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Microplastic In Water And Wastewater, Dounia Elkhatib

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis addresses three challenges related to the microplastic contamination in water and wastewater treatment plants. The first challenge is the multiple methodologies used to collect, quantify, and characterize microplastics in both wastewater and drinking water. Our study shows a lack of consensus regarding the techniques used at all of the stages (from collection to characterization) required for the quantification of microplastics in urban water systems. This represents a barrier to accurately determine the loads of microplastic contamination and to the comparison of the results obtained among different studies. Our results indicate large discrepancies in the concentrations reported in both …

Control System For Low-Cost Miniature Isopycnal Floats (Minions)' Targeting Distributed Observations Of The Oceanic Biological Carbon Pump, Jackson Sugar

Open Access Master's Theses

The flux and attenuation of Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) export through the mid-water column has been a subject of oceanographic research for decades. The methods to sample sinking particles have remained largely unchanged, and interpretation of the data is challenged by uncertainty and sparse measurements. This need prompted our efforts to develop a standalone sensor platform for subsurface timelapse photography of accumulated particles as a proxy for carbon export, combined with simultaneous measurements of dissolved oxygen, temperature and pressure. The use of a flexible Linux single board computer with power cycling enabled the float to be; low power (for long …

Debt Types And Burdens By Family Structures, Jing Jian Xiao, Rui Yao

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine family structure differences in debt types and burdens of American families.

Design/methodology/approach: Data was from the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances. Eight types of family structures, five specific debts, and two debt burden indicators are examined with multivariate logistic regressions.

Findings: After controlling for several socioeconomic variables, multivariate logistic regression results show that married with children families are more likely than five other family types to have any debt. In terms of specific debt, married with children families are more likely than six other types of families to have mortgages, four …

Losing The Future: Household Wealth From Urban Housing Demolition And Children’S Human Capital In China, Feng Li, Jing Jian Xiao

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Some literature observes the negative but not very significant effect of household wealth growth on children's educational outcomes. This surprising finding is not easily reconciled with the traditional explanation that relaxed economic constraints caused by wealth growth can promote human capital accumulation. This paper proposes an alternative explanation for the causal relationship between wealth growth and human capital, which could be negative: individuals tend to reduce human capital investment following the decline in their labor supply induced by wealth growth, given that investing in human capital is mainly for employment competitiveness. This explanation is supported by evidence from the case …

Horizontal Transmission And Recombination Maintain Forever Young Bacterial Symbiont Genomes, Shelbi Russell, Evan Pepper-Tunick, Jesper Svedberg Svedberg, Ashley Byrne, Jennie Ruelas Castillo, Christopher Vollmers, Roxanne A. Beinart, Russell Corbett-Detig

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Bacterial symbionts bring a wealth of functions to the associations they participate in, but by doing so, they endanger the genes and genomes underlying these abilities. When bacterial symbionts become obligately associated with their hosts, their genomes are thought to decay towards an organelle-like fate due to decreased homologous recombination and inef- ficient selection. However, numerous associations exist that counter these expectations, especially in marine environments, possibly due to ongoing horizontal gene flow. Despite extensive theoretical treatment, no empirical study thus far has connected these underlying population genetic processes with long-term evolutionary outcomes. By sampling marine chemosynthetic bacterial-bivalve endosymbioses that …

Selection Of Indicators For Assessing And Managing The Impacts Of Bottom Trawling On Seabed Habitats, Jan Geert Hiddink, Michel J. Kaiser, Marija Sciberras, Robert A. Mcconnaughey, Tessa Mazor, Ray Hilborn, Jeremy Collie, C. Roland Pitcher, Ana M. Parma, Petri Suuronen, Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp, Simon Jennings

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

1. Bottom trawl fisheries are the most widespread source of anthropogenic physical disturbance to seabed habitats. Development of fisheries‐, conservation‐ and ecosystem‐based management strategies requires the selection of indicators of the impact of bottom trawling on the state of benthic biota. Many indicators have been proposed, but no rigorous test of a range of candidate indicators against nine commonly agreed criteria (concreteness, theoretical basis, public awareness, cost, measurement, historical data, sensitivity, responsiveness, specificity) has been performed.
2. Here, we collated data from 41 studies that compared the benthic biota in trawled areas with those in control locations (that were either not trawled …

