Digital Commons Network^™

The Constitutionality Of Contributing To Climate Change, Madeline Troxell

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Despite the issue of human-caused climate change being upheld by science for decades, topics of its legitimacy, relevance, and repercussions are still debated heavily today. In an attempt to argue for their constitutional right to a safe and livable climate, 21 young plaintiffs have sued the federal government for its affirmative action increasing America’s dependency on fossil fuels, thus exacerbating the climate crisis. The obstacles facing their case can be reduced to an argument concerning the courts jurisdiction over climate issues. This article will argue that the plaintiff's case is centered around the civil rights of children, and thus the …

The Effects Of Cloth & Surgical Masks On The Environment, Dana Jurgielewicz

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The objective of this study is to assess the environmental effects of different types of face masks (surgical and cloth). A comparison between different mask components is analyzed and an environmental impact is produced through the OpenLCA Software. The research question for this study is: What are the effects of different types of face masks on the environment? The expected result was that surgical masks would be worse for the environment because of the high consumption usage. The results of this study suggest that cloth masks have a worse environmental impact because of their level of usage.

Investigating The Antibacterial And Immunomodulatory Properties Of Lactobacillus Acidophilus Postbiotics, Rachael M. Wilson

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Probiotics are nonpathogenic microorganisms that have been extensively studied for their ability to prevent various infectious, gastrointestinal, and autoimmune diseases. The mechanisms underlying these probiotic effects have not been elucidated. However, we and other researchers have evidence suggesting that probiotic bacteria secrete metabolites that are antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory. As such, we developed a methodology to collect the secreted metabolites from a probiotic bacterium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and tested this cell free filtrate (CFF) both in vitro and in vivo. Using this CFF, we have demonstrated that L. acidophilus secretes a molecule(s) that has specific bactericidal activity against the opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas …

Preoperative Skin Preparation Protocol For Patients Undergoing Abdominal And Spinal Surgery, Lia Moyer

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing DNP Capstone Projects

Surgical site infections are an avoidable complication in surgical patients and one of the most common hospital-acquired infections. Adverse effects of surgical site infections include increased hospital length of stay, increased costs to patient and healthcare system, disability, morbidity, and mortality. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to design a protocol with the objective of decreasing surgical site infections in abdominal and spinal surgery patients. The protocol developed used targeted depilation and antisepsis with a chlorhexidine wipe to mitigate infection risk. Results of the project showed a static hospital length of stay, no increase in preoperative time, and …

Crystal Structure Of Dihydrofolate Reductase From The Filarial Nematode W. Bancrofti In Complex With Nadph And Folate, Keith Lange, Kathleen M. Frey, Tyler Eck, Cheryl A. Janson, Ueli Gubler, Nina M. Goodey

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Lymphatic filariasis is a debilitating illness with an estimated 50 million cases as of 2018. The majority of cases are caused by the parasitic worm W. bancrofti and additional cases by the worms B. malayi and B. timori. Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an established target in the treatment of cancer, bacterial, and protozoal infections and may be a potential target for drugs targeting parasitic worm infections, including filariasis. Recent studies have shown that known antifolate compounds, including methotrexate, inhibit the activity of W. bancrofti DHFR (WbDHFR). However, the absence of structural information for filarial DHFRs has limited the study of …

Personalizing Prevention: Advances In Pharmacotherapy For Hiv Prevention., Marisa Brizzi, Elizabeth Sherman, Sarah B. Green, Diana N. Nowicki, Emily N. Drwiega, Melanie R. Nicol, Daniel B. Chastain, Eric G. Sahloff, William R. Truong, David Cluck, Melissa E. Badowski, Sarah M. Michienzi, Spencer H. Durham

HPD Articles

The HIV epidemic continues to pose a significant burden on the healthcare system. Although the incidence of annual new infections is decreasing, health disparities persist and most new infections remain concentrated into different racial, ethnic, and minority groups. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which involves those at high risk of acquiring HIV to take chronic medications to prevent acquisition of the virus, is key to preventing new HIV infections. The purpose of this article is to review medication therapies for PrEP and examine their role in personalizing PrEP in different patient populations. Additionally, new medications currently under development for PrEP are reviewed, …

Biting The Hand That Feeds: Food Density, Wing-Length And Fecundity In Aedes Atropalpus, Ellie Armstrong

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Wing length has been shown to correlate to fecundity in mosquitoes. By measuring wing length and counting eggs, one can create a linear equation that can be used to calculate fecundity using wing length. A 2008 equation by Armistead that looked at wing length fecundity relationship in Ae. atropalpus only had samples over 2.4 mm. Because of this, any wing length under 2.4 that is put in the equation will have a fecundity less than zero. This study was created to replicate the Armistead study with smaller mosquitoes to create an equation that calculates the fecundity of smaller mosquitoes. To …

2023 University Research Symposium Program Book, The Graduate School

University Research Symposium Programs

Program book for the 2023 University Research Symposium.

