Digital Commons Network^™

Epidemiology Of Colorectal Cancer Comorbidities And Stage At Diagnosis, Survival, And Second Primary Malignancies In Kentucky, 2003-2016, Nikita Leigh Vundi

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common type of cancer and the third most common cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States.^1-3 The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 147,950 new cases of CRC and 53,200 CRC related deaths in the U.S. for the year 2020.3 Kentucky CRC incidence for 2012-2016 was the highest in the nation, and the mortality rate for years 2013-2017 was ranked 5th in the nation.^4-6 Risk factors for CRC include lifestyle factors, genetics, and disease status (comorbidities and treatment).2, 7 Diabetes has been …

Cannabinoids As A Potential Therapeutic Treatment For Inflammatory Skin Disorders And Topical Phytocannabinoid Formulation Considerations, Hannah Korentur

Theses & ETDs

Due to the prevalence of chronic inflammatory skin diseases worldwide, new and effective treatments are constantly being considered and tested. The use of ​Cannabis sativa ​ L., also known as cannabis or marijuana, for pharmacological purposes has been controversial for decades due to its designation as a Schedule I drug. However, with a growing movement towards decriminalization, opportunities to understand the plant’s rich history, chemical complexity, and interactions with the human body have significantly increased. From this growth, the endocannabinoid system, a modulatory system that regulates a number of physiological and neurological functions, has been discovered in mammalian bodies. As …

Templated Single-Chain Polymer-Based Electrochemical Sensing, Habib Muhammad Nazir Ahmad

Master's Theses and Capstones

A target receptor is an essential component in developing selective biological and chemical sensors. Among various approaches in receptor implementation, templated polymers are synthetic biochemical receptors that mimic natural molecular recognition. They have the favorable arrangement of polymer structures to be steady in harsh conditions and can also be custom tailored to exhibit target affinity as well as interfacing with transducers. Effective templated polymer synthesis depends on the co-polymerization of functional monomers which will interact with the sensing molecule. This thesis proposes a rational design approach towards the integration of templated polymers with electrochemical sensing. The synthesized single-chain label-free flexible …

Family Preservation And Fatalities: The Effect Of Policy On Child Maltreatment Deaths, Madison N. Sundberg

Master's Theses and Capstones

National estimates suggest that between 1,600 and 1,800 children are victims of CMFs each year (USDHHS, 2020), though it is believed that this number is an underestimation of the true figure (Douglas and Finkelhor, 2005; Yampolskaya, Greenbaum, and Berson, 2009). Two belief systems in protecting children have arisen over the past decades, influenced both by sensational cases of child abuse and research. One side argues that every effort must be made to keep the family intact: the family preservation approach. Alternatively, some argue that by attempting to preserve the family structure and failing to remove victims expeditiously, we leave children …

Developing Chenopodium Ficifolium As A Diploid Model System Relevant To Genetic Characterization And Improvement Of Allotetraploid C. Quinoa, Madhav Subedi

Master's Theses and Capstones

Quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa Willd., is a potential new high-value crop for Northern New England (NNE) because of its excellent nutritional qualities and its ability to grow in diverse agroecosystems. However, quinoa field trials have not been successful thus far in NNE because of some major issues such as downy mildew disease, severe lodging (bending over), excessive branching, overly long maturation time, and immature grains at harvest. Quinoa is an allotetraploid (2n=4x=36) species of genome composition AABB, and thus has two distinct diploid ancestors. This study reports foundational genetic studies in the BB diploid (2n=2x=18) ancestor, Chenopodium ficifolium, as a potential …

The Development Of Knowledge And Resources Relevant To The Genetic Manipulation Of Day Neutral Flowering Habit In Strawberry, Samikshya Rijal

Master's Theses and Capstones

THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND RESOURCES RELEVANT TO THE GENETIC MANIPULATION OF DAY NEUTRAL FLOWERING HABIT IN STRAWBERRYBY

SAMIKSHYA RIJAL

University of New Hampshire, December 2020

Cultivated strawberry, Fragaria ×ananassa (Duch.) is an economically valued small fruit, well known for its nutritional benefits. For agricultural production, two types of strawberry cultivars are bred: Short Day (SD) varieties, which require specific day length to initiate flowering, and Day Neutral (DN) varieties, which are photoperiod insensitive. The DN trait confers continuous flowering and extended harvesting. Understanding the genetic determinants of this important trait in the octoploid/cultivated strawberry (2n = 8x = 56) …

Cerebral Autoregulation-Based Blood Pressure Management In The Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit: Towards Individualizing Care In Ischemic Stroke And Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Andrew Silverman