Exploring The Abundance, Metabolic Potential, And Gene Expression Of Subseafloor Chloroflexi In Million-Year-Old Oxic And Anoxic Abyssal Clay, Aurèle Vuillemin, Zak Kerrigan, Steven D'Hondt, William D. Orsi

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Chloroflexi are widespread in subsurface environments, and recent studies indicate that they represent a major fraction of the communities in subseafloor sediment. Here, we compare the abundance, diversity, metabolic potential, and gene expression of Chloroflexi from three abyssal sediment cores from the western North Atlantic Gyre (water depth >5400 m) covering up to 15 million years of sediment deposition, where Chloroflexi were found to represent major components of the community at all sites. Chloroflexi communities die off in oxic red clay over 10 to 15 million years, and gene expression was below detection. In contrast, Chloroflexi abundance and gene expression …

Serum Acylglycerols Inversely Associate With Muscle Oxidative Capacity In Severe Copd, Rongsong Li, Alessandra Adami, Chih-Chiang Chang, Chi-Hong Tseng, Tzung K. Hsiai, Harry B. Rossiter

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Purpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with altered metabolism and body composition that accompany poor outcomes. We aimed to determine whether metabolic derangements in COPD are associated with skeletal muscle deconditioning and/or physical inactivity, independent of pulmonary obstruction.

Methods: We characterized serum metabolites associated with muscle oxidative capacity or physical activity in 44 COPD patients (FEV1=61±4%predicted) and 63 current and former smokers with normal spirometry (CON) (FEV1=93±2%predicted). Medial gastrocnemius oxidative capacity was assessed at rest from the recovery rate constant (k) of muscle oxygen consumption using near-infrared spectroscopy. Step counts and physical activity (average …

Remote Sensing Applications In Monitoring Of Protected Areas, Yeqiao Wang, Zhong Lu, Yongwei Sheng, Yuyu Zhou

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Protected areas (PAs) have been established worldwide for achieving long-term goals in the conservation of nature with the associated ecosystem services and cultural values. Globally, 15% of the world’s terrestrial lands and inland waters, excluding Antarctica, are designated as PAs. About 4.12% of the global ocean and 10.2% of coastal and marine areas under national jurisdiction are set as marine protected areas (MPAs). Protected lands and waters serve as the fundamental building blocks of virtually all national and international conservation strategies, supported by governments and international institutions. Some of the PAs are the only places that contain undisturbed landscape, seascape …

Chlorophyll Fluorescence Corrections From A Rapid-Profiling, Autonomous Wirewalker, Melanie Feen

Open Access Master's Theses

Stimulated chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) is a fairly simple measurement to collect, and is ubiquitous on most biogeochemical autonomous platforms. However, complex physiological phenomenon challenge the interpretation of the data. Nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) markedly reduces the fluorescence during high light regimes, favoring dissipation of this energy as heat. This study evaluates previously developed NPQ correction methods, typically implemented on floats or gliders, for a fast profiling, autonomous, drifting Wirewalker deployed during the EXPORTS field campaign at Ocean Station Papa (OSP) in the Subpolar North Pacific Ocean. Through validating NPQ-corrected chlorophyll to absorption line height, which is not subject to the same …

Analysis Of Missing Data In Marine Dissolved Oxygen Time Series Using Dynamic Linear Models, Shajratul Alam

Open Access Master's Theses

The marine ecosystems cannot survive without dissolved oxygen (DO). Low oxygen events (hypoxia) in the ocean cause stress on the benthic community and, hampers their growth rate initiating mortality. To monitor the concentration of oxygen, different water quality monitoring sites have been established across the globe. The Narragansett Bay fixed-site water quality monitoring network (NBFWQMN) is a facility that regularly measures oxygen level as well as other important water parameters (temperature, salinity, pH level, and Chlorophyll) at different locations of Narragansett Bay (NB). Missing observation is a common phenomenon for this times-series dataset and, can occur for various reasons. In …

