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Hla-Ii-Dependent Neuroimmune Changes In Group A Streptococcal Necrotizing Fasciitis, Ganesh Ambigapathy, Santhosh Mukundan, Kumi Nagamoto-Combs, Colin Combs, Suba Nookala

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Streptococcus, GAS) bacteria cause a spectrum of human diseases ranging from self-limiting pharyngitis and mild, uncomplicated skin infections (impetigo, erysipelas, and cellulitis) to highly morbid and rapidly invasive, life-threatening infections such as streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and necrotizing fasciitis (NF). HLA class II allelic polymorphisms are linked with differential outcomes and severity of GAS infections. The dysregulated immune response and peripheral cytokine storm elicited due to invasive GAS infections increase the risk for toxic shock and multiple organ failure in genetically susceptible individuals. We hypothesized that, while the host immune mediators regulate the immune responses against …

A Biological Lens On Food Deserts [Biology], Claudette Davis

Open Educational Resources

SCB101 is a non-major biology course. In Fall 2022, the course was designated as an Experiential Learning-LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative (LHI) course in CUNYFirst. LHI is LaGuardia's experiential learning program that helps students to critically reflect on global issues and develop sustainable solutions in partnership with local and global organizations. For the 2022-2023 academic year, LHI focused on two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG): Goal 2 and Goal 10. UNSDG 2 aims to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture. UNSDG 10 addresses reducing inequality both within and among countries. Thus, I developed an assignment to …

Sexual Orientation At The Crossroads, Johan D. Van Der Vyver

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County that sexual orientation is included in the concept of “sex” in the non-discrimination provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is historically indefensible. The Civil Rights Act was initiated by President John F. Kennedy to combat racial discrimination in the workplace and the word “sex” was included in the Act by a “claque of Southern Congressmen” as part of a filibuster attempt to prevent its enactment. It was accepted by proponents of the Act on the instructions of President Johnson merely to avoid the …

2023-September-01-A Conversation With Etsu Faculty Patrick Brown, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

After more than a decade of teaching at East Tennessee State University, Dr. Patrick Brown does not "stand still” in his instructional design.

Brown, an associate professor in the ETSU College of Public Health’s Department of Health Sciences, chaired the committee that helped to lay the groundwork for ETSU’s Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), and he continues to champion teaching excellence at ETSU and nationally as an expert in the POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) method of instruction.

Throughout his 13 years of teaching at ETSU, Brown has seen tremendous changes in the classroom.

“The normalization of online learning …

2023-September-01-Etsu Launches $3.4 Million Project Through Biomade, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

In recent years, government, business and education leaders across the United States have started working collaboratively to make clear to high school students and others that bioindustrial manufacturing is a reliable and growing career path.

East Tennessee State University is playing a leading role.

BioMADE, a national institute with a mission of helping secure America’s future through bioindustrial manufacturing innovation, education and collaboration, has awarded the university $1.3 million in project funding. The grant total exceeds $3.3 million when including costs shared by ETSU and partners.

“East Tennessee State University is proud to take a proactive role in advancing educational …

Alternate Day Feeding As A Cost-Effective Strategy For Tank Culture Of The Pacific Shortfin Eel Anguilla Bicolor Pacifica, Frolan A. Aya, John Carlo L. Unida, Maria Rowena R. Romana-Eguia, Nerissa D. Salayo

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

There is a growing interest in the aquaculture of tropical anguillid eels as an export commodity. However, studies on feeding strategies, and the present demand to reduce feed costs need to be addressed to ensure the economic viability of eel farming. In this study, the effects of daily (DF) and alternate day (ADF) feeding on growth, feed utilization, body composition, blood chemistry, liver and intestinal morphology, and economic viability in the Pacific shortfin eel Anguilla bicolor pacifica were examined. Each feeding group of 30 elvers (166.25 ± 16.23 g mean initial wt) were randomly stocked in triplicate 4 m^{3 …}

