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The Role Of The Specialty Pharmacist In Optimizing The Quality Of Care For Patients With Psoriasis And Psoriatic Arthritis, Celia P. Macdonnell, Macdonnell

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cellulose Synthesis In Physcomitrella Patens: Gene Expression And Mutational Analysis, Mai Linh Tran

Open Access Dissertations

A detailed analysis of cellulose synthesis in nonvascular plants can contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of this important process. In this study, the nonvascular plant Physcomitrella patens was used as a model system to investigate the roles of the different isoforms of cellulose synthase (CESA). PpCESA gene expression was quantified through Reverse Transcription quantitative (RT-q) PCR and localized through construction and analysis promoter::reporter lines to determine the roles of the PpCESAs throughout development. Physcomitrella patens CESA genes are ubiquitously expressed in the filamentous protonema stage. All of the PpCESAs are expressed in the gametophore as well, with …

Cyclodexrtrins As Hosts For The Array-Based Detection Of Persistent Organic Pollutants In Complex Media, Nicole Cook Serio

Open Access Dissertations

The ability to quickly determine the nature of small-molecule toxicants after an anthropogenic event would greatly benefit first responders and medical personnel. Current detection methods, while elegant, require several separation and purification steps before the samples can be submitted for analysis, which can be a time-consuming process. There is a crucial knowledge gap that exists as a result. Reported herein is the use of a non-toxic, commercially-available molecule, cyclodextrin, to rapidly isolate and detect the toxic components involved in a spill event that would address this knowledge gap. This cyclodextrin-based scheme would work as a compliment to established analysis procedures …

Evaluation Of In Vitro Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Diabetic And Anti-Lipogenic Activity Of Natural Polyphenolic Extracts And Their Pure Constituents, Pragati P. Nahar

Open Access Dissertations

The long-term goals and objectives of our group are to identify bioactive natural products relevant to human disease prevention and health promotion. To attain this goal, the objective of this thesis was to demonstrate that bioactive polyphenol-rich extracts or preparations exert positive health benefits beyond basic nutrition, thus impacting overall health and wellness. We believe that this project has immense scientific merit from a human health perspective and will be of great public impact given that consumers are seeking natural and organic choices for improving health. In this investigation, we have focused our attention on investigating the biological activities of …

Exploring The Sociocultural Pathway Model As It Predicts Body Satisfacion In Athletes And Nonathletes, Sarah Howes-Masnik

Open Access Dissertations

This study was a secondary data analysis in which the sociocultural pathway model (Stice & Agras, 1998) was tested in male and female athletes and nonathletes. There were three primary purposes for this study. The first aim was to test the applicability of the sociocultural model theory in the current sample by conducting confirmatory factor analyses on the measurement constructs. The second aim was to create a structural equation model that fit the data best according to theoretical directionality of the constructs in the sociocultural theory. The third aim was to compare the predictive paths of this model across sexes …

Isco Of Volatile Organic Contaminants Using Peroxone Activated Persulfate & Cyclodextrin, Dylan E.H. Eberle

Open Access Dissertations

Despite recent advances, subsurface remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as chlorinated solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons, remains a challenging environmental problem. As a result, the development of innovative methods for remediating subsurface VOC remains a major environmental priority. In addition to these priority pollutants, perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) and 1,4-dioxane are contaminants of emerging concern due to their potential toxicity and prevalence in the environment. These emerging contaminants have increasingly been identified as co-contaminants at VOC release sites, and remediation strategies capable of treating VOC as well as 1,4-dioxane and PFCs would be of great value. In this dissertation, field …

Estimates Of Micro-, Nano-, And Picoplankton Contributions To Particle Export In The Northeast Pacific, B. L. Mackinson, S. B. Moran, M. W. Lomas, G. M. Stewart, R. P. Kelly

