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Distribution Of Novel And Legacy Organic Pollutants In Seabirds From Contrasting Marine Environments, Anna Ruth Robuck

Open Access Dissertations

Despite their ubiquity in the environment, large data gaps exist surrounding the distribution, biotic accumulation, and possible impacts of many high priority organic pollutants, particularly those considered emerging contaminants. Emerging pollutants, or contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), represent a dynamic and rapidly evolving group of substances, some of which have been extant for decades. Chapter 1 provides background about CECs covered in this dissertation, and highlights key data gaps explored within this work.

The first three manuscripts of this dissertation (Chapters 2 – 5) focus on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. PFAS are a family of CECs that demonstrate …

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 …

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. …

Large Geographic Variability In The Resistance Of Corals To Thermal Stress, Timothy R. Mcclanahan, Joseph M. Maina, Emily S. Darling, Mireille M. M. Guillaume, Nyawira A. Muthiga, Stephanie D’Agata, Julien Leblond, Rohan Arthur, Stacy D. Jupiter, Shaun K. Wilson, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Ali M. Ussi, Austin T. Humphries, Vardhan Patankar, George Shedrawi, Pagu Julius, January Ndagala, Gabriel Grimsditch

Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Faculty Publications

Aim: Predictions for the future of coral reefs are largely based on thermal exposure and poorly account for potential geographic variation in biological sensitivity to ther- mal stress. Without accounting for complex sensitivity responses, simple climate ex- posure models and associated predictions may lead to poor estimates of future coral survival and lead to policies that fail to identify and implement the most appropri- ate interventions. To begin filling this gap, we evaluated a number of attributes of coral taxa and communities that are predicted to influence coral resistance to thermal stress over a large geographic range.

Location: Western Indo-Pacific …

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 …

Long-Term Exposure To Pm2.5 And Incidence Of Disability In Activities Of Daily Living Among Oldest Old, Yuebin Lv, Jinhui Zhou, Virginia Byers Kraus, Tiantian Li, Jeremy A. Sarnat, Jiaonan Wang, Yang Liu, Huashuai Chen, Melanie S. Brasher, Cheng Mao, Yi Zeng, Xiaoming Shi

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Currently the Chinese government has adopted World Health Organization interim target-1 values as the national ambient air quality standards values. However, the population-based evidence was insufficient, especially for the oldest old (aged 80+). We evaluated the association of fine particulate matters (PM_2.5) exposure and incidence of disability in activities of daily living (ADL) in 15 453 oldest old in 886 counties/cities in China from 2002 to 2014 using Cox model with penalized splines and competing risk models to evaluate the linear or non-linear association. After adjusting for potential confounders, a J-shaped association existed between PM_2.5 exposure with …

Muscle Oxidative Capacity Is Reduced In Both Upper And Lower Limbs In Copd, Alessandra Adami, Rogerio B. Corvino, Robert A. Calmelat, Janos Porszasz, Richard Casaburi, Harry B. Rossiter

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Skeletal muscle atrophy, weakness, mitochondrial loss and dysfunction are characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It remains unclear whether muscle dysfunction is localized to the lower limbs, because findings are inconsistent in the few studies where upper and lower limb muscle performance properties were compared within an individual. This study determined whether muscle oxidative capacity is low in both upper and lower limbs of COPD patients compared with controls. Methods: Oxidative capacity of the forearm and medial gastrocnemius were measured using near-infrared spectroscopy to determine the muscle O₂ consumption recovery rate constant (k, …

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 And Supplemental Magnesium Intake During Pregnancy And Its Association With Gestational Diabetes, Celia Palmer

Open Access Master's Theses

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a prevalent and growing epidemic that affected 8.2% of births in 2016 in the United States. Previous studies have shown that low magnesium (Mg) is associated with type II diabetes (T2DM), and the pathophysiology of GDM and T2DM is similar.

Objective: To determine if low total Mg intake is associated with the risk of having GDM.

Design: We did a cross-sectional secondary data analysis using data from the 2005-2007 Infant Feeding Practices Study II which used a validated diet history questionnaire to collect dietary data. We analyzed total Mg intake from 1217 pregnant women …

Interactions Between Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Eastern Hemlock, And Gypsy Moth, Ian Gerard Kinahan

Open Access Master's Theses

Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), a canopy-dominant conifer native to the eastern U.S., is currently threatened with extirpation by the invasive stylet-feeding hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae). To understand interactions between eastern hemlock and hemlock woolly adelgid, and their interactions with other forest defoliators, we carried out two experiments.

