Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Pharmaceutical Waste Prevention And Disposal Practices In Nurse Populations, Natasha Wasim

Public Health Theses

Objective: This research study aimed to explore pharmaceutical waste prevention and disposal practices in nurse populations.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was employed through the Qualtrics survey system. The survey questions were designed to probe knowledge, behavior, and attitudes of nurses towards pharmaceutical waste. Participants included intensive care unit nurses

and perioperative nurses in the Yale New Haven Health System.

Results: A total of 104 surveys were collected. Nurses were asked about the importance of proper waste disposal, and 95.2% of nurses (N=99/104) believed that appropriate waste disposal is important to “protect the environment health.” The survey also asked about …

Prion Epidemiology And The Npdpsc’S Experience With Rt-Quic, Aleksandra Wrona

Public Health Theses

Prion diseases, or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, constitute a wide array of invariably fatal rapidly progressive neurodegenerative illnesses that affect both humans and animals. The gold standard of diagnosis for these diseases is through neuropathologic examination of brain tissue following autopsy. In September 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added positive real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) test result as a likely indicator of certain human prion diseases. With high sensitivity and specificity approaching 100%, RT-QuIC has quickly become one of the most powerful antemortem diagnostic tools.

This paper will demonstrate why changes in diagnostic criteria and reporting metrics are …

Epigenetic Silencing Rna Methylation Machinery Fto And Mettl3 Associate With Patient Survival In Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma, Jiaxun Zhao

Public Health Theses

Purpose: RNA methylation eraser FTO and writer METTL3 play important roles in human diseases by regulating gene expression. However, the potential of FTO and METTL3 as markers in renal clear cell carcinoma (CCRCC) is still unknown. The purpose of this study is to investigate differential expression of FTO and METTL3 in CCRCC vs. normal kidney tissues, the association of FTO and METTL3 expression and methylation with and their interaction of FTO and METTL3 expression in patient survival in CCRCC.

Method: FTO and METTL3 expression and methylation, the clinicopathologic data were retrieved from a publicly accessed dataset of The Cancer Genome …

Using Volatile Organic Compounds In Exhaled Breath As A Biomarker For Early Lung Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review, Jieqiong Zhou

Public Health Theses

Lung cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths globally. The major problem of the high mortality rate is the late diagnosis. Conventional methods utilized for clinical detection of lung cancer have employed expensive and invasive medical procedures that cause stress, discomfort, and pain to patients, and have demonstrated low sensitivity, substantial false negatives, and risk of radiation exposure. The drawbacks obviate their applicability to large-scale, population-wide screening efforts. This paper reviews the applications of using volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath as a potential approach for early lung cancer detection.

An …

Patent Inequality, Greg Day, W. Michael Schuster

Scholarly Works

Using an original dataset of over 1,000,000 patents and empirical methods, we find that the patent system perpetuates inequalities between powerful and upstart firms. When faced with growing numbers of patents in a field, upstart inventors reduce research and development expenditures, while those already holding many patents increase their innovation efforts. This phenomenon affords entrenched firms disproportionate opportunities to innovate as well as utilize the resulting patents to create barriers to entry (e.g., licensing costs or potential litigation).

A hallmark of this type of behavior is securing large patent holdings to create competitive advantages associated with the size of the …

Discovery Of Adults Linked To Cloning Oceanic Starfish Larvae (Oreaster, Asteroidea: Echinodermata), Daniel Janies, Yoalli Quetzalli Hernández-Díaz, Francisco Alonso Solís-Marín, Karen Lopez, Boyan Alexandrov, Madeline Galac, Joan Herrera, Janessa Cobb, Thomas A. Ebert, Isidro Bosch

Biology

Two juvenile specimens of a new species of Oreaster were collected at Parque Nacional Arrecife Alacranes and Triángulos Oeste in the southern Gulf of Mexico. DNA of mitochondrial loci identifies them as members of the same clade as cloning larvae of Oreaster found abundantly in waters of the Florida Current-Gulf Stream system, and distinct from Oreaster clavatus and Oreaster reticulatus, the two known Oreasteridae species in the North Atlantic. Larvae from the new species of Oreaster persist as clones but also metamorphose and settle to the benthos with typical asteroid morphology. © 2019 The University of Chicago.

