Digital Commons Network^™

Supporting Adoption And Guardianship: Evaluation Of The National Quality Improvement Center For Adoption And Guardianship, Nancy Rolock

Faculty Scholarship

The National Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation (QIC-AG) was a five-year project working with eight sites that implemented evidence-based interventions or developed and tested promising practices to achieve long-term, stable permanence in adoptive and guardianship homes.

Epanorama September 2019, Southern Adventist University

Panorama Parent Newsletter

This issue of the ePanorama parent newsletter contains a Q&A with SA President Mark Galvez and announce a new biology summer boot camp that was offered over the summer.

Video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/HlQ8X5f9_J0.

Homoeopathy Research – Building Up The Evidence, Anil Khurana

Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy

No abstract provided.

Antimicrobial Activity Of Different Homoeopathic Drugs And Their Potencies Against 'Aspergillus Niger' In Vitro, Suneel Prajapati, Sharma Mahima, Arun Kumar, Pankaj Gupta, Binit Dwivedi, Bhopal Arya, Renu Arya, Debadatta Nayak

Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy

Background: Homoeopathic remedies are widely used all over the world for different disease conditions. Approximately 70% are derived from the plant; however, their preclinical evaluation is still a major concern. Objective: This study was undertaken with an aim to explore the antimicrobial effect of different homoeopathic drugs and its potencies against the Aspergillus niger. Materials and Methods: Fifteen homoeopathic mother tinctures (Θ) and their potencies (3x, 6x, 12x) were tested for their biological activity against the human pathogenic fungi A. niger using disc diffusion method according to clinical and laboratory standard (CLSIM44-A) with slight modifications. The diameter of zone of …

A Review On Animal-Based Homoeopathic Drugs And Their Applications In Biomedicine, Bibaswan Biswas, Sundaram E, Shyaga Jhansi, Satish Patel, Anil Khurana, Raj Manchanda

Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy

Homoeopathy is one of the most well-practiced medical systems in the world. In Homoeopathy, like all other natural sources, animal and their secretions have been widely used. However, unlike other natural sources of homoeopathic drugs, for example, plants and chemicals, the collection and preparation of animal-based drugs are extremely challenging, especially for drugs from exotic animals. Considering the challenges, we envision that a review regarding the animal-based therapeutics, used in Homoeopathy, may be useful. Our review, consistently has found that the discoveries of the modern biomedicine agree with the reports from the homoeopathic literature. In many cases, the recent biomedical …

Human Capacity Building In Africa – The Birs Model, Kari Clase, Abigail Ekeigwe, Zita Ekeocha, Stephen R. Byrn, Paddy Shivanand

BIRS Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

Human capacity sufficiency and sustenance in regulatory science is a key factor for harmonization and an identified issue in the harmonization process specifically in Africa. The human factor is the linchpin for progress----there can be no working system without human capacity. Harmonization depends upon education that motivates and prepares individuals for leadership that subsequently fuels the profession.

This paper proposes that one of the root causes is lack of sufficient institutions in Africa providing education in regulatory sciences and introduces the Biotechnology Innovation and Regulatory Sciences (BIRS) program model. This education model began with the IPAT program and evolved into …

More Anatomically Realistic And Quantitative Models Of Pulmonary Surfactant Action And Alveolar Stability, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Working Papers

To explore basic mechanisms of action of pulmonary surfactant in preventing alveolar collapse, a first-principles analysis is done analyzing forces on the shared walls separating adjacent alveolar gas bubbles. The analysis holds for concave alveolar models with either rounded, dome-like surfaces or flat, box-like surfaces. The analysis also holds for neighboring alveoli of varying size and shape. Surfactant action is characterized by two parameters describing reduction in surface tension vs. log concentration. The resulting equations describe the net pressure tending to shift the shared position of a wall, as a function of the perturbation from a balanced initial state. In …

Development And Sensory Experience Dependent Regulation Of Microglia In Barrel Cortex, Joshua C. Brumberg, John Kalambogias, Chia-Chien Chen, Safraz Khan, Titus Son, Carolyn Headlam, Cindy Lin