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The contributions of micro-, nano-, and picoplankton to particle export were estimated from measurements of size-fractionated particulate ²³⁴Th, organic carbon, and phytoplankton indicator pigments obtained during five cruises between 2010 and 2012 along Line P in the subarctic northeast Pacific Ocean. Sinking fluxes of particulate organic carbon (POC) and indicator pigments were calculated from ²³⁴Th–²³⁸U disequilibria and, during two cruises, measured by a sediment trap at Ocean Station Papa. POC fluxes at 100 m ranged from 0.65 to 7.95 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹, similar in magnitude to previous results at Line P. Microplankton pigments …

The Shape Of The Oceanic Nitracline, Melissa M. Omand, A. Mahadevan

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

In most regions of the ocean, nitrate is depleted near the surface by phytoplankton consumption and increases with depth, exhibiting a strong vertical gradient in the pycnocline (here referred to as the nitracline). The vertical supply of nutrients to the surface euphotic zone is influenced by the vertical gradient (slope) of the nitracline and by the vertical separation (depth) of the nitracline from the sunlit surface layer. Hence it is important to understand the shape (slope and curvature) and depth of the oceanic nitracline. By using density coordinates to analyze nitrate profiles from autonomous Autonomous Profiling EXplorer floats with In-Situ …

Refugial Isolation And Range Expansions Drive The Genetic Structure Of Oxyria Sinensis (Polygonaceae) In The Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, Lihua Meng, Gang Chen, Zhonghu Li, Yongping Yang, Zhengkun Wang, Liuyang Wang

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The formation of the Mekong-Salween Divide and climatic oscillations in Pleistocene were the main drivers for the contemporary diversity and genetic structure of plants in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains (HHM). To identify the relative roles of the two historical events in shaping population history of plants in HHM, we investigated the phylogeographic pattern of Oxyria sinensis, a perennial plant endemic to the HHM. Sixteen chloroplast haplotypes were identified and were clustered into three phylogenetic clades. The age of the major clades was estimated to be in the Pleistocene, falling into several Pleistocene glacial stages and postdating the formation of the …

From Luzon Strait To Dongsha Plateau: Stages In The Life Of An Internal Wave, David M. Farmer, Matthew H. Alford, Ren-Chieh Lien, Ying Jiang Yang, Ming-Huei Chang, Qiang Li

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Tidal currents in Luzon Strait south of Taiwan generate some of the largest internal waves anywhere in the ocean. Recent collaborative efforts between oceanographers from the United States and Taiwan explored the generation, evolution, and characteristics of these waves from their formation in the strait to their scattering and dissipation on Dongsha Plateau and the continental slope of mainland China. Nonlinear internal waves affect offshore engineering, navigation, biological productivity, and sediment resuspension. Observations within Luzon Strait identified exceptionally large vertical excursions of density (as expressed primarily in temperature profiles) and intense turbulence as tidal currents interact with submarine ridges. In …

Uri Undergraduate And Graduate Course Catalog 2015-2016, University Of Rhode Island

URI Course Catalogs Archive

This is a downloadable PDF version of the University of Rhode Island course catalog.

Automatic Sleep Apnea Detection Using Fuzzy Logic, Aminollah Golrou, Keivan Maghooli, Amir Mohammad Amiri, Kunal Mankodiya, Kazem Ghaemi

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the most important sleep disorders characterized by obstruction of the respiratory tract and cessation in respiratory flow level. Currently, apnea diagnosis is mainly based on the Polysomnography (PSG) testing during sleeping hours, however, recording the entire signals during nights is a very costly, time-consuming and difficult task. The goal of this study is to provide and validate an automatic algorithm to analyze four PSG-recordings and detect the occurrence of sleep apnea by noninvasive features. Four PSG signals were extracted from oxygen saturation (SaO2), Transitional air flow (Air Flow), abdominal movements during breathing …

Fog Data: Enhancing Telehealth Big Data Through Fog Computing, Harishchandra Dubey, Jing Yang, Nick Constant, Amir Mohammad Amiri, Qing Yang, Kunal Mankodiya

