Digital Commons Network^™

Implicating Genes, Pleiotropy, And Sexual Dimorphism At Blood Lipid Loci Through Multi-Ancestry Meta-Analysis, Stavroula Kanoni, Adam E. Locke, E Warwick Daw, Mary F. Feitosa, Mary K. Wojczynski, Bernhard Banas, Carsten A. Boger, Bettina Jung, D C. Rao, Michael A. Province, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

A Promising Genetic Target For A Deadly Disease: Single Immunoglobulin Interleukin 1 (Sigirr) Mutations In Necrotizing Enterocolitis, Misty Good, Camilia R Martin

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Are Tents A 'Home'? Extending Section 8 Privacy Rights For The Precariously Housed, Sarah Ferencz, Alexandra Flynn, Nicholas Blomley, Marie-Eve Sylvestre

All Faculty Publications

The home, for most of us, is an obvious zone to assert privacy and property rights. However, this is not the case for those whose control of residential space is precarious. Our paper focuses on privacy rights under the Canadian constitution for those living in tents and, specifically, the judicial rejection of a tent as a home garnering legal protection under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We focus on a 2018 case from British Columbia, R. v. Picard, the only judicial decision that we could locate that has explored this question. In holding that the tent is …

Reverse Vesting Orders – Developing Principles And Guardrails To Inform Judicial Decisions, Janis P. Sarra

All Faculty Publications

Reverse vesting orders (RVO) are a new tool being used by insolvency practitioners in Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) and other insolvency proceedings, where the debtor is not required to propose a restructuring plan and creditors are not permitted a vote on the going-forward strategy. The article starts from the premise that the court has authority to approve an RVO pursuant to sections 11 and 36 of the CCAA and the court’s general authority under the statute. However, it suggests that there must be exceptional circumstances for the court to be persuaded to bypass provisions of insolvency legislation aimed …

Parks As Persons: Legal Innovation Or Colonial Appropriation?, Alexandra Flynn

All Faculty Publications

This Article, considers personhood, a mechanism that has been used in other jurisdictions — including cities — to legally reconfigure land ownership.Te Urewara, once a national park in New Zealand, the Atrato River in Colombia, and the Magpie and Fraser Rivers in Canada became legal “persons” after decades of advocacy by Indigenous Peoples. These natural resources now have rights, a new material and representational making of property that centres a governance role for Indigenous Peoples. This Article asks what personhood could mean for Stanley Park and for Canadian urban parks more broadly. In particular, it explores whether personhood is a …

Concentration Of Fecal Coliforms In Marine Waters Using Satellite Images In The Vicinity Of Pucusana. Bay, Peru., Y A. Palma-Gongora, F V. Zuta-Medina, Luis Angel Gomez-Cunya

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Water quality monitoring in coastal areas is challenging due to cost and time constraints. Identifying and selecting sampling sites accurately and effectively is crucial for efficient monitoring. The need for efficient monitoring of marine waters has led to exploring the use of remote sensing as one helpful alternative. Remote sensing is practical in several applications based on pattern recognition and information processing of large terrestrial and aquatic surface areas. Collected information is processed with various image processing techniques to identify objects such as microorganisms. Fecal coliforms are microorganisms that are indicators of sanitary quality and are present in human and …

Co-Clinical Fdg-Pet Radiomic Signature In Predicting Response To Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy In Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Sudipta Roy, Timothy D Whitehead, Shunqiang Li, Foluso O Ademuyiwa, Richard L Wahl, Farrokh Dehdashti, Kooresh I Shoghi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: We sought to exploit the heterogeneity afforded by patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX) to first, optimize and identify robust radiomic features to predict response to therapy in subtype-matched triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) PDX, and second, to implement PDX-optimized image features in a TNBC co-clinical study to predict response to therapy using machine learning (ML) algorithms.

