Digital Commons Network^™

Faculty Senate Meeting, 56th Senate Agenda (11/23/2021), Csusb Faculty Senate

CSUSB Faculty Senate records

No abstract provided.

Provost Undergraduate Research Fund Offers Awards To 28 Ohio Students, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

Randomized And Non-Randomized Designs For Causal Inference With Longitudinal Data In Rare Disorders., Rima Izem, Robert Mccarter

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

In the United States, approximately 7000 rare diseases affect 30 million patients, and only 10% of these diseases have existing therapies. Sound study design and causal inference methods are essential to demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy, safety, and effectiveness of new therapies. In the rare diseases setting, several factors challenge the use of typical parallel control designs: the small patient population size, genotypic and phenotypic diversity, and the complexity and incomplete understanding of the disorder's progression. Repeated measures, when spaced appropriately relative to disease progression and exploited in design and analysis, can increase study power and reduce variability in treatment effect …

University Of Dayton Psychologist Partners With Harvard-Affiliated Hospital And Dayton Nonprofit To Research Generational Trauma, Mental Health Of Children, Allison Brace

College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

Lucy Allbaugh, an assistant professor of psychology at UD, and a team of undergraduate and graduate students partnered with researchers from McLean Hospital, a Harvard affiliate, on the Dayton Kids Project, which aims to better understand childhood adversity.

A Critical Discourse Analysis To Explain The Failure Of Bop Strategies, Nancy E. Landrum

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Purpose – This paper aims to highlight differences between business and non-business literature regarding base of the pyramid (BoP) and subsistence contexts and reveal discourse’s powerful role in influencing goals, solutions and outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses critical discourse analysis to review a convenience sample of business versus non-business literature on the BoP and subsistence contexts.

Findings – Discourse used in business literature on the BoP is oriented toward hegemonic Western capitalist approaches that result in the depletion of resources, resource inequalities, poverty and increased consumption, dependence and environmental degradation and, therefore, cannot alleviate poverty.

Research limitations/implications – There …

Microrna Analysis Of Human Stroke Brain Tissue Resected During Decompressive Craniectomy/Stroke-Ectomy Surgery, Andrew P. Carlson, William Mckay, Jeremy S. Edwards, Radha Swaminathan, Karen S. Santacruz, Ron L. Mims, Howard Yonas, Tamara Roitbak

Pathology Research and Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Signaling pathways mediated by microRNAs (miRNAs) have been identified as one of the mechanisms that regulate stroke progression and recovery. Recent investigations using stroke patient blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) demonstrated disease-specific alterations in miRNA expression. In this study, for the first time, we investigated miRNA expression signatures in freshly removed human stroke brain tissue.

METHODS: Human brain samples were obtained during craniectomy and brain tissue resection in severe stroke patients with life-threatening brain swelling. The tissue samples were subjected to histopathological and immunofluorescence microscopy evaluation, next generation miRNA sequencing (NGS), and bioinformatic analysis.

RESULTS: miRNA NGS analysis detected …

Fever In A Returning Traveler: A Case And Literature Review Of Melioidosis, Akanksha Arya, Hamadullah Shaikh, Devin Weber, Matthew Pettengill, Sean Moss

Division of Infectious Diseases and Environmental Medicine Faculty Papers

Burkholderia pseudomallei is an aerobic, motile, non-spore-forming gram-negative bacillus found in tropical endemic environments that causes the disease melioidosis. Melioidosis displays a diversity of clinical presentations ranging from septic shock to chronic latent infection, often with characteristic abscesses in multiple organs. Melioidosis is an opportunistic infection, with risk factors, including diabetes, alcohol use, chronic lung disease, and chronic renal disease, and these risk factors increase the severity of disease (Wiersinga et al., 2006) [1]. In this case report, we illustrate a case of a 32 year old man with several risk factors and recent travel to an endemic region presenting …

“Safe Spaces” And “Brave Spaces”: The Case For Creating Law School Classrooms That Are Both, Laura P. Graham

University of Miami Law Review

Over the past decade, the subject of “safe spaces” on college and university campuses has received much press. As originally conceived, the term “safe space” refers to an environment—often a physical space—in which “everyone feels comfortable expressing themselves and participating fully, without fear of attack, ridicule, or denial of experience.” And while this original conception may not seem controversial, the meaning of “safe spaces” as applied to higher education classrooms is a subject of ongoing vigorous debate. On one side of the debate are those who believe that safe spaces foster learning by making it possible for students to be …

Biomarkers For Resistance To Porcine Circovirus 2 Associated Disease, Daniel Constantin Ciobanu, Lianna Rayne Walker, Taylor Benjamin Engle, Hiep Vu

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

The present disclosure provides compositions and methods for increasing resistance to PCV2 infection in pigs. The increased resistance may be the result of siRNA or genetic modification through CRISPR or a vectored virus targeting SNPs that are resistant to PCV2 infection.

