Digital Commons Network^™

Environmental Cybernetics: Technology And The Perception Of Remediated Space, Lucas Gentry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Moby Dick, House of Leaves, and Ex Machina portray characters that rely on a form of technology to navigate their respective environments. As such, their settings are remediated spaces – spaces understood through their relationship with technology. The inhabitants of remediated spaces inherently resemble the cyborg as their perspectives fuse with machines in their understanding of space. Captain Ahab from Moby Dick must rely on his ivory leg and ship for mobility, often merging himself with the machine of the vessel. House of Leaves provides a space and family that exist exclusively within the confines of found footage, …

Past, Current, And Future Potential Distributions Of Red Spruce And Fraser Fir Forests In The Southern Appalachians: Interpreting Possible Impacts Of Climate Change, Danika Mosher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spruce-Fir forests are relicts from the Pleistocene and can only be found within the Southern Appalachians. Analyzing the relationships between species distribution, climatic parameters, topography, and biotic interactions through ecological niche modeling creates prediction maps for conservation efforts. Maxent, Boosted Regression, and Random Forest were utilized to compare which model and variable combinations best approximate the unique mountain forest environment. Maxent with a bias file produced optimal results and was used to examine distributional changes that may occur in the future and how these changes compare to paleo-environmental distributions. Fraser fir has shown evidence of being influenced by changing climates …

Assessing Climactic Effects On Yellow Perch (Perca Flavescens) Reproduction And Growth, John Cannaday

All Theses

Climate change is altering thermal regimes in aquatic systems worldwide, often impacting species on the southern edges of their ranges in the northern hemisphere. Yellow Perch, Perca flavescens, a cool water species, have a patchy distribution at the southern edge of their range in North American, occurring primarily in systems that provide coolwater refugia during summer months (e.g., tailwaters below hypolimnetic release dams). However, minimum winter temperatures are much warmer in these systems than in northern locations. In northern populations, egg quality is linked to overwinter thermal conditions, with long, cold winters resulting in higher quality eggs compared to …

The Gut Bacterium Extibacter Muris Produces Secondary Bile Acids And Influences Liver Physiology In Gnotobiotic Mice, Theresa Streidl, Isabel Karkossa, Rafael R. Segura Munoz, Claudia Eberl, Alex Zaufel, Johannes Plagge, Robert Schmaltz, Kristin Schubert, Marijana Basic, Kai Markus Schneider, Mamdouh Afify, Christian Trautwein, Rene Tolba, Barbel Stecher, Heidi L. Doden, Jason M. Ridlon, Josef Ecker, Tarek Moustafa, Martin Von Bergen, Amanda Ramer-Tait, Thomas Clavel

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Extibacter muris is a newly described mouse gut bacterium which metabolizes cholic acid (CA) to deoxycholic acid (DCA) via 7α-dehydroxylation. Although bile acids influence metabolic and inflammatory responses, few in vivo models exist for studying their metabolism and impact on the host. Mice were colonized from birth with the simplified community Oligo-MM¹² with or without E. muris. As the metabolism of bile acids is known to affect lipid homeostasis, mice were fed either a low- or high-fat diet for eight weeks before sampling and analyses targeting the gut and liver. Multiple Oligo-MM¹² strains were capable of deconjugating …

The Battle Against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia: Public Health Perspective, Sultan T. Al-Otaibi

Saudi Medical Journal

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which was initially reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan has now spread unprecedented all over the world, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The World Health Organization declared this outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern during late January 2020 while the announcement of this viral infectious condition was made as COVID-19 disease during February 2020. As of late May 2020, the global death rate due to COVID-19 was 357,714 and 441 in KSA alone. This review provides an overview of COVID-19 and the public health measures adopted by KSA in the …

A Loxoscelism Case Received Therapeutic Apheresis And Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Ali Cetinkaya, Kaniye Aydin, Hatice A. Sirakaya, Rumeysa Yilmaz

Saudi Medical Journal

Loxosceles reclusa (L.reclusa) is known to bite humans, and its venom includes several enzymes that cause clinical symptoms. Loxoscelism, a condition due to being bitten by Loxosceles spiders, commonly known as recluses, can involve a range of clinical conditions, from local cutaneous lesions to severe systemic involvement. The diagnosis of loxoscelism is usually made by anamnesis and clinical findings. Magnetic resonance imaging is recommended for patients at high risk of necrotizing fasciitis. Treatment modalities are still controversial and there is no standardized treatment approach. Reported here, our case of loxoscelism involved a 24-year-old man presenting with a Loxosceles spider bite, …

Joint Statement On Data Protection And Privacy In The Covid-19 Response

Saudi Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

World Leaders Join Forces To Fight The Accelerating Crisis Of Antimicrobial Resistance

