Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing The Rio Chama Flow Project’S Capacity To Implement Adaptive Management, Avery Olshefski

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

The Rio Chama is the main tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Several reservoirs were built on the Rio Chama to store water for downstream users, which has led to the river section becoming highly managed, resulting in negative ecological effects. Approximately 400,000 AF per year of water is conveyed through the system without considerable consumptive amounts, 96,200 AF of which were added with the San Juan-Chama trans-basin diversion, creating more water in the system then historically available. Therefore, the flow between the El Vado and Abiquiu Reservoirs has the potential to be optimized in order to provide …

Beauvoir, Abortion, And Women’S Liberation, Xhulia Gjokaj

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will present an argument for not restricting abortion. I will argue, based on Simone de Beauvoir’s views on women’s freedom and abortion, that it is important for women to receive safe and legal abortions if they wish to do so. I will then discuss Supreme Court rulings, such as Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and show how Beauvoir would defend the court’s rulings for not placing restrictions on abortion. And finally, I am going to apply her views to the recent state attempts to restrict access to safe abortions. My ultimate conclusion is that laws …

Ibusy: Research On Children, Families, And Smartphones, Bill R. Garris, Lindsay Lester, Erin Doran, Andrea Lowery

ETSU Faculty Works

Within the past 10 years, mobile devices have been widely adopted by adults and are now present in the lives of almost all U.S. children. While phones are common, our understanding of what effect this technology has upon children's development is lagging. Bioecological theory and attachment theory suggest that this new technology may be disruptive, especially to the degree to which it interferes with the parent-child relationship. This article reflects a National Organization for Human Services conference presentation and shares preliminary results from semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 youth, ages 7 through 11. Only four of eighteen interviewees voiced any …

Sb 1014: Parental Leave For Parenting Pupils, Tiffany Sala

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cannabis And Water Management: International Regulation And The Legal Framework Of The European Union, Maria E. Milanes-Murcia

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of The Current Reporting Requirements Of The Kentucky Immunization Registry, Lindsey Lewis

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Immunizations are essential to societal health and wellbeing. Throughout one’s lifespan, immunizations are to be administered incrementally to decrease the prevalence of preventable diseases. Despite this, there are disparities in the rates of vaccinations across the country. Numerous guidelines and regulations have been published regarding the administration and scheduling of vaccines. Certain vaccinations are mandatory in order to be able to attend school or hold certain occupational positions and normally proof of administration is required.

Immunization registries were created to monitor and record patient-specific data about administered vaccines. These confidential reporting systems were developed to improve population health by allowing …

Ginning Up Economic Growth? Evaluating The Effects Of County-Level Alcohol Sales, Nathan Smith

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The academic literature on the topic of legal alcohol sales is vast; from the effects on crime to population health outcomes. The economic development impact of alcohol sales, however, remains relatively unexplored. This research examines county-level data from the State of Arkansas between the years 2009 and 2014 in a cross-sectional time-series regression analysis to determine whether economic development benefits exist that can be attributed either directly or indirectly to legal alcohol sales. Ultimately, this study finds that alcohol sales are positively and significantly related with food service and accommodation employment as well as higher per capita personal income.

Viral And Cellular Micrornas In Regulation Of Ebv Latency And Oncogenesis, Ling Wang, Shunbin Ning

ETSU Faculty Works

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), an oncogenic virus that ubiquitously establishes life-long persistence in humans, encodes viral miRNAs in two clusters, BHRF1 and BART. EBV also regulates expression of a large pool of cellular miRNAs, including miR-155, miR-146a, miR-21, miR-29, and miR-34a. These miRNAs targets both viral and cellular genes involved in the entire viral lifetime from lytic infection to oncogenesis, including viral replication, immune responses, cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, and cell proliferation, and are indispensable for persistent infection, latency establishment and maintenance, and cancer development. Among them, circulating miRNAs and unique miRNA profiles are promising diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers alone or …

The Ros/Nf-Κb/Nr4a2 Pathway Is Involved In H2O2 Induced Apoptosis Of Resident Cardiac Stem Cells Via Autophagy, Xingxing Shi, Wenjing Li, Honghong Liu, Deling Yin, Jing Zhao

ETSU Faculty Works

Cardiac stem cells (CSCs)-based therapy provides a promising avenue for the management of ischemic heart diseases. However, engrafted CSCs are subjected to acute cell apoptosis in the ischemic microenvironment. Here, stem cell antigen 1 positive (Sca-1+) CSCs proved to own therapy potential were cultured and treated with H2O2 to mimic the ischemia situation. As autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyladenine (3MA), inhibited H2O2-induced CSCs apoptosis, thus we demonstrated that H2O2 induced autophagy-dependent apoptosis in CSCs, and continued to find key proteins responsible for the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis. Nuclear Receptor Subfamily 4 Group A Member 2 (NR4A2), increased upon cardiomyocyte injury with …

