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Combined Responses Of Primary Coral Polyps And Their Algal Endosymbionts To Decreasing Seawater Ph, Federica Scucchia, Assaf Malik, Paul Zaslansky, Hollie M. Putnam, Tali Mass

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

With coral reefs declining globally, resilience of these ecosystems hinges on successful coral recruitment. However, knowledge of the acclimatory and/or adaptive potential in response to environmental challenges such as ocean acidification (OA) in earliest life stages is limited. Our combination of physiological measurements, microscopy, computed tomography techniques and gene expression analysis allowed us to thoroughly elucidate the mechanisms underlying the response of early-life stages of corals, together with their algal partners, to the projected decline in oceanic pH. We observed extensive physiological, morphological and transcriptional changes in surviving recruits, and the transition to a less-skeleton/more-tissue phenotype. We found that decreased …

Understanding The Genetics Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Α1-Antitrypsin Deficiency, And Implications For Clinical Practice, Jennifer R. Mammen, Jung Eun Lee

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

Cigarette smoking and poor air quality are the greatest risk factors for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but growing evidence indicates that genetic factors also affect predisposition to and clinical expression of disease. With the exception of α1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), a rare autosomal recessive disorder that is present in 1–3% of individuals with COPD, no single gene is associated with the development of obstructive lung disease. Instead, a complex interplay of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors is the basis for persistent inflammatory responses, accelerated cell aging, cell death, and fibrosis, leading to the clinical symptoms of COPD and different …

Balance In Life As A Prerequisite For Community-Dwelling Older Adults’ Sense Of Health And Well-Being After Retirement: An Interview-Based Study, Catharina Gillsjö, Maria Nyström, Lina Palmér, Gunilla Carlsson, Ann-Charlotte Dalheim-Englund, Irene Eriksson

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study aimed to describe community-dwelling older adults’ perceptions of health and well-being in life after retirement.

Methods: This study is part of a larger project using a mixed-methods design to address lifestyles’ influence on community-dwelling older adults’ health. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 older adults in age 70 to 95 years. Data were analysed according to a phenomenographic approach.

Results: The results encompass four categories describing variations in community-dwelling older adults’ perceptions of health and well-being after retirement: feeling well despite illness and disease, interacting with and being useful for oneself and others, independently embracing opportunities …

Preferences Of Seniors Living In Selected Baltic Sea Region Countries Towards The Use Of Indoor Public Space Furniture, Beata Fabisiak, Anna Jankowska, Robert Klos, Catharina Gillsjö, Igor Kuprienko, Lyudmila Vidasova, Anja Poberznik, Vineta Kreigere

College of Nursing Faculty Publications

Demographic changes can be observed all over the world. The number of seniors located in the societies of well-developed countries continues to rise. Both enterprises and governments need to be prepared for such changes. Consequently, public spaces need to evolve to reduce problems related to ageism and be friendly to all. Much attention is currently being paid to finding solutions for redesigning public spaces and adjusting them to the needs and requirements of senior citizens. To identify the preferences of seniors in relation to the characteristics of furniture in indoor public spaces, a survey study with 1539 respondents aged 60+ …

Adjuvantation Of Influenza Vaccines To Induce Cross-Protective Immunity, Zhoufan Li, Yiwen Zhao, Yibo Li, Xinyuan Chen

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Influenza poses a huge threat to global public health. Influenza vaccines are the most effective and cost-effective means to control influenza. Current influenza vaccines mainly induce neutralizing antibodies against highly variable globular head of hemagglutinin and lack cross-protection. Vaccine adjuvants have been approved to enhance seasonal influenza vaccine efficacy in the elderly and spare influenza vaccine doses. Clinical studies found that MF59 and AS03-adjuvanted influenza vaccines could induce cross-protective immunity against non-vaccine viral strains. In addition to MF59 and AS03 adjuvants, experimental adjuvants, such as Toll-like receptor agonists, saponin-based adjuvants, cholera toxin and heat-labile enterotoxin-based mucosal adjuvants, and physical adjuvants, …

Isoform-Specific Effects Of Apolipoprotein E On Markers Of Inflammation And Toxicity In Brain Glia And Neuronal Cells In Vitro, Jaclyn Iannucci, Abhik Sen, Paula Grammas

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Mutations to the cholesterol transport protein apolipoprotein E (ApoE) have been identified as a major risk factor for the development of sporadic or late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with the e4 allele representing an increased risk and the rare e2 allele having a reduced risk compared to the primary e3 form. The reasons behind the change in risk are not entirely understood, though ApoE4 has been connected to inflammation and toxicity in both the brain and the periphery. The goal of this study was to better understand how the ApoE isoforms (ApoE2/3/4) confer differential AD-related risk by assessing cell-specific ApoE-related neuroinflammatory …

