Digital Commons Network^™

Use Of Radiation To Kill Cancer By Nanoparticles And In A Biodosimeter Using Gene Expression Analysis, Samana Shrestha

Open Access Dissertations

The use of radiation is broad in biological systems, in different areas of research mostly in health.

Radiation is used to kill cancer. In radiation therapy proper calculation is done so that a maximum dose is delivered to the cancer. Inspite of this precaution, radiation effects healthy tissue. This effect is especially dangerous when the tumor is located near important organs. Thus in radiation therapy, it is important to reduce the dose and the damage to the healthy tissues and organs. The damage on the healthy tissues due to radiation therapy in cancer could be reduced by reducing the radiation …

Impacts Of Urbanization And Invasive Species On Foraging Behavior And Body Size In Anolis Sagrei, Zachary Chejanovski

Open Access Dissertations

Urbanization dramatically alters the abiotic and biotic environment of cities, favoring species that are pre-adapted or are able to adapt (e.g. through phenotypic plasticity or evolutionary mechanisms) to these novel conditions. While urbanization is widely considered one of the greatest threats to biodiversity worldwide, we still lack a general understanding of the mechanisms underlying organismal responses to human-induced rapid environmental change. The focus of this thesis was to examine how urbanization-induced changes in the abiotic and biotic environment influence the foraging behavior and body size of the brown anole, Anolis sagrei. In Chapter 1, we presented anoles from habitats …

Regulation Of Ubiquitin Specific Peptidase 2 Expression By Farnesoid X Receptor In Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Christina Nadolny

Open Access Dissertations

Liver cancer is in the ten leading cancer types for estimated new cases and deaths in the United States in 2018, and is often detected at late stages when it is rapidly fatal. Of the types of liver cancers in humans, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most lethal and prevalent. An important factor in the development of HCC is Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR). FXR acts as master regulator of bile acid homeostasis, and is involved in lipid, cholesterol, and glucose homeostasis. In addition, it plays a protective role against HCC, the precise mechanisms of which has yet to be identified. …

Characterizing The Functional Role And Regulated Assembly Of Protein Polymers Mind And Ftsa During Escherichia Coli Cell Division, Joseph Jake Conti

Open Access Dissertations

It is an immense undertaking for any organism, including a bacterium, to self-replicate. Accurate and rapid division is essential for bacteria to proliferate and produce progeny, especially in environments where there is competition for resources. The nucleoid, the region of the cell that contains the DNA, harbors the genetic information required to achieve robust division, but it is the assembly of the cell division machinery, collectively referred to as the divisome, that produces and coordinates the mechanical force necessary to divide a cell. The hallmark of prokaryotic cell division is the formation of a protein super-structure, called the Z-ring, which …

Conformations, Energetics, And Kinetics Of Peptides In Membrane Environment, Ganga P. Sharma

Open Access Dissertations

Chapter 1: We present the exact solution of a microscopic statistical mechanical model for the transformation of a long polypeptide between an unstructured coil conformation and an α-helix conformation. The polypeptide is assumed to be adsorbed to the interface between a polar and a non-polar environment such as realized by water and the lipid bilayer of a membrane. The interfacial coil-helix transformation is the first stage in the folding process of helical membrane proteins. Depending on the values of model parameters, the conformation changes as a crossover, a discontinuous transition, or a continuous transition with helicity in the role of …

Monitoring Salt Marsh Condition And Change With Satellite Remote Sensing, Anthony Daniel Campbell

Open Access Dissertations

Salt marshes are a frontline of climate change providing a bulwark against sea level rise, an interface between aquatic and terrestrial habitat, important nursery grounds for many species, a buffer against extreme storm impacts, and vast blue carbon repositories. Since the 1700s salt marshes have been in flux due to anthropogenic actions, such as reclamation for development causing loss and an influx of sediment from land clearing leading to marsh expansion. The Clean Water Act of 1972 provides legal protections for wetlands, limiting wetland reclamation and requiring that impacts be offset. However, salt marshes continue to change rapidly due to …

High Resolution Data Acquisition System For Brain Imaging, Seyed Hadi Nasrollaholhosseini

Open Access Dissertations

The U.S. has 12.3% disabled people based on the American Community Survey (ACS) in 2012. According to this survey, more than half of the disabled population suffers from ambulatory disabilities. Therefore, a system which enables people with disabilities to control their environments is crucially important. Moreover, ubiquitous physiological monitoring will be a key driving force in the upcoming medical revolution. Cardiac and brain signals in the form of electrocardiograms (ECGs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs) are two critical health indicators that directly benefit from long-term monitoring.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems that detect changes in brain signals related to human intentions, typically …

