Digital Commons Network^™

‘Loob’ And ‘Labas’: Spatial Constructions Of Safety And Risk Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic In The Philippines, Gideon Lasco, Michael L. Tan, Vincen Gregory Yu

Development Studies Faculty Publications

This article argues that local constructions of risky and safe spaces, as articulated by the notions ‘loob’ (inside) and ‘labas’ (outside), informed popular and political responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, leading to an overemphasis on staying at home and, conversely, a general avoidance or fear of outdoor spaces that was at times reinforced by public health authorities. Practices and policies related to the pandemic response rendered this binary opposition between ‘loob’ and ‘labas’ visible, from regulations concerning the use of personal protective equipment to restrictions of access to outdoor spaces. While this emergent …

An Agent-Centered Approach To Covid-19 Vaccinations, Nila Venkat

CMC Senior Theses

The rise of COVID-19 has dramatically affected the global economy, healthcare systems, and individuals’ daily lives. One of the most controversial attempts to ameliorate the effects of the virus in the United States has been the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations. In this thesis, I propose a novel agent-centered approach to motivating COVID-19 vaccinations. I begin by exploring the origins and evolution of the virus, along with the growing demographic of “vaccine-hesitant” Americans, to contextualize the debate surrounding vaccinations. I then propose two potential action-based response strategies for vaccine motivation: a vaccine mandate and nudges. Concerning a mandate response strategy, I …

The Influence Of Political Party Affiliation And Park Accessibility On Covid-19 Case Incidence, Sascha Wolf-Sorokin

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the joint effect of political party affiliation and the urban landscape, as measured by access to parks, on case rates during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential Election returns are used as a proxy for a county’s political party affiliation prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A county population’s spatial relationship to its parks encapsulates the green open space within an urban environment. The data set controls for features of the built environment, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (race, gender, income, education), COVID-19 government regulations, and presidential election returns. Using …

Editorial: Insights In Vector Biology: 2021, Baldwyn Torto, David P. Tchouassi

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

This editorial summarizes collections on the Research Topic “Insights in Vector Biology’’. Vectors of four major tropical diseases including malaria, Chagas, dengue and West Nile were considered. The editorial discusses vectors contributing to residual malaria transmission that reside mainly outdoors and not targeted by indoor vector control interventions, notably, long lasting insecticidal nets and indoor residual spraying; the concept of paratransgenesis- a parasite transmission blocking strategy which uses genetically-modified microbes made to produce antimalarial effectors inside the vector for malaria control; assessment of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors; insecticide resistance in Chagas disease vectors; reproductive biology of the dengue vector; …

Interactions Of Aerosol Droplets With Ventilated Airflows In The Context Of Airborne Pathogen Transmission, Steven Schroeder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This multidisciplinary study provides a comprehensive visualization of airborne aerosols and droplets coming into contact with a crossflow of moving air utilizing both experimental particle measuring methods and multiphase computational fluids dynamics (CFD). The aim of this research is to provide a Eulerian visualization of how ventilation can alter the position and density of an aerosol cloud, with the goal of applying this information to our understanding of social distancing ranges within outdoor settings and ventilated rooms. The results indicate that even minor perpendicular crossflows across the trajectory of an aerosol cloud can greatly reduce both the linear displacement and …

The Rise Of Covid-19 In Vulnerable Populations: A Content Analysis Of Prison Policy, Shannon Christensen

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Theses

No abstract provided.

Tsunami: Recommitting To Adress Aapi Mental Health In A Post-Covid Era, Oliver J. Kim

Nova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Identification And Characterization Of Candidate Rumen Bacterial Species From Beef Cattle With The Potential For Metabolizing Lipids, Cheyenne E. Hron

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ruminants and the microorganisms within their rumen have an intricate symbiotic relationship. Ruminants are able to convert plant materials that are indigestible to humans into meat, milk, and fiber for human consumption and use. Supplementing lipids in diets fed to beef cattle could be beneficial for the host animal as lipids are a higher density energy source. However, they can be detrimental to rumen microorganisms. While much research has been involved in elucidating the composition of the ruminal microbiome, knowledge of the effects of lipids on the ruminal microbiome has been quite limited. In this context, we took advantage of …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Study Of Undergraduate Student Wellness: Exploring Generation Z Student Wellness Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kristen Pepin

Open Access Dissertations

Qualitative research exploring undergraduate student wellness during a pandemic was scarce prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and is still lacking. Studies investigating student wellness during pandemics often fracture the concept by quantitatively researching specific wellness dimensions (Cao et al., 2020; Galea et al., 2020; Tang et al., 2020) as opposed to exploring the construct from a holistic perspective. Additionally, few studies aim to understand how undergraduate students make meaning of wellness and their lived wellness experiences, specifically during a pandemic. Furthermore, emerging research (Huckins et al., 2020) corroborates the extant literature that posit student health behaviors were declining in …

