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Climate-Related Risks And Management Issues Facing Agriculture In The Southeast: Interviews With Extension Professionals, David C. Diehl, Nicole L. Sloan, Elder P. Garcia, Sebastian Galindo-Gonzalez, Daniel R. Dourte, Clyde W. Fraisse

Journal of Extension

To explore Extension professionals' perceptions of the potential impact of climate variability and climate change on agriculture and to identify the top climate-related issues facing farmers, we conducted interviews with agricultural Extension personnel from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Of those interviewed, 92% believed climate change will affect agriculture a moderate amount or a great deal. Qualitative analyses revealed that the Extension professionals considered scarcity of water resources, temperature fluctuations, pest and disease pressures, forecast challenges, seasonal variability, and adaptation strategies as among the most important climate-related issues affecting agriculture in the Southeast.

Spectrum, Volume 38, Issue 1, Sacred Heart University

Newspapers (Obelisk & Spectrum)

Highlights include: Petillo's email opens up new debate -- Students reflect on Trump's inauguration -- Woman march for woman's rights -- West campus beings to expand -- SHU band partners with CT Hurricanes -- Woman's ice hockey striving for strong finish

Food Plants: A Bibliography, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

Vitamin A Palmitate-Loaded Nlcs Vs. Sln For Cosmetic Application With A Study Of Their Controlled Release, Skin Permeation And Characterization., Sham Mohamad Ayman Alzahabi

Theses and Dissertations

Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) are a new generation of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLN), with improved drug loading capacity, stability, skin permeation, and sustained release of the encapsulated active. The encapsulation of vitamin A, a chemically labile cosmetic ingredient for anti-aging therapy, is ensued for effective delivery of the active. The method used for the production of the lipid nano-carriers is the hot homogenization technique. Furthermore, this study entailed a 23-factorial model design of experiment, where the three factors changed in the eight NLC formulation were surfactant to solid lipid ratio, Vitamin A Palmitate (RP), and prickly pear (PP) oil. The …

Hepatitis C Virus Seroprevalence In The General Female Population Of 9 Countries In Europe, Asia And Africa, Gary M. Clifford, Tim Waterboer, Bolormaa Dondog, You Lin Qiao, Dimitri Kordzaia, Doudja Hammouda, Namory Keita, , Nahid Khodakarami, Syed Ahsan Ali, Ang Tshering Sherpa, Witold Zatonski

Department of Surgery Docs

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

New oral treatments with very high cure rates have the potential to revolutionize global management of hepatitis C virus (HCV), but population-based data on HCV infection are missing in many low and middle-income countries (LMIC).

METHODS:

Between 2004 and 2009, dried blood spots were collected from age-stratified female population samples of 9 countries: China, Mongolia, Poland, Guinea, Nepal, Pakistan, Algeria, Georgia and Iran. HCV antibodies were detected by a multiplex serology assay using bead-based technology.

RESULTS:

Crude HCV prevalence ranged from 17.4% in Mongolia to 0.0% in Iran. In a pooled model adjusted by age and country, in …

A Qualitative Examination Of Pain Centrality Among Veterans Of Iraq And Afghanistan Conflicts, Samantha D. Outcalt, Christina Nicolaidis, Matthew J. Bair, Laura J. Myers, Edward J. Miech, Marianne S. Matthias

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective. Centrality of pain refers to the degree to which a patient views chronic pain as integral to his or her life or identity. The purpose of this study was to gain a richer understanding of pain centrality from the perspective of patients who live with chronic pain.

Methods. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 26 Veterans with chronic and disabling musculoskeletal pain after completing a stepped care intervention within a randomized controlled trial. Qualitative data were analyzed using an immersion/crystallization approach. We evaluated the role centrality plays in Veterans’ lives and examined whether and how their narratives differ when centrality …

Using Pop Culture To Teach Youths Conflict Resolution, Healthful Lifestyles, Disaster Preparedness, And More, Alayne Torretta, Lynette Ranney Black

Journal of Extension

Adolescents learn sustainable production techniques, civic engagement, leadership, public speaking, food safety practices, conflict resolution, disaster preparedness, and other life skills through Extension programming. Educators can increase participant interest in such programming by applying a creative pop culture twist, such as a zombie apocalypse theme. A pop culture take on a traditional topic infuses the educational experience with excitement and fun, which researchers stress increase motivation and learning. Who knew that understanding the U.S. government's structure and recognizing the importance of voting could thwart development of a biological weapon that might spawn a zombie apocalypse? Creative thinking such as this …