Knowing Is Half The Battle: Assessments Of Both Student Perception And Performance Are Necessary To Successfully Evaluate Curricular Transformation, Tarren J. Shaw, Suann Yang, Troy R. Nash, Rachel M. Pigg, Jeffrey M. Grim

Biology

Student-centered pedagogies increase learning and retention. Quantifying change in both student learning gains and student perception of their experience allows faculty to evaluate curricular transformation more fully. Student buy-in, particularly how much students value and enjoy the active learning process, has been positively associated with engagement in active learning and increased learning gains. We hypothesize that as the frequency of students who have successfully completed the course increases in the student population, current students may be more likely to buy-in to the curriculum because this common experience could create a sense of community. We measured learning gains and attitudes during …

Ripensare La Razionalità: La Crescita Di Significato E I Limiti Del Formalismo, Susan Haack

Articles

Man mano che la nostra conoscenza e la nostra esperienza crescono, i concetti assumono un significato nuovo e più ricco. La filosofia del linguaggio recente (post-Fregeana) hanno prestato poca attenzione a questo fenomeno; e filosofi radicali come Feyerabend e Rorty diedero per scontato che il cambiamento di significato fosse una minaccia alla razionalità. Ma i pensatori nella tradizione pragmatica classica – Peirce nella filosofia della scienza e, più implicitamente, Holmes nella teoria giuridica – riconobbero l’importanza della crescita di significato e capirono come questa potesse contribuire al progresso della scienza e all’adattamento di un sistema giuridico al cambiare delle circostanze. …

The Divergent Effects Of Cdppb And Cannabidiol On Fear Extinction And Anxiety In A Predator Scent Stress Model Of Ptsd In Rats, John Shallcross, Peter Hámor, Allison R. Bechard, Madison Romano, Lori Knackstedt, Marek Schwendt

Psychology

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) currently has no FDA-approved treatments that reduce symptoms in the majority of patients. The ability to extinguish fear memory associations is impaired in PTSD individuals. As such, the development of extinction-enhancing pharmacological agents to be used in combination with exposure therapies may benefit the treatment of PTSD. Both mGlu5 and CB1 receptors have been implicated in contextual fear extinction. Thus, here we tested the ability of the mGlu5 positive allosteric modulator 3-Cyano-N-(1,3-diphenyl-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)benzamide (CDPPB) and cannabidiol (CBD) to reduce both conditioned and unconditioned fear. We used a predator-threat animal model of PTSD which we and others have …

Coarse Particulate Matter Exposure And Inflammation, Emilie Elizabeth Davis

Public Health Theses

Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, and environmental exposures, such as air pollution, contribute to the risk of CVD. While previous studies have found that fine particles, PM 2.5, are associated with CVD risk, fewer studies have considered the effect of coarse particles, PM 10-2.5, on CVD risk and the possible biological mechanism through which this environmental exposure could increase CVD risk. Methods This analysis examines the association between ambient concentrations of PM 10-2.5 and a marker of CVD risk in a cohort of midlife women. Annual questionnaire and clinical data were …

Improving Stem Recruitment Through A Theme-Based Summer Residential Camp Focused On Sea Level Rise, Vukica M. Jovanović, Balša Terzić, Mujde Erten-Unal, Victoria Hill, George Mcleod, Michelle Covi, David Burdige, Jenifer Alonzo, Justin Mason, Tysha Batts, Cynthia Tomovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

In this paper, the authors present an enrichment program that focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concepts. The program is named Building Leaders to Advance Science and Technology (BLAST) and is held each summer at three universities across the Commonwealth of Virginia: Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. BLAST is sponsored in partnership among these three universities and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC), and is funded by the General Assembly of Commonwealth of Virginia. Its main purpose is to expose high school students to topics related to different STEM fields through …

