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Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For November 2015, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For October 2015, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For September 2015, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Monthly Report For August 2015, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

The monthly reports include statistics for project proposals and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Division Of Research And Economic Development Annual Report For Fy2015, Uri Division Of Research And Economic Development

Reports (Research and Economic Development)

Annual report for the Division of Research and Economic Development of the University of Rhode Island for the year 2014-2015.

Includes statistics of project proposals, expenditures, URI Foundation Awards, previous annual report summaries and awards received by individual academic and administrative departments.

H7n9 T-Cell Epitopes That Mimic Human Sequences Are Less Immunogenic And May Induce Treg-Mediated Tolerance, Rui Liu, Leonard Moise, Ryan Tassone, Andres H. Gutierrez, Francis E. Terry, Kotou Sangare, Matthew T. Ardito, William D. Martin, Anne S. De Groot

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

Avian-origin H7N9 influenza is a novel influenza A virus (IAV) that emerged in humans in China in 2013. Using immunoinformatics tools, we identified several H7N9 T cell epitopes with T cell receptor (TCR)-facing residues identical to those of multiple epitopes from human proteins. We hypothesized that host tolerance to these peptides may impair T helper response and contribute to the low titer, weak hemagglutination inhibiting (HI) antibody responses and diminished seroconversion rates that have been observed in human H7N9 infections and vaccine trials. We found that the magnitude of human T effector responses to individual H7N9 peptides was inversely correlated …

T Cell Epitope Redundancy: Cross-Conservation Of The Tcr Face Between Pathogens And Self And Its Implications For Vaccines And Auto-Immunity, Leonard Moise, Sarah Beseme, Ryan Tassone, Rui Liu, Farzana Kibria, Francis Terry, William Martin, Anne S. De Groot

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

T cells are extensively trained on ‘self’ in the thymus and then move to the periphery, where they seek out and destroy infections and regulate immune response to self-antigens. T cell receptors (TCR) on T cells’ surface recognize T cell epitopes, short linear strings of amino acids presented by antigen-presenting cells. Some of these epitopes activate T effectors, while others activate regulatory T cells. It was recently discovered that T cell epitopes that are highly conserved on their TCR face with human genome sequences are often associated with T cells that regulate immune response. These TCR-cross-conserved or ‘redundant epitopes’ are …

Interaction Of A Dengue Virus Ns1-Derived Peptide With The Inhibitory Receptor Kir3dl1 On Natural Killer Cells, Elizabeth Townsley, Geraldine O'Connor, Cormac Cosgrove, Marcia Woda, Mary Co, Stephen J. Thomas, Siripen Kalayanarooj, In-Kyu Yoon, Ananda Nisalak, Anon Srikiatkhachorn, Sharone Green, Henry A. F. Stephens, Emma Gostick, David A. Price, Mary Carrington, Galit Alter, Daniel W. Mcvicar, Alan L. Rothman, Anuja Mathew

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) interact with HLA class I ligands and play a key role in the regulation and activation of NK cells. The functional importance of KIR-HLA interactions has been demonstrated for a number of chronic viral infections, but to date only a few studies have been performed in the context of acute self-limited viral infections. During our investigation of CD8⁺ T cell responses to a conserved HLA-B57-restricted epitope derived from dengue virus (DENV) non-structural protein-1 (NS1), we observed substantial binding of the tetrameric complex to non-T/non-B lymphocytes in PBMC from a long-standing clinical cohort in Thailand. We …

Improving Dengue Virus Capture Rates In Humans And Vectors In Kamphaeng Phet Province, Thailand, Using An Enhanced Spatiotemporal Surveillance Strategy, Stephen J. Thomas, Jared Aldstadt, Richard G. Jarman, Darunee Buddhari, In-Kyu Yoon, Jason H. Richardson, Alongkot Ponlawat, Sopon Iamsirithaworn, Thomas W. Scott, Alan L. Rothman, Robert V. Gibbons, Louis Lambrechts, Timothy P. Endy