Does Stress Physiology Mediate Disease Resistance In The Arizona Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma Mavortium Nebulosum)?, Megan Zerger

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Amphibian biodiversity has greatly diminished in recent years due to disease. Panzootic pathogenic fungi Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) causes the deadly disease chytridiomycosis (chytrid), a primary driver of catastrophic global amphibian declines and extinctions. The pathogenesis of chytrid is still unclear, as certain species and individuals within a species are differentially affected. Susceptibility and mortality of Bd are influenced by prolonged chronic stress. Prolonged glucocorticoid activity deleteriously affects many of the same physiological processes as Bd infections, and corticosterone is the primary glucocorticoid released by amphibians in response to stress. Thus, the objective of our study is to assess …

Spatiotemporal Patterns Of Ticks And Tick-Borne Disease Dynamics At Neon Sites Across A Sub-Continental Scale., Ana Sofia Rivera

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

At local scales, dynamics of ticks and tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease are driven by resource pulses, such as mast seeding in forest trees, that creates increases in tick hosts. Tick-borne diseases in humans have nearly doubled between 1940 and 2004 and understanding the dynamics of infectious diseases has long been of interest for ecologists. The family Ixodidae is the most capable of transmitting pathogens to humans and tick-borne diseases are the most common vector of illness in the United States. The objective of this research is to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of ticks and tick-borne diseases, which may …

Visualization Of Infection And Therapies For Sars-Cov-2 Variants Of Concern In Murine Models Of Infection, Kelly Symmes

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic compelled urgent research into better understanding the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, and the race for a vaccine and therapeutics for the severely ill. Since its emergence in late 2019, several variants of concern have arisen, characterized in part by their mutations in the spike glycoprotein, that have altered ACE-2 binding efficiency, disease progression and pathogenesis, and viral kinetics. These mutations can also allow for immune evasion from antibodies, highlighting the need to better understand the immune response to infection and a rapid modality to characterize emerging variant pathogenesis and screen potential therapeutics. Here, we introduce …

Signaling Between Intraepithelial T Cells And Villous Enterocytes In Celiac Disease, Justin Johnson

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Celiac disease (CeD) is a common autoimmune disorder triggered by HLA-DQ2/DQ8-restricted CD4 T cells responding to gluten-derived peptides that have been deamidated by tissue transglutaminase 2 (TG2). These activated CD4 T cells then provide help to B cells that produce IgA antibodies to deamidated gluten peptides (DPG) and TG2. Histologically, the epithelial lining of the small intestinal villi is destroyed by infiltrating cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) that replace the normal resident T cell populations, resulting in villous flattening and absorptive dysfunction. The link between the response of CD4+ T cells to DPGs and the generation, recruitment, and activation of intraepithelial …

Animation Before Anime, Jason Cody Douglass

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation asserts that animated media circulating into, within, and away from Japan during the mid-20th century stand to tell us much about how such texts shaped, and were shaped by, the cultural forces of class, gender, age, and race. The four chapters traverse intersecting, albeit disparate planes. Each uses a distinct critical lens to demonstrate how understudied archival materials can help to resolve some of the most pressing questions currently raised within animation studies. Chapter 1 focuses upon issues of socioeconomic class, forging a vital link between functional animation, such as television advertisements, and working-class animators who developed their …

Ship164 Is A Lipid Transfer Protein That Coordinates Membrane Trafficking In The Endolysosomal System, Patreece H. Suen

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

A defining feature of cells are membrane bilayers that separate them from their environment and, in eukaryotic cells, delineate intracellular organelles with specialized functions. In eukaryotes, the lipid composition of different organellar membranes varies both in terms of bulk and signaling lipids, lending these membranes different biochemical and biophysical characteristics. Yet most lipids are synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), then redistributed asymmetrically from there via mechanisms that remain poorly understood. Lipid redistribution is mediated in part by lipid transport proteins that operate at membrane contact sites, where organelles are closely apposed but do not fuse, moving lipids between their …

