Digital Commons Network^™

Meta-Analysis Of The Prevalence Of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen (Don) In Water And Wastewater And Review Of Don Removal And Recovery Strategies, Synthia P. Mallick, Zayed Mallick, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Most wastewater removal and recovery processes primarily target dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) species, leaving the untreated non-reactive dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in the effluent. This DON fraction can account for a substantial part of the total nitrogen (N) load. We analyzed large datasets of N species and concentrations (with a focus on quantifying the fraction of DON) in surface water, ground water, and wastewater effluent across the United States. We then reviewed strategies to remove and recover DON based on results of a range of treatment technologies reported in the literature, including laboratory-scale up to full-scale operation in wastewater treatment …

Seasonal And Spatial Patterns Differ Between Intracellular And Extracellular Antibiotic Resistance Genes In Urban Stormwater Runoff, Kassidy N. O'Malley, Patrick J. Mcnamara, Walter M. Mcdonald

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Antibiotic resistance is a public health threat that is exacerbated by the dispersion of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into aquatic environments. Urban stormwater runoff has been recognized as a source of and a mechanism by which intracellular ARGs (iARGs) can be transported into receiving environments. The prevalence and behavior of extracellular ARGs (eARGs) in stormwater, however, has yet to be considered. This study quantified four iARGs and eARGs under baseflow and stormflow conditions. Urban stormwater runoff was found to be a source of all the ARGs examined, with the absolute concentration of all iARGs and two eARGs (ermF …

The Role Of Traumatic Experiences In Developing Nocturnal Panic Attacks, Nicole S. Smith

Dissertations

Nocturnal panic attacks refer to panic attacks that occur out of a sleeping state with no obvious cause, resulting in awakening at the peak of a panic attack. Nocturnal panic affects roughly half of patients with panic disorder as well as individuals with other psychological disorders such as PTSD. Prior research has suggested that experiencing a traumatic event may lead to the development of nocturnal panic attacks. The current study sought to expand upon the extant literature related to the role of trauma in nocturnal panic by collecting a comprehensive trauma and panic history in order to establish a timeline …

Habitat Use Of The Threatened River Redhorse (Moxostoma Carinatum) In The Grand River, Mi, Usa, Nicholas M. Preville, Eric B. Snyder, Dan O'Keefe, Scott Hanshue, Amy Russell, Justin Radecki

Peer Reviewed Publications

The resilience of aquatic ecosystems hinges on our ability to protect the native species that reside within them. The river redhorse (Moxostoma carinatum) is one such example and populations have become low enough to warrant a threatened status by the State of Michigan. An insufficient understanding of the species’ habitat use outside of its spawning season hinders the ability of fisheries managers to implement appropriate habitat protection and restoration measures. To enhance our understanding of river redhorse habitat use, we implanted 15 individuals with radio transmitters during the spring spawning run and tracked their locations over the course …

Unraveling The Mechanism Of Resistance In A Glufosinate-Resistant Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus Palmeri) Accession, Pamela Carvalho-Moore, Jason K. Norsworthy, Fidel Gonzalez-Torralva, Jeong-In Hwang, Jinesh D. Patel, L. Tom Barber, Thomas R. Butts, J. Scott Mcelroy

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Glufosinate resistance in Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson) was recently detected in three accessions from Arkansas, USA. Amaranthus palmeri is the first and only broadleaf weed species resistant to this herbicide, and the resistance mechanism is still unclear. A previous study characterized the glufosinate resistance level in the accessions from Arkansas. A highly glufosinate-resistant accession was further used to investigate the mechanism conferring glufosinate resistance in A. palmeri. Experiments were designed to sequence the herbicide target enzyme cytosolic and chloroplastic glutamine synthetase isoforms (GS1 and GS2, respectively) and quantify copy number and expression. Absorption, translocation, and metabolism of glufosinate …

Transitioning To Sustainable Healthy Diets: A Model-Based And Conceptual System Thinking Approach To Optimized Sustainable Diet Concepts In The United States, Prince Agyemang, Ebenezer M. Kwofie, Jamie Baum

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Food production and consumption are essential in human existence, yet they are implicated in the high occurrences of preventable chronic diseases and environmental degradation. Although healthy food may not necessarily be sustainable and vice versa, there is an opportunity to make our food both healthy and sustainable. Attempts have been made to conceptualize how sustainable healthy food may be produced and consumed; however, available data suggest a rise in the prevalence of health-related and negative environmental consequences of our food supply. Thus, the transition from conceptual frameworks to implementing these concepts has not always been effective. This paper explores the …

