Digital Commons Network^™

Lateral Habenula Neurocircuits Mediate The Maternal Disruptive Effect Of Maternal Stress: A Hypothesis, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Up to 20% of women experience stress-related disorders during the postpartum period; however, little is known about the specific neural circuitry by which maternal stress exerts its negative impacts on mental health and maternal caregiving behavior. Theoretically, such a circuitry should serve as an interface between the stress response system and maternal neural network, transmitting stress signals to the neural circuitry that mediates maternal behavior. In this paper, I propose that the lateral habenula (LHb) serves this interface function. Evidence shows that the LHb plays a key role in encoding stress-induced effects and in the pathophysiology of major depression and …

Teaching Catholic Social Thought Online In The Philippines: From A Challenge To An Opportunity, Teofilo Giovan S. Pugeda Iii

Theology Department Faculty Publications

The essay argues that students learn Catholic social thought best by experiencing it pedagogically. Five suggestions are proffered as a contribution from the Philippines to the development of CST pedagogy.

Security Strategies Of Electronic Health Record Systems, Benjamin Gerke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Users of electronic health record (EHR) systems lack data security mechanisms and are at risk of patient data breaches. Grounded in routine activities theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies information technology security managers in the health care industry use to minimize electronic health record data breaches. The participants were nine information security managers of large, medium, and small health care organizations in the Midwest United States. Data collection included semistructured interviews and organizational documents. Through methodological triangulation, three themes emerged: (a) requirements based on government and organizational regulations, (b) implementation of best practice industry-standard …

Into The Woods: Toward A Material Poetics Of The Tropical Forest In Philippine Literature, Glenn L. Diaz

English Faculty Publications

This study considers how the tropical forest as a material and discursive space mediates the ways in which history is imagined in Philippine literary texts and literary production. Mobilizing ideas from new materialism, material poetics, and tropicality, the paper looks at generative moments from indigenous and revolutionary literature—two broad traditions whose conditions of possibility are inextricably linked with the materiality of the tropical forest and thus inevitably evince the structuring force of such nonhuman agencies and subjectivities. By disclosing how the “more than human” is constitutive of history and historical subject formation, it seeks to foreground the agency of Philippine …

Vernacular Virtual: Toward A Philippine New Materialist Poetics Authors, Christian Jil R. Benitez

Filipino Faculty Publications

This essay turns to and through the Philippine vernacular in order to open up the possibility of a new materialist regard of literature, one that specifically stems from the Philippine tropics. It proposes that the opportunity for such a tropical materialism rests on the onomatopoeism observed in the vernacular. Onomatopoeia, as a material linguistic principle, is recognized here to be most instructive in reunderstanding Philippine folk poetry — texts which date back to the precolonial period — in terms beyond mere representation. As a counterpoint to these traditional literary texts, the essay also ruminates on the poetry of Jose Garcia …

Experimental Elucidation Of The Life Cycle Of Drepanocephalus Spathans (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) With Notes On The Morphological Plasticity Of D. Spathans In The United States, Neely R. Alberson, Thomas G. Rosser, Tommy King, Ethan T. Woodyard, Lester Khoo, Wes A. Baumgartner, Daviod J. Wise, Linda M. Pote, Fred L. Cunningham, Matt J. Griffin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The echinostomatid Drepanocephalus spathans (syn. Drepanocephalus auritus) parasitizes the doublecrested cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus. In North America, the marsh rams-horn snail Planorbella trivolvis and ghost rams-horn snail Biomphalaria havanensis serve as snail intermediate hosts, both of which inhabit catfish aquaculture ponds in the southeastern United States. Studies have demonstrated D. spathans exposure can be lethal to juvenile channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Two studies were undertaken to elucidate the life cycle of D. spathans to establish a developmental time line. In both studies, D. spathans cercariae collected from naturally infected P. trivolvis individuals were used to infect channel catfish …

Scavenging Vs Hunting Affects Behavioral Traits Of An Opportunistic Carnivore, Mitchell A. Parsons, Andrew Garcia, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background. Human-induced changes to ecosystems transform the availability of resources to predators, including altering prey populations and increasing access to anthropogenic foods. Opportunistic predators are likely to respond to altered food resources by changing the proportion of food they hunt versus scavenge. These shifts in foraging behavior will affect species interactions through multiple pathways, including by changing other aspects of predator behavior such as boldness, innovation, and social structure. Methods. To understand how foraging behavior impacts predator behavior, we conducted a controlled experiment to simulate hunting by introducing a prey model to captive coyotes (Canis latrans) and compared their behavior …

