Digital Commons Network^™

Why Choose Green Burial: Raising Awareness About An Under-Utilized Method Of Body Disposition, Gretchen Mahlberg

University Honors Theses

Green burial, the process of human burial in a biodegradable vessel without embalming, is a simple method for disposal of remains that has been used around the world for centuries, yet it is chosen less than 5% of the time in the US today. The stigma about discussing death has led to a lack of awareness about options and created an environment where morticians, as the sole sources of information, direct the bereaved towards the options most beneficial to themselves. Previous methods to raise awareness about green burial have had limited reach, being focused on people who are already researching …

Viruses Causing Panleukopenia In Domestic Cats: A Review Of Feline And Canine Parvoviruses, Simon Colby

University Honors Theses

Parvoviruses remain among the most important viral pathogens in domestic cats today. Despite this, there is much confusion around which parvoviruses can infect cats, and what extent of disease they can cause. One of the two parvoviruses infecting cats, canine parvovirus type-2 (CPV-2), likely evolved from the other parvovirus infecting cats, feline parvovirus (FPV). These viruses differ at only a few places in their genomes, and share the method of cell entry via the transferrin receptor. The disease caused by FPV has been well characterized in cats, but disease caused by CPV-2 is more obscure. Additionally, current testing methods for …

Looking Upwards And Out: Comparing Buddhist And Humanist Frameworks For Enlightenment, Mason Mckinney-Best

University Honors Theses

During the Zen Boom of the 1950's, Psychologists, Philosophers, and other western thinkers were exposed to Zen Buddhism and began to harness some of the principles for use in Psychology. In the last 3 decades, Psychologists have renewed their interest in Buddhism, especially as "fourth wave" cultural competence has become an important part of Psychological practice. While work has been done in developing clinical applications of Buddhist practices, more could be found in Buddhism for the person who wishes to become more healthy.

Within Psychology, one figure had exactly that objective: Abraham Maslow. His work on Self-Actualization has been …

Who Keeps Us Safe? Youth Resistance And Security Regimes At The Neoliberal University, Arwen Hansell

University Honors Theses

In a political climate shaped by surveillance, labor precarity, policing, and immigration enforcement, questions of (in)security increasingly organize everyday life. Governments justify security measures through the language of public safety, even as many people experience insecurity surrounding housing, healthcare, employment, and the future itself. Although critical security studies have examined policing, militarism, and surveillance extensively, youth are often overlooked as political actors despite their central role in social movements. This study addresses that gap by focusing on student labor organizers and activists navigating (in)security. Using collaborative ethnography, I conducted fieldwork at protests, labor organizing meetings, workshops, and demonstrations connected to …

Shallow-Marine Crinoid Genera May Have Been More Resilient Across Permian Extinction Events In Terms Of Richness Than Deep-Marine Crinoid Genera, Amelia C. Kolstad

University Honors Theses

Throughout the Phanerozoic, one of the most successful phyla of marine invertebrates has been Echinodermata. Echinodermata was particularly successful throughout the Paleozoic, with class Crinoidea making up a majority of occurrences. The proportion of echinoderm occurrences that are crinoids declined massively at the end of the Permian and continued to decrease into modern day, never fully recovering. One of the factors thought to have been so important for crinoid success in the Paleozoic and their decreasing success throughout geologic time has been their propensity for success in shallow-marine environments, though crinoids also exist within deep-marine environments. This study seeks to …

Identification Of A Persistent Ascaris-Derived Kalirin Epitope Associated With Chronic T Cell Activation In The Lung, Yifan Wu, Leroy Versteeg, Meng-Chih Wu, Jill E Weatherhead

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Ascariasis remains a dominant global health burden due to its vast prevalence and associated morbidity. The obligatory migration of Ascaris larvae through pulmonary tissue triggers intense type-2 inflammation which typically presents as acute allergic airway disease. Even after the parasite is eliminated, a single episode of larval migration can result in chronic lung damage and dysfunction, which may be driven by the long-term retention of helminth antigens in macrophages. However, the molecular identity of these retained antigens, and the mechanisms by which they sustain chronic T cell responses, remain unknown. In this study, we utilized immunopeptidomics to identify a retained …