Design Of A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Phase 3 Trial Of Tofersen Initiated In Clinically Presymptomatic Sod1 Variant Carriers: The Atlas Study, Michael Benatar, Robert C Bucelli, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Despite extensive research, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) remains a progressive and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease. Limited knowledge of the underlying causes of ALS has made it difficult to target upstream biological mechanisms of disease, and therapeutic interventions are usually administered relatively late in the course of disease. Genetic forms of ALS offer a unique opportunity for therapeutic development, as genetic associations may reveal potential insights into disease etiology. Genetic ALS may also be amenable to investigating earlier intervention given the possibility of identifying clinically presymptomatic, at-risk individuals with causative genetic variants. There is increasing evidence for a presymptomatic phase of …

Treatment Patterns And Standardized Outcome Assessments Among Patients With Inflammatory Conditions Of The Pouch In A Prospective Multicenter Registry, Edward L Barnes, Parakkal Deepak, Poonam Beniwal-Patel, Laura Raffals, Maia Kayal, Marla Dubinsky, Shannon Chang, Peter D R Higgins, Jennifer I Barr, Joseph Galanko, Yue Jiang, Raymond K Cross, Millie D Long, Hans H Herfarth

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Much of our understanding about the natural history of pouch-related disorders has been generated from selected populations. We designed a geographically diverse, prospective registry to study the disease course among patients with 1 of 4 inflammatory conditions of the pouch. The primary objectives in this study were to demonstrate the feasibility of a prospective pouch registry and to evaluate the predominant treatment patterns for pouch-related disorders.

METHODS: We used standardized diagnostic criteria to prospectively enroll patients with acute pouchitis, chronic antibiotic-dependent pouchitis (CADP), chronic antibiotic refractory pouchitis (CARP), or Crohn's disease (CD) of the pouch. We obtained detailed clinical …

Prophetic Eu: Prospective Identification Of Pneumonia In Hospitalized Patients In The Intensive Care Unit In European And United States Cohorts, Stephen P Bergin, Marin H Kollef, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The prospective identification of patients at high risk for hospital-acquired/ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia may improve clinical trial feasibility and foster antibacterial development. In a prior study conducted in the United States, clinical criteria were used to prospectively identify these patients; however, these criteria have not been applied in a European population.

METHODS: Adults considered high risk for pneumonia (treatment with ventilation or high levels of supplemental oxygen) in the intensive care units of 7 European hospitals were prospectively enrolled from June 12 to December 27, 2017. We estimated the proportion of high-risk patients developing pneumonia according to US Food and …

Changes In Adiposity Over The Life Course And Gene Expression In Postmenopausal Women, Yunan Han, Graham A Colditz, Adetunji T Toriola

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Early life adiposity and changes in adiposity over the life course are associated with mammographic breast density among postmenopausal women. However, the underlying mechanisms are unknown; therefore, we comprehensively examined the associations of early life body mass index (BMI) and changes in BMI from ages 10, 18 to age at mammogram with growth factor, RANK pathway, and sex hormone gene expression in 372 postmenopausal women.

METHODS: We estimated early life BMI at age 10 using the validated 9-level Stunkard pictogram. We calculated BMI at other ages (18, 30, and current age at mammogram) by dividing weight in kilograms at …

Epigenomic Analysis Reveals Prevalent Contribution Of Transposable Elements To Cis-Regulatory Elements, Tissue-Specific Expression, And Alternative Promoters In Zebrafish, Hyung Joo Lee, Yiran Hou, Ju Heon Maeng, Nakul M Shah, Yujie Chen, Heather A Lawson, Hongbo Yang, Feng Yue, Ting Wang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Transposable elements (TEs) encode regulatory elements that impact gene expression in multiple species, yet a comprehensive analysis of zebrafish TEs in the context of gene regulation is lacking. Here, we systematically investigate the epigenomic and transcriptomic landscape of TEs across 11 adult zebrafish tissues using multidimensional sequencing data. We find that TEs contribute substantially to a diverse array of regulatory elements in the zebrafish genome and that 37% of TEs are positioned in active regulatory states in adult zebrafish tissues. We identify TE subfamilies enriched in highly specific regulatory elements among different tissues. We use transcript assembly to discover TE-derived …