Journey Of Trail From Bench To Bedside And Its Potential Role In Immuno-Oncology, George E. Naoum, Donald J. Buchsbaum, Fady Tawadros, Ammad Farooqi, Waleed O. Arafat

ETSU Faculty Works

Induction of apoptosis in cancer cells has increasingly been the focus of many therapeutic approaches in oncology field. Since its identification as a TNF family member, TRAIL (TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) paved a new path in apoptosis inducing cancer therapies. Its selective ability to activate extrinsic and intrinsic cell death pathways in cancer cells only, independently from p53 mutations responsible for conventional therapeutics resistance, spotted TRAIL as a potent cancer apoptotic agent. Many recombinant preparations of TRAIL and death receptor targeting monoclonal antibodies have been developed and being tested pre-clinically and clinically both as a single agent and in combinations. Of …

A Model Of Health For Family Caregivers Of Elders, Florence M. Weierbach, Yan Cao

ETSU Faculty Works

Family members who provide care to their loved ones experience changes in their own health. The caregiver health model (CGHM) is a new model that identifies health holistically and identifies four determinant(s) that contribute to the health status of the family caregiver. The purpose is to introduce the CGHM: Hypothesis 1: the determinants of health in the CGHM contribute to the health of the Caregiver, Hypothesis 2: the determinants of health contribute to changes in the caregivers’ health at 8 and 16 weeks, and Hypothesis 3: a change in health occurs from baseline to 8 and 16 weeks. Methods: A …

Functional And Mechanistic Insight Into The Role Of Atg9a In Autophagy, Vajira Kaushalya Weerasekara

Theses and Dissertations

The bulk degradative process of macroautophagy requires the dynamic growth of autophagosomes, which carry cellular contents to the lysosome for recycling. Atg9A, a multi-pass transmembrane protein, is an apical regulator of autophagosome growth, yet its regulatory mechanism remains unclear. Our work suggests that hypoxia (low glucose and oxygen) triggers a rearrangement of the small adapter protein 14-3-3ζ interactome. Our data suggest that the localization of mammalian Atg9A to autophagosomes requires phosphorylation on the C terminus of Atg9A at S761, which creates a 14-3-3z docking site. Under basal conditions, this phosphorylation is maintained at a low level and is dependent on …

Womb Heat Versus Sperm Heat: Hippocrates Against Galen And Ibn Sīnā In Ibn Al- Nafīs’S Commentaries, Nahyan Fancy

History Faculty publications

Ibn al-Nafīs wrote lemmatic commentaries on Hippocrates’ Aphorisms and Ibn Sīnā’s entire Canon of Medicine. While he regularly challenges, critiques and refutes Ibn Sīnā’s positions in his Commentary on the Canon, Ibn al-Nafīs generally upholds the validity of each aphorism. This already suggests that he considered Hippocrates the supreme authority in medicine over Ibn Sīnā (and even Galen). Through an analysis of his commentary on Aphorisms V.42 and V.48 (on the causes and consequences of bearing male children), and how he deploys them in his commentary on the analogous chapters from the Canon, we shall see how Ibn al-Nafīs establishes …

The Effects Of Shared Information On Semantic Calculations In The Gene Ontology, Paul W. Bible, Hon-Wei Sun, Maria I. Morasso, Rasiah Loganantharaj, Lai Wei

Computer Science Faculty publications

The structured vocabulary that describes gene function, the gene ontology (GO), serves as a powerful tool in biological research. One application of GO in computational biology calculates semantic similarity between two concepts to make inferences about the functional similarity of genes. A class of term similarity algorithms explicitly calculates the shared information (SI) between concepts then substitutes this calculation into traditional term similarity measures such as Resnik, Lin, and Jiang-Conrath. Alternative SI approaches, when combined with ontology choice and term similarity type, lead to many gene-to-gene similarity measures. No thorough investigation has been made into the behavior, complexity, and performance …

Modeling Microorganism Transmission With Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches: An Inquiry Activity, Hillary Guzik, Kessler Mccoy-Simandle

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Students will test Madagascar hissing cockroach’s capacity as a vector for transmission of microorganisms. By comparing a cockroach exposed to human contact (handled by students) and a cockroach with limited exposure (not handled), students can assess the ability of cockroaches to transmit microorganisms from one location (hands) to another (agar plate where the microorganism will be grown). This will allow students to determine if the Madagascar hissing cockroach, the classroom pet, is a potential vector for microorganisms. Students then will be able to question and relate the concept of insects and objects as vectors for common pathogen transfer.

