Digital Commons Network^™

A Framework For And Design Of A Smart Academic Building Using Sensors, Citizen Participation, And Volunteered Geographic Information, Neelam Raigangar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Population growth and migration patterns have shown an influx of residents from rural to urban environments. To deal with the problems caused by unprecedented urban influx, cities should plan to use technology in a smart and distinctive way. Tackling at the city scale is hard. But a set of smart buildings that are interconnected by technology will lead to smarter communities which are then interconnected to create a smart city. Smart lobby, building, community, or city is distinguished by its application of integrated software, hardware, and network technologies, along with access to real-time data enabling decision-making, facilitating tracing, tracking and …

Bridging Psychometric And Cognitive Models Of (General) Intelligence: An Investigation Based On Process Overlap Theory, Han Hao

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Human intelligence has been scientifically investigated as a psychological construct for over a century but there has not been a universally accepted definition or theory. One cause of this problem is that traditional theories attempt to explain the robust findings in cognitive ability testing, such as the positive manifold, from two different perspectives: psychometric or cognitive. Both approaches have their own limitations and are sometimes incompatible with each other. Therefore, contemporary theories of intelligence have been developed to provide a more unified perspective by combining both types of approaches, allowing the psychometric structure of cognitive abilities to be represented and …

The Water Is On Fire: Current Circuit Approaches To Fee-Shifting In Citizen-Suits Under The Clean Water Act And The Need For Clearer And More Uniform Standards, Charles Kinley

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will start by providing a short explanation of the origins of and congressional goals for the fee-shifting provision in the CWA [Clean Water Act]. It will then offer a brief summary of how Supreme Court precedent has both clarified and confused this issue. Then, it will dive into an examination of how the different circuits and their district courts have interpreted the CWA’s fee-shifting provision and how these interpretations have struggled with past Supreme Court decisions. Finally, this Note will explore the costs and benefits associated with these fee-shifting standards and offer a potential solution to this problem. …

Law On The Half Shell: Applying A Right-To-Farm Framework To Virginia's Aquaculture Industry, Matt Woodward, Andrew Corso

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Adapting the state’s existing RTF [Right-to-Farm] regime to include aquaculture has the potential to help Virginia navigate an array of economic and legal challenges. This Article examines the intersection of RTF law and aquaculture and discusses the role that RTF law may play in encouraging Virginia’s expanding aquaculture industry. Part I offers an overview of RTF laws and their operation in Virginia. Part II discusses aquaculture generally and Virginia’s expanding aquaculture industry. Part III documents problems faced by aquaculture producers in Virginia under Virginia’s existing RTF law. Part IV details related challenges facing the industry. Part V concludes by detailing …

Effects Of Heterocycles On Biologically Relevant Molecules, Sajith Manjrake Vijayan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is difficult to overstate the importance of heterocycles in many fields of science (including organic, inorganic, pharmaceutical, medicinal, and material science). Due to their remarkable potential for being involved in a vast array of reactions, heterocyclic molecules make up the majority of pharmaceuticals as well as more than half of all natural products. Moreover, nature widely uses heterocycles, and scientists learned to imitate nature by incorporating them into drug molecules to enhance their biological activity. In this research work emphasize the use of heterocycles in biomedical applications.

The first study presents the design, synthesis, and computational evaluation of four …

Inclusive Music Teacher Preparation In The Presbyterian College Of Education At Akropong-Akuapem, Ghana, Samuel Agbenyo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past three decades, Inclusive Education (IE) has emerged as a crucial educational agenda all over the world. In this study, IE is the practice of including students with disabilities in the general (music) education classroom, where they are educated together with their typically developing peers. Although IE efforts began in Ghana in 1957, some pitfalls have characterized the implementation process over the years, especially regarding music teacher preparation to implement the policies. Studies have reported a state of frustration among stakeholders, notably the elementary school teachers, who feel inadequately prepared to teach within IE settings. In this case …