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The purpose of this thesis is to review the concept of cerebral autoregulation, to establish the feasibility of continuous bedside monitoring of autoregulation, and to examine the impact of impaired autoregulation on functional and clinical outcomes following subarachnoid hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. Autoregulation plays a key role in the regulation of brain blood flow and has been shown to fail in acute brain injury. Disturbed autoregulation may lead to secondary brain injury as well as worse outcomes. Furthermore, there exist several methodologies, both invasive and non-invasive, for the continuous assessment of autoregulation in individual patients. Resultant autoregulatory parameters of brain …

Bottom-Up Herbivore-Plant Feedbacks Trump Trophic Cascades In A Wolf-Elk-Grassland System, Trevor C. Weeks

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Top-down predator-prey effects that alter the abundance, biomass, or productivity of a population community across more than one link in a food web are referred to as trophic cascades. While these effects have been extensively studied in aquatic environments, fewer studies have examined trophic cascades in terrestrial ecosystems. And fewer still terrestrial studies have tested for trophic cascades between vertebrates and grassland vegetation. Across the globe, grassland plant biomass is driven by both precipitation and non-linear positive feedbacks between grazing and plant productivity, as predicted by the Intermediate Grazing Hypothesis. Yet little is known about the role that apex carnivores …

Characterization Of Deiodinase Expression In The Hypothyroid Developing Cochlea, Maria A. Uscategui Calderon

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Thyroid hormone (TH) is essential for cochlear development and normal auditory function. Considering the importance of TH in mediating cochlear development, understanding the degree to which developing tissues can adapt to perturbations in thyroid hormone signaling is extremely important. The deiodinases (D2 and D3) are enzymes that tightly control TH availability at the tissue level and have been proposed to function as adaptive mechanisms that maintain tissue TH homeostasis. D2 converts thyroxine (T4) to a biologically active ligand triiodothyronine (T3); locally amplifying a T3 signal. Conversely, Dio3 inactivates T3 and T4 by converting these iodothyronines to the inactive metabolites diiodothyronine …

Intracellular Localization Of The Novel Polyq Protein Fam171b, Dulanjani Rajaguru

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

FAM171B is a relatively uncharacterized protein that contains fourteen consecutive glutamine residues within its primary amino acid sequence; thus it is a polyglutamine (polyQ) protein. PolyQ proteins are interesting because mutations within the polyQ tract have been linked to a number of severe neurodegenerative diseases including Huntingtons Disease (HD). To date, there are minimal published data regarding FAM171B and its molecular function, such that both expression levels and intracellular localization have yet to be definitively determined. Using immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization analyses, our lab has recently found that FAM171B is expressed throughout the mouse brain. This current study attempts …

Development Of An Ophthalmic Nanoemulsion Topical Formulation For Corneal Wound Healing, Chuntian Cai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Corneal wound healing is a complex process involving cell death, migration, proliferation, differentiation, extracellular matrix remodeling and a various of growth factors. Of these factors, interleukin-1 and transforming growth factor beta allow the effectiveness of cell migration and tissue repair. Current management advocates multiple therapies aimed to prevent inflammation, avoid the fibrosis. Pirfenidone (PFD) has recently been investigated for its anti-fibrotic effect. The current study was undertaken to develop and optimize PFD-loaded nanoemulsion (NE; PFD-NE) which could increase the drug load and the duration of activity. Hot homogenization and probe sonication methods were used for the preparation of PFD-NEs, sesame …

Diagnosis Of Misconceptions With Coherent Underlying Structure In Learning Diffusion, Man Su, J. Yohan Cho, Brandon Vanbibber, Jesse Ha, Michelene Chi

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

This classroom study, involving 149 high school students, investigates structure, coherence and frequencies of misconceptions students have while learning diffusion via a simulation. The results show that misconceptions are not random ideas, but rather have underlying structures and can be systematically characterized by the PAIR-C framework, which aims to help students understand the nature of emergent processes embedded in their school curricula. The article concludes with a discussion of implications to foster deeper understanding of misconceptions from a systematic, structured perspective.

Progressive Punitivism: Notes On The Use Of Punitive Social Control To Advance Social Justice Ends, Hadar Aviram

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Leadership Stories Of Students Of Color At Predominantly White Christian Institutions, Sharia Hays

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

Leadership has been identified as an important component of higher education and the college student experience (Dugan, 2006; Komives, Dugan, & Owen, 2011; Shertzer & Schuh, 2004; St. John, Rowley, & Hu, 2009). Although there has been an in-crease in leadership initiatives across higher education, many institutions, specifically dominantly White Christian institutions have struggled to find ways to involve students of color in leadership. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, this study explored the leadership experiences of 11 students of color from 3 dominantly White Christian institutions (DWI). This article will provide a broad overview of the study while focusing on how …

Hideous Men In The Age Of #Metoo: On Wallace, Puig, And The Specter Of Misogyny, Sage Engberg

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

No abstract provided.

