Digital Commons Network^™

Passive Acoustics As A Sentinel Indicator Of Environmental Conditions At A Cold-Water Coral Reef, Alexandria C. Rhoads

Open Access Master's Theses

Sentinel indicators are quantifiable variables that are sensitive to environmental changes and represent a key component or process of the ecosystem being monitored. In this study, we explored whether a sentinel monitoring approach, based on passive acoustic recordings, could shed light on specific environmental and oceanographic conditions within deep-sea habitats. Passive acoustics can capture rich multidimensional information about ecosystems, including local and distant events and natural or anthropogenic activities, using a single instrument. A benthic lander collected data for three months from April 2019 at a cold-water coral reef known as the Richardson Reef Complex (Southeast USA). In addition to …

Development Of A Road Mortality Hotspot Model For Amphibians And Reptiles In Rhode Island, Noah Hallisey

Open Access Master's Theses

Road mortality poses a serious threat to amphibians and reptiles and can lead to population declines and localized extirpation. Given road mortality tends to aggregate spatially at locations commonly referred to as road mortality hotspots, identifying the most appropriate locations for mitigation measures, such as road tunnels and culverts, is an important first step in reducing road mortality. However, the influence of imperfect detection (e.g., false absences) during road mortality surveys can lead to poor spatial patterns of road mortality hotspots and suboptimal implementation of mitigation measures intended to reduce road mortality. In this study, occupancy modeling was used to …

Post-Emergence Movements And Habitat Use By Hatchling Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys Terrapin), Carolyn Decker

Open Access Master's Theses

Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) require estuarine habitats for most aspects of their life cycles. However, adult female terrapins nest in coastal uplands, and hatchling terrapins use upland habitats following nest emergence. In these upland areas, hatchlings are particularly vulnerable to mortality risks from coastal land management activities such as mowing and tilling. From 2019 to 2021, we used small tracking devices to monitor hatchling movements and habitat use at a wildlife refuge in Rhode Island. When hatchlings emerged from nests in late summer and early fall, we attached a radio transmitter and passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag (n=46) or only …

Phenotypic Plasticity In Acropora Pulchra Under Varied Environmental Conditions, Dennis A. Conetta

Open Access Master's Theses

The extent to which coral reefs have declined globally has triggered major scientific investment in coral restoration research. However, much of the predictions for reef futures do not include the capacity for coral acclimatization, or phenotypic plasticity, and how this plasticity varies across seasons. In light of this, we outlplanted clonal replicates of distinct genotypes of the reef building coral Acropora pulchra from an existing coral nursery common garden site to three sites on the North Shore of Mo’orea, French Polynesia. After transplantation (October 2019), the outplanted colonies were sampled at all three sites in January and November of 2020, …

Rethinking Habitat And How We Study Human-Wildlife Relationships, Kimberly Rivera

Open Access Master's Theses

Current methods to model species habitat use through space and diel time are limited. Development of such models is critical when considering rapidly changing habitats where species are forced to adapt to anthropogenic change, often by shifting their diel activity across space. The first chapter of this manuscript focuses on redeveloping occupancy models to incorporate hypotheses on species diel habitat use. This alternative occupancy framework, called the multi-state diel occupancy model (MSDOM), can evaluate species diel activity against continuous response variables which may impact diel activity within and across seasons or years. We used two case studies on fosa, a …

The Effect Of Morphology, Substrate And Wind On The Clinging Ability Of Anolis Lizards During Hurricane-Force Winds, Emma Dipaolo

Open Access Master's Theses

Extreme weather events have been identified as drivers of natural selection and evolutionary change across populations and species. A recent study showed that the high wind speeds generated by hurricanes caused selection favoring particular phenotypes for island lizards. Anolis lizards (or anoles) commonly live on islands and in coastal areas frequently disturbed by hurricanes. A hallmark of the Anolis radiation is the evolution of morphological variation among species as illustrated by the evolution of different ecomorphs, which have evolved varying limb and toe morphologies to occupy different parts of arboreal habitats. Differences in limb length and toepad size lead to …

