Digital Commons Network^™

Childhood Food Insecurity: A Program Impact And Evaluation Study Of The Meals On Wheels For Kids Program, Claudia Rivero

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In America, millions of families and children face hunger and food insecurity every day. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than thirty-eight million people experienced hunger in 2020. As many as 13 million children in the United States live in food-insecure homes. Many households that experience food insecurity do not qualify for federal nutrition programs. While valuable, barriers to these programs can block food-insecure households with children and prevent access to healthy food. The impact of adverse health and nutritional consequences, of a food-insecure household, will continue to plague our communities until efficient programming connects to those …

Effects Of Environmental And Anthropogenic Factors On Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta) False Crawl Rates On Jekyll Island, Ga, Brittany Byrd

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) are currently listed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List and are experiencing population declines across many parts of their range. These declines are caused by environmental and anthropogenic stressors which impact sea turtle ecology and behavior, including nesting behavior. One nesting behavior sea turtles exhibit is known as “false crawling,” which is when a female sea turtle ascends the beach in an attempt to nest and either abandons the attempt altogether or while in the middle of digging an egg chamber. False crawling, a largely understudied sea turtle behavior, can not only …

The Effects Of Fermented Vegetables On The Gut Microbiota For Prevention Of Cardiovascular Disease, Melissa Baron

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of regular consumption of fermented vegetables on markers of inflammation and the composition of the gut microbiota in adults at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Eighty-seven adults ages 35-64 were randomized into a Fermented Vegetable (FV) (100g fermented vegetables daily at least 5x/wk), or a Usual Diet (UD) group. Blood and stool samples were obtained before and after the intervention for measurement of C-Reactive Protein, interleukin-6, angiopoietin-like protein 4, trimethylamine oxide, and lipopolysaccharide binding protein. Next-generation sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene isolated from stool samples was performed on the Illumina …

Comparison Between Pervious Oyster Shell Habitat (Posh) Unit And Reef Ball Performance Along An Eroding Shoreline In Northeast Florida, Jacob Waggoner

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study compared two methods of shoreline protection – the common Reef Ball and the novel Pervious Oyster Shell Habitat (POSH). Both structures are meant to attenuate wave energy and subsequently reduce shoreline erosion. While Reef Balls have a long, documented history of effectively mitigating beach erosion, POSH units are new structures and their effectiveness had not yet been previously assessed. Clusters of POSH units and Reef Balls were deployed at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve’s shoreline at Kingsley Plantation. Wave staffs were placed seaward and shoreward from these clusters and wave heights were measured over a holiday weekend …

An Analysis Of The Spatial Genetic Structure Of A Hybrid Zone Between Two Species Of Killifish, Fundulus Heteroclitus And F. Grandis, Andrew Lee Hardy

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hybridization offers unique insight into the evolutionary process of speciation and the forces that maintain barriers to reproduction. In northeast Florida, a hybrid zone between two species of killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus and F. grandis, has been identified near Flagler Beach, FL, although the exact boundaries of the hybrid zone remain unknown (Gonzalez et al. 2009). This study aims to determine the fine-scale spatial genetic patterns of the hybrid zone and test the hypothesis that species ranges are influenced by changes in dominant vegetation. Results from an ADMIXTURE analysis and F_ST data indicated the boundary of the area of …

Nutrition Perception, Dietary Intake, And Anthropometric Correlations Between Autism Spectrum Disorder And Typically Developing Adolescents., Kristin M. Berg

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The adolescent’s nutrition perception is reflected in dietary intake and body composition. Obesity is prevalent among adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Dietary habits of children with ASD are affected by sensory issues, gastrointestinal factors, and parental provision of diet. This cross-sectional study identifies the relationships among variables for dietary intake, nutrition perception of intake, and anthropometric measurements for adiposity for 19 adolescents, ages 11 to 17, with ASD. Twenty-four children who are typically developing (TD) were assessed to compare all variables for significant differences. Measurements of variables of interest were obtained from the adolescent subjects: a 24-hour recall of …