Saudi Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Dopaminergic And Serotonergic Receptor Antagonists In Male Rats Trained To Discriminate 4-Methylmethcathinone (Mephedrone), Rachel L. Burroughs

Masters Theses

Preclinical drug discrimination studies of the synthetic cathinone, 4-methylmethcathinone (mephedrone) have demonstrated its effects are comparable to those of other popular psychostimulant drugs. Few studies have directly examined the contribution of specific neurotransmitter receptors to mephedrone’s discriminative stimulus effects. The present study investigated the role of dopamine and serotonin receptors in these effects. Eight adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate 3.0 mg/kg mephedrone from saline. After dose-response curves were determined with mephedrone (0.375-3.0 mg/kg), a series of stimulus antagonism tests were conducted with dopamine antagonists (Sch 23390, haloperidol) and serotonin antagonists (WAY 100,635, MDL 100,907, pirenperone) administered as …

Exploring The Niche Of Rickettsia Montanensis (Rickettsiales: Rickettsiaceae) Infection Of The American Dog Tick (Acari: Ixodidae), Using Multiple Species Distribution Model Approaches, Catherine A. Lippi, Holly Gaff, Alexis L. White, Heidi K. St. John, Allen L. Richards, Sadie J. Ryan

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae), is a vector for several human diseasecausing pathogens such as tularemia, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and the understudied spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFGR) infection caused by Rickettsia montanensis. It is important for public health planning and intervention to understand the distribution of this tick and pathogen encounter risk. Risk is often described in terms of vector distribution, but greatest risk may be concentrated where more vectors are positive for a given pathogen. When assessing species distributions, the choice of modeling framework and spatial layers used to make predictions are important. …

Promoting The Sustainability Of The Gulf Of Maine Recreational Groundfish Fishery Through Discard Mortality Estimation, Mitigation, And Outreach, Connor W. Capizzano

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Recreational fishing (i.e., angling), a popular leisure activity that provides socio-economic benefits to human societies around the world, can represent a significant source of fishing mortality and impact fish populations and marine ecosystems. Although fish are often released by recreational anglers to reduce fishing mortality rates, the efficacy of discarding fish is often criticized given that fish can die from the factors experienced during the capture, handling, and release process (i.e., discard mortality). Despite this recognition, the rate at which fish suffer discard mortality in specific commercial and recreational fisheries is often unknown and difficult to obtain due to logistical …

Editor's Choice: Aldo Leopold Conservation Award, Luis A. Ruedas

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Every year since 2003, the American Society of Mammalogists confers during its annual meeting the Aldo Leopold Conservation Award on a highly deserving individual. A consequence of the award for the awardee is the responsibility to write a feature article in the pages of this journal. Aldo Leopold, the namesake of the award, is considered by an overwhelming majority of biologists to be the father of contemporary conservation biology. Born in Burlington, Iowa, Leopold graduated with a Master’s degree from the Yale Forest School, which had been endowed in 1902 by the Pinchot family and was one of the first …

Does Nonbinding Commitment Promote Children’S Cooperation In A Social Dilemma?, Laurent Prétôt, Katherine Mcauliffe

Faculty Submissions

Communication is a powerful tool for promoting cooperation in adults and is considered one of the most important solutions to social dilemmas. One feature that makes communication particularly useful in cooperative contexts is that it allows people to advertise their intentions to partners. Some work suggests that adults cooperate more after making nonbinding commitments to cooperate (i.e., commitments they do not need to uphold) than when they are not allowed to communicate their intentions to their partners. However, we know little about whether nonbinding commitments play a similar role in children. We addressed this gap by testing 6- to 9-year-old …

Fine-Scale Patterns Of Genetic Structure In The Host Plant Chamaecrista Fasciculata (Fabaceae) And Its Nodulating Rhizobia Symbionts, Mahboubeh Hosseinalizadeh Nobarinezhad, Lisa A. Wallace

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

In natural plant populations, a fine-scale spatial genetic structure (SGS) can result from limited gene flow, selection pressures or spatial autocorrelation. However, limited gene flow is considered the predominant determinant in the establishment of SGS. With limited dispersal ability of bacterial cells in soil and host influence on their variety and abundance, spatial autocorrelation of bacterial communities associated with plants is expected. For this study, we collected genetic data from legume host plants, Chamaecrista fasciculata, their Bradyrhizobium symbionts and rhizosphere free-living bacteria at a small spatial scale to evaluate the extent to which symbiotic partners will have similar SGS …

