Digital Commons Network^™

August 19, 2019: Smc Ranked High In Princeton Review, Summer Research Video, Summer Wine Festival Recap, Saint Mary's College Of California

SMC Bulletin 2013-2020

No abstract provided.

Ip3 Receptor Isoforms Differently Regulate Er-Mitochondrial Contacts And Local Calcium Transfer, Adam Bartok, David Weaver, Tünde Golenár, Zuzana Nichtova, Máté Katona, Száva Bánsághi, Kamil J. Alzayady, V. Kaye Thomas, Hideaki Ando, Katsuhiko Mikoshiba, Suresh K. Joseph, David I. Yule, György Csordás, György Hajnóczky

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Contact sites of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria locally convey calcium signals between the IP₃ receptors (IP3R) and the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, and are central to cell survival. It remains unclear whether IP3Rs also have a structural role in contact formation and whether the different IP3R isoforms have redundant functions. Using an IP3R-deficient cell model rescued with each of the three IP3R isoforms and an array of super-resolution and ultrastructural approaches we demonstrate that IP3Rs are required for maintaining ER-mitochondrial contacts. This role is independent of calcium fluxes. We also show that, while each isoform can support contacts, type …

Darnell '88 Earns Starkey Award, University Communications

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Lactonic Sophorolipid Increases Surface Wettability Of Poly- L -Lactic Acid Electrospun Fibers, Alexis M. Ziemba, Keith P. Lane, Bailey Balouch, Anthony R. D'Amato, Filbert Totsingan, Richard A. Gross, Ryan J. Gilbert

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The hydrophobicity of electro spun poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) fibers hinders their integration with surrounding tissue for a variety of applications. In this study, we increased PLLA fiber hydrophilicity by incorporating the natural surfactant, lactonic sophorolipid (LSL). PLLA+LSL fibers had similar fiber morphology but significantly greater surface wettability, which suggested LSL accumulation on the fiber surface. Differential scanning calorimetry results also suggested that LSL was phase separated from PLLA. Despite the altered surface wettability of these fibers, there was no change in fibroblast adhesion. Future studies may explore the use of this natural surfactant to deliver bioactive factors to enhance fibroblast …

Evaluating The Relationships Between Science Class Success And Math Placement In High School, Tila Hidalgo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order for students to perform well in science, they need opportunities to develop formal reasoning. Teachers in a private school in Latin America noted that students who had not yet completed Algebra I were struggling in a 9th-grade chemistry course more than their classmates who had completed Algebra I. The purpose of this causal, comparative action research was to determine if math placement was key to supporting student success in science. Data on achievement, as indicated by final exam scores in math, science, and English, were used from the cohort of students enrolled in 9th grade in 2015 and …

Effect Of Vitamin D Supplementation On Endothelial Function – An Updated Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis And Meta-Regression, Nick L. Pincombe, Melissa J. Pearson, Neil A. Smart, Nicola King, Gudrun Dieberg

School of Biomedical Sciences

No abstract provided.

Life Satisfaction And Healthcare Utilization Among Immigrants To The United States, Merritt Christian Rachel Harrelson

LSU Master's Theses

Previous research suggests a relationship between life satisfaction and healthcare utilization or HCU (Habibov & Afandi, 2016; Kim, Park, Sun, Smith, & Peterson, 2014). However, no study was found that examined this relationship among elderly American immigrants. The purpose of this study was to determine whether life satisfaction is linked to HCU for this population. The researcher of the current study applied binary logistic regression to data taken from the Health and Retirement Survey to determine whether changes in life satisfaction could be linked to variance in HCU across seven domains, including hospitalization, overnight nursing home stays, doctors visits, dentist …

Quantifying Impacts Of Climate Change On Species Interactions While Fostering Undergraduate Research Experiences Using The Monarch (Danaus Plexippus)- Milkweed (Asclepias Sp.) System, Matthew J. Faldyn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Species interactions, specifically plant-insect interactions, are ubiquitous worldwide. Climate change will alter species interactions by affecting abiotic conditions, affecting species phenologies, interaction strengths, and physiological development. However, climate change impacts are often studied using individual species, with limited consideration quantifying the direct and indirect impacts of climate change species interactions. Using lab, field, and greenhouse experiments, I investigated how climate change will directly and indirectly affect species interactions while also fostering undergraduate research experiences using the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)- milkweed (Asclepias sp.) system.

