Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Mindfulness On Student Engagement: During And After The Covid-19 Global Pandemic, Michelle Mendiola

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of educational leaders who incorporated mindfulness practices (MFP) student engagement (SE) in their classrooms during and after the COVID-19 global pandemic, utilizing hermeneutic phenomenology and bracketing as research methodologies. The study aimed to understand how these leaders' use of mindfulness impacted student engagement in both online and in-person learning environments. Drawing on semi-structured qualitative interviews, the research examined how mindfulness practices were adapted in response to the unique challenges posed by remote education during the pandemic and how these adaptations have persisted or evolved in post-pandemic teaching. Key findings reveal that mindfulness not …

Nutraceutical Supplement Mitigates Insulin Resistance In Horses With A History Of Insulin Dysregulation During A Challenge With A High-Starch Diet, Caroline Loos, Annette Castelein, Eric Vanzant, Emma Adam, Kyle R. Mcleod

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Insulin dysregulation (ID) is associated with an increased risk of laminitis which often necessitates the need for clinical intervention. To test the contention that the prophylactic supplementation of nutraceuticals could mitigate ID in susceptible horses, 16 mature horses with a history of ID were supplemented with either the placebo (n = 8) or nutraceutical (n = 8) once daily. Horses were housed in dry lots with ad libitum access to grass hay and fed a concentrate twice daily to provide 0.5 g starch/kg BW/meal. A combined glucose–insulin tolerance test was performed on all horses before and after 4 weeks of …

Investigating The Link Between Over-The-Counter Pain Medication Use And Hypertension Risk, Maheen Zahidi, Saira Saeed Khan, Sadaf Naeem, Anosh Tahir, Gufran Ullah Khan, Maryam Mehmood, Afshan Bano

The Thai Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Background: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), both non-selective and selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors, are among the most widely prescribed drugs worldwide. NSAIDs alter renal function if given in high enough doses, reducing renal blood flow and the glomerular filtration rate and causing sodium retention. An issue of interest is the association between the consumption of self-medicated over-the-counter (OTC) drugs analgesics, specifically NSAIDs and hypertension (HTN), which is considered as a cardiovascular risk factor. Objectives: This research aims to establish the relationship between the frequent use of OTC NSAIDs and an increased risk of hypertensive disease, emphasizing the implications of …

Addressing The Teen Mom Situation In Thailand: A Systematic Review On Challenges, Initiatives And Recommendations For Improvement, Junkkrit Wunggrath, Phinphot Phrommasen, Wanchalerm Ritthimon

Jurnal Keperawatan Indonesia

Teenage pregnancy in Thailand poses significant public health challenges with implications for societal welfare and economic development. This systematic review analyzed the challenges faced by teenage mothers in Thailand, evaluated existing initiatives, and proposed evidence-based recommendations. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using the Scopus and Web of Science databases and others focusing on literature from 2016 to 2023. Keywords included “teenage pregnancy,” “teen mom,” “unwanted pregnancy,” and “unintended pregnancy” resulting in the selection of 36 studies. The PRISMA framework was followed to ensure a systematic approach. Data extraction focused on societal, educational, economic, and health-related challenges as well as …

Hungry Again, Casey Gao, Special Collections, Fleet Library

11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2025

Entry for the 11th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening reception and award ceremony Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 6:30pm, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Roger S. Williams.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea And Obesity: How Weight Loss Improves Sleep Apnea Severity And Quality Of Life - An Integrative Review, Hannah Wilson, Neda Akbarshahi

Master's Projects

Introduction: With the growing prevalence of OSA due to the obesity epidemic, there is an urgent need to update treatment regimens. While CPAP continues to be the gold standard of OSA care, challenges with adherence and limited access to effective weight management strategies often impede care. The complex bidirectional relationship between obesity and OSA highlights the importance of addressing weight management in this patient population to help mitigate cardiometabolic risks. Personalized weight loss therapies should be integrated into standard OSA treatment regimens to reduce OSA severity, reduce comorbid conditions, and improve quality of life.