Lingo4 Coordinates Ilc3-Intrinsic Il-22 Production And Microbiota-Mediated Ilc3 Homeostasis, José L Fachi, Tihana Trsan, Cristiane Sécca, Sarah De Oliveira, Vinícius R Rodovalho, Patrick Fernandes Rodrigues, Wandy L Beatty, Raki Sudan, Shitong Wu, Bishan Bhattarai, Santosh K Panda, Marina Cella, Susan Gilfillan, Marco Colonna

2020-Current year OA Pubs

LINGO4 is a leucine-rich repeat and immunoglobulin-like domain-containing transmembrane protein encoded immediately adjacent to Rorc, the gene for RORγt, raising the possibility that it contributes to the biology of RORγt+ lymphocytes. However, its impact on these cells and resistance to enteric infections has remained unknown. Here, we identify LINGO4 as a critical regulator of group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s). Lingo4-/- ILC3s exhibit a profound, cell-intrinsic defect in IL-22 production linked to impaired STAT3 activation, mitochondrial dysfunction, elevated ROS, and increased apoptosis. In vivo, Lingo4 deficiency also drives a dysbiotic gut microbiota, resulting in an additional, microbiota-dependent loss of ILC3s. …

Wayfindr: Investigating Feedback In Biological Pathways, Polina Bombina, Reginald L Mcgee Ii, Jake Reed, Zachary B Abrams, Lynne V Abruzzo, Kevin R Coombes

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Understanding biological pathways requires more than static diagrams. We present WayFindR, an R package that converts pathway data from WikiPathways and KEGG into graph structures using igraph, enabling computational analysis of regulatory features such as negative feedback loops. Rooted in control theory, negative feedback is essential for system stability, yet it is often underrepresented in curated pathway data. In this study, we systematically analyzed pathway information from both databases across multiple species and found that feedback loops-particularly negative ones-are rarely captured. This gap likely reflects both biological and technical challenges. Biologically, feedback mechanisms are inherently complex and often remain uncharted …

Activation Of The Human Β3 Gabaa Receptor By Combinations Of Receptor Protonation With Chemical Agonists And Gain-Of-Function Mutations, Allison L Germann, Spencer R Pierce, Joe Henry Steinbach, Gustav Akk

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Native GABA

Human Stem Cell-Based Embryo Models: Innovation, Ethics, And Policy, Alfonso Martinez Arias, Thorold Theunissen, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The aim of this White Paper is to establish a foundational framework for research, technological development, and regulation in the emerging field of stem cell-based embryo models (SCBEMs). These models, generated from Pluripotent Stem Cells, are designed to recapitulate essential events in early stages of human development. They have the potential to illuminate the early stages of embryo development and implantation and hold promise as an avenue to address global health challenges, including infertility and pregnancy loss, congenital, neonatal and adult conditions, and the need for organ transplants. While SCBEMs are not a substitute for human embryos, their tractability for …

Noninvasive Enrichment Of Circulating Tumor Biomarkers In A Mouse Model Of Diffuse Midline Glioma Using Focused Ultrasound, Dingyue Zhang, Yimei Yue, Yan Gong, Leqi Yang, Kevin Xu, Jinyun Yuan, Hong Chen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing diffuse midline glioma (DMG) through invasive tissue biopsies is challenging due to the tumor's eloquent location at the pons. Liquid biopsies offer a promising noninvasive alternative; however, their limited detection sensitivity and lack of information on the source of biomarkers pose great challenges. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of using focused ultrasound (FUS) with microbubbles to enrich circulating DMG tumor biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using a mouse model.

METHODS: Murine DMG cells, transfected with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and firefly luciferase (Fluc) genes, were orthotopically injected into the mouse brain. …

Retinopathy Caused By A Primary Immune Regulatory Disorder - The Spectrum Of Aire-Associated Retinopathy: Case Series And Literature Review, Mohammad Anas, Andrew C Browning, Siying Lin, Omar A Mahroo, Andrew R Webster, Margaret Reynolds, Tatyana Milman, Ralph C Eagle Jr, Richard Vile, Marc Toso, Gregory S Hageman, Hossein Nazari, Erik J Van Kuijk, Jose S Pulido

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Retinal involvement in autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS1), a rare monogenic autoimmune disorder caused by mutations in the AIRE gene, is increasingly recognised but remains poorly defined. Prior reports suggest a variable phenotype, ranging from mild changes to severe vision loss, often presumed untreatable. We explored the range of retinal phenotypes associated with AIRE gene deficiency in a multicentre case series of patients with APS1.

