Digital Commons Network^™

Role Of Tnfα Antagonists And Genetic Polymorphisms In Modulating Susceptibility To Mycobacterial Infection Among Patients With Crohn's Disease, Ahmad Qasem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha antagonists (anti-TNFα) have been extensively used for Crohn's disease (CD) treatment. Even though they may control CD symptoms initially, treatment response varies among patients, which seems to depend on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TNFα receptors superfamily 1A and 1B (TNFRSF1A/B). Most importantly, M. tuberculosis infection has been strongly associated with these medications, but no studies have elucidated the effects of anti-TNFα on CD associated with MAP (Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis; a possible causative agent of CD, and closely related to M. tuberculosis). Here, we investigated the effects of recombinant inflammatory cytokines and anti-TNFα therapeutics on …

Towards More Reliable Neural Network Learning Models, Navid Kardan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ideally, when a neural network makes a wrong decision or encounters an out-of-distribution example, its predictive confidence should be as low as possible. Three primary contributions in this dissertation address this challenge. The first two contributions are new approaches to mitigate overconfident predictions in modern neural networks. In the first (1), called competitive overcomplete output layer neural networks, several classifiers, as part of the same output layer, are trained simultaneously and later their consensus produces more reliable predictions. The second approach (2) reformulates the original classification problem into several new versions by combining classes together and training a classifier on …

Ribbeting Results: Emergent Infectious Diseases In Wetland Systems, Ariel Horner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

North American amphibians have recently been impacted by two major emerging pathogens, the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and iridoviruses in the genus Ranavirus (Rv). Environmental, seasonal and host factors may play important roles in disease dynamics, but few studies incorporate these components into their analyses. Here, we investigated the role of environmental, seasonal, genetic and location effects on driving Bd and Rv infection prevalence and severity in a biodiversity hot spot, the southeastern United States. We used quantitative PCR to characterize Bd and Rv dynamics in natural populations of three amphibian species: Notophthalmus perstriatus, Hyla squirella and Pseudacris ornata and …

Lena And Gus: Gleaning Facts From Fiction In A Story Of Self-Awareness, Christina Unhoch Mason

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Lena and Gus: Gleaning facts from fiction in a story of self-awareness, an independent study by Christina Unhoch Mason, demonstrates how academic and experiential learning has informed and expanded a story idea first conceived of over a decade ago about a seal and a fish that live in Lake Baikal.

The Effects Of Eicosapentaenoic Acid (Epa) And Docosahexaenoic Acid (Dha) On Brown Adipogenesis In Stem Cell Culture, Darynne A. Dahlem, Yan Huang

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are major maternal dietary supplements due to their positive benefits on neurological tissue growth during the first 12 weeks of gestation. Previous studies show that EPA and DHA inhibit muscle formation but promote adipogenesis. However, no research has addressed the question whether high intake of EPA and DHA affects brown fat development during gestation. The objective of this study was to measure the effect of EPA and DHA supplement on brown adipogenesis and potential pathways related to mitochondrial biosynthesis using fibroblasts as in vitro model. Using Oil-Red-O staining …

Impact Of Selected Infrared Wavelengths On Inactivation Of Microbes On Rough Rice, Rebecca L. Bowie, Griffiths Atungulu, Abass Oduola, Shantae Wilson, Zeinab Mohammadi-Shad

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Formation of harmful microbes and their associated mycotoxins on rough rice during storage presents negative socioeconomic impacts to producers and consumers. The objective for this study was to investigate the impact of treating rough rice with selected infrared (IR) wavelengths at different IR intensities and heating durations, followed by a tempering step for further inactivation of microbes (mold and bacteria) on the grain. Freshly-harvested long-grain, hybrid, rough rice (XL 745) with initial moisture content (IMC) of 18.4% wet basis (w.b.) was used. Two-hundred grams (200 g) samples of rice were treated at different IR wavelengths (λ), 3.2, 4.5, and 5.8 …

The Diversity Of Terrestrial Mammals Surrounding Waterfall At Billy Barquedier National Park, Kelsey Johnson, Jason Apple

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Billy Barquedier is a National Park located in the Stann Creek district of Belize that contains Neotropical vegetation and wildlife. This study was performed to provide a baseline inventory and appearance frequency patterns of the terrestrial mammals located within Zone 1 of the park near a waterfall and to gain a greater understanding of the biodiversity and activity patterns of terrestrial mammals within the park. The methods included camera traps, small Sherman live traps, large live traps, and tracking methods. A non-random sampling method of placing camera traps and live traps on or near human-made or animal-made trails was used …

