Digital Commons Network^™

Traveler's Diarrhea? The Epidemiology Of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli In Connecticut, 2019-2022, Nicole Bramlitt

Public Health Theses

Background: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is known colloquially as “traveler’s diarrhea” in the United States. The state of Connecticut (CT) began collecting data about ETEC in 2019. As few clinical laboratories in CT routinely test for ETEC, it is likely that current detection and reporting methods, in conjunction with trends in healthcare-seeking behavior, only capture a small proportion of ETEC cases. Methods: Data were obtained from the CT Department of Public Health (DPH), the 2019 FoodNet Population Survey, and the 2020 US Census. The demographics of ETEC cases 2019-2022 and the 2020 CT population were compared. A multivariate analysis was …

Scoping Review On Gonorrhea Vaccines, Linyang Li

Public Health Theses

Gonorrhea infection is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae and it is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection around the globe. Although gonorrhea infection is treatable with antibiotics, the level of antimicrobial resistance continues to increase and has become a major public health concern. As options of available treatments are reduced by the emergence of AMR, it has become urgent to develop effective vaccines against gonorrhea infection. The purpose of this scoping review is to describe existing epidemiological evidence in support of gonorrhea vaccine development, to discuss the current vaccine candidates in clinical stages, and to evaluate the theoretical impact …

Shiga Toxin Producing Escherichia Coli (Stec) In Connecticut, Usa, 2017-2021, Angelo Raymond Lodato

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a common foodborne pathogen known to cause significant gastrointestinal illness in humans and often results after contact with animals and/or consumption of food that has been contaminated. STEC is a major contributor of foodborne outbreaks in the US. Understanding major contributors of infection is important to improving prevention. Methods: Cases of STEC reported in routine Connecticut FoodNet surveillance were included. Trends in demographic features, serotypes, and exposure histories were used to assess whether there was variation among cases between 2017 and 2021, and pre (2017-2019) and post (2020-2021) COVID-19 pandemic. CT respondents of …

Exploring The Impact Of Psychedelic Art And Its Implication In The Field Of Medicine And Health: A Pilot Trial, Mary L. Peng

Public Health Theses

Objectives: Psychedelic art is a form of art that emerged in the 1960s during the psychedelic era, which was then characterized by visuals induced by psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. The art form now is known for its bright colors, distorted forms, and intricate patterns, often inspired by the visual experiences people have while under the influence of psychedelic drugs, the creation of which does not necessarily involve any ingestion of psychedelic drugs. This study examines how the viewing of digitally rendered psychedelic art (experimental group) affects people’s emotional, mental, and physical states in comparison to imagery …

Return To A One-Year Robust Grace Period In United States Patent Law, Mark Kallevig

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Copyrighting Brain Computer Interface: Where Neuroengineering Meets Intellectual Property Law, Favio Ramirez Caminatti

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Much Dispute About Nothing? A Critical Examination Of The Backlash Against Investment Treaty Arbitration In International Intellectual Property Disputes, Andy Taylor

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Mickey Mouse – Finally Whistling His Way Into The Public Domain, Holly Lechner

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Indigenous American Fishing Traditions At The First Spanish Capital Of La Florida: Santa Elena (1566–1587 Ce), South Carolina, Usa, Elizabeth J. Reitz, Chester B. Depratter

Faculty & Staff Publications

Abstract

Few studies of post-Columbian animal economies in the Americas elaborate on the influence of traditional Indigenous knowledge on colonial economies. A vertebrate collection from Santa Elena (1566–87 CE, South Carolina, USA), the original Spanish capital of La Florida, offers the opportunity to examine that influence at the first European-sponsored capital north of Mexico. Santa Elena’s animal economy was the product of dynamic interactions among multiple actors, merging preexisting traditional Indigenous practices, particularly traditional fishing practices, with Eurasian animal husbandry to produce a new cultural form. A suite of wild vertebrates long used by Indigenous Americans living on the southeastern …

The Effects Of Tarantula Cubensis Extract On Renal Ischemia Reperfusion Injury In Rats, Sai̇me Özbek Şebi̇n, Tuncer Nacar, Ayhan Tanyeli̇, Ersen Eraslan, Mustafa Can Güler, Erdem Toktay, Eli̇f Polat, Hati̇ce Tuğçe Gedi̇k