Basic Behavioral Processes Involved In Procrastination, Thomas R. Zentall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Procrastination involves an irrational putting off of engaging in a course of action, in spite of expecting to be worse off for the delay. I suggest that to understand the processes underlying procrastination one should examine its relation to several behavioral procedures that have been studied in humans and other animals. For example, in delay discounting, smaller rewards that come sooner are often preferred over larger rewards that come later. In the context of delay discounting, procrastination can be viewed as the preference for an immediate competing activity over the delay to work on a required task. Another process similar …

Competition And Geography Underlie Speciation And Morphological Evolution In Indo-Australasian Monitor Lizards, Carlos J. Pavón-Vázquez, Ian G. Brennan, Alexander Skeels, J. Scott Keogh

Publications and Research

How biotic and abiotic factors act together to shape biological diversity is a major question in evolutionary biology. The recent availability of large datasets and development of new methodological approaches provide new tools to evaluate the predicted effects of ecological interactions and geography on lineage diversification and phenotypic evolution. Here, we use a near complete phylogenomic-scale phylogeny and a comprehensive morphological dataset comprising more than a thousand specimens to assess the role of biotic and abiotic processes in the diversification of monitor lizards (Varanidae). This charismatic group of lizards shows striking variation in species richness among its clades and multiple …

Stone Monuments Of Northern Lake Eyasi Basin At Olpiro, Oldogom And Olbili Sites In The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania: Revisited Perspectives, Musa S. Mwitondi, Pastory Bushozi, Albert S. Mjandwa

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Despite the outstanding contribution of Lake Eyasi Basin to human origins and cultural development from the middle stone age (MSA) to the historic period, other archaeological occurrences in the area with outstanding cultural values such as burial cairns, stone enclosures, megalithic walls, and dolmens have remained less emphatic among scholars. Although these are widespread across the cultural landscape of the region, yet they have attracted little scientific attention. These stone monuments were first reported in the 1960s and 1970s, and precisely correlated to the agricultural terraces of Engaruka, the astonishing late iron age agricultural scheme of northern Tanzania. This study …

The Effects Of Household Shocks On Child Nutrition Status In Tanzania, Monica Sebastian Kauky, Martin Chegere, Razack Bakari Lokina

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The main objective of this paper is to examine the effects of household shocks on the nutrition status of children between 0–59 months in Tanzania. The study employed the national panel survey data of Tanzania collected in three waves: 2008/09, 2010/11, and 2012/13. The study used the panel random-effects probit model to estimate the effects of household shocks on child nutrition status, measured by binary variables: stunting, wasting, and underweight. Findings indicated that weather shocks increase the probability of a child being stunted and underweight. Moreover, the results revealed that food price rise shocks and the death of a family …

Model Fitting And Analysis Of The Cost-Effectiveness Of Control Strategies In The Threatened Wildebeest-Lion Prey-Predator System In The Serengeti Ecosystem, Thadei D. Sagamiko

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

In this paper, a wildebeest-lion prey-predator model for the Serengeti ecosystem was adopted from a previous publication. The threats to the model system were poaching, retaliatory killings, and droughts. The proposed threat control strategies for these threats were anti-poaching patrol to mitigate poaching, construction of strong bomas to reduce retaliatory killings, and construction of dams to mitigate the impact of droughts. Data on the lion population density in the Serengeti ecosystem were used to fit the model by using the maximum likelihood method. The impact of different control strategies for a period of five years was analysed using the incremental …

Mobile Colorimetric Assay Device, Anna Pyayt, Arsenii Zhdanov, Jordan Keefe, Luis Franco-Waite