Evaluation Of New England Salt Marsh Support Of The American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, And The Impacts Of Hydrologic Restriction, Alyson L. Eberhardt

Doctoral Dissertations

American eels are frequently captured in saltmarsh habitats yet little is known about eel use of these systems. Coastal systems such as salt marshes are vulnerable to habitat impacts due to high rates of coastal development, including impacts from undersized culverts that result in tidally restricted systems upstream. Given the decline in the American eel population, a need exists for a clearer understanding of the functional difference of hydrologically restricted and unrestricted salt marshes in the support of eels. To address data gaps and inform saltmarsh management to support eels, laboratory and field experiments were employed that assessed the value …

The Purpose And Value Of Agricultural Experiment Stations Today: A Perception Study Of The Directors Of State Agricultural Experiment Stations, Lori Wright

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the dynamic relationship of the purpose and value of state agricultural experiment stations today as perceived by a sample of the directors of state agricultural experiment station in the United States funded by the Hatch Act of 1887. State agricultural experiment stations are a fundamental component of the land-grant university system; they are the original model and the first centers for applied research at most flagship state land-grant research universities in the United States (Kerr, 1987; Knoblauch, 1962). The purpose of state agricultural experiment stations has evolved since their inception as new agricultural issues have arisen, new …

The Role Of Replication Protein A Large Subunit Family In Pathogen-Induced Dna Damage In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Nancy Lynn Fernandes

Doctoral Dissertations

The DNA of every organism is under continuous attack from both environmental agents, errors in DNA replication, and reactive oxygen species produced from cellular metabolism. The preservation of genome stability and integrity is essential to counteract threats to genome integrity. Eukaryotic organisms have evolved a complex set of mechanisms to sense DNA damage and initiate repair of the damage or death of the cell, collectively called the DNA damage response (DDR).

One of the main causes of detrimental DNA damage is due to microbial pathogens, both in mammals and in plants. In humans Escherichia coli, Helicobacter pylori and Pseudomonas aeruginosa …

Assessing Potential Impacts Of Climate Change On American Lobsters (Homarus Americanus) With Novel Tools And Techniques, Benjamin C. Gutzler

Doctoral Dissertations

The Gulf of Maine is currently experiencing rapid environmental changes, in the form of warming temperatures, increasing acidity, and a benthic ecosystem that is dominated by the American lobster (Homarus americanus) as the sole major predator and most significant fishery. The overall goal of my dissertation research was to investigate how the increased stress from warmer, more acidic, waters might impact individual lobsters, and thus lobster populations. To address this overall objective it was necessary to develop novel methods for investigating lobster behavior and reproduction, a theme that will run throughout this dissertation. In Chapter Two, I developed a new …

Determination Of Optimum Harvest Date For Winter Malting Quality Barley In Northwest Arkansas, Paul Wolf, David Moon, Richard Esten Mason

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Due to the strict quality requirements, only 10% of worldwide barley is used for malting, though malting quality barley comes with a price increase of up to 50% or greater. With the craft brewery industry growing in Northwest Arkansas there is a growing demand for locally sourced malt quality barley. However, data are lacking regarding production practices for barley in Arkansas. The optimal harvest date for malting quality barley is at physiological maturity. This is because many of the malting traits (such as germination energy) decline as harvest is delayed, which make it difficult to meet the criteria for malting …

The Private Law Critique Of International Investment Law, Julian Arato

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Interaction Between Prpf8 And Dzip1 And Its Role In Mitral Valve Prolapse, Janiece Sharmell Glover

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP) is one of the most common cardiac diseases affecting 1 in 40 individuals worldwide. Functionally, MVP is the abnormal billowing of one or both of the mitral valve leaflets into the left atrium during ventricular systole. Structurally, the valves experience an accumulation of proteoglycans, an increase of collagen and hyperplasia. An echocardiogram can be used to diagnose the disease as well as determine the severity of it. MVP can cause several underlying effects such as regurgitation, arrhythmias and even sudden cardiac death in severe cases. Although there is very little known about the cause of the …

Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Dependent Signaling In Models Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Benjamin Abner Harlan

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease is caused by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem, and motor cortex. Motor neuron death leads to muscle weakness and paralysis causing death in one to five years from the time of symptoms onset. Most ALS cases are sporadic (sALS) and exposure to yet unidentified environmental factors might be responsible for sALS. About 5-10% of the cases are inherited (familial ALS, fALS) and the first ALS-linked gene identified was superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1). SOD1 mutations account for up to 20% of FALS and 1-2% of apparently …