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: Renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) related acute kidney injury (AKI) is an important health problem and has not yet been fully treated. Tarantula cubensis extract (TCE) is a homeopathic drug that has antiinflammatory and antioxidant effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of TCE on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats. Materials and methods: This study was carried out on 48 Spraque-Dawley male rats, which were divided into six groups. The first, second, and third groups were control, sham, and IR groups, respectively. Group four received IR and 0.2 mL of 96% ethanol. Group five and six received ischemia and reperfusion …

Microstructural Evaluation Of The Brain With Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Techniques In Cases Of Electrical Status Epilepticus During Sleep (Eses), Hani̇fe Gülden Düzkalir, Bariş Genç, Safi̇ye Güneş Sağer, Ayberk Türkyilmaz, Hedi̇ye Pinar Günbey

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: The cause and treatment of electrical status epilepticus during sleep (ESES), one of the epileptic encephalopathies of childhood, is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate possible microstructural abnormalities in the brain using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques in ESES patients with and without genetic mutations. Materials and methods: This research comprised 12 ESES patients without structural thalamic lesions (6 with genetic abnormalities and 6 without) and 12 healthy children. Whole-exome sequencing was used for the genetic mutation analysis. Brain MRI data were evaluated using tractus-based spatial statistics, voxel-based morphometry, a local gyrification index, subcortical shape …

Review Of The Literature On Reducing Aggressive Behavior In Patients With Acquired Brain Injury Intervention, Krystal Weber

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Practice Innovation Projects

Background/Purpose: Patients with brain injuries are often impulsive and experience increased aggression and agitation. Increased behaviors lead to an increase in violent outbursts towards healthcare staff. Implementing an order outlining interventions to reduce agitation in brain injury patients may reduce behavioral emergencies.
/="/">Methods: Staff working in orthopedic/neurology, critical care, and rehabilitation inpatient units were educated on preventing agitation in brain injury patients and an order was placed in the patients' charts with guidelines on preventing agitation. The guidelines were implemented for all patients meeting inclusion criteria and the number of behavioral emergencies before and after intervention were compared. Results: …

Importance Of Spending Time In Nature, Peyton M. Daniel

A with Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Diversity Of Blood-Sucking Insects And Vector-Borne Diseases In Pig Farms In Thailand, Kritsada Thongmeesee

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) have been recognized as important diseases in humans and animals across the globe. Blood-sucking insects, such as mosquitoes, tabanid flies, and stable flies may carry pathogens, transmit, and cause VBDs in hosts, including pigs. In Thailand, most of the pig farms have backyard system implying that pigs could be easily exposed to blood-sucking insects and lead to infection with vector-borne pathogens (hemoplasmas, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and Trypanosoma (T.) evansi). However, the information about vector-borne pathogens in pigs in Thailand needs to be updated. The objectives of this dissertation were to study the occurrence and genetic diversity …

Diversity, Phylogenetics And Life Cycles Of Diplostomoidean (Digenea: Diplostomoidea) Of The Upper Midwest, Jakson Martens

Theses and Dissertations

The superfamily Diplostomoidea Poirier, 1886 consists of a diverse, globally distributed group of parasitic flatworms parasitic as adults in reptiles, birds, mammals, and very rarely, fish. The superfamily Diplostomoidea has a tumultuous history full of genus synonymizations and resurrections. Currently, the superfamily consists of 39 genera parasitizing primarily piscivorous animals as adults to include birds, reptiles, and mammals. This group of parasitic worms remains a highly active area of research and has recently undergone several major systematic changes including the abandonment of a subfamily-based system. Additionally, the influx of data entries in GenBank has lead to confusing nomenclature and misidentifications …

Perinatal Mental Health For Indigenous Women And Birthing People, Amy Lynn Stiffarm

Theses and Dissertations

Before for the impacts of colonization, Indigenous women and birthing people were deeply cared for by their communities during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.There is a serious lack of literature on perinatal mental health (PMH) for Indigenous Peoples in the US. Based on what limited data does exist, high rates of PMH complications are consistently reported for Indigenous birthing people. Exploring the unique circumstances experienced by Indigenous birthing people is crucial to addressing the PMH disparity gap. A concept map illustrating the systematic, community, and individual levels of PMH complications for Indigenous Peoples was used to organize and guide …

Hmong Parent Engagement: The Need To Provide Basic Needs Services In Hmong Charter Schools To Increase Parent Engagement, Kevin Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

The Hmong diaspora and settlement in the United States have a direct impact on how Hmong parents engage in their children’s academic journey. With the viewpoint of traditional Westernized parent engagement, Hmong parents may be perceived as engaging too little. However, in order for Hmong parents to be involved in their children’s educational journey as part of this Westernized concept, it is imperative that the families’ basic needs are met. Otherwise, they will primarily focus on meeting their fundamental basic needs rather than being engaged in their children’s academic progress. This research explored two Hmong charter schools in the Twin …

Changes In Crop Diversity And Associated Drivers In The Red River Of The North Valley, Zinat Ara

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Crop diversity is a part of the overall biodiversity of the world and includes the diversity of crops produced to feed humankind and those associated with domesticated animal grazing or feeding. A decline in diversity can reduce productivity of the farmlands by degrading soil health and introduction of plant diseases. So, it is crucial to study crop diversity and find the causes behind it to impede catastrophic consequences.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore changes in crop diversity and the factors affecting the changes in diversity by county and survey townships in the Red River of the …

A Generalized Approach To Partitioning Weighted Points In A Plane, Jacob Denault

Theses and Dissertations

A theorem commonly known as the Discrete Pancake Theorem states that for two finite disjoint sets S and T of points in a plane where the union of S and T contains no three collinear points, there exists a line that simultaneously bisects |S| and |T| within an error of at most one. This thesis considers a more general situation in which each point is assigned two non-negative weights and, instead of simply bisecting the plane to obtain a balance in the number of points, we prove there exists a line that simultaneously balances weight one and weight two accumulations …

Mitigating Global Temperature Change Through Industrial Sector Improvements: A Case Study In Automotive Manufacturing, Alec Joseph Ernst

Theses and Dissertations

Manufacturing is an integral part of our country’s flow of products and people and a top contributor to carbon emissions, promoting global temperature rise. During processing, toxic substances are emitted across the value chain. These emissions account for nearly 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and the World. Until 2023, an accessible pathway for manufacturing companies to transition to net-zero emissions hasn’t been made readily available. The current research was conducted to determine if reducing carbon emissions in manufacturing facilities through efficiency improvements, process optimization, and technology advancements can mitigate global temperature change.This quantitative, mixed-method approach …

Remote Sensing Of Chlorophyll-A In Small And Medium Lakes In The Minnesota Northern Forest Ecoregion, Jacob Alan Moll

Theses and Dissertations

Algae blooms have become increasingly common in many bodies of water and are occurring in more and more new locations. Past methods have relied on in-situ sampling to determine Chl-a concentrations and can be time and cost intensive. With the use of NASA’s Harmonized Landsat imagery existing methods of index calculation can be implemented, with the added benefit of an increase in temporal resolution. This increase in temporal resolution allows for more detailed spatial and temporal analysis such as hot spot analysis. Harmonized Landsat imagery was proven sufficient in spatial and temporal resolution for detection of Chl-a in small and …

The Right To A Healthy Environment And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay explores the implications of the right to a healthy environment for the long-standing criticisms of international human rights law as a project and product of the Global North. It examines the Southern origins of the right to a healthy environment and its interpretations in regional human rights tribunals. The essay analyzes the responses offered by this evolving jurisprudence to various objections to human rights-based approaches to environmental protection. These include the human rights-based framework’s individualism, anthropocentrism, failure to address transboundary harm, and failure to challenge the economic law instruments that perpetuate environmental degradation.