Physical Mechanisms And Biological Consequences Of Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel Modulation By Fhf Proteins, Yue Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: FHFs are cytosolic proteins that bind to voltage-gated sodium channels (Na_Vs) and modulate their functions to control membrane excitability. FHFs raise the voltage dependence of Na_V fast inactivation to promote excitability, while A isoforms FHF (A-FHFs) also capture open sodium channels into a long-term inactivated (LTI) state to limit excitability. My research has addressed how FHFs balance membrane excitability as it relates to normal and pathological brain functions. Part of this work stemmed from the discovery of a missense FHF1 mutation in patients with severe early onset epilepsy. Methods and Results: Wild-type FHF1A and FHF1B were …

Subversion And Transcendence In The Latin American Modern Travel Novel (1928-1976), Andrea Babsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The focus of this dissertation is the role that travel plays in Latin American novels that stem from 1928 to 1976, specifically, Macunaíma, Los pasos perdidos, El reino de este mundo, and Mascaró, el cazador americano. Departing from the fact that this period of time in history was marked by political and cultural change and upheaval, different aspects and interpretations of travel as manifested in the novels of the corpus are explored as a means of subversion and transcendence to hegemonic discourses. Travel is viewed as a means of disruption, particularly of limits and borders, be they geographical, …

Beyond The Obvious: Emerging Contaminants And Biogeochemistry As A Cause And Solution For Nitrogen Pollution, Stephanie L. Devries

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Following a comprehensive review of the occurrence and impacts of antibiotics and related pharmaceutical compounds on the terrestrial N-cycle, three experiments were performed to explore the topic of biogeochemistry as a source or a sink for N-pollution. The first of these experiments addresses the question of whether environmentally relevant concentrations of antibiotics (µg·kg^-1) have a significant effect on denitrification or N₂O production, a question that has not been well addressed in previous studies. Having determined that there is a significant shift, the second study aims to comprehensively follow changes to soil N pools and N_{2 …}

Es-Esa: An Information Retrieval Prototype Using Explicit Semantic Analysis And Elasticsearch, Brian D. Sloan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many modern information retrieval systems work by using keyword search to locate documents in an inverted index by matching those documents based on terms in a user’s query. While highly effective for many use-cases, one notable drawback to simple keyword-based searching is that the contextual knowledge surrounding the user’s underlying information need may be lost, particularly if the user’s query terms are ambiguous or have multiple meanings. Research in the field of semantic search aims to make progress towards resolving this. One methodology in particular, explicit semantic analysis, works by modeling a document not only as a set of …

Retelling An Old Wife’S Tale: Postpartum Care Of Taiwanese And Chinese Immigrant Women, Kuan-Yi Chen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The focus of this dissertation is the Chinese postpartum tradition zuoyuezi, often translated into English as doing-the-month. Having its roots in ancient China, this set of practices has maintained its salience today in Taiwan, China, and among first generation immigrant women in the U.S. Women not only continue to perform zuoyuezi at home, many also rely on emerging forms of commodified care. While immigrant women’s postpartum wellbeing and care has been the focus of scholarly research in health related fields, studies in the social sciences addressing immigrant women’s postpartum practices and the care relations engendered remain scant.

In this …

Chloride And Proton Binding In The E. Coli 2cl¯:1h+ Clc Exchanger, Catherine Chenal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The CLC family of membrane proteins is a ubiquitously expressed class of proton and usually voltage-activated chloride transporters involved in a myriad of physiological functions. Crystallographic structures identify up to three chloride binding sites: external, central and intracellular located in the inner half of the trans-membrane domain. The CLC proteins, except for the kidney isoforms, are gated by the extracellular side-facing gating Glutamate (Ex, E148 in CLC-ec1, the E. coli exchanger), which is thought to undergo a conformational change upon protonation.

To sort out how the thermodynamic paths to H+ coupled Cl¯ binding and conformational change in CLC-ec1 at the …

Estradiol, Substance P, And The Pi3k-Akt-Mtor Pathway In The Dorsal Horn Of The Spinal Cord During Inflammatory Pain, Zane Ferguson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Pain is a critical survival mechanism that signals potential or actual damage, but it can become pathological when it persists beyond the injury. Chronic pain is a major health issue that affects 10-20% of the adult population and is found disproportionately in women. There are numerous, interacting mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. This study used female rats to investigate the impact of estrogens on sensory signaling by substance P, a neuropeptide that contributes to the development of chronic pain, and the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway, an intracellular mechanism of nervous system plasticity.