How Do We Use Creative And Personal Memories For Creative Communication?, Tyler Robert Montgomery

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Inspired by the author’s memories, KeyBoard Memories and You have the Right to Forget are two short stage plays exploring topics of identity, time, and justice. This thesis uses personal and creative memories to develop stories in the form of scripts. The thesis begins with an example of creative writing inspired by the author’s personal and creative memories and describes the purpose of the project before moving into a review of literature that explains what memories are, how they work, and the different types of memories. Then the method section describes the methods of journaling and scripting writing, and then …

Changes In The Barley Stem Proteome In Response To Drought During Grain Filling, Mohammed Al Slamh

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Drought is the major environmental factor that limits crop yield worldwide. Crops are particularly vulnerable to drought at the reproductive stage. In cereals, grain filling during drought depends on the contribution of current photosynthesis products from the leaf and spike and carbohydrates stored mainly in the stem and remobilized to the grain. Even though stem reserve is an important source for grain filling, changes in the proteome of barley stem under drought have not been studied. Also, the molecular events associated with differential stem reserve remobilization under drought are not well understood. In this study, barley plants were exposed to …

A Cluster Analytic Approach To Examining The Role Of Cortisol In The Development Of Post-Traumatic Stress And Dysphoria In Adult Traumatic Injury Survivors, Devi Jayan, Terri A Deroon-Cassini, Garrett Sauber, Cecilia J. Hillard, Jacklynn M. Fitzgerald

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Identification of specific risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) versus depression after trauma has been challenging, in part due to the high comorbidity of these disorders. As exposure to trauma triggers activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis, examining atypical stress responses via HPA-axis hormones, namely cortisol, may help in the delineation of these disorders. Indeed, extant research demonstrates that, following stress, individuals with chronic PTSD exhibit hypocortisolism (e.g., lower cortisol response than controls), while those with chronic depression exhibit hypercortisolism (e.g., higher response than controls). Less is known about the role of cortisol and these seemingly disparate profiles immediately following …

Assessment Of Brain Age In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Findings From The Enigma Ptsd And Brain Age Working Groups, Ashley N. Clausen, Kelene A. Fercho, Molly Monsour, Seth Disner, Lauren Salminen, Courtney C. Haswell, Emily Clarke Rubright, Amanda A. Watts, M. Nicole Buckley, Adi Maron-Katz, Anika Sierk, Antje Manthey, Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, Bunmi O. Olatunji, Christopher L. Averill, David Hofmann, Dick J. Veltman, Elizabeth A. Olson, Gen Li, Gina L. Forster, Henrik Walter, Jacklynn M. Fitzgerald, Jean Théberge, Jeffrey S. Simons, Jessica A. Bomyea, Jessie L. Frijling, John H. Krystal, Justin T. Baker, K. Luan Phan, Kerry Ressler, Laura K. M. Han, Laura Nawijn, Lauren A. M. Lebois, Lianne Schmaal, Maria Densmore, Martha E. Shenton, Mirjam Van Zuiden, Murray Stein, Negar Fani, Raluca M. Simons, Richard W. J. Neufeld, Ruth Lanius, Sanne Van Rooij, Sadkia B. J. Koch, Serena Bonomo, Tanja Jovanovic, Terri A Deroon-Cassini, Timothy D. Ely, Vincent A. Magnotta, Xiaofu He, Chadi G. Abdallah, Amit Etkin, Christian Schmahl, Christine L. Larson, Isabelle M. Rosso, Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Jennifer S. Stevens, Judith K. Daniels, Julia Herzog, Milissa L. Kaufman, Miranda Olff, Richard J. Davidson, Scott R. Sponheim, Sven C. Mueller, Thomas Straube, Xi Zhu, Yuval Neria, Lee A. Baugh, James H. Cole, Paul M. Thompson, Rajendra A. Morey

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with markers of accelerated aging. Estimates of brain age, compared to chronological age, may clarify the effects of PTSD on the brain and may inform treatment approaches targeting the neurobiology of aging in the context of PTSD.