Hyperbranched Poly(Β-Amino Ester)S (Hpaes) Structure Optimisation For Enhanced Gene Delivery: Non-Ideal Termination Elimination, Yinghao Li, Zhonglei He, Jing Lyu, Xianqing Wang, Bei Qiu, Irene Lara-Saez, Jing Zhang, Ming Zeng, Qian Xu, Sigen Sigen A., James Curtin, Wenxin Wang

Articles

Growing at an impressive pace, gene therapy has emerged as a prospective segment in the biotechnology field and presents a bright outlook, given the increasing investments in R&D and the mounting incidence of genetic disorders [1]. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for gene therapy, estimated at 1.2 billion dollars in the year 2022, is projected to reach a revised size of 2.7 billion dollars by 2026, according to the Cision PR Newswire. However, the lack of efficient gene delivery vectors still hinders the large-scale manufacturing of gene therapy agents. Viral vectors, such as the adeno-associated virus, lentivirus, retrovirus, …

Polymeric Nanovaccine Delivery System For Influenza Vaccine, Chaitanya K. Valiveti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vaccines are the most efficient and cost-effective method for preventing illnesses caused by infectious pathogens. Even though the great success of vaccines over decades, the development of safe and robust vaccines is still essential for emerging new pathogens, re-evolving old pathogens, and improving the insufficient protection given by existing vaccines. One of the most critical strategies for developing effective new vaccines is selecting and using a suitable adjuvant or immune stimulant. Immunologic adjuvants are essential for improving vaccine potency by enhancing the immune response of vaccine antigens. The amount of antigen could be spared with improved potency, especially during mass …

Nh125 Sensitizes Staphylococcus Aureus To Cell Wall-Targeting Antibiotics Through The Inhibition Of The Vras Sensor Histidine Kinase, Shrijan Bhattarai, Lane Marsh, Kelsey Knight, Liaqat Ali, Antonio Gomez, Allison Sunderhaus, May H. Abdelaziz

Pharmacy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Staphylococcus aureus utilizes the two-component regulatory system VraSR to receive and relay environmental stress signals, and it is implicated in the development of bacterial resistance to several antibiotics through the upregulation of cell wall synthesis. VraS inhibition was shown to extend or restore the efficacy of several clinically used antibiotics. In this work, we study the enzymatic activity of the VraS intracellular domain (GST-VraS) to determine the kinetic parameters of the ATPase reaction and characterize the inhibition of NH125 under in vitro and microbiological settings. The rate of the autophosphorylation reaction was determined at different GST-VraS concentrations (0.95 to 9.49 …

Reddit As A Source Of Covid-19 Information: A Content Analysis Of R/Coronavirus During The Early Pandemic, Brent Hale, Mark Alberta, Seung Woo Chae

Faculty Publications

Emerging research has begun examining the utility of social media platforms for information dissemination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this developing thread, this work examines discourse within r/coronavirus, a Reddit forum (i.e., subreddit) developed to curate COVID-19 information that burgeoned during the early months of the pandemic. Through a content analysis of 226 posts and 2260 corresponding comments generated between February and May, 2020, this study investigated early-pandemic communication patterns in this platform, including what information was deemed important and how users framed causes and solutions. Overall, findings indicate that users of r/coronavirus prioritized information about COVID-19 spread, public health …

Cross-Kingdom Interactions Shape Soil Biogeochemistry In Natural And Agricultural Ecosystems, Jennifer Lynne Kane

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Microorganisms influence life on earth in innumerable ways, including in medical, industrial, environmental, and agricultural contexts. Given the increasingly apparent consequences of climate warming, interest in how to better predict and manage Earth’s carbon sinks has never been greater. Soil, the largest terrestrial carbon sink, harbors an incredibly taxonomically and functionally diverse microbial community. These soil-dwelling microbes govern the fate of soil carbon and nutrients by cycling organic matter as they live, grow, and die. It has only been relatively recently that technological advancement has allowed for in-depth surveys of the vast diversity of soil microbes. High throughput analytical capabilities …

Market Myopia’S Climate Bubble, Madison Condon

Utah Law Review

A growing number of financial institutions, ranging from BlackRock to the Bank of England, have warned that markets may not be accurately incorporating climate change-related risks into asset prices. This Article seeks to explain how this mispricing occurs, drawing from scholarship on corporate governance and the mechanisms of market (in)efficiency. Market actors: (1) Lack the fine-grained asset-level data they need in order to assess risk exposure; (2) Continue to rely on outdated means of assessing risk; (3) Have misaligned incentives resulting in climate-specific agency costs; (4) Have myopic biases exacerbated by climate change misinformation; and (5) Are impeded by captured …