A Novel Microbial Source Of Stochasticity In Microbiota-Driven Diseases, Yi Yang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Gut commensals with the capacity to translocate across the intestinal barrier can drive the development of diverse immune-mediated diseases. However, the key factors that dictate bacterial translocation remain unclear. Recent studies have revealed that gut microbiota strains can adapt and evolve throughout the lifetime of the host, raising the possibility that changes in individual commensals themselves over time may impact their propensity to elicit inflammatory disease. Here we show that within-host evolution of the model gut pathobiont Enterococcus gallinarum facilitates bacterial translocation and initiation of chronic inflammation. Using a combination of in vivo experimental evolution and comparative genomics, we found …

Helicobacter Pylori Catabolism Of Host Glutathione: An Emerging Mechanism Of Nutritional Virulence, Maia Joi Baskerville

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Mammalian cells synthesize the antioxidant glutathione (GSH) to shield cellular biomolecules from oxidative damage. Certain bacteria, including the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, can perturb host GSH homeostasis. H. pylori infection significantly decreases GSH levels in host tissues, which has been attributed to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in infected cells. However, the precise mechanism of H. pylori-induced GSH depletion remains unknown, and tools for studying this process during infection are limited. We developed an isotope-tracing approach to quantitatively monitor host-derived GSH in H. pylori-infected cells by mass spectrometry. Using this method, we determined that H. pylori catabolizes reduced GSH …

Human Cerebral Organoids For Modeling Neurodevelopmental And Infectious Disease, Ce Zhang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Human cerebral organoids are three-dimensional cultures of brain-like tissue that model early human fetal cortical development. They recapitulate important neurodevelopmental events, including neural progenitor cell expansion, formation of a well-defined outer radial glia layer resembling the human outer subventricular zone, neurogenesis, and neuronal migration. In this study, I utilize cerebral organoids generated from induced pluripotent stem cells as a human-specific platform to investigate the mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental and infectious central nervous system disease. The immediate application for cerebral organoids is to address the global healthpandemic of COVID-19 and its associated neurological manifestations. I demonstrate that exposure of cerebral organoids to …

Evaluating Novel Diagnostics In Covid-19 And Malaria, Jillian Armstrong

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Although there have been significant improvements in recent decades, emerging and established infections continue to represent a significant contribution to the global burden of disease. Diagnostics play a critical role at the population level for infectious disease surveillance and at the individual level for patient care decisions. However, adequate diagnosis can be challenging in high-risk populations and resource-limited settings. In my dissertation, I present work on repeat positive SARS-CoV-2 testing in nursing home residents and the detection and differentiation of hemozoin, a parasite-derived biomarker, produced by human malaria species. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, little was known …

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letter - April 2023, George Washington University, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letters

No abstract provided.

How Well The Constructs Of Health Belief Model Predict Vaccination Intention: A Systematic Review On Covid-19 Primary Series And Booster Vaccines, Yam B. Limbu, Rajesh K. Gautam

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This systematic review synthesizes the findings of quantitative studies examining the relationships between Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs and COVID-19 vaccination intention. We searched PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Scopus using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and identified 109 eligible studies. The overall vaccination intention rate was 68.19%. Perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action were the three most frequently demonstrated predictors of vaccination intention for both primary series and booster vaccines. For booster doses, the influence of susceptibility slightly increased, but the impact of severity, self-efficacy, and cues to action …

Humanity's Fate: An Analysis Of Speculative Human Evolution In Literary Fiction, Celeste T. Johnson

Senior Theses

Speculative human evolution is a literature subgenre of science fiction that explores the potential future of humanity and descendant species. Little academic research has been done to evaluate the scientific accuracy of works of this genre or assess the relationship between the themes presented in the works and our current world. Future human species and their evolutionary journeys were assessed for scientific possibility through comparison with current research in fields such as anthropology, evolutionary biology, and sociology. It was found that the species depicted in works of speculative human evolution were largely based in scientific accuracy and could possibly exist …

A Drop In The Bucket: North Carolina's Neglected Problem Of Private Well Water Contamination, Claire Mullaney, Michele Okoh

North Carolina Civil Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

Controlling Epidemic Extinction Using Early Warning Signals, Walter Ullon, Eric Forgoston

School of Computing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

As the recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, there is a critical need to develop new approaches to monitoring the outbreak and spread of infectious disease. Improvements in monitoring will enable a timely implementation of control measures, including vaccine and quarantine, to stem the spread of disease. One such approach involves the use of early warning signals to detect when critical transitions are about to occur. Although the early detection of a stochastic transition is difficult to predict using the generic indicators of early warning signals theory, the changes detected by the indicators do tell us that some type of …