A Nuanced Examination Of Primate Capture And Consumption And Human Socio-Economic Well-Being In Kirindy Mitea National Park, Madagascar, Domenic Romanello, Katharine E.T. Thompson, Cortni Borgerson, Jeanne Mathilde Randriamanetsy, Niaina Nirina Mahefa Andriamavosoloarisoa, Mamy Yves Andrianantenaina, Théofrico Alexander Razafindrahasy, Claire Surkis, Patricia C. Wright, Katheryn C. Twiss, Rebecca J. Lewis

Department of Anthropology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The futures of human and nonhuman primates are closely tied in protected areas. Understanding this interconnectedness is especially urgent in Madagascar, one of the world’s most impoverished biodiversity hotspots. Yet, no study has evaluated the relationship between poverty and lemur hunting and consumption using a composite poverty metric that includes health, education, and living standards. To address this gap, and to inform primate conservation practice and policy, we administered annual surveys to 81 households over six consecutive months (September 2018 to March 2019) in a village on the border of Kirindy Mitea National Park, Madagascar. We observed extreme deprivation scores …

Emi (English-Medium Instruction) In Cambodian Higher Education, Benedict Lin, Kingsley Bolton, John Bacon-Shone, Bophan Khan

English Faculty Publications

This article is based on empirical research carried out at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia, between 2018 and 2019. The research involved both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the case of the former, the researchers conducted a large-scale survey of students involving 956 respondents, of whom 79 were postgraduate students, while the overwhelming majority were studying at the undergraduate level. The qualitative data collected in this project comprised detailed interviews with undergraduates studying at RUPP. The results of both types of data collection indicated that, although many students faced difficulties in studying through the medium of English, …

The Dangers Of Staphylococcus Aureus And Antimicrobial Resistance, Madison Pines

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the etiological agent responsible for many problematic infections. The signs and symptoms of an infection caused by MRSA differ based on the route of transmission and type of infection. Staphylococcus aureus can secrete toxins that act as virulence factors and aid host invasion. Obesity, old age, being a health care worker, playing contact sports, living in a crowded place, hospitalization, recent antibiotic use, and HIV patients are more at risk of developing an infection caused by MRSA. An abundance of factors has contributed to antimicrobial resistance, like misuse of antibiotics in clinical and agricultural settings …

Antibiotic Resistance In Urban Stormwater: A Review Of The Dissemination Of Resistance Elements, Their Impact, And Management Opportunities, Kassidy N. O'Malley, Walter M. Mcdonald, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The public health crisis of antibiotic resistance is a growing threat across the world that is only expected to intensify in the coming years. The cycling of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment via urban stormwater runoff is one means by which humans are exposed to resistant bacteria as traditional gray stormwater infrastructure facilitates the transport of resistance elements into water bodies utilized by the public. In this review, existing research on the occurrence of ARGs in urban stormwater runoff is critically reviewed with the goal of determining the role of stormwater in the dissemination and development of antibiotic …

Syntheses And Characterization Of Photoactive Ruthenium And Iron Polypyridyl Complexes, Rajani Thapa Magar

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Within this dissertation, two distinct classes of metal complexes have been discussed that bear significance in the field of solar energy conversion, photo redox catalysis and memory devices. The first class of the metal complexes is a series of photochromic Ruthenium polypyridyl N-heterocyclic carbene tethered sulfoxide complexes that are reported to undergo unusually slow isomerization from S-bonded to O-bonded and unusually fast thermal reversion from O-bonded to S-bonded configuration. The role of NHC in the excited state dynamics of these complexes have been discussed in detail in Chapter 3.