Brain-Body Sensory Fusion: Merging Fnirs/Eeg Neuroimaging And Full-Body Motion Capture, Mohammadreza Abtahi

Open Access Dissertations

Functional connectivity between the brain and body kinematics has not been largely investigated due to the requirement of being motionless in neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The importance of investigating this connectivity arises from the fact that the connectivity is disrupted in many neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD). PD is a neurological progressive disorder characterized by movement symptoms including slowness of movement, stiffness, tremors at rest, and walking and standing instability.

Body kinematics are generally divided into two categories of fine and gross motor tasks. Fine motor movements are referred to small range kinematics …

Benthic Habitat Mapping And Its Applications To Coastal Resource Management, Monique Lafrance Bartley

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters focused on benthic habitat mapping of coastal waters within northeast region of the United States to support science-based regulatory and management strategies. The first chapter is entitled: Shallow water benthic habitat mapping utilizing the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) to establish baseline conditions post-Hurricane Sandy at Fire Island National Seashore, New York. In response to Hurricane Sandy, a benthic habitat mapping study was conducted at Fire Island National Seashore (FIIS), New York, representing one of the first comprehensive mapping efforts undertaken by the National Park Service. FIIS was of particular interest …

After “Being Thrown In The Classroom”: The Development Of Pedagogical Skills In Veteran Adjunct Faculty Teaching In The Natural Sciences, Heather Shannon Miceli

Open Access Dissertations

The postsecondary landscape has changed drastically in the past 40 years, with one of the most obvious changes being the increased reliance on adjunct or part-time faculty. Approximately 50% of the current faculty employed by postsecondary institutions are categorized as part-time faculty, up from approximately 25% in 1975 (American Association of University Professors, 2017; Snyder, de Bray, & Dillow, 2016). While there is literature surrounding the impacts of this phenomenon, the majority of studies are entrenched in a positivist framework, utilize quantitative methods, and many use large datasets to distill down whether students are more or less successful when taught …

Experimental And Numerical Simulations For Fluid Body Interaction Problems, Amin Mivehchi

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the experimental and numerical modelling of fluid structure interaction (FSI) problems. The main objective of this work was to develop state-of-art experimental and numerical tools to investigate a variety of Fluid-Structure Interaction problems. This topic is of critical importance to Naval Hydrodynamics and offshore applications, such as in ship design, floating offshore wind platforms and offshore ocean energy systems.

On the experimental modelling of FSI, this dissertation includes detailed of state-of-art hydrodynamic testing tank system for studying biomimetic fluid-structure interaction problems. This system was employed to study unsteady ground effect for pitching and heaving flapping foil …

Predicting Patterns Of Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration From Late Adolescence To Young Adulthood, Hans Saint-Eloi Cadely, Joe F. Pittman, Gregory S. Pettit, Jennifer E. Lansford, John E. Bates, Kenneth A. Dodge, Amy Holtzworth-Munroe

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Saint-Eloi Cadely et al. (2017) found longitudinal patterns for the perpetration of both psychological and physical intimate partner violence (IPV), including actively and minimally aggressive patterns. The current study builds on these findings by examining four theory-derived variables (interparental aggression, social-information processing (SIP) biases, relationship insecurities (preoccupied and fearful), and discontinuity in relationship partner over time) as predictors of membership within these patterns using multinomial logistic regression. The analysis sample consisted of 484 participants who were romantically involved at least once during the 8 waves of data collection from the ages of 18-25. In predicting psychological IPV, more SIP biases, …

Carbon And Nitrogen Isoscapes In West Antarctica Reflect Oceanographic Transitions, Emily K. Brault, Paul L. Koch, Kelton W. Mcmahon, Kyle H. Broach, Aaron P. Rosenfield, Wilson Sauthoff, Valerie J. Loeb, Kevin R. Arrigo, Walker O. Smith Jr.

