Digital Commons Network^™

Ondansetron To Reduce Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Severity: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Gary Peltz, Lauren M. Jansson, Susan Adeniyi-Jones, Carol Cohane, David Drover, Steven Shafer, Meiyue Wang, Manhong Wu, Balaji Govindaswami, Priya Jegatheesan, Cynthia Argani, Salwa Kahn, Walter K. Kraft

Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Faculty Papers

Objective
To determine if treatment with a 5-HT3 antagonist (ondansetron) reduces need for opioid therapy in infants at risk for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS).

Study Design
A multicenter, randomized, placebo controlled, double blind clinical trial of ninety (90) infants. The intervention arms were intravenous ondansetron or placebo during labor followed by a daily dose of ondansetron or placebo in infants for five days.

Results
Twenty-two (49%) ondansetron-treated and 26 (63%) placebo-treated infants required pharmacologic treatment (p>0.05). The Finnegan score was lower in the ondansetron-treated group (4.6 vs. 5.6, p=0.02). A non-significant trend was noted for the duration of …

Due Diligence In A Pandemic: State Accountability For Covid-19 Under International Law, Andrea Cocchini, Gonzalo Villalta Puig

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has tested the response capacity of the international community. This article analyses the due diligence principle and the various international legal instruments that restate it in an assessment of the possible actions that states could have taken to avoid or, at least, contain the initial outbreak of the pandemic.

Investigation Of The Stability Of Arsenoplatins In Saline Solution Using Reverse-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, Amber Rojas

University Honors Program Senior Projects

The pursuit of novel platinum(II)-based drugs has been driven by adverse side effects and resistance to current FDA-approved antineoplastic platinum drugs, such as cisplatin. The discovery of a synergistic effect between the FDA-approved anticancer drugs arsenic trioxide and cisplatin in vitro inspired the synthesis of complexes containing the moieties of both drugs. Arsenoplatins (APs) are novel and promising chemotherapeutic agents with an arsenous acid moiety attached to a platinum(II) center. Based on the NCI-60 (NCI = National Cancer Institute) screen, the first member of the family, arsenoplatin-1 (AP-1), has shown greater cytotoxicity than cisplatin or arsenic trioxide in various cancer …

Oneira: New Music & Animation, Jennifer Bellor, Christine A. Banna

Creative Collaborations

UNLV Composer Dr. Jennifer Bellor collaborated with Christine Banna, animator from the Rochester Institute of Animation to create ONEIRA, a sci-fi animation music video Christine Banna created to pair with Jennifer Bellor’s composition, Oneira. Written for the electronic MalletKAT, vibraphone, and two marimbas, and recorded by the percussion quartet, Clocks in Motion, this 11-minute work is inspired by virtual worlds and dreaming. This track is also featured on Bellor’s most recent album, also titled ONEIRA, which was released by Aerocade Music August 19, 2022.

Bellor first created the music, imagining that this composition will be paired with …

Impact Of Adding Natural And Simulated Root Exudates On The Functioning Of Contaminated Soil, Bhagyashree P. Vaidya

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

The Susceptibility For Recreational Boating To Serve As A Vector For Harmful Algal Blooms, John Michael Thraen

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

To combat the spread of invasive and nuisance aquatic species, recreational boating has many recommendations and regulations in place for boaters to properly treat their boats in between uses in separate locations. While protection procedures are in place for preventing the spread of invasive mussel and plant species, there is no sufficient procedure in regard to the spread of cyanobacterial species. The objective of this study was to investigate whether common drying procedures employed in these treatment practices were capable of additionally preventing the spread of cyanobacterial species so as they may help prevent the spread of algal blooms throughout …

Amyloid Fibril Formation And Polymorphism : A Critical Role Of Sulfur-Containing Amino Acid Residues, Tatiana Quiñones-Ruiz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Protein aggregation that results in the formation of amyloid fibrils has been linked to many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The sulfur atoms in methionine (Met) and cysteine (Cys) residues of proteins can be readily oxidized, significantly affecting their properties. Oxidation of sulfur-containing amino acids has recently been shown to affect protein fibrillation. This work presents novel findings on Cys and Met redox reactions that are related to the formation of amyloid fibrils and on the polymorphism of a model fibrillogenic protein, hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL). Biophysical techniques including Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, electron paramagnetic …

Deep Active Genetic Learning With Evidential Uncertainty For Agriculture Crops And Lake Water Quality Assessment, Oguz M. Aranay