We Eat, Maliheh Rahrovan

Theses

We Eat is an animated short film showing the struggles of a survivor living in an apocalyptic world within a cruise ship that holds the last of humanity, most of whom are wealthy, opulent, greedy people. We follow the protagonist on her journey through the ship as she attempts to save a single baby calf. The inhabitants on the ship are obese, obsessed with consumption, and all are wearing animal masks that cover their eyes. Justine, the protagonist, frightened as she slips from a room, closes an unseen item in her luggage case, and begins to flee the hungry passenger …

Automatic Pigment Classification In Painted Works Of Art From Diffuse Reflectance Image Data, Tania Kleynhans

Theses

Information about artists' materials used in paintings, obtained from the analysis of limited micro-samples, has assisted conservators to better define treatment plans, and provided scholars with basic information about the working methods of the artists. Recently, macro-scale imaging systems such as visible-to-near infrared (VNIR) reflectance hyperspectral imaging (HSI) are being used to provide conservators and art historians with a more comprehensive understanding of a given work of art. However, the HSI analysis process has not been streamlined and currently requires significant manual input by experts. Additionally, HSI systems are often too expensive for small to mid-level museums. This research focused …

Miss, Jiahui Liu

Theses

Miss is a 2D animation graduate thesis film, with a length of 5 minutes and 50 seconds. The production phase went from September 2019 to November 2020.

"Miss" is a microcosm of ordinary children's emotional expression facing the death of their loved ones in reality. The protagonist is a child. The first time he met his relatives' death, he was at a loss and didn't know how to deal with it. He tries to pray and find an answer. But the answer is already in the heart of the little boy in the end. The temple gods are very kind …

Development And Use Of An Environmental Dna Tool To Monitor Recovery Of The Critically Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish, Pristis Pectinata, In The Northwest Atlantic, Ryan N. Lehman

Master's Theses

The Critically Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish, Pristis pectinata, was once common in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean; however, following global declines in range and abundance over the past century, individuals were restricted to the waters of south and southwest Florida (SWFL) by about the 1980’s. Recently, public encounter reports have emerged in historically occupied habitats in United States waters, suggesting individuals are present in, or re-occupying, these areas, although the status of P. pectinata outside of SWFL is not currently well understood. Targeted environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys were chosen to assess the occurrence of P …

Nutrition At Tipu: A Comparative Analysis Of Juvenile Health In Maya Populations, Sydnie A. Bianchi

Master's Theses

The site of Tipu in west central Belize provided a foothold for Spanish missionaries in the 17^th century. The effects of contact on adults among the 550 burials recovered in the cemetery there have been well studied, but the children have received less attention. Therefore, this study examined juvenile health through four markers: Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH), a non-specific marker of health disruptions; Porotic Hyperostosis (PH), an indicator of anemia; and Periostitis, an indicator of infection. Some 131 individuals were evaluated using criteria developed by Steckel, Sciulli, and Rose (2002). The results were compared to Late Classic Copán (Storey, …

Assessment Of Genetic Diversity In Largetooth Sawfish, Pristis Pristis, Populations Over The 20th Century, Ann Fearing

Master's Theses

The Critically Endangered Largetooth Sawfish, Pristis pristis, experienced global declines in range and abundance over the past century and Australia is now their last stronghold. This research aimed to understand whether these declines have been accompanied by a reduction in levels of genetic diversity. Using P. pristis tissue samples sourced from natural history specimens, three fragments (616-bp, 386-bp, 141-bp) in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region were PCR-amplified. At each fragment, significant genetic structure was found in P. pristis overall (Φ_ST=0.946, N=9; 0.813, N=54; 0.771, N=99). The Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic/Eastern Pacific each harbor genetically distinct lineages of …

Korngold's Dream States: An Analysis Of Transitional Passages In Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Opera "Die Tote Stadt", Tyler Brandon

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to compare Korngold’s treatment of altered states of reality in his 1920 opera Die tote Stadt to that of other composers and apply a theoretical approach to explain the transitions between the diegetic realms, or multiple narrative levels, that the work is contained within. These are outlined by William Cheng in his article entitled “Opera ‘en abyme’: The prodigious ritual of Korngold’s ‘Die tote Stadt.’” An overview of Cheng’s article is provided, recounting the claims that he posits and the analyses that he uses to explain the transitions between these diegetic realms. Next, other instances of altered …

Activation Of The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor: An Analysis Of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-P-Dioxin Dose-Response On Antigen-Specific Antibody, Isabella Aspromonte

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor is a ligand-activated transcription factor of the Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) family of proteins that regulates cellular functions including immunity. It has been shown that 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), a high affinity ligand for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), suppresses immune responses in mice. AhR activation prior to immunization with cholera toxin results in suppression of anti-cholera toxin antibody responses. This is observed as lower immunoglobulin (IgA) levels in both feces and serum 14 days after immunization. Thereafter, cholera toxin (CT)-specific IgA fecal responses recover, where serum CT-specific antibody levels do not; something unexplained by the current paradigm for AhR …