USF Patents

A mobile phone-based system for ELISA (MELISA). The MELISA system can perform all steps of ELISA procedure and output hormone concentration values. The system includes a heater that keeps the temperature required for sample incubation, illumination system for sample image capturing, and a digital camera system. All components are enclosed in a dark box to create optimal light conditions for image capturing. After sample images are captured, they are digitally processed, and hormone concentration values are reported based on colorimetric data from the samples. The system can be used to complete all steps of the assay, including incubation and reading. …

Discussion Boards In The Online Classroom: Are They Actually Influencing Instructor Mediated Immediacy, Student Motivation, Student Affective Learning, Student Connectedness, And Online Learning Climate?, Samantha Lynn Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

Discussion boards are one of the most popular forms of asynchronous discussion in online classes. Utilized by instructors in asynchronous and synchronous courses to facilitate class discussions, they offer a means for the class to communicate among each other and with the instructor. Few researchers have examined how the use of discussion boards in the online classroom affects instructor mediated immediacy, student motivation, affective learning, connectedness, and the online learning climate. This study sought to examine the influence of discussion boards on these variables. After review of research on discussion boards and related variables, participants completed a questionnaire composed of …

Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Genetic Variants Associated With Hiv-1c Infection In A Botswana Study Population, Andrey Shevchenko, Daria V. Zhernakova, Sergey Malov, Aleksey Komissarov, Sofia Kolchanova, Gaik Tamazian, Alexey Antonik, Nikolay Cherkasov, Sergey Kliver, Anastasiia Turenko, Mikhail Rotkevich, Igor Evsyukov, David Vlahov, Prisca K. Thami, Simani Gaseitsiwe, Vladimir Novitsky, Myron Essex, Stephen James O'Brien

Biology Faculty Articles

Although there have been many studies of gene variant association with different stages of HIV/AIDS progression in United States and European cohorts, few gene-association studies have assessed genic determinants in sub-Saharan African populations, which have the highest density of HIV infections worldwide. We carried out genome-wide association studies on 766 study participants at risk for HIV-1 subtype C (HIV-1C) infection in Botswana. Three gene associations (AP3B1, PTPRA, and NEO1) were shown to have significant association with HIV-1C acquisition. Each gene association was replicated within Botswana or in the United States–African American or United States–European American AIDS …

Applying The Social Model Of Disability: A Phenomenology Of Initiating Change In Higher Education, Olena M. Marshall

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

In the past decades, disability service professionals in higher education began adopting the social model of disability as a theoretical and practical framework for creating more inclusive campus environments for students with disabilities who attend colleges and universities in growing numbers. Specifically, in the early 2000s, an international organization of disability service professionals, the Association on Higher Education and Disability, took on a strategic effort to shift the paradigm of disability services toward systematically removing barriers to full participation and transforming disabling environments—away from the prevalent modes of service focusing on the medical model, legal and regulatory compliance, and ad …

Interferometric Lithography- An Approach To Large Area And Cost Effective Nanopatterning, Vineeth Sasidharan

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

In this dissertation interferometric lithography is approached in two different ways to address two important constraints of nanopatterning. One approach solves the problem of scaling up interferometric lithography to wafer scale (4 inch or larger) area. Through the second approach we have developed a nanopatterning technique based on interferometric lithography by using an inexpensive (~$100) diode laser as source, making interferometric lithography a very cost-effective technique.

Wafer-scale large-area nanopatterning was developed using an amplitude grating mask as a grating beam splitter along with spatial averaging of laser intensity by wobbling. The longitudinal and transverse coherence issues both are eased by …

Phylogenetic Relationships Of Genera In The Caddisfly Family Limnephilidae Using Anchored Hybrid Enrichment-Based Phylogenomic Analysis (Insecta:Trichoptera), Kyle Charles Rawlinson

Theses and Dissertations

Limnephilidae is a large family within Trichoptera, consisting of 4 subfamilies (Dicosmoecinae, Ecclisomyiinae, Limnephilinae, and Philocascinae), 98 genera, and 1178 species. It is among the most diverse families within Trichoptera. It is also ecologically diverse, occupying more habitats than any other family in the order. There are currently no published generic phylogenies of Limnephilidae based on molecular data. Here we used anchored hybrid enrichment to capture and sequence 922 loci for 57 species taken from what have been considered the full range of genera in the family. We expanded the taxon sampling by adding supplementary species with DNA barcodes, 28S …