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

Dengue is of public health importance in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Dengue virus (DENV) transmission dynamics was studied in Kamphaeng Phet Province, Thailand, using an enhanced spatiotemporal surveillance of 93 hospitalized subjects with confirmed dengue (initiates) and associated cluster individuals (associates) with entomologic sampling. A total of 438 associates were enrolled from 208 houses with household members with a history of fever, located within a 200-m radius of an initiate case. Of 409 associates, 86 (21%) had laboratory-confirmed DENV infection. A total of 63 (1.8%) of the 3,565 mosquitoes collected were dengue polymerase chain reaction positive (PCR+). There was a …

Inspire Newsletter For 2015, Uri College Of Human Science And Services

College of Human Science and Services Publications

The 2015 issue of InSpire, a periodical focused on and produced by the College of Human Science and Service.

Coming Out For Change Program

Programs and Events (Misc)

Program for the screening and panel discussion of “Coming Out for Change” a “It Gets Better” video by the URI LBTQ Womens’ Group

Uri Theatre 2015 Newsletter, Uri Theatre Department

Theatre Department Publications

The 2015-2016 season newsletter for the URI Theatre Department focuses on upcoming auditions for department productions and course information.

Momentum: Research & Innovation For Fall 2015, University Of Rhode Island

Publications (Research and Economic Development)

The Fall 2015 issue of Momentum: Research & Innovation, a periodical focused on research at the University of Rhode Island.

Momentum: Research & Innovation For Spring 2015, University Of Rhode Island

Publications (Research and Economic Development)

The Spring 2015 issue of Momentum: Research & Innovation, a periodical focused on research at the University of Rhode Island.

The Valine And Lysine Residues In The Conserved Fxvtxk Motif Are Important For The Function Of Phylogenetically Distant Plant Cellulose Synthases, Erin Slabaugh, Tess Scavuzzo-Duggan, Arielle Chaves, Liza Wilson, Carmen Wilson, Jonathan K. Davis, Daniel J. Cosgrove, Charles T. Anderson, Alison Roberts, Candace H. Haigler

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Cellulose synthases (CESAs) synthesize the β-1,4-glucan chains that coalesce to form cellulose microfibrils in plant cell walls. In addition to a large cytosolic (catalytic) domain, CESAs have eight predicted transmembrane helices (TMHs). However, analogous to the structure of BcsA, a bacterial cellulose synthase, predicted TMH5 in CESA may instead be an interfacial helix. This would place the conserved FxVTxK motif in the plant cell cytosol where it could function as a substrate-gating loop as occurs in BcsA. To define the functional importance of the CESA region containing FxVTxK, we tested five parallel mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana CESA1 and Physcomitrella patens …

And On Top Of All That… Coping With Ocean Acidification In The Midst Of Many Stressors, Denise L. Breitburg, John Salisbury, Joan M. Bernhard, Wei-Jun Cai, Sam Dupont, Scott C. Doney, Kristy J. Kroeker, Lisa A. Levin, W. Christopher Long, Lisa M. Milke, Seth H. Miller, Beth Phelan, Uta Passow, Brad A. Seibel, Anne E. Todgham, Ann M. Tarrant

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Oceanic and coastal waters are acidifying due to processes dominated in the open ocean by increasing atmospheric CO₂ and dominated in estuaries and some coastal waters by nutrient-fueled respiration. The patterns and severity of acidification, as well as its effects, are modified by the host of stressors related to human activities that also influence these habitats. Temperature, deoxygenation, and changes in food webs are particularly important co-stressors because they are pervasive, and both their causes and effects are often mechanistically linked to acidification. Development of a theoretical underpinning to multiple stressor research that considers physiological, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives …

Health Studies Program Newsletter For 2015, Uri Health Studies Program

Public Health Department Publications

The 2015 issue of “Health-e-Newsletter,” a periodical focused on the Health Studies Program events, faculty research and highlights of student achievements.

Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Was Inversely Associated With 3-Year All-Cause Mortality Among Chinese Oldest Old: Data From The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, Yue-Bin Lv, Zhao-Xue Yin, Choy-Lye Chei, Han-Zhu Qian, Virginia Byers Kraus, Juan Zhang, Melanie Sereny Brasher, Xiao-Ming Shi, David Bruce Matchar, Yi Zeng

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Objective: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a risk factor for survival in middle-aged individuals, but conflicting evidence exists on the relationship between LDL-C and all-cause mortality among the elderly. The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between LDL-C and all-cause mortality among Chinese oldest old (aged 80 and older) in a prospective cohort study.

Methods: LDL-C concentration was measured at baseline and all-cause mortality was calculated over a 3-year period. Multiple statistical models were used to adjust for demographic and biological covariates.

Results: During three years of follow-up, 447 of 935 participants died, and the overall all-cause …

The Evolution Of Difficult Childbirth And Helpless Hominin Infants, Holly M. Dunsworth, Leah Eccleston

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Because of the implications for behavioral, social, and cultural evolution, reconstructions of the evolutionary history of human parturition are driven by two main questions: First, when did childbirth become difficult? And second, does difficult childbirth have something to do with infant helplessness? Here we review the available evidence and consider answers to these questions. Although the definitive time frame remains unclear, childbirth may not have reached our present state of difficulty until fairly recently (

Surfo Technical Report No. 15-01, Surfo

SURFO Technical Reports

The 2015 technical reports written by undergraduate students participating in the SURFO (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Oceanography) Program while at the University of Rhode Island.

Responses Of Birds To Humans At A Coastal Barrier Beach: Napatree Point, Rhode Island, Thomas W. Mayo, Peter W. C. Paton, Pete August

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Human activity is one of the most important factors affecting disturbance to birds that use coastal barrier beaches in southern New England. The barrier beach at Napatree Point, RI, provides important breeding habitat for several bird species, key stopover habitat for thousands of migrating shorebirds, and is also a popular destination for people. Anecdotal evidence suggested that walkers, joggers, dogs, and watercraft were disrupting birds that foraged and roosted at this site. Our objectives were to characterize the frequency and sources of disturbance to birds and use this information to develop management recommendations to minimize the frequency of human disturbances …

Episodic Disturbance From Boat Anchoring Is A Major Contributor To, But Does Not Alter The Trajectory Of, Long-Term Coral Reef Decline, Graham E. Forrester, Rebecca L. Flynn, Linda M. Forrester, Lianna L. Jarecki

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Isolating the relative effects of episodic disturbances and chronic stressors on long-term community change is challenging. We assessed the impact of an episodic disturbance associated with human visitation (boat anchoring) relative to other drivers of long-term change on coral reefs. A one-time anchoring event at Crab Cove, British Virgin Islands, in 2004 caused rapid losses of coral and reef structural complexity that were equal to the cumulative decline over 23 years observed at an adjacent site. The abundance of small site-attached reef fishes dropped by approximately one quarter after the anchoring event, but this drop was not immediate and only …

Beaver Ponds: Resurgent Nitrogen Sinks For Rural Watersheds In The Northeastern United States, Julia G. Lazar, Kelly Addy, Arthur J. Gold, Peter M. Groffman, Richard A. Mckinney, Dorothy Q. Kellogg

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Beaver-created ponds and dams, on the rise in the northeastern United States, reshape headwater stream networks from extensive, free-flowing reaches to complexes of ponds, wetlands, and connecting streams. We examined seasonal and annual rates of nitrate transformations in three beaver ponds in Rhode Island under enriched nitrate-nitrogen (N) conditions through the use of ¹⁵N mass balance techniques on soil core mesocosm incubations. We recovered approximately 93% of the nitrate N from our mesocosm incubations. Of the added nitrate N, 22 to 39% was transformed during the course of the incubation. Denitrification had the highest rates of transformation (97–236 mg …

Time For T? Immunoinformatics Addresses The Challenges Of Vaccine Design For Neglected Tropical And Emerging Infectious Diseases, Francis E. Terry, Leonard Moise, Rebecca Martin, Melissa Torres, Nils Pilotte, Steven Williams, Anne S. De Groot