Circadian Regulation Of Night Feeding And Daytime Detoxification In A Formidable Asian Pest Spodoptera Litura, Jiwei Zhang, Shenglong Li, Wanshun Li, Zhiwei Chen, Huizhen Guo, Jianqiu Liu, Yajing Xu, Yingdan Xiao, Liying Zhang, Kallare P. Arunkumar, Guy Smagghe, Qingyou Xia, Marian R. Goldsmith, Makio Takeda, Kazuei Mita

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Voracious feeding, trans-continental migration and insecticide resistance make Spodoptera litura among the most difficult Asian agricultural pests to control. Larvae exhibit strong circadian behavior, feeding actively at night and hiding in soil during daytime. The daily pattern of larval metabolism was reversed, with higher transcription levels of genes for digestion (amylase, protease, lipase) and detoxification (CYP450s, GSTs, COEs) in daytime than at night. To investigate the control of these processes, we annotated nine essential clock genes and analyzed their transcription patterns, followed by functional analysis of their coupling using siRNA knockdown of interlocked negative feedback system core and repressor genes …

A Multi-Objective Optimization Method For Hospital Admission Problem—A Case Study On Covid-19 Patients, Amr Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Louai Alarabi, Saleh Basalamah, Abdeltawab Hendawi

Computer Science and Statistics Faculty Publications

The wide spread of Covid-19 has led to infecting a huge number of patients, simultaneously. This resulted in a massive number of requests for medical care, at the same time. During the first wave of Covid-19, many people were not able to get admitted to appropriate hospitals because of the immense number of patients. Admitting patients to suitable hospitals can decrease the in-bed time of patients, which can lead to saving many lives. Also, optimizing the admission process can minimize the waiting time for medical care, which can save the lives of severe cases. The admission process needs to consider …

Global Dynamics Of Generalized Second-Order Beverton–Holt Equations Of Linear And Quadratic Type, E. Bertrand, Mustafa Kulenovic

Mathematics Faculty Publications

We investigate second-order generalized Beverton–Holt difference equations of the form

x_n+1 = af(x_n, x_n−1) / 1 + f(x_n, x_n−1) , n = 0, 1,…,

where f is a function nondecreasing in both arguments, the parameter a is a positive constant, and the initial conditions x₋₁ and x₀ are arbitrary nonnegative numbers in the domain of f. We will discuss several interesting examples of such equations and present some general theory. In particular, we will investigate the local and global dynamics in the event f is a certain type of …

How Well Can We Assess The Validity Of Non-Randomised Studies Of Medications? A Systematic Review Of Assessment Tools, Elvira D'Andrea, Vinals, Elisabetta Patorno, Jessica M. Franklin, Dimitri Bennett, Joan A. Largen, Daniela C. Moga, Hongbo Yuan, Xuerong Wen, Andrew R. Zullo, Thomas P. A. Debray, Grammati Sarri

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Objective To determine whether assessment tools for non-randomised studies (NRS) address critical elements that influence the validity of NRS findings for comparative safety and effectiveness of medications.

Design Systematic review and Delphi survey.

Data sources We searched PubMed, Embase, Google, bibliographies of reviews and websites of influential organisations from inception to November 2019. In parallel, we conducted a Delphi survey among the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology Comparative Effectiveness Research Special Interest Group to identify key methodological challenges for NRS of medications. We created a framework consisting of the reported methodological challenges to evaluate the selected NRS tools.

Study selection Checklists …

Association Of Gestational Opioid Exposure And Risk Of Major And Minor Congenital Malformations, Xuerong Wen, Nicholas Belviso, Emily Murray, Adam K. Lewkowitz, Kristina E. Ward, Kimford J. Meador

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Importance: The rapid increase of opioid-related overdoses and deaths has become a public health concern in the US. Use of prescription opioids in pregnant women has increased; results from teratogenicity studies remain controversial.

Objective: To evaluate the association between maternal prescription opioid use (excluding opioid use disorders) during pregnancy and the incidence of congenital malformations.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective population-based cohort study evaluated linked Rhode Island Medicaid claims and vital statistics data of live births from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2016. Data analysis was conducted from May 1, 2019, to May 31, 2020. …

Effectiveness Of Message-Framing To Improve Oral Health Behaviors And Dental Plaque Among Pregnant Women, Masoumeh Divdar, Marzieh Araban, Akbar Babaei Heyddarabadi, Bahman Cheraghian, L.A.R. Stein

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Oral health is considered a prominent factor that contributes to quality of life. Hormonal changes during pregnancy can influence oral health. Message framing can play an important role in oral health. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of message framing on oral health and dental plaque among pregnant women.

