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Temporal Trends And Spatial Variabilities Of Pcb Concentrations In Lake Trout From Lake Superior From 1995 To 2013, Hongyi Lin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

It has been frequently reported that concentrations of PCBs in the Great Lakes fish have declined dramatically since their ban on production and use in 1979 in the United States, although some studies suggested that recent rates of decline are leveling off. In order to examine the temporal trends and spatial variabilities of PCB concentrations in lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) from Lake Superior during the past two decades, statistical analyses were performed on fish sample data collected by two national agencies (U.S. EPA, Environment and Climate Change Canada) and three state agencies (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Minnesota …

Experimental Investigation Of Fast Pyrolysis Of Arundo Donax In A Novel Paddle Reactor, Chintan Desai

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The main objective of this research was to show the effectiveness of a novel paddle reactor for fast pyrolysis and study the effect of biomass particle size and reaction temperature of Arundo Donax a type of energy crop on the bio-oil yields. The novel paddle reactor showed effective mixing and heat transfer which were proved with the help of studying the residence time and the heating characteristics of the system respectively. The effect of different biomass particle sizes on the bio-oil yield was not significant, the bio-oil yield was approximately 50% for all the sizes. For Arundo Donax particle sizes …

The Fifth Leaf And Spike Organs Of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Display Different Physiological And Metabolic Responses To Drought Stress, Jordan A. Hein, Mark E. Sherrard, Kirk P. Manfredi, Tilahun Abebe

Faculty Work

Background: Photosynthetic organs of the cereal spike (ear) provide assimilate for grain filling, but their response to drought is poorly understood. In this study, we characterized the drought response of individual organs of the barley spike (awn, lemma, and palea) and compared them with a vegetative organ (fifth leaf). Understanding differences in physiological and metabolic responses between the leaf and spike organs during drought can help us develop high yielding cultivars for environments where terminal drought is prevalent.

Results: We exposed barley plants to drought by withholding water for 4 days at the grain filling stage and compared …

Evolution Of The Mysrs Element In The Genome Of Rodent Species, Megan M. Scott

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Retrotransposons are a type of transposable element in which DNA copies are produced via an RNA intermediate and integrate into new chromosomal sites continually contributing to the dynamics of genomes. While sequencing the mys element among the Cricetidae family of rodents, we identified a previously uncharacterized element in the genome of the Mexican volcano mouse that we refer to as mys-related sequence (mysRS). This investigation provides a unique opportunity to contrast the evolution of the two retrotransposon families apparently restricted to a specific taxonomic group of rodents. By analyzing the genomes of various cricetid rodents, our results provide evidence that …

The Impact Of Urban Centers On American Goldfinches (Spinus Tristis) Overwintering At High Latitudes, Corrie Jean Navis

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) are partial migrants that overwinter in northern regions where winters can be extreme. To understand the role of urban development in facilitating use of a harsh climate, I conducted winter point count surveys (n = 297) at urban and rural sites across latitudes in Michigan. The following winter I trapped individuals in urban and rural settings to sample baseline and stress-induced plasma corticosterone (CORT) levels. Analyses revealed no interaction of latitude and urbanization in the winter distribution of American Goldfinches. Similarly, CORT concentrations did not differ between individuals trapped in urban and rural settings. …

Spring/Summer 2016

University of Richmond Magazine

No abstract provided.

Extra! Extra! New Housing Developments Lead Coyotes To Homelessness And Violence With Humans, Joseph Simpson

Animal Law Review

As city sprawl spreads into less-developed rural regions, these new residents enjoy living close to nature but also put their pets and children at risk of encountering dangerous wildlife, such as coyotes. Cities have a variety of options, legal and otherwise, to regulate human and coyote behavior in order to reduce conflict. This Article analyzes the situation in the cities of Chino Hills and Yorba Linda, two southern California communities on the edge of Chino Hills State Park that have received local media attention for human–coyote interactions. Growing cities can use zoning to separate coyotes from humans and avoid drawing …

Legal Protection Of Animal Dignity In Switzerland: Status Quo And Future Perspectives, Gieri Bolliger

Animal Law Review

Swiss law protects not only the well-being but also the dignity of animals. Since 1992, animal dignity protection has been a constitutional principle in Switzerland, and a main purpose of the national Animal Welfare Act since 2008. The animal dignity concept is still unique in the world and represents a biocentric expansion of Swiss law granting animals a moral value, irrespective of their sentience. This signifies protection for an animal’s inherent worth, including ethical aspects that are not necessarily associated with any physical and physiological injury, such as protection from humiliation, excessive instrumentalization, and substantial interference with an animal’s appearance …

2015 Federal Legislative Review, Alescia Dichmann

Animal Law Review

The American political newspaper, The Hill, named the 114th Congress as “the most diverse Congress ever set to take power.” This Congress has 108 female lawmakers, more than ever before, alongside 430 men as well as 46 African American and 33 Hispanic lawmakers. While this Congress has made strides in the diversity of its members, we have yet to see whether this Congress’s legislative activity will benefit animals. The fate of the proposed animal legislation discussed in this Review will ultimately be decided by the time this 114th Congress concludes in 2017.