METHODS: We performed a retrospective case note review of patients with molecularly confirmed APS1 from tertiary ophthalmic centres. Clinical history, multimodal retinal imaging, electrophysiology, genetic data, and treatment regimens were analysed. Histopathology was …

Role Of Households With Children In Community Spread Of Multidrug-Resistant Enterobacterales, St. Louis, Missouri, Usa, Barrett Breeze, Ahmed Babiker, Sreenivas Konda, Alaina L Robinson, Stefan J Green, Catherine C Babbs, Federico Cunha, Katherine Y Shen, India Shepherd Hammond, Stephanie A Fritz, Latania K Logan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Community-acquired multidrug-resistant (MDR) Enterobacterales bacteria are an increasing public health concern, yet whether households play a role in community spread remains unclear. We investigated 150 households with children in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, for MDR Enterobacterales. We cultured swab specimens from household members and environmental surfaces for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. We also performed whole-genome sequencing in the 53 (35%) households where >1 MDR Enterobacterales species were recovered. Enterobacter hormaechei predominated, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pantoea species. Whole-genome sequencing revealed closely related strains shared between persons and environmental surfaces, suggesting potential intra-household transmission. We identified >1 horizontal gene …

Viscoelastic And Morphologic Changes In The Lumbar Intervertebral Discs Of The 5xfad Mouse Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, C E Gonzalez, C A Schurman, K A Wilson, B Schilling, L M Ellerby, S Y Tang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Chronic low back pain, commonly associated with intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, is highly prevalent in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the severity of the pain is correlated with the severity of the dementia. While incidences of both afflictions increase dramatically in the elderly population, it is unknown whether AD exacerbates the health of the IVD.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to examine how AD-related mutations affect the structure and mechanics of the IVD.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Utilizing one-year-old male and female 5xFAD mice that constitutively express human APP and PSEN1 transgenes with five AD-linked mutations, we …

Quantitative Assessment Of Cardiac Phosphocreatine Metabolism Under Physiological And Pharmacological Stress Using Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Qi Huang, Caleb Berberet, Ryan Wahidi, Todd Pavek, Cihat Eldeniz, Liya Dai, Rong Guo, Yang Yang, Scott Bugenhagen, Linda R Peterson, Thomas H Schindler, Pamela K Woodard, Jie Zheng

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Phosphocreatine (PCr) exhibits a distinct chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) resonance at ∼2.5 ppm with slower exchange kinetics and lower pH sensitivity than creatine. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of quantifying myocardial PCr-dominated concentration ([PCr]

METHODS: Phantoms with varied concentrations of PCr and Cr were scanned to characterize PCr CEST signals under physiological conditions. Experiments were conducted at both room temperature and 37 °C with full Z-spectra acquisition. For the study in vivo, CEST imaging was performed in normal canines (n = 13), at rest and after regadenoson vasodilation, and during dobutamine stress (n = 5). In addition, …

Neural Plasticity Across Hormonal States In Females: From Modulator To Dynamic Regulator, Takahiro Sasaki, Christine Nwaigwe, Sayaka Inoue

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Ovarian sex steroid hormones play a critical role in regulating fertility. In addition, these hormones influence behavior and mood across the lifespan in females. Converging evidence from rodent studies and human neuroimaging shows that ovarian hormones dynamically regulate neuronal excitability, synaptic efficacy, and structural remodeling across menstrual/estrous cycles, puberty, and reproductive aging. Estrogen and progesterone reorganize network dynamics and gate plasticity eligibility rather than uniformly scaling synaptic strength, with additional contributions from glia, the extracellular matrix, and neurosteroid signaling. Here we synthesize recent cross-scale advances that link structural and functional changes to cellular and circuit mechanisms, and relate these dynamics …

Focal White Matter Lesions Drive Grey Matter Inflammation And Synapse Loss, Omar De Faria Jr, Sabine Dietmann, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Focal white matter lesions occur in most neurodegenerative disorders

