Digital Commons Network^™

Proceed With Caution: Criminal Responsibility For Non-Participating Actors In University Hazing Incidents, Charlie Penrod

Touro Law Review

Hazing in university fraternities has become an epidemic. Most hazing involves new pledges who are coerced to endure physical, emotional, or psychological harm to prove themselves worthy of admission to the group. Sadly, many students suffer severe injuries from hazing, up to and including death. Many states have passed specific laws banning hazing and expanded the universe of persons guilty of hazing to possibly include non-participants who aided the hazing. In 2020, a Florida appellate court broadened this further, potentially holding a fraternity president responsible for hazing for making the mistake of allowing liquor at an off-campus party. The fraternity …

Genealogy Sites And Adoptions–Connecting Families Or Ruining Them?, Taylor Bialek

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is There A Fundamental Right To Privacy When An Educational Institution Requires A Student To Disclose Proof Of His Or Her Vaccination Status?, Mary D. Fatscher

Touro Law Review

In 2020, the coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) dominated the world. Although the public has progressively become more informed about the disease and how to safeguard itself, challenges persist as there is still much unknown. Aside from wearing masks, social distancing, and despite its undetermined consequences, the COVID-19 vaccination has emerged as a primary solution to substantially reducing the incidence and severity of the virus in our country. Many COVID-19 vaccine mandates were initiated once three pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson received Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”).

Ecuadorian Gravel Pack Spring Water Intakes, Derek Ten Pas, Julie Wildschut, Robert Hoeksema, Bruce Rydbeck, Chris Visscher

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

This paper describes the basic design concept to design and build a type of spring water intake. The spring protection method bears similarity to a gravel pack well albeit constructed horizontally rather than the vertical construction of a gravel pack well. The design approach includes:

• collection of spring water subterranean using the aquifer and surrounding soil to filter the water supply,
• use of gravel pack to retain the surrounding aquifer materials and soil structure in place while providing an easy flow path for water to enter a slotted collector pipe and flow to a receiving tank without impounding spring water, …

Fool Me Once, Shame On You: Promoting Corporate Accountability For The Human Rights Impacts Of Climate Washing, Randall S. Abate

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Effective climate change governance faces two overarching challenges. The first is mobilizing the political will to regulate climate change with sufficient ambition. Second, when regulatory measures are in place to address climate change, the next challenge is ensuring that governmental and private sector entities are on track to comply with these time-sensitive climate governance commitments. This article addresses the second challenge. It reviews “climate washing” litigation that seeks to hold fossil fuel companies and other private sector entities accountable for misleading the public about their compliance with climate change mandates or goals. The article argues that climate washing tactics threaten …

Investigation Of Relationships Between Serum Lactate, Acute Phase Proteins, Pro/ Antiinflammatory Cytokine Levels, And Metritis Formation In Holstein Dairy Heifers, Talha Avcilar, Davut Koca, Yavuz Nak, Mustafa Eren Şahi̇n, Musa Özgür Özyi̇ği̇t, Deni̇z Nak

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The main purpose of this investigation was to identify and suggest suitable early screening inflammatory markers for the early diagnosis of uterine infections such as acute septic metritis (ASM) in the Holstein heifers. In addition, to achieve the above -mentioned aim, the objectives of the present study were tried to determine the relationship between blood serum lactate, acute phase proteins (APPs), pro/anti inflammatory cytokine levels, and metritis formation in Holstein heifers. For this purpose, 250 Holstein heifers which were 11-13 months old, were chosen as the study material. After heifers were conceived, blood serum samples were collected at the 8th …

Effect Of Different Light Intensities And Colors On Growth Performance And Reproductive Characteristics In Japanese Quails, Fawwad Ahmad, Muhammad Sharif, Muhammad Ashraf, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Shoaib, Talha Siddique, Aqian Ahmed, Ahmad Hamad Sheir, Muhammad Ahsan Yaseen, Muhammad Mahboob Ali Hamid