Animal Dignity, Reed Elizabeth Loder

Animal Law Review

The aim of this Article is to find a broader theoretical basis for animal protection than the current ideas of personhood and capabilities provide. Human dignity is variously defined but pervasive in grounding human rights and should have a counterpart for animal protection beyond minimum welfare that can improve the quality of animal lives overall. Dignity has an inward dimension based on the value of an individual that should not be violated and an outward aspect in the individual’s bearing to the world, both of which apply to animals. In content, human individuals have dignity in autonomously directing their lives, …

A Novel Approach To Investigating Basketball Expert's Perceptions Of The Hot Hand, John Spencer Ingels, Sean Joseph Fitzpatrick, Alison Rhodius

Applied Sport & Performance Psychology | Faculty Scholarship

The hot hand and psychological momentum (PM) are two closely related concepts that propose that previous success increases the chances of future success (Jackson & Mosurski, 1997). Statistical evidence for the existence of the hot hand or PM is mixed (Bar-Eli, Avugos, & Raab, 2006; Bocskocsky, Ezekowitz, & Stein, 2014; Sun, 2004). However players’, coaches ’, and fans ’perspectives show that PM or the hot hand is believed to be an extremely important aspect within sport (Gilovich, Tversky, & Vallone, 1985; Jones & Harwood, 2008). A key component of this phenomenon is the ability to predict future performance based on …

Beyond Eureka: What Creators Want (Freedom, Credit, And Audiences) And How Intellectual Property Can Better Give It To Them (By Supporting Sharing, Licensing, And Attribution), Colleen Chien

Faculty Publications

What do creators want? Jessica Silbey’s book, the Eureka Myth, distills the answers she received to this question over the course of interviews with more than fifty filmmakers, photographers, hardware and software engineers, business executives working with pharmaceutical, medical device, and telecommunications companies, and others. While many purport to speak for creators, Silbey’s subjects speak for themselves, through long excerpts that appear throughout the book. In this book review, I combine their insights with other historical and modern empirical accounts to carry out the thought experiment of what an intellectual property system keenly attuned to the needs of creators – …

Effects Of Mountaintop Removal Mining On Population Dynamics Of Stream Salamanders, Sara B. Freytag

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a notorious stressor of stream ecosystems in the Central Appalachians. Valley fills (VF) lead to reduced occupancy, abundance, and species richness of stream salamanders. Multiple factors may be responsible for these reductions, but specifically habitat fragmentation and degradation may reduce colonization rates and increase local extinction rates. From 2013-2015, repeated counts of salamanders were conducted in stream reaches impacted by MTR/VF and compared to counts in reference reaches to answer the question: do stream salamander population dynamics differ between stream reaches impacted by MTR/VF and reference stream reaches? I also investigated dynamics of stream habitat …

Automated Solid-Substrate Cultivation Of The Anaerobic Bacterium Clostridium Thermocellum, Mathew J. Ruwaya

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The organism Clostridium thermocellum grows on cellulosic substrates and produces ethanol, acetate, lactate, formic acid, and CO₂. The organic acids produced alter the growth environment in which the bacteria grows and ultimately inhibit bacterial growth. One method which has been used successfully to maintain the system at acceptable growth conditions is to intermittently flush out the spent media and metabolic products and replace with new fermentation media. Our goal was to design and build an automated system that will automatically flush the spent media from the growing culture and resupply new media without manual intervention. An automated control …

In Vitro Inflammatory Effects Of Hard Metal (Wc-Co) Nanoparticle Exposure, Andrea L. Armstead, Bingyun Li

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Identifying the toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs) is an important area of research as the number of nanomaterial-based consumer and industrial products continually rises. In addition, the potential inflammatory effects resulting from pulmonary NP exposure are emerging as an important aspect of nanotoxicity. In this study, the toxicity and inflammatory state resulting from tungsten carbide–cobalt (WC–Co) NP exposure in macrophages and a coculture (CC) of lung epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) and macrophages (THP-1) at a 3:1 ratio were examined. It was found that the toxicity of nano-WC–Co was cell dependent; significantly less toxicity was observed in THP-1 cells compared to BEAS-2B cells. …

Hawks And Owls, Brian E. Washburn

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

Human-Wildlife Conflicts: Hawks and owls can negatively impact a variety of human interests, including important natural resources, livestock and game bird production, human health and safety, and companion animals. Conflicts between raptors and people generally are localized and often site-specific. However, the economic and social impacts to the individuals involved can be severe. Despite the problems they may cause, hawks and owls provide important benefits and environmental services. Raptors are popular with birdwatchers and much of the general public. They also hunt and kill large numbers of rodents, reducing crop damage and other problems.