For the first time in two decades, structural information of the …

Predictors Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy In Nfl Players: A Meta Analysis Review, Eisha Vora

Dissertations

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that emerges as a result of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury and has been studied within athletes of all sports. Repetitive blows to the brain are associated with many pathological changes and an emergence of tau pathology, all of which can lead to presentation with cognitive dysfunction, behavioral changes, and further motor decline in the later stages. After passing the inclusion criteria, a meta-analysis comprising four articles was computed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 3. Two hypotheses were examined: (a) the earlier the age of exposure to football, the greater the likelihood …

Trauma Mediating The Severity Of Depressive Symptoms In Veterans With Ptsd, Meghan Curtin

Dissertations

Trauma serves as a risk factor for developing both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. The purpose of this study was to examine trauma type as a mediator in the relationship between gender and severity of depressive symptoms among veterans with PTSD. The literature shows trauma type plays a role in developing PTSD and depressive symptoms. The first hypothesis was that female veterans who met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD would report higher levels of depressive symptoms than their male counterparts. The second hypothesis was that this gender difference would be partly mediated by levels of interpersonal trauma experience. Self-report …

Separation Of Zr From Complex Matrices For Isotope Harvesting Applications, Jake A. Bence

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Zr isotopes have various applications in nuclear science, such as ⁸⁶Zr and ⁸⁹Zr in nuclear medicine, ⁸⁸Zr as a diagnostic isotope relevant to stockpile stewardship, and the fission product ⁹⁵Zr useful as an s-process branch nucleus for study in astrophysics. To access these isotopes of interest, dedicated production methods and subsequent processing chemistry are required. Direct production routes can be technically challenging and difficult to obtain enough activity to meet demand. The processing chemistry of Zr isotopes is tedious due to the tendency for Zr to hydrolyze in solution without highly acidic conditions or a strong …

Structural Basis Of Signal Transduction Within Environmental Sensing Pas Regulated Ser/Thr Kinases, Roksana Azad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

To sense environmental cues, nature has evolved molecular switches that are widely used across life. This process often relies on environmentally controlled PPIs (Protein-Protein Interactions) within a sensory domain that senses various stimuli and alters the functional activities of downstream effectors. This study focused on the superfamily of PAS (Per-ARNT-Sim) environmental sensory domains and their roles in regulating two Ser/Thr Kinases (STKs). PAS domains achieve their regulatory control by internally binding small molecule ligands/cofactors (e.g., O₂ binding to heme …

Raphael Montañez Ortiz And Alternative Art Spaces, 1966–1971: From Repulsion To Exaltation, Ana Cristina Perry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the 1960s, Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz built a successful and provocative career in New York. Throughout the decade, Ortiz created sculptures, performances, and events that were part of a sustained investigation into how embodied destructive and uncomfortable actions could physically confront rationality and objectivity. His works attend to how rationality and objectivity were valued in the United States as a consequence of colonization and imperialism. Beginning in 1969, Ortiz overtly addressed how museums are directly implicated in systems of oppression, protesting with the Art Workers Coalition and founding El Museo to meet the needs of the …

You Hurt My Feelings: Autonomic And Behavioral Responses To Social Exclusion And The Moderating Effect Of Psychopathic Traits, Liat Kofler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Humans have a fundamental need to form and maintain social connections, and thus experiencing social exclusion is extremely distressing as it threatens this basic human need. Individuals who are socially excluded often respond aggressively, not only towards their ostracizers but also towards innocent bystanders, with ostracism being implicated in extreme acts of violence such as school shootings. However, individual differences in behavior exist within the context of social exclusion as not everyone responds aggressively after being ostracized. Identifying risk factors for retaliatory aggressive behavior following experiences of social exclusion may facilitate the development of targeted interventions aimed at mitigating such …

Attenuated Typicality Effect In Category-Based Inferences: Implications For Autism Spectrum Disorder, Janani Rajagopalan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often encounter challenges in assimilating atypical exemplars into their categorical prototypes, a cognitive hurdle that can impact their interpretative and integrative capacities. Addressing this problem, the present research sought to develop a robust methodological approach to reduce the effect of this disparity. We examined the elements embedded within the category's internal structure, with the intention of experimentally attenuating the pronounced typicality effect, which is often exaggerated in ASD.