METHODS: TNBC patients and subtype-matched PDX were recruited into a co-clinical FDG-PET imaging trial to predict response to therapy. One hundred thirty-one imaging features were extracted from PDX and human-segmented tumors. Robust image features were identified based on reproducibility, cross-correlation, and volume independence. A …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Opioid Use After In-Patient Detoxification, Megan M. Drohan

Open Access Dissertations

Objective: To identify risk and protective factors for return to opioid use post inpatient detoxification in a sample of persons with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Design and Methods: This study used data from a larger randomized controlled study following 206 eligible individuals who entered in-patient detoxification for OUD. Participants entered the study as part of the observation arm and were assessed for six months following in-patient detoxification. Timeline follow-back assessment was used to identify if and when participants returned to opioid use post-detoxification. A series of bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify risk and protective …

Learning To Visualize: Middle-Level Learners Analyzing And Designing Science Infographics, Mark Davis

Open Access Dissertations

Infographics are part of daily life because of the rise of digital media and technology, as learners now encounter a barrage of images carefully designed to convey data and information through social media. But what happens in the classroom when young learners first encounter this expressive genre? This case study examined a unit of instruction on analyzing and creating infographics in a content-area middle school classroom. Data included classroom observations through video and audio recording, examination of a student graphic organizer and student-designed infographics, and semi-structured interviews with students and the facilitating teacher. Results show that students learned how to …

The Impacts Of The Invasive Green Iguana (Iguana Iguana) On Agricultural Production And The Communities Of Puerto Rico — An Interdisciplinary Assessment, Christina N. De Jesus Villanueva

Open Access Dissertations

Invasive species are one of the most pressing threats to the conservation of biodiversity, to human health, and the economy today. Agricultural production and invasive species are often entangled in a complex web of interactions that ultimately decrease agricultural yield and lead to billions of dollars in losses. With no indicators of slowing globalization, it is imperative that we monitor the movement of potential pest species, prevent new introductions, and mitigate the impacts of invasive species. Comprehensive monitoring of potential invasions is not always possible, however, since it is often after a species is established that wildlife management and agricultural …

An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness And Safety Of Direct Oral Anticoagulants Versus Warfarin In Chronic Liver Disease, And After Anticoagulant-Related Major Bleeding, Oluwadolapo D. Lawal

Open Access Dissertations

The introduction of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in the last decade have greatly expanded available treatment options for the management of thromboembolic diseases. Based on their non-inferiority in efficacy and safety, and more convenient dose monitoring and adjustment compared to warfarin, DOACs are now considered the first-line treatment option in the management and prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). While the use of DOACs continues to increase in the general population, limited evidence exists to support its use in chronic liver disease (CLD). Of note, individuals with elevated liver enzymes, liver cirrhosis or CLD were excluded …

Black Feminist Autoethnography: How Identity Can Affect Peer Review Practices In The College Writing Classroom, Eileen M. James

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the importance of embodied teaching pedagogy as it relates to peer review practices in the college writing classroom. This work uses autoethnography as a research method, exploring issues of (dis)embodiment and experiences with collaborative learning in classrooms. In addition to a review of applicable literature focused on peer review practices, writing pedagogy, and Black Feminist Autoethnography, this dissertation contains narrative sections from the viewpoint of the subject--a Black woman--as a student, an instructor, and a researcher working to examine her experiences and how they demonstrate the need for embodied approaches in the classroom. The purpose of this …

Multifunctional Plasmonic And Magnetic Nanostructures Guided By Self And Directed Assembly, Muzahidul Islam Anik

Open Access Dissertations

Nanomaterials showed promising development and progress in biochemical field during the past couple of decades. Nanoparticles that can not only perform as one single task such as imaging contrast or drug delivery agent but also possess the ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously has the potential to be the next generations of nanoparticles. Multifunctional ability will allow to use reduced dosage of nanoparticles providing us control over nanoparticle induced toxicity during imaging and therapy. The synthesis of such multifunctional nanoparticles can be guided by utilizing self and directed assembly for various application ranging from in vitro non-invasive particle tracking to …

