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Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda December 7, 2023, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Meeting Agendas

No abstract provided.

Creating A Surname Lexicon For Historical U.S. Records, Spencer Keith Timmerman

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

We develop a method for creating a lexicon of all correctly spelled surnames in historical US records. We focus specially on the full-count 1850-1940 census records which include over 10 million unique spellings in the surname field. We use links across multiple census records to identify the correct spellings of the surname transcriptions.

Pipeline (2023), Dominique Morisseau

Season 2023-2024

No abstract provided.

Chronic Jet Lag Alters Gut Microbiome And Mycobiome And Promotes The Progression Of Mafld In Hfhfd-Fed Mice, Ruoyi Zheng, Xingwei Xiang, Ying Shi, Anqi Qiu, Xin Luo, Junyan Xie, Ryan D. Russell, Dongmei Zhang

Health & Human Performance Faculty Publications

Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide. Circadian disruptors, such as chronic jet lag (CJ), may be new risk factors for MAFLD development. However, the roles of CJ on MAFLD are insufficiently understood, with mechanisms remaining elusive. Studies suggest a link between gut microbiome dysbiosis and MAFLD, but most of the studies are mainly focused on gut bacteria, ignoring other components of gut microbes, such as gut fungi (mycobiome), and few studies have addressed the rhythm of the gut fungi. This study explored the effects of CJ on MAFLD and its related microbiotic …

International Phd Student's Educational Journey Culminates At Uab, Micah Hardge

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis: Radiological And Microbiological Profile Of Patients Presented In An Outpatient Pulmonary Clinic In A Developing Country, Nousheen Iqbal, Muhammad Irfan, Mustafa Bin Ali Zubairi, Maaha Ayub, Safia Awan, Kauser Jabeen, Ali Bin Sarwar Zubairi

Section of Pulmonary & Critical Care

There is limited data available about allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) in Pakistan. The aim of the study was to describe the radiological and microbiological profile of ABPA patients presenting to the outpatient pulmonary clinic of a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. A retrospective study was conducted on ABPA patients who presented to the pulmonary outpatient clinic at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, from January 2017 to December 2019. Data was collected on microbiology and radiology features on predesigned proforma. A total of 7759 asthmatic patients presented at the outpatient pulmonology clinic during the study period. Of the 245 …

A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of Recent Randomized Controlled Trials Evaluating Effects Of Psychosocial Interventions On Perinatal Depression, Anisha Satish

Theses and Dissertations

Depression is among the most common and burdensome health problems affecting pregnancy and the first-year postpartum (collectively, the perinatal period). Prior quantitative reviews have established both the overall efficacy of psychosocial interventions for perinatal depression and benefits of specific approaches. However, there are important knowledge gaps. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of peer-reviewed articles published from 2021 and 2022 describing randomized controlled trials evaluating psychosocial interventions for perinatal depression. We aimed to evaluate the durability of intervention benefits, whether effects differ when interventions are embedded within medical settings, and whether effects differ across trials using mental health professionals …

Tribal Sovereignty Preempted, Michael Doran

Brooklyn Law Review

In June of 2022, the US Supreme Court held in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that a state may prosecute a non-Indian for a crime committed against an Indian within Indian country. That decision effectively overruled Worcester v. Georgia, an 1832 landmark case in which Chief Justice Marshall said that state law “can have no force” in Indian country. Although the conventional wisdom about Castro-Huerta sees the case as a radical departure from first principles of federal Indian law, this article argues that Castro-Huerta is the natural—although deeply deplorable—next step in a long line of Supreme Court cases expanding state governmental authority …

Political Polarization In America: Its Impact On Industrial Democracy And Labor Law, Leonard Bierman, Rafael Gely

Brooklyn Law Review

By virtually all accounts, American society has become increasingly polarized during the past couple of decades. Indeed, the degree of political polarization on issues such as voting rights, gun control, abortion rights, and COVID vaccines has been so extreme that political scientists have worried about whether the conditions necessary for the United States to maintain a democratic society have broken down. This article examines this issue in the context of federal labor law and labor relations. It argues that American labor law is framed around an "industrial democracy narrative" that is today being sharply threatened by extant political polarization. It …

Rise Of The Machines: The Future Of Intellectual Property Rights In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Sofia Vescovo