Damage Identification

Management Methods

Economics

Species …

Physical Activity And Cardiometabolic Risk Factors Among African American Women Residing In The Southeastern United States, Felicia Jenkins

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Cardiometabolic risk (CMR) refers to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) or diabetes, two of the leading causes of death in the United States. CMR factors include elevated glucose, blood pressure, and lipids. Lifestyle factors including physical inactivity, smoking, and poor dietary habits such as low fruit/vegetable consumption also contribute to CMR. Notably, African American women (AAW) have a high rate for several CMR factors including obesity, physical inactivity, and hypertension. Furthermore, AAW are an understudied population in research focusing on PA health promotion and studies examining PA associations with CMR. The aims of this dissertation study were …

Psy.S. In School Psychology 2016, Nova Southeastern University

College of Psychological Services / College of Psychology Postgraduate Student and Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Species Distribution Modeling Of North American Odonates, Rebecca Beilinson

Library Map Prize

Species distribution modeling, which uses species-environment relationships to predict species’ geographic ranges, is a powerful technique for biogeographical and ecological analysis as well as for conservation planning. However, it has typically been underutilized for invertebrates and for freshwater species, as modeling these groups can pose unique challenges. Here I present methods for modeling odonate distributions and demonstrate these methods for four North American species. I show that incorporating expert-derived range maps as spatial priors can significantly improve model performance as compared to MaxEnt models. I also introduce a new distance to freshwater layer as an environmental variable, and show that …

Agency From A Stone: Shelley’S Posthumanist Experiments In "Mont Blanc", Betsy Bolton

English Literature Faculty Works

This article reads Shelley’s ‘Mont Blanc’ as an extended exploration into possible modes of relationship linking the human mind to the material world. The modes of relationship considered by Shelley anticipate many of the structures and strategies developed by posthumanist theory, including structural coupling, strategic anthropomorphism, imagistic translation, and human-nonhuman assemblages. After summarizing Kantian and post-Kantian readings of ‘Mont Blanc,’ the essay works through an extended close reading of the poem to elucidate its proto-posthumanist elements.

Efficient Image Processing Via Compressive Sensing Of Integrate-And-Fire Neuronal Network Dynamics, Victor J. Barranca, G. Kovačič, D. Zhou, D. Cai

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

Integrate-and-fire (I&F) neuronal networks are ubiquitous in diverse image processing applications, including image segmentation and visual perception. While conventional I&F network image processing requires the number of nodes composing the network to be equal to the number of image pixels driving the network, we determine whether I&F dynamics can accurately transmit image information when there are significantly fewer nodes than network input-signal components. Although compressive sensing (CS) theory facilitates the recovery of images using very few samples through linear signal processing, it does not address whether similar signal recovery techniques facilitate reconstructions through measurement of the nonlinear dynamics of an …

A Cross-Linguistic Preference For Torso Stability In The Lexicon: Evidence From 24 Sign Languages, N. Sanders, Donna Jo Napoli

Linguistics Faculty Works

When the arms move in certain ways, they can cause the torso to twist or rock. Such extraneous torso movement is undesirable, especially during sign language communication, when torso position may carry linguistic significance, so we expend effort to resist it when it is not intended. This so-called “reactive effort” has only recently been identified by Sanders and Napoli (2016), but their preliminary work on three genetically unrelated languages suggests that the effects of reactive effort can be observed cross-linguistically by examination of sign language lexicons. In particular, the frequency of different kinds of manual movements in the lexicon correlates …

Modeling Cross-Contamination During Poultry Processing: Dynamics In The Chiller Tank, Daniel Munther, Xiaodan Sun, Yanni Xiao, Sanyi Tang, Helio Shimozako, Jianhong Wu, Ben A. Smith, Aamir Fazil

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Understanding mechanisms of cross-contamination during poultry processing is vital for effective pathogen control. As an initial step toward this goal, we develop a mathematical model of the chilling process in a typical high speed Canadian processing plant. An important attribute of our model is that it provides quantifiable links between processing control parameters and microbial levels, simplifying the complexity of these relationships for implementation into risk assessment models. We apply our model to generic, non-pathogenic Escherichia coli contamination on broiler carcasses, connecting microbial control with chlorine sanitization, organic load in the water, and pre-chiller E. coli levels on broiler carcasses. …