First, in 2018, we evaluated the impact of feeding by hemlock woolly adelgid on gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) larval preference for, and performance on, eastern hemlock. To assess preference, we surveyed 245 field-grown hemlocks for gypsy moth herbivory damage and conducted laboratory paired-choice bioassays. To assess …

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 Role Of Self-Efficacy In The Relationship Between Childhood Trauma And Anxiety, Elaine Green

Open Access Master's Theses

Traumatic childhood experiences (physical abuse and neglect, emotional abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse) have surprisingly high incidence rates and predict to a variety of negative health outcomes, such as anxiety. Although the relationship between childhood trauma and anxiety has been well documented, more research is necessary in order to understand the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study hypothesized that academic self-efficacy, the perception that one has the ability to achieve one’s desired outcomes in academic endeavors, would mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and anxiety in a sample of college students (n=204). Furthermore, it was hypothesized …

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 …

Reverse Bank Filtration For Cleaning Water In A Remote Village In South India, Miles Schelling

Open Access Master's Theses

This study sought to remove E.coli and Total Coliform bacteria contamination from the village water supply in Nersa, Karnataka, India by using a reverse bank filter (BF). Reverse bank filtration uses natural processes to clean water, including filtration through layers of sand and gravel and a bioactive layer, known as collimation layer or Schmutzdecke, that forms on top of the filter. The origin of the village water supply is a mountain spring. After initial testing of water quality in the village and an exploration of alluvial deposits suitable for filter construction, two pilot filters were constructed in 300 L plastic …

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 …

Cell Cycle-Regulation Of The Fancd2 Protein Via Cdk-Mediated S592 Phosphorylation, Juan A. Cantres-Velez

Open Access Master's Theses

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disease characterized by increased risk for bone marrow failure and cancer. The FA proteins function together to repair damaged DNA. A central step in the activation of the FA pathway is the monoubiquitination of the FANCD2 and FANCI proteins under conditions of cellular stress and during Sphase of the cell cycle. The regulatory mechanisms governing S-phase monoubiquitination, in particular, are poorly understood. In this study, we have identified a CDK regulatory phospho-site (S592) proximal to the site of FANCD2 monoubiquitination. FANCD2 S592 phosphorylation during S-phase was detected by LC-MS/MS and by immunoblotting with …

Patterns, Or No Patterns, That Is The Question, Mehrsa Khaleghikarahrodi

Open Access Master's Theses

To reduce the threshold of EV adoption, the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) infrastructure needs to fit the EV systems to its users to satisfy their expectations. There needs to be a reflection of user behavior variability in the EVSE infrastructure to improve its functionality. Individual users’ charging actions, over time, construct a charging behavioral pattern that distinguishes the users from one another. This research analyses the EV users’ unique behavioral charging patterns. Therefore, profiles of users’ charging actions are clustered to investigate the unique behavioral patterns. An unsupervised clustering algorithm (i.e., K-means) is implemented through three distance metrics (i.e., …

Investigating The Inhibitory Properties Of Candidate Probiotics Towards Vibrio Parahaemolyticus, Jacqueline Hilary Camm

Open Access Master's Theses

Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND) causes more than a billion dollars of losses to the shrimp farming industry annually. In 2013, strains of the marine pathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus containing genes for the PirA^vp/B^vp toxins, encoded on a 70 Kb plasmid, were identified as the causative agent of AHPND. Antibiotics have been used to attempt to reduce losses, however their use in aquaculture is controversial. Additionally, the pathogen has demonstrated the ability to rapidly acquire antibiotic resistances through genetic mutation and lateral gene transfer. Probiotics, often used to prevent disease in aquaculture, may offer the opportunity to mitigate …

How Modified Trophic Interactions Create Socio-Ecological Tradeoffs: A Case Study Of Narragansett Bay Fisheries, Anne A. Innes-Gold

Open Access Master's Theses

Marine fisheries represent a social-ecological system driven by both complex ecological processes and human interactions. Fisheries management requires an understanding of both the biological and social components, and management failure can occur when either are excluded. Despite the significance of both, most research has focused on characterizing biological uncertainty rather than on better understanding the impacts of human behavior. In this study, we use the fisheries in Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island, USA) as a case study to understand how fisher behavior influences food web dynamics. Narragansett Bay holds both a commercial fishery for forage fish (i.e. menhaden) and a recreational …