Brooklyn Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not new to generating outputs considered suitable for intellectual property (IP) protection. However, recent technological advancements have made it possible for AI to transform from a mere tool used to assist in developing IP to the mind behind novel artistic works and inventions. One particular AI, DABUS, has done just so. Yet, while technology has advanced, IP law has not. This note sets out to provide a solution to the legal concerns raised by AI in IP law, specifically in the context of AI authorship and inventorship. The DABUS test case offers a model framework for …

Order Of Protection Or Deportation? How Civil Orders Of Protection Entangle Noncitizens And Their Families In The Immigration And Criminal Legal Systems, Creating The Harm That They Were Intended To Prevent., Sarah E. Corsico

Brooklyn Law Review

A civil protection order can act as an important form of relief for an individual experiencing violence; however, it can also bring extreme complications and consequences for noncitizens. Unlike its intended purpose as a remedy separate from punitive state systems, civil protection orders can replicate the harm of the criminal legal system for noncitizens—barring someone from gaining immigration status, delaying applications, impacting international travel, and at its worst, resulting in deportation. Despite the high stakes nature of these proceeding, for the most part, there is no right to assigned counsel in civil protection order cases. As a result, many individuals …

Kneecapping Scalping: Ending The Predatory Scourge Plaguing E-Commerce Using Unfair Practice Frameworks, Zachary Michael Elvove

Brooklyn Law Review

Concert goers and sports fans are no longer the only people forced to pay absurdly marked up prices. From baby formula to video game consoles, scalping dominates the sale of goods online. Yet existing frameworks for antiscalping—specifically their relentless focus on tickets, bots, and hidden fees—fundamentally fail to address the parasitic profiteering that underpins scalping in the modern economy. We cannot understand the scope of harms posed by pernicious online resale if we focus purely on the minutiae of ticket markets and technological exploitation—the sheer number of industries affected by scalping and size of the market failure it causes demand …

First Amendment Scrutiny: Realigning First Amendment Doctrine Around Government Interests, John Inazu

Brooklyn Law Review

This article proposes a simpler way to frame judicial analysis of First Amendment claims: a government restriction on First Amendment expression or action must advance a compelling interest through narrowly tailored means and must not excessively burden the expression or action relative to the interest advanced. The test thus has three prongs: (1) compelling interest; (2) narrow tailoring; and (3) proportionality. Part I explores how current First Amendment doctrine too often minimizes or ignores a meaningful assessment of the government’s purported interest in limiting First Amendment liberties. Part II shows how First Amendment inquiry is further confused by threshold inquiries …

Gang Accusations: The Beast That Burdens Noncitizens, Mary Holper

Brooklyn Law Review

This article examines evidence that the government presents in deportation proceedings against young men of color to prove that they are gang members. The gang evidence results in detention, deportation, adverse credibility decisions, and denial of discretionary relief. This article examines the gang evidence through the lens of the law’s use of presumptions and the corresponding burdens of proof at play in immigration proceedings. The immigration burden allocations allow adjudicators to readily accept the harmful presumption contained in the gang evidence—that urban youth of color are criminals and likely to engage in violent crime associated with gangs. The article seeks …

Identity Crisis: First Amendment Implications Of State Identification Card And Driver’S License Branding For Registered Sex Offenders, Marina D. Barron

Brooklyn Law Review

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act has been criticized since its inception as excessively punitive, a poor means of preventing sex crimes, and an invasion of basic privacy rights. There are currently eight states that require registered sex offenders to carry branded identification cards (IDs) that mark their registrant status. These markings range anywhere from a letter or symbol on the face of the card, to the words “SEXUAL OFFENDER” or “SEXUAL PREDATOR” in bright red or orange letters. Registrants are forced to share this private and harmful information to the unknowing and presumably uninterested public, including pharmacists, hotel …

Moody V. Netchoice, Llc: Amici Brief Of National Security Experts On Behalf Of Neither Party, Barbara Mcquade

Appellate Briefs

Amici represent a broad cross-section of the national security community and have significant operational and policy expertise in combatting terrorism. They include former career and politically appointed officials, across Republican and Democratic administrations, from the National Security Council staff, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Defense, and Department of State, as well as former members of Congress with national security credentials and other national security experts. A complete list of amici is included in the Appendix.< \p>

As experienced national security experts, prosecutors, …

Liquid Biopsy: From Concept To Clinical Application, Catherine Alix-Panabières, Dario Marchetti, Julie E. Lang

Pathology Research and Scholarship

The diagnosis and treatment of cancer presents a physical and mental burden to the patient, often involving diagnostic biopsies and surgeries or chemotherapeutic approaches with severe side-effects. Advances which enable early detection of cancer and close monitoring of the disease course without invasive procedures, and which can underpin a tailored approach to treatment, can therefore make a big difference to the quality of life of patients. Liquid biopsies can be used to access tumor cells and tumor DNA circulating in the blood. Monitoring these species can provide a minimally invasive and repeatable means to detect cancer, or gain information about …

Duree Center For Entrepreneurship Receives Regional Node Planning Grant, Lindenwood University

Archived Lindenwood Press Releases

No abstract provided.