Methods: The study was conducted in 2017 on 108 pregnant women in Izeh county, Iran. Participants were randomly assigned to gain-framed, loss-framed, and control groups. The research instrument included a two part questionnaire containing demographic information and oral health knowledge, attitude, behavioral intention, self-efficacy, practice, …

Process Heat Cooling System, Lilly Saytes, James Quartararo, Alex Worrell, Patrick Bullen

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 4 was tasked by Stephan Toljan of Miniature Casting Corporation to create a closed loop water cooling system designed to cool down the machine temperatures by excluding their use of city water. Solving this problem began by touring the facility and inspecting the current cooling system. A preliminary patent search was conducted followed by a literature search to build a body of knowledge and understanding centered around this problem. Team 4 generated 120 original concepts as solution proposals. A Quality Function Deployment (QFD) comparison was performed and combined with sponsor feedback to develop preliminary designs. A final design was …

Advances In Lipid-Based Nanoparticles For Cancer Chemoimmunotherapy, Tianqi Wang, Yusuke Suite, Saradha Miriyala, Jordan Dean, Nikos Tapinos, Jie Shen

Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Nanomedicines have shown great potential in cancer therapy; in particular, the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy (namely chemoimmunotherapy) that is revolutionizing cancer treatment. Currently, most nanomedicines for chemoimmunotherapy are still in preclinical and clinical trials. Lipid-based nanoparticles, the most widely used nanomedicine platform in cancer therapy, is a promising delivery platform for chemoimmunotherapy. In this review, we introduce the commonly used immunotherapy agents and discuss the opportunities for chemoimmunotherapy mediated by lipid-based nanoparticles. We summarize the clinical trials involving lipid-based nanoparticles for chemoimmunotherapy. We also highlight different chemoimmunotherapy strategies based on lipid-based nanoparticles such as liposomes, nanodiscs, and lipid-based hybrid …

Emerging Investigator Series: Moving Beyond Resilience By Considering Antifragility In Potable Water Systems, Joseph E. Goodwill, Patrick Ray, Destenie Nock, Christopher M. Miller

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

It is inherently difficult to plan water systems for a future that is non-predictive. This paper introduces a novel perspective for the design and operation of potable water systems under increasing water quality volatility (e.g., a relatively rapid and unpredicted deviation from baseline water quality). Increased water quality volatility and deep uncertainty stress water systems, confound design decisions, and increase the risk of decreased water system performance. Recent emphasis on resilience in drinking water treatment has partly addressed this issue, but still establishes an adversarial relationship with change. An antifragile system benefits from volatile change. By incorporating antifragility, …

A New Paper-Based Microfluidic Device For Sensitive Detection Of Nitrate In Seawater, Amer Charbaji

Open Access Dissertations

Nitrate is a naturally occurring nutrient that is part of the nitrogen cycle. Monitoring of this nutrient in water bodies ensures its safety for consumption, guards against water nutrient pollution, and provides oceanographers and marine scientists with data to better understand nitrogen cycling and other phenomena of interest. Currently, there are several techniques available for nitrate detection. However, they either lack the required sensitivity for use in the field, or are costly, time consuming, and require special handling of the water sample as it gets sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Paper-based technologies possess several advantages that can facilitate sensitive …

Closing The Gap: Raising Medical Professionals' Transgender Awareness And Medical Proficiency Through Pharmacist-Led Education, Ardsley P. Congdon Iii, Tiene, Cristofer Price, Robert L. Dufresne

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Introduction: Patients who are transgender have unique population-specific needs and risk factors. Nationwide surveys of health profession school administrators indicate a gap in coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health content in their curricula. To address this gap, a pharmacist-developed transgender–health care focused seminar was presented to medical professionals, trainees, and students accompanied by a novel education assessment scale.