Protein Pairing And Lipid Linking: Physicochemical Properties Of Poly- And Perfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfas) Influence Their Interactions With Macromolecules, Jessica Alesio

Open Access Dissertations

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a growing class of synthetic compounds used in a wide variety commercial and residential applications due to their hydrophobic and oleophobic properties. Since this body of work began, the list of the number of PFAS has grown from 1,000 to over 4,200. As this number increases, there is a pressing need to quickly understand a) if certain PFAS are harmful to humans and the environment and b) how harmful each compound is. The objective of this work was to characterize PFAS binding to proteins and lipid bilayers. Better understanding of these mechanisms aids in …

The Mechanistic And Etiological Link Between Bile Acid Dysregulation And Preterm Birth, Syed Fayaz Ul Haq Hashmi

Open Access Dissertations

Preterm birth (PTB) is the major determinant of perinatal morbidity and mortality, and accounts for the second most common cause of neonatal death across the world. Approximately, one in every ten newborns is born prematurely (before 37 completed weeks of gestation) amounting to an estimated global 15 million premature births every year. Preterm neonates are vulnerable to a wide range of short and long term metabolic, infectious, neurological, and respiratory morbidities. PTB is characterized by different complex multifactorial process manifested by diverse pathogenetic mechanisms. Despite many efforts to understand the timing of parturition, the molecular mechanisms through which PTB is …

The American Lobster (Homarus Americanus) In Narragansett Bay During A Time Of Ecosystem Flux: Temperature, Predation, And Larval Dynamics, Kristin Huizenga

Open Access Dissertations

The American lobster (Homarus americanus) in southern New England sustained a particularly prosperous fishery during the 1980s and 1990s. However, in 2001 lobsters in the region began to decline, leading to the eventual collapse of the fishery in Rhode Island. The Narragansett Bay was no exception to this trend, with the number of lobsters caught by the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography weekly fish trawl survey peaking in the 1990s before the decline. Today, few lobsters are caught in the Bay.

This dissertation seeks to identify whether environmental stressors and predators drive lobster populations in …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Alcohol And Other Drug Use Among Multiracial Young Adults, Tessa Nalven

Open Access Dissertations

The United States' Multiracial population (i.e., two or more races) increased by 276% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, making it one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic demographic groups in the country. Research suggests that Multiracial young adults (i.e., 18-25 years old) report higher alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and are at a higher risk for AOD-related consequences than nearly all their monoracial counterparts. The present study conducted focus groups and utilized descriptive qualitative methodology to uncover factors associated with AOD use in Multiracial young adults. 22 participants (77.3% women, Mage = 20.8 years, SD = 2.6) were included …

Bacterial Community Dynamics In Rhode Island Coastal Ecosystems, Zachary Pimentel

Open Access Dissertations

In temperate coastal ecosystems, there are a variety of potential environmental niches and lifestyles for bacteria to occupy, along with constantly changing environmental conditions. Residing in such a diverse environment with broad habitats, bacterial adaptation can be observed at both the community and genome level. For example, an individual strain may acquire new mutations or genes to respond to varying conditions or occupy a new niche. In addition, the taxonomic composition of bacterial communities can shift, resulting in higher abundances of strains specialized for a new condition. In this dissertation, community and genome-level adaptations to varying lifestyles and environmental change …

Parenting Style And Help-Seeking For Child Anxiety And Depression: A Vignette Study, Hayley Pomerantz

Open Access Dissertations

Anxiety and depression are known to have a significant impact on the daily functioning of children and their families; yet only a fraction of diagnosed children receive treatment from professional mental health services. To better understand the discrepancy between high rates of child psychopathology and low rates of mental health service use, the current study examined parenting style and the time at which a parent decides to seek mental health treatment for their child. The current study hypothesized that parents would seek help when their child's symptoms and interference were moderate. It also hypothesized that parents with an authoritative or …