Aim: The objective of this integrative …

Victory Gardens: Helping On The Home Front, A Curriculum Outreach Project, Kelly Hoomes

Master's Theses

The Victory Garden: Helping on the Homefront traveling trunk outreach project links past, present, and future by introducing students to the historical significance of World War II victory gardens and emphasizing the continued relevance today. Partnering with Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education (MHHE), the traveling trunk focuses on a fifth-grade audience, aligning with Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies, Health, and Science. The traveling trunk designed as a “museum-in-a-box" includes primary sources, artifacts, and a practical gardening activity that fosters critical thinking and analysis. By encouraging an understanding of the past and the connections to …

The Relationship Between Chute Behavior And Morbidity In Cattle, Andrea Rankin

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Most cattle see a handling chute at least once in their lives. Handling plays a huge role in cattle management, whether it’s for transportation, auction sales, deworming, medical treatments, or AI purposes. Morbidity related to Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) is one of the biggest causes of economic loss for ranchers and can be related to handling stress. Auction-derived calves (ADC; n=92) were brought to the University of Arkansas Savoy Research Facility for processing and monitoring for behavioral cues and disease. The objective of this study was to find a relationship between the calves’ behavior in the chute and morbidity. The …

Foster Care, Substance Use, And Social Determinants Of Health In South Carolina: A Geographic Approach, Patricia Carbajales-Dale

All Dissertations

Foster care is a critical intervention for vulnerable children, with approximately 400,000 children entering the system annually in the United States. Parental substance use, second only to neglect, is now a leading cause of foster care entry. While previous research has explored the relationship between socioeconomic factors and foster care, few studies have incorporated spatial approaches at the neighborhood level to understand how factors such as economic inequality, healthcare disparities, and substance use influence foster care entries. This study addresses that gap by integrating spatial analysis and machine learning techniques to examine the geographic and social dynamics underlying foster care …

Advancing Substance Use Disorder Treatment Using Genomics And Metabolomics, Lindsey Contella

All Dissertations

Advancing our understanding of genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors in substance use disorder (SUD) could lead to more effective therapies. In 2022, 16.5% of the U.S. population was diagnosed with SUD, yet current treatments lack efficacy for all patients, making a precision medicine approach crucial. This dissertation explores SUD's relationship with tryptophan (TRP) metabolism through the kynurenine pathway (KP) as a potential therapeutic target. Chapter I reviews current knowledge on SUD and KP. Chapter II identifies how SUD alters KP metabolite concentrations, identifying a reduced concentration of the neuroprotective metabolite, kynurenic acid (KA) and elevated concentrations of the neurotoxic metabolite, …

Insights Into Malaria Vectors–Plant Interaction In A Dryland Ecosystem, Fiona Kinya, Trizah K. Milugo, Clifford M. Mutero, Charles S. Wondji, Baldwyn Torto, David P. Tchouassi

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Improved understanding of mosquito–plant feeding interactions can reveal insights into the ecological dynamics of pathogen transmission. In wild malaria vectors Anopheles gambiae s.l. and An. funestus group surveyed in selected dryland ecosystems of Kenya, we found a low level of plant feeding (2.8%) using biochemical cold anthrone test but uncovered 14-fold (41%) higher rate via DNA barcoding targeting the chloroplast rbcL gene. Plasmodium falciparum positivity was associated with either reduced or increased total sugar levels and varied by mosquito species. Gut analysis revealed the mosquitoes to frequently feed on acacia plants (~ 89%) (mainly Vachellia tortilis) in the family Fabaceae. …

Promoting Adolescent Mental And Physical Health: Initiatives Focused On Connecting Public Health And Social Services To The Health Sector In Nebraska, Theresa Nguyen

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

This capstone focuses on the second recommendation of improving access to comprehensive, coordinated health services from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth (2019). This proposal uses secondary data from the research project, Moving Evidence-Based Recommendations to Practice to Strengthen the Health Care System in Nebraska. Key stakeholders (n=28) were interviewed from the health care, public health, social services, and policy sectors. Each subject was asked to participate in a semi-structured interview by a trained interviewer. The interview was 1 hour long and conducted via phone call or Zoom. …

Closing Gaps To Address Lifespan Health: Considerations For Developing A Preconception Healthcare Training For Community Health Workers, Jaclyn R. Vancamp

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers who are embedded in their own communities and as linkages to care, decreasing health disparities for underserved individuals. The goal of this capstone project was to identify Michigan CHWs' knowledge gaps in the area of preconception healthcare. Through administering a training needs assessment to a sample of community health workers, the goal was to characterize knowledge gaps and make recommendations about what type of training would be most useful to them. The results of this needs assessment showed that the general state of self-reported knowledge about preconcept health among Michigan community …

Understanding And Mitigating The Potential Effects Of Postpartum Depression On Fathers And Male Support Persons, Rachel Norton-Turk

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Background. During the postpartum period, best practices dictate that medical professionals screen new mothers or birthing persons for anxiety and depression and direct them to the appropriate resources and services they may need. This qualitative study explored the steps being taken to identify depression and anxiety concerns in male support partners during the postpartum period and to understand what resources are being brought to their attention if depression and anxiety are identified. Methods. A convenience sample of male support persons participated in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews either in-person or over Zoom between September and October 2024. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, …