Influence Of Landscape Attributes On Virginia Opossum Density, David A. Bernasconi, Wesley C. Dixon, Matthew T. Hamilton, James L. Helton, Richard B. Chipman, Amy T. Gilbert, James C. Beasley, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Guha Dharmarajan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

TheVirginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), North America's only marsupial, has a range extending from southern Ontario, Canada, to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific. Despite the Virginia opossum's taxonomic uniqueness in relation to other mammals in North America and rapidly expanding distribution, its ecology remains relatively understudied. Our poor understanding of the ecology of this important mesopredator is especially pronounced in the rural southeastern United States. Our goal was to estimate effects of habitat on opossum density within an extensive multiyear spatial capture‐recapture study. Additionally, we compared the results of this spatial capture‐recapture …

Multidisciplinary Engagement For Fencing Research Informs Efficacy And Rancher-To-Researcher Knowledge Exchange, Matthew Hyde, Stewart W. Breck, Alex Few, Jared Beaver, Joshua Schrecengost, Jim Stone, Cameron Krebs, Russell Talmo, Kari Eneas, Rae Nickerson, Kyran E. Kunkel, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Across much of the Western United States, recovery of large carnivore populations is creating new challenges for livestock producers. Reducing the risks of sharing the landscape with recovering wildlife populations is critical to private working lands, which play an vital role in securing future energy, water, food, and fiber for an ever-expanding human population. Fencing is an important mitigation practice that many ranchers, land managers, and conservationists implement to reduce carnivore-livestock conflict. While fencing strategies have been reviewed in the literature, research seldom incorporates knowledge from the people who utilize fencing the most (i.e., livestock producers). Incorporating producers and practitioners …

Evolutionary Morphogenesis Of Sexual Fruiting Bodies In Basidiomycota: Toward A New Evo-Devo Synthesis, Máté Virágh, Zsolt Merényi, Árpád Csernetics, Csenge Földi, Neha Sahu, Xiao Bin Liu, David S. Hibbett, László G. Nagy

Biology

SUMMARY The development of sexual fruiting bodies is one of the most complex morphogenetic processes in fungi. Mycologists have long been fascinated by the morphological and developmental diversity of fruiting bodies; however, evolutionary developmental biology of fungi still lags significantly behind that of animals or plants. Here, we summarize the current state of knowledge on fruiting bodies of mushroom-forming Basidiomycota, focusing on phylogenetic and developmental biology. Phylogenetic approaches have revealed a complex history of morphological transformations and convergence in fruiting body morphologies. Frequent transformations and convergence is characteristic of fruiting bodies in contrast to animals or plants, where main body …

A Framework For Near-Real Time Monitoring Of Diversity Patterns Based On Indirect Remote Sensing, With An Application In The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, Andrea Paz, Thiago S. Silva, Ana C. Carnaval

Publications and Research

Monitoring biodiversity change is key to effective conservation policy. While it is difficult to establish in situ biodiversity monitoring programs at broad geographical scales, remote sensing advances allow for near-real time Earth observations that may help with this goal. We combine periodical and freely available remote sensing information describing temperature and precipitation with curated biological information from several groups of animals and plants in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest to design an indirect remote sensing framework that monitors potential loss and gain of biodiversity in near-real time. Using data from biological collections and information from repeated field inventories, we demonstrate that …

Bononia Docet: Marcantonio Raimondi, Humanism, And Artisanal Culture In Renaissance Bologna, Giancarlo Fiorenza

Art and Design

A new interpretation of an enigmatic engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi from his early career in Bologna sheds light on the artist’s cultural connections during his formative years. With its assimilation of alchemical, poetic, and hieroglyphic imagery, Raimondi’s engraving points to a nexus of activities in Bologna that clustered around intellectual circles and artists’ workshops. In particular, the artist appears to have engaged directly with the famed Bolognese physician Alessandro Achillini in order to develop his novel composition, a relationship which has previously gone unnoticed. Raimondi’s initial vocation as a goldsmith, together with his training under Francesco Francia, about which we …

Workzone Lighting And Glare On Nighttime Construction And Maintenance Activities, Abdullah Jalal Nafakh, Franklin Vargas Davila, Yunchang Zhang, Jon D. Fricker, Dulcy M. Abraham

JTRP Technical Reports

Over the last two decades, an increasing number of highway construction and maintenance projects in the United States have been completed at night to avoid or alleviate traffic congestion delays. Working at night entails several advantages, including lower traffic volumes, less impact on local businesses, cooler temperatures for equipment and material, and fewer overall crashes. Although nighttime roadway operations may minimize traffic disruptions, there are several safety concerns about passing motorists and workers in the nighttime work zone. For instance, improper lighting arrangements or excessive lighting levels at the job site could cause harmful levels of glare for the traveling …

Defining And Assessing Sentience, Barry O. Hughes

Animal Sentience

Precisely what is meant by the term sentience and how does it overlap with being conscious? We accept that animals have feelings but how do we know what they are and can we measure them? It is important that we clarify the terminology underlying these difficult concepts. Over the last 50 years a scientific discipline has developed to tackle these questions in a systematic way. We have to avoid thoughtless anthropomorphism yet we have to try to relate sentience in animals, as appropriate, to corresponding experiences in humans.