Applications To Collect And Analyze Or Destroy Energetics And Chemical Warfare Agents, Victoria Stubbs

Open Access Master's Theses

Terrorism is an ever-present threat in our society. In the last decade alone, terrorists killed an average of 21,000 people each year [1]. In 2018, there were 289 bombings in the US, and bomb threats increased by 32% since the year prior [2]. Before that, there was an average of 205 criminal bombings in the US between 2004 and 2005 [3]. All of this is not including the 2,996 lives lost when 4 planes struck the Pentagon, the Twin Towers, and a field in Pennsylvania, leaving long term physical and mental wounds on those who were affected by it [4]. …

Trophic Niche Overlap Of Atlantic Cod And Black Sea Bass In Relation To Warming Southern New England Waters, Nina Santos

Open Access Master's Theses

In southern New England (SNE), a new ecological interaction is occurring as temperate black sea bass abundance increases in the home range of the iconic Atlantic cod as a result of climate-induced ocean warming. In this study, we examined the diet and trophic dynamics of both SNE Atlantic cod and black sea bass using a multi-tracer approach of stomach content analysis as well as bulk and compound-specific amino acid isotope analyses. We reveal a highly selective diet (0.01-0.43 Levin’s index) with decapod crustaceans occurring in 82-89% of stomachs and making up 72-79% of the total wet weight for both species, …

Taxonomic Profiling Of Metagenomic Reads Using Deep Learning, Cecile Cres

Open Access Master's Theses

The field of metagenomics studies microbes from environmental samples in a process generating millions of short DNA sequences called reads. The final outcome is to discover the diversity as well as the function of complex microbial communities using computational tools. The general idea adopted by most taxonomic classifiers, which aim to assign taxonomic groups to individual reads, is to compare the target DNA sequences to a reference database and identify the taxon of the best match. This method has many disadvantages including the necessity for large computing resources in order to process large sequence databases. The current project aims to …

Remote Sensing Of Phytoplankton Size Classes On The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf, Kyle J. Turner

Open Access Master's Theses

The size structure of phytoplankton communities influences important ecological and biogeochemical processes, including the transfer of energy through marine food webs. A variety of algorithms have been developed to estimate phytoplankton size classes (PSCs) from satellite ocean color data. However, many of these algorithms were developed for application to the open ocean, and their performance in more productive, optically complex continental shelf systems has not been fully evaluated. In this study, several existing PSC algorithms were applied in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf (NES) and assessed by comparison to in situ PSC estimates derived from a regional HPLC pigment data …

When Misconceptions Impede Best Practices: Evidence Supports Biological Control Of Invasive Phragmites, Bernd Blossey, Stacy B. Endriss, Richard A. Casagrande, Patrick Häfliger, Hariet Hinz, Andrea Dávalos, Carrie Brown-Lima, Lisa A. Tewksbury, Robert S. Bourchier

Plant Sciences and Entomology Faculty Publications

Development of a biological control program for invasive Phagmites australis australis in North America required 20 years of careful research, and consideration of management alternatives. A recent paper by Kiviat et al. (Biol Invasions 21:2529–2541, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-019-02014-9) articulates opposition to this biocontrol program and questions the ethics and thoroughness of the researchers. Here we address inaccuracies and misleading statements presented in Kiviat et al. (2019), followed by a brief overview of why biological control targeting Phragmites in North America can be implemented safely with little risk to native species. Similar to our colleagues, we are very concerned about the risks …

Whatever Floats Your Vote: Understanding Voter Support For Public Port Infrastructure Investments, Jarron Vanceylon, Corey Lang, Austin Becker

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

Ports are a cornerstone of the local, state, and national economy, especially for coastal cities. However, ports face growing economic challenges that require infrastructure financing, and a relevant avenue of securing funds is through government assistance via bond issues. We examine voter support for the public financing of port infrastructure investments using a 2016 referendum in Rhode Island. Through our multiple regression voting model, we find strong evidence that public spending on ports in Rhode Island was more of a bipartisan issue compared to other public financing efforts on the ballot. Additionally, neighborhoods with a larger minority presence and those …