The School-Based Family: Teachers As Parental Figures For Orphans And Vulnerable Children In Ugandan Schools, Stacy Taniguchi, Angela Warren, Steve Hite, Mark Widmer, Ramon B. Zabriskie, Yusef Nsubuga, Christopher Mugimu

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible formation of surrogate families within Ugandan schools, especially among orphans who lack positive development opportunities typically provided by parents. This qualitative study sample of 66 Ugandan secondary school students were selected from eight schools in the Mukono district of Uganda. Findings suggest a potentially widespread family formation pattern between students and their teachers. More than 75% of students interviewed self-identified their teacher as family. Some teachers were able to offer orphans and vulnerable children positive developmental assets and were, therefore, identified as family.

Mental Illness And Psychiatry In The Victorian Era: An Analysis Of The Prevailing Power Dynamics Between Women And Male Authority Figures Through Gilman And Freud., Rumaisa Nasim Jumana

Dissertations and Theses

In this research paper, I intend to focus on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) and Sigmund Freud’s Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (written in 1900 and published in 1905), with an aim to represent the prevailing attitudes of men, especially male physicians, towards women in the Victorian era. I intend to demonstrate how the Victorian social system placed women in a subordinate position through patriarchal ideals of femininity and unapologetically labeled them “insane” if their behavior and personality dared deviate from the prevailing social norms and conventions. In addition, I hope to shed light …

La Cofradía De Artes Y Artesanos Hispánicos: 1978 To 1983 Redefining Tradition In The New Mexican Art Market, Ethel Mercedes Everett

Dissertations and Theses

La Cofradía de Artes y Artesanos Hispánicos: Redefining Tradition in the New Mexican Art Market. May 2019.

This master’s thesis explores the 1978 founding, existence, dissolve, and the legacy of the Santa Fe, New Mexican artist exhibition group, La Cofradía de Artes y Artesanos Hispánico (La Cofradía). La Cofradía was formed by six Santa Fe Hispano artists in reaction to creative limitations first imposed on Hispano artists in 1926, when the annual Spanish Market was formed. The Spanish Market was the sole arts sales venue available to Hispano artists in the exclusionary Santa Fe gallery and museum market. The Spanish …

Multi-Locus Phylogenetic Inference Of The Howler Monkey (Alouatta) Radiation In South America., Esmeralda Ferreira

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

Howler monkeys (Alouatta) are the most widely distributed New World primates, ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. They occur in tropical rain forests, flooded and gallery forests, and deciduous and semi-deciduous environments. Despite their importance as seed dispersers, howlers have also been known to be ecological indicators. Available phylogenetic hypotheses for this genus have used chromosomal characters, morphological characteristics, and a limited number of molecular markers and specimens. In spite of these analyses, branching patterns among howler species lineages conflict between studies or remain unresolved. Using 14 unlinked non-coding intergenic nuclear regions under both a concatenated …

Snowmelt Detection On Alpine Glaciers Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Time Series, Corey Scher

Dissertations and Theses

Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) glaciers serve as some of the most sensitive indicators of changes in global climate. These glaciers shape the hydrologic dynamics of river systems supplying freshwater to over 2 billion people throughout Asia and regulate the geochemistry of sensitive aquatic alpine ecosystems. As snowmelt onsets sooner, lasts longer, and snowfields retreat due to increases in global temperature, the hydrologic dynamics of catchments draining HKH threaten to change the availability of surface freshwater resources for nearly one fifth of the global population, disturb sensitive aquatic habitat, and precipitate hazards associated with glacier wasting. Informed planning and decision-making around …

Neuron-Glial (Ng) Interactions: A Microfluidic Examination Of Ng Emergent Responses For Repair, Tanya Singh

