Digital Commons Network^™

Sediment Sorting Within A Relatively Wave-Exposed And Sandy Subtidal Seagrass (Zostera Marina) Meadow, Gerd Masselink

Faculty of Science and Engineering Datasets

The sediment data set consists of a single spreadsheet with self-explanatory sheets. Sediments were collected from 64 sample locations. The samples were analysed in the laboratory by MSc student Tom Brown and his PhD thesis is included as it contains an extensive description of the analysis methods. Dataset Description: This is the full sediment data set collected in august 2020 from the Great Ganinick seagrass meadow in the isles of Scilly

Evangelical School Of Nursing Bulletin, 1970-1971, Advocate Aurora Health

Historical Documents - Combined

Evangelical School of Nursing, Oak Lawn, IL: Brochure advertising the Evangelical School of Nursing. Includes information on school policies, education requirements, and a course catalog.

Utility Of Body And Otolith Morphometry To Discriminate Cryptic Juveniles Of Two Sympatric Red Snappers (Perciformes: Lutjanidae), Miwa Takahashi, Corey B. Wakefield, Stephen J. Newman, Kyle B. Hillcoat, Benjamin J. Saunders, Euan S. Harvey

Fisheries Research Articles

The sympatric red snappers, Lutjanus erythropterus and Lutjanus malabaricus, are highly valued by commercial and recreational fishers along the tropical northern coasts of Australia and throughout their distribution. Studies on the life history and ecology of these congeners are confounded by difficulties in distinguishing the cryptic juveniles of each species (i.e., < 200 mm total length). This study aimed to validate a robust and cost-effective method to discriminate these juveniles using body and/or otolith morphometric data in a multivariate analysis. Juvenile samples were collected from the northwest (n = 71) and northeast (n = 19) coasts of Australia, and species identification was confirmed using DNA barcoding. The most parsimonious multivariate models achieved accurate species prediction rates of 98.8%, which consisted of just three body variables (dorsal fin length, the distance from the snout to the anterior edge of the eye, and either jaw length or distance from the snout to the preoperculum). The high level of discrimination for these cryptic juveniles highlights the robustness of this morphometric approach. The slightly lower rate of discrimination using otolith morphology (84.9%) was associated with greater regional variation in L. malabaricus between the northwest and northeast coasts. Slight variations in otolith shape are typically used to determine stock structure, which highlights the potential need to collect samples over a broader area of a species geographic range when using an otolith morphometric discrimination model. The method outlined in this study could be applied to distinguish other cryptic congeneric fish species, including from archived otolith collections. Moreover, this method has the potential to be utilized in assessing species compositions using body measurements from in situ stereo-video.

A Mixed Methods Approach To Understanding The Links Between Mining, Climate Change And Selected Health Outcomes In India, Mary J. Cheruvillil

Dissertations and Theses

Despite ample evidence of the significant role that mining activities play in determining health outcomes, in India there is a dearth of comprehensive health studies that draw linkages between mining and health. The purpose of the following study is to investigate the impact of mining activities on population health in India using three different methods: ecological multivariable regression, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and content analysis of government documents using a phenomenological approach. The first aim uses the ecological multivariable regression to examine associations between mining activities and children’s malnutrition outcomes at the district level. Census data, the Demographic Health …

Scaled Ecology: A Framework For Evaluating Conservation Of Wildlife Ecological Processes, Johanna A. Hodge

Biology Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Ecological processes are scaled in time and space, including those associated with wildlife. Understanding the ecological processes of wildlife species and their contributions to ecosystems is crucial for effective conservation. This study focuses on American bison (Bison bison) as a case-study species to explore the holistic scaling of wildlife ecology. A PRISMA-style literature review was conducted to gather and map the scaled ecology of bison. An AIC best-fit analysis was conducted to assess the scaling of total bison ecology considering 7 different models. The results rejected the null model and identified the best-fit model as a combination between fencing and …

Improved Boreal Vegetation Mapping Using Imaging Spectroscopy To Aid Wildfire Management, Interior Alaska, Anushree Badola

Geosciences

Wildfires are a natural and essential part of Alaska ecosystems, but excessive wildfires pose a risk to the ecosystem's health and diversity, as well as to human life and property. To manage wildfires effectively, vegetation/fuel maps play a critical role in identifying high-risk areas and allocating resources for prevention, suppression, and recovery efforts. Furthermore, vegetation/fuel maps are an important input for fire behavior models, along with weather and topography data. By predicting fire behavior, such as spread rate, intensity, and direction, fuel models allow fire managers to make informed decisions about wildfire suppression, management, and prevention. Traditionally used vegetation/fuel maps …