Resilience Capacity Of School Meal Programs In Southeastern U.S. School Districts During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Findings From Mississippi, Louisiana, And West Virginia, Kritika Gupta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi (MS), Louisiana (LA), and West Virginia (WV) have some of the nation’s highest rates of poverty and health disparities, reflected in high rates of food insecurity. Many of the school districts in these states have greater than 40% of students qualifying for free meals and, under community eligibility, can provide meals free to all children. School meals play an important role in addressing food insecurity in the U.S. and those were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ability of social systems (schools) to continue operations during adverse circumstances (pandemic) to ensure the sustained outcome of interest (food security) …

Hiv-1 Tat And Opioids: Implications For Stress-Related Psychopathology, Salahuddin Mohammed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goal of this dissertation was to assess the interaction of HIV-1 Tat protein with opioids like oxycodone and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and develop novel therapeutic strategy to restore HPA dysfunction in adult HIV-1 Tat transgenic mice. In the past 3 decades, combined antiretroviral therapeutics (cART) has increased the life expectancy of HIV infected individuals, with a significant decline in the number of deaths. However, due the inability of cART to sufficiently target latent CNS viral reservoirs (predominantly microglia and astrocytes to a lesser extent), approximately 50% of the HIV+ infected population contends with neurological, neuropsychiatric and neuroendocrine …

Botanicals As Prospective Agents Against Sars-Cov-2 Virus, Vyacheslav Dushenkov, Anna Dushenkov

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 high morbidity and mortality resulted in a worldwide healthcare emergency that triggered accelerated and amplified efforts in the relevant areas of health sciences research and practice. Purpose: To assess the potential role of botanicals as therapeutic agents against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Methods: This narrative review examined the potential role of botanicals as therapeutic agents against the SARS-CoV-2 virus based on the references limited to the English language and published up to February 2022 and retrieved from common academic search engines using multiple keywords and their combinations. The scientific names of plant species were confirmed using World Flora Online …

Exploratory Studies On The Feasibility Of Developing Microneedles Using Hot Melt Extrusion Coupled With Fused Deposition Modeling 3-D Printing, Nikeeta Palande

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transdermal drug delivery enables efficient local and systematic drug delivery while offering advantages such as non-invasiveness, patient compliance, and avoidance of first pass metabolism compared to parenteral administration. Due to strong and the multi-layered structure of the skin creates complex barriers which makes the delivery of therapeutic agents across the skin becomes challenging. Microneedles have been shown to deliver drugs through the transdermal route by penetrating the skin’s protective barrier, stratum corneum (SC) and creating a pathway for drug permeation to the dermal tissue. Traditionally, microneedles were fabricated using various types of materials and process such as casting, injection moulding, …

Design Of An Ophthalmic Nanostructured Lipid Carrier Containing Amphotericin B And Nonadecanoic Acid For The Management Of Fungal Keratitis, Vishal Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fungal keratitis is a fungal infection of the cornea. Untreated ocular infections can damage the unique, delicate structures of the eye leading to blindness and visual impairments. It primarily affects the corneal epithelium and stroma, although the endothelium and anterior chamber of the eye may get involved in more severe disease. Amphotericin B (AMB) is a macrocyclic polyene that poorly penetrates ocular tissues. However, AMB is a drug of choice used for the treatment of fungal keratitis caused by Candida. Nonadecanoic acid (NDA) is a 19-carbon fatty acid obtained from plants or bacteria which has shown antifungal activity and acts …

Covid-19 And Headache-Related Disability, Lauren Thaxter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Migraine is a common nervous system disorder that is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and approximately half of individuals with migraine report their migraine attacks cause substantial impairment in activities. A bidirectional relationship exists between migraine and psychological symptoms, and comorbid psychological symptoms compound migraine-related disability. Due to COVID-19 pandemic response procedures, many university students experienced institutional closures and corresponding increases in depression, stress, and anxiety, with the most prominent worries being about one's own health and the health of loved ones. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between COVID-19 status (pre-COVID vs. during COVID) and headache-related …