Method

Adult subjects (N = 2229; 56.2% male) aged 18–69 years (mean = 35.6, SD = 11.0) from 21 ENIGMA-PGC PTSD sites underwent T1-weighted brain structural magnetic resonance imaging, and PTSD assessment (PTSD+, n = 884). Previously trained voxel-wise (brainageR) and region-of-interest (BARACUS and PHOTON) machine learning pipelines were compared in a subset of control …

Trajectories Of Relational Turbulence And Affectionate Communication Across The Post-Deployment Transition, Leanne K. Knobloch, Lynne M. Knobloch-Fedders, Jeremy B. Yorgason, Erin C. Wehrman, J. Kale Monk

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Affectionate communication may play a key role in how military couples navigate the transition from deployment to reintegration. Informed by relational turbulence theory, this study considered how the trajectory of relational turbulence experienced by military couples over time predicted their verbal and nonverbal expressions of affection. Online self-report data were gathered from 268 U.S. military couples across eight months beginning at homecoming. Relational turbulence increased over time and affectionate communication decreased over time. Also as predicted, the trajectory of increasing relational turbulence corresponded with greater declines in verbal and nonverbal expressions of affection. These results advance relational turbulence theory, illuminate …

Mammals Adjust Diel Activity Across Gradients Of Urbanization, Travis Gallo, Mason Fidino, Brian Gerber, Adam A. Ahlers, Julia L. Angstmann, Max Amaya, Amy L. Concilio, David Drake, Danielle Gay, Elizabeth W. Lehrer, Maureen H. Murray, Travis J. Ryan, Colleen Cassady St. Clair, Carmen M. Salsbury, Heather A. Sander, Theodore Stankowich, Jaque Williamson, J. Amy Belaire, Kelly Simon, Seth B. Magle

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator–prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hr light–dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust their temporal activity to mitigate or adapt to environmental change has become a recent topic of discussion and is important for effective wildlife management and conservation. While spatial habitat is a fundamental consideration in wildlife management and conservation, temporal habitat is often ignored. We formulated a temporal resource selection model to quantify …

Collaboration Is Key: Using Interdisciplinary Assessment To Improve Wildlife Management Practices, Public Engagement In Science, And Science Communication Programs In Rhode Island, Erin R. Harrington

Open Access Dissertations

Over the past few decades, prestigious scientific institutions such as The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Academy of Sciences have acknowledged the utmost importance of science communication to help improve the general public’s understanding of scientific knowledge. NSF has gone so far as to make “dissemination of research findings to increase scientific literacy” the third most recommended category for research funding priorities, second only to teaching and training, and broadening participation of underrepresented groups (NSB 2011, Skrip 2015). These efforts attest to a growing interest and investment in improving the field of science communication (Druschke and McGreavy 2016); …

Analyzing The Differential News Coverage Of The North Atlantic And North Pacific Right Whales: A Case Study Of Agenda Setting, Framing, And Tone In Endangered Species Communication, Colette Soulier

Open Access Master's Theses

Mixed methods analysis was used to evaluate policy protections and media coverage of the less endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) compared to the more endangered North Pacific Right Whale (NPRW) from 2008-2020. The NARW and NPRW represent an interesting case study of mismatched conservation action and threat status, due to their highly similar appearance and membership in a traditionally highly prioritized group for conservation action. This study establishes large differences in policy creation between the species and uses media content analysis of news coverage of both whales to understand trends in framing, tone, and content between articles focusing on …

Adversarial Scrutiny Of Evidentiary Statistical Software, Rediet Abebe, Moritz Hardt, Angela Jin, John Miller, Ludwig Schmidt, Rebecca Wexler

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. criminal legal system increasingly relies on software output to convict and incarcerate people. In a large number of cases each year, the government makes these consequential decisions based on evidence from statistical software — such as probabilistic genotyping, environmental audio detection and toolmark analysis tools — that the defense counsel cannot fully cross-examine or scrutinize. This undermines the commitments of the adversarial criminal legal system, which relies on the defense’s ability to probe and test the prosecution’s case to safeguard individual rights.