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Light is one of the most important environmental factors in quail farming, as it has a significant impact on production efficiency and reproductive characteristics. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of different light intensities and colors on production performance in Japanese quails. For the first experiment, 200 Japanese quails were divided into five treatment groups, each with four replicates (10 birds in each). The birds in the control treatment were exposed to a light intensity of 20 lux, while the other four treatment groups were exposed to light intensities of 10 lux, 15 lux, 25 lux, …

Investigation Of Bmp15 And Gdf9 Gene Polymorphisms And Their Effects On Litter Size In Anatolian Sheep Breed Akkaraman, Koray Kirikçi

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

This study aimed to examine the polymorphism of the BMP15 (FecX$^{G}$ and FecX$^{I}$) and GDF9 (G1 and G4) genes and the association between genotypes and litter size in the Akkaraman breed. Blood samples were taken from 100 ewes in total. Genomic DNA was obtained from whole blood. The PCR-RFLP technique was employed to determine the polymorphisms of the genes under investigation. The G1 was the only polymorphic among the four loci analyzed. The frequencies for the GA and GG genotypes were 0.26 and 0.74, respectively, while the A and G allele frequencies were 0.13 and 0.87, respectively. The observed and …

Influence Of Lactobacillus Plantarum Administration On Some Serum/Tissue (Uterus) Antioxidant And Cytokine Levels In Female Rats Exposed To Cadmium (Cd), İhsan Kisadere, Bariş Güner, Hakan Tavşanli, Mehmet Faruk Aydin, Mustafa Usta

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The study aimed to investigate the effects of oral Lactobacillus plantarum (Lp) administration on some serum/tissue (uterus) antioxidant and cytokine levels as well as histopathologic changes in female rats exposed chronically to Cd. For this purpose, rats were separated into four groups including control (C, n = 8), cadmium (Cd, n = 8), Lp (n = 8), and Cd + Lp (n = 8). Cd (dissolved in water at a dose of 2.04 mg/mL) was orally administered to Cd and Cd + Lp groups for 28 days. Besides, active-live Lp, which was grown at a level of approximately 10$^{8}$-10$^{9}$ cfu/mL …

Could There Be A Relationship Between Feeding Characteristics And The Shape Of Condylus Occipitalis And Foramen Magnum In Mammals?, Yasi̇n Demi̇raslan, İsmai̇l Demi̇rci̇oğlu, İftar Gürbüz, Funda Aksünger Karaavci, Abdullah Ortadeveci, Özcan Özgel

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The aim of the study was to investigate the shape of the foramen magnum and condylus occipitalis of mammalian species belonging to different feeding groups. For this, two-dimensional geometric morphometric method analyses were applied. The data from the skulls of the 12 species were used. In principal component analysis, the first three principal components accounted for 70.353%of the total shape variation. According to the first principal component, the dorsal edge of the condylus occipitalis and foramen magnum contributed the most to shape variation. Most of the individuals were correctly separated according to the feeding groups. The most accurate grouping features …

Effects Of Social Isolation And Adolescent Ethanol Exposure On Adult Drinking And Nicotine Co-Use, Jakob Shaykin

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Alcohol use often begins in adolescence and can lead to increased susceptibility to AUD in adulthood. Stress in the form of social isolation during adolescence can also prompt substance use disorders later in adulthood. This thesis determined if exposure to ethanol (EtOH) during adolescence and social isolation alters the trajectory of alcohol and nicotine intake during adulthood. In Experiment 1, adolescent male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were administered intermittent injections of EtOH (2g/kg 20% EtOH, IP) or saline (PND 28-41). EtOH consumption was measured in adulthood (PND 49-55) using a 2-bottle choice procedure where one bottle contained a 0.2% saccharin/15% …