Roger Williams University 2024 President's Report: A Message From President Miaoulis, Roger Williams University

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Influence Of Native And Invasive Grasses On The Behavior Of Aedes Aegypti In South Texas, Emily Medelez

Theses and Dissertations

Invasive grasses in South Texas can have widespread negative effects, displacing native species, reducing biodiversity, and posing risks to public health. These grasses may flourish in moist, shaded environments, which not only support their growth but also creates habitats favorable for mosquito activity. This can increase the population and alter the behavior of mosquitoes, potentially raising the risk of disease transmission. In this thesis, I look at the behavior of mosquito species Aedes aegypti, primary vector of the yellow fever virus. I analyzed the influence of oviposition, flight and resting behaviors. I tested the relative attraction of Aedes mosquitoes …

Using High-Pressure Processing To Improve The Quality Of Dark-Cutting Beef, Ashley A. Hahn

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Previous studies have shown high-pressure processing (HPP) can be utilized to improve lean color of dark-cutting beef color by increasing the lightness and redness of steaks. However, the optimal parameters of length of time product is held under pressure and at which pressure must be applied have yet to be fully defined. Furthermore, the impact of HPP on color labile muscles in dark-cutting beef are currently unknown. Therefore, two studies were designed and specific efforts were focused on first defining optimal parameters for color stable muscles, followed by determining the effect of HPP on dark-cutting color labile muscles.

In the …

Examining Factors Of Variance In Energy Metabolism Of Dairy Cattle, Addison L. Carroll

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Variation is thought to occur in the use of dietary energy for production in dairy cattle. First, variance can be observed when new methane mitigation strategies are fed resulting in increased H₂ output potentially resulting in downstream effects on estimates of heat production via the Brouwer (1965) equation. Therefore, in chapter 3 a review was created to systematically describe the mathematics and theory behind the Brouwer equation, and rederive a heat production equation to integrate H₂ production. Results indicate heat production using the classical Brouwer equation (1965) relative to the rederived equation resulted in an overestimation of heat …

Impacts Of Annual Forage Management On Grazing Cattle Performance And Carrying Capacity, Shelby Davies Jenkins

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Rapid conversion of historical grasslands to cropland in recent history has led to limited perennial pasture availability and an increase in cost of pasture rent. Annual forages are an alternative grazing source. Many annual forages can grow and accumulate stockpile following summer harvest of wheat. Strip grazing is often suggested to increase grazing efficiency of stockpiled forages. To evaluate this, a stockpiled mixture of annual forages were either strip grazed or grazed continuously in the fall and winter. The mixture contained oats and rapeseed in the first year and a diverse warm season annual mixture in the second. Strip grazing …

Pathway-Based Clustering Identifies Two Subtypes Of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Associated With Distinct Molecular And Clinical Features In Pancreatic Ductal Carcinoma, Hongjing Ai, Rongfang Nie, Xiaosheng Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Existing single-cell clustering methods are based on gene expressions that are susceptible to dropout events in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data. To overcome this limitation, we proposed a pathway-based clustering method for single cells (scPathClus). scPathClus first transforms single-cell gene expression matrix into pathway enrichment matrix and generates its latent feature matrix. Based on the latent feature matrix, scPathClus clusters single cells using the method of community detection. Applying scPathClus to PDAC scRNA-seq datasets, we identified two types of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), termed csCAFs and gapCAFs, which highly expressed complement system and gap junction-related pathways, respectively. Spatial transcriptome analysis revealed …

Association Of Late Eating With Colorectal Adenomas: A Cross-Sectional Study, Darbaz Adnan, Edena R Khoshaba, Mostafa Abel-Reheem, Jonathan Q Trinh, Yin Cao, Faraz Bishehsari

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is linked to lifestyle exposures. However, changes in the CRC rates among younger populations remain poorly understood and suggest the existence of yet unidentified factor(s) that may contribute to colon carcinogenesis. Here, we investigated the potential role of time of eating in the risk of pre-cancerous colonic neoplasms (tubular adenoma: TA).

Methods: We enrolled 663 participants undergoing screening colonoscopies. Data on food timing, dietary intake, sleep/wake patterns, and chronotype were collected through structured questionnaires. Late eating was defined as the consumption of food or snack within a 3-hour window of sleep onset for at least four …

Compensation For Metabolic Dietitians Practicing In The United States: 2023 Genetic Metabolic Dietitians International Professional Status Survey, Krista Viau, Sommer Gaughan, Jessica Kopesky, Beth Ogata, Heather Saavedra, Mary Sowa, Erin Macleod

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Genetic Metabolic Dietitians International (GMDI) conducted a professional status survey of metabolic dietitians working in the United States to describe job satisfaction and establish salary and compensation benchmarks specific to metabolic dietitians.