Responding to this need to adversarially scrutinize output from such software, we propose robust adversarial testing …

The Enduring Importance Of Parental Rights, Clare Huntington, Elizabeth S. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

In this symposium contribution for The Law of Parents and Parenting, we argue that parental rights are — and should remain — the backbone of family law. State deference to parents is warranted not because parents are infallible, but rather because parental rights, properly understood and limited, promote child wellbeing. This is true for several reasons, but two stand out. First, parental rights promote the stability of the parent-child relationship by restricting the state’s authority to intervene in families. This protection promotes healthy child development for all children, and it is especially important for low-income families and families of color, …

The Road To A Federal Family Court, Jane M. Spinak

Faculty Scholarship

The family court became a “federal” family court in the 1990s and early 2000s when the federal government transformed the court into a full partner with state and local child protection agencies in monitoring families. Federal funding mandates that had shaped and expanded state child welfare, foster care, and adoption systems since the early 1970s began to be applied more purposefully to address the role of family court in supervising those systems. The Clinton administration developed and implemented the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1996 (ASFA) as a mechanism to harness the runaway size of the nationalized child protection …

Panel: Climate Change And Climate Justice, Alice Kaswan, Michael B. Gerrard, Monica Esparza, J.B. Ruhl

Faculty Scholarship

This article is a transcript of a panel discussion from the 2022 Richmond Public Interest Law Review's Symposium on Environmental Justice.

Third Amendment To The Chinese Copyright Law, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

Since July 2011, China has actively explored ways to upgrade its copyright law. Although the law was already amended the year before, only two changes were made at that time. The last time Chinese copyright law undertook a major overhaul was more than two decades ago, two months before the country became the 143rd member of the WTO in December 2001.

On November 11, 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China finally approved the Third Amendment to the Chinese Copyright Law. Covering a wide range of issues from eligibility to ownership and from enforcement to anti-circumvention …

West Virginia V. Environmental Protection Agency: The Agency's Climate Authority, Michael B. Gerrard, Joanne Spalding, Jill Tauber, Keith Matthews

Faculty Scholarship

On February 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the landmark West Virginia v. EPA case, involving the scope of powers delegated to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Air Act. The Court’s decision will affect administrative law, and could have major consequences for environmental law, particularly the Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and take action on climate change. On March 1, the Environmental Law Institute hosted a panel of leading experts to discuss the case, the arguments, and what form the decision may take. Below, we present a transcript of that …

Comparison Of Different Transfer Learning Methods For Classification Of Mangrove Communities Using Mccunet And Uav Multispectral Images, Yuyang Li, Bolin Fu, Xidong Sun, Donglin Fan, Yeqiao Wang, Hongchang He, Ertao Gao, Wen He, Yuefeng Yao

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Mangrove-forest classification by using deep learning algorithms has attracted increasing attention but remains challenging. The current studies on the transfer classification of mangrove communities between different regions and different sensors are especially still unclear. To fill the research gap, this study developed a new deep-learning algorithm (encoder–decoder with mixed depth-wise convolution and cascade upsampling, MCCUNet) by modifying the encoder and decoder sections of the DeepLabV3+ algorithm and presented three transfer-learning strategies, namely frozen transfer learning (F-TL), fine-tuned transfer learning (Ft-TL), and sensor-and-phase transfer learning (SaP-TL), to classify mangrove communities by using the MCCUNet algorithm and high-resolution UAV multispectral images. This …

