Digital Commons Network^™

Edwidge Danticat As Literary Archeologist, Justine A. Browning

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Sugar-Derived Oleogels In Cosmetics And Food Applications: A Case Study Of Trehalose- And Mannitol-Based Gelators, Polina Tsupko

Dissertations and Theses

Gels represent an indispensable part of our everyday lives with direct applications in food, medicine, cosmetics and other industries. Amphiphilic molecules have been shown to act as low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs) and are becoming the main focus of several research groups. Their ability to self-assemble into various morphologies from micelles to bilayer sheets, and remain stable due to noncovalent forces responsible for the formation of the 3D network—Self-Assembled Fibrillar Network (SAFiNs)—is in the core of their ability to produce molecular gels. Those amphiphilic molecules capable of adsorbing at the interface and behaving as surface active agents are known as …

Understanding How Sequence Differences Among Glutamate Transporters Might Contribute To Their Differential Function In Glutamate Clearance In C. Elegans, Irving Estevez

Dissertations and Theses

In the nervous system, high circuit resolution requires efficient post-signaling clearance of the neurotransmitter. Glutamate-mediated neurotransmission involves the release of glutamate (Glu) into the synaptic cleft by the presynaptic cell and binding to glutamate receptors (GluR) on the postsynaptic cell, leading to activation of a signal transduction cascade. Neurotransmission is eventually terminated by Glu uptake via glutamate transporters (GluT). Inefficient Glu clearance is detrimental to precise rapid signaling, can lead to blurring of circuit resolution by inadvertent Glu spillover to nearby circuits, and may even be neurotoxic. While classical views depict synapses as insulated by glia, recent technological advances show …

Counterterrorism: The G5 Response Efforts To Combat Terrorism In The Sahel Region, Ndeye Fatou Ndiaye

Dissertations and Theses

Abstract

Africa’s Sahel suffers from multidimensional challenges that require robust solutions to address the issues. The regional crisis is aggravated by multiple factors that include climate risks, poverty, unemployment, water shortages, weak governance, lack of rule of law, food security to cite a few. Thus, a combination of factors greatly contribute to the Sahel crisis, resulting in severe security threats. This study attempts to analyze the role of the G5 Sahel states and the international community in counter-terrorism efforts. However, the region has emerged as the new battleground for terrorism along with a growing threat of violent extremism and other …

Lateralized Temporal Integration Properties Of The Mouse Auditory Cortex, Demetrios Neophytou

Dissertations and Theses

Social communication calls are fleeting, rapidly modulating signals and the ability of the auditory system to perceive such transient signals is a remarkable phenomenon. The mechanism by which the auditory cortex (ACx) is believed to be capable of processing these signals is through recurrent connectivity in the cortical circuits. Recurrent connectivity is proposed to be a possible circuit motif that aids in the processing of these transient signals. Recurrent connectivity is believed to have an effect on the temporal fidelity, the ability to follow a modulating signal, and the recurrent activity, sustained activity following stimulus offset, at the level of …

Impacts Of Vegetation Density And Distance From The High Tide Line On Raccoon Predation Of Diamondback Terrapin Nests In Jamaica Bay, Ny – A Preliminary Study, Zvi Teitelbaum

Dissertations and Theses

Diamondback terrapin turtles (Malaclemys terrapin) have been culturally and economically important since at least the nineteenth century. However, due to overharvesting, this became a species of conservation concern. While extensive data are available to describe its natural history, some conditions that impact nest predation are poorly understood. In this exploratory study, vegetation type and distance to the high tide line were examined to determine their potential impact on predation of diamondback terrapin nests by raccoons. For that, terrapin scented water was used to construct 50 artificial nests at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. These artificial nests were placed in …

Free-To-Play? An Examination Of Intrinsic Motivation And Gaming Behaviors In U.S. Female Mobile Gamers, Margot Goldblum

Dissertations and Theses

The prevalence of U.S. female gamers has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the popularity of mobile games; however, this population is underrepresented in academic research. The present study aimed to close this gap in the literature by focusing on the motivations and behaviors of adult female mobile gamers in the U.S. It also aimed to capture changes in gaming motivation and behavior resulting from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An online sample of 354 American women 18 to 77 years of age (M = 36.79, SD = 12.38) were surveyed about their motivations for mobile gaming, …