Dual Portraits Of The Deceased In Yangqiaopan M1, Jingbian, Shaanxi, Leslie V. Wallace

Visual Arts

Murals decorating an Eastern Han tomb excavated in Jingbian, Shaanxi include two large-scale representations of the deceased who appears in a processional scene on the left front wall of the tomb wearing typical Han elite dress, and then again on the rear wall in a regional version of a spirit seat (lingwei) composition, clean-shaven and donning a hairstyle uncommon in Han mortuary art. This paper considers these depictions in terms of Han pictorial conventions and argues that they are dual portraits of the deceased in which different attributes of his political, social, and cultural identity are stressed.

Through The Eyes Of Locals: A Changing Climate In Bolivia, Jacob D. Rex

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Deforestation and Agricultural Land-Use Change in Bolivia as a Function of Socio-Economic Realities.

This research combines semi-structured interviews of key informants and local participants, as well as field observations, which were conducted between January and April of 2019 in the Departments of Santa Cruz & Chuquisaca.

Not From Guile But From Entitlement: Lawful Opportunism Capitalizes On The Cracks In Contracts, Gastón De Los Reyes Jr., Kirsten Martin

Buffalo Law Review

Few concepts have been more pivotal to contract law scholarship over the last forty years than the opportunism attributed ex ante and ex post to contracting parties, yet the lawful form of opportunism identified by Nobel Laureate Oliver Williamson in 1991 remains surprisingly overlooked in favor of the blatant forms of opportunism that result from “self-interest seeking with guile.” This Article extends Williamson’s inchoate account of lawful opportunism and reports the first empirical study of the phenomenon.

The conceptual analysis of lawful opportunism is developed with reference to the bargaining underlying the classic impossibility decision, Taylor v. Caldwell. Three component …

Nidus Idearum. Scilogs, Iv: Vinculum Vinculorum, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Welcome into my scientific lab! My lab[oratory] is a virtual facility with non-controlled conditions in which I mostly perform scientific meditation and chats: a nest of ideas (nidus idearum, in Latin). I called the jottings herein scilogs (truncations of the words scientific, and gr. Λόγος – appealing rather to its original meanings "ground", "opinion", "expectation"), combining the welly of both science and informal (via internet) talks (in English, French, and Romanian). * In this fourth book of scilogs collected from my nest of ideas, one may find new and old questions and solutions, referring mostly to topics on NEUTROSOPHY – …

Falls In Individuals With Stroke During Inpatient Rehabilitation At A Tertiary Care Hospital In Saudi Arabia, Sami Ullah, Mohammed K. Al-Atwi, Ahmad Z. Qureshi, Sherif S. Tantawy, Amara Ilyas, Colleen A. Wunderlich

Neurosciences

Objectives: To determine the incidence and risk factors of falls in individuals with stroke undergoing inpatient rehabilitation. Methods: Retrospective analysis of all patients with stroke admitted to from January 2011 to June 2013 was carried out in Inpatient rehabilitation Unit at King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data collected included demographic variables, types of stroke, comorbidities, characteristics of falls, factors affecting falls and length of hospital stay. Data was descriptively analyzed. The Pearson Chi-square test was used to determine any significant relationship between the categorical variables. Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate predictors of falls during …

Ziglar V. Abassi And Its Effect On The Constitutional Rights Of Federal Prisoners, Julio Pereyra

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

In June 2017, the Supreme Court decided Ziglar v. Abbasi and held that prisoners unlawfully detained post-9/11 did not have a Bivens claim against policy-level federal executive branch officials and likely had no Bivens claim against the wardens at the facility where they were detained. In doing so, the Court drastically altered the analysis for deciding when a Bivens claim is new and for determining when a new Bivens claim should be either allowed by a court or precluded under a “special factors” analysis. This change in the Bivens framework severely restricts the availability of factually novel Bivens claims, even …

Torture And Respect, Jacob Bronsther

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

There are two well-worn arguments against a severe punishment like long-term incarceration: it is disproportionate to the offender’s wrongdoing and an inefficient use of state resources. This Article considers a third response, one which penal reformers and theorists have radically neglected, even though it is recognized in the law: the punishment is degrading. In considering penal degradation, this Article examines what judges and scholars have deemed the exemplar of degrading treatment—torture. What is torture, and why is it wrong to torture people? If we can answer this question, this Article maintains, then we can understand when and why certain …