Methods: The seminar was presented by a psychiatric pharmacy resident to health care professionals and trainees in various settings. Subjects covered during the seminar included terminology, diagnostic criteria and prevalence of gender dysphoria, nonhormonal treatment, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and other …

Versatility, Cost Analysis, And Scale-Up In Fluoride And Arsenic Removal Using Metal-Organic Framework-Based Adsorbents, Linisha Biswal, Joseph E. Goodwill, Christoph Janiak, Somak Chatterjee

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Fluoride and arsenic are hazardous inorganic contaminants due to associated health risks and relatively higher levels of occurrence in groundwater. Metal-organic frameworks, (MOFs) with their high surface area, versatile building blocks and numerous active sites, are a novel approach to fluoride and arsenic uptake. This review presents the different types of MOFs for fluoride and arsenic removal along with a study of dynamic breakthrough times and cost analysis. MOF performances are based on a variety of synthesis methods, notable among which solvothermal one is more described. However, all research works concluded that MOFs have poor yield compared to conventional adsorbents. …

Principal Investigator Perspectives On The Effects Of Covid-19 On Their Nsf-Funded International Research Projects With Students In 2020, Brian S. Mitchell, Jessica Hoare

Journal of International Engineering Education

A web-based survey of 103 principal investigators (PIs) of NSF-funded international research training programs administered in late 2020 revealed that over 640 undergraduate and graduate student researchers were unable to participate in international research projects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020. Nevertheless, PIs did not generally suspend applications or seek re-budgeting of travel funds. Some research activities were able to continue without the international travel component such as data analysis, lab work, and publication preparation. Follow-up interviews with 12 PIs revealed that virtual activities such as webinars, workshops, and networking events were implemented as a substitute for …

Andrea Revised: Andrea Dworkin: The Feminist As Revolutionary By Martin Duberman, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Cryptic Metabolisms In Anoxic Subseafloor Sediment, Arkadiy I. Garber, Gustavo A. Ramírez, Sean M. Mcallister, William Orsi, Steven D'Hondt

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Microbial gene expression in anoxic subseafloor sediment was recently explored in the Baltic Sea and the Peru Margin. Our analysis of these data reveals diverse transcripts encoding proteins associated with neutralization of reactive oxygen species, including catalase, which may provide an in situ source of oxygen. We also detect transcripts associated with oxidation of iron and sulfur, and with reduction of arsenate, selenate and nitrate. Given limited input of electron acceptors from outside the system, these results suggest that the microbial communities use an unexpectedly diverse variety of electron acceptors. Products of water radiolysis and their interactions with sediment continuously …

Genome Evolution In Bacteria Isolated From Million-Year-Old Subseafloor Sediment, William D. Orsi, Tobias Magritsch, Sergio Vargas, Ömer K. Coskun, Aurele Vuillemin, Sebastian Höhna, Gert Wörheide, Steven D'Hondt, B. Jesse Shapiro, Paul Carini

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Beneath the seafloor, microbial life subsists in isolation from the surface world under persistent energy limitation. The nature and extent of genomic evolution in subseafloor microbes have been unknown. Here, we show that the genomes of Thalassospira bacterial populations cultured from million-year-old subseafloor sediments evolve in clonal populations by point mutation, with a relatively low rate of homologous recombination and elevated numbers of pseudogenes. Ratios of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions correlate with the accumulation of pseudogenes, consistent with a role for genetic drift in the subseafloor strains but not in type strains of Thalassospira isolated from the surface world. Consistent …

Workshop Report: Exploring Deep Oceanic Crust Off Hawai`I, Susumu Uminio, Gregory F. Moore, Brian Boston, Rosalind Coggon, Laura Crispini, Steven D'Hondt, Michael O. Garcia, Takeshi Hanyu, Frieder Klein, Nobukazu Seama, Damon A.H. Teagle, Masako Tominaga, Mikiya Yamashita, Michelle Harris, Benoit Ildefonse, Ikuo Katayama, Yuki Kusano, Yohey Suzuki, Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, Yasuhiro Yamada, Natsue Abe, Nan Xiao, Fumio Inagaki

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

For more than half a century, exploring a complete sequence of the oceanic crust from the seafloor through the Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) and into the uppermost mantle has been one of the most challenging missions of scientific ocean drilling. Such a scientific and technological achievement would provide humankind with profound insights into the largest realm of our planet and expand our fundamental understanding of Earth's deep interior and its geodynamic behavior. The formation of new oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges and its subsequent aging over millions of years, leading to subduction, arc volcanism, and recycling of some components into the …

Urban Proximity While Breeding Is Not A Predictor Of Perfluoroalkyl Substance Contamination In The Eggs Of Brown Pelicans, Bradley P. Wilkinson, Anna R. Robuck, Rainer Lohmann, Heidi M. Pickard, Patrick G.R. Jodice