Adhd And Theory Of Mind In School-Age Children: Exploring The Cognitive Nature Of Social Interactions In Children With Adhd, Rachel Feigenbaum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience significant difficulties with social skills (Barkley, 2006; DuPaul & Stoner, 2003; Stormont, 2001). The inhibitory deficit associated with ADHD is typically identified as the cause of these impaired social skills (Barkley, 2006). Additionally, some researchers have suggested that theory of mind (ToM), which is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and to others, may be involved, but the research on ToM deficits in children with ADHD is limited and the findings are mixed. A key methodological issue in this literature is the use of traditional but problematic measures of advanced …

Zooarchaeological And Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction Of Newly Excavated Middle Pleistocene Deposits From Elandsfontein, South Africa, Frances L. Forrest

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Increased consumption of animal tissue is arguably one of the most important adaptive transitions in early hominin behavior. A dietary shift toward regular tool-assisted meat consumption and increased competition with the carnivore paleoguild likely helped shape many important hominin adaptations such as foraging patterns, habitat preferences, and social behaviors. Yet, the ecological and behavioral implications for increased hominin carnivory remain poorly understood. This dissertation examines the zooarchaeological and paleoenvironmental history of an important Acheulean hominin locality, Elandsfontein, South Africa (ca. 1.0 – 0.6 Ma). The goal is to begin addressing under-investigated aspects of Acheulean hominin behavioral ecology and place Acheulean …

Lipid Sensing By Mammalian Target Of Rapamycin, Deepak Menon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR) is a protein kinase that integrates nutrient and growth factor signals to promote cellular growth and proliferation. mTOR exists in two complexes - mTORC1 and mTORC2 that are distinguished by their binding partners and signaling inputs. mTORC1 is responsive to growth factors, amino acids and glucose and is associated with Raptor; whereas, mTORC2 is responsive primarily to growth factors and is associated with Rictor. Raptor and Rictor confer substrate specificity to mTORC1 and mTORC2 respectively. Phosphatidic acid (PA), a lipid second messenger and a central metabolite for membrane phospholipid biosynthesis, is required for the stability …

Intelligent Bodies And Embodied Minds: Reading Religious Performance In Middle English Writing From Syon Abbey, Nicholas Love, William Langland, And John Gower, Paul Holchak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues for a new reading of the relationship that texts have to performance, bodies have to agency, and that social construction has to literary criticism as these matters relate to the study of religious practice in late medieval England. The project first asks what it meant to participate in religious practice in two, early fifteenth-century Middle English prose texts, The Myroure of Oure Ladye and The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ. The former work is a gloss of the Divine Service performed by the Brigittine sisters at Syon Abbey, and the latter consists of …

The Management Of Chronic Pain; Caught Between A Rock And A Hard Place: The Case For A Renewed Focus On Provider, Patient, And Payer Education, Talal W. Khan, Farnad Imani

Project ECHO Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Exposure To Low Concentration Of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles On Cell Cycle Control And Dna Repair In Normal, Cancer And Dna Repair Deficient Cells., Nada El Zahed

Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, Titanium dioxide nanoparticles, TiO2 NPs, are produced in huge quantities due to their vast range of applications including paints, food coloring, sunscreens and cosmetics. Consequently, humans are exposed to TiO2 NPs on a daily basis. However, the toxicological profile of TiO2 NPs is not fully elucidated. As a result, this study is carried out to evaluate the genotoxic impact of TiO2 NPs on normal, cancer and DNA repair deficient cells. Since most of the studies evaluated the genotoxic impact of the TIO2 NPs have used the acute exposure scenario: High exposure concentrations and short exposure times, in the present …

Lexical Variation In News Headlines: A Comparative Study Of Egyptian, Lebanese And Moroccan Written Arabic, Moustafa Saleh

Theses and Dissertations

Does the existence of different Arab communities formulate a challenge in understanding its Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) variations? The question remains open to analogy. This research attempts to answer this issue through the study of lexicon variation in Egypt, Lebanon & Morocco. Even though the lexical variation exists historically, researchers are still in contradiction whether the MSA is the one bridge of communication among the Arabs or does each and every community has its own lexicons? A concurrent design of mixed research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, is carried to investigate the extent of this lexical variation. So, upon running …

Developing An Effective Social Emotional Learning Program For Countering School Bullying: An Evaluative Exploratory Study, Ahmed Sameh

Theses and Dissertations

The meaning of school bullying which incorporates a number of key components: bodily, mental assault, use of harsh and rude language, or terrorizing in attempt to bring about a feeling of fright, anxiety, submission or damage to the bullied. Bullying has serious repercussions to the extent that it might lead a victim to ending their lives (Farrington & Ttofi, 2009). Kazarian and Ammar (2013) linked bullying with the spread of negative health conditions such as insomnia, anorexia, and obesity as well as social behaviors such as the use of drugs and alcohol, aggression, and the use of weapons. "Sixty percent …

Micrornas As Noninvasive Biomarkers For The Diagnosis And Prognosis Of Liver Fibrosis In Hcv Genotype 4 Patients, Amanda Abdel-Al