“Darling, Beauty Is Pain”, Porranee Singpliam

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

How has postfeminist media culture traveled transnationally? What contributes to the postfeminist media’s popularity in Thailand? This paper performs a content analysis of YouTube’s reality show, This is Me Vatanika. The show features gender issues and the promotion of gender equality, enhances women’s empowerment, encourages women’s leadership and rhetorically calls upon its viewers to partake in the process of self-invention. I draw upon postfeminist media culture and its sensibilities and argue that this reality show inspires a new modality of femininity endemic in Thai society and that it interpolates neoliberal women in line with the logic of wealth and class, …

Bissu’S Transvestites In The Buginese-Makassar Tradition Through The Transformation Of Faisal Oddang’S Literary Works: An Intertextuality Study, Saharul Hariyono, Nurhadi Bewe

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Writer Faisal Oddang narrated the existence of the bissu community seemingly reconstructed from an understanding of the historical text to become more colorful. This article questions how the transformation model of bissu community figures is revealed in Oddang’s fictional work. This study utilizes Julia Kristeva’s intertext abstracted through ideologeme as a text arrangement that refers to the space of exterior texts (semiotic practice). The results of the study show: first, how the transformation model of the bissu community character appears in the work of fiction; second, the libido of bissu community in their sacred place; third, the bissu community character …

Identification And Characterization Of Transcription Factors Regulating Methionine Gamma-Lyase Gene Expressionin Durian Durio Zibethinus M. Pulps, Pinnapat Pinsorn

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Durian (Durio zibethinus L.) is an economic fruit crop in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, more than 200 durian varieties are found. Among them, two commercial cultivars which are Chanee and Monthong are mainly cultivated. Durian fruit releases a strong sulfuryl odor containing ethanethiol, methanethiol, and hydrogen sulfide during ripening. Methionine γ-lyase (MGL) is an enzyme responsible for α, γ-elimination of L-methionine into methanethiol, ammonia, and α-ketobutyrate. MGL gene is highly expressed in durian pulps during ripening concurring with methanethiol production during ripening. However, the function of durian MGL (DzMGL) has not been characterized. Thus, the enzymatic activity assay towards L-methionine, …

Realizing Diversity, Sustainability, And Stakeholder Capitalism, Peter H. Huang

Emory Business Law Review

Stakeholder capitalism conceives of capitalism with companies maximizing their long-term value, while considering in addition to the interests of their shareholders, also the interests of all their other stakeholders. Examples of such additional stakeholders include customers, employees, communities, creditors, competitors, society at large, and our planet. America today does not have stakeholder capitalism. Instead, America presently has shareholder capitalism, in which publicly held corporations only maximize their stock value to shareholders.

This Essay analyzes proposals for the United States Securities Exchange Commission to require that all reporting companies make periodic mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures of comparable, standardized, …

Integrating Social Justice Advocacy In Clinical Supervision, Mary Rodgers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A research gap exists on the process for how supervisors effectively address social justice advocacy (SJA) in clinical supervision within the counseling profession. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory (CGT) study was to increase understanding of the process by which SJA can be integrated into clinical supervision and thus generate a theory for teaching supervisors to effectively integrate SJA into clinical supervision. A constructivist grounded theory approach provided direction on the structure of this study to identify how professors who are social justice advocates and provide clinical supervision to doctoral students in Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related …

The Psychological Experience Of Cyberbullying Among Transgender Adults, Lyndsey Macpherson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although Internet use can be helpful, it can also be a toxic environment, especially toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Researchers have demonstrated that cyberbullying victimization can affect anyone; however, very few analyze these experiences by gender identity. The focus of this qualitative study was to understand the experiences of harassment that gender-minority individuals encounter in an online environment. Data included in-depth interviews with 14 transgender or nonbinary adults. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), participants were asked to share their experiences with navigating on social media and the impact of what cyberbullying means to them. The …