The Self-Health Movement: Changing For Good Health, Julian Michael Saad

Open Access Dissertations

Each person's efforts to support their personal health deserve to be supported and valued by those providers, researchers, and politicians that take a vested interest in the health of populations. Although there are scientific fields, like Population Health, that are committed to supporting equitable patterns of health across populations, there remains a very real absence of a unifying framework that can coordinate the very essential efforts of persons, populations, providers, researchers, and politicians. There is a great need for a generally-accepted and widely-used way of communicating to individual persons and general populations about the science of their health and the …

Associations Among Affect, Alcohol Use, And Risky Sex: A Daily Diary Study Of First Nation Adults, Melissa R. Schick

Open Access Dissertations

Introduction: Optimal subjective well-being is comprised of high levels of positive affect, low levels of negative affect, and overall satisfaction with one’s life. Some literature has connected each component of subjective well-being with health risk behaviors including alcohol use and risky sexual behavior. While there is diversity in rates of alcohol use and risky sexual behavior among North American Indigenous (NAI) populations, they experience disproportionate rates of negative consequences associated with these behaviors (e.g., physical, social, legal). Approaches to reducing health disparities that emphasize improving well-being may be well-accepted among NAI communities given their calls to focus on protective, …

Advanced Water Treatment And Reuse With Activated Ferrate, Charles D. Spellman

Open Access Dissertations

Ferrate is a promising, emerging water treatment technology. However, there has been limited research on the application of Ferrate in a water reuse paradigm. Recent literature has shown that ferrate oxidation of target contaminants could be improved by "activation" with the addition of reductants or acid. This study examined the impact of sulfite-activated Ferrate in laboratory water matrix and spiked municipal wastewater effluents with the goal of transforming organic contaminants of concern (e.g., 1,4-dioxane) and inactivating pathogenic organisms. Additionally, the formation of brominated disinfection byproducts by activated ferrate were examined and a proposed reaction pathway for byproduct formation is presented. …

Creation Of Philadelphia Chromosome By Crispr/Cas9-Mediated Double Cleavages On Bcr And Abl1 Genes As A Model For Initial Event In Leukemogenesis, Minori Tamai, Kenji Kamimoto, Kohei Omachi, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome was the first translocation identified in leukemia. It is supposed to be generated by aberrant ligation between two DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) at the BCR gene located on chromosome 9q34 and the ABL1 gene located on chromosome 22q11. Thus, mimicking the initiation process of translocation, we induced CRISPR/Cas9-mediated DSBs simultaneously at the breakpoints of the BCR and ABL1 genes in a granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) dependent human leukemia cell line. After transfection of two single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) targeting intron 13 of the BCR gene and intron 1 of the ABL1 gene, a factor-independent subline was …

Age Differences In The Association Between Sleep And Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers In The Epad Cohort, Sharon L Naismith, Yue Leng, Jake R Palmer, Brendan P Lucey

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to determine the independent association between sleep quality and Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers, and whether the associations differ with age.

METHODS: We included 1240 individuals aged ≥50, without dementia from the

RESULTS: For the youngest age tertile, shorter sleep duration and higher sleep efficiency were associated with greater p-tau/Aβ42 ratio. For the oldest tertile, longer sleep latency was associated with greater p-tau/Aβ42.

DISCUSSION: Differential relationships between sleep and AD pathology depend on age. Short sleep duration and sleep efficiency are relevant in middle age whereas time taken to fall asleep is more closely linked to AD biomarkers …

White Matter Abnormalities In The Hdc Knockout Mouse, A Model Of Tic And Ocd Pathophysiology, Kantiya Jindachomthong, Chengran Yang, Yuegao Huang, Daniel Coman, Maximiliano Rapanelli, Fahmeed Hyder, Joseph Dougherty, Luciana Frick, Christopher Pittenger

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: An inactivating mutation in the