Contribution Of Maternal Mrna Provisioning To Embryonic Stress Response In A Reef-Building Coral, Erin Elizabeth Chille

Open Access Master's Theses

Prior to fertilization, mothers provision their oocytes with mRNA that regulates the early stages of development and may additionally include transcripts for proteins that support embryonic stress response early on. At some point during embryogenesis, however, these maternal transcripts are degraded as zygotic transcription activates and intensifies during a phenomenon known as the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT). Some evidence suggests that as the MZT progresses, and the effects of maternal transcripts are waning while the zygotic expression is being established, offspring of marine broadcast spawners become more vulnerable to environmental perturbations. In light of escalating threats to marine broadcast spawners, it …

Transcriptional Regulation Of Sox5 And Wwox By Fancd2, Kathryn Henrikson

Open Access Master's Theses

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare genetic disease characterized by an increased risk for bone marrow failure, leukemia, and premature cancers (Alter et al., 2018). The FA pathway is involved in the repair of DNA damage such as stalled replication forks and DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICL) (Feng et al., 2019; Schlacher et al., 2012). It has been previously seen that under conditions of replication stress, FANCD2, a key protein in the FA pathway, binds to and traverses large actively transcribed genes (Okamoto et al., 2018). Using U2OS 3xFLAG cells we seek to answer the question of why FANCD2 is binding …

Forest Structure Shapes Tropical Terrestrial And Arboreal Mesomammal Communities Under Moderate Disturbance, Juliana Masseloux

Open Access Master's Theses

Tropical biodiversity is threatened globally by anthropogenic disturbances, particularly forest degradation and overhunting. Where large mammals have been extirpated, smaller-bodied “mesomammals” may play an important ecological role (e.g., as seed-dispersers). However, mesomammals are routinely understudied as they tend to be rare, cryptic, and nocturnal. Tropical tree-dwelling (arboreal and semi-arboreal) mesomammals are especially vulnerable to forest conversions, particularly when reliant on old growth forest structures. Understanding species- and community-level responses of terrestrial and arboreal mesomammals to changes in forest structure and human activity is crucial for informing management decisions in protected areas where resources are limited. We deployed 20 arboreal and …

From Catch To Consumption: Food Security Dynamics In An Indonesian Fishing Community, Nicole Roberts

Open Access Master's Theses

Food and livelihood security are key concerns for coastal communities in Indonesia as local and global drivers threaten fisheries across the archipelago. However, the focus of fisheries management and conservation on fish production excludes important aspects of the fish food system such as local economies, relationships, and cultures. For management and conservation policy to address food insecurity and marine resource declines, there is a need to understand local trade and consumption. In this study, we use value chain analysis and a “fish as food” framework to investigate the links between fish production, distribution, and consumption in an Indonesian fishing community …

A Phylogenomic Approach To Explore Photosynthethic Stramenopile Evolution, Kristina Xenia Terpis

Open Access Master's Theses

Stramenopiles, Alveolates, and Rhizaria (SAR) are environmentally ubiquitous and form one of the most genetically diverse groups of eukaryotes on earth. Combined, these phyla encompass nearly half of all known eukaryotic genomic diversity. Stramenopiles comprise both non-photosynthetic taxa including important pathogens of animals and plants such as the gastric parasite Blastocystis and oomycetes like Phytophthora, the causative agent of the Irish Potato Famine. Additionally, photosynthetic members from the Phylum Ochrophyta, like the charismatic seaweeds such as giant kelp, create important ecosystems while diverse microbial phytoplankton including diatoms are fundamental to biogeochemical cycles and form the base of the food …

Influence Of Sex On Lower Limb Skeletal Muscle Oxidative Capacity And Muscle Diffusion In Endurance Trained Individuals, Lotte Black

Open Access Master's Theses

Near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) is a noninvasive methodology that allows in vivo measurement of the skeletal muscle tissue metabolism. Recently, a novel, of short duration, NIRS-based approach, based on a brief set of muscle contractions followed by a series of repeated intermittent arterial occlusions, has been validated to determine the skeletal muscle oxygen consumption (mV̇ O₂) recovery rate constant (k, min^-1), which is proportional to the muscle oxidative capacity. However, since its relatively recent introduction, the validity of this approach in investigating the difference in lower limb muscle oxidative capacity between female and male …