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The size of multi-modal, heterogeneous data collected through various sensors is growing exponentially. It demands intelligent data reduction, data mining and analytics at edge devices. Data compression can reduce the network bandwidth and transmission power consumed by edge devices. This paper proposes, validates and evaluates Fog Data, a service-oriented architecture for Fog computing. The center piece of the proposed architecture is a low power embedded computer that carries out data mining and data analytics on raw data collected from various wearable sensors used for telehealth applications. The embedded computer collects the sensed data as time series, analyzes it, and finds …

Robust Exponential Synchronization For A Class Of Master-Slave Distributed Parameter Systems With Spatially Variable Coefficients And Nonlinear Perturbation, Chengdong Yang, Jianlong Qiu, Kejia Yi, Xiangyong Chen, Ancai Zhang, Xiao Chen, Liuqing Yang

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the exponential synchronization problem of a class of master-slave distributed parameter systems (DPSs) with spatially variable coefficients and spatiotemporally variable nonlinear perturbation, modeled by a couple of semilinear parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs). With a locally Lipschitz constraint, the perturbation is a continuous function of time, space, and system state. Firstly, a sufficient condition for the robust exponential synchronization of the unforced semilinear master-slave PDE systems is investigated for all admissible nonlinear perturbations. Secondly, a robust distributed proportional-spatial derivative (P-sD) state feedback controller is desired such that the closed-loop master-slave PDE systems achieve exponential synchronization. Using Lyapunov’s …

Exploration Of Life In Deep Subseafloor Sediments, David C. Smith, Steven D'Hondt

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The scientific ocean drilling community has been retrieving cores from hundreds of meters below the seafloor since the inception of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) in 1968. While microbiological research was not part of the scientific impetus for the creation of DSDP, it became apparent to geochemists that some of the observations in pore water chemistry indicated microbiological activity at great depth (e.g., Claypool and Kaplan, 1974). Site after site yielded profiles of microbiologically relevant compounds (e.g., sulfate, methane) that indicated microbial activity.

Misreporting In A Randomized Clinical Trial For Smoking Cessation In Adolescents, Ryan Lantini, Ashlee C. Mcgrath, L.A.R. Stein, Nancy P. Barnett, Peter M. Monti, Suzanne M. Colby

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Misreporting smoking behavior is common among younger smokers participating in clinical trials for smoking cessation. This study focused on the prevalence of and factors associated with adolescent misreporting of smoking behaviors within the context of a randomized clinical trial for smoking cessation.

Methods: Adolescent smokers (N = 129) participated in a randomized clinical trial that compared two brief interventions for smoking cessation. Following the final (6-month) follow-up, a confidential, self-administered exit questionnaire examined the extent to which participants admitted to having misreported smoking quantity, frequency and/or consequences during the study. Factors associated with under- and over-reporting were compared …

Community Composition Of The Morphologically Cryptic Diatom Genus Skeletonema In Narragansett Bay, Kelly Canesi

Open Access Master's Theses

It is well known that morphologically cryptic species are routinely present in planktonic communities but their role in important ecological and biogeochemical processes is poorly understood. I investigated the presence of cryptic species in the genus Skeletonema, an important bloom-forming diatom, using high-throughput genetic sequencing and examined the ecological dynamics of communities relative to environmental conditions. Samples were obtained from the Narragansett Bay Long-Term Plankton Time Series, where Skeletonema spp. can comprise >95% of microplankton cells during blooms. DNA was extracted and sequenced from monthly samples between December 2008 and December 2013, and Skeletonema specific primers were used to …

Antimicrobial Peptide Editable Database, George Konstantinidis

Open Access Master's Theses

The idea behind the AMPed database is to create an annotated collection of information about antimicrobial peptides derived from several existing larger and heterogeneous databases with the goal of uniformity and coherence. It will be an open source bioinformatics tool that researchers will be able to use in order to find and download genomic sequences relevant to their research, as well as obtaining links to the original data source. This thesis will discuss the original AMPed concept, the database’s conceptual (ER – Entity-Relationship) design, the design and implementation of the database tables, and the Bioparser software tool for importing the …

Enzymatic And Enzyme Inhibitory Activity On A Paper-Based Lateral Flow Device, Manuel Muller