Gc-Ms-Based Comparative Analysis Of Compounds In Host Plants And Insect Gut Extracts, Rita Dill, Kimberly Smith, Shelia Okoth, Xavier Cheseto, Anne Osano

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background/Objectives: Herbivorous insects feed on plant tissues to obtain nutrients necessary for growth and development while simultaneously ingesting diverse plant secondary metabolites. Understanding the fate of these compounds during digestion is important for advancing knowledge of insect nutritional physiology and diet-associated biochemical processes. This study aimed to comparatively profile metabolites in host plants and corresponding insect gut extracts to generate insights into compound transfer and compositional changes within these systems. Methods: Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolomics was combined with Ultraviolet-Visible (UV–Vis) quantification of total phenols and flavonoids to compare host plant tissues and insect gut extracts in three systems: fall …

Climate-Driven Stochastic Modelling Of Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Transmission In Uganda, P. G. Kpatchana, J. Aduda, K. M. Agboka

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a climate-sensitive tick-borne zoonosis that remains a significant public health concern in Uganda, where temperature and vapour pressure deficit influence tick ecology and consequently disease transmission. This study aimed to develop and analyse a climate-driven stochastic model for CCHF transmission among ticks, livestock, and humans under environmental variability in Uganda. A compartmental transmission model was formulated and extended into a stochastic differential equation framework by incorporating multiplicative environmental noise. Climate-dependent tick recruitment, development, and mortality were parameterized using district-level temperature and vapour pressure deficit data to capture spatial heterogeneity in transmission risk. Theoretical analyses based …

Language Embeddings Meet Shallow Autoencoders, Rodrigo Alves, Vojtěch Vančura, Pavel Kordík, Antoine Ledent

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Shallow autoencoders are appealing recommenders due to their simplicity, scalability, and competitive retrieval quality, but they struggle in strict cold-start settings where new items have no interactions. We propose an inductive shallow autoencoder that leverages item side information (language embeddings) by fixing the decoder to item features and learning only an encoder in the same semantic space. To prevent trivial self-reconstruction without enforcing a hard zero diagonal, we introduce diagonal gating: a leave-one-item-out objective that blocks the self-copy shortcut only for the item being updated while retaining context from the rest of the user history. An alternating-style optimization trains the …

Uplifting Black Pedagogical Rituals Of Purpose Through Portraits Of Toni Morrison’S Humanistic Education, Darion A. Wallace, Natalie Hibdon, Gabriela Lopez

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

No abstract provided.

Harriet Tubman’S Underground Railroad As Ancestral Technology For Black Futures, Julia Lynch

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This track draws on BlackMothering to frame Harriet Tubman not only as a conductor of freedom but as an architect of ancestral technology, designing strategies of survival that continue to instruct contemporary struggles. Tubman’s praxis—relational, anticipatory, and collective—illuminates the enduring power of Black knowledge systems to chart pathways through systems of violence and oppression. In conversation with Tiffani Marie and Kenjus Watson’s theorization of Apocalyptic Education and what Django Paris and H. Samy Alim describe as culturally sustaining pedagogy, this track explores how Tubman’s Underground Railroad praxis offers a blueprint for Black sustainability using (a) health and survival, (b) spatial …

Black Boys And The New Media Mixtape: Ownership, Aspiration, And Hustle In A Digital Age, Kareem Edouard, Taquan S. Stewart

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

In this track, we explore how “new media” platforms become modern “mixtape” tools for Black boys to remix identity and cultural narratives in the digital age. As Audre Lorde reminded us, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Still, we aim to interrogate whether these tools can be repurposed for empowerment. This framework unfolds in three parts: examining ownership and the gatekeeping of cultural narratives, exploring how new media platforms shape aspirations and identities for Black boys, and identifying the tools and pathways for Black boys to both see themselves as creators and access content that reflects them. …

Dancing In The Wake | Like Moss Over Modernity, Simple Ant

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This offering is a meditation on existing and thriving in the wake of civilization. For centuries, we have educated one another to believe in, and glorify, the insatiable desires of our modern way of life. I begin with the premise that what we call “civilization” is a system predicated on death, violence, and exploitation, because it requires the endless extraction and consumption of the living Earth. Living in this way guts the Earth to feed our ideas of “progress” and “prosperity.” The effect now is that our civilization, our society, our way of life is rotting—bringing with it decay and …