Investigating The Role Of Ribosomal Protein Us17 In 30s Ribosomal Subunit Assembly, Kelly Mcmanus

Open Access Master's Theses

Ribosomes are macromolecular machines that are responsible for protein synthesis and are a central component of gene expression. They are made up of ribosomal RNA and ribosomal proteins organized into two subunits; the 50S subunit, containing 23S and 5S rRNA and around 33 ribosomal proteins, and the 30S subunit, containing of 16S rRNA and around 21 ribosomal proteins. All of these components are created in stochiometric amounts and combine to assemble into the structure of the ribosome. Ribosome assembly is a large investment of energy by the cell, which has to create tens of thousands of ribosomes accurately and efficiently. …

Mechanisms Of Interaction Between Haemophilus Parainfluenzae And Streptococcus Mitis, Dasith Perera

Open Access Dissertations

The human oral cavity is a complex polymicrobial environment, home to an array of microbes that play roles in health and disease. Oral bacteria have been shown to cause an array of systemic diseases and are particularly concerning to type II diabetics (T2D) with numerous predispositions that exacerbate bacterial infection. In this dissertation, we investigated the serum of healthy subjects and T2D subjects to determine whether we see greater translocation of oral bacteria into the bloodstream of T2D individuals. We didn’t observe any significant enrichment of oral taxa, however we detected the presence of an emerging pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii that …

Biodiversity And Biogeography Of Protist Communities In Coastal Marine Ecosystems Across Indonesia, Erin Borbee

Open Access Dissertations

Despite a long history of biodiversity and biogeography research in Indonesia we know very little about protist communities across this region. What we do know about protist communities across Indonesia is largely based on visual surveys, which have been proven to vastly underestimate protist diversity. The combination of immense biodiversity, oceanographic significance, and human activity across this region make it an interesting setting for understanding the relative effects of abiotic and biotic drivers of protist community structure. The work presented in this dissertation uses metabarcoding to characterize protist community composition and underwater visual census (UVC) data to characterize fish and …

Molecular Ecology Of Marine Diatoms, Bacteria, And Their Biologically-Active Compounds, Alexa R. Sterling

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the molecular ecology of diatoms in the marine environment as it relates to co-occurring associated bacteria, spatial and temporal gradients of physical and chemical oceanographic parameters, and even biotoxin production. The study sites range from the polar habitat of the Southern Ocean (SO) surrounding the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) to the productive estuary Narragansett Bay (NBay) in Rhode Island, USA. The WAP exhibits a naturally occurring gradient of a dissolved iron (Fe), which is an essential micronutrient that diatoms need for growth. Dissolved Fe is growth-limiting in the offshore area and replete in the nearshore areas. …

Hepatoprotective Effects Of Treprostinil During Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury, Joyce Hou

Open Access Master's Theses

Background: Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) occurs during kidney transplantation and causes acute kidney injury as well as liver injury. Renal IRI depletes hepatic antioxidants and leads to hepatic inflammation, tissue damage and hepatic dysfunction through Tlr9 upregulation. There is no treatment available for liver injury during renal IRI. This study examines the hepatoprotective role of treprostinil, a prostacyclin analog, during renal IRI.

Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: control, sham, IRI-placebo, or IRI-treprostinil and subjected to bilateral ischemia (45 minutes) followed by 1-72 hours of reperfusion. Placebo or treprostinil (100 ng/kg/min) was administered subcutaneously via an …

An In Vitro Investigation Of The Stability And Permeability Of Phytocannabinoids For Skincare Formulations, Toyosi Akanji