The Effects Of Antioxidant Supplementation, Migratory Season, And Flight Training On Key Components Of The Antioxidant System Of Migratory European Starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris), Abigail E. Frawley

Open Access Master's Theses

Migratory birds engage in two periods of endurance flight as they travel from summer breeding to overwintering grounds, and these flights likely increase the production of reactive species that can degrade biologically important molecules. Fall and spring likely represent different oxidative challenges, as many females prepare to breed shortly after spring migration, and antioxidant-rich fruits are plentiful in fall but not spring. I examined the effects of season, anthocyanin supplementation, and flight training on the antioxidant system of female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) to determine how each of these factors effects enzymatic antioxidant activity, non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity, and levels of …

Stealth Sanctuary: The Challenge Of Protection At Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Clea Harrelson

Open Access Master's Theses

Centuries of exploitation in marine areas have negatively impacted the biomass, diversity, and function of marine habitats and life on a global scale. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly relied upon as a conservation strategy to address the degradation of marine resources in the U.S., but research on the social context that shapes protection of these marine spaces remains sparse. This study explores protection through the evolution of the people and groups who use the marine resources within MPAs and those who manage MPAs over time. Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) is used as a case study to understand …

Methods In The Detection Of Aliphatic Alcohols And Anabolic Steroids In Β‑Cyclodextrin Solutions, Anna Zocchi Haynes

Open Access Master's Theses

The sensitive, selective, and practical detection of aliphatic alcohols is a continuing technical challenge with significant impact in public health work and environmental remediation efforts. Reported in the first manuscript is the use of a β-cyclodextrin derivative to promote proximity-induced interactions between aliphatic alcohol analytes and a brightly colored organic dye, which result in highly analyte-specific color changes that enabled accurate alcohol identification. Linear discriminant analysis of the color changes enabled resulting in 100% differentiation of the colorimetric signals obtained from methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol in combination with BODIPY and Rhodamine dyes. The resulting solution-state detection system has significant broad-based …

Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid (Pfos) As A Potential Risk Factor For Late-Onset Alzheimer’S Disease, Veronia Basaly

Open Access Master's Theses

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that accounts for about 60 to 80% of dementia cases worldwide. AD is characterized by two important physiological features: extracellular senile plaques consisting of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide that is cleaved from a larger protein called the amyloid precursor protein (APP), and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) containing hyperphosphorylated tau protein. The pathogenesis of sporadic or late-onset AD (LOAD) which represents 95% of the cases appears to not be heritable and may be related to epigenetic programming and environmental factors acquired earlier in life. Apolipoprotein allele 4 (ApoE4) protein is encoded by the ApoE …

Environmental And Optical Signatures Of Cochlodinium Polykrikoides In Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, Jessica Carney

Open Access Master's Theses

In the summer of 2018, a dinoflagellate bloomed in the open waters of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The dinoflagellate, Cochlodinium polykrikoides, is a potentially toxic phytoplankton that has appeared in the Bay sporadically over the past few decades. It was first recorded in the Narragansett Bay Time Series in 1979, but its appearance was infrequent. In the summers of 2016 and 2018 C. polykrikoides bloomed in the bay at densities high enough to form rust colored patches on the surface due to the dark pigmentation of the cells, which was distinct enough to be seen from shore, and from …

Influence Of Pfas On The Thermodynamic Membrane Properties And Growth Of A. Borkumensis, Aleksandra Naumann

Open Access Master's Theses

Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of emerging contaminants which are persistent in nature and hazardous for living organisms. They have an anthropogenic origin and have unique properties which have the disadvantage of bioaccumulating in organisms.

This work aims at the investigation of the influence of different relevant PFAS on the membrane properties of A. borkumensis. This information is one important piece on the way to evaluate the overall response of the bacterium in the presence of these molecules. First, the lipids were extracted with a solvent-based method. Afterwards, they were spread at an air-water interface within …

Chemical Investigations Of Pectic Oligosaccharides From Vaccinium Macrocarpon, Zhiyuan Peng

Open Access Master's Theses

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are a serious problem worldwide, especially for females. Previous research in our laboratory suggests that cranberry pectic oligosaccharides (cPOS) can reverse dormant phenotypes in UPEC and therefore could prove useful in the prevention of recurrent UTIs. This thesis focused on the purification and structure determination of purified pectic oligosaccharides from cranberry hull extract. The research helped established the structures of cPOS, provided high purity materials for biological testing, and enabled further studies on the effect of different degrees of polymerization (DP) in preventing dormant phenotypes in UPEC. More specifically, cPOS …