Prenatal Ethanol Exposure Impairs Performance On Spatial And Tactile Sequential Discrimination Task In Juvenile Rats, Caleb S. Bailey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a set of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities that arise in ~5% of children who have been prenatally-exposed to alcohol. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can cause impairments in learning acquisition, working memory, response inhibition, and attentional-set shifting that result in exaggerated deficits in executive function and impairments in goal-seeking behavior. There are standard procedures used in rodent research to address some components of these deficits, but few procedures are sensitive enough to comprehensively assess such deficits. To address this issue in FASDs research techniques, we developed a procedure that requires prolonged executive function in a …

Effect Of Menstrual Cycle Phase On The Rewarding Properties Of Alcohol In Women, Annie K. Griffith

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Compared with men, women are disproportionately affected by alcohol, including greater risks of behavioral impairment and relapse. One likely mechanism underlying this disparity is fluctuations of ovarian hormones, particularly estradiol (E2), across phases of the menstrual cycle. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that higher E2 levels correlate with heavier patterns of alcohol consumption, suggesting E2 may modulate drinking. This relationship is thought to be mediated by the rewarding properties of alcohol. The present thesis tested the hypothesis that elevated E2 during the late follicular phase would increase the rewarding properties of alcohol. Fifty young-adult women participated in a within-subjects …

Ethanol Decreases Expression Of Developing Neurons, But Not Neuronal Viability, In A Cultured Rat Hippocampus, Cassidy Count

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

As of 2019, alcohol use disorders (AUDs) affect roughly 14.1 million individuals over the age of 18 and cost up to $249 billion in economic burden in the United States. In addition to central nervous system (CNS), those affected by AUDs can present with cognitive and behavioral abnormalities. Specifically, those affected by AUDs experience deficits in memory consolidation and retrieval as well as executive functioning, which may be due to cellular changes within the hippocampus. There are at least two prominent and contended theories which explain the mechanism of functional impairment caused by alcohol: 1) alcohol induces excitotoxic neuronal death …

Birds Of A Feather: Exploring Social Facilitation Effects On Learning And Suboptimal Choice In Pigeons (Columba Livia), Peyton Mueller

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The social facilitation effect describes a change in the behavior of an individual due to the presence of another organism of the same species (i.e., a conspecific). Many theories exist that attempt to explain why this change in behavior exists across species. A set of four experiments were executed to best explain how pigeons learn in the presence of non-competing conspecifics. The first experiment sought to replicate an interesting effect previously found in cockroaches and rats, such that conspecific presence inhibits performance early in training but facilitates it with increased training. The second experiment placed the novel response acquired in …

The Effects Of Social And Nonsocial Contextual Stimuli On The Renewal Of Cocaine Seeking, Bree Humburg

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Those with substance use disorders can undergo craving and relapse when re-exposed to a drug-associated context. This study determined if renewal of cocaine seeking is differentially controlled by contexts consisting of social and/or nonsocial stimuli. Experiment 1, rats self-administered cocaine in Context A which included a social peer and house light illumination. Following self-administration, rats were randomly assigned to an AAA or ABA group for extinction and renewal. For the AAA rats, context was similar to self-administration; for ABA rats, the drug-associated stimuli (peer and house light) were removed (Context B). Following extinction, renewal of cocaine seeking was examined by …

The Effects Of Extended Fructose Access On Relative Value And Demand For Fructose, Saccharin, And Ventral Tegmental Stimulation, Megan Halloran

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Globally, food addiction (FA) is a growing area of research and is largely attributed to the availability of foods that are both energy dense and high in fats and sugars. Further, it has been suggested, that sugar and fat, when consumed frequently, have properties similar to drugs of abuse. While the validity of FA is questioned, researchers have drawn parallels between substance use disorder (SUD) and FA. For example, sugar binge models emphasize craving, withdrawal and binging as primary components of FA, which are also hallmarks of SUD. Additionally, both natural rewards, like sugars, and drug rewards act on the …

Personalized Longitudinal Network Models Of Alcohol Use: A Mechanistic Approach, Stephen Semcho