Effects Of Diet On Lcn2 Expression And Onset Of Neuroinflammation In An Alzheimer’S Disease Mice Model, Abdirahman A. Hayir

Neuroscience Honors Projects

This project covers the findings regarding the impact of diet on lipocalin 2 (LCN2) and the effects it has on neuroinflammation Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). LCN2 is a protein that is critical to the functionality of mitochondria and inflammatory responses. Evidence has shown that mitochondrial dysfunction is a potential central event in driving AD pathogenesis and contributing to formation of pathological hallmarks such as chronic inflammation. Furthermore, studies have shown that LCN2 can be deficient under metabolic conditions such as high-fat-diet (HFD). This study investigates if HFD induces LCN2 deficiency and increased neuroinflammation in an AD mice model.

Exploring Portrayals Of Cults In News Media: Establishing A Continuum, Ashley M. Reynolds

Honors Theses

This thesis examines and analyzes the way cults are portrayed by various news media outlets. The intention of this thesis and my research in general is to convey the power of media influence in forming an individual’s perspective on cults. Each news media outlet (for purposes of this thesis, this includes Fox News, CNN, and the Associated Press) has their own definition of what a cult is, and this determines how they present those “cults” to the public. To understand how individuals form their opinions about cults and what exactly cults are via the media, it is necessary to investigate …

Mandates, Mistrust, And Misconceptions: An Overview Of Vaccine Hesitancy, Evelyn Ryan

Senior Honors Theses

Vaccines are one of the most successful ways to prevent diseases and are considered one of the most influential achievements in the history of public health. While vaccines have many benefits, the number of parents that refuse vaccinations for their children is increasing. People are concerned about potential risks and health problems that are thought to result from vaccination. There are risks and contraindications involved with vaccines, but many reasons for vaccine hesitancy that are cited by the public are not founded on evidence-based data. When making vaccine decisions, it is essential that the public has accurate information and that …

Prevalence Of Sars-Cov-2 Antibodies In Liberty University Student Population, Emily Bonus

Senior Honors Theses

In 2020, the virus SARS-CoV-2 gained attention as it spread around the world. Its antibodies are poorly understood, and little research focuses on those with few COVID-19 complications yet large numbers of close contacts: university students. This longitudinal study recorded SARS-CoV-2 antibody presence in 107 undergraduate Liberty University students twice during early 2021. After extensive data cleaning and the application of various statistical tests and ANOVAs, the data seems to show that in the case of COVID-19 infections, SARS-CoV-2 IgM antibodies are immediately produced, and then IgG antibodies follow later. However, the COVID-19 vaccine causes the production of both IgM …

Nurses' Preparedness For Disaster Response In Rural And Urban Primary Healthcare Settings In Tanzania, Kahabi Isangula, Mary Lyimo, Yudas Ndungile, Elisha Robert

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Introduction: Nurses are often on the frontline of disaster management, providing care to patients with emerging physical, mental, and emotional turbulence, and acting as educators for health promotion and disaster prevention in both rural and urban contexts. However, the literature suggests that nurses are inadequately prepared for disaster response. This study examined preparedness for disaster response among nurses in rural and urban primary healthcare settings in Tanzania.

Methods: This qualitative descriptive study involved purposefully selected qualified nurses and nurse administrators working in rural (n=20) and urban (n=11) primary healthcare facilities in Tanzania. Telephone-based interviews were conducted to gather …

Links Between Diversity And Composition Of The Avian Gut Microbiome And Resistance To Experimental Malaria Infection In House Sparrows (Passer Domesticus), Riley Noble

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Alternative Colony Hybridization Methods For Pathogenic Vibrios, Andrew M. Schwartz, Haley A. Marcotte, Crystal N. Johnson

Faculty Publications

Vibrios, such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus, are naturally occurring halophilic bacteria that are a major cause of foodborne illness. Because of their autochthonous nature, managing vibrio levels in marine and estuarine environments is impossible. Instead, it is crucial to reliably enumerate their abundance to minimize human exposure. One method of achieving this is the direct plating/colony hybridization (DP/CH) method, which has been used to efficiently quantify pathogenic vibrios in oysters and other seafood products. Although successful, the method relies on proprietary resources. We examined alternative approaches, assessed the influence of the reagent suppliers’ source on enumeration accuracy, and made experimental adjustments …