2023 December 7 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

Quantification Of Intervertebral Disc Strain From High-Resolution Ultrasound Imaging During Dynamic Loading, Diya Sakhrani

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

High-resolution ultrasound imaging employs high-frequency sound waves that can be used to noninvasively visualize the structures within the body, facilitating medical diagnosis without the need for open surgery. The widespread utilization of ultrasound is attributed to its affordability, non-invasive characteristics, and use of non-ionizing radiation. Nevertheless, ultrasound is prone to artifacts originating from the surrounding environment, gas-liquid interfaces, or dense tissue. These artifacts are common in ultrasound images and can cause dropout, noise, and degraded resolution. In this study we analyzed intervertebral disc (IVD) strain during two axial compression testing cycles of bovine intervertebral discs with a 2-dimensional direct deformation …

Deep Learning Approaches For Chaotic Dynamics And High-Resolution Weather Simulations In The Us Midwest, Vlada Volyanskaya, Kabir Batra, Shubham Shrivastava

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Weather prediction is indispensable across various sectors, from agriculture to disaster forecasting, deeply influencing daily life and work. Recent advancement of AI foundation models for weather and climate predictions makes it possible to perform a large number of predictions in reasonable time to support timesensitive policy- and decision-making. However, the uncertainty quantification, validation, and attribution of these models have not been well explored, and the lack of knowledge can eventually hinder the improvement of their prediction accuracy and precision. Our project is embarking on a two-fold approach leveraging deep learning techniques (LSTM and Transformer) architectures. Firstly, we model the Lorenz …

Leucine Lock: An Amplified Rapid Antigen Detection System, Matthew David Goff

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19, influenza, and blood analytes currently have many drawbacks. They vary greatly in accuracy, are expensive to manufacture, and can be insufficiently sensitive to small antigen loads. Leucine lock is designed to rectify these issues that exist in current rapid diagnostics by creating a rapid antigen test with minimal background activity, tunable sensitivity, and low manufacturing cost. Leucine lock consists of a novel leucine zipper containing an intramolecular hairpin, an ScFv antigen binding domain, and a fluorophore reporter in a FRET combination. By altering the number of hydrophobic and electrostatic mismatches in the intramolecular hairpin, as …

Drop Retention And Departure In Shear Flow On Structured Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Blake Morgan Lyons

Theses and Dissertations

Water is often found adhering to surfaces in droplet form. Droplets can develop as a result of precipitation, condensation, or chemical reactions. Drops are retained or held on a surface due to a retention force exerted on the drop by the surface. This retention force is a function of the surface tension of the liquid, drop geometry, and the contact angle between the drop and the surface. When external or body forces exceed this retention force the drop begins to move. This thesis seeks to understand and quantify the forces present at the point of droplet departure once it begins …

The Role Of Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2d In Beta-Cells: Implications For Glucose Homeostasis And Cell Survival, Jacqueline Elise Crabtree

Theses and Dissertations

Myocyte Enhancer Factor 2D (Mef2D) is a member of the Mef2 family. As a transcription factor, Mef2D regulates the expression of genes that impinge on cellular viability, tissue development, and fuel metabolism. Interestingly, Mef2D function appears to be tissue dependent. The function of Mef2D appears to be tissue-specific, with differences in activity in the immune system, neuronal tissue, and muscle. Here, we review the published literature describing the role of Mef2D across tissues. Little is known about the role of Mef2D in the beta-cell. To determine the function of Mef2D in the beta-cell, we built overexpression and knockdown cell lines. …

Development Of A Submerged Hydraulic Jump Prediction Method Using Documented Fatal Incidents At Low-Head Dams, Caleb Mccurry