Enhancing Cancer Care Of Rural Dwellers Through Telehealth And Engagement (Encore): Protocol To Evaluate Effectiveness Of A Multi-Level Telehealth-Based Intervention To Improve Rural Cancer Care Delivery, Tuya Pal, Pamela C. Hull, Tatsuki Koyama, Phillip Lammers, Denise Martinez, Jacob Mcarthy, Emma Schremp, Ann Tezak, Anne Washburn, Jennifer G. Whisenant, Debra L. Friedman

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite lower cancer incidence rates, cancer mortality is higher among rural compared to urban dwellers. Patient, provider, and institutional level factors contribute to these disparities. The overarching objective of this study is to leverage the multidisciplinary, multispecialty oncology team from an academic cancer center in order to provide comprehensive cancer care at both the patient and provider levels in rural healthcare centers. Our specific aims are to: 1) evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a multi-level telehealth-based intervention consisting of provider access to molecular tumor board expertise along with patient access to a supportive care intervention to improve cancer care …

Designing Environmentally Responsible And Highly Effective Bioorthogonally Functionalized Chiral Mri Contrast Agents, Karley Breann Maier

Dissertations and Theses

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revolutionized diagnostic imaging and modernized the characterization of numerous diseases. The clinical success of MRI is in large part due to the employment of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). Due to sensitivity limitations, GBCAs are indicated at markedly high dosages (~1 g Gd³⁺ per exam). The routine use of such large quantities of gadolinium poses significant health and environmental risks. There are growing concerns over the effects of dechelation of the metal in vivo and the possible effect of resulting gadolinium deposition. Concurrently, there is a rising awareness of gadolinium anomalies borne by GBCAs which undergo …

High-Fructose, High-Fat Diet Alters Muscle Composition And Fuel Utilization In A Juvenile Iberian Pig Model Of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Heather C Spooner, Stefani A Derrick, Magdalena Maj, Rodrigo Manjarín, Gabriella V Hernandez, Deepali S Tailor, Parisa S Bastani, Rob K Fanter, Marta L Fiorotto, Douglas G Burrin, Michael R La Frano, Angelos K Sikalidis, Jason M Blank

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a serious metabolic condition affecting millions of people worldwide. A “Western-style diet” has been shown to induce pediatric NAFLD with the potential disruption of skeletal muscle composition and metabolism. To determine the in vivo effect of a “Western-style diet” on pediatric skeletal muscle fiber type and fuel utilization, 28 juvenile Iberian pigs were fed either a control diet (CON) or a high-fructose, high-fat diet (HFF), with or without probiotic supplementation, for 10 weeks. The HFF diets increased the total triacylglycerol content of muscle tissue but decreased intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) content and the number of …

Aberrant Crosstalk Between Insulin Signaling And Mtor In Young Down Syndrome Individuals Revealed By Neuronal-Derived Extracellular Vesicles, Marzia Perluigi, Anna Picca, Elita Montanari, Riccardo Calvani, Federico Marini, Roberto Matassa, Antonella Tramutola, Alberto Villani, Giuseppe Familiari, Fabio Di Domenico, D. Allan Butterfield, Kenneth J. Oh, Emanuele Marzetti, Diletta Valentini, Eugenio Barone

Chemistry Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Intellectual disability, accelerated aging, and early-onset Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration are key brain pathological features of Down syndrome (DS). Although growing research aims at the identification of molecular pathways underlying the aging trajectory of DS population, data on infants and adolescents with DS are missing.

METHODS: Neuronal-derived extracellular vesicles (nEVs) were isolated form healthy donors (HDs, n = 17) and DS children (n = 18) from 2 to 17 years of age and nEV content was interrogated for markers of insulin/mTOR pathways.

RESULTS: nEVs isolated from DS children were characterized by a significant increase in pIRS1^Ser636, a marker of …

To Engage Or Disengage: The Impact Of Coping Strategies, Sex, And Stress History On Cortisol Reactivity Among Urban Adolescents, Madeline Curzon

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Stress affects people daily and can prove maladaptive to mental health if chronic or acute. Effective coping responses may mitigate the negative effects of intense or prolonged stress through physiological processes such as HPA axis activity. Previous research has found one specific coping dimension, engagement/disengagement, to be predictive of cortisol reactivity in response to lab-induced stressors. Sex and stress history also contribute to the relationship between coping and cortisol reactivity. However, these processes are not as well understood in adolescent populations and have not been explored across different types of stressors. The present study explored the relationship between coping and …