Current Dog Breeding Practices Impacts On Health And Preservation Of Purebred Dogs, Bridget E. Baker

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Context Of Injury Among Abusive And Accidental Injuries In Children, Lindsay Eysenbach

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Child physical abuse is a significant public health challenge with an incidence of approximately 6.4 hospitalized cases per 100,000 children. Many abused children, however, will go undiagnosed by physicians evaluating these injuries. Assessing whether a child has been abused is a high-stakes decision: a missed case leaves a child vulnerable to future injury, but an inaccurate diagnosis of abuse may be greatly disruptive and stigmatizing to children and their families. Previous research has established key physical examination and radiographic findings that are associated with abusive injury. A gap in the literature, however, is the role of additional injury circumstances and …

Genetic Investigation Reveals Novel Pathways For Disease Pathogenesis In Inherited And Mosaic Skin Disorders, Shayan Cheraghlou

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Introduction

Genetic mosaicism underlies many inherited and acquired cutaneous disorders. Despite the barriers to genetic analysis of mosaic disorders, next generation sequencing has led to substantial progress in understanding their pathogenesis, which has significant implications for clinical management and genetic counselling. Advances in paired and deep sequencing technologies in particular have made study of mosaic disorders more feasible. In this study, we aim to utilize next generation sequencing technologies in order to evaluate the genetic cause of three mosaic cutaneous disorders: epidermolytic acanthoma (EA), progressive symmetric erythrokeratodermia (PSEK), and mosaic childhood acantholytic dyskeratosis.

Methods

Using genomic DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded …

Asian Summer Monsoon Influence On Chemical Weathering And Sediment Provenance Determined By Clay Mineral Analysis From The Indus Submarine Canyon, Yuting Li, Peter D. Clift, Richard W. Murray, Elise Exnicios, Thomas Ireland, Philipp Böning

Faculty Publications

© Copyright University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019. Clay minerals from the Indus Canyon and eastern clinoform since ∼12 ka are uniformly rich in smectite and illite, similar to those from the Holocene Indus flood plains. A systematic enrichment of smectite in the proximal delta compared to the canyon and eastern clinoform argues for preferential capture of smectite close to the river mouth since ∼12 ka. There is a rapid shift to a more smectite-rich assemblage in the canyon and eastern clinoform after ∼5 ka. This change is probably caused by a change in sediment source, with …

Yale Medicine Magazine, Winter 2020, Yale University. School Of Medicine

Yale Medicine Magazine - alumni bulletin and magazine

This is the Winter 2020 issue of Yale Medicine Magazine, v. 54, no. 2. Prepared in cooperation with the alumni and development offices at the School of Medicine. Earlier volumes are called Yale School of Medicine alumni bulletins, dating from v.1 (1953) through v.13 (1965) and Yale Medicine: alumni bulletin of the School of Medicine, v.1 (1965) through v. 52, no.1. (Autumn 2017).

Antioxidant Compounds From Marine Seaweeds And Their Mechanism Of Action, Trishna Debnath, Eun-Kyung Kim, Kwang-Geun Lee, Narayan Chandra Debnath, Ramkumar Mathur

Journal of Marine Research

Investigation of natural products has moved toward marine environments as they are a source of many biologically active agents. The natural antioxidant compounds isolated from seaweeds provide a valuable contribution to the innovation of new drugs for chronic diseases associated with oxidative stress. While the antioxidant activity and nutritional benefits of various seaweed products are well recognized, their proper utilization as antioxidants remains at initial stages that require further investigative studies. This review provides a detailed study of isolated antioxidant compounds from seaweeds and their major mechanism of action by focusing on the reports from 2015 to 2019. The report …

Effects Of Hard Clam (Mercenaria Mercenaria) Density And Bottom Shear Stress On Cohesive Sediment Erodibility And Implications For Benthic-Pelagic Coupling, Elka T. Porter, Barbara J. Johnson, Lawrence P. Sanford

Journal of Marine Research

The interacting effects of little neck hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) density and bottom shear stress on cohesive sediment erodibility were investigated. Short-term stepwise erosion experiments in 30 and 40 cm diameter Gust microcosms over a range of 0.0083 to 0.1932 Pa were performed using sequential 20-minute constant shear stress steps while sampling turbidity regularly. In addition, sediment erodibility was monitored in two one-month long ecosystem experiments with tidal resuspension and 0, 10, and 50 hard clams in 1 m³ shear turbulence resuspension mesocosms (STURM) with an initial stepwise erosion experiment (0.313 to 0.444 Pa). In short-term erosion …

Editor's Commentary: Steady Flow In A Frictionless Homogenous Ocean, Kenneth H. Brink

Journal of Marine Research

Before the publication of this article, Stommel (1948) and Munk (1950) published their linear, frictional models of steady wind-driven ocean gyres. The innovative advance they introduced was that their models included western boundary currents (e.g., the Gulf Stream)for the first time. These were really exciting advances. Yet, these models had some dreamlike qualities (to paraphrase Stommel) in that the flow patterns were very smooth, that the intense current always hugged the western boundary, and that the eastward interior flow is broadly distributed across latitudes...