Open Access Master's Theses

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is comprised of ligands, enzymes, and receptors, which are involved in the regulation of various biological functions including cell growth, sensory phenomena, and immune and inflammatory responses. Recent studies have shown that human skin cells contain components of the ECS including cannabinoid receptor 1 and 2 (CB1, CB2) and transient receptor potential channel subfamily V (TRPV1) receptors. The ECS is critical for in maintaining homeostatic conditions and overall skin health, and disruption of ECS may cause pathological disorders including allergic dermatitis, cutaneous itch and pain, and neoplastic cell growth. Published studies also support that cannabinoids from …

Transforming Campus Food Systems Through Agroecology: Pathways To Sustainability And Resilience, Ryleigh Mullens

Open Access Master's Theses

Conventional production practices undermine the social, environmental, and economic longevity and sustainability of the U.S. food system. Some postsecondary education institutions (PSEs) have sought to develop alternative, hyper-local food systems through the integration of campus farms into institutional supply chains. These institutions could serve as models for food systems at large; no research has been published on the dynamics and impacts of their efforts at self-provisioning on food system sustainability, resilience, and equity. This research modified existing agroecological resilience frameworks, expanding resilience indicators to include metrics of equity, an often overlooked component of resilience in social-ecological models. The modified framework …

Reliability And Physiological Validity: Bayesian Principal Components Analysis And Group Comparison, Joshua Ray Tanzer

Open Access Master's Theses

Statement of the problem: Recent years have demonstrated an increasing study of subjective happiness, often assessed by self-reported questionnaires (Gable & Haidt, 2005). The underlying physiological mechanisms of happiness are less well understood. This analysis examines scale reliability and validity in relation to biomarkers of stress responsiveness for scales of self-reported subjective well-being, to identify items that relate to an underlying physiology of happiness.

Methods: A principal components model is employed. Bayesian model estimation is used to address small sample size (N = 20). Additionally, sampling was clustered, including a subset of undergraduate students (n = 10) and a subset …

Incorporating Temperature-Dependent Fish Bioenergetics Into A Narragansett Bay Food Web Model, Margaret A. Heinichen

Open Access Master's Theses

Food web models capture shifting species interactions, making them useful tools for exploring community responses to perturbations. The inclusion of environmental drivers, such as temperature, can improve model predictions as energy demands of an organism can be temperature-specific. While Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) and the recent R implementation of this software, Rpath, have included some thermal responses in past work, models have yet to include temperature-dependent energetic demands and metabolic costs. Our work demonstrates the inclusion of temperature-dependent bioenergetics into an Rpath food web model using the case study of a warming estuary: Narragansett Bay (RI, U.S.). Thermal response parameters …

Self-Regulated Learning In First-Year Students In An Introductory Biology Course And The Student Experiences And Academic Impacts Of A Campus-Wide Metacognitive Intervention, Holly Joan Swanson

Open Access Dissertations

Post-secondary students often have difficulty with self-regulated learning, particularly in terms of monitoring and accurately assessing their level of understanding and how that is translated into appropriate preparation for their rigorous college/university coursework. With the persistence of academic outcome gaps between marginalized and non-marginalized students in gateway STEM courses and concomitant differences in retention and graduation rates, it is important to understand how self-regulation of learning is developed in students in general, and among different student identities. Interventions and teaching practices need to be cognizant of the unique academic experience of students from different identities if they are to narrow …

“Child Witches”: Sexual Exploitation And Abuse Of Homeless Girls In South-Southern Nigeria, Chima Agazue

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Sexual exploitation and abuse of girls is one of the endemic social problems in Nigeria. Although this problem has attracted much research attention in recent times, some newly emerged factors contributing to the problem have been mostly ignored. This study explored how the abandonment of children following their stigmatization as witches contributes to sexual exploitation and abuse of the girls in the Akwa Ibom and Cross River states of Nigeria. The study was based on the qualitative research paradigm. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews of three senior staff members of the Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN)—a children’s charity …

Investigating Tolfenamic Acid And Its Analogs As Potential Alzheimer’S Disease Therapeutics, Jaunetta Hill

Open Access Dissertations

Dementia is an umbrella term describing several diseases which cause cognitive impairment, confusion, difficulty completing tasks and social withdrawal. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, and the incidence is rapidly increasing as the ‘baby boomers’ age. Currently, there is one disease-modifying treatment approved for AD patients, however, its ability to decrease or reverse cognitive decline has yet to be confirmed.