Methods: The survey was anonymously administered in a web-based format via REDCap between October and November 2023. Registered dietitians working with inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) were eligible to participate.

Results: A total of 178 surveys were received and 147 were included in the final analysis. Most respondents were female (96 %), worked in a clinical setting (83 %), and held a graduate degree (75 %), while …

Systolic Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Health, And Neurocognition In Adolescents., Stephen R Hooper, Marc B Lande, Joseph T Flynn, Coral D Hanevold, Kevin E Meyers, Joshua Samuels, Richard C Becker, Stephen R Daniels, Bonita E Falkner, Michael A Ferguson, Julie R Ingelfinger, Lisa J Martin, Mark Mitsnefes, Phillip Khoury, Jangdong Seo, Elaine M Urbina

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: We studied whether increased systolic blood pressure (SBP), as determined by auscultatory SBP, ambulatory SBP, and the number of cardiovascular health risk indicators, are associated with neurocognition in adolescents.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 365 adolescents (mean age, 15.5 years) from 6 academic medical centers in the United States. The sample was 59.5% male, 52.6% White, with 23.9% of the caregivers having less than or equal to a high school degree. Primary exposures included the following: auscultatory SBP, ambulatory SBP, and the number of cardiovascular risk factors. Neurocognitive outcomes comprised nonverbal IQ, attention, and parent ratings of executive functions. …

Hunting For Heroes: Brain Neurons Mediating Glp-1r Agonists In Obesity Treatment, Yuhan Cao, Qingchun Tong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) have proven to be highly effective in reducing obesity across species and ages, gaining unmet popularity in clinical treatments against obesity. Although extensive research efforts have been made to explore how the brain regulates body weight homeostasis including the effect brought up by GLP-1 and its synthetic analogs GLP-1RAs, the identity of neurons and neural pathways that are responsible for the observed anti-obesity effect of GLP-1RAs remain largely elusive. Excitingly, three recent high-profile studies presented compelling evidence that each argues for the importance of GLP-1Rs in the dorsomedial hypothalamus, hindbrain, or lateral septum, …

Mechanistic Diversity And Functional Roles Define The Substrate Specificity And Ligand Binding Of Bacterial Pgp Phosphatases, Wei Niu, Joanne Shi Woon Lam, Trung Vu, Guangwei Du, Hao Fan, Lei Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Phosphatidylglycerol is a critical membrane phospholipid in microorganisms, synthesized via the dephosphorylation of phosphatidylglycerol-phosphate (PGP) by three membrane-bound phosphatases: PgpA, PgpB, and PgpC. While any one of these enzymes can produce phosphatidylglycerol at WT levels, the reason for the presence of all three in bacteria remains unclear. To address this question, we characterized these phosphatases in vitro to uncover their mechanistic differences. Our assays demonstrated that all three enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of PGP but exhibit distinct substrate selectivity. PgpB displays a broad substrate range, dephosphorylating various lipid phosphates, while PgpA and PgpC show a higher specificity for lysophosphatidic acid …

Issue 41

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.

Will My Celsius Addiction Kill Me?: The Thermogenic Drink And Its Impact On Nutrition And Metabolism, Katie Johnstone

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.

Digging Up A New Era In Fertilizer: Investigating The Potential Of Electron Bifurcation In Ammonia Synthesiss, Ella Wurtzbacher

The Synapse: Intercollegiate science magazine

No abstract provided.

Filtered Reality: Artificial Intelligence In Social Media & The Mental Health Of Adolescents, Maria Savva

Open Educational Resources

This instructional module was developed for teacher candidates preparing to teach in New York secondary schools, which include middle (6-8) and high schools (9-12). A three-pronged approach has been used to ensure teacher candidates develop a comprehensive and contemporary understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it relates both to their respective disciplines and its impact on the adolescents they will be teaching. Using a three-pronged approach, teacher candidates will: consider the rapidly changing landscape of their own discipline and how it has been impacted by developments in AI; examine the effects of AI, including through social media platforms, on the …

Chronic Illness Education 2024: Enhancing Resources For Addressing Childhood Obesity, Ankita Satyavarapu, Ihunanya Agomuoh, Kaab Husain, Kristofer Hilliard, Rachel Lycans, Rene Andino-Galva, William Burstein

Patient Education Projects

No abstract provided.