Publications and Research

The barrel cortex is within the primary somatosensory cortex of the rodent, and processes signals from the vibrissae. Much focus has been devoted to the function of neurons, more recently, the role of glial cells in the processing of sensory input has gained increasing interest. Microglia are the principal immune cells of the nervous system that survey and regulate the cellular constituents of the dynamic nervous system. We investigated the normal and disrupted development of microglia in barrel cortex by chronically depriving sensory signals via whisker trimming for the animals’ first postnatal month. Using immunohistochemistry to label microglia, we performed …

Symmetric Inkball Alignment With Loopy Models, Nicholas Howe, Ji Won Chung

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Alignment tasks generally seek to establish a spatial correspondence between two versions of a text, for example between a set of manuscript images and their transcript. This paper examines a different form of alignment problem, namely pixel-scale alignment between two renditions of a handwritten word or phrase. Using loopy inkball graph models, the proposed technique finds spatial correspondences between two text images such that similar parts map to each other. The method has applications to word spotting and signature verification, and can provide analytical tools for the study of handwriting variation.

Bacterial Community Structure In Anaerobic Digesters Of A Full Scale Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant - Case Study Of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Munawwar A. Khan, Noorun N. Ashar, Arpitha G. Ganesh, Naushad Rais, Sultan M. Faheem, Shams T. Khan

All Works

© 2019, International Centre for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems SDEWES. All rights reserved. A highly complex microbial community involved in anaerobic sludge digesters plays vital roles in sludge treatment. The data on microbial ecology is important to accomplish efficient operation of the anaerobic digesters. This study is aimed at monitoring the bacterial community of three full-scale anaerobic digesters of a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment Plant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Fluorescent in-situ hybridization technique was applied to identify the bacterial groups and quantitative polymerase chain reaction to compare the richness of bacterial and archaeal domain. Results …

Protective Effect Of Alpha Lipoic Acid On Diabetic Nephropathy In Rats, Samar Yabes

Mansoura Veterinary Medical Journal

Objective: To evaluate the protective role of alpha lipoic acid in rats affected with experimentally-induced diabetes and secondarily complicated with nephropathy. Design: Randomized controlled study. Animals: Forty-eight Sprague Dawley rats. Procedures: Rats were allocated randomly into four groups (12 each); Control rats (Group 1); alpha lipoic acid (ALA) supplemented rats (Group 2); rats with induced diabetic nephropathy (Group 3), and rats with diabetic nephropathy and supplemented with alpha lipoic acid (Group 4). After one month of experimental induction, serum, plasma and renal tissue samples were harvested to determine glycemic status, renal damage markers, antioxidant status, oxidative and nitrosative stress markers, …

Black Male College Persistence: A Phenomenological Collective Of Familial And Social Motivators, Tyson Beale, Lavar Charleston, Adriel A. Hilton

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study examined familial differences between Black males not pre-categorized as high achieving or unprepared for college. The article highlights student persistence and examines the critical components in social and environmental arrangements. While there is evidence that some Black men never graduate college, this is not reflective of all Black men. Many do earn a baccalaureate degree, pursue graduate study, and diversify the workforce. This phenomenological study captures the voices of those who have persisted in higher education and concludes with implications for institutional practice and future research. Social capital, hyper-masculinity, and exchange theories guided this study.

Social Isolation And Technology: Implications For Psychosocial Development: A Theoretical Paper, Franco Zengaro, Sally Zengaro, Mohamed A. Ali

Journal of Research Initiatives

Advances in technology offer new frontiers in terms of conquering temporal dimensions, but with more significant advancements in technology, there is the possibility of having a diminished return in terms of interpersonal relationships. Without necessarily decrying technology as the culprit of a decrease in human social interaction, this conceptual paper discusses the opportunities provided to individuals through media encounters to be selective in their manner of communicating and the implications of this selectivity. This paper considers the complexity of human learning as based in situational, constructive, biological, and cognitive components underscored through the experiential, multisource nature of understanding. However, many …

A Light Weight Smartphone Based Human Activity Recognition System With High Accuracy, Md. O. Gani, Taskina Fayezeen, Richard J. Povinelli, Roger O. Smith, Muhammad Arif, Ahmed Kattan, Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