The Impact Of Historical Housing Policies On Impoverished Communities: Recommendations To Improve Socioeconomic, Environmental, And Health Outcomes., Destinee A. Cruz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Discriminatory historical housing policies, like redlining and racially restrictive covenants, segregated communities across the United States leading to the disinvestment of resources and negative socioeconomic, environmental, and health outcomes. These negative consequences continue to affect low-income communities and require modernized urban renewal programs to offset the residual effects of racially discriminatory housing policies. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to recommend critical funding to support urban renewal and the inclusion of housing protection policies for homeowners and tenants currently residing in former redlined neighborhoods. The initial proposed recommendation identifies several financing options to successfully implement urban renewal programs. The …

The Effect Of Water Flow Rates On The Survival And Growth Rates Of Three Caribbean Bouldering Coral Species Juveniles In An Indoor Versus Outdoor Environment, Ian Michael Johnson

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Coral reefs are vital ecosystems for the world’s oceans and humanity; however, they are threatened by climate change, disease, and local anthropogenic stressors, and need assistance to recover. Traditional reef restoration efforts (fragmentation and outplanting are helping but are limited in effectiveness by not increasing genetic diversity. Ex situ sexual propagation for corals provides new, genetically different coral recruits. However, this process is laborious, expensive and time consuming, especially at the scale required to effectively contribute to the widespread recovery. To lower costs, two key parameters that require optimization to hasten the growth of coral recruits are water flow and …

Variation Of Ldmc And Sla Relationship Between Growth Forms In Natural Grasslands, J. Viégas, P. Cruz, J. P. Theau, C. Jouany, P. Ansquer, R. Al Haj Khaled, O. Therond, M. Duru

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In agro-ecological studies, there is a growing interest in measuring both leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and specific leaf area (SLA). This interest lies on the fact that leaf traits are linked to gradients of environmental factors and ecosystem functions. Working with three contrasting wild species, Garnier et al. (2001) proposed a model linking these two traits. The model shows a relatively simple non linear and negative correlation between LDMC and SLA. Nevertheless, none of the species used to build the model were grasses (GRA) or forb rosettes (ROS = i.e. dicotyledonous with large entire leaves and absence of …

Drivers And Dynamics Of Phytoplankton Communities And Harmful Algal Blooms In Mountain Lakes, Lara Stephanie Jansen

Dissertations and Theses

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms (cyanoHABs) are a complex and widespread disturbance in freshwater water bodies, impacting water quality for wildlife and human populations. While cyanobacteria often bloom in warm lakes impacted by human development like agriculture, blooms are increasingly reported in cooler waters with limited development in the surrounding watershed. As much of cyanoHAB research has focused on lakes in highly developed watersheds, the understanding of factors leading to cyanobacteria dominance and blooms in the absence of major development remains limited. Mountain lakes can serve as ideal systems to study bloom-forming cyanobacteria in watersheds with minimal development. In addition, mountain lakes …

Insects Are Attracted To White Wind Turbine Bases: Evidence From Turbine Mimics, Madison S. Crawford, Delina E. Dority, Michael E. Dillon, Lusha M. Tronstad

Western North American Naturalist

Wind power is one of the fastest growing forms of renewable energy, but the interactions between wind turbines and insects are largely unknown beyond the observation that the accumulation of dead insects on turbine blades drastically reduces the power produced. Insects may be attracted to wind energy facilities because of topography, the heat that turbines produce, the lighting, or the visual cue of the turbine itself. Turbines can present a striking visual contrast relative to the surrounding landscape, particularly when they are painted bright white and reflect ultraviolet wavelengths. To test the hypothesis that wind turbine color attracts insects, we …

“Long Live Ear X-Tacy!”: An Oral History Study Of Rhetorics Of Nostalgia And Place., Aubrie Warner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to explore rhetorical placemaking through how people understand and construct narratives around places that no longer exist. In doing so, it examines the relationship between nostalgia and place — how rhetorical construction of place is influenced and/or informed by rhetorics of nostalgia, how our experiences influence our sense of place (past and present), and how we create continuity for ourselves in the construction and maintenance of particular narratives. This study contributes to the emerging field of rhetorics of nostalgia and places it in direct conversation with rhetorics of place and unpacks how these two are more connected …