Theses and Dissertations

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major world health problem affecting millions of people worldwide. HCV causes fibrosis of the liver; untreated, it leads to complications such as hepatic cirrhosis, decompensation, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Current methodologies used to determine the progression of hepatic fibrosis rely heavily on liver biopsy, a dangerous and invasive procedure, with subjective analysis of the results of the biopsy. Liver biopsies are also difficult to perform in the developing world, where the strain of HCV infection is great. A new methodology, that is both convenient and inexpensive, is needed for monitoring the progression of liver …

The Effect Of The Development And Restoration Projects On The Culture Of Marsh Arabs, Habiba Ramadan

Theses and Dissertations

In 1991, the Marsh Arabs of Iraq revolted against the government of Saddam Hussein. Hussein responded by undertaking self-declared development projects in the Marshlands, draining the region of water. Without the ability to practice traditional economic and social activities, which relied on their proximate environment, the majority of the Marsh Arab community was displaced. The project resulted in the desertification of an area nearly the size of the Aral Sea, what archeologists have described as environmental genocide. In 2003, the US government embarked on a restoration program to divert water back to the marshlands and improve the available social services …

Developing Industrial Resource Sustainability Roadmap: Cement Industry Case Study, Mary Mamdouh Moharib

Theses and Dissertations

For proper implementation of sustainability, two dimensions need to be taken into consideration, resource conservation and pollution prevention. Compromising on any of the two would mean that future generations are deprived of their ability to meet their needs. Since resources are the building blocks of all economies, and a clean pollution free environment benefits the general welfare of the society, the economy and social part are automatically taken care of. The goals of resource sustainability were realized in the following three stages: 1. A roadmap was developed to address the management and strategic requirement for successful implementation of resource and …

Virome Of Red Sea Brine Pools And Other Hydrothermal Vents, Sherry Kamal Berty Aziz

Theses and Dissertations

The central rift of the Red Sea has 25 brine pools that vary in their physical and geochemical characteristics, three of which, Atlantis II (ATIID), Discovery Deep (DD) and Kebrit Deep (KD), have high salinity, temperature and metal content. Previous studies reported bacterial and archaeal inhabitants in these brine pools, but few studies addressed the viral communities. Therefore, sediment cores and water samples were collected from ATIID, DD, KD brine pools in addition to a neighboring two brine-influenced sites. Shotgun DNA pyrosequencing was performed to all samples. Sediment-specific reads were generated and annotated. The phylogenetic and biochemical uniqueness of the …

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived From Mouse Germ Cells, Nora Khan

Theses and Dissertations

While embryonic stem cells are well known to give rise to tissues comprising all three germ layers, only recently was it found that embryonic-like stem cells could be derived from the postnatal mice testis in culture. Embryonic-like stem cells from postnatal testes have shown that they can undertake most if not all, the functions of embryonic stem cells. Most recent reports have demonstrated that somatic cells can be induced to pluripotent stem cells, mostly with the addition of genes. However, the aim of this work is to explore the potential of testicular cells to become pluripotent, including expression of pluripotency-associated …

Decentralized Algorithm Of Dynamic Task Allocation For A Swarm Of Homogeneous Robots, Maha Alshawi

Theses and Dissertations

The current trends in the robotics field have led to the development of large-scale swarm robot systems, which are deployed for complex missions. The robots in these systems must communicate and interact with each other and with their environment for complex task processing. A major problem for this trend is the poor task planning mechanism, which includes both task decomposition and task allocation. Task allocation means to distribute and schedule a set of tasks to be accomplished by a group of robots to minimize the cost while satisfying operational constraints. Task allocation mechanism must be run by each robot, which …

Encapsulation Of Essential Oils In Chitosan Nanoparticle Formulations And Investigation On Their Antioxidant And Antibacterial Properties., Amro Abdel Azeem Shetta

Theses and Dissertations

Peppermint oil (PO) and Green Tea oil (GTO) are two essential oils (EOs) were encapsulated in chitosan nanoparticles (CS NPs) via two-steps method (emulsification followed by ionic gelation). Encapsulation of GTO and PO in CS NPs were investigated through different characterization techniques such as; Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Both NPs (CS/PO NPs and CS/GTO NPs) showed a spherical shape with 20-90 nm size range as detected by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal stability of both bulk and encapsulated EOs that showed an enhancement in the thermal stability …

Molecular Adaptation Of Mercuric Reductase To Hypersaline Environments, Emanbellah Ramadan

Theses and Dissertations

The Kebrit brine pool is located in the Northern Red Sea along the rift axis of the seafloor at a depth of 1549 m. It is characterized with high salinity of around 26% and high concentration of heavy metals including toxic mercury compounds. To survive in such an environment, microorganisms have evolved and adapted for detoxification of mercury through reduction of Hg2+ to less toxic and volatile Hg0 by the enzyme mercuric reductase. In addition, microbial community that reside in an environment with such salinity have developed two strategies to adjust their cytoplasmic pressure to the physiological range through the …