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

AUD and high-risk drinking are significant public health concerns, and prevailing diagnostic models fail to account for the within-person variability in AUD presentation and the role of functional mechanisms that maintain drinking outcomes. The ETOH Framework highlights the importance of three primary superdomains that maintain and characterize AUD – reward salience, cognitive dyscontrol, and negative emotionality. The current study was the first attempt to investigate the role of the primary ETOH mechanisms, along with positive and negative affect, on alcohol use outcomes, using a novel approach to model individual-level networks of relations over time. This study gathered twice-daily diary data …

Calcium Imaging Of Central Amygdala Activity After Fentanyl Escalation, Samantha Malone

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Evidence suggests that rats given long access (LgA) sessions to self-administer (SA) opioids escalate their intake, while also showing greater withdrawal severity and drug-induced reinstatement compared to rats maintained on short access (ShA) daily SA sessions. Little is known about the neural changes that occur during opioid escalation that may impact withdrawal and relapse. Past work examining opioid SA using ShA sessions in rodents has identified the central amygdala (CeA) as an area of interest that becomes hyperactive in acute withdrawal and may be involved in the incubation of craving that occurs after protracted withdrawal. However, these studies have not …

Governors State University College Of Business Annual Report - 2022-2023, College Of Business

Annual Reports

A report of the accomplishments of College of Business faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the 2022-2023 academic year.

The Functional Role Of Context In Action Perception And Understanding Social Situations, Anjali -

Modern Psychological Studies

This study investigated the influence of understanding the perception of action congruency in animated video actors. The study employed a 2 x 2 pre-post design with the type of training (relevant, irrelevant) as a between-subjects design. The present study aimed to address whether the presence (versus absence) of contextual information affected an individual’s ability to make sense of social interactions, and if relevant contextual cues aided an individual’s perspective of social situations. Participants consisted of 80 undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia. Action congruency is the level of social coordination between two figures. Perceptions of action congruency was …

Cyber Rollback: Popular Resistance In The Cyber Age, Matthew J. Flynn

Journal of Strategic Security

“Cyber Rollback” presents a portion of the effort of civilians to seize a warzone in cyberspace and make it free of violence even when facing the risk of violence. That need stems from governments seeking to control or restrict online connectivity. In the continued civilian push back in the face of state oppression, lofty sensibilities of the right of expression online meet the reality of the consequence of such a mandate, the prospect of violence surfacing as an outgrowth of online freedoms clashing with the physical consequences of such activism. In setting cyber events that surface in Ukraine, Africa, China, …

Promoting Cognitive Complexity Among Yezidi Youth Impacted By Isis In Kurdistan, Iraq, Sara Savage, Jessica Francar, Kristin Perry

Journal of Strategic Security

This article reports on the results of an intervention to promote the reintegration of Yezidi children and youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, who had been in ISIS captivity or were displaced by ISIS, by increasing their cognitive complexity through experiential learning. The article explores the challenges faced by this demographic, including trauma and exclusion. It looks at the impact of a group-based curriculum designed to increase cognitive complexity (measured by integrative complexity), and discusses how the intervention addressed socio-cognitive needs in order to support reintegration. The intervention was piloted with young people associated with ISIS and those displaced …

“Recommend . . . Measures”: A Textualist Reformulation Of The Major Questions Doctrine, Chad Squitieri

Scholarly Articles

Following Biden v. Nebraska, defenders of the major questions doctrine (which requires administrative agencies to identify “clear congressional authorization” to regulate “major” issues) can be categorized as falling within one of two camps. The first camp includes Justices Gorsuch and Alito, who view the major questions doctrine as a substantive canon. The second camp includes Justice Barrett, who explained in Nebraska that she is “wary” of adopting new substantive canons, and indicated that she considers the major questions doctrine to be a linguistic canon. Interestingly, both camps have relied on an influential scholar to advance their positions: then Professor …

Differential Gene Expression Analysis Of Rodent Mammary Tissue Reveals Dysregulation Of Greb1 And An Age-Dependent Response To Spaceflight, Cleoma Arnold