The Relationships Between State-Level Economic Policies, Child Maltreatment, And Suicidal Behavior And Mortality., Yana B. Feygin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide has proven to be difficult to predict and prevent at the individual level,1–3 so much so that a recent analysis of individual risk assessments found a maximal positive predictive value of 5.5% for suicide death,2 and suicide continues to be a leading cause of death among adolescents age 10-19 years.4 By targeting modifiable risk factors at the population level, policy has the potential to extend our reach to people and subgroups that are missed by individual level interventions. This ecological study of adolescent suicide rates, state policies, and child maltreatment in US states from 2005-2019 and Kentucky counties from …

Superficial Thrombophlebitis In Ipsilateral Breast After Covid-19 Vaccination, Zhichao Zhou, Patricia Q Tran, Alyssa M Adams, Kristopher Kieft, John A Breier, Caroline S Fortunato, Cody S Sheik, Julie A Huber, Meng Li, Gregory J Dick, Karthik Anantharaman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In globally distributed deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes, microbiomes are shaped by the redox energy landscapes created by reduced hydrothermal vent fluids mixing with oxidized seawater. Plumes can disperse over thousands of kilometers and their characteristics are determined by geochemical sources from vents, e.g., hydrothermal inputs, nutrients, and trace metals. However, the impacts of plume biogeochemistry on the oceans are poorly constrained due to a lack of integrated understanding of microbiomes, population genetics, and geochemistry. Here, we use microbial genomes to understand links between biogeography, evolution, and metabolic connectivity, and elucidate their impacts on biogeochemical cycling in the deep sea. Using …

Testing The Niche Center Hypothesis In The Fossil Record Of Atlantic Bivalves, Rhiannon Z. Nolan

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Paleoecological analyses of six shallow marine bivalves were conducted to test the Abundant Center Hypothesis using data from the fossil record of the Pleistocene through modern day. This hypothesis predicts the highest abundance of a species is at the center of the geographic or environmental range, decreasing toward the edges. In geographic space, distances to a centerline within a geographic range were variably correlated with population abundances, and some species displayed a sharp drop-off in abundance as distance increased. In environmental space, bivalve species showed moderate correlations between abundance and centrality when measured using cumulative data across the last 2.8 …

Securing Rice Safety Through Innovative Radiative Heat Treatment And Proper Storage, Faith Achieng Ouma

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Securing the microbial safety of rice is a rising priority within the food industry, especially when used as an ingredient to manufacture ready-to-eat, minimally-processed products. Mold contamination is typically the most problematic for rice because certain species of Aspergillus produce toxic secondary metabolites known as aflatoxins, rendering the grain unfit for human and animal consumption. The objectives of this study are to: (1) investigate the effectiveness of using high-power (915 MHz frequency), short-duration microwaves (MWs) to inactivate microbes on rough rice; (2) use a three-level screening design to determine which storage factors, such as temperature, relative humidity (RH), storage duration, …

The Impact Of Environmental Knowledge And Environmental Behavior Of Hotel Employees On Environmental Performance: A Model Proposal, Uygar Turgut, Isil Arikan Saltik, Umut Avci, Fevzi Okumus

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

The increasing environmental problems have been among the main problems that need immediate worldwide solutions. The emerging developments after the industrial revolution caused irreversible negative changes in the environment. In general, it is claimed that the main reason lying under the environmental problems which the world is facing is human behaviors. These facts have generated a discussion about the questions related to which factors are effective in the emergence and development of behavior that support sustainable living. As a part of the tourism sector, the effects of human behavior are witnessed the most in hotels. The aim of this study …

The Impacts Of Transfer Learning For Ungulate Recognition At Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Michael Gurule

Geography ETDs

As camera traps have grown in popularity, their utilization has expanded to numerous fields, including wildlife research, conservation, and ecological studies. The information gathered using this equipment gives researchers a precise and comprehensive understanding about the activities of animals in their natural environments. For this type of data to be useful, camera trap images must be labeled so that the species in the images can be classified and counted. This has typically been done by teams of researchers and volunteers, and it can be said that the process is at best time-consuming. With recent developments in deep learning, the process …

Economic And Policy Determinants Of National Abortion Rates: A Cross-National Study, Olufunke Akiyode