Prognostic Value Of Baseline And Changes In Circulating Soluble St2 Levels And The Effects Of Nesiritide In Acute Decompensated Heart Failure, W.H. Wilson Tang, Yuping Wu, Justin L. Grodin, Amy P. Hsu, Adrian F. Hernandez, Javed Butler, Marco Metra, Adriaan A. Voors, Michael G. Felker, Richard W. Troughton, Roger M. Mills, John J. Mcmurray, Paul W. Armstrong, Christopher M. O'Connor, Randall C. Starling

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Objectives: The study sought to investigate the association between soluble growth stimulation expressed gene 2 (sST2) level and adverse outcomes in acute heart failure (HF). Background: Several studies have demonstrated the prognostic utility of sST2 levels in HF.Methods: sST2 levels were measured in sequential baseline and follow-up (48 to 72 h and 30 days) plasma samples from 858 acute HF subjects enrolled in the ASCEND-HF (Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure) trial biomarker substudy and were related to in-hospital and post-discharge clinical outcomes. Results: Higher sST2 levels were associated with increased death risk at 180 …

Curvature-Driven Foam Coarsening On A Sphere: A Computer Simulation, Shawn D. Ryan, Xiaoyu Zheng, Peter Palffy-Muhoray

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

The von Neumann-Mullins law for the area evolution of a cell in the plane describes how a dry foam coarsens in time. Recent theory and experiment suggest that the dynamics are different on the surface of a three-dimensional object such as a sphere. This work considers the dynamics of dry foams on the surface of a sphere. Starting from first principles, we use computer simulation to show that curvature-driven motion of the cell boundaries leads to exponential growth and decay of the areas of cells, in contrast to the planar case where the growth is linear. We describe the evolution …

Unraveling The Dose-Response Puzzle Of L. Monocytogenes: A Mechanistic Approach, S. M.Ashrafur Rahman, Daniel Munther, Aamir Fazil, Ben Smith, Jianhong Wu

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Food-borne disease outbreaks caused by Listeria monocytogenes continue to impose heavy burdens on public health in North America and globally. To explore the threat L. monocytogenes presents to the elderly, pregnant woman and immuno-compromised individuals, many studies have focused on in-host infection mechanisms and risk evaluation in terms of dose-response outcomes. However, the connection of these two foci has received little attention, leaving risk prediction with an insufficient mechanistic basis. Consequently, there is a critical need to quantifiably link in-host infection pathways with the dose-response paradigm. To better understand these relationships, we propose a new mathematical model to describe the …

Enhancing Entry-Level Physiotherapy Student Learning In Interpreting Radiology – An Action Research Project, Courtney R. Clark, Andrea Bialocerkowski

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: In Australia, the ability to interpret orthopaedic x-rays is an entry-level skill for physiotherapists. Yet there is a paucity of evidence in the literature which details effective learning and teaching methods to optimise confidence and competence in x-ray interpretation. The aims of this study were to describe the content contained in an orthopaedic radiology module within an Australian 2-year graduate entry Master of Physiotherapy degree; approaches to learning and teaching used in this module; student satisfaction associated with this module over a 2-year period. Method: The University’s framework for quality assurance, which is based on the Plan-Implement-Review-Improve underpinned this …

Issues And Challenges: The Development Of Fair And Equitable Health Policy, Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Public health policy/law is a discipline that seeks to identify opportunities and implement mechanisms to achieve justice in the public health sector. Several public health policies and programs have been implemented by virtue of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and these policies and programs seek to decrease America’s “paradox of excess and deprivation” and address socioeconomic barriers that exist in the U.S. healthcare system. Private healthcare market interests have accused the ACA of intruding heavily into the professional autonomy of the medical profession, eroding healthcare market competition, and driving up national healthcare spending. Counter-arguments defending the ACA state that the …

Collegiality Among Full-Time Professors In A Mexican University: Perceptions And Challenges, Carlos Alberto Castañon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Currently, institutions of higher education in Mexico have some changes in their educational and institutional policies on training and updating of the professorate. In this context, reforms of higher education, academics have had to adapt to new forms of academic work in both ways individually and collectively. Today it is possible to identify the diversity of functions that have Mexican academics to achieve a quality education. However, today, collegial work among professors has not been solved efficiently in universities of Mexico. The current study addresses the collegiality among full-time professors in a higher education institution in Northern Mexico. The purpose …

Workplace Rumors About Women's Sexual Promiscuity As Gender-Based Insults Under Title Vii, Wendy Hess

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.