Climate Change Increases The Risk Of Fisheries Conflict, Elizabeth Mendenhall, Cullen Hendrix, Elizabeth Nyman, Paige M. Roberts, John Robison Hoopes, James R. Watson, Vicky W. Y. Lam, Rashid Sumaila

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

The effects of climate change on the ocean environment – especially ocean warming, acidification, and sea level rise – will impact fish stocks and fishers in important ways. Likely impacts include changes in fish stocks’ productivity and distribution, human migration to and away from coastal areas, stresses on coastal fisheries infrastructure, and challenges to prevailing maritime boundaries. In this paper, we explore these and other related phenomena, in order to assess whether and how the impacts of climate change on fisheries will contribute to the risk of fisheries conflict. We argue that climate change will entail an increase in the …

Nitrifying And Denitrifying Microbial Communities In Centralized And Decentralized Biological Nitrogen Removing Wastewater Treatment Systems, Sara K. Wigginton, Elizabeth Q. Brannon, Patrick J. Kearns, Brittany V. Lancellotti, Alissa Cox, Serena Moseman-Valtierra, George W. Loomis, José A. Amador

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Biological nitrogen removal (BNR) in centralized and decentralized wastewater treatment systems is assumed to be driven by the same microbial processes and to have communities with a similar composition and structure. There is, however, little information to support these assumptions, which may impact the effectiveness of decentralized systems. We used high-throughput sequencing to compare the structure and composition of the nitrifying and denitrifying bacterial communities of nine onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) and one wastewater treatment plant (WTP) by targeting the genes coding for ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) and nitrous oxide reductase (nosZ). The amoA diversity was …

Non‐Marine Turtle Plays Important Functional Roles In Indonesian Ecosystems, Nancy E. Karraker, Mirza Dikari Kusrini, Jessica R. Atutubo, Ryan M. Healey, Aini Yusratul

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

The Southeast Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis) is numerically the most important turtle exported from Indonesia. Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, this turtle is heavily harvested and exported for food and traditional medicine in China and for the pet trade primarily in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Despite its significance in global markets, relatively little is known about the species’ ecology or importance to ecosystems. We conducted our research in a national park in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and our objectives were to quantify trophic breadth, capacity for seed dispersal between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and whether ingestion …

Assessing Year-Round Habitat Use By Migratory Sea Ducks In A Multi-Species Context Reveals Seasonal Variation In Habitat Selection And Partitioning, Juliet S. Lamb, Peter W. C. Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia M. Berlin, Tim Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew C. Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. Mcwilliams

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Long-distance migration presents complex conservation challenges, and migratory species often experience shortfalls in conservation due to the difficulty of identifying important locations and resources throughout the annual cycle. In order to prioritize habitats for conservation of migratory wildlife, it is necessary to understand how habitat needs change throughout the annual cycle, as well as to identify key habitat sites and features that concentrate large numbers of individuals and species. Among long-distance migrants, sea ducks have particularly complex migratory patterns, which often include distinct post-breeding molt sites as well as breeding, staging and wintering locations. Using a large set of individual …

Assessing Treatment Performance Of Advanced Nitrogen-Removal Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems, Bianca Noelle Ross

Open Access Dissertations

Wastewater is a major source of nitrogen (N) to groundwater and coastal waterbodies, threatening both environmental and public health. Advanced N-removal onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) are used to reduce effluent N concentration through biological N removal (BNR). Despite the important role that these systems play in treating nutrient- and pathogen-rich wastewater, few studies have targeted the mechanisms involved in N removal, their capacity to produce effluent to meet regulatory standards, or their impact on the atmosphere.