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Abortion is as old as humanity and exists in all cultures. The number and rate of abortions differ among countries and regions of the world. Some determinants of abortion may include economic indicators and policy restrictiveness. This study analyzes the economic and policy determinants of abortion by evaluating the association of income and policy on abortion rates. It uses a panel data regression to examine the association between income, Gini Coefficient and abortion rates. Gini Coefficient measures income inequality, and GNI represents a country’s income. Publicly available longitudinal data obtained from the World Bank, United Nations, United Nations Population Development …

Reactive Oxygen Species And Weak Magnetic Fields: Unraveling The Mechanisms Of Planarian Regeneration And Tissue Growth, Luke James Kinsey

Dissertations

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a critical role in basic cellular behaviors such as apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. These molecules once thought to be harmful byproducts of metabolism, are also required for many complex and ubiquitous processes like wound healing, development, and regeneration. This study investigates the influence of ROS on planarian regeneration, with a particular focus on ROS dynamics in stem cell-mediated tissue growth. Data reveal that modulation of ROS levels leads to changes in cellular behaviors and tissue growth outcomes. Inhibition of ROS accumulation blocks stem cell proliferation and tissue growth, preventing planarian regeneration, while partial ROS accumulation …

Framework Development For Evaluating The Impacts Of Nursing Home Acoustics On Older Adults, Brian J. Puckett

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nursing homes are complex, multi-faceted environments which provide necessary medical supervision and housing for older adults in need of long-term care. With cognitive and sensory impairments being common adversities faced throughout the aging process, research is needed to better understand characteristics of the built environment which may contribute to difficulties for nursing home residents. Noise, in particular, has been shown to be problematic for nursing home residents in a variety of ways including disrupting sleep, associating with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, and leading to increased readmission to hospitals due to verbal communication misunderstandings. As the older adult population …

Functional Morphology Of The Platyrrhine Humerus And Talus: Implications For Inferring Locomotor Behavior In Extinct Primates, Liam Michael Zachary

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Platyrrhines are a diverse radiation of primates that exhibit a range of locomotor adaptations. The relationships between extant primate locomotor behavior and variation in postcranial morphology are often used to make functional interpretations of skeletal anatomy in extinct primates. However, a comparative baseline of form-function relationships in the extant platyrrhine postcranium is lacking compared to other primates, which limits understanding of platyrrhine locomotor evolution. The humerus and talus are two of the best represented skeletal elements in the platyrrhine fossil record and are informative of locomotor behavior. Therefore, quantification of morphological variation in extant platyrrhine tali and humeri can provide …

Occupational Exposures Associated With Thyroid Cancer In The Thyroid Tumor And Cancer Collaborative Registry In The Integrated Cancer Center Repository For Cancer Research, James Buckley

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Thyroid cancer is one of the fastest growing cancers in the United States, with the rate of new cases increasing from 5.2 per 100,000 in 1985 to 13.8 per 100,000 in 2019, with a peak of 14.5 per 100,000 in 2015. Increased thyroid cancer incidence is associated with certain occupations, including healthcare and agriculture. Most existing literature on occupational exposures and thyroid cancer evaluate their association in terms of occupation type and thyroid cancer, rather than specific occupational exposures and thyroid cancer. This study sought to utilize the wide range of occupational exposure data in the Integrated Cancer Center Repository …

Multispecies Genomic Sex Identification Using Ddx3 Gene Polymorphisms, Jessica Felts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

PCR sex determination assays must be reliable and cost effective due to the frequent and integral use of these assays in biological research and the animal production industry. Thus, the design of proof of a primer pair with a built-in control is warranted to not only bypass the extra cost of a multiplex reaction, but also to prevent anomalous results that have been documented with other primer pairs.

The objective of this study was to design primer pairs with built in PCR amplification control to identify sex in Equus caballus (domestic horse), Homo sapiens (humans), Macaca mulatta (rhesus macaque), and …

Not All Cities Are The Same: Variation In Animal Phenotypes Across Cities Within Urban Ecology Studies, Javier Delbarco-Trillo, Breanna J. Putman

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

The sustained expansion of urban environments has been paralleled by an increase in the number of studies investigating the phenotypic changes of animals driven by urbanization. Most of these studies have been confined to only one urban center. However, as the types and strength of anthropogenic stressors differ across cities, a generalizable understanding of the effects of urbanization on urban-dwelling species can only be reached by comparing the responses of urban populations from the same species across more than one city. We conducted phylogenetic meta-analyses on data for animal species (including both invertebrates and vertebrates) for which measures about any …