Freedom And The Conflict Of Values In Estebanico: A Black Man In The Conquest Of Florida By José Eusebio Chirino Camacho, Abdelfatah Benzaroil Ajrad

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

This study analyzes freedom as a central theme in José Eusebio Chirino Camacho's novel Estebanico: A Black Man in the Conquest of Florida. It focuses on the protagonist Estebanico, or Mustafa Azemmouri, and his struggle with values such as freedom, friendship, and integration. Organized around the historical context, the main events, freedom as a central theme, and the hero's moral dilemmas, the article shows how the novel represents the contradictions of survival and the pursuit of liberty.

Mustafa Al-Azemmouri: The Journey, The Text, And The Character, Abdelkader El Jamoussi

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

This article discusses three key elements for understanding the exploration and the figure of Mustafa Al-Azemmouri, also known as Estebanico. First, it examines the importance of the Narváez expedition as one of the earliest missions to the New World to conquer Florida. Second, it analyzes the ethnographic and literary value of Cabeza de Vaca's report and the way it constructs a dominant narrative voice. Third, it highlights Estebanico's role in exploring regions and peoples of North America, a role that enabled him to enter American cartography and to be recognized by scholars as a unique explorer.

Accessibility And Daily Cigarette Consumption Among Indonesian Adolescents: A Descriptive Study, Noviana Lathifah, Istiqomah Hanifah Rachman, Anisa Isnaini, Gloria Threesia Piliphinsa Simatupang

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

Despite restrictive regulations, Indonesia faces a high prevalence of adolescent smoking, facilitated by easy access to tobacco products. This descriptive study aims to describe cigarette accessibility patterns and daily consumption trends among Indonesian adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from the 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) involving 9,208 respondents. Descriptive analysis was performed to examine the distribution of age at smoking initiation, daily cigarette consumption, and purchasing accessibility. The majority of respondents started smoking at ≥14 years of age. Daily cigarette consumption showed an increasing trend with age, with older adolescents more likely to consume more …

Optimizing Vitamin A Intervention: Strengthening Supplementation With Targeted Biscuit Fortification, Mayfa Yemima Simanjuntak, Nadia Amanda, Yuli Berliana Simanjuntak, Carissa Wityadarda, Lesta Livolina Simamora

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains a persistent public health challenge in Indonesia, particularly among children under five and breastfeeding mothers. This study aimed to analyze the distribution of vitamin A interventions and assess the potential of biscuit fortification as a complementary strategy. This study employs a literature review using the Health Policy Triangle (HPT) framework, examining policy context, content, key actors, and implementation processes related to vitamin A interventions. The analysis was conducted using secondary data from government reports, international agencies, and peer-reviewed literature published between 2018 and 2025, with comparative evidence from Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Ghana. The findings show …

Deep Learning Approaches For Ctenophore Identification And Tracking, Anagha Bharadwaj

Theses

Ctenophores are translucent marine organisms with nearly invisible tentacles and pose significant challenges due to their transparent morphology and ambiguous structural features. This research addresses the classification and tracking of these organisms and evaluates the performance of current computer vision models under sparse-data environments.

A dataset from the NJIT Life History Lab consisting of microscopic laboratory videos and photographs of different growth stages is used to train and assess a number of convolutional neural network designs, including VGG16, ResNet, BioCLIP2, YOLO, and DeepLabCut. Additionally, a web-based interface is developed to evaluate expert-labeled ground truth with the model's performance.

The findings …

Old Crimes, New Eyes: Recent Findings From The Scottish Witch Hunts, Carol Lee Campbell

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

^Abstract

^{Most discussions about the Scottish witch trials have been shrouded in a category of superstition, primarily from historians postulating from the era of the Enlightenment one hundred years afterward. Some have distanced themselves from the witch hunts by universalizing the cases within a monolithic framework. But the data shows that the Scottish witch “panic” was disproportionately more intense than other hunts in Early Modern Europe and England.}

^{In the last generation, however, scholars utilizing interdisciplinary approaches have revisited trial records and their supporting documents- such as confessions and testimonies - which appear to reveal more than just trial outcomes. …}