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed exploratory RNA-seq to identify pathological alterations in several brain regions in

RESULTS: Exploratory RNA-Seq analysis revealed, unexpectedly, that genes associated with oligodendrocytes and with myelin production are upregulated in the dorsal striatum of these mice. This was confirmed by qPCR, immunostaining, and immunoblotting. These results suggest an abnormality in myelination in the striatum. To test this in an intact mouse brain, we performed whole-brain

DISCUSSION: While the DTI literature in individuals with TS is sparse, these results are consistent with findings of disrupted descending cortical projections in patients with …

Clinical And Molecular Characteristics Of A Novel Rare De Novo Variant In Ppp2ca In A Patient With A Developmental Disorder, Autism, And Epilepsy, Iris Verbinnen, Sara S Procknow, Lisa Lenaerts, Sara Reynhout, Aujan Mehregan, Chris Ulens, Veerle Janssens, Katherine A King

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PP2A-related (neuro) developmental disorders are a family of genetic diseases caused by a heterozygous alteration in one of several genes encoding a subunit of type 2A protein phosphatases. Reported affected genes, so far, are

The Enigma Stroke Recovery Working Group: Big Data Neuroimaging To Study Brain-Behavior Relationships After Stroke, Sook-Lei Liew, Catherine E Lang, Anup K Bhattacharya, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The goal of the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Stroke Recovery working group is to understand brain and behavior relationships using well-powered meta- and mega-analytic approaches. ENIGMA Stroke Recovery has data from over 2,100 stroke patients collected across 39 research studies and 10 countries around the world, comprising the largest multisite retrospective stroke data collaboration to date. This article outlines the efforts taken by the ENIGMA Stroke Recovery working group to develop neuroinformatics protocols and methods to manage multisite stroke brain magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral and demographics data. Specifically, the processes for scalable data intake and preprocessing, multisite data …

Changes To California Alfalfa Production And Perceptions During The 2011-2017 Drought, Alida A. Cantor, Bethani Turley, Charles Cody Ross, Mathern Glass

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

California experienced a severe multiyear drought stretching from 2011 through 2017, significantly reducing surface water supply for ecosystems, agriculture, and humans and prompting coordinated conservation efforts. Given that agriculture is the largest consumptive use of water in the state, one anticipated response to a severe drought would be to decrease production of low-value, high-water-use crops such as alfalfa. In this article we use a multimethod approach to examine both spatial distribution and public perceptions of alfalfa production in California over the course of the 2011 through 2017 drought. We find that although California alfalfa production did decline at the state …

Educators’ Perspectives On The Practices And Implementation Of Social Emotional Learning Programs, Monica Parra Ballon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This interview-based qualitative study sought educators’ perceptions of best practices for and implementation of mindfulness and social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in the classroom in order to discern how SEL programs foster student socioemotional wellbeing (e.g., self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making). To do so, I conducted semi-structured interviews via videoconference with nine educators from public, private, and charter schools in the United States and Canada. Discussions include questions about personal experiences and implementation of SEL interventions. The recorded interviews were transcribed and coded to locate emergent themes. The present research revealed several training and implementation …

Xeranthemum Cylindraceum: A Potential Broad Spectrum Antimicrobial, Troy B. Puga, Joshua Schafer, Kassidy Carpenter, Priscilla L. Tellis, Prince N. Agbedanu

Student Publications

Novel plant ingredients continue to be key antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral agents in the fight against novel pathogens. Here, we have shown the antibacterial properties of Xeranthemum cylindraceum against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, and also C. albicans. Homogenates of X. cylindraceum were extracted with 95% ethanol and the extracts tested against various bacterial species. Blanks discs were soaked in extraction solvents as controls. X. cylindraceum demonstrated antimicrobial activity indicated by zones of inhibition against the following gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria: E. coli, P. vulgaris, E. cloacae, and K. pneumoniae, S. aureus, S. agalactiae, and S. pyogenes. …