Across four experiments, the thesis investigated the cognitive and neural underpinnings that shape the access to the typicality gradient intrinsic to a category's structure. The …

Colonial Investments: The Global Coordinates Of The English Political Imaginary, 1628–1668, Nathan D. Nikolic

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The main question my dissertation attempts to address is: what role did the expansion of English colonial trades play in the transformation of English society and government between the Petition of Right and the early years of the Restoration (1628-1668)? My thesis is that during this period, colonial expansion rose to the level of a general national interest and that many early seventeenth-century texts index the complexities and tensions of this development. As a small but very organized group of merchants, peers, and MPs mobilized the military and financial technologies of colonization to support Parliament’s war against Charles I, their …

Illness Intrusiveness And Psychosocial Adjustment Among Older Adults With Multimorbidity, Irina Mindlis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given the high prevalence of multimorbidity (MM) among older adults and the exponential growth of the older adult U.S. population, identifying factors that can lessen depressive symptoms and improve quality of life (QOL) in this population is timely and important. While it is well established that MM is associated with greater depressive symptoms and poorer QOL (Li et al., 2016; Makovski et al., 2019; Marengoni et al., 2011; Read et al., 2017), the mechanisms underlying these relationships remain understudied. The illness intrusiveness model (Devins et al., 1984) proposes that stressors posed by diseases (disease-related factors) and their treatments (treatment-related factors) …

Social And Cultural Processes That Impact Physical Activity Among South Asian Americans Managing Hypertension: A Mixed Methods Study, Sugandha Gupta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the number one cause of death in the U.S., disproportionately affects South Asian Americans (SAAs). Physical activity is a modifiable health behavior that can reduce cardiovascular risk. Health behaviors, such as physical activity, occur within specific social and cultural contexts and are influenced by multiple factors at multiple levels of the social ecological model. This dissertation aimed to provide a rich, culturally-informed understanding of the factors at multiple levels – individual, interpersonal, and cultural –associated with physical activity among SAAs at risk for CVD. A sequential exploratory mixed methods approach was employed to examine social and cultural …

A Difference Of One's Own: Race, Sex, Modernism, Ryan L. Tracy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“A Difference of One’s Own” demonstrates that deconstructive conceptions of race lie at the heart of the modernist canon’s experimental representations of selfhood. Drawing on recent and canonical scholarship in Modernist Studies, Black Studies, Deconstruction, Queer Theory, Critical Theory, and Feminist Studies, I look at moments in modernist-era literature where the need to represent racial blackness, whether as a descriptor that defines one’s self-identity or the identity of another person, fails to draw a coherent line of difference between people, communities, selves, and importantly, the literatures that are thought to adhere to hard and fast racial distinctions. “Part I: …

Magnetically-Driven Therapeutic Agents Delivery System Using Iron Oxide Nanocages And Enhancement Of Exosome Secretion, A Potential Biological Drug Delivery Carrier, Min A Kang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nano-scale particles have attracted research attention due to their differences in properties such as penetration, circulation, and toxicity compared to bulk materials. This thesis mainly focused on using 20 nm iron oxide nanoparticles as siRNA delivery carriers under the alternating magnetic field and the development of a method to amplify the secretion of 150 nm exosomes from the cells, which could potentially use as a biological drug carrier.

Chapter 2 discusses a magnetically driven nanoparticle therapeutic agent delivery system, which efficiently modified the gene expression post-transcriptionally. In this work, we examined whether the caged-shaped 20nm iron oxide nanoparticles (IO-nanocages) can …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Polymer-Based Complex Nanomaterials, Prashun G. Roy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The original research work in this dissertation is about the use of polymers in two significantly important areas. One involves creating mesoporous silica materials with various morphologies using a mixed Pluronic surfactant system made up of two poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) surfactants, one of which contains long hydrophilic (PEO) blocks and the other has a significantly higher proportion of hydrophobic PPO . In addition, a glucose responsive core-shell type microgel was also developed for shifting the glucose responsive volume phase transition by using polymeric nanomaterials.