Exposure To 1,4-Dioxane Dysregulates Stool Metabolomic Network, Yensheng Wang

Public Health Theses

1,4-dioxane is an environmental toxin found in drinking water that is highly associated with liver cancer. The interactions between environmental toxins and the human body can result in the development of tumorigenesis, it can also result in changes to metabolism and thus metabolites that circulate within the body. Some of these metabolites can be procarcinogenic, or can reflect changes to host processes that control metabolism. Stool contains copious information on metabolism that can provide an overview of the well-being of our body, and metabolites in the stool can provide information regarding the pathogenesis of disease and the toxicokinetics of toxicants. …

Single-Cell Transcriptomics In The Protozoan Parasite Trypanosoma Brucei During Acquisition Of Infectivity, Trisha Kaye Ramsdell

Public Health Theses

Single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) is a recent innovation that allows sequencing of transcriptomes from a vast number of single cells, thus providing an unbiased view of cell-to-cell variability in gene expression within a population of cells. The Tschudi laboratory has previously established an in vitro differentiation system based on the inducible expression of the RNA-binding protein 6 (RBP6) in cultured non-infective procyclics, which recapitulates Trypanosoma brucei developmental stages that have been previously described in tsetse fly vector. Thus, I aimed to utilize scRNA-seq in this system to describe the potential heterogeneity in transcript abundance of known and suspected T. brucei …

The North Atlantic Alliance And Collective Defense At 70: Confession And Response Revisited, Michael N. Schmitt

Emory International Law Review

The North Atlantic Treaty was largely a response to global sentiment that other international organizations, namely the United Nations, were not accomplishing their intended purpose of the maintenance and promotion of peace and order in the world. This had a magnifying effect due to the global trauma and destruction that had been witnessed by the world following World War II. This Article visits the realities of history that led to the formation of NATO as a collective measure for self-defense and the effectiveness it had as a response to global concern of peace preservation. Importantly, this Article analyzes the substantive …

Yale School Of Medicine Facts & Figures 2019-2020, Yale School Of Medicine Office Of Communications

Facts & Figures – annual Yale School of Medicine numbers

Provided by the Office of Communications, the Facts and Figures brochure is produced annually as a way to provide a snapshot of key facts and data related to the School of Medicine as well as the Medical Campus. This includes enrollment data, research activity, financial summaries, and more.

Entering The Studio, Eric Friendly

University Libraries Award for Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

John Paul Ii's Theology Of The Body: The Human Person, Self-Gift, And The Sacramental Dimension Of Human Love, Mitchell Johansson

University Libraries Award for Undergraduate Research

This thesis is a philosophical defense of certain proposals John Paul II outlined and argued for in his work A Theology of the Body. The format of this thesis will be the following, arranged into four parts. In part one, I will give a very brief historical introduction to John Paul II and his work. Then I will sketch the philosophical matrix which the Theology of the Body enters, and introduce the synthetic methodology that John Paul II employs. The second part will elaborate and explain John Paul II’s metaphysics and phenomenology of the human person, the theological dimension of …

Dismantling The Master's House: Toward A Justice-Based Theory Of Community Economic Development, Etienne C. Toussaint

Faculty Publications

Since the end of the American Civil War, scholars have debated the efficacy of various models of community economic development, or CED. Historically, this debate has tracked one of two approaches: place-based models of CED, seeking to stimulate community development through market-driven economic growth programs, and people-based models of CED, focused on the removal of structural barriers to social and economic mobility that prevent human flourishing. More recently, scholars and policymakers have turned to a third model from the impact investing community — the social impact bond, or SIB. The SIB model of CED ostensibly finds a middle ground by …

Loss Of A Foundation Species, Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis), May Lead To Biotic Homogenization Of Fungal Communities And Altered Bacterial Abundance In The Forest Floor, Aliza Fassler, Jesse Bellemare, Danielle D. Ignace

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Tsuga canadensis (Eastern Hemlock) is a key forest foundation species that is currently declining across the eastern US due to attack by exotic insect species, primarily Adelges tsugae (Hemlock Woolly Adelgid). In the northeastern US, declining Eastern Hemlock stands are typically replaced by fast-growing deciduous Betula lenta (Black Birch) trees, altering ecosystem processes and ecological communities. In this study, we used an approach that substituted space for time to explore how the forest floor's soil organic horizon, macrofungal communities, and bacterial abundance might be altered following Eastern Hemlock replacement by Black Birch. We compared intact, mature Eastern Hemlock forest plots …