Active Learning From Knowledge-Rich Data, Weishi Shi

Theses

With the ever-increasing demand for the quality and quantity of the training samples, it is difficult to replicate the success of modern machine learning models in knowledge-rich domains, where the labeled data for training is scarce and labeling new data is expensive. While machine learning and AI have achieved significant progress in many common domains, the lack of large-scale labeled data samples poses a grand challenge for the wide application of advanced statistical learning models in key knowledge-rich domains, such as medicine, biology, physical science, and more. Active learning (AL) offers a promising and powerful learning paradigm that can significantly …

A Physiological Computing System To Improve Human-Robot Collaboration By Using Human Comfort Index, Celal Savur

Theses

Fluent human-robot collaboration requires a robot teammate to understand, learn, and adapt to the human's psycho-physiological state. Such collaborations require a physiological computing system that monitors human biological signals during human-robot collaboration (HRC) to quantitatively estimate a human's level of comfort, which we have termed in this research as comfortability index (CI) and uncomfortability index (UnCI). We proposed a human comfort index estimation system (CIES) that uses biological signals and subjective metrics. Subjective metrics (surprise, anxiety, boredom, calmness, and comfortability) and physiological signals were collected during a human-robot collaboration experiment that varied the robot's behavior. The emotion circumplex model is …

Optimising Curve Fitting Techniques To Look For Standardisation Of The Analysis Of Defocus Curves Derived From Multifocal Intraocular Lenses, Elizabeth M. Law, Hd Buckhurst, Rajesh K. Aggarwal, H El‐Kasaby, Jonathan Marsden, Gary L. Shum, Pj Buckhurst

School of Health Professions

IntroductionTo establish the most appropriate curve fitting method to allow accurate comparison of defocus curves derived from intraocular lenses (IOLs).MethodsDefocus curves were plotted in five IOL groups (monofocal, extended depth of focus, refractive bifocal, diffractive bifocal and trifocal). Polynomial curves from 2nd to 11th order and cubic splines were fitted. Goodness of fit (GOF) was assessed using five methods: least squares, coefficient of determination (R2adj), Akaike information criteria (AIC), visual inspection and Snedecor and Cochran. Additional defocus steps at −2.25 D and −2.75 D were measured and compared to the calculated visual acuity (VA) values. Area under the defocus curve …

Deep Convolution Neural Networks For Image Classification, Arun D. Kulkarni

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deep learning is a highly active area of research in machine learning community. Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) present a machine learning tool that enables the computer to learn from image samples and extract internal representations or properties underlying grouping or categories of the images. DCNNs have been used successfully for image classification, object recognition, image segmentation, and image retrieval tasks. DCNN models such as Alex Net, VGG Net, and Google Net have been used to classify large dataset having millions of images into thousand classes. In this paper, we present a brief review of DCNNs and results of our …

Nelly Arcan, Langage De La Honte, Jordon B. Mcconnell

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role that shame plays as a subversive tool in the works of Québécoise author Nelly Arcan. Dealing with themes such as sexuality, gender, suicide, and resentment, Arcan’s works deal with that which can be deemed “shameful,” and she deliberately speaks the unspeakable. First in constructing an understanding in how a shame-based vocabulary is employed throughout her works, we then study how this shame subverts expectations and adds weight to political questions relevant to the widespread use of electronic media. How does intentionally occupying a role that is shamed within society function …

Education Anywhere? A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study Of Montessori Around The World, Victoria J. Johnson

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Providing education for children residing in remote or difficult-to-access locations, including children in refugee and displacement camps, is a staggering global challenge. In addition to logistical challenges (such as access, infrastructure, teaching professionals and resources), differences in language, culture, environment, and values render conventional (i.e., Western-based, traditional) modes of education unfeasible and frequently ineffective. However, a strengths-based lens reminds us that communities have the capacity to initiate solutions when they have access to the right tools. Historically underrepresented in the literature, Montessori education has been used for over a century by communities all over the world to prepare children through …

Understanding Unwanted Sexual Experiences Of Transgender And Gender Diverse Individuals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study, Melissa Larosa

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people represent a small percent of the population and yet, they experience sexual violence at disproportionately high rates compared to their cisgender counterparts (Grant et al, 2011; James et al., 2016). The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological study is to gain a more nuanced understanding of the role that unwanted sexual experiences play in the lives of transgender and gender diverse people, particularly in relation to how they conceptualize their gender identity and the construct of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight TGD participants who met the inclusion criteria. Two superordinate (i.e., …