Undergraduate Catalog, Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

"White" Space: The Racialization Of Claremont, California, Emily Audet

Scripps Senior Theses

The City of Claremont, California—a suburb of Los Angeles and the home of the Claremont Colleges—stands out as disproportionately non-Hispanic white in comparison to neighboring cities and counties. This research employs the concept of racialization of place to examine how Claremont has been racialized as “white.” Through an analysis of land-use regulations and descriptions of the city, this research analyzes the structural and ideological processes that racialized the city. The city government used exclusionary zoning ordinances and private citizens employed racially restrictive housing covenants to maintain Claremont’s majority-white status. The city government and local organizations and businesses also implicitly assert …

The Question Of Remilitarization: Is Japan's Pacifist Nature In Danger Of Reform, Shanisha Coram

Scripps Senior Theses

Though Article 9 has not been revised since it was implemented in 1947, the past two decades have seen an increase in Japanese military capability due to the government’s loose interpretation of Article 9 and its limitations to allow for Japanese involvement in collective security operations internationally. As a result, a number of Japanese political scholars and newspapers have projected the possibility of not only Japanese constitutional revision but also the re-militarization of Japan as well. Interested in finding out whether or not this projection has any likelihood of success in the future, I have posed the following question: Why …

"She's Not A Real Monster": Orphan Black's Helena And The Monstrous-Feminine, Natalie Eisen

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the idea of the “monstrous-feminine,” or the idea that female monsters of television and film are linked to their femininity in a way that male monsters are not linked to their masculinity. Using the work of scholars such as Barbara Creed, Shelley Stamp Lindsey, and Jane M. Ussher, the thesis covers various facets of women’s lives as seen through the distorted lens of the monstrous. The character of Helena from the television show Orphan Black is used as a concrete example of the stages of the monstrous-feminine: the girl-child, menstruation and puberty, sexuality, and motherhood.

Understanding The Effects Of Disgust And Political Ideology On Moral Judgment Through Photography, Xijia Yuan

Scripps Senior Theses

Feelings of disgust may have effects on one’s moral judgment; specifically that experience of disgust has linked to increased severity of moral judgments. Additionally, one’s political beliefs may also affect one’s moral judgment, such as conservatives tend to make harsher judgment toward moral situations and behaviors. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial quasi-experiment has been proposed to study 420 participants, legal adults from both conservative and liberal neighborhoods, randomly assigned to one of two conditions, disgust-eliciting versus neutral. Participants will view either four disgust-eliciting photographs or four neutral photographs, and then complete survey questions on disgust rating, moral judgment, …

Self-Esteem And Social Anxiety In Children With Communication Impairments, Rebekah I. Novom

Scripps Senior Theses

The proposed study will investigate how having a speech and/or language impairment, as well as age, affect children’s self-esteem and levels of social anxiety compared to children who have typical language development (TLD). This cross-sectional correlational study will examine approximately 160 participants between the ages of 5 to 10 who fall into one of four communication type groups: speech impairments (speech sound disorders and/or stuttering), language impairments (specific language impairment), speech and language impairments, or TLD. The participants’ self-esteem, levels of social anxiety, and attitudes about their communication ability will be measured via established scales. Participants will also be asked …

Climate Change Crisis: Prescribing Alternative Economic Policy Using An Austrian Framework, Elina N. Mcgill

Honors Program Theses

This paper reviews the literature surrounding climate change adaptation and mitigation to assess the possible contributions and limitations of heterodox economics to climate change policy. Through interdisciplinary research between economics and environmental issues, this paper aims to stress the importance of utilizing heterodox schools of economics to create more pragmatic and dynamic policy. The secondary aim is to use Austrian frameworks to contribute to the construction of feasible, efficient, and equitable climate change policy. This paper used qualitative and textual analysis of the Austrian schools of economics conceptualize possible policy responses to climate change. Research found that the Austrian prescription …

Caffeine Used As A Tracer Of Wastewater Contamination In South Florida, Stephanie Spence

Honors Program Theses

In this study, a method was developed to analyze caffeine levels of water samples collected in Miami, Florida. The method was used to determine caffeine concentrations in reclaimed water samples and environmental water samples using on-line solid phase extraction (SPE) high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The rising use and disposal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products are becoming a concern as contaminants increasingly enter lakes, streams, and rivers without proper removal by traditional wastewater treatment processes. Caffeine may be used as a chemical tracer to indicate the presence of contamination in water samples and to …