Sulfur Cycling Connects Microbiomes And Biogeochemistry In Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Plumes, Zhichao Zhou, Patricia Q. Tran, Alyssa M. Adams, Kristopher Kieft, John A. Breier, Caroline S. Fortunato, Cody S. Sheik, Julie A. Huber, Meng Li, Gregory J. Dick, Karthik Anantharaman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

In globally distributed deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes, microbiomes are shaped by the redox energy landscapes created by reduced hydrothermal vent fluids mixing with oxidized seawater. Plumes can disperse over thousands of kilometers and their characteristics are determined by geochemical sources from vents, e.g., hydrothermal inputs, nutrients, and trace metals. However, the impacts of plume biogeochemistry on the oceans are poorly constrained due to a lack of integrated understanding of microbiomes, population genetics, and geochemistry. Here, we use microbial genomes to understand links between biogeography, evolution, and metabolic connectivity, and elucidate their impacts on biogeochemical cycling in the deep sea. Using …

Human-Modified Landscapes Driving The Global Primate Extinction Crisis, Erik Joaquín Torres-Romero, Vincent Nijman, David Fernández, Timothy M. Eppley

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The world's primates have been severely impacted in diverse and profound ways by anthropogenic pressures. Here, we evaluate the impact of various infrastructures and human-modified landscapes on spatial patterns of primate species richness, at both global and regional scales. We overlaid the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps of 520 primate species and applied a global 100 km2 grid. We used structural equation modeling and simultaneous autoregressive models to evaluate direct and indirect effects of six human-altered landscapes variables (i.e., human footprint [HFP], croplands [CROP], road density [ROAD], pasture lands [PAST], protected areas [PAs], and Indigenous …

Spatial Epidemiologic Analysis And Risk Factors For Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Infections, Missouri, Usa, 2008-2019, Carlos Mejia-Chew, Miguel A Chavez, Min Lian, Angela Mckee, Leighton Garrett, Thomas C Bailey, Andrej Spec, Mansi Agarwal, George Turabelidze

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections are caused by environmental exposure. We describe spatial distribution of NTM infections and associations with sociodemographic factors and flooding in Missouri, USA. Our retrospective analysis of mycobacterial cultures reported to the Missouri Department of Health and Social Services surveillance system during January 1, 2008-December 31, 2019, detected geographic clusters of infection. Multilevel Poisson regression quantified small-area geographic variations and identified characteristics associated with risk for infection. Median county-level NTM infection rate was 66.33 (interquartile range 51-91)/100,000 persons. Risk of clustering was significantly higher in rural areas (rate ratio 2.82, 95% CI 1.90-4.19) and in counties with …

The Climate Effect On Covid-19: Lessons Learned From The Pandemic In Jakarta, Vernonia Yora Saki, Ema Novita Deniati, Yoerdy Agusmal Saputra, Dewi Susanna, Efendi Efendi

Kesmas

The global COVID-19 pandemic has presented humanity with difficult and unforeseeable hurdles. Among these challenges is understanding how climate-related aspects impact the survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between environmental factors, such as temperature, humidity, and rainfall, and the spread of COVID-19 cases in different regions. A time-and-place-based ecological study design was adopted, integrating geographic information systems and statistical techniques. Statistical testing revealed a significant association between humidity (p-value = 0.000; r = -0.777) and rainfall (p-value = 0.001; r = -0.561) with COVID-19 instances. However, no statistically significant relationship was found between temperature …

Reshaping Healthcare: A Bibliometric Analysis Of Lessons Learned In Post-Covid-19 Health Policy, Azliyana Azizan, Khairul Hafezad Abdullah, Sri Ratna Rahayu, Nadia Safirah Rusli, Nornajehah Tarmidzi

Kesmas

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted health policy globally, leading to heightened concern and urgency. However, previous studies have been hampered by limited resources and insufficient discussions on the long-term implications for health policies following multiple COVID-19 waves. Thus, this study examined the evolution of international studies on post-COVID-19 health policy. A comprehensive analysis used well-known literature databases Scopus and Web of Science to explore parameters including publication growth, participating countries, areas of interest, and keyword analysis of topics such as"COVID-19" and "Health Policy." The United States emerged as an active participant, focusing on "Computer science." Key themes included "COVID-19 …