In North America, a widely planted, invasive milkweed species, Asclepias curassavica, negatively …

Do Corporate Owned Adaptive Learning Platforms Perpetuate Banking Style Learning? Integrating Technology For Activism Into Transformational Sustainability Education, Tina M. Garner

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

We live in a world that tends to be controlled by corporations. The public school system should be wary of the problems that corporate control has on education. Even though public schools should not have corporate influence, the fact remains that they do, and this perpetuates Freire's banking style learning. Through time, the corporate influence in education was through educational materials such as book sales. Since the decline of the use of books and the growth of the use of technologies, corporations have followed suit through the sales of Adaptive Learning Platforms. Through leveraging the technology which students enjoy using, …

Avian Dispersal Networks, Metacommunity Structure, And Bryophyte Community Assemblages, Matthew Wojciech Chmielewski

Dissertations and Theses

Spatial processes have a profound influence on the structure and function of community assemblages. The dispersal of organisms from their place of origin to the location in which they live out their reproductive life is particularly important for plant communities, which generally cannot adjust their location post-germination. Connection between communities at a landscape scale can also influence species persistence, local and regional diversity, and functional turnover at the metacommunity scale. Animals have been shown to disproportionately deposit propagules in particular microsites in many plant species, facilitating the arrival of plants to appropriate niche-space. Birds are particularly notable seed dispersers, given …

Water Quality Analysis Of Ecoroof Runoff In Portland, Pranoti P. Deshmukh

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Portland, Oregon is internationally recognized for its implementation of sustainable stormwater management technologies. Ecoroof is one of the sustainable solutions to reduce stormwater runoff which also provides multiple environmental benefits. However, very little is known about the impact of ecoroofs on water quality of roof runoff. Stormwater runoff carries a significant amount of pollutants, which, if it directly enters a stream or river, degrades water quality and severely harms aquatic life.

This study evaluates the trends in the long-term water quality data from ecoroofs and conventional roofs in the Portland area. Mann Kendall trend test was used to detect the …

Wyatt Lab Gets Another Ride To Space Station As Nasa Preps For Moon Mission, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Career Corner: Alumni, Friends To Network With Stemstart Freshmen, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Grandparenting In Urban Bangalore, India: Support And Involvement From The Standpoint Of Young Adult University Students, Peter B. Gray, Watinaro Longkumer, Santona Panda, Madhavi Rangaswamy

Anthropology Faculty Research

A variety of caregivers, including grandparents, help raise children. Among grandparents, most Western samples evidence a matrilateral (i.e., mother’s kin) bias in caregiving, and many studies show more positive impacts and stronger relationships with grandmothers than grandfathers. The aim of the present study is to test competing hypotheses about a potential laterality bias and explore contrasts between grandmothers and grandfathers in a sample of urban young adult university students in Bangalore, India. A sample of 377 (252 women) relatively mobile and high socioeconomic status individuals 17 to 25 years of age completed a survey consisting of sociodemographic and grandparenting questions. …

Assessment Of The Biocompatibilty, Stability, And Suitability Of Natural And Synthetic Polymers And Drugs In The Fda Approval Process, Phuong Anh Hoang Nguyen

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Regulation of the development, production, marketing, and sales of medical pharmaceuticals and devices in the United States fall under the regulatory functions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The current FDA approval process takes an average of 10 years from start to completion, and costs over $100 million. As a result, companies use many different methods to find additional use of their drugs through marketing directly to the physician, or recycling of previously approved drug moieties. In this work, an evaluation of the in vitro and ex vivo biocompatibility of polymers and drugs in different phases of FDA approval …

The Correlation Between Sleep Deprivation And Hypertension In Healthy Adults, Bonnie Keating

All Student-Created Educational Resources

The purpose of this study to investigate the correlation of healthy males between the ages of 18-45 years and blood pressure and if lack of sleep of 6 months or greater can lead to Stage 1 hypertension or worse. Studying sleep deprivation and its effects on healthy people can help identify how important sleep is to maintaining overall health.

