Digital Commons Network^™

Three Perspectives On Innovation In European Agriculture: From Public Research To The Circular Economy, Michele Vollaro

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

The dissertation examines the idea that current and future challenges faced by the European agricultural sector call for a multidimensional approach combining the classical path of productivity growth with more stringent commitments to environmental protection, and more incisive mitigation and adaptation actions to mitigate climate change, all within a policy context of a transition toward the cyclical management of resources (inputs, outputs and wastes) inspired by the circular economy concept. The three essays of the dissertation aim to show: that agricultural productivity in Europe is supported by complementarities between public and private investments in agricultural research with remarkable results in …

Constitutional Law—Original Explication: A Democratic Model For The Interpretation Of Modern State Constitutions, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernós

Western New England Law Review

Most discussions about methods of constitutional interpretation in the United States are limited to the federal Constitution and mostly center on that document’s open-ended clauses, its secret drafting history, the unreliability of the records of its creation, and its seemingly anachronistic nature, among other characteristics that seem unique to it. This federal-centric approach has overlooked the important differences between the U.S. Constitution and many state constitutions adopted in more recent times.

Unlike their federal counterpart, several state constitutions contain substantive policy provisions and were drafted through highly democratic, public, participatory, and popular creation processes. As a result, a different interpretive …

Child Protection Law—Care And Protection Of Walt: Reexamining The Scope Of Judicial Authority In The Enforcement Of The Reasonable Efforts Requirement, Tara Morrison

Western New England Law Review

When the state removes a child from the custody of his or her parents, the delicate balance between parents’ rights and the state’s obligation to protect the child comes into play. Because termination of parental rights is irrevocable, it is often referred to as the “death penalty” of family law. Historically, parents with intellectual disabilities have been denied the opportunity to parent through eugenics and sterilization, a horrific history that finds modern articulation through the removal of children from parents based on presumptions of neglect.1 When a child protection agency removes a child from parental care, without providing the support …

“Nasty” Woman And “Very Happy Young Girl”: The Political Culture Of Women In Donald Trump’S America, John Baick

Western New England Law Review

Discussions of gender and politics in the present day must include a consideration of the charged atmosphere of our political culture. Americans were embroiled in culture wars for much of the twentieth century—conflicts that included the right of women to vote, the civil rights of African Americans and other minority groups, and the meaning of sexuality. New debates have been added in the last few years—many of which center on gender, sexuality, and race. The culture wars have reached a fevered peak with the election and administration of Donald Trump. Yet Trump himself does not represent a new front in …

Health Law—A Hard Pill To Swallow: An Examination Of The U.S. Drug Development Process And State And Federal Government Measures To Expand Patient Access To Investigational Drugs, Alissa Bang

Western New England Law Review

The drug development process—regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—is complex, lengthy, and costly. For years, reformers have sought more liberal access to potential drug treatments that have not yet reached the final stages of the process. “Right to Try” laws and the FDA’s expanded access program are among some of the government measures designed to allow terminally ill patients to obtain investigational drugs before they receive FDA approval. This Article explores the strengths and shortcomings of some of the measures undertaken by state and federal governments, while highlighting the policy struggle between providing individuals early access to …

Nothing Generic About It: Promoting Therapeutic Access By Overcoming Regulatory And Legal Barriers To A Robust Generic Medical Device Market, Megan S. Wright, Zachary Shapiro, Adam Pan, Keturah James, Joseph Fins

Faculty Scholarship

This Article addresses a paradox in American healthcare technology: a thriving market for generic drugs but a paucity of generic medical devices. Despite the success of generic pharmaceuticals in reducing healthcare costs, no analogous market exists for generic medical devices. This plays a part in keeping prices high while limiting access to affordable therapies. In this Article, we highlight the regulatory and legal barriers currently impeding the development of a generic medical device market in the United States. We explore differences between generic drugs and generic devices in FDA regulation, products liability, and patentability, all of which contribute to the …

The Art Of Contested Histories: "In Pursuit Of Venus [Infected]" And The Pacific Legacy, Deborah Gare, Riley Buchanan, Elizabeth Burns-Dans, Toni Church

Arts Papers and Journal Articles

European artists of the eighteenth century framed an exotic textual and visual narrative of the Pacific, drawing largely on knowledge gained from exploratory journeys of the 1760s and 1770s. Visual representations of the Pacific became socially fashionable and commercially successful. The French wallpaper manufacturer, Dufour, captured this commercial potential in a dramatic, panoramic wallpaper that told stories of European encounters with Pacific peoples: Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804). Yet it was selective, defining the Pacific by moments of contact with Cook and other explorers. Lisa Reihana's In Pursuit of Venus [Infected] (2015–17) dramatically interrogates the eighteenth-century narrative of …

Artificial Motivation For Cognitive Software Agents, R. Mccall, S. Franklin, U. Faghihi, J. Snaider, S. Kugele

CCRG Papers

No abstract provided.