Master's Projects

Life aboard spacecraft poses a danger to astronaut health, with hazards including microgravity, radiation, and enclosed spaces. Research into mitigating these health issues includes analysis of the transcriptome of rodents sent to the International Space Station. This project investigates the effects of spaceflight on the mammary tissue of female mice of two age groups, 10-12 and 32 weeks, in order to assess the impact of age and spaceflight on gene expression in a tissue relevant to female health. Analysis of the OSD-511 dataset from NASA’s Open Science Data Repository utilized a containerized implementation of their RNA-Seq pipeline on the San …

Dynamic Control Of The Cardiac Calcium Pump, Sean Robert Cleary

Dissertations

The sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) sequesters Ca2+ into the endoplasmic reticulum of cells to establish a reservoir for Ca2+ signaling. In the heart, the activity of this transporter is tightly controlled via direct interactions with two competing regulatory micropeptides: phospholamban (PLB) and dwarf open reading frame (DWORF). PLB inhibits SERCA, while DWORF activates SERCA. These competing interactions determine cardiac performance by modulating the Ca2+ signals that drive the contraction/relaxation cycle. Previous studies indicated these SERCA-micropeptide interactions are Ca2+-sensitive; SERCA binds PLB more avidly at low cytoplasmic [Ca2+] but binds DWORF better when [Ca2+] is high. Here, FRET-microscopy demonstrated that this …

Artapanus And Greek Colonial Poetics, Scott Harris

Dissertations

The fragments of Artapanus have proven to be enigmatic for most scholars over the years and as such have not been treated in significant detail. Most scholarship has been restricted to two separate lines of enquiry: genre and ethnicity. I suggest that the resonance between Greek colonial poetics sheds new light on Artapanus's literary agenda: namely, that Artapanus is constructing and representing the memory of Jewish cultural and political foundations using broader Greek poetics which were used to describe the civic, cultic and geographic foundation of a colony. In this way, Artapanus is no longer an outlier within the Hellenistic …

Characterization Of Mroq-Dependent Regulation Of Staphylococcus Aureus Quorum Sensing, Madison Ruth Stock

Dissertations

Gram-positive bacteria produce small autoinducing peptides (AIPs), which act to regulate expression of genes that promote adaptive traits including virulence. The Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus generates a cyclic AIP that controls expression of virulence factors via the accessory gene regulatory (Agr) system. S. aureus strains belong to one of four Agr groups (I, II, III, and IV), and each group harbors allelic variants of AgrD, the precursor of AIP. In a prior screen for S. aureus virulence factors, the Alonzo lab identified MroQ, a putative peptidase. A ΔmroQ mutant closely resembled a Δagr mutant and had significant defects in AIP …

Multistage Sustainability Education For University Engineering Students: A Case Study From Mechanical Engineering In Technological University Dublin, Kevin Delaney

Articles

Sustainability will be a key challenge that future engineering graduates must consider when solving problems. This paper sets out the approach taken in the mechanical engineering discipline of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) to help students acquire and develop the requisite skills to integrate aspects of sustainability when tackling engineering problems. The approach, which has already been implemented across a number of different design and innovation modules, consists of two distinct phases. In the first, students are educated about sustainability and related issues. In the second phase, students are educated for sustainability and are taught to identify, define and solve …

Children With Williams Syndrome: Experiences Of Mainstream Primary Schools, Katherine Gulliver

Plymouth Institute of Education Theses

Four children with Williams Syndrome shared their daily experiences of attending a mainstream primary school in the South West of England, UK. Using an adaptation of the Mosaic approach (Clark, 2011), children shared their perceptions and experiences of belonging to a class, developing responsibility and learning to follow the rules. Children guided the researcher during a visit lasting one week in each school. Methods included videos, a child-led tour, photographs and interviews with staff. Informed consent was obtained by gatekeepers including children’s parents, head teacher and school staff. Children were continually monitored for assent using a reflective, ethically conscious total …