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Identifying sources of exposure to chemical stressors is difficult when both target organisms and stressors are highly mobile. While previous studies have demonstrated that populations of some organisms proximal to urban centers may display increased burdens of human-created chemicals compared to more distal populations, this relationship may not be universal when applied to organisms and stressors capable of transboundary movements. We examined eggs of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), a nearshore seabird with daily movements ranging from local to 50 km and annual migrations ranging from year-round residency to 1500 km. Thirty-six eggs from three breeding colonies located at …

Poly- And Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances In Air And Water From Dhaka, Bangladesh, Maya E. Morales-Mcdevitt, Matthew Dunn, Ahsan Habib, Simon Vojta, Jitka Becanova, Rainer Lohmann

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Bangladesh hosts extensive textile manufacturing, for some of which per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) have been used to impart water and dirt repellency, among other things. Textile waste emissions to the atmosphere and discharge into rivers and other bodies of water could present a significant concern for human and ecosystem health, but there is little information on PFAS in Bangladesh. To assess the presence of ionic PFAS and their precursors in air and water from Dhaka, Bangladesh, polyethylene sheets were deployed for 28 days as passive samplers for neutral PFAS in outdoor air and water, while ionic PFAS were …

The Validation Of A Portable Functional Nirs System For Assessing Mental Workload, Manob Jyoti Saikia, Walter Besio, Kunal Mankodiya

Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems have the potential to image the brain in naturalistic settings. Experimental studies are essential to validate such fNIRS systems. Working memory (WM) is a short-term active memory that is associated with the temporary storage and manipulation of information. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) brain area is involved in the processing of WM. We assessed the PFC brain during n-back WM tasks in a group of 25 college students using our laboratory-developed portable fNIRS system, WearLight. We designed an experimental protocol with 32 n-back WM task blocks with four different pseudo-randomized task difficulty levels. The hemodynamic …

Vibrio Coralliilyticus Re22 Type Vi Secretion Systems Contribute To Temperate Coral Lysis And Endosymbiont Death, Nathaniel Awkerman

Open Access Master's Theses

Astrangia poculata is a facultatively symbiotic temperate coral that is being explored as a model system for studying the physiology and ecology of cnidarian-microbe symbiosis. Vibrio coralliilyticus is a known causative agent of a class of coral diseases called “white syndromes” that result in bleaching in tropical coral species. It is an effective pathogen due to a wide array of virulence factors including two Type 6 Secretion Systems (T6SS1 and T6SS2). In this study, we investigated the pathogenic potential of V. coralliilyticus RE22Sm in A. poculata and in cultures of its endosymbiont, Breviolum psygmophilum. To independently gauge the antagonistic …

Turning Points: A Case Study Of Motivation In Foreign Language, Shawna C. Iula

Open Access Dissertations

Enrollment in foreign language courses has been declining. Fewer students are studying foreign languages and those that do often discontinue after the introductory levels. This single-embedded case study looks into why students who initially wanted to continue on to more intermediate levels did not, and also why students who initially only wanted to complete introductory levels changed their plans and continued on to more intermediate levels. Participants included two groups with nine participants total. The first group consists of five students who initially planned on discontinuing after introductory levels and changed their minds and decided to continue. The second group …

Stress Conditioning To Hypercapnic Seawater In The Pacific Geoduck Panopea Generosa, Samuel J. Gurr

Open Access Dissertations

Expansion and enhancement of sustainable shellfish production is necessary to prevent overexploitation of wild stock and satisfy international trade, but hatchery rearing poses a critical production bottleneck due partially to environmental stressors such as ocean acidification. Given that stress conditions exacerbated by anthropogenic activity are projected to intensify in the near-future, long-lived molluscs, such as Pacific geoduck Panopea generosa (known lifespan up to 168 years), may rely on intragenerational acclimation to buffer against rapid environmental change. While acute stressors can be detrimental, environmental stress conditioning can improve performance. For example, moderate oxidative stress (i.e. temperature, irradiance, and dietary restriction) shows …

Effectiveness Of Roadside Best Management Practices (Bmps) On Maintaining Stormwater Quality Through Monitoring And Modeling, Khurshid Jahan

Open Access Dissertations

A comprehensive assessment of the stormwater BMPs’ in terms of flow volume reduction, peak flow attenuation and runoff pollutant concentration reduction was made to evaluate the effectiveness of existing stormwater best management practices (BMPs) on the campus of the University of Rhode Island, RI, USA.

Urban stormwater runoff became a pressing issue in the later part of the 1980s with the recognition that point source controls were not sufficient to protect and restore water quality. In the last 15 years, the observed annual total rainfall in the study area was usually greater than long-term average yearly rainfall, suggesting the climate …