Open Access Master's Theses

In this work it was demonstrated for the first time that Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) enzymes spotted and dried onto a nitrocellulose membrane remained active. This was accomplished by passing a fixed volume of the BCIP/NBT substrate solution over the immobilized enzymes and measuring the resulting color density at the spot where the enzymes were spotted. A dose response curve was produced of the concentration of the enzymes spotted on the test area versus the color density measured at the spot after the substrate had flowed past it indicating that the assay produces quantitative as well as qualitative results. This experiment …

At Home In The Diaspora: Domesticity And Nationalism In Postwar And Contemporary Caribbean-British Fiction, Kim Caroline Evelyn

Open Access Dissertations

This project investigates the ways in which home is conceptualized and represented in sixty years of the literature of the Caribbean diaspora in Britain by balancing texts from the post-World War II period with contemporary texts and considering how the diaspora has been imagined and reimagined. Making a home of a diaspora—typically considered as a collection of scattered and ostracized migrants— requires a conceptual leap, act of agency, and, sometimes, a flight of imagination. Through the imagery of domesticity and the rhetoric of nationalism, literary analyses of representations of diaspora allow us to explore the imagined constructs of diasporic homes. …

A Meta-Analysis Of Prescription Stimulant Efficacy: Are Stimulants Neurocognitive Enhancers?, Marisa E. Marraccini

Open Access Dissertations

Prescription stimulant use for neurocognitive enhancement is a significant problem among college students with and without ADHD. The primary reason students report misusing stimulant medication is to enhance academic functioning. Given that increasing numbers of students are misusing prescription stimulants, it is critical to explore whether empirical findings support neurocognitive benefits of prescription stimulants. Hence, the primary purpose of this meta-analytic study was to examine the potential effects of prescription stimulants on cognitive functioning of adults with and without ADHD. A systematic search and retrieval process resulted in the calculation of effect sizes from 91 studies. Fourteen meta-analyses were conducted …

Distributions And Interactions In Three Groups Of Polar Marine Plankton, Alison Clare Cleary

Open Access Dissertations

Polar marine ecosystems are highly productive, with strong seasonal phytoplankton blooms, and high abundances of vertebrate predators. A key link between these phytoplankton and megafauna are the zooplankton, which package and transform phytoplankton biomass, making it available to the fish, mammals, seabirds, and other predators in the ecosystem. I investigated three groups of these important small eukaryotes. In the Bering Sea I analyzed the diet of three morphologically very similar congeners of Pseudocalanus copepods. The two copepod species with largely overlapping geographic ranges were found to have different diets, suggesting feeding differences may serve as a mechanism of niche partitioning …

Toward A Psychosocial Understanding Of Suicide In American Literature And Culture Of The 1990’S, Sara E. Murphy

Open Access Dissertations

As a means of rectifying the problematic absence of multidisciplinary scholarly work on suicide, this dissertation project interrogates suicide in American literature and culture of the 1990’s across disciplines within the humanities, medicine, and the social sciences. Utilizing a psychosocial approach to the study of suicide – that is, an understanding of suicide as produced both by one’s psychological development within and by one’s social relationship to his or her environment – I address what I have identified as a unique trifurcated suicide response that arose in American culture in the 1990’s as it emerged through major societal and legal …

Iron-Catalyzed Arylation Of Heterocycles And Transition-Metal Free C-N Bond Formation, John Joseph Sirois

Open Access Dissertations

The formation of carbon-carbon (C-C) and carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonds is discussed and efforts towards expanding the known reactions of this type are the primary focus of this work. The iron-catalyzed arylation of aromatic heterocycles, such as pyridines, thiophenes and furans has been achieved. The use of an imine directing group allowed for the ortho-functionalization of these heterocycles with complete conversation in 15 minutes at °C. Yields up to 88% were observed in the synthesis of 15 heterocyclic biaryls. C-N bond formation is achieved using aryl Grignard reagents and N-chloroamines at -78 °C.