Contract Law And The Liberalism Of Fear, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

Liberalism’s concern with human freedom seems related to contractual freedom and thus contract law. There are, however, many strands of liberal thought and which of them best justifies contract is a difficult question. In The Choice Theory of Contracts, Hanoch Dagan and Michael Heller offer a vision of contract based on autonomy. Drawing on the work of Joseph Raz, they argue that extending autonomy should be the law’s primary concern, which requires that we extend the range of contractual choices available. While there is much to admire in their work, I argue that autonomy as conceived by Dagan and Heller …

Professional Interaction In Mental Health Courts: Processing Defendants With Mental Illness, Monte D. Staton

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, the author presents ethnographic research and analysis of how criminal justice and mental health professionals interact with each other and with criminal defendants with mental illness in running a mental health court (MHC) program. Ethnographic field research included observations of court programs, interviews of professionals, and gathering of textual documents, at nine MHCs in a Midwestern state. In MHC criminal defendants with mental illness participate in a program of regular court appearances, probation supervision, and mandated treatment, rather than being incarcerated in jail or prison. The author utilized the symbolic interaction perspective and examined how the professionals …

Recent Trends, Current Research In Cyberpsychology: A Literature Review, Amarjit Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Singh

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Cyberpsychology refers to the study of the mind and behavior in the context of interactions with technology. It is an emerging branch, which has focused on the psychological aspects connected to the increasing presence and usages of technology in modern lives. This paper traces recent advancement and trends of Cyberpsychology is an emerging domain of knowledge and goes on the give a literature review of the same. An analysis of the recent research and literature covering 300 most relevant research papers from the period of 2012 to 15, August 2019 was conducted to determine and shape the research pattern based …

Modeling Vertical Migration Of Cyanobacteria And Zooplankton, Corina Christina Mae Overman

Dissertations and Theses

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, often cause harmful algal blooms and release toxic substances that can harm humans and other animals. Accurately modeling these phytoplankton is a step towards predicting, preventing, and controlling such blooms. Cyanobacteria and zooplankton species are known to migrate vertically in the water column on a daily cycle. Capturing this behavior is one aspect of correctly modeling their dynamics. Here, several models of cyanobacteria vertical movement were tested in proof-of-concept models before being applied to data from field studies. These models included both continuum and particle-tracking frameworks. Four continuum-framework models of cyanobacteria vertical migration were …

Evaluation Of The Uncertainty In Satellite-Based Crop State Variable Retrievals Due To Site And Growth Stage Specific Factors And Their Potential In Coupling With Crop Growth Models, Nathaniel Levitan, Yanghui Kang, Mutlu Özdogan, Vincenzo Magliulo, Paulo Castillo, Fred Moshary, Barry Gross

Publications and Research

Coupling crop growth models and remote sensing provides the potential to improve our understanding of the genotype x environment x management (G X E X M) variability of crop growth on a global scale. Unfortunately, the uncertainty in the relationship between the satellite measurements and the crop state variables across different sites and growth stages makes it diffcult to perform the coupling. In this study, we evaluate the effects of this uncertainty with MODIS data at the Mead, Nebraska Ameriflux sites (US-Ne1, US-Ne2, and US-Ne3) and accurate, collocated Hybrid-Maize (HM) simulations of leaf area index (LAI) and canopy light use …

2019-August-17-Crystal Mcclendon, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

Mechanisms Regulating The Circannual Rhythm Of Hibernation, Carla Frare

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Hibernation is a unique adaptation to conserve energy entering a hypometabolic (low metabolic rate) and hypothermic (low body temperature) state called torpor. Torpor is characterized by a drop in metabolism to 1-2% of basal metabolic rate and a decrease in body temperature to one to two degrees above ambient temperature. Metabolic rate is restored to basal metabolic rate and body temperature increases from 2-3⁰C to 36⁰C during the regularly timed arousal. The adenosine A1 receptor agonists promote the onset of hibernation and torpor in different species, through a yet undefined neuronal circuit. In the Arctic ground squirrel, CHA, an adenosine …

Mcneil River State Game Sanctuary Permit Lottery Applicant Preferences And Marginal Willingness To Pay For Permit Application: A Best-Worst Discrete Choice Experiment, Taylor B. Young

Economics

This study applies data from a web-based survey administered to 2016-2018 McNeil River State Game Sanctuary permit lottery applicants to examine preferences and marginal willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an application contingent upon marginal interval increases among specific attributes of a bear viewing experience. A best-worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) was used to elicit respondent data, which consisted of eight individual choice tasks using a Balanced Incomplete Block Design (BIBD) in Sawtooth Software. Each choice task was comprised of five attributes: permit application price, odds of winning a permit, number of bears viewed daily during visit to the Sanctuary, cubs being present, …