Defining Patient-Level Molecular Heterogeneity In Psoriasis Vulgaris Based On Single-Cell Transcriptomics, Yale Liu, Hao Wang, Christopher Cook, Mark A Taylor, Jeffrey P North, Ashley Hailer, Yanhong Shou, Arsil Sadik, Esther Kim, Elizabeth Purdom, Jeffrey B Cheng, Raymond J Cho

Staff and Researcher Publications

Identifying genetic variation underlying human diseases establishes targets for therapeutic development and helps tailor treatments to individual patients. Large-scale transcriptomic profiling has extended the study of such molecular heterogeneity between patients to somatic tissues. However, the lower resolution of bulk RNA profiling, especially in a complex, composite tissue such as the skin, has limited its success. Here we demonstrate approaches to interrogate patient-level molecular variance in a chronic skin inflammatory disease, psoriasis vulgaris, leveraging single-cell RNA-sequencing of CD45+ cells isolated from active lesions. Highly psoriasis-specific transcriptional abnormalities display greater than average inter-individual variance, nominating them as potential sources of clinical …

A Novel Approach To Link Genetics And Human Mri Identifies Akap7-Dependent Subicular/Prefrontal Functional Connectivity As Altered In Suicidality, Guillermo Poblete, Tien Nguyen, Savannah Gosnell, Olutayo Sofela, Michelle Patriquin, Sanjay J Mathew, Alan Swann, David A Nielsen, Thomas R Kosten, Ramiro Salas

Staff and Researcher Publications

Background: Brain imaging and genetics are fields acquiring data at increasing speed, but more information does not always result in a better understanding of the underlying biology. We developed the ProcessGeneLists (PGL) approach to use genetics and mRNA gene expression data to generate regions of interest for imaging studies.

Methods: We applied PGL to past suicide attempt (ATT): We averaged the mRNA expression levels of genes (n = 130) possibly associated with ATT (p ≤ 10-3 in a published genome-wide association study, GWAS) in each brain region studied in the Human Allen Brain Atlas (6 ex-vivo brains, 158 to 946 …

Decreased Brain Ventricular Volume In Psychiatric Inpatients With Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Treatment, P K Bolin, S N Gosnell, K Brandel-Ankrapp, N Srinivasan, A Castellanos, R Salas

Staff and Researcher Publications

Background: Brain ventricles have been reported to be enlarged in several neuropsychiatric disorders and in aging. Whether human cerebral ventricular volume can decrease over time with psychiatric treatment is not well-studied. The aim of this study was to examine whether inpatients taking serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRI) exhibited reductions in cerebral ventricular volume.

Methods: Psychiatric inpatients, diagnosed mainly with depression, substance use, anxiety, and personality disorders, underwent two imaging sessions (Time 1 and Time 2, approximately 4 weeks apart). FreeSurfer was used to quantify volumetric features of the brain, and ANOVA was used to analyze ventricular volume differences between Time 1 …

Prolonged Exposure To Microgravity Increases Susceptibility To Traumatic Brain Injury, Ryan Baskerville

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the prospect of semi-permanent and permanent habitable fixtures on the moon and Mars, the complications associated with long-term exposure to microgravity should be investigated exhaustively. Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), a group of neurological and ocular effects resulting from prolonged exposure to microgravity, is characterized by significant fluid shifts into the cranium, namely cerebrospinal fluid and blood, and an upward shift of the brain relative to the skull. This syndrome, along with its immediate effects on visual acuity, cognitive ability, and motor function are recognized by NASA, but its effects on susceptibility to traumatic brain injury have yet to …

Crystalline Analysis Of Geomicrobially-Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation In Sands Using A Surface Percolation Treatment Technique, Justin Edward Mulloney