Impacts On Native American Literacy Throughout The 1800s, Alyssa Lawhorn

Undergraduate Research Awards

The literacy of Indigenous peoples of America underwent extreme transformations as the tedious attempts by descendants of colonizers to integrate aspects of white American life into Indigenous customs continued. Native American literacy exclusively consisted of oral traditions prior to the arrival of British colonizers in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. These oral traditions were, and still are, key elements of Indigenous culture as they serve to distribute cultural lessons, record histories, and share religious legends through the generations and amongst others. As the basis of Indigenous culture these traditions were one of the primary features of Native American life that scholars …

Assessing The Construct Validity Of The Mpact-6: Research Brief, Nebraska Center For Justice Research, University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Amber Krushas, Zachary Hamilton, X. Mei

Reports

As needs assessments are comprised of subscales that include non-observable, latent constructs, the comprehensive assessment of these items and scales is essential. Specifically, to ensure these tools are measuring offender needs as intended, their construct validity must be confirmed. The current project used a multi-level, multi-group analysis of the MPACT with a large, 10-state sample of youth. Building on previous work (see Mei et al., 2022), authors confirmed the dimensionality and reliability of the six MPACT needs domains. Beyond this, the reliability and validity of the ‘Global Needs Factor’ was also confirmed. Here, the ‘Global Needs Factor’ or ‘G-Factor’ represents …

Standing On The Shoulders Of Llcs: The Tax Entity Status And Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, Samuel D. Brunson

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Since the formation of the first decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in 2016, their use has exploded. Thousands of DAOs now try to take advantage of smart contracts to solve a problem that plagues business entities: the gulf between ownership and management. Armed with smart contracts and requiring token-holders to vote on any change in strategy, DAOs dispense with the management layer so necessary in traditional business entities. DAOs owe their existence to technology. Without blockchain, without cryptocurrency, and without smart contracts, there would be no DAOs. But they owe their explosiveness to something much more unexpected: Treasury regulations. In the …

Singing In The Key Of Dobbs: Historical Inquiries Into The Institutionalization Of Support For Families And Children, Sacha M. Coupet

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Never-Ending Struggle For Tribal Fishing Rights, Adam Crepelle

Faculty Publications & Other Works

The World Trade Organization’s 2022 Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies failed to acknowledge Indigenous rights. This is problematic, particularly in the United States where tribes have constitutionally recognized sovereignty. Three tribes located within California have taken it upon themselves to assert their sovereignty by creating the United States’ first Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (IMSA). While the tribes’ jurisdictional power over the IMSA is unclear, the tribes are in the initial stages of comanaging the area with the state of California. Collaborations based upon mutual respect are likely to produce positive results for Indigenous Peoples, the surrounding jurisdiction, and the environment.

Antitrust And Pop Culture: The Sequel, Spencer Weber Waller

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Every pop culture success receives the inevitable sequel. In spring 2022, I published A Pop Culture Guide to Antitrust showing how antitrust is depicted in the movies, on stage, in pop music, fiction, true crime, and on television and streaming services. Since 2022, the connection between antitrust and pop culture has only grown in importance.

Prescribing Exploitation, Charlotte A. Tschider

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Patients are increasingly reliant temporarily, if not indefinitely, on connected medical devices and wearables, many of which use artificial intelligence (“AI”) infrastructures and physical housing that directly interacts with the human body. The automated systems that drive the infrastructures of medical devices and wearables, especially those using complex AI, often use dynamically inscrutable algorithms that may render discriminatory effects that alter paths of treatment and other aspects of patient welfare.

Previous contributions to the literature, however, have not explored how AI technologies animate exploitation of medical technology users. Although all commercial relationships may exploit users to some degree, some forms …

Developing & Implementing Robotic Pet Interventions For Adults With Dementia, Lisa Benson Ots, Shannon Strate Otr/L, Otd

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstones

Dementia is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by physical and cognitive decline, and a major cause of disability and dependency worldwide9. Behavioral & Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) include agitation, depression, apathy, wandering and terminal restlessness. Robotic Pet Intervention (RPI) is a relatively new treatment which incorporates interactive robotic animals into therapeutic activities. Features include sound, light and touch sensors, on/off/mute settings, and realistic fur. Documented benefits for dementia care include improvements in BPSD, reduced loneliness7, improved social interaction2,7,8, and reduced need for pain medication3. Although promising, the potential impacts of RPI on adults with dementia are not fully understood.

Research …