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Mucosal Attachment And Colonization By Clostridioides Difficile, Ben Sidner

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Clostridioides difficile is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, anaerobic bacterium which causes gastrointestinal disease and is a leading cause of nosocomial infections. Although infection typically occurs following antibiotic therapy, in recent years there has been an increase in infections which are not preceded by antibiotic use. Additionally, community-associated infections and rates of disease recurrence have increased. While it is understood that a healthy gastrointestinal microbiota provides protection against infection, the molecular mechanisms which underly C. difficile's ability to colonize and persist in the gut are mostly unknown. Building on work from others that suggests C. difficile associates with the outer mucus …

Nickel Rush: Indigenous Testimonies And Predictions About Mining From New Caledonia And Québec, Hailey Dorner

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The rise of the electric vehicle industry will be accompanied with increased mining of two former French colonies, New Caledonia and Québec, both of which have historically been a great source of nickel despite Indigenous objection to nickel extraction. This thesis juxtaposes the novels of An Antane Kapesh, of Québec, and Claudine Jacques, of New Caledonia, to understand the Indigenous perspective of historical and future events of natural resource extraction and to see how these communities are impacted. Together they reveal that mining is a gendered act of violence that much like sexual assault, continues to have negative consequences long …

Enlarged Perivascular Spaces Are Negatively Associated With Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scores In Older Adults, Timothy J. Libecap, Valentinos Zachariou, Christopher E. Bauer, Donna M. Wilcock, Gregory A. Jicha, Flavius D. Raslau, Brian T. Gold

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Emerging evidence suggests that enlarged perivascular spaces (ePVS) may be a clinically significant neuroimaging marker of global cognitive function related to cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD). We tested this possibility by assessing the relationship between ePVS and both a standardized measure of global cognitive function, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and an established marker of cSVD, white matter hyperintensity volume (WMH) volume. One hundred and eleven community-dwelling older adults (56–86) underwent neuroimaging and MoCA testing. Quantification of region-specific ePVS burden was performed using a previously validated visual rating method and WMH volumes were computed using the standard ADNI pipeline. Separate …

Improved Prediction Of Radiation Pneumonitis By Combining Biological And Radiobiological Parameters Using A Data-Driven Bayesian Network Analysis, Tonaye Hinton, David Karnak, Ming Tang, Ralph Jiang, Yi Luo, Philip Boonstra, Yilun Sun, Derek J. Nancarrow, Erin Sandford, Paramita Ray, Christopher Maurino, Martha Matuszak, Matthew J. Schipper, Michael D. Green, Gregory A. Yanik, Muneesh Tewari, Issam El Naqa, Caitlin A. Schonewolf, Randall Ten Haken, Shruti Jolly, Theodore S. Lawrence, Dipankar Ray

Hematology/Oncology Articles

Grade 2 and higher radiation pneumonitis (RP2) is a potentially fatal toxicity that limits efficacy of radiation therapy (RT). We wished to identify a combined biomarker signature of circulating miRNAs and cytokines which, along with radiobiological and clinical parameters, may better predict a targetable RP2 pathway. In a prospective clinical trial of response-adapted RT for patients (n = 39) with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer, we analyzed patients' plasma, collected pre- and during RT, for microRNAs (miRNAs) and cytokines using array and multiplex enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. Interactions between candidate biomarkers, radiobiological, and clinical parameters were analyzed …

The Role Of Motivation In The Conceptual Model Of Motor Development In Childhood, Cristina Menescardi, An V. De Meester, Sofie Morbee, Leen Haerens, Isaac Estevan

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was twofold: first, to investigate whether perceived motor competence (PMC) mediates the relation between actual motor competence (AMC) and physical activity (PA) according to the conceptual model of motor development, and second to examine the role of different motivational regulations (i.e., intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external regulation) in the relationship between PMC and PA. A sample of 504 Spanish students (46.2% girls, 8–12 years old) voluntarily participated in this study. In relation to the first aim, structural equation modeling revealed that PMC indeed mediates the association between AMC and PA. In relation to the second …

Illuminating Protist Diversity In Pitcher Plants And Bromeliad Tanks, Robin S. Sleith, Laura A. Katz

Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Many species of plants have evolved structures called phytotelmata that store water and trap detritus and prey. These structures house diverse communities of organisms, the inquiline microbiome, that aids breakdown of litter and prey. The invertebrate and bacterial food webs in these systems are well characterized, but less is known about microbial eukaryotic community dynamics. In this study we focus on microbes in the SAR clade (Stramenopila, Alveolata, Rhizaria) inhabiting phytotelmata. Using small subunit rDNA amplicon sequencing from repeated temporal and geographic samples of wild and cultivated plants across the Northeast U.S.A., we demonstrate that communities are variable within and …

An Nlp Analysis Of Health Advice Giving In The Medical Research Literature, Yingya Li

Dissertations - ALL

Health advice – clinical and policy recommendations – plays a vital role in guiding medical practices and public health policies. Whether or not authors should give health advice in medical research publications is a controversial issue. The proponents of "actionable research" advocate for the more efficient and effective transmission of science evidence into practice. The opponents are concerned about the quality of health advice in individual research papers, especially that in observational studies. Arguments both for and against giving advice in individual studies indicate a strong need for identifying and accessing health advice, for either practical use or quality evaluation …

Wdr5 Network Analysis Using Ensemble Approaches, Ali Imran

Dissertations - ALL

Understanding the properties of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is necessary to deconvolute the processes inside living organisms. As such, research in this regard has significant implications for gaining insight into cancers and other diseases. Once understood, drugs can be designed to target these diseases. In these chapters we focus on the network of interactions of WD40 repeat protein 5 (WDR5), a known hub protein. Several of its interactions are significant for regulation of histone methylation and consequently epigenetic regulation. These interacting partners include the SET1 family of proteins and retinoblastoma binding protein-5 (RbBP5). In this work we used multiple ensemble measurement …

A New Class Of Antibiotic That Prevents Drug Tolerance, Persistence, And Resistance By Controlling Emergence Of Phenotypes., Pankaj Dinkar Patil

Dissertations - ALL

The fight against bacterial infections and innovations in antibiotic therapy has never halted throughout human history. However, bacteria have evolved smartly and resistance against practically all conventional antibiotics has been developed. Furthermore, bacteria can form biofilms, which are surface-attached multicellular colonies. Biofilms shield bacteria against antibiotics and makes it harder to entirely eradicate infections . Under antibiotics stress, bacteria evolve into different phenotypes like hyper motile, hyper adherent and hyper virulent which are tolerant and persistent to antibiotic treatment. The use of antibiotic therapy to combat such resilient bacterial phenotypes is extremely tough. As a result, the scientific community is …

Essays On Economic Geography And Development Economics, Yao Wang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation comprises two papers studying economic geography in a developing country context. Chapter 1 quantifies the effects of cultural barriers on internal migration and welfare in Indonesia. I estimate internal migration gravity using linguistic distances as a proxy for cultural barriers and instrument for current linguistic differences using data from the 1930 colonial census. I find inverted U-shaped effects of linguistic distance on migration, which are more prominent for unskilled and older populations. To quantify welfare and distributional implications of linguistic barriers, I further develop a quantitative spatial model with heterogeneous skill groups, incorporating linguistic distance as migration and …

Advanced In Vitro Models For Studying Bone Physiology, Kairui Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

Bone is a highly calcified organic-inorganic composite tissue with complicated hierarchical structure. The presence of complex multi-cellular organization within opaque mineralized matrix makes it challenging to use conventional methods to study in vivo bone physiology even using model animals. To address this challenge, numerous in vitro models have been developed to study bone physiology under well-defined and repeatable experimental conditions although proving their physiological relevance remains a key challenge. This work aims to design and develop new in vitro models that better represent in vivo bone physiology with defined control over chemical and physical microenvironments, at low costs and high …

Culture And Covid-19: Impact Of Cross-Cultural Dimensions On Behavioral Responses, Nisha Nair, Patturaja Selvaraj, Ranjeet Nambudiri

Management Faculty Publications

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has impacted every sphere of human life across all nations of the world. Countries adapted and responded to the crisis in different ways with varied outcomes and different degrees of success in mitigation efforts. Studies have examined institutional and policy-based responses to the pandemic. However, to gain a holistic understanding of the pandemic response strategy and its effectiveness, it is also important to understand the cultural foundations of a society driving its response behavior. Towards that end, this entry focuses on a few key cultural dimensions of difference across countries and proposes that national culture …