Institute for Immunology and Informatics Faculty Publications

Vaccines have been invaluable for global health, saving lives and reducing healthcare costs, while also raising the quality of human life. However, newly emerging infectious diseases (EID) and more well-established tropical disease pathogens present complex challenges to vaccine developers; in particular, neglected tropical diseases, which are most prevalent among the world’s poorest, include many pathogens with large sizes, multistage life cycles and a variety of nonhuman vectors. EID such as MERS-CoV and H7N9 are highly pathogenic for humans. For many of these pathogens, while their genomes are available, immune correlates of protection are currently unknown. These complexities make developing vaccines …

Loss Aversion, Education, And Intergenerational Mobility, Liam C. Malloy

Economics Faculty Publications

Existing empirical work looking at the effects of parental income on IQ, schooling, wealth, race, and personality is only able to explain about half of the observed intergenerational income elasticity. This paper provides a possible behavioral explanation for this elasticity in which heterogeneous agents in sequential generations choose their education levels in the face of loss-averse preferences and weak borrowing constraints. These borrowing-constrained agents make education investment choices in part to avoid consumption losses rather than to maximize lifetime resources. The model generates a positive intergenerational income elasticity even when there are functioning capital markets to finance education investments. I …

Islands Of Difference: Design, Urbanism, And Sustainable Tourism In The Anthropocene Caribbean, Amelia Moore

Marine Affairs Faculty Publications

This paper introduces the Anthropocene idea as a problem space with salience for Caribbean anthropology and the Caribbean travel industry. The term is used by scientists to define the present era in which human processes operate at the scale of the Earth’s geologic and biological systems, and it has come to justify a host of current actions in the name of sustainability. Through the examination of a new second-home destination currently being built in The Bahamas, I point out shifting trends in tourism design moving away from the anchor resort model of enclave mass tourism. I make the case that …

Momentum: Research & Innovation For Winter 2015, University Of Rhode Island

Publications (Research and Economic Development)

The Winter 2015 issue of Momentum: Research & Innovation, a periodical focused on research at the University of Rhode Island.

Transition-Metal Free Umpolung Carbon-Nitrogen Vs. Carbon-Chlorine Bond Formation, John J. Sirois, Brenton Deboef

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The formation of carbon-nitrogen (C–N) bonds via an umpolung substitution reaction has been achieved at -78 °C without the need for catalysts, ligands, or additives. The scope is limited to aryl Grignard reagents with N-chloroamines. The findings in this manuscript serve as a reference point for all C–N bond formation involving N-chloroamines and organometallic reagents. Knowing the yields of uncatalyzed reactions will be useful when determining the success of future catalytic methods.

Addressing The Stem Gender Gap By Designing And Implementing An Educational Outreach Chemistry Camp For Middle School Girls, Mindy Levine, Nicole Serio, Bhasker Radaram, Sauradip Chaudhuri, William Talbert

Chemistry Faculty Publications

There continues to be a persistent, widespread gender gap in multiple STEM disciplines at all educational and professional levels: from the self-reported interest of preschool aged students in scientific exploration to the percentages of tenured faculty in these disciplines, more men than women express an interest in science, a confidence in their scientific abilities, and ultimately decide to pursue scientific careers. Reported herein is an intensive outreach effort focused on addressing this gender gap: a full-time, week-long chemistry camp that was designed and implemented for middle school girls in the state of Rhode Island. The camp schedule included multiple hands-on …

Cyclodextrin-Promoted Diels Alder Reactions Of A Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Under Mild Reaction Conditions, Sauradip Chaudhuri, Tyler Phelan, Mindy Levine

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Reported herein is the effect of cyclodextrins on the rates of aqueous Diels Alder reactions of 9-anthracenemethanol with a variety of N-substituted maleimides. These reactions occurred under mild reaction conditions (aqueous solvent, 40 °C) and were most efficient for the reaction of N-cyclohexylmaleimide with a methyl-β-cyclodextrin additive (94% conversion in 24 h). These results can be explained on the basis of a model wherein the cyclodextrins bind the hydrophobic substituents on the maleimides and activate the dienophile via electronic modulation of the maleimide double bond. The results reported herein represent a new mechanism for cyclodextrin-promoted Diels Alder reactions, …