More Than Meets The Eye: A Taxonomic Revision Of The Nearctic Species In The Eye-Gnat Genus Amiota Loew (Diptera: Drosophilidae), Lance E. Jones

Dissertations and Theses

Thorough biotic inventories are still needed even in families as seemingly well-studied as fruit flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Drosophilidae have had an outsize effect on the history of biology because of their pivotal role in the study of genetics, development, and evolution. Even with more than a century of intensive study, large gaps remain in our understanding of diversity in this fly family, including well-studied areas such as North America. This thesis presents a taxonomic revision of the Nearctic species of the genus Amiota Loew. Twenty-three species are identified as being new to science for publication at a later date. This …

Attention Strongly Modulates Reliability Of Neural Response To Naturalistic Narrative Stimuli, Jason Ki

Dissertations and Theses

Attentional engagement is a major determinant of how effectively we gather information through our senses. Alongside the sheer growth in the amount and variety of information content we are presented with through modern media, there is increased variability in the degree to which we ‘absorb’ that information. Traditional research on attention has illuminated the basic principles of sensory selection to isolated features or locations, but it provides little insight into the neural underpinnings of our attentional engagement with modern naturalistic content. Here, we show in human subjects that the reliability of an individual's neural responses with respect to a larger …

Multimodal Data Integration For Real-Time Indoor Navigation Using A Smartphone, Yaohua Chang

Dissertations and Theses

We propose an integrated solution of indoor navigation using a smartphone, especially for assisting people with special needs, such as the blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals. The system consists of three components: hybrid modeling, real-time navigation, and client-server architecture. In the hybrid modeling component, the hybrid model of a building is created region by region and is organized in a graph structure with nodes as destinations and landmarks, and edges as traversal paths between nodes. A Wi-Fi/cellular-data connectivity map, a beacon signal strength map, a 3D visual model (with destinations and landmarks annotated) are collected while a modeler walks …

Effects Of Weak Electric Fields On Long-Term Synaptic Plasticity, Gregory Kronberg

Dissertations and Theses

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique where a weak direct electrical current is applied to the scalp with the goal of stimulating the brain. There is tremendous interest in the use of tDCS for treating brain disorders and improving brain function. However, the effects of tDCS have been highly variable across studies, leading to a debate over its efficacy. A major challenge is therefore to design tDCS protocols that yield predictable effects, which will require a better understanding of its basic mechanisms of action. One commonly discussed mechanism is that tDCS may alter synaptic plasticity, but the biophysics …

Women Empowerment In Agriculture And Food Security In Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Zone Of Ghana, Akanganngang Joseph Asitik, Benjamin Musah Abu

All Rsif Scholars' Publications

Purpose – This paper assessed the causal effect of women empowerment in agriculture (WEA) on household food security in the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) zone of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – The study used the extended probit regression with endogenous treatment to account for potential endogeneity of empowerment and food security using data from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Feed the Future baseline survey. Findings – All three indicators of women empowerment positively impact food security. In specific terms, when women participate in crop and livestock decision-making in the household, and when they have access to cultivable lands, …

Slender Frp Elements As Discrete Reinforcement For Concrete, Yuan Tian

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation presents a study that led to the development of slender elements that look like fibers used for reinforcing concrete but with a very different reinforcing mechanism. These elements, referred to as “Needles” are very rigid and strong; when intersected by growing cracks in concrete under heavy and increasing loads, they do not break and deform minimally. In the present work major steps were taken to understand the reinforcing mechanism of Needles. In addition, to investigate the influence of Needles on the mechanical performance of concrete incorporating Needles, at both material and structural levels, a series of laboratory experiments …

How Covid-19 Rekindled The Spirit Of Teaching, Nayha Acharya

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The abrupt end to our classes in the middle of March 2020 due to the Covid-19 situation reignited in me the real sense of what it means to be a teacher. It brought me out of the superficial notion, where being a law professor just means being someone who has students who will listen to me talk about the law, and into the deeper sense - that being a teacher involves a very special human relationship. This transition arose in me, I believe, because the Covid-19 situation forced me to slow down and sit still for a while, and that …