[Rebelution 17]: Gender Bender, Francesca Louise Inocentes

Scripps Senior Theses

Fashion embodies what is accepted and valued in a given culture or society and empowers individuals by building self-confidence, enabling them to express themselves authentically through their bodies and garments. The gender binary, perpetuated by the mainstream fashion industry, marginalizes individuals who do not conform to it. In Rebelution 17, I utilize clothing design and photography to empower and liberate individuals who do not conform to the standards of beauty in regards to gender identity and acceptability. The finished works are featured in a Lookbook – a digital and physical collection of photographs used to market fashion – designed …

A Choreographic Exploration Of Race And Gender Representation In Film And Dance, Sharon M. Keenan

Scripps Senior Theses

Through extensive research which culminates in a choreographic component, this thesis explores the lack of diverse representation within artistic and entertainment industries in regards to race and gender. In pursuit of a concise argument, most of the focus is on race and the conditioned view of gender as binary. Looking specifically at dance and film, it considers and analyzes why this absence persists, along with ways to ensure progress. The analysis and exploration unfolds in five central chapters: Research, Conception of the Dance, One and the Same, and Try It On Make It Fit. By detailing all that …

Daffodils: A Completely Unrelated Collection Of Short Stories, Sawyer E.P. Henshaw

Scripps Senior Theses

“Daffodils” is a collection of three fictional short stories without obvious thematic connection, yet all containing tenacious female characters. “The Winner” is told from the unflinching voice of a young wife in her struggle for control within the newfound environment of a Massachusetts boarding school. “The Seers” is a dystopian story, taking place in a world with months of “Sun” and months of dark at a time, intimately describing the effects of this phenomenon upon the civilization. Lastly, “Plastic Flowers” examines the loss of love and comfort within a relationship, depicting the insecurities of young adult life in New York …

Transcriptional Analysis Of Defense Mechanisms In Upland Tetraploid Switchgrass To Greenbugs, Teresa Donze-Reiner, Nathan A. Palmer, Erin D. Scully, Travis J. Prochaska, Kyle G. Koch, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Jeffery D. Bradshaw, Paul Twigg, Keenan Amundsen, Scott E. Sattler, Gautam Sarath

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Background: Aphid infestation of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has the potential to reduce yields and biomass quality. Although switchgrass-greenbug (Schizaphis graminum; GB) interactions have been studied at the whole plant level, little information is available on plant defense responses at the molecular level.

Results: The global transcriptomic response of switchgrass cv Summer to GB was monitored by RNA-Seq in infested and control (uninfested) plants harvested at 5, 10, and 15 days after infestation (DAI). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in infested plants were analyzed relative to control uninfested plants at each time point. DEGs in GB-infested plants induced …

Yield Response Of Tolerant And Susceptible Soybean To The Soybean Aphid, Lia Marchi-Werle, Renata Ramos Pereira, John C. Reese, Thomas Hunt

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is the most economically important soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] pest of North America. Multiple studies have identified soybean expressing antibiosis and/or antixenosis; however, soybean tolerance remains underexplored. Tolerance to soybean aphid injury was previously identified in soybean KS4202. This research examined the yield response of KS4202 infested with soybean aphid at specific plant stages and identified at what plant stage tolerance initiates. A preliminary study evaluated the yield parameters of the tolerant genotype at low (4000– 5500 cumulative aphid-days [CAD]) and high aphid pressure (7500–8500 CAD) at different growth stages (V1, V3, …

Dr. Kenneth P. Pruess Obituary, Robert J. Wright, Marion D. Ellis

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Dr. Kenneth P. Pruess, age 84, of Lincoln, Nebraska, died 11 December 2016. Kenneth was Professor of Entomology Emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He was born 21 June 1932 in Troy, Indiana, to Elmer and Clara (Grass) Pruess. Kenneth graduated from Purdue University in 1954 and earned his M.S. in Entomology in 1955 and Ph.D. in 1957, both from The Ohio State University. His dissertation was titled “Studies on the Clover Root Borer, Hylastinus obscurus (Marsham).” He married Neva Currie on 15 June 1963. He worked at the University of Nebraska’s North Platte Experiment Station from 1957–1965, Entomology Department …

Influence Of Calcareous Soil On Cry3bb1 Expression And Efficacy In The Field, David S. Wangila, Arnubio Valencia, Haichuan Wang, Blair D. Siegfried, Lance Meinke

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Greater than expected injury by western corn rootworm (WCR) (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) to Cry3Bb1 expressing maize hybrids (Zea mays L.) has been reported in southwestern Nebraska. Affected areas of some fields are often associated with high pH calcareous soils where maize growth is poor and iron chlorosis is common. As part of a comprehensive study to understand potential causes of unexpected injury, experiments were conducted during 2013 and 2014 to ascertain whether the calcareous soil conditions and associated poor maize growth negatively affect the expression of Cry3Bb1. Quantitative determination of Cry3Bb1 protein expression levels in root tissues …