Tooth Agenesis, Thomas Labarias

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

In this literature review, I will discuss tooth agenesis, which is a congenital absence of one tooth or more, and the terminology associated. I will then discuss and compare the studies regarding the etiology and the prevalences of tooth agenesis throughout the world population. The second half of the paper will cover tooth agenesis from a clinical standpoint. I will describe the capital different complications and phenotypes that tooth agenesis creates. In the last section, I will explain how tooth agenesis is medically treated, and the multidisciplinary management needed to improve the patient’s quality of life.

Christopher I. Beckwith. Empires Of The Silk Road: A History Of Central Eurasia From The Bronze Age To The Present Day. Princeton And Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011., Constance Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

Empires of the Silk Road is an ambitious work that fulfills its stated ambitions, fully. Written with boldness and authority, it packs many punches and pulls few. Author Christopher I. Beckwith manages to cover ~5,000-years-worth of Central Eurasian history in this single volume; he sees those events differently than your common or garden-variety Central Eurasian historian/philologist and demonstrates patiently and precisely why he does so in a way that is rich and insightful. Beckwith’s work is both complex and concise. It is provocative and persuasive. It is frequently captivating, often surprising, occasionally perplexing, and sometimes slightly weird 1 (not that …

An Attempt To Arrive At The Meaning Of Civilization As The Third Millennium Dawns, Mojtaba Sadeghi Independent Scholar

Comparative Civilizations Review

Civilizations may be understood as phenomena subject to differing perspectives. This article views civilization from the perspective of Geography. A civilization is a “Geographical Space” that arises from complex interactions over time. The core of civilization from a geographical perspective is this: every civilization is a geographical space, but not every geographical space is necessarily a civilization. A civilization has a “cultured soul” and an “advanced body.” We may use this approach to understand, measure, critique, and emancipate civilization in the third millennium.

So You Think You Know Dance?: Fundamentals Of Dance, Mary Francis “Cissy” Whipp, Roshanda Spears, Susan Perlis, Vanessa Kanamoto, Peter Klubek (Editor)

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Framework For Sustainable Pastoral Management - Revised Edition, R Fletcher

Natural resources published reports

This Framework for sustainable pastoral management, revised edition (the Framework) describes the contemporary risk-based approach that is now being used within Western Australia (WA) to ensure management of the State’s pastoral estate meets the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD). Development of the Framework was undertaken as part of the Pastoral Lands Reform project initiated by the WA Government in response to the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG 2017) report, Management of pastoral lands in Western Australia. The Framework was developed by DPIRD with input from the Interagency Steering Committee (ISC – which included senior representatives of the WA …

Framework For Sustainable Pastoral Management - Land Condition Version, R Fletcher

Natural resources published reports

This document outlines the revised edition of the Framework for sustainable pastoral management, with a particular emphasis on the land condition components, including the monitoring, assessment and compliance processes. These processes are now being used to guide the management of land condition on all pastoral leases and stations within Western Australia (WA), which cover 860,000 km2 and represents over 40% of WA’s extensive rangeland area.

The Experience Of Saudi Students Writing Academic English In Sex-Separated Classrooms, Rana Alsaadi

Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative research that investigates the experiences of undergraduate Saudi female and male students majoring in English at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. These students were part of different sections of a course that teaches academic English writing and research in an English as a Foreign Language context. These Saudi female and male students draw on their perceptions of three main points; First, how they experienced the academic English writing course in sex-separated classrooms. Second, how the current sex-separated classrooms influence their learning of English and how if this hypothetically change to mixed-sex classrooms their experiences in learning English …

Suitability Analysis Of Snow And Ice Changes For Ice Patch Archaeology: A Case Study In The Crazy Mountains, Montana, Christine Kay Lidenberg

Theses and Dissertations

As technology advances over the years there has been a growing interest in the application of using remote sensing for conveying the detection of alpine archaeological sites. As climate changes and global temperatures rise across the globe perennial snow/ ice patches are melting and disappearing in alpine areas. These alpine archaeological sites are being immensely affected and, in some cases, destroyed. The research was conducted to determine if using both remote sensing imagery and suitability models could detect the extent of perennial snow/ice patch loss and determine the ice patches most vulnerable to melting in the Crazy Mountains of Montana. …