Theses and Dissertations

Low-head dams are known to be dangerous due to a recirculating current that, when formed, drowns recreationalists who become trapped in the current. Efforts to mitigate the hazard of low-head dams have led to the compilation of a database of low-head dams with proven fatalities. Additionally, flume-based experiments along with well-known hydraulic equations have been used to create a spreadsheet-based system for predicting the occurrence of the dangerous recirculating current, otherwise known as a submerged hydraulic jump. The premise of the spreadsheet is that if the normal depth calculated with the Mannings Equation for the downstream reach is between the …

The Effect Of Percussive Massage On The Maintenance Of Skeletal Muscle Health During Limb Unloading, Mohadeseh Ahmadi

Theses and Dissertations

A period of skeletal muscle disuse leads to muscle mass and strength loss and compromised metabolic health. Several studies suggest that passive mechanical stimulation may protect against the detrimental effects of disuse in skeletal muscle. This study assessed the effect of the twice-daily application of percussive massage in mitigating the adverse effects of muscle disuse during ten days of leg unloading. Seventeen participants (7 women and 10 men; 18-35 yrs.) were randomly assigned to either control or massage groups, both undergoing leg unloading. The data revealed that both groups similarly experienced significant reductions in muscle strength (-14%±5.9; p<.0001), quadriceps volume (-4.2%±2.8; p<.0001), myofiber cross-sectional area (-8.2%±1.8; p<.0001), and maximal mitochondrial respiration (-20%±9.1; p<.0001). Fatty acid-supported respiration decreased in the control group (-30.4±18.5%; p= 0.0008) and remained unchanged in the massage group. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) flux normalized to oxygen consumption exhibited a significant interaction between group and time, particularly in the absence of ADP, where H2O2 flux increased only in the control group (control: 29.9±26.5%, massage: -13±22.6%; p=0.01). There was no change in the H2O2 flux after the addition of ADP. In conclusion, ten days of limb unloading resulted in diminished muscle size, strength, and mitochondrial respiration. Percussive massage was insufficient to prevent the loss of muscle mass, force production, or carbohydrate-supported respiration. However, it exhibited potential protective effects against the decline in mitochondrial fatty acid-supported respiration.

Managing Behavior In Middle School Special Education Classrooms Using Cw-Fit Ms: A Single Subject Study, Kelsey Ann Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Teachers have the responsibility of managing the behavior in their classrooms. The positive effects of evidence-based classroom management methods, like Class-Wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT), have been generalized to a variety of classroom settings, among a range of ages and types of classes; however, the literature on its efficacy in special education classrooms is scarce. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of CW-FIT in special education classrooms at a middle school. Two teachers of eighth grade special education math classes chose to participate in the study. One teacher alternated between using an audible and inaudible timer, …

View Dependent Simplification And Tessellation For Real-Time High Quality Rendering Of 3d Meshes, Dallin M. Hagman

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing complexity of 3D meshes and growing disparity in performance between high and low-end hardware necessitates more efficient rendering techniques that do not sacrifice visual quality. To support as many hardware configurations as possible, producers of 3D content provide several resolutions of each mesh. Low-end hardware is typically restricted to low-resolution meshes to maintain performance similar to their high-end counterparts, sacrificing visual appeal. However, the presence of hardware tessellation in nearly all modern GPUs presents the opportunity to render high-resolution versions of simplified meshes on low-end hardware with little computational cost. Some research has been conducted into this opportunity, …

The Effectiveness Of A Signature Strengths Intervention On Maternal Well-Being Among Mothers Of Children With Autism, Tawni Nicole Poole

Theses and Dissertations

Mothers of children with autism face unique challenges that can negatively impact their well-being. Frequently, these challenges require elevated amounts of time, energy, and money to address. In an effort to investigate a low-demand approach to improving well-being, this study employed a signature strengths intervention with mothers of children with autism. Thus far, research on signature strengths with this specific population is very limited. Five mothers of children with autism participated in the study. All were married and highly educated. Four identified themselves as white, one as Hispanic. They ranged in age from 25-44. Each mother had between one and …

Understanding The Process Of Persistence In Non-Traditional Adult Education Students, Stephanie Nuttall Patton

Theses and Dissertations

In the state of Utah, adult education students often leave their programs before 100 hours of instruction. This can leave students without the necessary academic knowledge, skills, and credentials to move forward with postsecondary education and training or employment opportunities. This phenomenological study examines the key factors of persistence in non-traditional students ages 25 and over in an urban adult education program who continued beyond 100 hours of instruction. Fourteen students were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol to identify factors that caused them to stay in an adult education program. The interviews with students examined dispositional, institutional, situational, and …