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite significant advancements in the field of machine learning, there are two issues that still require further exploration. First, how to learn from a small dataset; and second, how to select appropriate features from the data. Although there exist many techniques to address these issues, choosing a combination of the techniques from these two groups is challenging, and worth investigating. To address these concerns, this thesis presents a learning framework that is based on a deep learning model utilizing active learning (with evidential uncertainty as a basis for acquisition function) for the first issue and a genetic algorithm for the …

Human-Wildlife Coexistence With Coyotes In Los Angeles County, Ca And Cook County, Il, Alan Eapen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) into urban and suburban areas where human concentration is high has led to human-coyote conflicts often leading to increased management actions against coyotes. Recently in Los Angeles and Cook Counties, municipalities have developed coyote management plans to foster human-wildlife coexistence in an effort to reduce conflict, an emerging concept that promotes the cohabitation of humans and animals in shared landscapes. The thesis investigates coyote management plans and policies concerning human-coyote interactions in Los Angeles and Cook Counties to address human-wildlife. Using a case study analysis of Los Angeles and Cook Counties, this study analyzed …

Early Childhood Development In Uganda: Investing In Human And National Development – Reflections From The Covid-19 Pandemic, Anil Khamis

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

This chapter presents an analysis of the development of early childhood development in Uganda from policy to programme development in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the achievements and challenges as well as the opportunities for government and its partners whilst navigating an evolving and increasingly competitive political economy. The chapter identifies gaps that need to be addressed in terms of human development, which is argued to be the basis of national development. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are presented as an acceptable and agreed framework by all stakeholders as Uganda and other nations confront uncertain futures. …

Diagnostic Utility Of Il-6 And Some Biomarker Correlated With The Diseases Severity Of Covid‐19 Patients, Ekhlas Saddam Falih, Suhad Hassan Obaid

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) SARS-2 is a respiratory tract infection with a newly recognized coronavirus thought to have originated as a zoonotic virus that has mutated or otherwise adapted in ways that allow human pathogenicity. This study describe the association between IL-6, D-dimer, C-reactive protein (CRP, Ferritin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and hematological marker in a cohort of COVID-19 patients. The baseline characteristics of the studied samples according to age and gender with a comparison of significance in studied groups show that a total of 65 individuals were divided into three groups according to the severity of disease (17 milds, …

The Value Of Some Biochemical Parameters In The Prediction Of Kidneys Severity In Covid-19 Patients, Omar Sadik Shalal, Hanaa N. Abdullah, Othman Almahdawy

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Severe infection with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is currently associated with long hospital stay and high mortality; COVID-19 infection has pneumonia as one of its symptoms but can quickly progress to acute renal complication. It is, therefore, justifiable to determine the level of some potential biomarkers that could help in, early, rapid and effective identification of severe cases. Among the biomarkers that could aid in early diagnosis of mild and severe COVID-19 infections include the serum urea & creatinine levels, as well as serum conjugated bilirubin level. These serum biomarkers, especially serum urea and creatinine levels, reflect the glomerular filtration …

Measuring The Levels Of C5a In Induced Wound Infection With Staphylococcus Aureus, Athraa Hassan Al-Khafaji, Kifah Fadhil Al-Shabaa

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Animal models are standard tools for studying a wide range of traumatic wound infections. This paper aims to study the effect of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) in the wound and how the innate immune system interacts with this infection, by measuring C5a, and there are roles on wound healing. Fiftyone (females) Albino Rats at the age 6-9 week. The animals were divided into three groups (17 animal in the group) Group I (healthy control), Group II (control wound), and Group III (infection contamination, wound group), To mimic clinically occurring infections caused by SA infection, excision wound was made on the dorsal …

No Justice, No Peace: An Examination Of The Protestor Experience, Naya Russell-Coprich

Master's Theses

More than 95% of the protests that took place in the summer of 2020 were deemed peaceful. However, many of these protests ended with violent encounters with police officers (Major Cities Chiefs Association, 2020). The purpose of this research was to explore the experience of protestors in America. This study also sought to identify, if at all, the disparities present when deciding to use excessive force against protestors. The sample for this study included students from the University of Northern Colorado, who were 18 years of age or older, and have attended a protest in their lifetime. The final sample …

Compliance With Ostracism: How Excluding A Member Of A Despised Outgroup Affects Psychological Need Satisfaction, Emma Nettles

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Ostracism is a social process through which individuals are excluded or ignored (Williams, 1998). While recent research has slowly shifted toward the perpetrators of ostracism, relative to the targets, there is still little research on the effects of complying with ostracism. While previous research suggests engaging in ostracism leads to negative affect and thwarted need satisfaction, ostracism was directed toward an otherwise underserving target (Legate et al., 2013). The current research examined the effects of being instructed to ostracize a member of a despised outgroup on affect and need satisfaction. Seventy-one participants were recruited to play Cyberball, in which they …

Examining Dehumanization Of Individuals With Schizophrenia, Brianna Drake

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objective: Previous literature examines dehumanization of marginalized groups; though, most of this work focuses on ethnic and racial groups. Currently, there is a gap in the literature examining the extent to which people with mental illness are dehumanized. This study examined whether people with schizophrenia are dehumanized (relative to other marginalized groups, such as drug addicts). Furthermore, this research will investigate if using “person-first” language can attenuate dehumanization.