Enhancement Of Algorithm For Detection Of Gold Strip Circuit Vessel Sensor Errors, Eduardo Pimenta De Melo

Engineering

Sensors are used to understand the condition and flow of mineral processes. Having accurate and precise information is fundamental for proper operation. Even small errors are relevant to cost when considering the operational span of a mine. Finding small errors is hard; few algorithms can detect them and fewer still, when considering errors on the scale of 2% in magnitude. Some tools have recently been developed using data mining techniques for detecting small errors. Rambabu Pothina (2017) created an algorithm for detecting small errors in strip vessel temperature sensors in the carbon stripping circuit in Pogo mine. The algorithm performed …

The Taming Of The Stew: Humans, Reindeer, Caribou And Food Systems On The Southwestern Seward Peninsula, Alaska, Odin Tarka Miller

Anthropology

This thesis addresses the question, what is the role of reindeer within communities of Alaska's southwestern Seward Peninsula, particularly as a food source? Employing a mixed-method approach, I conducted several months' fieldwork in the Seward Peninsula communities of Nome and Teller between 2016 and 2018, using methods that included participant observation, ethnographic interviews and a household survey designed to describe and quantify use of reindeer as food. As two varieties of the same species, Rangifer tarandus, reindeer and caribou are very similar in appearance. When caribou herds migrate nearby, reindeer tend to join them and become feral. Given the important …

Faunal Analysis Of The Historic Component At Healy Lake Village Site, Interior Alaska, Hilary A. Hilmer

Anthropology

The historic period in Interior Alaska was a dynamic time that led to many cultural changes for Native Alaskan communities across the state. Starting in the early 1700s, Russian and Euroamerican explorers began interacting with Native Alaskan groups living on the coast and by the end of the 18th century - early 19th century, Interior Alaskan groups were being directly affected. Due to western influences, Native groups, such as the Upper Tanana Athabascans, began to rely on a cash economy, causing them to settle to year-round villages, trade with the Euroamericans for non-local goods (i.e., flour, guns, buttons, glass, and …

Indigenous Archaeological Approaches To Artifact And Household Analysis At Precolonial Yup'ik Village Temyiq Tuyuryaq (Old Togiak), Dougless I. Skinner

Anthropology

Upper Bristol Bay is home to a multitude of precolonial-and colonial-era villages dotting the coast, islands, and rivers. The bay's dynamic history remains relatively unexplored in archaeological literature. Current data situate people in the region for nearly 6000 years, living in complex, semi-permanent villages, subsisting on large land and sea mammals, fish and mollusks. One such village is Temyiq Tuyuryaq or Old Togiak (GDN-00203). The village is a mounded accumulation of household cycles, sand and organic materials atop an accreting sand spit in the Togiak Bay. Ancestral to Nutaraq Tuyuryaq [New Togiak], the village directly links precolonial and modern Yup'ik …

Souvenaid In The Management Of Mild Cognitive Impairment: An Expert Consensus Opinion, Jeffrey Cummings, Peter Passmore, Bernadette Mcguinness, Vincent Mok, Christopher Chen, Sebastiaan Engelborghs, Michael Woodward, Sagrario Manzano, Guillermo Garcia-Ribas, Stefano Cappa, Paulo Bertolucci, Leung-Wing Chu

School of Medicine Faculty Research

Background Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among an aging global population is a growing challenge for healthcare providers and payers. In many cases, MCI is an ominous portent for dementia. Early and accurate diagnosis of MCI provides a window of opportunity to improve the outcomes using a personalized care plan including lifestyle modifications to reduce the impact of modifiable risk factors (for example, blood pressure control and increased physical activity), cognitive training, dietary advice, and nutritional support. Souvenaid is a once-daily drink containing a mixture of precursors and cofactors (long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, uridine, choline, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, …

“No Country For Old Men”: Huxley’S Brave New World And The Value Of Old Age, Maren Linett

Department of English Faculty Publications

This article inserts Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) into a bioethical conversation about the value of old age and old people. Exploring literary treatments of bioethical questions can supplement conversations within bioethics proper, helping to reveal our existing assumptions and clear the way for more considered views; indeed, as Peter Swirski has argued, literary texts can serve as thought experiments that illuminate the ramifications of philosophical ideas. This essay examines the novel's representation of a society without old people in conjunction with ideas about aging and life narratives put forward by philosophers and bioethicists such as Ezekiel Emanuel, Gilbert …