrient cycling in forests. The use of remote sensing to map shrubs in forest understories is challenging due to the obscuring effect of the forest overstory. We tested the effectiveness of leaf-off aerial LiDAR and uncrewed aerial system (UAS) (point densities of 8+ pts/m² and 250+ pts/m², respectively) to map shrub cover in a mixed deciduous forest in Rhode Island (USA). We used a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and field vegetation surveys to provide validation data. We found that UAS and aerial LiDAR had average omission errors …

Minimalistic Communication-Based Swarm Slam, Felix B. Koch

Open Access Master's Theses

This study presents and validates Range of Communication Swarm SLAM(RCS-SLAM), a novel SLAM approach designed for multi-robot systems using minimal hardware. Unlike traditional methods that rely on range or bearing measurements, RCS-SLAM only uses the identifiers of nearby robots within communication range. In the front-end, each robot constructs an individual pose graph based on its own odometry, while recording communication events with neighboring robots. The key novelty lies in the use of one-hop communication, where robots not only detect nearby peers but also relay received identifiers, effectively acting as transmitters themselves. This mechanism extends the communication graph and enables the …

Develop A Cross-Platform Toolset For In Situ Deep-Sea Coral Propagation, Joe Bevilacqua

Open Access Master's Theses

Mesophotic and deep-sea gorgonian octocorals in the Gulf of Mexico were significantly damaged following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, prompting a major federal investment in developing restoration techniques for these fragile, slow-growing communities. Asexual, in-situ coral propagation offers a biologically viable path for restoration at depth. However, current ROV systems are not optimized for the delicate, fine-scale interactions required to perform this process reliably. The objective of this research was to design, prototype, and evaluate a ROV-mountable toolset capable of preparing octocoral fragments for potting in epoxy substrate, with the additional goal of integrating the toolset into URI’s Coral Carousel …

Alterations Of Serotonin Receptor 7 Expression In The Spinal Cord In A Model Of Cerebral Palsy, Tracy Santos

Open Access Master's Theses

Cerebral palsy often results from perinatal hypoxia-ischemia and is characterized by motor and sensory dysfunction associated with altered serotonergic signaling in the spinal cord. The 5-HT₇ receptor, a G-protein-coupled receptor implicated in both motor control and nociceptive modulation, may thus play a critical role in these post-injury changes. However, the regional and developmental patterns of expression of 5-HT₇ following HI injury are not well understood.

In this study, we investigated the expression of spinal 5-HTR₇ in a neonatal rabbit model of HI injury at P1, P5, and P8 using Western blot analyses normalized to total protein. Tissue was …

Development Of A Scituate Reservoir Mitigation Model For Assessing Flood Control During Extreme Scenarios, Supria Paul

Open Access Dissertations

Effective reservoir management is essential for mitigating downstream flooding, especially with the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events impacting major drinking water reservoirs such as the Scituate Reservoir in Rhode Island. These reservoirs provide water for large populations but can be overwhelmed by intense precipitation, flooding and land cover changes. Climate change is expected to increase precipitation in the study area located in New England, highlighting the need for improved reservoir systems, especially given the aging dams and higher risk of failures. Additionally, land cover changes, like the widespread defoliation caused by the Gypsy Moth infestations, affect water …