Dissertations and Theses

Neuron-glia communication is crucial to the development, plasticity, and repair of the nervous system (NS). While neurons are well known to conduct electrical impulses that transfer biological information and stimuli throughout the NS, our understanding of the roles of glia continues to evolve from when the cells were largely believed to act solely for neuronal support. Recent decades of research has shown that glia can alter metabolism, conduct impulses and change phenotype for NS repair. NG interactions have, thereby, become heavily researched in varied areas of biomedical engineering, including embryogenesis, neural regeneration, growth, and intracellular synaptic activity. However, while NG …

Controlled Migration Of Retinal Progenitor Cells Within Electro-Chemotactic Fields, Shawn Mishra

Dissertations and Theses

Vision loss in retinal degenerative diseases is overwhelmingly attributed to damage and death of retinal photoreceptor cells. Studies in mouse retina have suggested that transplantation of isolated post-natal or stem cell-derived retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) to replace apoptotic or damaged photoreceptors may be a novel approach to restore vision. Thus far, outcomes project that the amount of restored visual response depends upon the migration of transplanted cells from insertion in the sub-retinal space to the outer nuclear layer (ONL). However, transplantation efficiency is exceedingly low – ~5% cells transplanted enter the retina – directly limiting the efficacy of the treatments. …

Characterizing Chromosomal Aberrations In Cells Deficient For Both Atm And Msh2, Yeliz Inalman

Dissertations and Theses

Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and mutS homologue 2 (MSH2) are important DNA repair proteins that participate in DNA repair pathways to maintain genomic integrity. Mice deficient for ATM and MSH2 mice are viable. However, ATM^-/- mice show growth retardation, neurological defects, and spontaneous lymphomagenesis. MSH2^-/- mice suffer from aggressive lymphoid tumors between two to five months of age and have increased microsatellite instability, which predisposes MSH2^-/- mice to carcinomas. However, mice deficient in both ATM and MSH2 are unable to survive beyond postnatal day 21 (P21). The observed lethality in ATM^-/-MSH2^-/- mice may result …

Role Of Moa-1, An Anti-Phosphatase, And Apl-1, An App-Related Protein, In Morphogenesis And Mating Behavior In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Valerie C. Moscoso

Dissertations and Theses

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects more than 30 million people globally. The disease is characterized by an accumulation of extracellular beta-amyloid peptide plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. The beta-amyloid peptide is derived from a larger precursor protein, the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Mutations in APP have been correlated with Alzheimer's disease. Due to the presence of two paralogues, APLP1 and APLP2, which have overlapping functions, the normal function of APP is difficult to elucidate. Knockout of the entire APP gene family in mice results in lethality and developmental defects, indicating that the APP gene …

Copper-Mediated N1-Arylation Of Benzotriazoles, Magdalena R. Andrzejewska

Dissertations and Theses

Benzotriazoles are group of bicyclic heterocyclic compounds that contain three nitrogen atoms fused to a benzene ring. Along with their derivatives, they possess a wide range of properties. They are used in medical field, as they exhibit such properties as antibacterial,antiplasmoidal,antiprotozoal, antifungal and anti-inflammatory activities, among others. They are also used in various industries as herbicides, UV absorbers, deicing and antiicing agents and corrosion inhibitors, to list a few. Because of their wide range of applications, we designed a new two-step synthesis for the formation of N-1-aryl benzotriazoles. 1-Hydroxy-1H-benzotriazole N-oxides were synthesized using phenylboronic acid (PhB(OH) …

Cyclophosphamide And Doxorubicin Contribute To Onset Of Chemobrain By Altering Epigenetic Factors Dnmt1, Dnmt3a, Tet1, Mecp2, And Cbp, Joshua Reiser

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Mechanisms Of Microglia Mediated Apolipoprotien E Neurotoxicity, Pardeep Singh

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Do Saproxylic Curculionids Affect The Fitness Of Co-Occurring Cerambycids?, Sheila R. Heath

Dissertations and Theses

Saproxylic insects sometimes coexist in incredibly high numbers under bark and share common resources. Thus, interactions between species are possible and could even explain their coexistence. This study investigates evidence of negative or positive effects of curculionid beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) on cerambycid beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) that coexisted in dead tree branches in Costa Rica. Co-occurrence analysis and generalized regressions were used to test associations between cerambycid and curculionid species. Three cerambycid species that each co-occurred with a curculionid species were selected to measure fitness. Fitness measures of the cerambycid were compared with abundance of the co-occurring curculionid to assess the …

Reframing As Reclamation: Trauma Theory, African Spiritualism, And Ecocriticism In Jesmyn Ward’S Sing, Unburied, Sing, Alexandra Cohl Ms.