The etiology of AD is unknown, however, there are two forms of AD associated with onset age. Early-onset AD (EOAD) is considered genetic and accounts for less than 5% of AD cases worldwide. Typically, EOAD is …

Feeling Good: Happiness And Health In Dutch Older Adults, Joshua Ray Tanzer

Open Access Dissertations

Statement of the problem: Positive psychology research has sought to identify cost efficient and intuitive ways to increase subjective happiness, with broad implications to personal health and overall quality of life (Lee Duckworth, Steen, & Seligman, 2005; Rashid, 2009; Seligman, 2008; Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009; Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006). A complication in this research has been conflicting findings in the longitudinal stability of happiness (Easterlin, 2006). This analysis examines age related changes in happiness and physiological immune responsiveness to clarify the implications of positive health interventions.

Methods: Pretest-posttest structural equation modeling is employed to examine longitudinal …

Nurse Practitioners’ Experiences Working With Patients Living With Morbid Obesity, Sharon A. Mclimans

Open Access Dissertations

Morbid obesity is recognized as a complex chronic medical disease which has been increasing at an alarming rate in the U.S. The etiologies of this disease involve a complex interplay of genetics, physiological, psychological, behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. Serious medical consequences are associated with morbid obesity including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and increasing the risk of certain cancers. Research has shown individuals with morbid obesity have higher incidence of depression and are subjected to stigmatizing and biases across society including health care professionals. The monumental cost of health care associated with morbid obesity places enormous burden on our …

Quantifying And Compensating For P300 Variations In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alyssa Hillary Zisk

Open Access Dissertations

P300-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems enable people with neuromuscular disabilities, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to communicate and to control their environments using brain activity. However, BCI systems have not yet fulfilled their promise as reliable communication systems for all who need them. Despite continued work on improving BCIs for end users, people with ALS can experience both reduced performance overall compared to neurotypical users and significant day to day variations in BCI performance and event-related potential (ERP) characteristics.

The P300 response, which the P300 speller is based on, is also known to exhibit trial-to-trial latency variability. The importance of …

True Crime, Women, And Sensationalized Representations In The Italian American Imaginary, Francesca Borrione

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores American true crime literary and visual narratives and focuses on historical cases involving Italian American women and the cross-cultural relations between Italy and the United States from the late-nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. I investigate the influence of true crime narratives on the popular imagination, with attention to the construction of ethnicity, class, and gender. The focus on Italian American women functions as a case study to discuss the impact and persistence of racialized assumptions and cultural stereotypes in American literature and cinema and explores the resistance of women to the dominant narrative. …

Fantasizing Reproduction: The Biologization Of The Desire For Progress In Victorian Literature, Xinqiang Chang

Open Access Dissertations

The preoccupation with reproduction in Victorian literature has, by and large, received little critical attention. This dissertation seeks to contribute to Victorian scholarship and examines the representations of reproduction in Victorian literature in relation to the contemporaneous desire for progress. Adopting a historiographical approach, this dissertation analyzes five Victorian novels: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, George Eliot’s Middlemarch, George Du Maurier’s Trilby, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, and Sarah Grand’s The Heavenly Twins. In this dissertation, I demonstrate the different ways in which these Victorian novelists explored, accommodated, and concretized the Victorian desire for and pursuit …

Social Justice And Evolutionary Biology: A Natural Fit, David I. Upegui

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is an extended prescription for the inclusion of social justice in high school biology (HSB) curricula. Chapter 1 is context: a review of social injustice (mainly racism) in the US, and the specious scientific justifications for it. Chapter 2 explores how three veteran teachers introduce social justice in HSB classes. A case-study, semi-constructed interview-based approach is used. Chapter 3, the culmination of these ideas, adduces a practical curriculum module that provides the theory, lessons and activities for HSB student exploration the inferior science used to sustain racial inequities. The dissertation thus reviews the moral imperatives for introducing social …