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Antarctic marine ecosystems are spatially and temporally dynamic. Regional climate change is significantly altering the patterns and magnitudes of this dynamism with cascading impacts on biogeochemistry, productivity, and food web architecture. Isoscapes (or isotopic maps) provide a valuable analytical framework to characterize ecosystem processes and address questions about trophic dynamics, animal movement, and elemental cycling. Applications of stable isotope methods to Antarctic ecosystems are currently limited by a paucity of information on geospatial isotope characteristics within the Southern Ocean. In response, we have created the first empirically derived zooplankton isoscapes for West Antarctica based on analysis of bulk nitrogen and …

Calibrating Amino Acid Δ13C And Δ15N Offsets Between Polyp And Protein Skeleton To Develop Proteinaceous Deep-Sea Corals As Paleoceanographic Archives., Kelton W. Mcmahon, Branwen Williams, Thomas P. Guilderson, Danielle S. Glynn, Matthew D. Mccarthy

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Compound-specific stable isotopes of amino acids (CSI-AA) from proteinaceous deep-sea coral skeletons have the potential to improve paleoreconstructions of plankton community composition, and our understanding of the trophic dynamics and biogeochemical cycling of sinking organic matter in the Ocean. However, the assumption that the molecular isotopic values preserved in protein skeletal material reflect those of the living coral polyps has never been directly investigated in proteinaceous deep-sea corals. We examined CSI-AA from three genera of proteinaceous deep-sea corals from three oceanographically distinct regions of the North Pacific: Primnoa from the Gulf of Alaska, Isidella from the Central California Margin, and …

Satellite Sensor Requirements For Monitoring Essential Biodiversity Variables Of Coastal Ecosystems, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Colleen B. Mouw, Et Al

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The biodiversity and high productivity of coastal terrestrial and aquatic habitats are the foundation for important benefits to human societies around the world. These globally distributed habitats need frequent and broad systematic assessments, but field surveys only cover a small fraction of these areas. Satellite‐based sensors can repeatedly record the visible and near‐infrared reflectance spectra that contain the absorption, scattering, and fluorescence signatures of functional phytoplankton groups, colored dissolved matter, and particulate matter near the surface ocean, and of biologically structured habitats (floating and emergent vegetation, benthic habitats like coral, seagrass, and algae). These measures can be incorporated into Essential …

Amino Acid Isotope Discrimination Factors For A Carnivore: Physiological Insights From Leopard Sharks And Their Diet, John P. Whiteman, Sora L. Kim, Kelton W. Mcmahon, Paul L. Koch, Seth D. Newsome

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Stable isotopes are important ecological tools, because the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of consumer tissue reflects the diet. Measurements of isotopes of individual amino acids can disentangle the effects of consumer physiology from spatiotemporal variation in dietary isotopic values. However, this approach requires knowledge of assimilation patterns of dietary amino acids. We reared leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata) on diets of squid (Loligo opalescens; 1250 days; control sharks) or squid then tilapia (Oreochromis sp.; switched at 565 days; experimental sharks) to evaluate consumer-diet discrimination factors for amino acids in muscle tissue. We found that control …

Response Of Benthic Fauna To Experimental Bottom Fishing: A Global Meta-Analysis, Marija Sciberras, Jan Geert Hiddink, Simon Jennings, Claire L. Szostek, Kathryn M. Hughes, Brian Kneafsey, Leo J. Clarke, Nick Ellis, Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp, Robert A. Mcconnaughey, Ray Hilborn, Jeremy Collie, C. Roland Pitcher, Ricardo O. Amoroso, Ana M. Parma, Petri Suuronen, Michel J. Kaiser

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Bottom-contact fishing gears are globally the most widespread anthropogenic sources of direct disturbance to the seabed and associated biota. Managing these fishing disturbances requires quantification of gear impacts on biota and the rate of recovery following disturbance. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of 122 experiments on the effects-of-bottom fishing to quantify the removal of benthos in the path of the fishing gear and to estimate rates of recovery following disturbance. A gear pass reduced benthic invertebrate abundance by 26% and species richness by 19%. The effect was strongly gear-specific, with gears that penetrate deeper into the sediment having …

Relations Of Physical Activity And Stress Vulnerability In University Students, Furong Xu, Wenhao Liu, Jepkorir Rose Chepyator-Thomson, Robert Schmidlein

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine association between leisure-time physical activity and stress vulnerability among college students. A modified survey including physical activity and stress vulnerability questions were administered to 120 college students. Forty percent of the sample fell in physically inactive category, with less than 150 minutes of physical activity each week. Twenty-one percent of sample showed symptoms of depression or anxiety. A standard linear regression analysis revealed a significant association between leisure-time physical activity and depression (r = - 0.55, p < .01). In addition, social network was found to have a significant correlation with leisure-time physical activity (r = 0.58, p < .001). It also found that walking, jogging, and running were physical activities in which college students engaged most.