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores how ecocriticism and trauma theory intersect within Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) to tackle the complex act of collective healing. Trauma, and its subset transgenerational trauma, have often been a focal point for critical analysis of other African American texts that engage with ghosts and hauntings, such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987). Often, these ghosts are symbolic of transgenerational trauma in fictional works. While this association is apparent in Ward’s novel, this thesis applies the aforementioned modes of scholarship alongside African-based spiritualism to investigate further the inclusion of ghosts. To accomplish this approach, this thesis …

Carbonatites As A Record Of The Carbon Isotope Composition Of Large Igneous Province Outgassing, Ellen Gales

Dissertations and Theses

Large igneous province (LIP) eruptions have been linked in some cases to major perturbations of Earth’s carbon cycle. However, few observations directly constrain the isotopic composition of carbon released by LIP magmas because carbon isotopes fractionate during degassing, which hampers understanding of the relative roles of mantle versus crustal carbon reservoirs. Carbonatite magmatism associated with LIPs provides a unique window into the isotopic systematics of LIP carbon because the majority of carbon in carbonatites crystalizes rather than degassing. Here, we present new δ¹³C data for the Guli carbonatites in the Siberian Traps. In addition, we compile ~260 published …

Diversification And Biogeography Of Pantropical Grass Yellow Butterflies (Pieridae: Coliadinae), Jing V. Leong

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Literature Survey Of Wet-Waste And Hydrothermal Carbonization System: A Comparative Evaluation, Ramat Olaide Yusuf

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis describes the process of Hydrothermal carbonization and a comparative assessment on recent work done on the process using different feedstocks such as Raw Apple (RA), Apple chip pomace (ACP), apple juice pomace (AJP), grape pomace (GP), macadamia nut-shell (MNS), Sewage Sludge (SS), Poultry Litter (PL) and Grape Marc (GM). The data obtained from the literature survey was compared with the data obtained by the CCL team on the SWPS gasifier (HTC of poultry litter) to obtain how carbon conversion efficiency, syngas composition, thermal efficiency, char production rate, gas production rate and energy utilization vary with carbonization process conditions, …

Intensification Of Gas Absorption In A Downward Flow Microbubble Bioreactor, Manizheh Ansari

Dissertations and Theses

Bioreactors are of interest for value-upgrading of stranded or waste industrial gases, such as CO, CH₄, or syngas. Process economics requires reduction of reactor cost and size while maintaining high production rate via rapid delivery of gas feedstock to the liquid phase which in turn requires a high volumetric mass transfer rate (). One strategy to achieve this goal is to increase interfacial area density, a, to >3000 m² m^-3, while minimizing use of energy. Here we show a novel reactor column design that uses a micro-jet array to break feedstock at ambient pressure …

Effect Of Hypoxia On Spontaneous Neural Activity In The Cortex Of Neonate Mouse Pups, Krithikka Ravi Ms

Dissertations and Theses

Hypoxia caused by inadequate oxygenation has profound effects on the normal functioning of the brain in mammals. Acute or chronic hypoxic insults occur in the brain depending on the duration of hypoxic exposure. Hypoxia is known to occur in the human womb and exerts adverse effects on the developing fetus. Most of the ongoing research on hypoxia is performed on rodent brain slice taken from various brain regions using intracellular recording. Extensive work has been carried out to understand the effects of chronic hypoxia on the developing nervous system, specifically during intrauterine development. However, effects of acute hypoxia occurring perinatally, …