Towards Precision Medicine: Therapeutic Drug Monitoring–Guided Dosing Of Vancomycin And Β-Lactam Antibiotics To Maximize Effectiveness And Minimize Toxicity, Jaclyn A. Cusuman, P. Klinker, Angela Huttner, Megan K. Luther, Jason A. Roberts, Kerry L. Laplante

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research Faculty Publications

Purpose

The goal of this review is to explore the role of antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), especially in critically ill, obese, and older adults, with a specific focus on β-lactams and vancomycin. Summary

The continued rise of antimicrobial resistance prompts the need to optimize antimicrobial dosing. The aim of TDM is to individualize antimicrobial dosing to achieve antibiotic exposures associated with improved patient outcomes. Initially, TDM was developed to minimize adverse effects during use of narrow therapeutic index agents. Today, patient and organism complexity are expanding the need for precision dosing through TDM services. Alterations of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics …

Viseral Projects, Matthew Conrardy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A brand’s image, its identity, is established through what the brand is, what it does, where it is going, and how it is unique. The representation of a brand’s identity materializes through the messaging, images, graphics, colors, and typography associated with it. Brand manuals are designed to establish and maintain both the consistency and flexibility of the brand identity.

This manual outlines the visual and verbal applications that currently embody the Viseral Projects brand across the multimedia environment. It includes information outlining the Viseral brand story, identity system,

platforms, and examples of executions. It has been constructed with the anticipation …

Fault Identification On Electrical Transmission Lines Using Artificial Neural Networks, Christopher W. Asbery

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Transmission lines are designed to transport large amounts of electrical power from the point of generation to the point of consumption. Since transmission lines are built to span over long distances, they are frequently exposed to many different situations that can cause abnormal conditions known as electrical faults. Electrical faults, when isolated, can cripple the transmission system as power flows are directed around these faults therefore leading to other numerous potential issues such as thermal and voltage violations, customer interruptions, or cascading events. When faults occur, protection systems installed near the faulted transmission lines will isolate these faults from the …

Annual Report Of The Town Officers Of Stark, New Hampshire For The Year Ending December 31, 2019., Stark Town Representatives

Stark, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

The Impacts Of Wave Energy Conversion On Coastal Morphodynamics In A Changing Climate, Cigdem Ozkan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Fossil fuels, i.e., petroleum, natural gas, and coal, are the primary sources of global energy. Studies on the impacts of fossil fuels on climate change have shown the immediate need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt sustainable alternatives since these emissions result in warmer atmospheric temperatures, ocean acidification, glacier melting, sea level rise, and many other ramifications. In recent years, these alarming results have prompted governments worldwide to develop adaptation strategies for climate change, leading to increased investments in renewable energy resources. Globally, solar energy, wind energy, and hydropower have been the leading sources of renewable energy. Ocean wave …

Interfacial Properties Modulate Water Entry Dynamics For Spherical Projectiles, Daren Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Rigid bodies impacting liquid pools incite splashing and air-entraining cavities that depend on impactor shape, entry speed, surface texture, and free surface conditions. In this body of work, we investigate the influence of interfacial properties on water entry dynamics for free-falling spherical projectiles. Our investigations translate to everyday fluid-structure interactions that are complex and generally conclude beyond the temporal acuity of the naked eye. High-speed videography between 1000 -- 3200 fps is used to digitize the water entry process and measure salient splash features under different initial conditions. We assess splashes arising from the impacts of free-falling hydrophilic spheres with …

Why Laws Relevant To Autism Service Dogs Are Giving Parents And Schools Paws And The Suggested Fixes, Zachary Guerin

The Journal of Law and Education

No abstract provided.

New Technologies And Old Treaties, Bryant Walker Smith

Faculty Publications

Every road vehicle must have a driver able to control it while in motion. These requirements, explicit in two important conventions on road traffic, have an uncertain relationship to the automated motor vehicles that are currently under development—often colloquially called “self-driving” or “driverless.” The immediate legal and policy questions are straightforward: Are these requirements consistent with automated driving and, if not, how should the inconsistency be resolved? More subtle questions go directly to international law’s role in a world that artificial intelligence is helping to rapidly change: In a showdown between a promising new technology and an entrenched treaty regime, …

Legislative History In The Modern Congress, Jesse M. Cross

Faculty Publications

A central debate in the field of legislation has asked: how reliable are the different types of legislative history? Yet there has been no understanding, throughout this debate, of who inside Congress drafts this legislative history. This is surprising, given the common intuition that authorship is a key indicator of reliability.