The Effect Of Summer Drought On The Predictability Of Local Extinctions In A Butterfly Metapopulation, Erik Van Bergen, Tad Dallas, Michelle F. Dileo, Aapo Kahilainen, Anniina L.K. Mattila, Miska Luoto, Marjo Saastamoinen

Faculty Publications

The ecological impacts of extreme climatic events on population dynamics and community composition are profound and predominantly negative. Using extensive data of an ecological model system, we tested whether predictions from ecological models remain robust when environmental conditions are outside the bounds of observation. We observed a 10-fold demographic decline of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulation on the Åland islands, Finland in the summer of 2018 and used climatic and satellite data to demonstrate that this year was an anomaly with low climatic water balance values and low vegetation productivity indices across Åland. Population growth rates …

Exploring Student Perceptions Of Flipgrid In Online Courses, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Asynchronous video-based discussions have affordances that can address some of the constraints of asynchronous text-based discussions. However, little research has been conducted on the use of asynchronous video-based discussions in online courses. As a result, the purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate students’ perceptions of using Flipgrid for asynchronous video-based discussions in fully online courses. We used a cross-sectional survey design to survey 79 students who used Flipgrid in a fully online course. Students overall reported that they liked using Flipgrid, it was easy to use, and that it helped improve social presence. In this paper, we will …

Molecular Detection Of Host-Specific Fecal Bacteria In Three Major Watersheds Of Piedmont Georgia, Muhammad Amar

Biology Theses

Abstract

Fecal pollution is a major concern in creeks and rivers. The aim of this study was to enumerate fecal coliform bacteria and identify the source of contamination using Microbial Source Tracking at three different creeks (Mountain Oak, Long Cane, and Ulcohatchee) in the Piedmont region of Georgia. Data collected in this research will be used to formulate watershed rehabilitation plans to decrease the transfer of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) into these creeks. Samples were collected at several sites along the creeks (4 sites at Mountain Oak, 10 sites at Long Cane, and 5 sites at Ulcohatchee). The site locations …

“Spanish Citizenship And Responsibility For The Past: The Case Of The Sephardim, Moriscos, And Saharawis”, Michael James

Faculty Journal Articles

In 2015, the Spain passed a law expediting citizenship for the descendants of the Sephardic Jews expelled in 1492, but not to the descendants of the Moriscos expelled in 1609. In this essay, I use Spain’s 2015 citizenship law as a test case for assessing three normative models for linking citizenship with collective responsibility for the past: reparations for historic injustice; the principle of coercively constituted identities; and remedial responsibility. I argue that the first two models confront intractable philosophical problems that are circumvented by the third model, remedial responsibility, which prioritizes contemporary suffering and looks to the past only …

Looking For Home, Misty Yarnall

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Dionysiac Art And Pastoral Escapism, Casey Roth

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

As the Mediterranean cities expanded in an ever-more interconnected Hellenistic world, people longed for a rustic lifestyle because the urban landscape was seen to be engulfed by materialistic and vain concerns.[1] People faced many stresses in these urban centers and consequently searched for relief through art. How did Dionysiac art reflect political and social ideas and the identity of Hellenistic people through pastoralism? Pastoralism in art embodied the idea that satisfaction and carefreeness were attained through connecting with an environment unaffected by the calamity of the city. The countryside was populated by herdsmen and farmers, as well as the …

De- And Re-Constructing Public Governance For Biodiversity Conservation Symposium: Governing Wicked Problems, Alejandro E. Camacho

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article deconstructs the substantive, procedural, and structural components of public governance in the United States to explain how the existing legal infrastructure lacks the legal adaptive capacity to manage the wickedness of biodiversity loss. That is, particularly in the context of global anthropogenic climate change, the substantive goals and tools of public action, the processes used by governmental institutions to advance such goals and implement such tools, and the structure of allocated authority among public institutions have been devised in ways that make biodiversity loss virtually impossible to tackle meaningfully.

First, the substantive goals of natural resources law are …

Designing Law To Enable Adaptive Governance Of Modern Wicked Problems, Barbara A. Cosens, J.B. Ruhl, Niko Soininen, Lance Gunderson

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the twenty-first century, our planet is facing a period of rapid and fundamental change resulting from human domination so extensive it is expected to be visible in the geologic record. The accelerating rate of change compounds the global social-ecological challenges already deemed “wicked” due to conflicting goals and scientific uncertainty. Understanding how connected natural and human systems respond to change is essential to understanding the governance required to navigate these modern wicked problems. This Article views change through the lens of complexity and resilience theories to inform the challenges of governance in a world dominated by such massive and …