With the pervasive use of smartphones, which contain numerous sensors, data for modeling human activity is readily available. Human activity recognition is an important area of research because it can be used in context-aware applications. It has significant influence in many other research areas and applications including healthcare, assisted living, personal fitness, and entertainment. There has been a widespread use of machine learning techniques in wearable and smartphone based human activity recognition. Despite being an active area of research for more than a decade, most of the existing approaches require extensive computation to extract feature, train model, and recognize activities. …

Finding The Sweet Spot: What Levels Of Larval Mortality Lead To Compensation Or Overcompensation In Adult Production?, Zoey R. Neale, Steven A. Juliano

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Extrinsic mortality impinging on negative density-dependent populations can result in no change in the number of survivors (compensation) or an increase (overcompensation) by releasing the population from density-dependent effects on survivorship. The relationship between the level of extrinsic mortality (i.e., percentage of mortality) and the level and likelihood of overcompensation is theoretically important, but rarely investigated. We tested the hypothesis that overcompensation occurs below a threshold value of extrinsic mortality that is related to density-dependent mortality rate and that additive extrinsic mortality occurs above this threshold. This hypothesis predicts that survivorship vs. extrinsic mortality will (1) be best described by …

Association Of Frequency Of Hereditary Hemochromatosis (Hfe) Gene Mutations (H63d And C282y) With Iron Overload In Beta-Thalassemia Major Patients In Pakistan, Yasir Sharif, Saba Irshad, Anam Tariq, Sana Rasheed, Muhammad H. Tariq

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To evaluate any association between the frequency of hereditary hemochromatosis (HFE) gene mutation (H63D and C282Y) and iron overload in beta-thalassemia major (BTM) patients. Methods: The case-control study was conducted from June 2016 to February 2018. Blood samples from 204 BTM patients and 204 normal controls were taken from the Sundas Foundation Blood Bank. These samples were analyzed for serum ferritin assay and HFE mutation. Ferritin level was measured on the ARCHITECT 1000SR. Both patient and control samples were analyzed for mutations using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Results: Serum ferritin levels for all patients were >1000ng/mL. …

Identifying Menarcheal Age And Its Association With Body Mass Index In Young Saudi Females, Nazish Rafique, Mona H. Alsheikh

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To explore the relationship of menarcheal age with body mass index (BMI), to find mean menarcheal age in Saudi population and compare it with global data, and to create awareness in health science students on harmful effects of obesity. Methods: A cross-sectional study carried out between February 2015 and February 2016 on 744 health sciences students of Immam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia aged 18-21 years. Weight and height was measured, and subjects were categorized into 2 groups on the basis of BMI: normal and underweight (BMI ≤24.9), and over weight and obese (BMI ≥25). The data …

User Satisfaction Of Resources And Services Of Libraries: A Case Study Of The Narh-Bita College, Tema, Ghana., Zakaria Abukari

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information and communication technologies have revolutionized how information is delivered to information consumers in the 21^st century. Information can now be obtained just with a click of a button. For this reason, libraries are faced with the challenge of maintaining their clientel base. Therefore, user satisfaction of libraries' resources and services has become the major focus for most libraries. User satisfaction has been found to be an important factor that affects the use or non use of libraries. The study investigated the utilization and user satisfaction of the resources and services of the Narh-Bita College Library, Ghana. The study …

A Vision-Based Model Of Crowd Navigation, Gregory C. Dachner

Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation and Training Fellowship Reports

Humans navigate crowds daily. This can range from quick interactions between pedestrians on the sidewalk to jostling through a busy train station. Research in fields diverse as computer graphics, physics, evacuation planning, and mathematical biology have simulated emergent collective behavior in flocks, schools, and crowds (Couzin et al., 2002; Helbing & Molnár, 1995; Reynolds, 1987; Vicsek & Zafeiris, 2012). However, few of these models are built from experimental evidence about the visual information that governs human pedestrian behaviors in naturalistic environments. This project, funded by the Link Foundation, empirically studied and computationally modeled how individuals in a crowd use visual …