Landscape Ecology Influence On Population Dynamics And Gene Flow: A Muskrat’S Tale, Ayla A. Morehouse

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding movement patterns across a landscape is an essential tool for wildlife managers to understand and predict population dynamics, interactions, and susceptibility to disease and environmental changes. Part of this is due to population spatial synchrony being driven by three primary factors: dispersal, the “Moran Effect”, and trophic interactions. We seek to understand if dispersal may play a larger role in population synchrony and, if so, what landscape features may hinder the movement of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus), a small semiaquatic mammal that relies on ditches and shallow wetlands for habitat and local movement. In this study we genotyped eleven microsatellite …

Genetic Breed Association And Contraceptive Response Gwas Of The Feral Horses (Equus Caballus) Of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Melissa Amy Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) is home to a herd of feral horses (Equus caballus) which were present on the landscape prior to the establishment of the park and are now maintained as a living history demonstration herd. I used genomic analyses to investigate the TRNP horses’ relatedness to other breeds and the genetic basis for variation in response to a contraceptive vaccine. DNA from 118 horses was genotyped for 70k SNPs spread evenly across the genome. To clarify the relationship of this herd with other horses, I used population genomic analyses to compare the TRNP genotypes to a dataset …

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys Curriculum Series Longitudinal Effects On Grade 4 Student Reading Scores, Daniel Warcken

Theses and Dissertations

Within the last 100 years, the number of school districts in America has dropped by as much as 90% (Murdock, 2012), from 117,108 in 1939 to 13,452 in 2019 (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2020). Funding and how to provide educational equity, equality, and justice for all is a critical conversation. According to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) (2018), 1.94% of the state’s $1.448 billion cumulative K-12 expenditures are associated with instructional media related to academic aids such as textbooks.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify if the major educational publishing company Houghton …

Development Of Biomass-Derived Nanoparticles For Biological And Medical Applications, Sarah Elizabeth Reagen

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum dots (QDs) are a subset of nanoparticles (NPs) that have several unique optical and electrical properties that make them viable for fluorescent cell labeling applications. However, these QDs in the past were composed of toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, and therefore, graphene-based QDs (GQDs) have been examined as an alternative material for these cell labeling applications for their increased biocompatibility. Furthermore, GQDs can produced singlet oxygen (1O2) for photodynamic therapy (PDT), making them capable of being used as a PS agent for cancer treatment. Additionally, hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (hMSNs) are capable of being an alternative …

Telehealth Satisfaction Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hillary Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic caused substantial disruptions and changes in mental health service delivery as community mental health clinics had to scramble to implement telehealth services to provide continuity of care under quarantine. For the current study, I conducted in-depth video interviews with ten clients from a community mental health training clinic who transitioned from in-person services to telehealth services. Twenty-one factors related to clients’ satisfaction with telehealth services and their perceived barriers to the treatment modality using a grounded theory framework. The majority of participants reported they were satisfied with telehealth but preferred to return to in-person therapy sessions with …

Room To Breathe: Using Adaptive Architecture To Examine The Relationship Between Alexithymia And Interoception, Haneen Abdulhamid, Nils Jäger, Holger Schnädelbach, Alastair D. Smith

School of Psychology

ObjectiveIndividuals with alexithymia experience difficulties interpreting emotional states in self and others, which has been associated with interoceptive impairment. Current theories are primarily based on subjective and conscious measures of interoceptive sensitivity, such as heartrate detection, but it is unclear whether similar observations would be found for objective or implicit psychophysiological measures. The present exploratory study assesses the potential of a novel assay through the use of adaptive immersive architecture [ExoBuilding].MethodsN = 88 participants were screened for alexithymic traits and N = 27 individuals, representing the range of scores, were sampled to participate in the behavioural task. In a repeated-measures …

The Right To Fail: Defining And Imitating The Style Of The Royal Court Theatre, Annie Sheneman

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Being Asian During Covid-19: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Domestic And International Identities, Liang-Liang Jiang

Senior Independent Study Theses

The past 3 years of the COVID-19 global pandemic has seen a rise in anti-Asian racism and hate. However, in Ohio, where Asians make up only 2.2% of the population, there is little visibility for Asians and Asian Americans. This study aims to document the diverse experiences of students and staff of East Asian descent, at The College of Wooster, during the past three years of the pandemic. My study focuses on a specific demographic of both international and domestic “Asian” identities. I recorded and transcribed interviews and uploaded them to a digital archive that can be found at: lianglij.weebly.com. …