Life Vs. Unlife: Interspecies Solidarity And Companionism In Contemporary American Literature, Barnaby Mclaughlin

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the representations of interspecies relationships in contemporary American literature. In recent years, interdisciplinary attention, variously referred to under the umbrella categories of Posthumanism," "Human-Animal Studies," "Animality Studies," and "Critical Animal Studies," have called into question the anthropocentric traditions across multiple disciplines. However, much of this recent attention still focuses on animals in the abstract, which is to say that they rarely concern themselves with actual animals or our relationships to them. Even when a real animal manages to penetrate a text, such as Jacques Derrida's cat in the opening pages of The Animal That Therefore I Am …

The Power And Joy Of Derby: Women’S Participation, Empowerment, And Transformation In A Flat-Track Roller Derby Team, John Paul, Sharla Blank

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

In what ways do sports make a difference in the lives of the people who play them? In this paper, we employ a sporting feminist perspective to answer this question and detail how women benefit from the sport of roller derby. Our analyses are structured around the themes of the body (exploring examples of bodily empowerment and reconceptualization); the team (highlighting feminist themes of loyalty and team as family); and the crowd (identifying the ways in which derby is “sold” to the crowd, as well as the ways in which athletes use derby to challenge conceptions of beauty, desirability, and …

She Had A Name That God Didn’T Give Her: Thinking The Body Through Atheistic Black Radical Feminism, Marquis Bey

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

The article attempts to demonstrate the necessity of acknowledging the body when considering the current Black Lives Matter movement, give an account of Black female and trans erasure, and ultimately (re)affirm the lived embodiment of Black, female, and trans bodies, all through an atheistic lens. Atheism here, while indeed denying the existence of gods, has as its primary concern affirming life. Too often is theology, as theologian Anthony Pinn says, “a theology of no-body”; thus atheistic feminist Blackness, as understood here, seeks to entrench the body rather than abstract it. Atheistic feminist Blackness reinscribes and affirms the subjectivity and humanity …

Mensurative And Manipulative Experiments Test Effects Of Global Change Drivers On Greenhouse Gas Fluxes In Coastal Marshes, Rose Marie Martin

Open Access Dissertations

For centuries, coastal marshes have been subjected to anthropogenic stressors. Great expanses of coastal marshes were drained and filled to make way for development, and those that remained were diked and ditched, encroached upon by upland development, and used for agricultural purposes such as livestock grazing. Today, as the values and services coastal marshes provide to human society are understood, marshes are protected from direct degradation. However, especially in developed and densely populated estuaries such as Narragansett Bay, coastal marshes are subject to impacts including nutrient pollution and introduction of invasive species. Global climate change and associated sea level rise …

Design And Development Of Ph-Sensitive Peptides For Cancer Diagnostics, Ramona Cosmina Adochite

Open Access Dissertations

The design and development of pH-sensitive peptides for cancer diagnostics provides an opportunity to study and address fundamental questions of in vivo bio-distribution of pH-sensitive peptides, as well as developing new targeting imaging and therapeutic agents for acidic diseased tissue such as cancer, infections, ischemia, stroke and others.

The main goal of the work presented here is to investigate the following problems:

- Targeting of highly metastatic mammary tumors and spontaneous breast tumors in transgenic mice with fluorescently labeled pHLIPs® (pH (Low) Insertion Peptides) pHLIP variants;

- Direct imaging of pHLIP insertion and cargo translocation in vivo;

- Targeting …

Characterization Of Biofilm Formation, Chemotaxis, And The Genome Of Aliiroseovarius Crassostreae, Linda Kessner

Open Access Master's Theses

Aliiroseovarius crassostreae, the causative agent of Roseovarius Oyster Disease, is a marine α-Proteobacterium and a member of the Roseobacter clade. Roseovarius Oyster Disease, formerly known as Juvenile Oyster Disease, has been the reason for high mortality rates in hatchery-raised eastern oysters (Crassostreae virginica) since the late 1980s. Juvenile oysters less than 25 mm in shell length are more heavily impacted by the disease than large adult oysters. Because mortality rates can exceed 90%, the disease is responsible for large economic losses to the New England aquaculture industry. The probiotic organism, Phaeobacter gallaeciensis is a marine α-Proteobacterium and …