Genetic Variants Predicting Aerobic Capacity Response To Training Are Also Associated With Skeletal Muscle Oxidative Capacity In Moderate-To-Severe Copd, Alessandra Adami, Brian D. Hobss, Merry-Lynn N. Mcdonald, Ricard Casaburi, Harry B. Rossiter

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Muscle oxidative capacity is a major determinant of maximum oxygen uptake (V̇O_2max). V̇O_2max predicts survival in humans. Muscle oxidative capacity is low in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and can be assessed from the muscle oxygen consumption recovery rate constant (k) by near-infrared spectroscopy. We hypothesized that 11 SNPs, previously associated with the increase in V̇O_2max following exercise training, would correlate with k in 152 non-Hispanic White and African American smokers with and without COPD. Associations were adjusted for age, weight, FEV₁% predicted, steps/day, and principal components of genetic ancestry. No SNPs …

Living In Two Worlds: Evolutionary Mechanisms Act Differently In The Native And Introduced Ranges Of An Invasive Plant, Wen-Yong Guo, Carla Lambertini, Petr Pyšek, Laura A. Meyerson, Hans Brix

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Identifying the factors that influence spatial genetic structure among populations can provide insights into the evolution of invasive plants. In this study, we used the common reed (Phragmites australis), a grass native in Europe and invading North America, to examine the relative importance of geographic, environmental (represented by climate here), and human effects on population genetic structure and its changes during invasion. We collected samples of P. australis from both the invaded North American and native European ranges and used molecular markers to investigate the population genetic structure within and between ranges. We used path analysis to identify …

Universal Target‐Enrichment Baits For Anthozoan (Cnidaria) Phylogenomics: New Approaches To Long‐Standing Problems, Andrea M. Quattrini, Brant C. Faircloth, Luisa F. Dueñas, Tom C.L. Bridge, Mercer R. Brugler, Iván F. Calizto-Botía, Danielle M. Deleo, Sylvain Forêt, Santiago Herrera, Simon M.Y. Lee, David J. Miller, Carlos Prada, Gandhi Rádis-Baptista, Catalina Ramirez-Portilla, Juan A. Sánchez, Estefanía Rodriguez, Catherine S. Mcfadden

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Anthozoans (e.g., corals, anemones) are an ecologically important and diverse group of marine metazoans that occur from shallow to deep waters worldwide. However, our understanding of the evolutionary relationships among the ~7,500 species within this class is hindered by the lack of phylogenetically informative markers that can be reliably sequenced across a diversity of taxa. We designed and tested 16,306 RNA baits to capture 720 ultraconserved element loci and 1,071 exon loci. Library preparation and target enrichment were performed on 33 taxa from all orders within the class Anthozoa. Following Illumina sequencing and Trinity assembly, we recovered 1,774 of 1,791 …

Slow And Deliberate Cooperation In The Commons, Chris Brozyna, Todd Guilfoos, Stephen Atlas

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

We test how fast and slow thought processes affect cooperation for sustainability by manipulating time pressure in a dynamic common-pool resource experiment. Sustainable management of shared resources critically depends on decisions in the current period to leave enough stock so that future generations are able to draw on the remaining limited natural resources. An intertemporal common-pool resource game represents a typical dynamic for social dilemmas involving natural resources. Using one such game, we analyse decisions throughout time. We find that people in this context deplete the common resource to a greater extent under time pressure, which leads to greater likelihood …

Independent Introductions And Sequential Founder Events Shape Genetic Differentiation And Diversity Of The Invasive Green Anole (Anolis Carolinensis) On Pacific Islands, Sozos N. Michaelides, Rachel M. Goodman, Ronald I. Crombie, Jason J. Kolbe

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Aim: Natural range expansions and human‐mediated colonizations usually involve a small number of individuals that establish new populations in novel habitats. In both cases, founders carry only a fraction of the total genetic variation of the source populations. Here, we used native and non‐native populations of the green anole, Anolis carolinensis, to compare the current distribution of genetic variation in populations shaped by natural range expansion and human‐mediated colonization.

Location: North America, Hawaiian Islands, Western Pacific Islands.