Epidemiological Investigation Of Bovine Tuberculosis Infection Dynamics In Turkey, Şahi̇n Çakir, Murat Yildirim, Kadi̇r Serdar Di̇ker, Fevzi̇ye İpek Keski̇n, Selcen Yüksel, Burak Deveci̇, Erhan Akçay

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

A national epidemiological research project was carried out to define the dynamics affecting the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) infection in Turkey and to identify the risk factors. Official veterinarian (OV) and breeder original questionnaires were produced separately as part of this study to collect thorough data regarding the disease from the field. The number of questionnaires that needed to be filled out was decided by 95% confidence interval (CI) and 5% margin of error. The findings of 371 OV and 317 breeder questionnaires completed online across the country were analyzed. In addition, 28 outbreaks determined by random method were …

Topical Formulations Based On Polyhexamethylene Hydrochloride Guanidine For Surgicalfield Antisepsis, Fernanda Gosuen Gonçalves Dias, Renato Luis Tame Parreira, Lucas De Freitas Pereira, Rodrigo Cássio Sola Veneziani, Maria Anita Lemos Vasconcelos Ambrósio, Vinícius Thomaz Da Silva Almeida, Renata Alves De Barros, Luis Gustavo Gosuen Gonçalves Dias, Sérgio Ricardo Ambrósio

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

As surgical site infection can prolong the patient's hospital stay, increase morbidity and mortality rates and medical and hospital expenses, justifying the search for new effective and low-cost antiseptic drugs is justifiable. Thus, the objective of the present study was to analyze, by direct clinical and microbiological examination, the topical antiseptic effect of a solution based on polyhexamethylene hydrochloride guanidine (PHMGH) at 0.5% on the intact skin surface of sheep and cats, aiming at its use in operative field (previous and definitive antisepsis), compared to 0.5% alcoholic chlorhexidine and association with this. The topical solutions did not cause any skin …

Avian Haemosporidian Blood Parasite Diversity, Prevalence, And Distribution In Michigan’S Western Upper Peninsula, Maria M. Ferrer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Avian haemosporidian parasites, known as avian malaria (phylum Apicomplexa) can diminish an individual bird’s fitness by causing parasitemia, anemia, and reduced survival. Climate change is predicted to increase the spread of malarial parasites into more northerly latitudes where little is known about community compositions of these parasites. I assessed the prevalence and diversity of haemosporidian parasites in the first-ever community-level sampling of malaria in songbirds across the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In total, 179 blood samples were collected from birds representing 17 species, at five locations in the Upper Peninsula, including a mature forest, an early successional forest, and …

Discourse, Materiality, And The Users Of Mobile Health Technologies: A Nigerian Case Study, Modupe Omolara Yusuf

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

mHealth, which is the use of mobile phones and other handheld information and communication technologies (ICTs), has been increasingly advocated as the solution to the problems, primarily infrastructure and personnel, facing the healthcare sector of many low-to-lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Following a series of United Nations Foundation research and advisory publications (in 2012, 2014 and 2016) arguing that mobile phones are approaching ubiquity in Nigeria and across the world, the UN strongly recommended that LMICs undertake mHealth initiatives. Subsequently, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) published a National Health ICT Strategic Framework (Strategic Framework), 2015-2020; the rallying call of …

An Antimicrobial Polydopamine Surface Coating To Reduce Biofouling On Telemetry Tags Used In Marine Conservation Practices, Ariana Smies

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Satellite telemetry tags are used to track the migration patterns of large cetaceans. These tags penetrate the dermis and remain embedded in the underlying blubber tissue. As the dermis of cetaceans is host to a diverse microbiome, and it is impossible to clean the skin before implanting the devices, the potential for infection is increased when the tags penetrate through the skin. H₂O₂ is a potential antimicrobial agent that, in addition to showing broad-spectrum efficacy against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, can promote wound healing outcomes by promoting proliferative factors and peptides that protect against oxidative stress. However, …

In Situ Vaccination Using Plant Viral Particles As A Novel Approach For Cancer Immunotherapy, Chenkai Mao

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Non-infectious to mammals, genetically, and physically stable plant virus-based nanoparticles have been increasingly studied as a novel platform for cancer vaccine and adjuvants due to their immunogenic properties. Our prior work showed that, empty cowpea mosaic virus (eCPMV), a plant virus-like particle (VLP) that is composed of a separated capsid, is an excellent in situ vaccine (ISV) for cancer immunotherapy; however, little is known about the mechanisms linked to their activities regarding recognition and antigen presentation.