Minimalistic Peptide-Based Supramolecular Systems Relevant To The Chemical Origin Of Life, Daniela Kroiss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

All forms of life are based on biopolymers, which are made up of a selection of simple building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleotides, fatty acids and sugars. Their individual properties govern their interactions, giving rise to complex supramolecular structures with highly specialized functionality, including ligand recognition, catalysis and compartmentalization. In this thesis, we aim to answer the question whether short peptides could have acted as precursors of modern proteins during prebiotic evolution. Using a combination of experimental and computational techniques, we screened a large molecular search space for peptide sequences that are capable of forming supramolecular complexes with adenosine …

Efficiency Of Green Algae Chlorella Vulgaris In Remediation Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (Anthracene) From Culture Media, Sarab A. Juda, Maysoon M. Salah, Jasim M. Salman

Baghdad Science Journal

The fresh water green alga Chlorella vulgaris was selected to study its ability to degrade one of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs)known is anthracene (ANT). ANT is widely used in artificial products such as wood preservatives; insecticides; dye and coating materials. This algae was cultivated in CH-10 medium under constant laboratory conditions and exposed to different concentrations (1, 3, and 5 mg/l) of anthracene for 3, 5, 7, 9 and 15 days, with the concentration of ANT measured by high performance liquid chromatographic analysis (HPLC). The results showed that C.vulgaris has high ability to reduce anthracene to 80% at 1mg/Lcon centration …

Trypan Blue Exclusion Assay Verifies In Vitro Cytotoxicity Of New Cis-Platinum (Ii) Complex In Human Cells, Rajaa A. Hussein, Azhar Jasim Mohsin

Baghdad Science Journal

Various assays are used to determine the toxic effects of drugs at cellular levels in vitro. One of these methods is the dye exclusion assay, which measures membrane integrity in the presence of Trypan blue. Trypan blue the dye which was used in this study to investigate cytotoxic effect of a new Cis –dichloroplatinum (II) complex [(Qu)2PtCl2] on the viability of polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs). Three concentrations of platinum complex were prepared (70, 35and 17.5 µg/ ml) and the results revealed that the percentage of cell viability decreased as the platinum complex concentration increased in comparison with control. The platinum complex …

Detection A New Antiseptic Resistant Variant Of Qac Gene In Some Multi Drug Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Isolated From Different Clinical Sources, Noor Saber, Nuha Joseph Kandala, Hiba Abdulameer Mohammed

Baghdad Science Journal

The increasing use of antiseptic compounds creates selective pressure cause emergence of antiseptic resistance among Staphylococcus aureus .Resistance mechanism of antiseptic is driven mainly by multi drug resistant (MDR) efflux protein.Sixty five isolates of S.aureuswere collected from different clinical sources and subjected to 11 antibiotics most of them are recognized by efflux systems as extruded substrates. Range of efflux activity was estimated using cartwheel method. Simultaneous discrimination of antiseptic coding genes (qacA/B, smr and norA)as well as nuc and mecA genes among multidrug resistantS.aureus(MRSA) isolates was preformed using multiplex PCR assay , 61 isolatesamong 65 were positive tonucand mecA genes, …

Women's Perceptions Of Sexual Assault Perpetrators And Fear Of Rape, Aaron George Cisneros

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The overarching goal of the present thesis was to study women’s perceptions of sexual assault perpetrators and how those perceptions relate to fear of sexual assault. Previous researchers have developed a substantial literature on predictors and correlates of sexual assault perpetration. What is not known is how accurate women’s perceptions are of these predictors. Rationale from both evolutionary mismatch theory and social psychological stereotype theory suggests that women’s perceptions may be inaccurate. In the present thesis, I tested a set of hypotheses designed to examine individual differences in women’s perceptions of sexual assault perpetrators and how these perceptions relate to …

Geographic Population Structure And Taxonomic Identity Of Rhinichthys Osculus, The Santa Ana Speckled Dace, As Elucidated By Nuclear Dna Intron Sequencing, Liane Raynette Greaver