Methods: We analysed 401 mtDNA haplotypes to infer the colonization history of A. carolinensis on nine islands in the …

Treating Outer Space Like A Place: A Case For Rejecting Other Domain Analogies, Elizabeth Mendenhall

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

The creation and augmentation of the outer space governance regime during the twentieth century was guided by the use of analogies with other planetary domains. These analogies compare the “target” domain of outer space with various “source” domains, especially airspace, the seabed, the high seas, and Antarctica. These analogies, highlighted at different times to provide guidance on the regulation of existing and emerging space activities, shaped the fundamental principles and rules of the Outer Space Treaty. A survey of contemporary literature demonstrates that analogies continue to be used to structure thinking about outer space activities. This paper argues that such …

Utilization Of Probiotics To Manage Epizootic Shell Disease In American Lobsters, Homarus Americanus, Melissa Hoffman

Open Access Master's Theses

Epizootic shell disease (ESD) in the American lobster, Homarus americanus, has a major impact on the southern New England lobster industry, yet there are no practical tools for managing the disease. The goal of this study was to identify bacterial probiotics that could be used to manage ESD in wild lobster populations. Candidate bacterial isolates (n = 24) were previously isolated from lobsters in Narragansett Bay and identified as having probiotic characteristics against ESD-associated bacteria Thalassobius sp. and Aquimarina macrocephali, or the fish pathogen Vibrio anguillarum. Healthy lobster post-larvae were exposed to five of the candidate strains …

Life History Parameters Of Blue Sharks, Katherine Viducic

Open Access Master's Theses

The blue shark, Prionace glauca, is a pelagic elasmobranch that is found globally in tropic, sub-tropic, and warm temperate seas including the Mediterranean. Blue shark populations are not considered to be threatened, but a rapidly changing climate and uncertainties in fishing mortality are causing concern for changes in life history characteristics. Yet, no studies have examined such parameters for this species in over 35 years. We used 858 blue shark specimens, ranging from 1971 to 2016, to determine fork length, age, and weight at maturity, as well as measurements of reproductive organs (e.g., teste length, egg diameter) for both …

Effort Control In The Artisanal Canoe Fishery Of Ghana: Implications And Likelihood Of Success, Rosina Cobbina

Open Access Master's Theses

One of the major ways to reduce pressure on a declining fishery is through effort controls and this most often is seen to have both positive and negative effects on the people whose livelihoods depend on the fishery, specifically in instances where the control of effort leads to the exclusion of fishers out of the fishery. This study looks at some of the factors that will affect artisanal Ghanaian fishers’ willingness to exit a declining fishery. It looks at what these fishers perceived to be their alternative livelihood options. The study found that fishers in an urbanized and developed area …

Bodies Of Water: Designing Resilient Dive Tourism Through Underwater Sculpture, Rennie Meyers

Open Access Master's Theses

As marine ecologies at global and local scales respond to the manifold impacts of global climate change, so too must the dive tourism industry adapt to new ocean dynamics. To be resilient in the face of ongoing change these adaptations are necessarily local, environmentally aware, and systematic. On Lanzarote, a volcanic island at the northern end of the Canary Island archipelago, tourism developers have long claimed a particular skill in implementing environmentally aware, adaptive tourism infrastructure projects on land. At the peak of package tourism development in the 1960s, Lanzarote’s tourism board invested in César Manrique’s particular brand of Modernist …

Decimation By Sea Star Wasting Disease And Rapid Genetic Change In A Keystone Species, Pisaster Ochraceus, Lauren A. Schiebelhut, Jonathan B. Puritz, Michael N. Dawson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Standing genetic variation enables or restricts a population’s capacity to respond to changing conditions, including the extreme disturbances expected to increase in frequency and intensity with continuing anthropogenic climate change. However, we know little about how populations might respond to extreme events with rapid genetic shifts, or how population dynamics may influence and be influenced by population genomic change. We use a range-wide epizootic, sea star wasting disease, that onset in mid-2013 and caused mass mortality in Pisaster ochraceus to explore how a keystone marine species responded to an extreme perturbation. We integrated field surveys with restriction site-associated DNA sequencing …

On The Problem And Promise Of Metaphor Use In Science And Science Communication, Cynthia Taylor, Bryan M. Dewsbury

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The language of science is largely metaphorical. Scientists rely on metaphor and analogy to make sense of scientific phenomena and communicate their findings to each other and to the public. Yet, despite their utility, metaphors can also constrain scientific reasoning, contribute to public misunderstandings, and, at times, inadvertently reinforce stereotypes and messages that undermine the goals of inclusive science. This paper 1) examines the generative potential of metaphors to the advancement of scientific knowledge and science communication, 2) highlights the ways in which outdated metaphors may limit scientific inquiry and contribute to public misunderstandings, and 3) critically analyzes the implications …