Method: Participants (n = 310) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete a measure of dehumanization and demeaning needs for each of the nine targets (i.e., self, close friend, lawyer, elderly, …

Examining The Impact Of Attachment And Parent Socialization Of Emotion In Childhood On Emotion Regulation In Maltreated Adults, Nikki Major

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objectives: The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between child maltreatment and adult emotion regulation by examining parenting processes of emotion socialization and attachment security as possible mechanisms accounting for this relationship. It was hypothesized that maltreated adults would retrospectively report more unsupportive responses from parents/caregivers, greater attachment insecurity, more difficulty with emotion regulation, and using expressive suppression more than cognitive reappraisal. It was also hypothesized that unsupportive responses to emotions and attachment security would both indirectly effect the relationship between child maltreatment and adult emotion dysregulation.

Method: A sample of 226 participants from Amazon Mechanical …

Ai Interactivity In Game Design, Morgan Casey

Postgraduate

This exegesis focuses on the design of AI in games. This text aims to explain key concepts important to game design, including the use of affective and emotive components to further immerse players in the game world. The goal is to provide insight into the level of complexity required in an AI units’ design to provide enjoyable interactions attainable by an independent developer.

This research will take the combined efforts of playtesters and myself as sole designer and programmer to create a series of play tests with which to examine the enjoyment of various levels of AI complexity and their …

Brief Of Legal Scholars Defending Race-Conscious Admissions As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Sffa V. Harvard (20-1199) And Sffa V. University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill (21-707), Jonathan Feingold, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Legal Scholars Defending Race-Conscious Admissions uplift two underappreciated dynamics in the subject litigation challenging race-conscious admissions at Harvard and UNC:

1) Petitioner Students for Fair Admissions (“SFFA”) conflates two discrete claims against Harvard: (a) an intentional discrimination (or “negative action”) claim alleging that anti-Asian bias benefits white applicants and (b) a standard affirmative action challenge. SFFA blurs these claims to scapegoat and stigmatize affirmative action as a practice that pits Asian Americans against other students of color. Yet, SFFA belies its own narrative. According to SFFA’s own expert, anti-Asian bias—to the extent it exists—is caused by "colorblind" components of the …

Prevalence And Predictors Of Polypharmacy In Adolescents Who Have Engaged In Sexually Abusive Behaviors, Rebecca Gilley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polypharmacy, or the concurrent use of multiple medications, is associated with detrimental outcomes for patients and has gathered increasing attention within the scientific clinical literature. Pediatric populations warrant special consideration for the practice of polypharmacy, as medication effects are more pronounced in youth and adverse effects may have a lasting impact on development. This dissertation study examined psychotropic prescribing practices in a sample of adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviors, a subset of justice-involved youth who are at risk for polypharmacy. General prescribing trends were examined, and a principle components analysis involving variables associated with risk of polypharmacy …

Validation Of The 40 Hz Auditory Steady State Response As A Pharmacodynamic Biomarker Of Evoked Neural Synchrony, Muhammad Ummear Raza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Schizophrenia is a troubling and severe mental illness that is only incompletely treated by currently available drugs. New drug development is hindered by a scarcity of functionally relevant pharmacodynamic biomarkers that are translatable across preclinical and human subjects. Although psychosis is a major feature of schizophrenia, cognitive and negative symptoms determine the long-term functional outcomes for patients. Stimulus-evoked neural synchrony at gamma (~ 40 Hz) frequency plays an important role in the processing and integration of sensory information. Not surprisingly, schizophrenia patients show deficits in gamma oscillations. NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activation on fast-spiking parvalbumin-positive interneurons is deemed important for the …