I evaluated effluent total N (TN) concentration, the structure and composition of N-removing microbial communities, and greenhouse gas fluxes of advanced N-removal OWTS …

The World Coral Conservatory: A Noah's Ark For Corals To Support Survival Of Reef Ecosystems, Didier Zoccola, Nadia Ounais, Dominique Barthelemy, Robert Calcagno, Françoise Gaill, Stephane Henard, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Max Janse, Jean Jaubert, Hollie Putnam, Bernard Salvat, Christian R. Voolstra, Denis Allemand

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Global change causes widespread decline of coral reefs. In order to counter the anticipated disappearance of coral reefs by the end of this century, many initiatives are emerging, including creation of marine protected areas (MPAs), reef restoration projects, and assisted evolution initiatives. Such efforts, although critically important, are locally constrained. We propose to build a “Noah's Ark” biological repository for corals that taps into the network of the world’s public aquaria and coral reef scientists. Public aquaria will serve not only as a reservoir for the purpose of conservation, restoration, and research of reef-building corals but also as a laboratory …

Influence Of Season, Occupancy Pattern, And Technology On Structure And Composition Of Nitrifying And Denitrifying Bacterial Communities In Advanced Nitrogen-Removal Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems, Bianca N. Ross, Sara K. Wigginton, Alissa H. Cox, George W. Loomis, José A. Amador

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Advanced onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) use biological nitrogen removal (BNR) to mitigate the threat that N-rich wastewater poses to coastal waterbodies and groundwater. These systems lower the N concentration of effluent via sequential microbial nitrification and denitrification. We used high-throughput sequencing to evaluate the structure and composition of nitrifying and denitrifying bacterial communities in advanced N-removal OWTS, targeting the genes encoding ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) and nitrous oxide reductase (nosZ) present in effluent from 44 advanced systems. We used QIIME2 and the phyloseq package in R to examine differences in taxonomy and alpha and beta diversity …

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R4 Journal Report 1 (Jr1) 2018-2019, Andree Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R4 Journal Report 1 (JR1) for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019. Journal Report 1 is defined as "Number of Successful Full-Text Article Requests by Month and Journal." This report presents an annual total only.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results: 1,055,792 successful full-text article requests for 30,329 reported titles.

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R4 Book Report 2 (Br2) By Title 2018-2019, Andree Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R4 Book Report 2 (BR2) for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019. Book Report 2 is defined as "Number of Successful Section Requests by Month and Title." This report presents an annual total only.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results: 119,275 successful section requests for 9,528 reported titles.

Usage Statistics: Project Counter R4 Database Report 1 (Db1) 2018-2019, Andree Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Project COUNTER R4 Database Report 1 (DB1) for the University of Rhode Island for the period from July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019. Database Report 1 is defined as "Total Searches, Result Clicks and Record Views by Month and Database." This report presents an annual total only.

File for download is Excel spreadsheet generated by Alma Analytics.

Results: 817,969 regular searches, 412,951 result clicks, and 251,573 record views for 345 reported databases.

Mechanism Of Action Of Htx-011: A Novel, Extended-Release, Dual-Acting Local Anesthetic Formulation For Postoperative Pain, Thomas Ottoboni, Quart, Jayne E. Pawasauskas, Joseph F. Dasta, Richard A. Pollak, Eugene R. Viscusi

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Background and objectives Obtaining consistent efficacy beyond 12–24 hours with local anesthetics, including extended-release formulations, has been a challenging goal. Inflammation resulting from surgery lowers the pH of affected tissues, reducing neuronal penetration of local anesthetics. HTX-011, an investigational, nonopioid, extended-release dual-acting local anesthetic combining bupivacaine and low-dose meloxicam, was developed to reduce postsurgical pain through 72 hours using novel extended-release polymer technology. Preclinical studies and a phase II clinical trial were conducted to confirm the mechanism of action of HTX-011.

Methods In a validated postoperative pain pig model and a phase II bunionectomy trial, the analgesic effects of HTX-011, …

Curricular Report #2019-20-7 From The Graduate Council To The Faculty Senate: Curricular Changes, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Bills

No abstract provided.

Biology Of Sharks And Their Relatives Bio 422, Joanna Burkhardt

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.