The Effects Of Triaminopyrimidine Analogs And Gold(I) Chloride Compounds On Cell Proliferation And Apoptosis In Mda-Mb-231 Human Breast Cancer Cells, Robin Redline

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is a common disease that affects both women and men all over the world. Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer with poor survival statistics and few available treatment options. Uncontrolled cell proliferation and the ability to avoid programmed cell death, apoptosis, are two shared hallmarks of cancers. Previous research has shown a group of heterocyclic molecules called triaminopyrimidines, not tested in this study, may be effective antiproliferative agents. Previous research has also shown that some gold(I) complexes not tested in this study, may be promising anticancer agents. In this study, a few chemicals …

Identification Of Disease-Linked Hyperactivating Mutations In Ube3a Through Large-Scale Functional Variant Analysis, Kellan P Weston, Xiaoyi Gao, Jinghan Zhao, Kwang-Soo Kim, Susan E Maloney, Jill Gotoff, Sumit Parikh, Yen-Chen Leu, Kuen-Phon Wu, Marwan Shinawi, Joshua P Steimel, Joseph S Harrison, Jason J Yi

Open Access Publications

The mechanisms that underlie the extensive phenotypic diversity in genetic disorders are poorly understood. Here, we develop a large-scale assay to characterize the functional valence (gain or loss-of-function) of missense variants identified in UBE3A, the gene whose loss-of-function causes the neurodevelopmental disorder Angelman syndrome. We identify numerous gain-of-function variants including a hyperactivating Q588E mutation that strikingly increases UBE3A activity above wild-type UBE3A levels. Mice carrying the Q588E mutation exhibit aberrant early-life motor and communication deficits, and individuals possessing hyperactivating UBE3A variants exhibit affected phenotypes that are distinguishable from Angelman syndrome. Additional structure-function analysis reveals that Q588 forms a regulatory site …

A Biocultural Analysis Of The Impacts Of Interactions Between West Africans And Europeans During The Trans-Atlantic Trade At Elmina, Ghana, Heidi Ellen Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project utilizes a biocultural approach to assess the demographics and health of the West African population from Elmina, Ghana. Elmina, selected by the Portuguese in 1482 as the site of the first European trade fort in sub-Saharan Africa, grew from a small coastal fishing village to a large settlement over the course of more than 400 years of trade and cultural entanglement. Taken over by the Dutch and then ceded to the British, the people of Elmina navigated significant cultural changes, changes and experiences that can be detected in their skeletal remains. Bioarchaeological research concerned with the effects of …

Interspecies Variation In Hominid Gut Microbiota Controls Host Gene Regulation, Amanda L. Muehlbauer, Allison L. Richards, Adnan Alazizi, Michael B. Burns, Andres Gomez, Jonathan B. Clayton, Klara Petrzelkova, Camilla Cascardo, Justyna Resztak, Xiaoquan Wen, Roger Pique-Regi, Francesca Luca, Ran Blekhman

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The gut microbiome exhibits extreme compositional variation between hominid hosts. However, it is unclear how this variation impacts host physiology across species and whether this effect can be mediated through microbial regulation of host gene expression in interacting epithelial cells. Here, we characterize the transcriptional response of human colonic epithelial cells in vitro to live microbial communities extracted from humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. We find that most host genes exhibit a conserved response, whereby they respond similarly to the four hominid microbiomes. However, hundreds of host genes exhibit a divergent response, whereby they respond only to microbiomes from specific …

Social Determinants Of Health Related To Stay-At-Home Order Adherence And Social Distancing Attitudes Among A Diverse Deep South Population, Jennifer L. Lemacks, Tammy Greer, Sermin Aras, Laurie Abbott, Darlene Willis, June Gipson, Mohamed O. Elasri

Faculty Publications

Objective: To describe COVID-19 related symptoms and medical care experienced in the first six months of the pandemic as well as stay-at-home order adherence, and attitudes related to COVID-19 risk and social distancing among a diverse sample of adults in the Deep South.

Methods: Survey data were collected from 411 Louisiana and Mississippi residents for three weeks in June 2020 through social media.

Results: Over half (52.5%) of participants who experienced COVID-19 related symptoms (with 41.5% experiencing at least one symptom) did not feel the severity of symptoms warranted seeking medical care. 91.6% of the Deep South …