Dibutyl Amine Detection, Quantification, And Removal With Iron(Ii)Tetrasulfophthalocyanine (Fetspc), Kyle Bittner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pesticide testing is of practical interest in various areas of today’s world due to their prevalence and toxicity. These areas include agriculture, environmental, chemical plants, and many others. Herbicides, like Roundup, contain secondary amines such as glyphosate. The ability to detect secondary amines could offer a method for glyphosate detection in agricultural and environmental samples. Secondary amines can interact with metal complexes through electron charge transfer. Such interactions can cause a change in the metal’s electron configuration and energy state and can be seen in the UV-Vis spectrum. Metal phthalocyanines (MPc’s) and other organometallic complexes have been of interest for …

Look, But Don’T Touch: Impact Of Covid-19 On The Nicu Caregiver, Rebecca C. Otwell-Dove

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admission of an infant into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is an experience that has been associated with a variety of both positive and negative health outcomes for parent and child. While both the setting name and the admitted population alludes to a sole focus on the affected infant, what often remains underrecognized is the impact on the ones who care for the newborn long before and longer after their NICU stay. Given the recency and unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, very little research has examined the impact of COVID-19-specific stress on the experience of parents of infants …

The Paleoecology Of High-Elevation Bison In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem And Implications For Modern Bison Conservation, Darian Bouvier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The national mammal of the United States, the American Bison (Bison bison) was once nearly extinct. Populations have recovered to the degree that thousands roam the Great Plains today. Due to their large numbers and body size, this species has an oversized impact on the ecological communities where it lives and is considered a keystone herbivore in modern North American grasslands. This study explores the detailed, seasonally resolved, paleoecology of seven bison from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem during the Late Holocene through stable isotope analyses and species niche modeling. Isotopic analyses of δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, …

Cyclic Di-Gmp Regulates Motility, Biofilm Formation, And Desiccation Tolerance In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Garrett Reynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Acinetobacter baumannii is an increasingly multidrug-resistant pathogen contributing to hospital-acquired infections necessitating the discovery of novel treatments. A bacterial second messenger, cyclic diguanosine monophosphate (cyclic di-GMP), can regulate various persistence factors that are potentially advantageous for survival in hospital environments. Cyclic di-GMP–modulating enzymes and cyclic di-GMP–binding effectors predictively are encoded in the Acinetobacter baumannii genome. I hypothesized that cyclic di-GMP controls motility, biofilm formation, and desiccation tolerance in Acinetobacter baumannii. Disrupting cyclic di-GMP–modulating enzymes or cyclic di-GMP–binding effectors should alter the regulatory effectiveness of these phenotypes. I tested the multidrug-resistant isolate Acinetobacter baumannii strain AB5075 and identified several transposon …

Community Structure Analysis Of Turtles With Application To The Early Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, Julian Conley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Turtles are important components of ecosystems around the world, with diverse ecological niches and adaptations. However, there are few detailed studies of how turtle community structure reflects local environments. This project applied techniques of community structure analysis to sites across the United States to infer past ecosystem and environmental conditions of the early Pliocene Gray Fossil Site (GFS) in northeastern Tennessee based on the ancient turtle community. Results indicate extant turtle community structure closely reflects environmental conditions, and that ancient turtle communities can be used to infer climate and habitat conditions of past ecosystems. Application to the GFS turtle community …

Evaluating Bat Roost Abundance: A Comparison Of Drone-Acquired Thermal Imagery And Acoustic Estimates With Visual Observations, Karah Jaffe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Roosts provide an opportunity to census philopatric populations of bats. Comparing the efficacy of traditional methods with novel methods can provide guidance on the use of new technologies in the field. This project aims to compare the count efficacy of external emergence methodologies, i.e., drone-acquired thermal imagery, acoustic estimates, and visual counts. Surveys were conducted ten nights at two emergence sites and synchronized to compare counts. Acoustic estimates could not be established as there was a weak prediction of the linear relationship between root-mean-square pressure and emergence count; therefore, this method was removed from the comparative analysis. A linear mixed-effects …

A Changing National Landscape, Hyveth Williams

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How The “Blueprint” For Agriculture In Adventist Education Can Be Relevant In The 21st Century, Katherine Koudele

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Microbiota Regulation Of Viral Infections Through Interferon Signaling, Nurul I. Wirusanti, Megan T. Baldridge, Vanessa C Harris

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The interferon (IFN) response is the major early innate immune response against invading viral pathogens and is even capable of mediating sterilizing antiviral immunity without the support of the adaptive immune system. Cumulative evidence suggests that the gut microbiota can modulate IFN responses, indirectly determining virological outcomes. This review outlines our current knowledge of the interactions between the gut microbiota and IFN responses and dissects the different mechanisms by which the gut microbiota may alter IFN expression to diverse viral infections. This knowledge offers a basis for translating experimental evidence from animal studies into the human context and identifies avenues …