Sustaining Canadian Marine Biodiversity: Policy And Statutory Progress, Jeffrey A. Hutchings, Julia K. Baum, Susanna D. Fuller, Josh Laughren, David Vanderzwaag

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

A 2012 Expert Panel Report on marine biodiversity by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) concluded that Canada faced significant challenges in achieving sustainable fisheries, regulating aquacul- ture, and accounting for climate change. Relative to many countries, progress by Canada in fulfilling international obligations to sustain biodiversity was deemed poor. To track progress by Canada since 2012, the RSC struck a committee to track policy and statutory developments on matters pertaining to marine biodiversity and to identify policy challenges, and leading options for implementation that lie ahead. The report by the Policy Briefing Committee is presented here. It concluded that …

Momentum 2020, Stephanie Clarke

Momentum

A journal of undergraduate research

Ampk In The Ventromedial Nucleus Of The Hypothalamus: A Key Regulator For Thermogenesis, Hailan Liu, Yong Xu, Fang Hu

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Obesity has become a global health issue, but effective therapies remain very limited. Adaptive thermogenesis promotes weight loss by dissipating energy in the form of heat, thereby representing a promising target to counteract obesity. Notably, the regulation of thermogenesis is tightly orchestrated by complex neuronal networks, especially those in the hypothalamus. Recent evidence highlights the importance of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) within the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH) in modulating thermogenesis. Various molecules, such as GLP-1, leptin, estradiol, and thyroid hormones, have been reported to act on the VMH to inhibit AMPK, which subsequently increases thermogenesis through the …

Optimal Feature Selection For Learning-Based Algorithms For Sentiment Classification, Zhaoxia Wang, Zhiping Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sentiment classification is an important branch of cognitive computation—thus the further studies of properties of sentiment analysis is important. Sentiment classification on text data has been an active topic for the last two decades and learning-based methods are very popular and widely used in various applications. For learning-based methods, a lot of enhanced technical strategies have been used to improve the performance of the methods. Feature selection is one of these strategies and it has been studied by many researchers. However, an existing unsolved difficult problem is the choice of a suitable number of features for obtaining the best sentiment …

Impact Of Uk Sport Fishing On Fish Welfare And Conservation, Tim Q. Holmes

Animal Sentience

Sport fishing or angling is the capture of fish for recreation or competition, i.e., for entertainment. Contrary to the claims of Key (2016), there is good evidence that fish feel pain and have the capacity for self-awareness (Sneddon et al., 2018; Woodruff, 2017). Wild fish experience a variety of adverse conditions in nature that can harm their welfare, but this does not justify humans intentionally inflicting such conditions on fish solely for our pleasure. This commentary summarises the many ways fish suffer harm to their welfare as a result of sport fishing. There are also discussions on associated activities that …

The Temporal And Spatial Dynamics Of Fluvial Carbon Cycling In Irish Blanket Peatland Pools And Soils, Mariya Radomski

Doctoral

Blanket peatlands in Ireland are reservoirs of organic matter and have effects on carbon dioxide (CO2) flux regulation. Data on dissolved CO2 in Ireland is limited. In blanket peatlands, the drainage systems are well connected with pools, hummocks and lawns and this connectivity leads to significant variations in outflows of carbon. The excess carbon dioxide in blanket peatlands could originate from soil organic matter decomposition. Dissolved CO2 could be transported into pools via surface run-off and lateral throughflow. Peatland pools are typically supersaturated in CO2. As part of a project described in this thesis, the role of spatial and seasonal …

Colors Of Fruits And Vegetables And Diabetes Risk In The United States Latino Population, Raymond Anthony Colon

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: Fruits and vegetables (FV) play an important role in people’s health. The current study aimed analyzed if specific colors of FV are associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) risk in the United States (US) Hispanic/Latino population.

Methods: This study used participants from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). It is a multi-center, prospective cohort study with 5,740 self-identified Hispanic/Latino individuals from 2008-2011. Data collected include anthropometrics, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), dietary intake, medical history, physical activity, and sociodemographic information. FV are categorized into five color groups: green, white, yellow/orange, red/purple, and uncategorized.