In the present studies, we report cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) and RNA-lacking CPMV (empty, eCPMV) are both toll like receptor (TLR) agonists for TLRs …

Communication In Mass Media Surrounding Public Health Crises: A Comparative Analysis, Megan Grace Kramer

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

Viral Sovereignty, Vaccine Diplomacy, And Vaccine Nationalism: The Institutions Of Global Vaccine Access, Sam F. Halabi, Ana Santos Rutschman

Emory International Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global vaccine race. Distributive questions about which countries will receive scarce doses and under which conditions pervade international law and diplomacy. This Article is the first to describe the phenomena that have driven the development of international vaccine-sharing mechanisms, identify the international organizational forces that explain the phenomena, and explain how international organizations may facilitate international cooperation before, during, and after global crises.

This Article explores the longstanding dissociation between global public health imperatives and nationalist responses to pandemics within the frameworks of “vaccine nationalism,” “viral sovereignty,” and “vaccine diplomacy.” The Article then considers …

Identification Of The Role Of Swra In Copper Induced Poly-Gamma-Glutamic Acid Production In Bacillus Subtilis, Maya Addison

Scripps Senior Theses

Each year over 2.8 million Americans are infected by an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria with over 35, 000 dying as a result (CDC). The lack of development of new antibiotics has renewed interest in the antimicrobial properties of copper. Gram positive bacterium such as Bacillus subtilis produce poly-gamma-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) to sequester excess copper ions. swrA has shown to be essential for proper activation of the pgs operon by phosphorylated DegU via an unknown mechanism. This study seeks to determine the role of swrA in copper induced gamma-PGA production and if swrA and ppsB are involved in copper resistance. …

Modelling Pretrial Detention, Melissa Hamilton

American University Law Review

Pretrial detention has become normative in contemporary criminal justice, rather than the exception to a rule of release for individuals not convicted of any crime. Even the opportunity for release with a bond amount often eludes the many individuals who are unable to afford, to pay. Defendants detained, pending trial suffer numerous negative consequences to their own legal cases, such as being more likely to feel pressured to plead guilty and to receive a prison sentence. The high numbers of those detained appear to disproportionately impact minorities and. have contributed to mass incarceration. As a. result, of these issues, the …

Effects Of Snake Fungal Disease On The Survival And Growth Of The Queensnake (Regina Septemvittata), Andrew Jerome Ibach

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Having only emerged as a threat to snakes in 2006, relatively little is known of snake fungal disease’s (SFD) impacts on demographic processes, particularly survival and growth. I used data from an extensive capture-mark-recapture study to examine survival and growth in central Kentucky Queensnake (Regina septemivittata) populations. I found that diseased snakes and healthy snakes possessed similar monthly survival estimates (SFD positive 0.9687, 95% CI 0.8444 to 0.9944; SFD negative 0.8735, 95% CI 0.7518 to 0.9402) and that disease state transition probability from SFD negative to SFD positive, and SFD positive to SFD negative were also similar (N-P …

Microbiomes: Health And The Environment, Dylan Parks

Mavs Open Press Open Educational Resources - Archive

Microbiomes: Health and the Environment takes a look into the world of polymicrobial communities and how they affect aspects of human health and environmental interaction. This book attempts to bridge the gap between the world around us and our well-being through the lens of microbial influence and co-evolution. [Visit the books' Pressbooks page to download the OER in other formats or to access an updated web version of it. https://uta.pressbooks.pub/microbiomeshealthandtheenvironment/ ]

What’S The Beef? The Fda, Usda, And Cell-Cultured Meat, Tammi S. Etheridge

Washington and Lee Law Review

Over the past ten years, administrative law scholarship has increasingly focused on interactions between multiple agencies. As part of this trend, most scholars have called for policymakers to combine multiple agencies, rather than rely on a single agency, to solve policy problems. The literature in this area espouses the benefits of shared regulatory space. But very little of this scholarship addresses when shared jurisdiction is problematic. This is particularly concerning when an agency opts into or cedes oversight authority to another agency at will, with little regard for whether the second agency is an appropriate regulator. The case of cell-cultured …

From Isolation To Inclusion: Embracing Local Perspectives In Examining The Treatment Model Of Care For Aboriginal Persons Affected By Tuberculosis Or Leprosy In The Kimberley Region, North Western Australia, Stefanie Jane Oliver

Theses

In the remote Kimberley region of North Western Australia, tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy continue to affect a small number of Aboriginal people, despite historical efforts to eliminate either disease. Treatment, predominantly antibiotic therapy, is a principal therapeutic intervention used to cure TB and leprosy and halt infection transmission. Decisions made around treatment therefore impact not only the individual person affected, but also their families and communities. The well-worn models of Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) and case management are used nationally to assist treatment continuity and completion. Neither model has been substantiated for cultural appropriateness nor for meeting the specific needs …

Diversity's Pandemic Distractions, Jonathan Kahn

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.