Predictors Of Social And Psychological Functioning Among Participants In The Copdgene Cohort, Shandi Watts

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study addressed the relationship among longitudinal smoking status, depression, anxiety, health-related quality of life, and psychological and social functioning due to airflow limitations among adult patients with COPD who are enrolled in the COPDGene Cohort Study. The purpose of this research was to address the gap in the literature concerning the relationship among these variables at two time points, 5 years apart. A cognitive approach was used suggesting that as disease progresses and physical ability becomes more limited, then depression and anxiety will increase, and quality of life will decrease. This was a quantitative, longitudinal, nonexperimental study using archived …

The Influence Of Race And Ethnicity On The Prevalence Of Social Stigma For People With Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, Donielle Hyde

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Various studies attempting to evaluate the prevalence of health-related social stigma in people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) identified themes that coincide with increased prevalence including anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, fear of judgement, anger, and feeling ashamed. This phenomenon is believed to be due to the lack of knowledge and understanding about the differences between the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention strategies for T1DM and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The Resilient, Empowered, Active Living intervention dataset (n=115) was utilized to further examine this phenomenon by determining whether race and ethnicity influence the prevalence of the following health-related social stigma …

The Covid-19 Vaccine: A Spotlight On Distribution Challenges, Erica Gray

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A New Species Of New Guinea Worm-Eating Snake (Serpentes, Elapidae, Toxicocalamus Boulenger, 1896) From Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea, Jackson R. Roberts, Bulisa Iova, Christopher C. Austin

Faculty Publications

We describe a new species of New Guinea Worm-Eating Snake (Elapidae: Toxicocalamus) from a specimen in the reptile collection of the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery. Toxicocalamus longhagen sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from other species of this genus by the presence of paired subcaudals, a preocular scale unfused from the prefrontal scale, a prefrontal distinct from the internasal scale that contacts the supralabials, a single large posterior temporal and two postocular scales. The new taxon is currently known only from one specimen, which was collected from Mt. Hagen Town in Western Highlands Province, Papua New …

Design And Identification Of Organic Molecules As Agonists Of The Gabab Receptor And As Difluoro-C-Glycosylated Derivatives Of Flavonoids Using Molecular Modeling, Reem Alkhodier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of molecular modeling in pharmaceutical research is continuously growing. This growth is a result of the increasing number of experimental structures, the development of sophisticated modeling methods, and the improvement in computer performance by using GPUs and cloud computing. Nowadays, molecular modeling is routinely used in drug discovery to investigate biological processes and molecular properties. Herein, we use molecular modeling to investigate the behaviors of compounds with unique scaffolds.

Baclofen is the only marketed GABAB receptor agonist that is used for spasticity disorders, and it has shown promise as an anti-abuse agent. However, it has disadvantages that raise …

Synthesis And Charecterisation Of Methylene Blue Derivatives, Rohit Alluri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since its discovery, the fluorescent dye known as methylene blue has been employed in a variety of scientific disciplines. Methylene blue (MB) for intraoperative fluorescence imaging has only lately been employed. 10-N-carbamoyl linkage modification of Methylene blue helps us in developing compounds with off-to-on fluorescence switch in the presence of near infrared (NIR). Due to its naturally induced photodamage to normal tissues and deeper penetration of lesion regions when compared to UV and visible light, near infrared (NIR) light is considered favorable among the broad radiation range. The previously synthesized derivatives are not completely soluble in water, they require other …

Development Of Hydroxyl Radical Protein Footprinting For Challenging Systems, Zhi Cheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Structural biology plays an important role in modern molecular biosciences. High-resolution hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HR-HRPF) is a mass spectrometry (MS) based method for analyzing protein topography at a spatial resolution from peptide up to the individual amino acids. Fast photochemical oxidation of protein (FPOP) is an HRPF technique that generates hydroxyl radicals by UV laser-induced photolysis of hydrogen peroxide. FPOP coupled with MS technology has successfully elucidated protein structure information, protein-protein interaction, and protein allosteric or conformational change. Even though FPOP coupled MS has quickly had a large impact on the field of biopharmaceutical analysis, serious limitations still remain. …