In response, this Article presents the results of an original empirical study—one that illuminates this unknown dimension of Congress, uncovering the actors and processes that produce modern legislative history. For this study, the author conducted interviews with congressional staffers drawn from both parties, both chambers of Congress, and numerous …

Rethinking The Conflicts Revolution In Personal Jurisdiction, Jesse M. Cross

Faculty Publications

It is widely acknowledged that, from roughly 1940 to 1970, a revolution occurred in Conflicts of Law. Referred to as the “Conflicts revolution,” this movement remade nearly every legal test in the field. According to conventional wisdom, this revolution rejected the same idea in each instance: namely, that Conflicts tests should be grounded in a theory of sovereignty. Instead, the argument goes, it pivoted the field to pragmatic tests that focus on practicality, fairness, and convenience.

As this Article explains, this conventional wisdom is incorrect. It misunderstands the intellectual revolution that remade the field, and it has generated needless confusion …

Exploring Crisis Communication And Information Dissemination On Social Media: Social Network Analysis Of Hurricane Irma Tweets, Xianlin Jin

Communication Graduate Research

This study utilized social network analysis to identify the top 10 Twitter influentials during the Hurricane Irma crisis period and examined the relationship between social media attributes and the bridge influence of controlling information flow. The number of a user’s followers and tweets significantly predicted one’s control of information. Crisis information tended to be shared in scattered subgroups. Social network boundaries impeded information diffusion, and the communication pattern was largely one-way. The findings partially supported the opinion leader argument while indicating that influentials can directly generate information, which is consistent with the social-mediated crisis communication model. Such findings will contribute …

First Genome Sequence Of The Gunnison’S Prairie Dog (Cynomys Gunnisoni), A Keystone Species And Player In The Transmission Of Sylvatic Plague, Mirian T. N. Tsuchiya, Rebecca B. Dikow, Loren Cassin-Sackett

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are a charismatic symbol of the American West. Their large social aggregations and complex vocalizations have been the subject of scientific and popular interest for decades. A large body of literature has documented their role as keystone species of western North America’s grasslands: They generate habitat for other vertebrates, increase nutrient availability for plants, and act as a food source for mammalian, squamate, and avian predators. An additional keystone role lies in their extreme susceptibility to sylvatic plague (caused by Yersinia pestis), which results in periodic population extinctions, thereby generating spatiotemporal heterogeneity in both …

Pathos And Spatial Possessions, Miranda Elizabeth Brown

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

In order to complete a rhetorical evaluation of one’s life experiences, a collection of prose was created based of special and personal encounters of the author. The author did so by comparing her own memories to those who were involved to see how the mind can distort the rhetoric of memory. The findings lie in the prose written in such a way for the audience to experience the works just as the author did through the power of rhetoric, specifically pathos.

Nhe1 And Tau Pathology: Tragically Tangled Together?, Caitlin Rae Wessel

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease that poses a large public health challenge due to its complex, mixed pathology. One hallmark characteristic of AD is the development of toxic neurofibrillary tau tangles (NFT), which have been associated with the neurodegenerative component of AD. There is also compelling evidence that cerebrovascular disease puts individuals at a greater risk for experiencing the cognitive decline characteristic of dementias like AD. Past research has shown that individuals suffering from cerebrovascular disease and AD (not necessarily simultaneously) display an increased expression of the sodium-hydrogen antiporter-1 (NHE1), a plasma membrane protein ubiquitously expressed throughout …

Investigating Sex Differences In Cognitive Deficits Resulting From 24-Hour Water Deprivation, Ivanka Rainer

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

Dehydration can negatively affect cognitive ability. Females, however,may be protected from impairments in cognitive performance associated with dehydration due to the influence estrogens have on fluid balance and cognition. Previous work in our lab demonstrated that water deprivation impaired performance in a novel object recognition task in females during times of low, but not high,estrogen levels, suggesting that estrogens protect memory recall during dehydration. However, rats in this experiment were only dehydrated in the testing phase. Whether dehydration during training impairs task performance is unclear.We, therefore, tested the hypothesis that dehydration during training impairs performance in a recognition task, but …

Genetic Analysis Of The Endangered Gray Bat Species (Myotis Grisescens), Emma Fitzgerald