Justice In A Brave New World?, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

As science fiction has become reality, we should consider the implications of our new technologies for our system of justice. In addition to DNA, we are now regularly using cameras, geo-tracking, facial recognition software, brain scans, computers, and much more to discern and record our physical and mental surroundings. Existing technology and more we cannot yet imagine will increasingly take the place of often unreliable evidence, such as that provided by eyewitnesses. Yet, we have given far too little thought as to how these advances should impact our civil and criminal dispute resolution systems.

Historically, many justice systems have emphasized …

#Metoo Backlash Or Simply Common Sense?: It's Complicated, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

This Essay focuses on the skittishness that men express about being accused of sexual harassment. Part II explains the prevalence of sexual harassment and the response to this problem, giving both empirical and anecdotal evidence of male professionals' refusals to spend time with female subordinates. Part III discusses the already-present inequalities in the legal profession, particularly in law firms and raises concerns about how lack of mentoring and sponsorship of women by male supervisors could create an even greater disparity. Part IV analyzes the disparate legal, business, and cultural definitions of sexual harassment, and given the disparities in understandings, raises …

Papercuts: Hierarchical Microaggressions In Law Schools, Nantiya Ruan

Scholarly Works

The Article investigates law schools as locations of workplace fairness by examining its hierarchical structure and the power dynamics at work. Others have researched and written on the myriad ways in which “legal skills faculty” are treated unfairly as compared to those that primarily teach non-skills (or doctrinal classes) because of the subject matter that they teach and the assumptions that are made about their credentials and ability to contribute to the law school mission. Likewise, other scholars have critically examined the discrimination experienced by law school faculty members based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other identities. What has …

Inference Of Natural Selection In Human Populations And Cancers: Testing, Extending, And Complementing Dn/Ds-Like Approaches, William Meyerson

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Heritable traits tend to rise or fall in prevalence over time in accordance with their effect on survival and reproduction; this is the law of natural selection, the driving force behind speciation. Natural selection is both a consequence and (in cancer) a cause of disease. The new abundance of sequencing data has spurred the development of computational techniques to infer the strength of selection across a genome. One technique, dN/dS, compares mutation rates at mutation-tolerant synonymous sites with those at nonsynonymous sites to infer selection. This dissertation tests, extends, and complements dN/dS for inferring selection from sequencing data. First, I …

Sympathetic Innervation Of Inguinal White Adipose Tissue In The Mouse, Clara Huesing, Emily Qualls-Creekmore, Nathan Lee, Marie François, Hayden Torres, Rui Zhang, David H. Burk, Sangho Yu, Christopher D. Morrison, Hans Rudolf Berthoud, Winfried Neuhuber, Heike Münzberg

Faculty Publications

© 2020 The Authors. The Journal of Comparative Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Adipose tissue plays an important role in metabolic homeostasis and its prominent role as endocrine organ is now well recognized. Adipose tissue is controlled via the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). New viral, molecular-genetic tools will soon allow a more detailed study of adipose tissue innervation in metabolic function, yet, the precise anatomical extent of preganglionic and postganglionic inputs to the inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) is limited. Furthermore, several viral, molecular-genetic tools will require the use of cre/loxP mouse models, while the available studies on sympathetic …

The Role Of Autophagy In Hydrogen Peroxide- Or Methylglyoxal- Induced Cardiac Myocyte Damage, Amogh Sehgal

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

Oxidative stress (e.g., increased hydrogen peroxide [H₂O₂] levels) and dicarbonyl stress (e.g. increased methylglyoxal [MG]) serve as initiators for the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and diabetic complications. Increased H₂O₂-derived free radicals and MG can be highly reactive and attack cellular components resulting in cell damage and even cell death. Normally, endogenous antioxidants and glyoxalase degrade H₂O₂ and MG, respectively. Additionally, autophagy facilitates the break-down of damaged cellular components allowing the components to be recycled by the cells. Researchers are still unclear about whether autophagy exacerbates cell damage or protects …

Test 2220: John Deere 7r 310, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …