The Social And Ecological Dimensions Of Coral Reef Biomonitoring, Elaine Wang Shen

Open Access Dissertations

Coral reefs contain a disproportionately high amount of marine biodiversity and support millions of people worldwide by providing food security and livelihoods. This coupled relationship between reefs and people is increasingly threatened globally by climate change and globalization, as well as locally by overfishing, habitat destruction, and nutrient pollution. Biomonitoring the varied ecological outcomes of these threats and estimating how conservation and management interventions mitigate them are crucial scientific endeavors for understanding the socio-ecological complexity of coral reef dynamics. Common ecological indicators of reef health, however, are theoretically and taxonomically limited when used alone, thus a combination of modeling and …

Not Just A Hashtag: Using Black Twitter To Engage In Critical Visual Pedagogy, Mia L. Knowles-Davis, Robert L. Moore, Susan Köseoğlu (Ed.), George Veletsianos (Ed.), Chris Rowell (Ed.)

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] We live in a global society in which we are constantly exposed to new technologies, people, and situations that transform our perceptions and worldviews. As we are exposed to these new experiences, it is increasingly necessary to maintain a critical eye and question what we are seeing. It is not enough for higher education merely to teach material; instructors should also teach the responsibilities and ethics that coincide with it. Encouraging criticality in higher education helps learners to develop a deeper understanding of social justice, inequality, and oppressive systems, and it teaches learners how to combat those issues …

Translanguaging, Multiliteracy, And Sociocultural Dynamics: Exploring Diasporic Identity And Belonging, Seongryeong Yu

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This ethnographic study delves into the language and literacy practices of immigrant children in a public elementary school setting. The purpose of the study is to understand the role of multiliteracy in their learning, their ability to connect with the curriculum and instruction, and their sense of belonging within their peer groups, classrooms, and home countries. To explore how these children utilized their linguistic and cultural repertoires to engage in language and literacy activities in different contexts (Kwon, 2019), the study focused on 10-year-old students from various linguistic backgrounds, including Korean and Chinese students in a United States classroom. Through …

Gustation In Insects: Taste Qualities And Types Of Evidence, Bethia H. King, Panchalie B. Gunathunga

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

The insect equivalent of taste buds are gustatory sensilla, which have been found on mouthparts, pharynxes, antennae, legs, wings, and ovipositors. Most gustatory sensilla are uniporous, but not all apparently uniporous sensilla are gustatory. Among sensilla containing more than one neuron, a tubular body on one dendrite is also indicative of a taste sensillum, with the tubular body adding tactile function. But not all taste sensilla are also tactile. Additional morphological criteria are often used to recognize if a sensillum is gustatory. Further confirmation of such criteria by electrophysiological or behavioral evidence is needed. The five canonical taste qualities to …

Developing Sustainable Aquaculture At Scale, Shauna A. Bulger

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Abstract

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that commercial aquaculture production has outpaced wild fisheries since 2013, and in 2018, aquaculture became the fastest growing food production sector in the world (FAO SOFIA, 2018). Wild fishery landings have not meaningfully increased since the 1980s. As a result, international development organizations and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) have pitched the industry as a sustainable alternative to wild fisheries and the most promising option for the future of seafood production. Governance and transition scholars, however, are skeptical about if and how the presumed benefits of the fisheries-to-aquaculture will materialize for …

Harvest: A Story Of Afropessimism, Briana Williams, Briana Williams

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Afropessimism is the idea that Black people will never be able to truly overcome the centuries of racism and oppression they have faced. A bleak notion, the idea heavily contrasts with Afrofuturism, the ways in which Black people use technology to regain their autonomy and rise from the societal binds they’re placed in. This story focuses on how even in the supposedly more evolved and progressive political landscape of the modern world, Black people still cannot escape the shackles of racism, particularly in the United States. Taking the common themes of and ideologies of Afropessimism, Harvest follows the story of …

Ferment, Casey Carpenter

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The fermentation process – an act of breaking down, letting go, and moving forward – is used by the author as poetic lens and as a narrative tool for self-reflection, self-transformation, cultural reflection, and cultural transformation. Akin to our own adolescent maturation, plants, fruits, and vegetables develop protective barriers around their most vulnerable parts in reaction to the health and condition of their lived environment. While serving a purpose of survival in the moment, these barriers will later cause the food to rot and spoil if left unchecked. The act of fermentation is thus explored as a managed process of …

An Interactive System For Generating Music From Moving Images, Hanlin Wang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Moving images contain a wealth of information pertaining to motion. Motivated by the interconnectedness of music and movement, we present a framework for transforming the kinetic qualities of moving images into music. We developed an interactive software system that takes video as input and maps its motion attributes into the musical dimension based on perceptually grounded principles. The system combines existing sonification frameworks with theories and techniques of generative music. To evaluate the system, we conducted a two-part experiment. First, we asked participants to make judgements on video-audio correspondence from clips generated by the system. Second, we asked participants to …

Renal Proximal Tubule Tissue Chips For Disease Modeling And Drug Toxicity Testing, Leslie Donoghue

All ETDs from UAB

The current pathway for drug discovery is associated with costs of $2.55 billion and between 10-15 years of development for a single drug to reach the market. The challenges in predicting drug toxicities and efficacies are attributed to inherent species differences in drug-metabolizing enzyme activities and cell-type-specific sensitivities to toxicants. Organs-on-a-chip are an emerging technology in disease modeling and screening therapeutics to address discrepancies between animal models and human clinical trials. They utilize tissue engineering, fluid mechanics, and biomaterials to replicate in vivo architectures and functions of complex organs and tissues. Herein, the effect of pressure and stretch on bioengineered …

Differential Recruitment Of Bone Marrow-Derived Cells Into The Injured Retina, Bright Asare-Bediako

All ETDs from UAB

The hematopoietic system, which resides in the bone marrow in adults, maintains the constant turnover of blood cells in the circulatory system and supplies inflammatory/vascular reparative cells to the retina. Chronic metabolic diseases disrupt hematopoietic homeostasis, suppressing the generation of bone marrow-derived reparative cells in favor of pro-inflammatory cells. While much research has been done on development and disease-associated changes in hematopoiesis in the long bones and how mobilization to the retina is affected, the calvarium's hematopoiesis is underexplored. This dissertation investigated hematopoiesis in postnatal development and in disease, comparing calvarium hematopoiesis to that of long bones. The findings showed …

Analytical Methods Using Cardiac Mri To Assess Systolic And Diastolic Ventricular Function, Muhammad Rifqi Aufan

All ETDs from UAB

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has proven invaluable for clinical and research investigations due to its minimal invasiveness and excellent measurement precision and reproducibility. In particular, Cardiac MRI (CMR) is a powerful tool for evaluating anatomical and functional properties of the left ventricle (LV). In this study, two aspects of CMR applications of the LV are investigated: 1) assessment of diastolic function by quantifying LV stiffness index and related properties as a representation of intrinsic myocardium properties in patients with diastolic dysfunction and 2) evaluation of systolic function by relating myocardial strain and LV geometrical configuration with ejection fraction (EF). The …

Indicators Of The Social Environment And Cognition In An Older Population Of Puerto Rican Adults, Erin E. Ballard

All ETDs from UAB

Isolation and other indicators of poor social environment have been associated with a higher risk of cognitive decline. Overall evidence for this association is mixed, with most studies being conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (aka “WEIRD”) societies. Religiosity may moderate this relationship between less robust social environments and cognition by buffering the negative effects of stress. The primary aim of this study is to assess the relationship between indicators of the social environment and psychological distress (depressive symptoms) and cognitive decline in a population-based sample of older Puerto Rican adults (n=3,557) across two time-points. Social environment included …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Evaluation Of A Bionanomatrix And Antibiotic-Releasing Liposomes On Osseointegration, Vascularization, Inflammation, And Antibacterial Efficacy, Benjamin Kade Estep

All ETDs from UAB

Percutaneous osseointegrated prostheses (POP) implants combat the multitude of issues and limitations of contemporary prosthetic sockets/limbs, including range of motion, comfort/fit, irritation, gait, and osseoproprioception. However, POP implants lack long-term clinical success; specifically, several risks exist at the bone-implant interface, including superficial/deep infections, inflammation, poor vascularization, and inadequate osseointegration, resulting in implant loosening over time and ultimately removal of the implant. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate a multifunctional, nitric oxide-releasing bionanomatrix incorporated with antibiotic-releasing liposomes on osseointegration, inflammation, vascularization/angiogenesis, and bacterial infection. We successfully synthesized the bionanomatrix, and the antibiotic-releasing liposomes readily encapsulated the antibiotics. The antibiotic-releasing …

Persuasion In Descriptions Of Medical Crowdfunding On Gofundme: When Children Fundraise For Their Mothers' Lung Cancer, Ziyu Zhao

All ETDs from UAB

Medical needs have become one of the top categories in online crowdfunding in the United States (Chandler, 2015). However, the level of donations falls short of what is needed to cover the high costs of healthcare (Norton, 2022; Young & Scheinberg, 2017). Therefore, more successful promotion of medical crowdfunding campaigns is crucial. This thesis research examined the influence of two persuasive factors, appeal type and cover images, in medical crowdfunding of lung cancer on backers’ donation behaviors on GoFundMe with manual coding and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). The study found no statistically reliable support for the hypotheses, perhaps …

Depersonalizing Troubles In Institutional Interaction: Routinizing In Parent-Teacher Conferences, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

This article advances our understanding of institutional interaction by showing when and how it can be advantageous for professionals to treat addressed-recipients as non-unique. Examining how teachers talk about children-as-students during parent-teacher conferences, this investigation illuminates several specific interactional methods that teachers use to depersonalize the focal student’s trouble, delineating as among these the novel practice of “routinizing”—citing firsthand experience with other similar cases. Analysis demonstrates how teachers use routinizing to enact their expertise, both responsively as a vehicle for attenuating and credentialing their advice-giving to parents/caregivers, and proactively to preempt parent/caregiver resistance to their student-assessments/evaluations. This research …

The Er Stress-Pathogen Nexus In Regulation Of Cell Death In Arabidopsis Immunity, Danish Diwan

All ETDs from UAB

Pathogens and plants are involved in a coevolutionary battle for dominance. As plants lack adaptive immune systems, they rely on their innate immunity to protect themselves from infectious agents. Upon pathogen attack, plant cells activate their pro-survival strategy by recognizing the pathogen and actively transcribing and translating proteins to effectively defend against the pathogen infection. As the intensity of infection increases, the heightened demand for proteins places an excessive burden on the ER machinery resulting in the accumulation of misfolded or unfolded proteins within the ER. To restore the protein homeostasis, a cellular relief signaling pathway called Unfolded Protein Response …

Physiology And Energetics Of Resilient Coral-Dinoflagellate Communities, Elise F. Keister

All ETDs from UAB

Despite coral reefs declining globally, thermally resilient coral-dinoflagellate communities have been identified, providing insight into how corals can inhabit warmer environments. These corals are able to better resist and recover from thermal stress events compared to adjacent, offshore conspecifics that are found in habitats that have cooler temperatures. To better understand the physiological traits that make corals resilient, I measured the initial tissue biomass and energy reserves of eight coral species. These corals were collected from both warm-water nearshore habitats and offshore reefs with milder temperatures in Palau, Micronesia. Despite contrasting environments, coral tissue similarities between these populations were striking, …

Impact Of Exercise On Antioxidative-Stress Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum Dysfunction And Cardiac Remodelling, Arun Jyothidasan

All ETDs from UAB

The gain of function of nuclear factor erythroid 2 like 2 (Nrf2), in the absence of oxidative stress (or toxic insults), its pathophysiology arising from the endoplasmic reticulum and exercise intervention to mitigate the pathology are the focal point of this dissertation. Nrf2, when constitutively expressed, has been previously associated with cardiomyopathy. Chapter II investigated the hypothesis that cardiac-specific expression of Nrf2 (mNrf2-TG) would establish a pro-reductive state and trigger adaptive cardiac remodeling by enhancing the basal antioxidant defense. Through RNA profiling and imaging techniques, the study underscored that while acute preconditioning might prove advantageous against oxidative stress, prolonged pro-reductive …

Characterizing The Role Of Mapk Phosphatases In Age-Dependent Macrophage Dysfucntion And Increased Suceptiblity To Pneumonia In A Tnf-Dependent Manner, Katherine Lauren Kruckow

All ETDs from UAB

Lower respiratory infections are the primary cause of infectious death among the elderly. One reason for this is ‘inflamm-aging,’ a chronic low-grade inflammatory state that develops with advanced age. Pertinently, our group has shown increases in TNF levels to be responsible for age-dependent macrophage dysfunction (ADMD) and, in turn, enhanced susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae, the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia. The underlying molecular mechanisms responsible, however, remain unclear. Following adoptive transfer of alveolar macrophages (AM) from aged (18+ months) or young (3-6 month) mice into young mice, followed by infection with S. pneumoniae, we found that aged AM were sufficient …

Time-Restricted Feeding Attenuates Obesity-Induced Muscle Dysfunction Through Energy Metabolism And Microbiota Modulation, Christopher Livelo

All ETDs from UAB

Obesity is a global epidemic that affects countless numbers of people caused by genetic and environmental factors including circadian disruption, which poses significant health risks to skeletal muscle physiology and other tissues. While a feeding fasting intervention known as time-restricted feeding (TRF) has been shown to mitigate obesity-related muscle dysfunction, the underlying mechanisms remain a subject of investigation. In this study, we delve into potential mechanisms underlying TRF's protective effects on muscle physiology in the context of diet- and genetic-induced obesity using Drosophila models. Our findings reveal that TRF triggers the upregulation of key genes involved in glycine production (Sardh …

Perceptions Of Comfort And Vison In Center Distance Multifocal Contact Lenses In Non-Presbyopic Adults, D'Ajanee Smallwood

All ETDs from UAB

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the subjective performance of four different multifocal contact lenses (MFCLs) amongst a population of adults excluding presbyopes. Methods: Forty-three subjects were fit with up to four different lenses (Biofinity “D” MFCL, NaturalVue MFCL, MiSight 1 Day contact lens, & Intelliwave MFCL). Information about vision and comfort were gathered using subjective assessments. Pupil size data were gathered as secondary outcome measurements. Results: There were no significant differences in ghosting, haloes, and visual clarity between larger and smaller pupils. All MFCLs had reduced overall visual clarity compared to habitual correction except for Biofinity. …

Role Of Gtp Cyclohydrolase I In Glioblastoma, Kaysaw C. Tuy

All ETDs from UAB

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults with a median survival of 15 months. Poor patient survival is, in part, caused by a stem-like and therapy-resistant population of brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs). BTICs are plastic, with the capacity to overcome oxidative damage. Guanosine triphosphate cyclohydrolase I (GCH1), a rate limiting enzyme in the de novo synthesis of the redox cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), was previously identified as a significant regulator of oxidative stress in BTICs. Reducing oxidative damage in the form of lipid peroxidation is imperative for GBM growth: lipid metabolism is required for the …

Cognition, Self-Awareness, And Driving After Moderate-To-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Christina A. Diblasio

All ETDs from UAB

Moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often results in cognitive deficits in learning/memory, executive functions, and self-awareness. Cognitive impairments and unawareness of those impairments hinder driving capacity, yet a large proportion of survivors return to driving after injury. Given that many survivors are driving, it is essential to understand how cognition and self-awareness impact driving practices. To date, studies in this area are limited. This dissertation aimed to (1) create a normative sample for the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT), a short cognitive battery adapted for telephone administration and validated for the TBI population; (2) examine the relationship …

Production, Purification And Radiochemistry Development Of Manganese-52 Fir Characterization Of Pet/Mr Imaging Agents, Jennifer Marie Pyles