Physiological Corticosterone Attenautes Gp120-Mediated Microglial Activation And Is Associated With Reduced Anxiety-Like Behavior In Gp120-Expressing Mice, Emaya Marie Moss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) persists as a global pandemic. Despite the benefits of combinatorial antiretroviral therapies (cART), virotoxic HIV proteins are still detectable within the central nervous system and approximately half of all cART-treated patients contend with neurological impairments. The mechanisms underlying these effects are not known, but likely involve actions of virotoxic HIV proteins including glycoprotein 120 (gp120). Glycoprotein 120 is neurotoxic, in part due to its capacity to activate microglia. Corticosterone, an endogenous anti-inflammatory, has been found to attenuate neuronal death caused by gp120-induced microglial cytokine production in vitro. But, the concentration-dependent effects of corticosterone to influence microglial …

Biopolymer Unfolding As A Process Of Biased Activated Barrier Crossing, Sudeep Adhikari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The biopolymer unfolding process can be conceptualized as the thermally activated crossing of a barrier in some energy landscape; the real-world unfolding dynamics are in correspondence with the rate of transit over the barrier. In this dissertation, we report on four projects that exploit this analogy to advance our understanding of so-called pulling experiments, in which a biopolymer chain is encouraged to unfold by direct application of forces to its two ends. Regardless of the specific experimental realization, standard pulling techniques give rise to a biased barrier crossing problem. The applied force has the effect of tilting the energy landscape. …

Student Success: Do First-Time, Full Time (Ftft) Students At The University Of Mississippi Enrolled In Intermediate Math (Ds 099) Earn Higher Grades In College Algebra (Math 121) Than Those Students Who Enrolled Directly In College Algebra?, Martina Brewer-Mister

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Critics of developmental studies suggest that remedial courses may negatively influence a student’s program selection, persistence, and completion because remedial classes do not count toward graduation requirements (Long & Boatman, 2013). They have also found that over half of the students referred to remediation do not complete the courses (Clayton, Crosta, & Belfield, 2014; Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010). The number is even lower for minority students (Bailey, 2010).

Using pre-existing data collected from the Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning at the University of Mississippi, an independent sample t-test and correlation analysis were conducted to examine the outcomes …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Methylprednisolone-Loaded Polylactic Acid/Hyaluronic Acid Nanofibrous Scaffold For Soft Tissue Engineering, Mehdi Keikha, Elahe Entekhabi, Mahvash Shokrollahi, Masoumeh Haghbin Nazarpak, Zahra Hassannejad, Somaye Akbari, Alex R. Vaccaro, Vafa Rahimi-Movaghar

Rothman Institute Papers

Previous in vitro and in vivo studies have indicated that tissue engineering scaffolds, including Schwann cells, may improve axonal regeneration, particularly in combination with Methylprednisolone as an influential neuroprotective factor. The primary aim of this study was to design composite electrospun scaffolds based on polylactic acid (PLA)/ hyaluronic acid (HA) containing various percentages (0.05–2% (w/v)) of Methylprednisolone (MP) with suitable mechanical and chemical properties for soft tissue especially to promote nerve growth. For the first time, MP was implicated in a PLA/HA nanofibrous and its effect on fiber’s properties was scrutinized as a candidate for nerve tissue.

Remembering Who Foster Care Is For: Public Accommodation And Other Misconceptions And Missed Opportunities In Fulton V. City Of Philadelphia, Christine Gottlieb

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which held that a Catholic foster care agency could refuse to accept gay foster parents, and virtually all commentary on the case, are flawed by a profound misunderstanding of key aspects of the foster care system. The case’s role in the broader culture war between religious rights advocates and those supporting LGBTQ equality has led advocates on both sides to use Fulton for their own purposes at the expense of the families the foster care system is intended to serve. This Article explains that the most important constitutional interests at …