Chapter 1 of the dissertation discussed some historical background of synthesis and uses of …

Kinetics Of Photochemical And Mechanochemical Organic Reactions On Surface, Yerzhan Zholdassov

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Solvents used in traditional chemical processes account for a large percentage of reaction mass and waste and can pose significant environmental and health risks. The environmentally friendly nature of mechanochemistry, in addition to other benefits, makes it a promising approach for sustainable chemistry over traditional solvent-based methods. However, it is still not a widely adopted method for performing chemical reactions on an industrial scale. This is partially due to the significant challenge associated with understanding the reaction kinetics under mechanochemical conditions. Many variations of scanning probe lithography (SPL) techniques are able to manipulate the organic molecules with precise control over …

Uncertainties In Retrieval Of Remote Sensing Reflectance From Ocean Color Satellite Observations, Eder I. Herrera Estrella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ocean Color radiometry uses remote sensing to interpret ocean dynamics by retrieving remote sensing reflectance (������) from satellite imagery at different scales and over different time periods. ������ spectrum characterizes the ocean color that we observe, and from which we can discern concentrations of chlorophyll, organic and inorganic particles, and carbon fluxes in the ocean and atmosphere. ������ is derived from the total radiance at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). However, it only represents up to ten percent of the total signal. Hence, the retrieval of ������ from the total radiance at TOA involves the application of atmospheric correction …

Situating The Child’S Voice Within Children’S Fashion: An Interdisciplinary Examination Of The Child’S Engagement With The Clothing They Wear, Melinda Byam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper examines the child’s relationship with children’s fashion, the clothing they wear, and their fashion consumption practices. Using a wardrobe approach to fashion, and an understanding of the child as the expert in their own lives, the author questions how the child engages, interacts, and experiences children’s fashion considering that how they use, think, and speak about their clothing is minimally consulted. Situating this research within a theoretical foundation set by Goffman and Simmel (social behavior), Featherstone (consumer culture), and Merleau-Ponty and Entwistle (embodiment), this text examines fashion from the point of view of the child, hypothesizing how future …

Understanding Victim-Offender Overlap Among Youth In Custody In The United States And Taiwan, Tzu-Ying Lo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The issue of the victim-offender overlap was identified more than 60 years ago (Wolfgang, 1958), but it was not until the last decade that research interest in the victim-offender overlap began to flourish. Although the victim-offender overlap is arguably established by a substantial body of research, a closer look at the existing literature will find scant attention paid to the incarcerated population. Recent studies (Daquin & Daigle, 2020; Kuo et al., 2021; Toman, 2017) have begun to discover the victim-offender overlap in adult prisons, but the victim-offender overlap in juvenile facilities remains underexplored. To fill the research gap, this dissertation …

An Affective Technology Of Heimat: Whiteness, Nation Building And Social Media In Germany, Friederike Windel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examined the patterns of attachments and affective investments in Whiteness, objectifications, and exclusions entrenched in the construct of Heimat, which is broadly defined as “homeland” in German-speaking contexts. It used computational social science and discourse analytical methods to analyze how Heimat was discussed, embodied, and made sense of in affective ways. Sitting at the intersections of critical psychology, critical race and feminist theory, and Heimat scholarship, this research asked how Heimat functions affectively to (re)produce and maintain ideologies like white supremacy and nationalism.

Using Structural Topic Modeling on a big Twitter dataset (611,609), I estimated a model …

Confronting The Doppelganger: Mapping The Ontological Terrain Of An Afro-Caribbean Woman As She Rebrands Diasporic, Feminine Identity Politics: An Autoethnography, Aysha E. Todd-Stone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis seeks to interrogate the intricacies governing the intra-racial\ intra-gendered relationship of an Afro-Trinidadian woman as she commandeers professional spaces in North America. The intent is to challenge the instrument of Black sisterhood deeming it as an incomplete, social instrument, and to prove using an auto-ethnographic approach how Diasporic, feminine trauma leads to psychically induced, episodic violence that is highly suggestive but subtle to the naked eye which in turn irretrievably damages intra-interpersonal relations. Quantitative studies have produced a composite from the white\black perspective (Goosby et al., 2015, Sims et al., 2012) and others dealing with gender (Braithwaite., 1981, …