All ETDs from UAB

Manganese (Mn) has the potential to be an important element in biomedical research as different isotopes of Mn have the characteristics to be used for both positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Manganese(II) (55Mn) is paramagnetic which makes it useful as a contrast agent in T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Mn as a radiotracer provides excellent sensitivity for studying 55Mn, but only Manganese-52 (52Mn) met the criteria for this research. 52Mn has a half-life (t1/2 = 5.591 days) that was long enough to optimize purification, chemistry and examine timepoints over several days. 52Mn decays by positron emission …

Development And Evaluation Of A Nanomatrix Coated Stent Using A Vascular Sheet With Atherosclerosis Model, Xixi Zhang

All ETDs from UAB

While cardiovascular stent technology has considerable advances, there are hurdles to overcome due to the dysfunctional stented arteries which fail to maintain vascular homeostasis. Current stent designs ignored the significance of promoting functional artery healing (pro-healing). Therefore, we developed a pro-healing nanomatrix coating for stent. Previous studies investigated its effect on individual vascular cell type. In natural artery, there are multiple vascular cell types that strongly affect stent performance. Thus, an in vitro vascular double-layer (VDL) system was used to observe stent effects on different vascular cell types. And the pro-healing ability and mechanism of the nanomatrix coated stent were …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Amphetamine Abuse, Samuel James Mabry

All ETDs from UAB

Amphetamine (AMPH), a psychostimulant commonly prescribed for the treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders, has a high liability for abuse. The stimulant properties of AMPH are primarily associated with its ability to increase dopamine (DA) neurotransmission. This increase is mediated by non-vesicular DA release (DA efflux). This DA efflux is the result of the reversal of the DA transporter (DAT), which is promoted by AMPH. Syntaxin 1 (Stx1), a SNARE protein, interacts with the DAT N-terminus. Stx1 is phosphorylated at Ser14 by casein kinase II (CK2). This phosphorylation site contributes to the DAT/Stx1 interaction and is critical for allowing DAT …

A Cross Dialectal Comparison Of First Person Singular Subject Pronoun Expression In Southern Arizona And Southeast Texas, Ryan M. Bessett

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This study provides a cross-dialectic comparison of first person singular subject pronoun expression in the Spanish varieties of two US-Mexico borderland communities, Southern Arizona and Southeast Texas. Using data collected from sociolinguistic interviews of 32 Spanish/English bilingual speakers, this analysis further explores the impact that trans-frontier practices have on the realization of subject pronouns in border communities and demonstrates the similarities in the variable grammar of the Spanish spoken in the US Southwest. The results show that both Arizona and Texas express first person singular pronouns at a similar rate (19.3% and 18.7%, respectively). Additionally, the linguistic factors that condition …

Spatiotemporal Analyses Of Pelagic Sargassum : Biodiversity, Morphotypes And Arsenic Content, Kristie Alleyne

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

Pelagic sargassum blooming in the Tropical Atlantic has been linked to the mass shoreline inundations observed over the last decade in Caribbean and West African countries. Since the onset in 2011, affected countries have and continue to experience multiscale impacts across fisheries, tourism, nearshore coastal ecosystems, maritime transport and public health. Impacts associated with influx events have generated significant economic damage across the region. Moreover, clean-up efforts in response to mass shoreline strandings placed further strain on national economies and in some instances amplified the negative environmental effects caused by inundations.

Evidence suggests that influx events are likely to continue …

Determinants Of Household Expenses On Education And Health For Microfinance Borrowers And Non-Borrowers In Rural Myanmar, May Shin

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Equestrian Sport Injury: Does Its Prevalence Warrant More Care?, Cailey Clark

Research Papers

The aim was to investigate the overall injury trends of equestrian sport injury to determine if it is prevalent enough to warrant further medical care and scientific research. A search across four databases yielded 4559 articles and after an investigation for inclusion criteria, 17 articles were deemed appropriate for this review. Strong evidence suggested that equestrian sport athletes experience injury at similar, and sometimes higher rates, than athletes of more traditional sports like football or soccer. Most equestrian athletes reported head and neck injuries, though it was not the primary cause of the few fatalities reported. Most often, injuries were …