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ottawa 50/70 sand specimens and natural beach sand samples were treated using bio-augmented geomicrobies via a surface percolation technique. Testing was conducted on these specimens to determine how resultant calcium carbonate precipitation changed as a function of temperature, depth from the surface, and in the presence of magnesium. Specifically, x-ray Diffraction (XRD), a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) were used to determine and quantify the presence of calcium carbonate and its associated phase. Results showed a direct relationship between temperature and precipitated calcium carbonate. In addition, as an unintended consequence associated with the treatment, ammonium …

Physiological Indicators For Real-Time Detection Of Operator’S Attention, Bojana Bjegojevic, Maria Chiara Leva, Sam Cromie, Nora Balfe

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Attention is a safety-critical operator ability that needs to be sustained over the course of specific tasks. However, many internal factors (e.g.: cognitive underload or overload, fatigue, etc.) and external factors (e.g.: HMI quality, environmental stressors, noise, etc.), can cause attention to drift away from the task. Having real-time indicators of operator’s attention could increase the safety of any human-operated system. Recent industrial deployment of drivermonitoring systems demonstrated the possible use of certain physiological and behavioural metrics as indicators of attention. However, it is unclear how sensitive and accurate these metrics are in detecting attention-related changes. This paper aims to …

Genetics Of Currant Clearwing Moth (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), Gábor Gyulai, Renée P. Malone, Gábor Zs Gyulai, Péter Lehoczky, Zoltán Tóth

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

A group of clearwing moths Sesiidae (Syn.: Aegeriidae) is analyzed here with special emphasis on genetics of currant clearwing moth (Synanthedon tipuliformis, CLERCK 1759). DNA sequences of the longest (1544 nt) available sequence of Sesiidae genes Co1 (cytochrome oxidase subunit-1 of mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA) (mtDNA; NCBI# AJ864359.1) were analyzed after In silico data mining, and dendrogram was edited to reveal molecular diversity and genetic distances among Sesiidae species. Batesian mimicry, sexual dimorphism, and genetics and genomics of Sesiidae are indicated.

Unlocking The Functional Potential Of Polyploid Yeasts, Simone Mozzachiodi, Kristoffer Krogerus, Brian Gibson, Alain Nicolas, Gianni Liti

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Breeding and domestication have generated widely exploited crops, animals and microbes. However, many Saccharomyces cerevisiae industrial strains have complex polyploid genomes and are sterile, preventing genetic improvement strategies based on breeding. Here, we present a strain improvement approach based on the budding yeasts’ property to promote genetic recombination when meiosis is interrupted and cells return-to-mitotic-growth (RTG). We demonstrate that two unrelated sterile industrial strains with complex triploid and tetraploid genomes are RTG-competent and develop a visual screening for easy and high-throughput identification of recombined RTG clones based on colony phenotypes. Sequencing of the evolved clones reveal unprecedented levels of RTG-induced …

Prefrontal Glutamate Neurotransmission In Ptsd: A Novel Approach To Estimate Synaptic Strength In Vivo In Humans, Lynnette A Averill, Lihong Jiang, Prerana Purohit, Anastasia Coppoli, Christopher L Averill, Jeremy Roscoe, Benjamin Kelmendi, Henk M De Feyter, Robin A De Graaf, Ralitza Gueorguieva, Gerard Sanacora, John H Krystal, Douglas L Rothman, Graeme F Mason, Chadi G Abdallah

Staff and Researcher Publications

Background: Trauma and chronic stress are believed to induce and exacerbate psychopathology by disrupting glutamate synaptic strength. However, in vivo in human methods to estimate synaptic strength are limited. In this study, we established a novel putative biomarker of glutamatergic synaptic strength, termed energy-per-cycle (EPC). Then, we used EPC to investigate the role of prefrontal neurotransmission in trauma-related psychopathology.

Methods: Healthy controls (n = 18) and patients with posttraumatic stress (PTSD; n = 16) completed 13C-acetate magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) scans to estimate prefrontal EPC, which is the ratio of neuronal energetic needs per glutamate neurotransmission cycle (VTCA/VCycle).

Results: Patients …