Results: A total …

Identification And Characterization Of Zfp593 And 1700029j07rik - Two Novel Neurogenic Skeletal Muscle Atrophy-Induced Genes, Sarah Anne Lynch

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Skeletal muscle atrophy is a debilitating condition that can arise due to aging, cancer, corticosteroid use, and denervation. To better characterize the molecular genetic events of neurogenic atrophy, a previous study analyzed gene expression patterns in gastrocnemius muscle following sciatic nerve transection and found for the first time that Zinc Finger Protein 593 (Zfp593) and 1700029J07RIK are expressed in skeletal muscle and are induced in response to denervation. Quantitative PCR confirmed that Zfp593 and 1700029J07RIK are expressed in both proliferating myoblasts and differentiated myotubes. To assess sub-cellular location, GFP-tagged Zfp593 and 1700029J07RIK were expressed in C₂C₁₂ cells. …

American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis) Ecology Within Human-Dominated Landscapes, Eli R. Beal

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization is an ever-increasing threat to wildlife and their habitats, yet research has been limited to a small number of taxa. The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is an apex predator that has surprisingly received minimal attention within urban areas. To investigate the potential effects of urban land use on spatial ecology, we conducted surveys of relative alligator abundance in nine tributaries surrounding the St. Johns River. We used these data to explore the potential effects of urban development on alligator spatial distribution and habitat selection. At the coarse scale, we found no correlation between percent developed land and …

Exploring The Impact Of A Nutrition Support Workshop For Ghanaian Nutrition Professionals, Sarah D. Zeola

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ghana, a middle-income country in West Africa, has long experienced high rates of malnutrition and is increasingly struggling with nutritional challenges from non-communicable diseases including overweight, obesity, hypertension and stroke. There is an inadequate number of trained Ghanaian nutrition professionals to meet the demands of providing nutrition care for the citizens of Ghana and those professionals providing nutrition care have limited opportunities for continuing education. This quasi-experimental prospective, single cohort pre-test/post-test research was conducted in Accra, Ghana in September 2019 to determine if providing a nutrition support workshop to Ghanaian nutrition professionals (dietitians, dietetic interns, dietetic students and nutritionists) would …

Developing And Simulating A Communication Plan For Mitigation Of Secondary Crashes: Leveraging Connected Vehicle Technologies, Denis Elia Monyo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has identified secondary crashes (SCs) on United States (US) highways as one of the core transportation issues that needs to be addressed. These crashes contribute to increased property damage, injuries, and fatalities and a decline in traffic flow conditions on freeways and adjacent arterials. The purpose of this study was to 1) propose a communication plan that leverages connected vehicle (CV) technologies to increase awareness to road users to target the mitigation of SCs, and 2) to evaluate the potential benefits of the proposed communication plan with CV technologies in alleviating SCs.

This study used …

Fggy Carbohydrate Kinase Domain Containing Is Induced During Skeletal Muscle Atrophy And Modulates Map Kinase And Akt Signaling, Anastasia L. Smith

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Skeletal muscle atrophy can result from a range of physiological conditions, including denervation, immobilization, hindlimb unweighting, and aging. To better characterize the molecular genetic events of atrophy, a microarray was performed using skeletal muscle isolated from mice after 3 and 14 days of denervation and compared to control muscle to identify novel atrophy-induced genes. The microarray revealed that FGGY carbohydrate kinase domain containing (Fggy) is expressed in skeletal muscle and is induced in response to denervation. Bioinformatic analysis of the Fggy gene locus revealed two validated alternative isoforms, that we have termed Fggy-L-552 and Fggy-S-387, which have distinct transcription initiation …

Revitalizing The Implied Warranty Of Habitability, Serge Martinez

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Elder Financial Abuse: Fiduciary Law And Economics, Ben Chen

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Troubled Waters: Expansion Of The Michigan Public Trust Doctrine In An Era Of Increasing Pollution, Kathryn Zoller

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Nonprofit Organizations And Anti-Corruption Statutes: Incentives For Compliance, Elizabeth B. Coburn

Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy

No abstract provided.