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Rhinichthys osculus (Cyprinidae), the speckled dace, is the most widely distributed freshwater fish in the western United States. The southern California populations of R. osculus are identified as the Santa Ana speckled dace (SASD), though the SASD has not yet been formally recognized as a distinct taxon. Current mtDNA analysis performed in the Metcalf Lab has shown a reciprocally monophyletic relationship among three California regions; southern, central coast, and Owens Valley. Similarly, microsatellite genotyping has shown significant levels of geographic population structure. The purpose of this study was to provide nuclear DNA sequence data to determine the taxonomic status of …

Tungsten Is Essential For Long-Term Maintenance Of Members Of Candidate Archaeal Genus Aigarchaeota Group 4, Joshua Robert Reyes Dimapilis

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Aigarchaeota, a deeply branching archaeal lineage with no cultivated representatives, is found in geothermal and hydrothermal systems worldwide and consists of at least 9 genus-level groups, each predicted to have diverse metabolic capabilities. This candidate archaeal phylum is part of the TACK superphylum, members of which possess eukaryotic-signature proteins, thus suggesting that they may represent evolutionary steps along the way to the genesis of the first eukaryotic cells. Cultivating members of Aigarchaeota would elucidate how eukaryotes arose in evolutionary history and provide biotechnological applications. Aigarchaeota Group 4 (AigG4), one genus in Aigarchaeota, was previously found to be abundant in corn …

Thermal Cues Drive Plasticity Of Desiccation Resistance In Montane Salamanders With Implications For Climate Change, Eric A. Riddell, Emma Y. Roback, Christina E. Wells, Kelly R. Zamudio, Michael W. Sears

Publications

Organisms rely upon external cues to avoid detrimental conditions during environmental change. Rapid water loss, or desiccation, is a universal threat for terrestrial plants and animals, especially under climate change, but the cues that facilitate plastic responses to avoid desiccation are unclear. We integrate acclimation experiments with gene expression analyses to identify the cues that regulate resistance to water loss at the physiological and regulatory level in a montane salamander (Plethodon metcalfi). Here we show that temperature is an important cue for developing a desiccation-resistant phenotype and might act as a reliable cue for organisms across the globe. …

Role Of Dietary Flavonoid Compounds In Driving Patterns Of Microbial Community Assembly, Kerry L. Ivey, Andrew T. Chan, Jacques Izard, Aedin Cassidy, Geraint B. Rogers, Eric B. Rimm

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Flavonoids are a group of polyphenolic dietary compounds found in many different plant-based foods. There is increasing evidence that higher flavonoid intake may be causally linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases. The bioactivity and bioavailability of many dietary flavonoids can be influenced by gastrointestinal microbiome metabolism. However, the role that habitual flavonoid intake plays in shaping the human gut microbiome is poorly understood. We describe an application of an ecosystem-based analytic approach to nutritional, microbiome, and questionnaire data from a cohort of more than 240 generally healthy adult males to assess the role of …

Reading Habits And Preferences Of Female Collegiate Students From Jalandhar Region: A Survey, Shaveta Azad

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract –Read in order to know won’t be wrong if we talk about the importance of reading in a student’s life during his/her academic career and later. Reading makes one capable of being a lifelong learner through updating and expanding one’s existing knowledge. Unfortunately, Indian Education System do not comprise of special types of Reading programs for students to nurture the habits of reading since their very early age , like other developed countries. The present study aims to find out the reading habits of college going female students studying in different streams such as Humanities, Non-Med, Pure Sciences, …

Variable Rate Irrigation Of Maize And Soybean In West-Central Nebraska Under Full And Deficit Irrigation, J Burdette Barker, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Christopher M.U. Neale, Daran Rudnick

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) may improve center pivot irrigation management, including deficit irrigation. A remote-sensing-based evapotranspiration model was implemented with Landsat imagery to manage irrigations for a VRI equipped center pivot irrigated field located in West-Central Nebraska planted to maize in 2017 and soybean in 2018. In 2017, the study included VRI using the model, and uniform irrigation using neutron attenuation for full irrigation with no intended water stress (VRI-Full and Uniform-Full treatments, respectively). In 2018, two deficit irrigation treatments were added (VRI-Deficit and Uniform-Deficit, respectively) and the model was modified in an attempt to reduce water balance drift; model …