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This study attempts to analyze the genetics using specific haplotype sequences of the endangered gray bat to determine genetic events that have happened in the past as well as determining how the species population has changed over time. We were able to conduct a Tajima’s D test to investigate whether a potential bottleneck has occurred. A linear regression of the genetic vs. geographical distance was produced to investigate the patterns of haplotype distribution. The species past distribution was compared to the current distribution using known collected specimens. A map of future predictions was constructed using present and future climate layers …

The Coffee In Your Cup: Reviewing Fair Trade’S Impact On Development, Elena Liu

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

Fair trade is one of many certification strategies available to coffee producers around the globe. The fair trade (FT) movement broke into the American coffee industry with strategies aimed at reducing global poverty among farmers in developing nations, primarily using the FMP and FP mechanisms. This review will discuss why research on the development effects of fair trade is increasingly nebulous, how researchers have analyzed it up until now, their findings, and future recommendations to improve the clarity of results. Current literature on fair trade’s impact provides consistent reports of higher prices attained, but inconclusive findings surrounding increased income and …

Feeding A Growing Population--Feasibility Of Leghemoglobin As Visual Marker For Facilitating Plant Genetics Based Nutritional Improvement, Rebecca E. Caldbeck

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

As the population continues to expand, it is becoming increasingly relevant to find sustainable and affordable sources of high-nutritional value food, specifically protein and fatty acids.

One such crop of interest is Glycine max, commonly known as soybean. The leguminous plant is of high importance globally with its far-reaching economic applicability. Soybeans are a versatile crop with a wide-ranging habitat, making them a readily available food source. Besides their abundance, this crop is also one of the most economical sources of protein on the planet.

With their already blanketed global reach, the introduction of improved genetics to facilitate improved nutritional …

Tuberculosis Clinical Presentation And Treatment Outcomes In Pregnancy: A Prospective Cohort Study, Brittney J. Van De Water, Meredith B. Brooks, Chuan-Chin Huang, Letizia Trevisi, Leonid Lecca, Carmen Contreras, Jerome Galea, Roger Calderon, Rosa Yataco, Megan Murray, Mercedes C. Becerra

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: There is limited research to guide TB treatment specifically in pregnant women and few studies have described the presentation of TB in pregnant women. We aimed to understand TB presentation and treatment outcomes in pregnant women in a low HIV burden setting. We describe a cohort of women of childbearing age treated for TB disease in Lima, Peru, and compare clinical presentation and treatment outcomes among pregnant and non-pregnant women between 2009 and 2012, including 36 pregnant women.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study. Subjects were recruited from across 106 public health centers in Lima, Peru. Baseline demographic, …

Virus-Induced Changes In Nuclear Proteins And Membranes In Nicotiana Benthamiana Cells, Caleb Mathias

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Viruses rely on host proteins to complete their life cycles. This results in alterations to normal cell physiology to processes which benefit viral processes such as replication and movement to other cells. This may involve the relocalization of host proteins away from their original subcellular targets to sites which may benefit the virus, a process that is not as well understood as it relates to the nucleus. To identify nuclear proteins that may be involved in such processes, a library of random Nicotiana benthamiana cDNAs were expressed as GFP fusions in a transgenic marker lines expressing a histone 2B:RFP nuclear …

Chlorpyrifos And The Gut Microbiome Of Animals: A Systematic Review, Danh Lai

Public Health Theses

This review found that chlorpyrifos exposure may be associated with negative impacts on the gut microbiome, especially obesity, diabetes, and compromised immune response. Perinatal exposure in rats was also linked to dysbiosis of intestinal microbes. Further research resulting in primary data would be needed to substantiate the relationships. Even with a clear understanding of the relationship, further research needs to be conducted to determine if the microbes are a product of health outcomes or vice versa. Species-level investigation would be critical in characterizing the true interactions of the gut. This information can be used to identify another possible component of …

Evaluating Syngenta Enogen Feed Corn Silage Or Grain On Growing Beef Cattle Performance, Mckenna M. Brinton, Bradley M. Boyd, F. Henry Hilscher, Levi J. Mcphillips, J. C. Macdonald, Galen E. Erickson

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

A growing trial was conducted to evaluate Syngenta Enogen Feed Corn containing an alpha amylase enzyme trait compared with commercially available corn without the amylase enzyme trait on growing cattle performance characteristics. Corn was harvested as either corn silage or dry corn, and corn silage was further harvested with kernel processing or not. Th e treatment design was a 2×2+2 factorial with 2 hybrids of silage, kernel processed or not, and then a 40% dryrolled corn and hay growing diet as Syngenta Enogen Feed Corn or control corn. No interactions were observed between silage hybrids and kernel processing. Cattle fed …